Warren Graff – Page 9 – Grace Lutheran Church, LCMS

Blessed Are Those Not Offended

Third Sunday in Advent [a] December 15, 2019

Matthew 11:2-15

² Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples ³ and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” ⁴ And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: ⁵ the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. ⁶ And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” ⁷ As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? ⁸ What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. ⁹ What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. ¹⁰ This is he of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’ ¹¹ Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of Heaven is greater than he. ¹² From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of Heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. ¹³ For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, ¹⁴ and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. ¹⁵ He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

In the Name of Jesus.

Are we offended by Jesus?

How would one be offended by Jesus? He came bringing blessing. Will that offend anyone? Will it offend us?

The blind are given sight, the lame are given strong legs. Who’s offended by that? The lepers given healthy skin, the deaf given good ears—who can be offended by this?

Jesus raises some dead to life. This is time for rejoicing, not offense, isn’t it? The poor have the Gospel preached to them. Those impoverished in sin, those beat down by guilt, those wanting to hide in the bushes because they’re covered in shame, to all, Jesus proclaims the forgiveness of sins; for all, Jesus gives a cleansed conscience.

Who’s offended?

But when Jesus walks around Galilee, when he enters Jerusalem, everyone is offended.

The Pharisees and teachers of the Law, they’re offended. They want Jesus done away with.

The Sadducees, they want Jesus indicted for crimes against the people.

The elders and scribes, they hear Jesus teaching the people, and they are ready to have him under lock and key, and worse.

Even Jesus’ own disciples—is there not offense there? Peter hears Jesus speak of his journey to the cross, and Peter is offended. That’s not the way this lordship is supposed to go, Peter didn’t sign up for this! He tells Jesus it cannot work that way. Matthew 16:22:

Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. Then Peter took [Jesus] aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”

His own disciples! John and James hear Jesus speaking of being the servant of God who serves all sinners by giving his life for them on the cross, and they can’t take it. They start making demands not about who can serve, but who can have the power. Mark 10:35:

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him, saying, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.” And [Jesus] said to them, “What do you want Me to do for you?” They said to Him, “Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.”

Jesus offends.

He heals the sick, gives sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, strong legs to the lame, healthy skin to the lepers, life to the corpse, he gives forgiveness to the woman caught in adultery, he comes to the home and gives honor to the one known for alcoholism, he speaks with respect and love to the broken. And he offends.

He has no army, no weapons of war, no political party, no social movement, he’s organizing no great march on the capitol, he’s creating no new government programs to fix every known problem, he’s taking no one’s political power base, but he offends.

Jesus must offend. He must be offensive in the world of Jerusalem and Rome, of Pilate and Herod; and he must be offensive in our world.

He must offend you and me. Because we are in sinful flesh. We try to improve it, we try to make progress with it, we even try to cover it up, or even to divert attention to something else, but at the end of the day, we are in sinful flesh.

Sinful flesh wants to do many things which are sin, but there is one sin which rules over all others.

Sinful flesh wants, and is tempted by the demons, to be what it is, sinful. What temptations do we fall to in our life of flesh? For that, we only need look at the Ten Commandments. Love and honor of parents and family; parents treating children with care and respect; love for neighbor; serving neighbor with our gifts of vocation; upholding our neighbor’s name and reputation, his wealth and possessions—we are tempted to place ourselves above all that and be more concerned with how these things affect us.

But the real temptation? The ultimate victory the devil desires? The thing so natural to our sinful flesh that it drives everything we do, and is the reason we are in our life of flesh offended by Jesus?

We want to justify ourselves. We want to use the Law to make ourselves righteous. We want deep down to think we can somehow improve our lives, somehow make progress in our flesh, so that we can somehow stand before God in our own worthiness.

And then when Jesus shows up, we are offended.

Offended because, Jesus came to give gifts. And the one who is justifying himself lives before God not according to what he is given, but according to what he can earn. So gifts are an offense.

Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. But the one who is chasing down his own righteousness by the Law denies that he is lost.

Jesus came to heal the sick and give gifts to the poor in spirit. But the one pursing his own improvement in the flesh is not looking for gifts.

Jesus came to justify the sinner and give the gift of grace. When the devil tempts us to justify ourselves, grace is the last thing we think we need.

After all, even in the world, a billionaire such as Bill Gates does not receive gifts from a beggar. Warren Buffet is not ready to receive twenty bucks of spending money from an unemployed factory worker. The sinner working to justify himself thinks he is rich toward God, and is offended to receive gifts from Jesus.

But Jesus came to justify the sinner, to give gifts to the poor in spirit.

If we think we are not sinner, then we will be offended by Jesus giving gifts to sinners. If we are not emptied out and poor in spirit, we will be offended by Jesus. If we are changing our lives and becoming better Christians, then we will be offended by Jesus.

Jesus came to give gifts to those poor and emptied out, to those deaf and blind to the Word of God, to those dead in their trespasses.

[Jesus said,] “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

Blessed are those who live in sinful flesh, who are daily afflicted by the devil and daily fall to sin, and who hear the Gospel of Jesus who redeems the sinner and forgives all sin, and in repentance say, This is my Lord.

Blessed are those who hear and see Jesus distributing his Body and Blood for the forgiveness of sins, and instead of saying, I’m working on changing my life and improving myself, say, This Body and Blood, this forgiveness of sins, this is for me, let me eat it and drink it as my Lord gives me to do.

Blessed are those who, while in sinful flesh, hear the Gospel of Jesus and say,

Speak to me this Word every day,

Let me speak this Word of Jesus to my neighbor,

Let me commend myself and my family to my Lord and his Gospel every night as I go to sleep,

Let me always know my sin and never be offended to receive the gift of forgiveness and cleansing and healing from my Lord.

[Jesus said,] Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

In the Name of Jesus.

Mary’s Child is Our Lord

Advent 2, Wednesday December 11, 2019

“The Announcement”

Savior of the Nations, Come

2 Not by human flesh and blood,

By the Spirit of our God,

Was the Word of God made flesh—

Woman’s offspring, pure and fresh.

For you are the Father’s Son

Who in flesh the vict’ry won.

By your mighty pow’r make whole

All our ills of flesh and soul.

Isaiah 9:6-7

⁶ For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given;

And the government will be upon His shoulder.

And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

⁷ Of the increase of His government and peace

There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice, From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

John 1:1-14

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. ⁴ In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. ⁶ There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. ⁸ He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. ⁹ That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. ¹¹ He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. ¹² But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: ¹³ who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. ¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

In the Name of Jesus.

Announcements are made. That’s the way our world works.

Announcements are made, and they change things. The create new realities.

Some eighty years ago, a president announced, “This day will live in infamy.” At that announcement, things changed. A nation knew she was under threat, and from that day, we were at war with an enemy.

Some 67 years ago, a scientist named Jonas Salk went on the radio and announced a new vaccine. By that announcement, lives changed—the scourge of polio was defeated.

An announcement can change things.

“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God,”

[the angel announced].

“And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his Name Jesus.”

[Luke 1:30]

The words were the Lord’s. The Lord announced them through the mouth of an angel.

God’s Word is not empty. His Word creates what it says. The Lord spoke his Word at creation, and his Word brought the Earth and the planets, the dirt and the plants, the animals and the fish, into being.

Gabriel speaks the Word to a young woman named Mary; it is the Word of the Lord, and the Word brings into being what it says. The Word is joined to the flesh of Mary’s womb, and Mary is with child.

From the hymn we just sang:

Not by human flesh and blood,

By the Spirit of our God,

Was the Word of God made flesh—

Woman’s offspring, pure and fresh.

He is not flesh and blood. He is the eternal Word of God, who with God the Father created all things.

John 1:1:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

He is the eternal Word. Yet now he has taken on human flesh. He is true Man, a child in Mary’s womb. Now, at the announcement to Mary, he is flesh and blood.

He is true God. He is veiling his divinity under human flesh.

What he does in the flesh, the sleeping and eating, the walking and sitting, the speaking and listening, the drinking wine with sinners, the being spit upon, the suffering, the dying—what he does in the flesh he is doing as true God. God in the flesh, saving sinners.

He is true Man, who for us men and for our salvation came down from Heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary.

As he is of one nature with the God the Father from eternity, so he is now of one human nature with you and me. This he did by being conceived and born of this woman, Mary, who is herself a daughter of Adam and Eve and is thereby of the same flesh and blood along with us and our children.

It’s Advent. The coming of God in the flesh. The announcement is made:

Not by human flesh and blood,

By the Spirit of our God,

Was the Word of God made flesh—

Woman’s offspring, pure and fresh.

The Word is announced, and it creates the new reality.

The new reality is, We have a Lord.

Apart from the announcement, apart from the Word, we have no Lord. Not the Holy Lord, anyway, not the Lord of life, not the Lord who speaks a Word and creates something new.

Apart from the announcement, our lord is not of life, but of death. Our lord is sin, Satan, and the world. Our lord is our own sinful flesh. In those lords, we find no life, only death.

The announcement is made, and we have a Lord.

Mary is with child. Her child is of our flesh, like us in every way, but without sin.

Her child is our Lord; he makes us his people.

He makes us his own by cleansing us, by forgiving our sin, by clothing us in his righteousness, by giving us his Name in Baptism, by delivering us from sin, death and the devil. As we sang in the hymn:

For you are the Father’s Son

Who in flesh the vict’ry won.

By your mighty pow’r make whole

All our ills of flesh and soul.

In the Name of Jesus.

In the Wilderness, Gifts

Second Sunday in Advent [a] December 8, 2019

Matthew 3:1-12

¹ In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ² “Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” ³ For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.'” ⁴ Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵ Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, ⁶ and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. ⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸ Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

⁹ And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. ¹⁰ Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ¹¹ I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹² His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

In the Name of Jesus.

It all takes place out in the wilderness. Away from the city, from the roads and streets, from the shops and banks and businesses, from the houses and restaurants, from the meetings and conferences and parties.

It takes place out in the wilderness. Out there, you don’t have any of the things you normally have to hide behind. Your job, your status, your standing in the community, your house and assets, these things which give a person a respectable presentation, they don’t carry so much weight in the wilderness. The fine jewelry, the fancy coat, the stylish boots, they’re no help in the wilderness.

In the wilderness you stand before the prophet on your own, as who you are, no trappings of respectability to defend you, bare and unguarded.

And the prophet says, “Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

To hide behind a covering of respectability is to protect ourselves from the need to repent.

But the prophet is out in the wilderness: “Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

Coming to the prophet are all the people of Jerusalem: Rich land owners dressed in fine robes, but their status gives them no standing before the prophet; soldiers, but sword and armor give no help in withstanding the Word of the Lord; tax collectors, but their bureaucracy and legal powers won’t protect them from the onslaught of the Law; teachers of the Law and Pharisees, but the Law and rules they hide behind when going after sinners back in the city give them no covering when the prophet is calling for repentance; Sadducees, those who wear the fancy robes at the Temple and keep watch for who is giving the best offerings, but when faced up with the Word of the Lord, their fine clothing gives no defense.

“Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand,”

says the prophet John.

The call to repentance leaves every person standing at the face of God with nothing to hide behind.

We can build up our lives to show no vulnerability, no weakness, nothing out of place, but then the Word of the Lord lays us bare, as bare as a once respectable man standing in front of John the Baptist out in the desert only to hear him say, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

Repentance means you are not in the Kingdom, and there is something you must be done with before you come to the face of God. Repentance means there is something to be stripped away and left behind in order to be brought into the kingdom.

To the tax collectors and bureaucrats—Leave behind the security you form up in your worldly strength and intimidation.

To the Sadducees and Temple workers—Be done with the security you find in your fine clothing and high offices.

To the Pharisees and teachers of the Law—Strip yourself of the false security you have in justifying yourself with the Law and in putting others under the accusation.

To all, the word is repent.

For all are sinful. And any effort of the sinner to protect himself with the coverings of respectability, with the defense of self-justification, with the security of strength and intimidation, it is all to be left behind.

When the Word of the Lord is spoken, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. And no sinner makes himself worthy of this kingdom.

Advent proclaims the coming of the King, Jesus.

You do not meet Jesus by holding onto any covering that would protect you from him. Jesus wants to meet the sinner full on, the sinner standing before him with no pretense of being anything but sinner. Repentance is the stripping away of everything not letting Jesus meet you full on.

Self-justification? Hypocrisy? Outward righteousness? Judgment against others to place oneself in a better position? The call to repentance is the call to be done with it all: Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.

Then, standing as sinners in the wilderness with nothing to hide behind, laid bare by the Law, we look at the One who has faced us up to himself. We look at Jesus.

And we see standing there the One who did not let himself be known for his fine clothing or impressive presentation, but made himself known in the most sparse, bare way of all—a man hanging naked on the cross.

“Behold the Man,” said Pilate, as he sent Jesus to the cross. Pilate could not have spoken truer words. Jesus, the Man standing in for all men, for all sinners, the holy One, going to the cross.

This is Advent. The coming of the King. We behold the Man. We look at Jesus. He comes to us in his Word. His word gives us nothing to hide behind. His Law lays us bare.

Then he covers us. The clothing is his, he gives it to us.

“All of you, who were baptized into Christ,”

says Paul,

“have clothed yourselves with Christ.”

[Galatians 3:27]

And now we see repentance not as this work of the Law by which the Law has stripped us bare before God. Now we see repentance as gift—pure gift. It is this Lord, the One who hung bare on the cross for us, kindly and gently turning us around, turning us away from our self-righteousness and self-justification, and turning us to himself.

Repentance as gift. Repentance in the way of the Gospel. Repentance not as a work we do to hope that God won’t be mad at us, but as a work done toward us and for us by a King who turns us to himself with his gentle Word of Gospel.

Out in the wilderness, it is gifts.

The gift of being stripped of any covering of false security, of being laid bare to stand as nothing but sinner. The gift to the sinner, then: look upon the Lord who came to seek and to save the lost, to cleanse the sinner, to call and gather into his kingdom.

The gift of the Lord who makes his Advent to us, using bread and wine to approach us, to bring us face to face with him in his Body and Blood. When he has faced us up to himself, the words we hear, the words we cannot miss, are, “For you, for the forgiveness of your sins.”

In the Name of Jesus.

He Takes Nothing on His Own

Advent 1, Wednesday January 4, 2019

Savior of the Nations, Come

Savior of the nations, come,
Virgin’s Son, make here your home!
Marvel now, O Heav’n and Earth,
that the Lord chose such a birth.

From the manger newborn light

Shines in glory through the night.

Darkness there no more resides;

In this light faith now abides.

Isaiah 9:1-7

¹ Nevertheless the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed,

As when at first He lightly esteemed

The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, And afterward more heavily oppressed her, By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan,

In Galilee of the Gentiles.

² The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light;

Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,

Upon them a light has shined.

³ You have multiplied the nation And increased its joy;

They rejoice before You According to the joy of harvest,

As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

⁴ For You have broken the yoke of his burden

And the staff of his shoulder,

The rod of his oppressor, As in the day of Midian.

⁵ For every warrior’s sandal from the noisy battle,

And garments rolled in blood,

Will be used for burning and fuel of fire.

⁶ For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given;

And the government will be upon His shoulder.

And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

⁷ Of the increase of His government and peace

John 1:1-14

In the Name of Jesus.

The invitation from Satan to Adam and Eve: Come, join me in my kingdom, eat of the fruit, and you will be like God.

The invitation from Satan to the children of Adam and Eve, to us: Come, join me in my kingdom, desire what you want, grab what you desire, find your joy in things you can grab by your own strength, and you will be like God.

Satan’s enticement to “be like God” is his invitation to us to be not creatures. Creatures—that is, those who are created, those who didn’t create their own lives, but receive their lives purely and only as gift.

Satan’s temptation is to receive things not as gift from a loving Creator, but as what we can grasp and grab and hold onto by our own desire and lust and strength and power.

The way of gifts is the way not of grabbing and holding with our own power, but of receiving into an open hand, as a child receiving gifts from a parent.

Satan’s invitation is to know our lives and everything in our lives not in the way of gift and generosity from a living God, but as that which we grab and control and manipulate by our own devices and power.

The Invitation to the Savior:

Savior of the nations, come,
Virgin’s Son, make here your home!
Marvel now, O Heav’n and Earth,
that the Lord chose such a birth.

The Lord chose this birth. This was given to him, a gift from his Father. He takes nothing on his own, he grasps and grabs at no pomp or prestige or office or authority by his own power. He receives gifts from his Father.

The gift to him from his Father: it’s you and me. It’s our children we bring to his gifts in Baptism. It’s all those who belong to his Name both now and throughout the generations. John 17:6:

[Jesus said,] “I have manifested Your name, [O, Father,] to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.”

Jesus receives all things as gift from his Father.

For this reason, he chose such a birth—the birth to the Virgin—that he might make here his home.

His home here, on Earth, among sinners.

For sinners. To take the sin of every sinner upon himself. That he might give to those who rebelled, those who refused to be creatures created to receive gifts from the Father, those who made themselves citizens of Satan’s kingdom where all things are grasped and held onto, as if we would have nothing if we didn’t grab it for ourselves—that he might give to us the gift of reconciliation to the Father, the gift of belonging to the kingdom of grace, the gift of being made his own.

Unto us—us sinners, we who want to grab things by our own power, want to justify ourselves, we who will turn a gift into a work as we learned to do from our parents, Adam and Eve—unto us a Child is born, a Son is given, and his Name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

So he came among us, and we beheld his glory. It is the glory of One receiving gifts from the Father, One given by the Father to be the Lamb of God to redeem all sinners—it is the glory of One giving himself the ransom for many. There is no greater glory ever on the face of the Earth than the One hanging on the cross, giving himself as the gift for every sinner.

Now the Church sings to him.

It is an invitation from those who have been restored to the Father, from those who have grown weary of having what can only be grabbed onto by our own strength, and who now are given to rejoice in being given gifts by the Lord of life:

Savior of the nations, come,
Virgin’s Son, make here your home!
Marvel now, O Heav’n and Earth,
that the Lord chose such a birth.

In the Name of Jesus.

Living in Days of Disorder

The 23^rd Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 28c] November 17, 2019

2 Thessalonians 3:1-13

¹ Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, ² and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. ³ But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. ⁴ And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. ⁵ May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. ⁶ Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. ⁷ For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, ⁸ nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. ⁹ It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. ¹⁰ For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. ¹¹ For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. ¹² Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. ¹³ As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good.

In the Name of Jesus.

We have a Lord who stands us in confidence. A confidence born of the Name he bestows on us in Baptism, of the justification he speaks on our behalf to his Father, of the promise he gives us that he is with us every day, even until the end of the age.

We have a Lord who stands us in confidence. And then we swivel our head to look around and see this day in which our Lord has placed us. Do we feel confident? Or maybe a little shaky as we see this disordered world we are in? People claiming to be confused about a man and a woman given to be married. Claiming to be baffled about such things as protecting a baby’s life, or whether or not you should covet your neighbor’s property and wealth.

Our world is disordered. What do we, as Christians, do with this information as we await the day of our Lord’s return? In the hymn, we just sang,

Rise, my soul, to watch and pray; From your sleep awaken!

Be not by the evil day, Unawares o’ertaken.

So, we watch and pray. We see what goes on around, what goes on in our own lives, and we intercede to our Lord for ourselves and for neighbor. We are not naïve. As the hymn puts it, we are not Unawares o’ertaken.

In this disordered world, the Apostle Paul gives encouragement to the Church in Thessalonica.

They see the disorder around them. They see a world which appears to be coming to a close.

Thessalonica is in Greece. The once great Greek civilization has by this time been taken over by the great Roman republic, and now the respect for law of the Roman republic has disintegrated into the Roman Empire ruled by the pursuit of power. Caligula has been assassinated, Claudia is now emperor, he has married his nice Agrippina, who will later poison him, and then Agrippina will later be murdered, seemingly by her son, Nero, who will end up being just one more murderous Emperor.

In this time of Claudius, emperor of Rome, in this day of murders, conspiracies, debauchery, of rejection of rule of law, of disorder, the Apostle Paul writes to the Church in Thessalonica:

May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. … For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.

[2 Thessalonians 3:6 and 11]

The word we have in our translations is “idleness”—keep away from the brother who is walking in idleness, says Paul.

That word idleness makes it sound like the problem is laziness—“Idle hands are the devil’s workshop” being a Bible verse that is not actually in the Bible. But Paul’s actual word here is quite different in the Greek. It’s not about being lazy or slothful.

His word in the Greek is, disordered. It’s the same root word as putting everything into proper order to support life. It’s a word of the institutions the Lord put in place for us when he created us—institutions such as marriage and home, as neighbor and society, as property and wealth. This is found in the “orders of creation.”

This is the same root word as when Paul tells the Church in Corinth that all things should be done properly and in order. [1 Cor. 14:10] It’s the same root word as that which our Lord uses to describe husbands and wives being ordered toward each other [Eph. 5], and the same root word our Lord uses for us being set in order before authorities and rulers in the world [Titus 3:1].

So Paul is describing a world of disorder, and is telling the Church how she is given to walk in this world.

Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from any brother who is walking outside of order and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. … For we hear that some among you walk in disorder, not busy at work, but busybodies.

[2 Thessalonians 3:6 and 11]

We are in the last Sundays of the Church year—the Sundays up until Advent, which begins the new Church year. In the last Sundays of the Church year, we are given to look at is how the Church lives in these latter years as we wait for our Lord to come again to judge the living in the dead.

As we wait, it is a disordered world. The Lord’s institutions are under attack. His institutions of the created order such as marriage of man and woman, of life and family and home, of neighbor and society, of property and wealth—these institutions of the orders of creation are under constant attack. But as we live in this disordered world, the Apostle gives us the encouragement of Christ Jesus for his Church:

As we seek to walk in our Lord’s good ordering of things, we are given to remember something else for our comfort: our enemy is not all the problems we can see of this disordered world. Our enemy is not our neighbor.

For, as Paul says elsewhere, we do not struggle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Our enemy is not other people, even those who bring disorder, for other people are flesh and blood. Our enemy is not flesh and blood. Our enemy is Satan and his evil angels, the principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this age.

Our enemy, that is, the devil and his demons, tempts and afflicts us and our neighbor. In this temptation and affliction, the devil and the demons bring the disorder and rebellion against the Lord’s gifts.

We see this disorder and rebellion. We see it in people teaching evil things about life and marriage and family to our children, we see it in our neighbor sinning against what the Lord has instituted for our blessing and benefit, and we see it … in ourselves, in our own sinful flesh.

And when we see it in our own sinful flesh, when we finally let the Law of God show us not just the sin of our generation, but more importantly the sin of our own lusts and desires, then we have only one place to turn. 2 Thessalonians 3:5:

May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

The steadfastness of Christ, says the Apostle. Where we are not faithful to him, he is faithful to us. Where we have not been steadfast, he remains true.

He stands us in confidence. In our disordered world, in our fear of our own sin, he stands us in a confidence born of the Name he bestowed on us in Baptism, of the justification he speaks on our behalf to his Father, of the promise he gives us that he is with us every day.

The devil will continue doing his work of evil. He and his demons will continue to tempt, to afflict, and to bring fear to our consciences.

Then he won’t. It will be all over. Then our Lord comes again to judge the Living and the Dead, and Satan’s lie will be over.

Then our eyes will see the steadfast One, the holy One, the One who forgives sins, the One who is faithful even when we are not. 2 Thessalonians 3:3:

But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.

In the Name of Jesus.

Where is Our God?

22^nd Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 27c] November 10, 2019

Exodus 3:1-15

¹ Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. ³ And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” ⁴ When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” ⁵ Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” ⁶ And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. ⁷ Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, ⁸ and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁹ And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. ¹⁰ Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” ¹¹ But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” ¹² He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.” ¹³ Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” ¹⁴ God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.'” ¹⁵ God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

In the Name of Jesus.

Well, you can’t give yourself a name. A name is given. It’s bestowed. Bestowed by someone who is over you, or who precedes you.

A mom and dad bestow the name upon the little girl or boy, the little child doesn’t name self. A homerun hitter ends up named as “Hammerin’ Hank,” or a fullback as “Moose,” or a power forward as “The Mailman,” not because they put the name on themselves, but someone else—a coach or some fans—bestowed the name.

It’s not as if when you are named, say, George, you can choose for yourself a new name and require that everyone start calling you, say, “T-Bone.” You would just end up looking silly.

If a man ends up meeting his long-lost father and yelling, “My name is Sue, how do you do?”, at least it is known that the terrible name was bestowed by the father.

You can’t give yourself a name. A name is given. It defines, it identifies, it calls upon the person.

And that makes sense. For the one bestowing the name is the one giving the gifts. The greater one caring for the lesser. So mom and dad bestow the name on the child—they will be giving that child all the gifts of the family name. My dog doesn’t name me, but I name him—I will be caring for him, feeding him, and he won’t be helping me make the mortgage payment.

The one bestowing the name is the one giving the gifts. Exodus 3:14:

Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.'”

Who will name God? He’s the one who gives the gifts. He reveals his Name as a gift to the sinner, to us.

If we named God, he would not be God, but an idol of our making.

If we named God, he would fit our expectations, be subject to our desires—which would be revealed in the name we bestowed—and in that way, he would not be God unless we made a decision for him to be our God, unless we called him into our hearts. But a God who is not your God until you make a decision for him, or until you call him into your heart, this is no God, but an idol.

Who will name God? Who will make a decision for him? The true God is the one who gives gifts. He reveals his Name. He gives his name to the sinner. He is defined by no one—it’s all there in his Name.

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

That verb “I Am,” in the Hebrew is the word Yahweh.

Yahweh, that’s all it is—the verb meaning, I Am. In the Hebrew, the verb is a much more complete and full than that. It means not only I Am in the present, but also, I have been, and I will continue to be, and, I cause to be.

So the voice of God speaking to Moses from the burning bush did not just reveal God to be the true God, that is, the one who is, rather than the one who is only if we cause him to be by making a decision for him, but the voice in the bush was God revealing himself as the one who is, who was, who will continue to be, and who causes to be. That is, he is not only the Living God but, in that, the God who is giving all life.

He gives life. This is our Creator.

But how do you give life to a sinner? How will God give life to a creature who acts as if he’s not a creature, but is one who has his own life in his hands and, not only that, but is one who thinks God is subject to him, even to the extent that he has the power to determine whether or not he will choose to make a decision for God?

How do you give life to a sinner?

God is not only our Creator. He is our Redeemer. Not only the One who created life, but the One who redeemed fallen life, so that the Old Adam of sin is, by the Gospel, recreated as the New Adam of faith.

It’s all there in his Name.

He revealed his Name to Moses: Yahweh, the God who was, who is, who will be, and who causes all things to be.

Then a child a born. The Virgin is with child and will bear a Son. What name will Mary and Joseph bestow on the child? Matthew 1:21:

[The angel said,] “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Jesus is our English pronunciation. The Hebrew pronunciation would have been closer to Yeshuah, which means Yahweh saves.

By Mary and Joseph, the Father in Heaven bestows the Name upon his Son, the Name by which we are to know him and call upon him, and it is the Name Yeshuah, Jesus, this One is Yahweh saving his people from their sins.

Whose voice was that speaking from the burning bush, saying to Moses, I Am? It’s the One being held in Mary’s arms. It’s the One who stood before Pilate to let himself be crucified in the place of every sinner. It’s the One who is called Yahweh-saves, Jesus, for he saves his people from their sins.

The one whose voice spoke to Moses from the burning bush, he’s the One who bestowed his Name upon you and me and our families in Baptism, so that in Baptism, we who are sinners, who can in no way make a decision for Christ, we now bear the Holy Name and we belong to salvation.

The one who spoke to Moses from the burning bush, he still speaks. He is the God who was, who is, who will be, who causes all things to be, and he causes you and me to be his own.

He still speaks. Not in the flames of a burning bush, that belongs to Moses, and it was never promised to us. Not in the flames of our own burning hearts, he never promised us that, and our hearts are sinful.

He speaks to us in his Word. His Word of Scripture. His Word he has preached in the Church. His Word of Gospel. His Word by which he comes to us to forgive our sins and make us his own. His speaks to us in His Word, and by that Word, he gathers us to himself, to his Body and Blood.

Every time he gathers us to his Body and Blood he is gathering us to his Name, he is placing us on Holy Ground, he is cleansing us from all unholiness, bestowing on us all the gifts of the Name.

In the Name of Jesus.

Jesus Blesses

All SAINTS’ DAY November 3, 2019

Matthew 5:1-12

¹ Seeing the crowds, [Jesus] went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. ² And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.

⁴ Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

⁵ Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth.

⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

⁷ Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.

¹¹ Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in Heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

In the Name of Jesus.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.

To be poor, destitute, to have nothing of your own. To stand as one only to be given to.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who stand before God with nothing to claim, only to be given to, and who then find the God before whom they stand is he who is on his way to the cross.

There he will stand before men to be judged, stand before them as one who is claims nothing on his own, and they will give him the one thing they have to give. They will give him their sin, their death, their judgement. He will take that judgment, in order to say to us, By the blood of my cross, you are blessed, you are of the kingdom of Heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. What is this comfort?

“Comfort, comfort, my people,”

the Lord spoke by the prophet Isaiah.

“Comfort, comfort my people,

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

cry out to her that her warfare is ended,

that her iniquity is pardoned,

that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

[Isaiah 40:2]

Blessed are those, then, who mourn their sin, who see no escape, who find themselves in warfare unwinnable.

Jesus as he speaks the blessing is on his way to the cross, and those who belong to him, they are his Jerusalem, his Church, they are pardoned, they receive from the Lord’s hand every good gift in double measure, and in every guilt, they are comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth.

The meek, this speaks not of some delicate nature or wimpiness, but of the Son of God riding into Jerusalem meek and lowly on the back of a donkey, to the cross to give himself over to death for all sinners.

In the way of our world, the Earth is not inherited by the meek. It is owned by those who grasp it with power, by those who conquer its land and control its oceans, by those who tear down others and stab them in the back.

In the way of the cross, the Earth is not controlled but inherited by him who gives himself the ransom for every sinner, and then given by inheritance to those sinners he pardons and cleanses.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Righteousness, that is to be judged innocent by the Father. Righteousness is to be found in fulfillment of the full Law, so that no part of You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself is left unsatisfied.

He hungered for righteousness, even to the point of death on the cross, so that in that death, every sinner is justified at the face of God the Father.

Having given himself on the cross, his Father then gave to him all authority in Heaven and on Earth, the authority to forgive sins and justify the sinner, so that in this authority he gives sinners of all nations to be baptized into the holy Name.

He who hungered and thirsted for righteousness, even to the point of death on the cross, he is given all authority of salvation, and he is satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Mercy is to judge another not by the demands of the Law, but by the overflowing grace of the Gospel.

The Law is retribution. It accuses—the sinner is condemned. For the Law to have mercy, it would no longer be Law.

Mercy is he who came not to judge, but to be judged, and to give his life the ransom for many.

Mercy is for the judge to give his verdict not on account of what is deserved, but on account of the free gift, of the promise.

Mercy is for the eternal judge to give not the hammer of the Law, but himself on the cross on behalf of the sinner.

He is merciful. A mercy shown to us in such a way it makes us people of mercy, receiving mercy from one another.

He is merciful, with a mercy forgiving our sins and, in forgiving our sins, gathering us into his courtroom not to accuse one another at the face of the judge, but to speak to one another in his words of mercy, comforting one another in the Gospel, addressing one another as those belonging to mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

The heart is not pure. The heart is concerned with self and filled with lustful desires. From the heart comes that which defiles. Matthew 15:19:

That which comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.

But he who has a pure heart is found hanging on the cross. He is found shedding the blood to cleanse our hearts. Psalm 51:

Hide your face from my sins, [O God,]

And blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart.

He who has a pure heart has given himself on the cross to cleanse every heart, so that as we see his shedding of blood on the cross, as we drink his blood as he gives us to do for the cleansing of our hearts, we look upon him, and we see the face of God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Peace made between God and the sinner at the reconciliation of the cross; peace among sinners by the speaking of the reconciliation of the cross; he is the peacemaker between God and man, between man and man, the Son of God, sent to save those at enmity with his Father.

He is the Son of God, and all those baptized into him and his peace, they have been made children of God.

This word of blessing—this word of the blessing of those who are poor in spirit, but who receive every good gift from the Father; of those who mourn in this world of sin, but who are comforted by the Word of promise and life; those who are meek and afflicted but who inherit the Earth—this blessing will be rejected by our world.

By everything our world can see, the Earth is inherited by power and grasping, not by gift to those who in their sin are emptied out.

The world is inherited by those who force their own way, by those who demand that everything be done right, or they will hold others under the accusation of the Law—by everything our world can see, things must be held under the Law, and anything not held under the Law, must be reviled and persecuted and have all kinds of evil uttered against it.

In his Word of blessing, Jesus creates us as the people not under the Law, but under the promise, the Gospel. Matthew 5:12:

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in Heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

In the Name of Jesus.

The Justification of the Sinner

Reformation Day October 27, 2019

Romans 3:19-28

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. ²⁰ Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. ²¹ But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, ²² even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, ²⁶ to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. ²⁷ Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. ²⁸ Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.

In the Name of Jesus.

A day of great celebration in the Church: Reformation Day.

But, as a strange thing, the one thing we cannot hear on the Day of the Reformation of the Church is a sermon about the Reformation. Because, if we heard a sermon about the Reformation, that sermon would be a denial of the Reformation, because the Reformation was about one particular matter, and that matter concerns what is preached in the Church.

So, first, a few things the Reformation was not about.

The Reformation was not about reforming the Church to rid her of outdated worship practices. We are thankful for our brothers and sisters who have gone before us, and we worship with them. The Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene, and the Athanasian, they are not discarded or updated—they can’t be. These Creeds belong to the Church of every generation and no one generation takes it upon itself to treat them as trash. The Church continues confessing and extolling them with one voice in every generation.

The Reformation was not about tearing down crucifixes or statues of saints, or tearing out stained glass windows, or any other destruction of arts which extol the Gospel. Luther himself treasured the gifts of music and art in the Church, and himself practiced the beautiful chanting of the Liturgy and singing of hymns.

The Reformation was not about cleaning up the corruption and debauchery of the bishops and priests in Rome. There’s much corruption, much grabbing for political power, much sexual debauchery which needs cleaning up. But this is always the case in our sinful world, and this is not what the Reformation was about.

The Reformation was not about Church governance or political alignments. We can read the Lutheran Confessions and we will find nothing of how the Church must be organized for governance, nothing of whether it should be run out of a city like Rome, or a city like Wittenberg or St. Louis. How many bishops should the Church have, how many years of seminary for a pastor? We will find nothing in the Confessions of the Church to give an answer.

Nor was the Reformation about what type of government a Christian should live under. Under a King or under a democracy, in a republic or in a dictatorship—the confessions say nothing about how a Christian can expect to live under government.

Then what is the Reformation about? About one thing only. It is about what is preached in the Church. What is preached in the Church is, The justification of the sinner before God. This is the Article of Justification:

We teach that people cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works. People are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake. By his death, Christ made satisfaction for our sins. God counts this faith for righteousness in his sight (Romans 3).

That’s Article Four of the Augsburg Confession. It has been called the Article upon which the Church stands or falls. It is the Article which the Pope rejects, such that he excommunicates anyone who teaches this article, ruling that the Article of Justification is Anathema.

But this is the preaching of the Church. This is what we teach our children. This is what every sinner needs to hear:

The sinner cannot be justified before God by his own strength, merit, or work, but is freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith, when he has faith that he is received into God’s favor and his sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake. By his death, Christ made satisfaction for our sins. God counts this faith for righteousness in his sight.

To the Christians in Rome, the Apostle Paul wrote:

By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness,

[Romans 3:25]

This is Justification. Upon this Article the Church stands or falls—not only the Church in Rome to whom Paul was writing at that time, but the Church of every generation, for the Lord gave these words through Paul, in order to have them delivered in Holy Scripture to the Church of every generation and every place.

The sinner is justified, says Paul, not by any works of the Law: By the deeds of the Law, no flesh will be justified in [God’s] sight, for by the Law is the knowledge of sin.

Not by any work of the Law are we justified. By no work of love, by no effort of making ourselves worthy, by no tally sheet of accruing merit—by no work of the Law will we be justified says Paul.

Then why the Law? If the Law is not there because we can keep it and make ourselves worthy; if the Law is not there as a way for us to accrue merit; if the Law is not there for us build up self in love; then why the Law?

The Law, says Paul, gives the knowledge of sin. [Romans 3:20]

The Law shows us not how to gain merit, but how sinful we are. The Law shows us not how to be worthy, but how unworthy we are before God. The Law always accuses. The Law always exposes guilt, always covers in shame. The Law never gives comfort, never cleanses, but condemns.

Why the Law? So we will know our need of a Savior; so we will see our total inability to be worthy before God; and we will, instead, look for a Redeemer. Not being able to justify ourselves, we finally rejoice in hearing the Word of the One who is our justifier, Jesus Christ, justifying freely by his grace.

If anyone were to us, What was the Reformation about, and what is the Reformation still about, until our Lord comes again? it is about this, The preaching in the church that the sinner is justified by no work, merit, or worthiness of his own, but is justified freely before God for the sake of Christ, through faith, and that the sinner’s sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake, who, by his death, made full satisfaction for our sins. This faith in Christ, God accounts to us as righteousness.

Not about Church power or governance, not about bishops and cardinals, not about cleaning up corruption and debauchery, not about candles and vestments and statues and stained glass, not about an office building in Rome or Wittenberg or St. Louis or anywhere else, but about one thing: the justification of the sinner before God freely for Christ’s sake through faith.

Everything in the Church, said Martin Luther, is ordered toward the forgiveness of sins.

The proclamation of the sermon? Jesus forgives the sins of every sinner.

The Confession and Absolution? The forgiveness of sins by the Word of Jesus spoken by the pastor.

The Lord’s Supper? Jesus giving us his Body and Blood to eat and drink for the forgiveness of our sins.

The mutual conversation of the Christians at home or in the hospital and everywhere else? The comfort of Jesus speaking the forgiveness of sins given as a gift from one Christian to another, so that we are building one another up in the Gospel.

Everything in the Church is ordered toward this: The forgiveness of sins, the justification of the sinner before God through faith in Christ Jesus. Everything in the Church is ordered toward, as Paul says,

That we are justified freely by [God’s] grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood, through faith, … that God might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

[Romans 3:25]

In the Name of Jesus.

By the Sweat of Your Face

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 20, c]

1 Timothy 2:1-15

¹ First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, ² for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. ³ This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴ who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. ⁵ For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, ⁶ who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. ⁷ For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. ⁸ I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; ⁹ likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, ¹⁰ but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works. ¹¹ Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. ¹² I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. ¹³ For Adam was formed first, then Eve; ¹⁴ and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. ¹⁵ Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

In the Name of Jesus.

If we want to see an argument explode out of nowhere in our current culture, can we do it any faster than by just by bringing up the sexes? Just say the words man and woman, or male and female, or husband and wife, or natural marriage, or mother and father, and get ready for the dumpster fire.

Man and woman, male and female, husband and wife—it’s ground for a war, it’s conflict, it’s time for name calling.

And yet, it didn’t start that way. God did not intend it that way. In the beginning, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in their conversation of creation, made mankind, male and female. And the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend it and keep it. [Genesis 2:15]

Tend and keep. No word here about working so hard you’re sweating, about work being a grind, about reporting in on Monday and counting the days until Friday, just gentle words, Tend and Keep. Work the ground and keep it. From that tending and keeping, you will have all you and your family ever need. Your interaction with the Earth will not be a constant battle against flood and disaster, against drought and famine, but your engagement with the Earth will be one of a creature receiving abundant gifts from the Creator.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden to tend and keep it. But the man was not whole without his counterpart, his equal, she who along with the man completes humanity, so there is male and female. To the man and the woman, the Lord God blessed them and said, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth. [Genesis 1:28]

If the man is given the high office of tending the ground, providing the food, guarding it all, the woman is given the high office of giving birth to the child, of bringing forth the generations, of bearing life.

And there is no note of pain in this, of difficulty or threat, of loss or tears.

The man and the woman. Created for each other, created to bring forth and uphold life, created to receive gifts from the Creator.

Then, we know what was done.

The man and woman, rather than receive gifts as they were given, took things according to their desire. Rather than stand as creatures living from the gifts of a loving Creator, in their desire, they took their stand as those who refuse gifts, but will make their own way.

They sinned. From them—for we are their children, we have no life but that it didn’t come through them—from them, we stand as sinners.

And the tending and keeping of the Earth? The Earth is now cursed. It is now by the sweat of your brow. Genesis 3:17:

[The Lord said,] Cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground.

If the man now gets food only by the sweat of his brow, what of the woman bringing forth children? Genesis 3:16:

[The Lord God said,] “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children.”

And the man and the woman, given to be one-flesh with each other? They are now in conflict, the wife seeking the man’s office, the man ruling over the wife, both seeing themselves as apart from the other.

From then on, up to us today, work is no longer the joy of receiving gifts from creation, but is the struggle to control nature and bring forth food by the sweat of the brow. Childbearing is no longer simply the joy of bearing new life into a peaceful creation, but is the tears of a mother in pain, the crying of a mother who loses a child, the torment of a woman unable to bear, none of it intended by the Creator.

The binding together of the man and the woman, the gift of husband and wife, the institution of marriage, it is torn-at by jealousy and lust, it is even denied by sinful generations, it is mimicked and mocked by those who desire to pursue lust outside of marriage.

Then the promise. In the midst of this sweat of the brow, this pain of childbearing, this tearing of marriage, in the midst of it all, a kindly and gently spoken promise:

The woman will bring forth a child who will be struck by Satan, but who, in being struck by Satan, will crush Satan’s head.

The promise: the woman will bear a child who will stand on the Earth as the New Adam, the New Man who takes all the sin of Adam and Eve, all the sin of their children, including you and me, who takes all the shame of living from cursed ground only by the sweat of your brow, all the pain of sickness and stillbirth and infertility, all the shame of lust and living in sinful community where men and women cannot even clearly rejoice in what it means to be a man or a woman—he, the New Adam, born of woman, takes it all upon himself and puts it to death in his own body on the cross.

We live by that promise—promise given to Adam and Eve, promise accomplished by the New Adam, Christ Jesus, on the cross, promise delivered to you and me every time we hear his word cleansing us of our sin, forgiving our rebellion against being creatures created to receive gifts, and declaring us to be his bride, the Church.

We live by that promise, that he, Christ Jesus, is the New Man, and he takes as his Bride the Church, a Bride he loves and daily sanctifies, cleansing her by the washing of water with the word, presenting her as his bride in splendor. [Ephesians 5:27]

And living in that promise that all sinners have been redeemed by Christ Jesus and he gathers us to be his Bride, the Church, we hear the kind words of the Apostle Paul:

Yet [the woman] will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

This is our Lord’s kind promise that even as we live in this world of “the sweat of the brow,” this is not judgment to us—for the judgment against sin is found at the cross, but this is the life we are given to live in faith. So that even as we live by “the sweat of the brow” in our sinful flesh, in our life of faith, we live as the Bride of Christ, daily being sanctified by his promise.

And it is our Lord’s promise that even as a woman is given to go through the pain of child-birth, or even the pain of being unable to bear, yet, that is not judgment to her, but she is being saved even as she goes through it. 1 Timothy 2:15:

Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

This is our Lord’s promise that we are saved not by any work we do, not by any sweat of our brow, not by any pain of child-bearing, but, as we go through all of this, we are saved by grace through faith.

By the grace of a Lord he calls himself Groom, and calls us his Bride, the Church.

By the grace of a Lord who as Groom, sets men to be pastors to serve his Bride the Church, not because they are of themselves worthy or competent, but because he, the Groom of Church, chooses what is weak in this world to put to shame the wise.

By the grace of a Lord who so honors the office of being a man that he came into the flesh as a man, redeeming all who are children of the man, Adam.

The grace of a Lord who so honors the office of being a woman that he came into the flesh by birth from the Virgin Mary, who now stands as Mary, Mother of God, most honored among women.

By the grace of a Lord who forgives sins as inexplicably and abundantly as an out-of-control dishonest manager freely giving away the wealth of his master. [Luke 16]

Through all things, we are saved by his grace.

In the Name of Jesus.

A Shepherd Only for Sinners

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 19, c] September 15, 2019

Luke 15:1-10

⁵ Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. ² And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” ³ So he told them this parable: ⁴ “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? ⁵ And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶ And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ ⁷ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in Heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. ⁸ “Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? ⁹ And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ ¹⁰ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

In the Name of Jesus.

Jesus is our shepherd. One of the great images in Scripture.

The shepherd who leads us beside still waters, makes us to lie down in green pastures, restores our souls. [Psalm 23]

He prepares a table for us, even in the presence of our enemies. With him as our shepherd, goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our lives. He is our shepherd. He makes his flock to lie down in safety.

But what does this mean? How does Jesus do this? When is he shepherd?

Can we rescue this beautiful imagery from being just some sort of cliché emoting warmth and making us feel good? Is there actually something solid and real we can say about what it is he actually does to be our shepherd?

The way that if I told about my dentist, I could actually say something concrete and real about what he does as my dentist, how on a certain date he filled in this cavity or took this x-ray? How if you were telling me about your insurance agent, you could tell me real facts about where his office is and exactly what policy he sold you for your car?

Can we rescue the imagery of Jesus from being some gauzy platitude and, instead, describe his shepherding in such a way that it is as solid and real as it would be if we were describing our dentist or insurance agent?

We know something of shepherding in our world. Look it up in the dictionary and we find something such as “shepherding is the careful management of resources or of an organization.”

So we see shepherding when a man is CEO of, perhaps, a bank, and he is able to shepherd the bank through a tough recession without losing any of its assets. Or when a woman is coaching the volleyball team, and she’s able to shepherd them to a district championship.

So we know something of shepherding. And then we come to Jesus.

He stacks up poorly. He’s got twelve apostles, but they argue with each other over who’s the greatest, one keeps denying him, another ends up betraying him, they’re all despised in the world, and we think we are looking at a man who is good at the careful management of resources or of an organization?

He gathers large crowds, but the next thing you know they’re shouting at Pontius Pilate to crucify him. Crucify who? The one claiming to be their shepherd.

We look at today’s Church. The Church chanting the 23^rd Psalm about “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, he makes me to lie down in green pastures,” the church hearing readings from Scripture of the Lord saying,

I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy.

[Ezekiel 34:15]

When we look at this Church, and we ask, how is Jesus the shepherd of this Church, what does he do to make himself shepherd?, What will we find?

He’s not as good a shepherd as the politician who shepherds a lot of volunteers, gathers a lot of donors, and builds a winning campaign. That kind of shepherding we can see; it makes sense.

He’s not as good a shepherd as a trainer down at the gym who has twenty people on a work-out program so you can measure their progress, or as the financial advisor who teaches seminars on how to establish wealth.

Those kind of shepherds—you can measure their results; you can see their effectiveness; in the world, we need them.

And then there’s the Church.

No progress to measure. Oh sure, progress here and there, as a school gets built in this town, or a new church goes up in that suburb. But then there’s the church in northern Africa where the whole world can see sheep being mowed down by Muslim terrorists. There’s the congregation somewhere in Arizona, perhaps, where three of the youth have been tempted away from the church by the promises of the Mormons to have a family filled with nice smiles. Or the congregation of sheep where the flock ends up fighting with each other, and four of the families leave with hurt feelings.

And Jesus is the shepherd of the Church.

When do we see Jesus as shepherd? This startles our world: Jesus is shepherd by virtue of hanging on the cross.

We preach,

says the Apostle,

Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

[1 Corinthians 1:23]

On the cross hangs our shepherd. Foolishness to our world. But the wisdom of God for every sinner.

On the cross hangs the one who is paying the ransom to purchase every sinner from sin, death, and the devil. A ransom not of gold or silver, but his own blood.

On the cross hangs the one who, by giving himself over to death, dies in our place, and is victor over death and Hell on our behalf.

On the cross hangs the shepherd. Our shepherd. A shepherd like no other.

Not by leading winning teams or victorious movements, not by shepherding people to better health, nor better wealth, nor anything our world counts as worth measuring. But our shepherd by being the One who saves the sinner.

The sinner. That’s the one who cannot save himself. That’s the sheep who cannot keep himself in the sheepfold.

The sinner—it’s the one separated from the sheepfold, subject to his own sin, struck with his own guilt, blanketed in shame, unable to lead himself away from Satan, the evil one.

The sinner, that’s the stray sheep this shepherd—this shepherd known only by the cross, who makes himself shepherd by shedding his own blood for the sheep—that’s the stray sheep this shepherd goes after: the sinner.

That is, of course, you and me. If we are not sinner, he is not Savior. If we are not the lost sheep, we don’t know him as our shepherd. He goes after the one that is lost until he finds it. When he finds it, he rejoices with the whole church:

Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.

[Luke 15:6]

He brings back to the sheepfold, that’s his gift of repentance and restoration to the sinner.

He calls the sheep his own, that’s the ongoing proclamation of the promise of Baptism, as we were given to see that promise bestowed upon little Shepherd Asa this morning.

He sets the feast. That’s his liturgy where he is serving out his Body and Blood to cleanse of all sin.

You are his sheep, he is your shepherd.

In the Name of Jesus.