sermonguy

: sermonguy; January 29th, 8:50

for more, go to <resurrectionlutheran.us>

Grace to you and Peace, From God the Father and the Lord Jesus.

For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.

This is Your Word heavenly Father. Sanctify us by Your Truth. Your Word is Truth. Amen.

Fellow redeemed: One day a man named Simon was working when Jesus came to him and said ‘Follow me.’ The Simon who followed Jesus was a different man from then on, and Jesus named him Peter. One day as Simon Peter was following Jesus, along with James and John, they went up on a mountain, and wondrous things happened there. The Peter who came down that mountain was a different man than the one who went up. This pattern would be repeated as we read about Peter, and here as we read what Peter himself has written. You’ve heard in today’s Gospel the story of the transfiguration of Jesus. It’s a marvelous story, worth repeating. But now let’s take a look at Peter, the only one of the three disciples whose words in that story are recorded and consider today in light of the transfiguration of Jesus, the transformation of Simon Peter.

Peter was a man Jesus called to follow him; and so are you. Jesus has intercepted you while you were not looking for him and called you to follow. Jesus calls you as he called Peter, by his Word. The difference is that Jesus walked up to Peter and used his own mouth to call him by his Word, but since then, Jesus comes to you, calling you by his Word through the mouths of those sent, and where he has promised to be found to be gracious to you, as his word of promise is combined with water, and wine and bread. But it really is the same Jesus, coming to you, for you, his Word, and all of Jesus is with you, here, washing, feeding, forgiving, restoring, lifting you up. You get the same Jesus as Peter.

Because Jesus called him, Peter followed. And Jesus led him, and James and John too, up a mountain one day. Jesus there was transfigured, joined by our fathers in the Faith, Moses and Elijah, in the midst of his brilliant, uncreated light. Peter and the others were there because Jesus called them and led them there. They weren’t there because in themselves they were holy. To prove the point, Peter’s words are recorded in that holy tableau, and what do we hear? Some weird babbling about how the fellows could maybe build a lean-to or pup tent or something for them all to stay in.

Jesus didn’t call Peter because he was so good. He didn’t call him to follow because Jesus thought Peter was so brilliant. Jesus didn’t call you through His Word and the Means of Grace because you were already so good, or bright, or because you had something that he needs in heaven, or any other nonsense. The world wants you to think that’s why, though. Because if you buy the notion that those saints of old got to be saints on account of their excellent personal qualities or gifts, and that you get to be a follower of Jesus because of how awesome you are, then you are being set up for failure. Peter’s words on the mountain show that it wasn’t all about him. Jesus called him to follow because of how good, how gracious, how generous Jesus is. There is nothing in Peter, James, John, Moses, Elijah, me, or you that Jesus needs. He calls us all to follow him because he loves us even when we hated him. He is giving us his gifts purely, without anything we can ever return to him. And when we want to do something good, he points us to our neighbor and says ‘serve that one.’

Peter wasn’t looking for Jesus, but Jesus found him. Peter’s words on the mountaintop were goofy, but they didn’t matter. God’s Word matters. And when the disciples looked up and saw Jesus only, that’s what matters. It’s all gift.

Peter would mess things up repeatedly. He got mad when Jesus said he was going to Jerusalem to be crucified. As Jesus was giving himself in the garden over to those who had come to arrest him, Peter was the one who managed to interrupt by cutting off the ear of a guy named Malchus. Peter denied Jesus because some girl recognized his accent. Later, Peter forgot that gift means gift when Jesus gives it, and refused to have anything to do with non-Jews, until Jesus came to him in the vision of kosher and unkosher animals and commanded him not to call unclean what he had made clean by his death for us all. Even after that, years later, when Paul saw him in Antioch, he had to call Peter on the carpet for withdrawing from the non-Jewish Christians when some scary guys from Jerusalem showed up.

Peter messed up repeatedly. I like that, because here is a saint, a holy one of God that you can look at and understand that it wasn’t Peter’s perfect perfection and awesome awesomeness that merited God’s favor. It was all gift. God’s favor changed Peter not that he didn’t mess up any more, but that he lived as a forgiven, beloved son of God in the unmerited grace of Jesus. It is all gift. We all are reckoned as holy before the Father through the gift of Jesus’ blood and merit which he brings to us without regard for any quality in us.

And let the Church say ‘Phew!’ Our standing before the Lord is in Christ, and He comes to us freely, loving us unlovely, and covering over our faults and sins and shames. It’s all gift.

But how do we know that for sure? Back to the text!

Peter says plainly of himself, and his fellow apostle-authors of the New Testament that “we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Peter isn’t speaking only for himself here, for he doesn’t say “I didn’t” but “we didn’t follow fables.” He is making a claim not just on his own, but on behalf of all who wrote the books and letters of the New Testament.

Ok, but what proof does he give that this stuff isn’t just made up– that we have a sure base for our trust? Peter gives three distinct proofs:

They were first-hand witnesses– “we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.”

That includes Peter, James, and John for the events on the mount of the Transfiguration, but you must also include the rest of the holy Apostles in all the other teachings and doings of our Lord. They saw these things, and they heard the confirmation of Jesus in the voice of God the Father from heaven. Peter writes as a personal witness, and not one relying on hearsay only.

Secondly, “We also have the prophetic word made more sure, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” Now, who writes a prophetic word but prophets? Who did the apostles see and hear speaking with Jesus but Moses and Elijah, the great prophets of old, who along with other men form a mighty choir for our sakes, their various voices all combining over the centuries to sing the single, wondrous song of God’s Word in perfect unity and harmony, the Scriptures of the Old Testament. You can know that the Good News of our forgiveness, life, and salvation through Jesus’ life and death for us is so by reference to the Old Testament Scriptures, which all point to Him and tell us in great detail what God was about to do in the fulness of time.

Peter and the Apostles of the New Testament write as eyewitnesses. Their testimony is entirely in agreement with Moses and the Prophets through whom we have received the Old Testament. They all tell us the same story, from many different perspectives, that God loves and redeems us in the Christ, our Lord Jesus.

Finally Peter lifts any remaining doubt, for if he were to claim any virtue of his own we would have reason to be concerned, for the Scriptures are brutally honest about him, showing how he was corrected by our Lord and even by Paul over the years. But this isn’t about Peter, but about God’s Word for he writes “knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” It is God’s Work, the inerrant and infallible word of the Holy Spirit that we receive in the Scriptures, and not Peter’s or Paul’s or Moses’ or Elijah’s or anybody else’s notion of a bright idea that is written for our comfort, life, and salvation. This is why the Scriptures, alone of ancient writings show us the sin and weaknesses of its human authors. We do not have to rely on Peter, but on God alone. You are not required to believe for a moment that any man is infallible in his statements, save Jesus alone. And we do not receive the Scripture on any single man’s authority, for they were not written alone, but are the product of many men, through whom the Spirit has given us the Word, and not something fetched from an Arabian cave, an American wilderness, or pulled from the too-tightly-wound-turban of some self-aggrandizing swami, saffron robed guru, or highly polished TV evangelist, but the perfect product of God, given through admittedly and openly fallible, sinful men called into His Service.

We can know God’s Word, and we can be sure of it. And this Word tells us that He loves us, brings us from death to life, pays the penalty for our sin, and makes us God’s own children through His only-begotten Son, Jesus. This is the ground of Peter’s faith, and not his own virtue or merit. And this is the ground and base of the faith you may rely on and find peace in both now and forever. This is Peter’s and all the prophet’s and apostle’s, and saint’s and your transformation: the grave of Jesus, the One transfigured before him and revealed once and for all the beloved Son of God in whom the Father is well-pleased. We all are in Jesus by His Word and Sacrament, and the Father’s pleasure in His Son is now by grace His pleasure in you too. Jesus is for you. You are in Him. There is your peace and life forever.

The peace of God which passes all understanding now keep your heart and mind through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Epiphany 3 – Matthew 8:1-13

: sermonguy; January 22nd, 12:56

Grace to you and Peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus.

“Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.” And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”’

This is Your Word heavenly Father, sanctify us by Your Truth. Your Word is Truth. Amen.

Fellow redeemed: In my office as preacher of Christ, in His stead and with the authority Jesus grants me to speak the whole counsel of His holy Word to the Church and the world, I call on all people, particularly to all Christians who may hear me, and especially you who are citizens with the right to vote in the elections and to participate in civil society of the State of Oregon, and of these United States, and I charge you in Christ’s Name to heed these words:

All decent Americans are against child abuse. We have all heard of infants and young children abused, beaten, and killed by parents, or the live-in friends of their unwed parents. You can think of unfortunate examples yourself. And as you think about it, what do you conclude of such evil and wrong? Do you think to yourself something like “I believe that was unfortunate" or "I think it was a poor choice" or, "To each his own. Surely, the adult was disturbed and probably didn't meant it and only took things a bit too far in hindsight. Of course how can I put my own moral choices on that little family?” NO! Of course you wouldn’t ever imagine to think such a thing. What do you think? It was demonic, disgusting, despicable! Of that we must be quite dogmatic. There are no circumstances, no excuses for such wicked behavior.

We should be no less clear about the violent murder of babies that has been legalized by our own government since this very day in January in 1973 some thirty nine years ago, and is carried out upon our nation’s babies in their hundreds of thousands every year, now numbering in the tens of millions, with cold, Nazi-like efficiency in clinics and hospitals in our very own communities. The mothers may receive pain killers, but there is no mercy for the babies. It is far more painful and traumatic than cigarette burns, punching, or kicking. It is evil. It is wrong. It is disgusting and disturbing. The devil is not chased away by philosophy but by dogma, by calling things what they are, by the Truth. All decent human beings are against murder, whether that be of babies, the mentally handicapped, or the elderly. All decent Americans, and especially we Christians must oppose this bloody murder called abortion, pregnancy reduction, family planning, euthanasia, or death with dignity, wherever we are able.

My fellow redeemed: We live in a cruel, violent world. We do not make the laws. We are not in control. Neither was the Centurion. He served his government faithfully, even though it was a purveyor of abortion and murder, of ethnic cleansing and corruption, and of persecution of the Church. Rome was a terrible place. America is a far superior country not just in government and structure, but also in morality. You do what you can, what you have the authority to do. The Christian policeman can not arrest an abortionist for murder even though he is killing babies. Shamefully, it is not illegal. In fact, the policeman actually has to protect that man. But the policeman can vote. He can lobby. He can bring his influence to bear where he is able. He can exercise his constitutional rights as a citizen. No Christian, whether he be a policeman, a doctor, or a farmer, has the right to strike out with violence and hatred. That is not the way of Christ. Only the government, the Law, can wield the sword. You have heard it said: "You shall not abort." But I say to you that anyone who has tired of his children, of the mess, the noise, the expense, anyone who has ever wished them away, is guilty of abortion in his heart. Repent. Evil is not overcome with evil, but with good, specifically the good of Good Friday. Jesus died also for abortionists and weak-willed politicians, for scared girls told it was okay by a seemingly knowledgeable nurse. The solution for all of our ills, social and otherwise, is the satisfaction of Justice in the cross of Jesus where He took the sins of all men upon Himself.

That is how the Centurion, that consummate man of violence, was overcome. I don't know when or where. I just know that it is the way it always is. For we are not converted by the Law, by beauty, or by reason. Political rallies against something don't make Christians. We are converted by forgiveness, by the loving intervention of God in our lives to cleanse and heal our fallen hearts. We are converted by being welcomed into the Father's House for the sake of the Son in the gift of the Spirit. And in our conversion, the devil is defeated. His prize is snatched away.

Thus the Centurion came to Jesus in faith. He pleaded with our Lord, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented." And the compassionate Christ volunteered to come and heal him. Imagine such an offer! But centurions are ever rank-conscious. This centurion recognized the power of God's grace for healing and forgiveness. He was not worthy. He only desired a Word - a Word is all it will take! For in the Word of Christ is power and authority. He only desired the same Word of power and authority which had cleansed his own heart and brought him into the kingdom. Thus the Centurion's servant was healed, and he himself received a word of praise without equal for his faith. For his faith submitted to the authority and power of Jesus Christ.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. In itself faith is really nothing. It is the paper where the words are written, the mp3 file, or cd where the music is recorded. Christianity is not about faith. It is, rather, about that which faith lays hold of, Christ our Lord. Faith is the means whereby Christ dwells in us. He is what we hope for, what we do not see, but whom we believe. Faith saves us by delivering to us Christ our Savior. Faith saves is an equivalent statement to the book reads. Thus: Abraham believed the LORD and it was counted unto him as righteousness. A verse so significant that it is directly quoted three times in the New Testament and alluded to at least once. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It hopes in Christ.

Christ saves.

Thus Faith is the indwelling of Christ and saves. It is ever the state of the baptized. It recognizes, preeminently, as did the Centurion, that Jesus of Nazareth is God in our Flesh come to save us. When that is known nothing else matters. Or, more precisely, everything falls into place. For if God has come in our Flesh to save us how can He fail to give us all good things? Is He not wiser than our earthly fathers who know enough not to give us vipers or scorpions when we ask for bread? If God has come in our Flesh to save us then how can His Word ever lead us astray? If God has come in our Flesh to save us then we are safe. Our pride and ambition lose their momentum. We are satisfied in His death and resurrection. We forget ourselves. We are fully His and perfectly innocent of all sins.

He chooses in His grace to come under our roof. Not just into our homes, or into our souls, but into our bodies. He enters our mouths to dwell in our hearts, to purify our souls, by means of the Holy Communion. The bread which we break is His Holy Body. The wine which we bless is His Holy Blood. It is given and shed for you for the remission of sins, for the strengthening of faith, for encouragement, for healing, for the sake of love. Thus he overcomes our violence, hatred, and cowardice. He speaks the Word and it is so. He says "Go" to the devil and he goes. He says "Come" to the Holy Spirit, and He comes. He says, "Let it be done for you as you have believed." And it is! You are righteous before God. You will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

The Peace of God which passes all understanding post guard to watch and protect your heart and mind through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Epiphany 2 – January 15, 2012 – St. John 2.1-11

: sermonguy; January 15th, 7:28

for more, go to <resurrectionlutheran.us>

Grace to you and Peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus.

Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. Jesus said to them, “fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, “Draw some out now and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it.

This is your word heavenly Father. Sanctify us by Your truth. Your word is truth. Amen.

Fellow redeemed: What lesson may we take away from the wedding at Cana? We actually have an embarrassment of riches:

It is a wedding feast which Jesus first blesses. The estate of marriage, the lifelong union of a man and woman is God’s gift for our good and our blessing, the foundation of the family, and the core of all good government. Marriage is a blessing from God, and Jesus gives quite a wedding gift to the newlyweds of Cana. Marriage is God’s creation for our blessing, and not therefore subject to redefinition or dilution. It is a sin to regard it as inferior to any manmade system of devotion or religious rigor, or to deride it as profane in comparison to a life of solitude set apart for prayer or some other work. The true God we serve has not only called us to spiritual things, but has also created all the stuff of life for our good and blessing. And He has given us our daily vocation, calling us to every form of wholesome human interaction, companionship, and relation. The vocation of husband, wife, mother, father, son and daughter are blessed and to despise these is to despise the Giver of such good gifts. The Christian religion may not rightly therefore insist on such things as lifelong vows of celibacy by which marriage is forbidden. To the contrary we follow Jesus in blessing marriage, and celebrating such occasions in life as a wedding feast.

And as the Christian religion must regard, uphold, and honor marriage, and every family vocation as right and blessed, so too we must speak a clear warning to civil society, especially when common sentiment is set against the clear gift of marriage and family that this is not an institution defined, established, or created by man, that our human governments might tinker with and change it. To do such a thing would be to assume authority over God himself, who has given us marriage, and is a perversion of governmental powers. We may not call good that which God has called evil, and we may not obey any law of man which contradicts the law of God.

The virgin Mary is blessed among women; and we owe the maiden respect, who alone of all humanity contained within her body the fullness of the Church, and is an example of the Church, within which Christ may be found with His good gifts, and must hear her carefully who speaks to all who would follow in Christ as she instructs the servants at the feast “Whatever He says to you, do it.” If you would honor the blessed virgin Mother of our Lord, obey the only explicit instruction she provides in God’s Word, and pay attention to the Word of our Lord and follow it faithfully. This instruction from Saint Mary is a blessing to all who hear and heed her; for she ever and only points us to the One she bore, the Lord Jesus our Savior and our God.

We may also speak to those who regard that wine is sinful from this text and have them see that their zeal is misplaced when it sets its demands against what Jesus is plainly and graciously giving. Again we must insist that it is an error and a sin to call evil what God has provided for our good. The Scripture says that wine gladdens the heart, and we are not to rewrite or redefine what God here gives in practical terms, for that would be to pervert God’s Word, and a sin. It is true that drunkenness is a sin. But misuse does not invalidate proper use, and those who would deny the joy of God’s blessing in joyous celebration must be called upon to repent and turn from their dour, sour-faced insistence that nobody else ought to have fun either. Turning your misery into a god in this way is no less a form of wicked idolatry than those who worship statues of false gods. Your God is not a prune-faced biddy, so lighten up and enjoy the gracious gifts He provides!

There are many lessons to learn at the wedding feast in Cana. But I would especially focus finally on the instruments Jesus used to bless those who were there on that day.

Jesus spoke to the servants who were there. Ordinary folks whom He used according to their vocation. Through their vocation of being what we would call waiters, cooks, janitors, and so on, as might be found in a banquet facility or restaurant, Jesus did something holy. Your daily labor may not seem to be much of a big deal, but God Himself is using you to serve your neighbor and to bless them. Your work is holy. Even your companionship at a meal is God’s gift to lighten the loneliness of the one you have joined.

Jesus instructed them to take the stuff already there: stone waterpots and water. God blesses us through the things He already has given us. He is our Creator and He is the author of all that we have, and He uses these common things for our good and our blessing. When God seeks to provide His blessing to us, He uses the stuff He has already given as His conduit to bless. God works through means.

Too often we are tempted to believe the fanatics who encourage us to insist on direct acts from God, direct messages beamed supernaturally into our hearts and minds, miracles out of the blue. I warn you that you should nether expect God to work in this way, nor should you look for it. God blesses you through means. He speaks to your heart here and now through His Word which He already has given by means of His prophets and apostles who faithfully recorded it. How shall they hear God’s Word, the Scripture asks, without a preacher? And so God provides and sets men apart and charges them to speak His Word as He has given it in the Bible fully and faithfully.

And as God blesses us by His Word and speaks through it effectively now, He also employs the common stuff He has designated for our good to be His means of grace for our blessing. At the wedding Jesus used water in waterpots to provide the earthly blessing of very good wine. Today Jesus uses wine, bread, water, and word, the hands and mouths of the men He sets into His preaching office, through which He brings us forgiveness, life, and salvation. Jesus imbues and transforms what is at hand, the common things of His creation with His blessing and grace. We see this in the Means of Grace. It is common water, except that His gracious word and promise are attached. Common bread and wine convey His most holy Body and Blood. And our common language He takes and forms into His holy Word, in which God Himself breathes into us forgiveness, life, and salvation. Jesus has no need to convey His word in a special heavenly tongue, nor to come to us by some otherworldly confected stuff. He uses what He already has given, and transforms it to His good purpose for our good. He also uses as I previously mentioned, the common vocations of us all through which He provides the things we need to live each day, and by which His faithful children are also blessed to bless their neighbors, causing them to wonder at the hope that is given us so that His Word of life may be spoken to them and His Church embrace and give them life everlasting, a wine which gladdens forevermore, and a spring of living water by which the soul of man may never thirst again.

This is enough for us today. Jesus here blesses marriage, and through it all society. His mother instructs us clearly and simply to hear her Son and heed what He says. God works through means to bless and keep us all, both now and forever. And through all of these we hear God’s grace, our forgiveness, and our blessing. What more is there to say but Amen?

So the peace of God which passes all understanding guard your heart and mind through Christ Jesus our Lord to life everlasting. Amen.

The Epiphany of our Lord – Matthew 2.1–12

: sermonguy; January 8th, 7:50

Grace to you and Peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus.

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”

This is your word heavenly Father. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is Truth. Amen.

Fellow redeemed: We know the story. The wise men saw the star in the east and came to Jerusalem. I want you to see the picture in your mind’s eye, of the magi and Herod, there in the throne room of the palace in Jerusalem. Now I want you to understand what the Scripture is telling you. None of those men had a right to be there. The magi, these were no followers of the one true God. They were scholars of many things, but they did not know God’s Word. They were not sons of Israel. No promise had been given them. And Herod, to whom the magi had come seeking the one who has been born King of the Jews? He did not qualify, for he had not been born to the throne he occupied. Over two thousand years before, God had promised Abraham that the world would be blessed through His line. A thousand years before Herod, the Lord God had sworn to David the son of Jesse that the king of the people of God would always be of his house and royal line. For a thousand years, through good times and through the many bad times too, it had been so; until now. Herod was not of the house of David. Herod wasn’t even a son of father Abraham. He occupied the throne because he had usurped it by gaining the favor of the pagan emperors of far pagan Rome far away.

Herod was king over the Jews, but no king of the Jews, no son of Abraham, no descendent of the royal line and house of David. Though he lived in the house, and sat on the throne, Herod had no right. God had promised father Abraham. God had promised his shepherd-king David. Herod was sitting in a seat which belonged to Another. And God always keeps His promise.

Herod had no right to the throne of David. The magi had no right to seek the true King. They had no right– but they had been invited. And beckoned by a star, by that angelic messenger shining before them, who had appeared to them two years before, they, unworthy though even the great men of the world are, they followed. They could not have known, they could not have come, but for the invitation. How could they have known, how could they have come, but for the bright, shining herald of the Lord?

Great men though the magi were, in the eyes of other men, before the God who is, they were lowlier even than the shepherds who at His birth had also been beckoned by a bright shining host in their night sky, made invited witnesses to come and worship the virgin-born Son of Mary, God’s only-begotten One, full of grace and truth, as He lay in a manger. So it had been that in the fulness of time the Good News of Jesus had first come to the humble shepherd Jews, and now in turn the nations from afar were beckoned, and the magi of the east, gentiles without any other right or claim were also gladdened by the beckoning herald shining and leading in their eastern sky. First to the Jew, then the Gentile, first to those through whom the Promise of salvation had been given, then to all mankind. Here in the early days of the Incarnation, Jesus is revealed to the nations of the east. And near the time when in the fulness of time Jesus would be lifted up in redemption for us on the cross, men would come from the west too.

They had no right but for the gracious invitation of the heralds of the Good News. The bright shining star the magi followed, what was it? I cannot say, for the Scripture only calls it by the name given to all bright things in the heavens, the word is ‘astare’ from which we get ‘star’, but our understanding of stars is too narrow a definition. What is this, but what the shepherds, earlier had beheld in their own heavens, the angelic herald of God. And what is an angel but a messenger? And what message is heralded here in the story of Christmas, and now of the shining, magi leading herald of Epiphany, but the great good news that there is now, at just the right moment, born to you in King David’s home city, the Savior, the One truly born King of the Jews, for He is by His human nature David’s royal son, and of all creation, for by His divinity He is the eternal King, Lord God, Creator of us all, Jesus!

And these heralds were by no means the last, for Jesus would call men, set them apart, and send them out, heralds of His Good News. There is born to us dying the Living One, God Himself who has reconciled us to Himself by His own perfect obedience to His Law which condemns us sinners, and by His death in our place, perfectly and forevermore fulfilling the penalty of our sin, and destroying the power of death over us, that we live in Him now and forever. What good news!

But how should the nations hear this good news unless one is sent? So it is that like sparks from a campfire the heralds have gushed forth, to Jerusalem and Judea and even to the ends of the earth. Till we too have been made a part of this story. As the shepherds watching their flocks in the field by night once saw a great sight, as magi far in the east beheld a star to lead them to Jesus, so now to every tribe and nation, to every tongue and ethnicity of mankind the angelic good news is heralded and we too are made glad by it.

Hearing it, the shepherds said one to another, let us go up to Bethlehem to see this great thing. Seeing it, the magi followed till with great joy they saw how in Bethlehem the star stood at last over the house where Mary and the Child were. Hearing the herald’s glad cry, what now shall you do?

Here a choice is given. For many follow Herod’s leading. He knew he was a fraud and without true right to the house of David. So he sought only to destroy and tear down and murder the Christ, and any who might ever bring such news. He sent to Bethlehem men who would present to the City of David’s sons gifts of sharp-edged steel, to murder and silence them. Many today hear the Good News of Jesus, but fearing that they are found out in their sin, do whatever they may to silence, to strike down, to choke off, the slightest whisper of the Gospel of Jesus. If not by destroying the pulpits and preachers, then by silencing the voice to their own ears.

But for every Herod, afraid to be revealed in his sin and fraud, there is a shepherd, who knows he has nothing to lose but his filth; and there is a wise man, who knows for all his silken robes and wondrous possessions he is a beggar still before the Creator, and they come, for the beckoning brings them, the words of the invitation of the Good News of Jesus quicken them to rise and follow and behold the Savior and receive the Good Things He gives, for Jesus comes with healing in His wings, bringing His own perfect obedience, His own perfect, all-atoning death, His own eternal Life, forgiving us, and where there is forgiveness there is also life and salvation. And broken hearts made new, and sadness given over to joy, and tears at last and for all, wiped away.

The shepherds, beholding Jesus, as the heralds had told them, went out proclaiming the Good News with great joy. The magi, coming in before the great Savior King of us all, worshipped and adored Jesus, and beggars though they knew themselves to be, they presented whatever had been placed in their hands, and they opened their treasures to Jesus, giving kingly gold, priestly frankincense, and prophetic myrrh. So do we, having received the herald borne invitation, having come into His house with singing and gladness, have met our Savior through His Word and Sacrament, and beggars though we are, we too open our treasures and bring such gifts as we have been given.

And with the magi, ’til the time we as they are beckoned on to our heavenly home, we abide in His presence. With the shepherds, having spread the Good News to all who would in our daily lives hear it, we return, again, and again. We open our little treasures as we are made able, but moreso, infinitely moreso we receive great Gifts from our Lord and Savior, the true Son of David, the fulfillment of the promise of Abraham, the blessing of all the nations, and our blessing too, even Jesus, our Savior-King. He meets us, and we are forgiven, and ever made new, and ever loved.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your heart and mind through Christ Jesus. Amen.

Christmas Day – Luke 2

: sermonguy; December 25th, 2011

Grace to you and Peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus.

“And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”

This is your word heavenly Father. Sanctify us by your truth. Your word is truth. Amen.

Fellow redeemed: What a thing to happen; the Creator sees His creatures are ruined in hopeless condition and unfit for life, but so loving them, leaves aside His native glory and stoops down further and further till at the right moment He becomes one of us and the Creator is a fellow creature, entering into the world He has made, so lowly that there is no room for Him to be. He is born a man in a stable, laid in the trough designed to hold grain for livestock.

God Himself became man. In fact He did so nine months earlier, entering into the Virgin’s womb so that Mary miraculously became pregnant. But it was now, in His being delivered that our fellow man were able to behold Him. And so she did, His mother see her Lord and behold her Son, and Joseph too. Though they had not come together in their betrothal, he had lovingly treated his bride, protecting her and the Child growing heavy within her. So we may truly regard him as Jesus’ father in all but the biological sense. A loving protecting, daddy, hands accustomed to mallet and plank and the rough use of a builder, he gently used his calloused hands to hold and wash the infant’s tender skin. Wrapped snugly, and laid to rest after an infant’s borning labors, Mary and Joseph beheld their Son, God made man to be and dwell among us, making funny newborn snuffles as He slept.

Soon the Holy Family were joined by other rough fellows, nighttime shepherds fresh in from the flock-filled meadow, who angel directed had come to behold how the Creator had entered creation in the tender flesh of a child, till rejoicing and triumphing the glad news they went to tell and rouse the slumbering villagers of the wondrous birth.

What a glory, to behold the Child, to see Jesus before you and know that here, veiled in flesh is God Himself. Who among us wouldn’t want to have had the opportunity to be there, that first Christmas, to see God come to man? Our sentiment and story of longing is to be brought before the Creator, we broken creatures, and to see Him before us kindly, caring, curing our fallen condition, to forever reunite us to Himself.

You know that such a thing could never be done by our doing, it has to be His. Only God can come to us, we cannot go to Him. And if He comes unveiled, in His glory, would you be able to stand it, or would you in your imperfection and sin be undone entirely? No, He must come in such a way as we would be healed and not forever condemned, for our sin has left us dead before Him, woeful and unfit. If God would come, He must come gently for our sakes.

And so at Christmas the sentiment of many is given over to a futile longing, to be among those shepherds, to stand at Protector Joseph’s side, to see God With Us a child, meek and lowly. And so many, many, many will come away from this holy Feasting Day hearts weighed down that we all have missed that day of Jesus’ birth. We have missed His coming to the Temple, we have missed His ministry, His teaching, His healing of many, we have missed His final passion, His dying as the Sinless One bearing the sin of the world upon the cross. We missed it all for we were all born centuries afterward. And hearts are downcast, for we can not gather with shepherds in the stable to see Him. And the sentiment of the Season soon is past, burnt off like the morning fog into nothing, and the Christmastime feeling is gone like a dream.

Well, awake from your dreaming, you lost and dying, for this is no dream. The world is fitful, filled with unobtainable fantasy, too willing to deny what is, and long for what is no more. The world pretends this time of year to rejoice in Jesus’ birth, but makes it a fantasy fairy tale forever out of reach and continues to go to hell. The sentiment and dreaming are false, and you should know it. For what the world says can never be, is. The world insists on a dream which is not real, and regards what is real as a dream. Wake, awake, and slumber no longer! The telling of the Story of the Savior’s birth, and the shepherd’s beholding Him is not without a purpose: Would you see Jesus? Would you gather before Him and behold Him, receive Him, be blessed by the God who lifts His countenance, His kindly face full of grace upon you? Then rejoice that He was born once among us, and rejoice that Jesus lived and ministered in our midst. Then rejoice that the God who made Himself a man this day came in order to bear the terrible load of our sin and took once and for all the penalty of death, which you owe in your sin upon Himself and made complete satisfaction and payment of it, living in perfect willing obedience to His Law which would crush us sinners, and dying to forever fulfill its demand. Rejoice that Jesus has broken the terrible chains of death, and has stormed the very gates of hell, declaring His victory and life forever. Rejoice that He is risen from the dead, death being destroyed no longer may hold him. And rejoice that this same Jesus whom the world fervently believes to be no longer with mankind, no longer in this world, in fact now comes to us, is with us.

Emmanuel, God With Us, is true to His name, Jesus is with us. He comes before you and is with you fully here and now. Listen to Jesus’ promise. He is God and cannot lie. His promise is certain and sure, and He keeps His Word: Jesus tells you, oh man that wherever two or three are gathered together in His Name, He is in our midst also. Jesus tells you that whatever is forgiven you on earth is forgiven you also in heaven, before the Face of the ever living God and Father of us all. Jesus tells you that you are made His by His Word and Spirit and water of holy Baptism and lo, He is with you forevermore. Jesus tells you that He is with you, all of Him, in His body and blood born of Mary, His body and blood suffered once and for all in your stead upon the cross into death, in His body and blood which is risen from the dead on the third day, in His body and blood which goes to prepare a place for you in His Father’s house of many mansions and if He goes, He returns to you, Jesus, the baby born in Bethlehem, the man who fed thousands with a little bread and fish, He is with you, Body and Blood, before you, fed into in the bread and wine. Here is your communion, here is the wonder of the ages. What the shepherds once beheld, speaks word of Good News of your forgiveness and blessing to you, washes you and makes you clean and cloaks you in His own righteousness in the sight of the Father, feeds Himself into your mouth to eat and drink. Here is Jesus; behold your Savior God!

God has clothed Himself in your flesh, spoken in your tongue, washed you under the flood of water and feeds into you Himself fully, His glorified humanity and His gracious divinity.

As shepherds once rushed to behold their Savior, you come too, rush in, and behold Him who is for you, and in whom you have forgiveness, life, and salvation, as He comes to you now and you behold His Word proclaimed, His washing of Holy Baptism, His Holy Communion. Here is Jesus for you, here and now. The miracle of miracles, the Life of your life, and your salvation from forever death is here. Behold your Savior and know the blessing.

Now join the shepherds that night, and go and tell. Join with the women at the tomb on the day of His rising and go and tell. Great good news, Jesus is for you, God and man are reconciled together in Him. Your sin is forgiven, you are made at peace with the God who loves you now and forevermore.

The peace of God which passes all understanding guard over your heart and mind through Christ Jesus forevermore. Amen.

Advent 3 – St. Matthew 11.2–10

: sermonguy; December 11th, 2011

Grace to you and Peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus.

And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”

This is Your word heavenly Father. Sanctify us by the Truth. Your word is Truth. Amen.

Fellow redeemed: John is locked in prison, in today’s Gospel reading, but he is bound by something more serious than the stone walls and iron bars of his physical captivity. He is bound by his fear and doubting which grew so great as to impel him to send two of his disciples to Jesus to ask: “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”

John’s dark doubting, so desperate for hope, is recorded in the Holy Gospel for your benefit. You have also endured dark doubtings, desperate for hope. What is one to do when the easy glory days seem all gone? The crowds of disciples no longer surround the Baptizer as they had years before. The babbling flow of the Jordan, the dust of the shuffling feet, the drenching cool waters, the open air excitement that had drawn all Jerusalem down to the river: all were gone now. The void of a sealed dungeon cell enveloped the forerunner of the Christ. He had only a pair of disciples still nearby to dispatch on his mission of hope to Jesus. He was, but for the soft-garmented murderous enemy above in the throne-room, all alone. What is one to do when the easy glory days are all gone, and life’s parade has passed you by? Your confidence (you still may be able to put on a good show; but it’s only that), is all gone. That virtue, beauty, talent, genius upon which you once relied has proven fragile and fleeting. You are too alone too often with too many of your darkest heartfelt doubting thoughts. And there you dwell in the dungeon cell of your despairing heart. Is this all there is? Or, is there something else; something more, to fill the weary emptiness of your sin-sick soul?

Come to think of it, your despair has always been there, hasn’t it? But oh, it was so much easier to ignore in those brighter days. Now there’s no avoiding it; not much longer anyway. What shall you do? “Jesus, are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?

In those days there were no shortage of things to throw into the pit of man’s despair. Tired of the mainstream, cults too numerous even for the historians to remember had sprouted. For a price they offered you an shiny new cardboard god (exciting at first flush, till you realized there wasn’t anything to him; just a flashy promise without anything to back it up). You could tailor your own mystery cult if you dared. Lots of stuff like that was going on. Or, you could throw yourself headlong into the business of business, devoting your life to the acquisition of wealth and earthly power (the money would devalue, and the power would soon enough be all dust). Or, you could fill the hours with whatever pleasures and distractions you might find in things that for a while could distract, numb, and occupy the flesh. The dominant Greco-Roman culture offered all sorts of consumer creature comforts. It sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Nothing satisfied then. And nothing satisfies the despairing heart of man today. John the Baptizer wasn’t immune; neither are we. The lights and decorations of Christmas aren’t quite so magical any more are they? The anticipation and dreaming... it’s not so captivating as it once seemed to be. The children sing their hopeful Christmas songs, but it’s too much like a desert in your heart. The words may be on your lips, but the sweetness has gone all to dust for you. You are captive in the prison of the heart, with John.

And so, now what?

“Oh, come, O Key of David, come, and open wide our heavenly home; make safe the way that leads on high, and close the path to misery!”

John desperately needed the Key of David to unchain his heart; how about you?

The disciples go looking for a locksmith for their captive teacher and find the Key Himself. The people in Jesus’ crowd that day must have been astonished to hear such doubting from the abandoned, but still well-known John the Baptist. But Jesus knows how it is in the dark hour of the heart. Jesus knows how it is with you, and He loves you. See how He unlocks John. “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind receive their sight and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” It’s nothing new, is it? Jesus simply relies on the-already-in-those-days-ancient text of the prophet Isaiah. Jesus confidently employs God’s Word to release John from his prison-house of doubting. And that is sufficient. For the Word of the Lord is certain and true. Where gimmicks and flash, distractions and novelties all prove empty, the voice of the Good Shepherd speaking is certain, strong, unchanging, and able to fill the empty heart that nothing else can.

Too long and too often have too many of us run after such solutions to our yearning as the world affords. But too great and too powerful is the desperation that remains at day’s end. God help us that we not come to life’s end so empty, so chained, so dry. But thanks be to God! He does help us, unbind us, un-despair us! And it is just as with John; with the sturdy, unchanging Word. The Word made flesh speaks and restores to us the joy of our salvation, creates in us clean hearts, and renews His right Spirit within us.

Do we judge the heart of the Baptizer? Do we judge one another as being weaker than we ought to be in the Faith? Do we cast shadows over our fellow christian for not seeing the ‘big picture’ which we seem so easily to see? Then dear ones, see it clearly, you are judging the very Creator and Giver of the Faith, our Lord and God! Would we even go so far as to doubt how His Gifts are effective? And know that the days of ease in the meadows of the Good Shepherd may also be followed for each of us by hard and dry travel over the rocky and desert places of life. Those in the meadow today, take care not to judge those who hurt because they are traveling in the desert -- they may well be ahead of you on this journey! This warning Jesus gently spoke to those who may have had such thoughts concerning John : “As [John’s disciples] departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’ Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

The warning is well-meant, and well-spoken. Do not hold up your brother’s failings to shame him. God already knows them, and forgives; and loves; and calls you to love him too. And understand that the journey which may show the weakness of your fellow christian, this is a journey which you will travel too. And know that the helpless heart which too soon is revealed by the desperate cry of the hurting believer is met not with God’s angry accusation, but with that which is able to fill the need– the Word of the Lord. For the Word came and dwelt among us weak and desperate ones. He became man. And Jesus took all our shame, all our sin, all our heartache, and died in our place, under our penalty, for John, for every sinner, for you too. And now christian, Jesus calls you to this: to hear the Word of the Gospel, and believe it; to believe that His death is for you, the payment for your sin which sets you ever free. You are in Jesus the children of the living God, the people of His pasture, the sheep of His hand. He is the Key of David that unlocks heaven to you even in the midst of your trouble. His Word is for you, to set you free, to be the oil of gladness, the joy which passes all understanding. Jesus forgives you.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Advent 2 – St. Luke 21:25-36

: sermonguy; December 4th, 2011

Grace to you and Peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

This is Your Word heavenly Father. Sanctify us by the Truth. Your Word is Truth. Amen.

Fellow redeemed: This is what you should know– Jesus tells you that His words will by no means pass away. God’s Word is sure and eternal. That’s what you should know. And based on this eternal truth, you should receive a warning, and a comfort.

Jesus tells you today that His words will by no means pass away. That means that if you are not in keeping with His words, you are in crisis now, and if you remain apart from Jesus words, you are throwing away your place in His eternal kingdom, and choosing eternal death for yourself. That’s a warning. Pay attention to it. The anxiety and perplexity you feel and hear in the voices around you are based on the fact that we are all dying, and the world around us is in trouble, as the Scripture says, groaning under the weight of our sin. The calamity and disaster, disease, war, and horror of every kind all point to the terrible damage sin does to us. The ultimate reign of man in sin is death. As the hymn puts it, there’s ‘change and decay on every hand I see.’ To be apart from Jesus by being apart from what He has said is give yourself over into this change and decay, it is to be dying in a dying world, waiting only to enter into eternal death.

Jesus is telling you that He is providing your life and salvation, and He wants you to live in that eternal joy, and is warning you not to depart from it, neglecting His Word, hearing it, gathering together around it, and taking the comfort He gives for today and forevermore. Remember what importance Jesus gives His words. He is the Word made flesh, and His Word is truth and life. His word makes for your peace. His word is your forgiveness. His Word calls you from death to life. Jesus provided for His Word to be recorded and according to His promise has located the Holy Spirit in His Word to be active in those who hear it. That’s what ‘inspiration’ means: that the Word of the Lord is living because the Holy Spirit is abiding in it for your sake. And Jesus today tells you that His word is enduring. His words will never pass away. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus is the Word. And so His words share His eternal validity, truth, authority, and power. To neglect His Word is to neglect the things that make for your life. Pay attention, see the world dying around you, and cling to Jesus’ words.

Jesus tells you that His words will by no means pass away. God’s Word is sure and eternal. That’s what you should know. And based on this eternal truth, you should receive a warning, and a comfort. You have heard His warning, and you see it validated in the signs all around you in your fellow man, in your own mirror every morning, and in the disaster befalling us on every hand both in the natural world, and in society too. Take the warning and heed it.

But do not be cowed by all the change and decay, disaster and calamity. Understand these things as the warning signs they are for those whom Jesus loves, and take comfort from the fact that Jesus’ words will by no means pass away. Pay attention to what Jesus says to you in His Word. He makes you promises; Wondrous promises! Behold, He makes everything new! He tells us that He goes up to Jerusalem to suffer and die on the cross, and to be buried, and on the third day to rise in triumph over your death, the sacrifice once for all of the Innocent One in your place. Jesus tells you that you are forgiven your sin, that it is removed farther from you than the depths of the ocean. Jesus comforts you in your dying, telling you that you shall be with Him in Paradise. Jesus tells you that if He goes, He returns, for in His Father’s house are many mansions and one for you. Jesus speaks peace to you, breathes His Spirit into you by His Word, delivers forgiveness, life, and salvation to you just exactly where He says: in His Word proclaimed, in the washing of Holy Baptism, in the bread He gives to you saying ‘This is My Body,’ in the cup He shares with you ‘This is My Blood, shed for you for the remission of your sin.’

Jesus speaks to your fear and self-doubting, not quenching out a smoking wick, not breaking off a bent reed, speaking healing, life, and peace to him who blurts ‘I believe, help my unbelief!’

Jesus’ words will never pass away. And as you see all the things He sets before you as signs of the coming end, take them no longer as dreadful ends in themselves to seal your doom, but as markers along the way, and cling to Him through His Word, through His Sacraments, through His Church, through His every promise, confidence gained not in your own quality or person, but in His Words, which never fail, and always uphold you by His Spirit and Grace. And live in such hope in things to come based on Jesus’ Words that it causes those yet in darkness to see His shining light through you and wonder to hear of it, that your neighbor, your loved one, may yet cling to Jesus’ unchanging, eternal Words, and not die, but with you in great joy live forevermore.

The peace of God which passes all understanding is keeping you, guarding over your heart and mind through Christ Jesus. Amen.

The Last Sunday of the Church Year – St. Matthew 25.1-13

: sermonguy; November 20th, 2011

Grace to you and Peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus.

“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”

This is Your word heavenly Father, sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is Truth. Amen.

Fellow redeemed: Who gets to go to heaven? Do you go to heaven because you are better than those who don’t? What does Jesus say to you in today’s text? What is the single quality He mentions in the parable which speaks of whether a person is pure or not?

“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins…”

Now you know that half of the group were shut out of the wedding, by which Jesus is saying that many shall be shut out of the Kingdom of heaven. But look at who Jesus divides, between those who get in and those who don’t. They are likened to “ten virgins.” Ok, so what can you do with that? Without anything to modify it, ‘virgin’ is simply untouched, and pure. Nothing about the moral character of the ten decided whether or not they would be included in the marriage.

Now think, is there a word which describes our moral condition before God? There are: ‘Fallen.’ ‘Sinner.’ and how about ‘Dead!’ In the sight of God these are the words which describe every son and daughter of Adam and Eve. Born into a fallen condition, you have continually added fault and sin to the list of reasons why you could never approach a holy God or enter into His Kingdom of Life. If you look to yourself there is nothing to give you any comfort, and much indeed to terrify your honest self-examination. And your neighbor is like you. We all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. According to the quality of your person and work, you may not come near God, and you have no good reason to hope for anything but eternal separation from Him. And that means that you are dead already, and may only anticipate the endless horror of eternal death and hell.

No, I don’t want to go on about it. Rather I commend to you your own darkest fear regarding your true moral condition, and your own memory of the sin you know yourself to be guilty of. The Law of God has been inscribed upon your heart, and it preaches your damnation to you more loudly and eloquently by half than any pulpit-thumping accusation from me could manage. Indeed, it would perhaps be easier on you if I just listed sins which you may have done, for then you could sit there and suppose I’m talking about the fellow over there. But your own heart stings you with your very own failings and evil thoughts and words and doings. Consider that sermon well.

…

But remember what I said earlier about the characters in Jesus’ parable? Nothing about the moral character of the ten decided whether or not they would be included in the marriage. And Jesus says that the Kingdom of Heaven may be likened to what He here describes. If nothing about the moral character of the ten makes the difference (they were all virgins, after all) in the parable, then we must conclude that nothing about your moral character makes the difference as to whether or not you will be included in the Kingdom of Heaven (all of humanity, every one of us is a sinner, after all). So the common wisdom that good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell isn’t true. If it were true, all of us would go to hell, for all have sinned and fall short of the Kingdom of God!

So how then may you be brought into the Kingdom of Heaven, if it isn’t how good you are?

“Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.”

Jesus is telling us this parable, likening the ten virgins to the Kingdom of Heaven. He is telling us that some are going to be ready when the moment comes for the Groom to arrive. Those who aren’t ready ahead of time will not gain access into that Kingdom. Jesus has chosen imagery that we must take note of. The setting of the parable is a marriage. The virgins are in waiting for the coming of the Groom. Elsewhere in Scripture the Church is named the Bride of Christ, and He, her Groom. The virgins in this parable would be those outwardly associated with the Bride, that is, with the Church. No man may judge the heart of another. We only can judge by appearances. As you know, looks can be deceiving! We see those who appear to be in the Church in the world today. And we should have no doubt that where the Word of God is proclaimed, and the Sacraments are rightly administered, that there are people who are in the Church truly, but so long as we remain in this world, the fact is that there are others who only, for whatever reason, have chosen to associate themselves with it for appearance’ sake while remaining apart from it.

I want to stress here that none of us has the ability to judge the heart, and so it is not given to any of us to say that this one is a believer, but the other one isn’t. That declaration is only to be made reluctantly, where the sin is blatant, and in the face of stubborn unrepentance. In fact most of the time the false brethren cannot be seen for what they are in the Church Militant. In fact it may well be that those who appear least good, least holy, only minimally Christian among us may be very close to our Lord indeed! and fighting such a struggle, carrying such a cross against temptation, that none of us may ever understand. When you consider such folk, remember that you do not know what you cannot see, and pray the more for them, that the armies of the heavenly host may rally to their cause and uplift them in their trouble!

Saying that the Bride is the Church and the Groom our Lord Jesus, the Virgins are those identified as being in the Church visible, both true and false, I could go on to note that the oil for their lamps is oftentime seen as a reference to the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, who enlightens our hearts and minds through God’s Word and enables us to receive and hold it in saving faith. And here you would be right in saying that the analogy breaks down because the foolish virgins who didn’t have any spare oil went to get some from the merchants, albeit too late (although it is interesting to see that in the text it doesn’t actually say that the foolish virgins were successful in getting any when they went shopping). But that’s how it is with parables or any kind of illustration, really. At a certain point, if you push it too hard, it breaks down. We need to remember what Jesus’ point is in the parable of the virgins and only take it so far. His point is plain: the wise virgins enter into the joy of the wedding, for they already had the oil needed to wait for the arrival of the Bridegroom.

Jesus is true God. Seeing your lost condition in sin, He loved you so that He entered into your condition, taking on your flesh and being born of the blessed Virgin to live and suffer under the Law perfectly in your place, and though He had no sin of His own, He became sin for your sake, and was cursed, for cursed is every man that hangs upon a tree. So He obeyed the loving will of the Father and was crucified, dying in your place, so that you might live in His, a royal and eternal heir of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus provided for this gracious deliverance from eternal death in sin to eternal life in holiness and grace to be delivered to you through His Word, where He has promised the Holy Spirit, that is to say the fullness of God through His Third Person should abide to fill you with the Gifts won for you by Jesus, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. And the Holy Spirit washes you into this Faith and Life, cleansing you from filth and death in Holy Baptism, and here it is right to speak of you, dear Christian, as in Christ a Virgin, in the sense that you are pure and cleansed without spot or wrinkle in His sight.
Jesus appeals to you by means of the parable of the Virgins that the moment to be ready for this glad eternity in Him is right now. He, our wondrous Groom shall return at a moment of His own choosing, and without warning beyond what you hear in His Word. Now is the day of your salvation, now the day His redemption, Grace, and Spirit are available in abundance to be obtained in His Word and Sacrament for you. When the Last Day comes, or when death suddenly comes calling, there shall be no more time. Now is the time. Be wise, therefore, and a keeper of the Word and Gift of the grace of Jesus in sincerity and truth. Do not be like the foolish, who think it enough for the moment just to tag along and be in the company of the Church as it is seen here in the world. Cast off your pretensions and stop lying to yourself for there is no time but this time, and there is no moment in the future you may be assured of, but the coming of Jesus, and the Judgment of all mankind. That will be no time to be scurrying about, trying to at last obtain what no longer is present for you, and so be lost forever!

Here it is: you are my fellow redeemed, for Jesus has given Himself for your sake. You have life in Him. His Word has been given to you, and you have heard it. You have been baptized into Christ, and His Spirit has met you there. Abandon all if needs be, but cling to the Faith given you. Here is your safe harbor, your full and unending supply of oil, your new heart of flesh to replace the burnt out stony heart of sin. Your sin is forgiven in Christ. You are undone and made new. And soon you shall see Him as He is, and Jesus shall wipe every tear from your eyes, and you shall abide in His presence, in the joy of His eternal wedding feast, forevermore a beloved Child of the Living God. Jesus is coming soon, and the Bride rejoices, and the virgins with her, ‘even so Lord, come quickly!’

The Peace of God which passes all understanding guard your heart and mind through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Second-Last Sunday in the Church Year St. Matthew 25.31–46

: sermonguy; November 13th, 2011

Grace to you and Peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus.

“And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

This is your word heavenly Father. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is Truth. Amen.

Fellow redeemed: “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.” One of Jesus’ important titles in Scripture is ‘Emmanuel’ which means ‘God with us.’ This is the next-to-last Sunday in the Church year. Advent is coming, and one of our favorite hymns we can look forward to singing is ‘O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.’ God with us comes. Our question today is, how shall He come? At His holy birth in that stable in Bethlehem, Jesus came to us lowly and humble. So He lived His life among us for more than thirty years, perfectly innocent and obedient under the Law in our place to the Father’s will, and so too Jesus humbly submitted Himself to suffering and death on the cross.

Jesus came in humility at Christmas. And He came to die on our cross humbly, that first Good Friday. These things happened. They are historic events. Along with those events Jesus promised us this concerning the future: that at the Last Day He would return. We are near the end of the Church Year, which symbolizes our nearing the end of time. Jesus is returning, and we are engaged by Him to lift up our heads as He comes. But let’s consider: Emmanuel– God With Us is returning– but; how shall Jesus be, in what manner, in what attitude shall Jesus come again? “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.” Jesus comes again, but not in the manner He first came, an infant to be swaddled and laid in a manger, a man to be scourged and crucified in deepest obedient humility. Jesus comes in His glory.

When Moses asked to see God face to face, our Lord warned him that His glory would undo and destroy him. Moses only was allowed the slightest glance of the Lord as He passed by, and even that was so much that his hair was turned white and his face glowed so intensely that he had to wrap his head up afterward lest he blind those who saw the man who had caught a glance of the backside of the Lord! Man cannot withstand the presence of the unveiled Holy One. When Jesus returns He is returning in His glory. God With Us shall come upon us and be seated in the midst of us, His creation, attended by the angelic heavenly host. The sight and the glory of it will surely be terrible beyond words!

And Jesus will gather us, the entire species of man from the whole world without exception or escape to Him, and having drawn us all near to Him as He dwells in the uncreated light of His glory, who of you imagine that you will not be undone? In that light of His glory every secret, every defect and fault will be shown, as clearly as a scratch or stain in crystal!

And Jesus shall look upon you, and upon every person, every newborn, every girl and boy, every teenager, every man and woman, every bed-bound, every hospitalized, every elderly, every one shall be subject to His all-penetrating light, and His all-seeing eye. When Jesus returns, there shall be no exception to His judgment. And from it there shall be no appeal or relief. And as a shepherd divides his stock, sheep into one pen, goats into another, there shall be no possibility of evasion or escaping His glorious return to judge you.

You know the word picture Jesus presents of this judging, of the sheep He orders to His right, and the goats He consigns to His left. And you know the good works He has demanded of you in His Law– the Law which He has perfectly kept in His first coming. Jesus is not only the creator of that Law, but in your place, having been made man, Jesus has perfectly obeyed it, and so He is fully in every respect qualified to legitimately demand it of you in judgment. And you know that you have not kept His Law. Your good works are filled with error, with evil, with death. You know that by His Law you are a goat to be consigned to the fire of hell for eternity. And you know that this judgment is right, even as you imagine the unimaginable experience of being in the presence of Jesus in His glory as He judges you.

There is no escaping. You cannot hide. You cannot lose yourself in the crowd. Jesus is coming, and you shall be made to stand before Him. So here is the only question that matters, really: how shall you fare?

On the last day; the Last Day of all Creation, or your personal Last Day when you shall die and await that judgment, there is nothing to be done. You shall not be afforded any second chance, any period of working additional merit by which you might escape the prisonhouse of hell and eternal death. But leave this now, and return to your senses. This is not the Last Day, Jesus has not yet returned in His glory to judge. There remains a time. What is to be done?

Of yourself there is nothing to be done, for as we hear the sheep and the goats, both the saved and the eternally damned of mankind say, you are unable to recognize even in the slightest manner what service you may bring to your Lord. But Jesus in His returning in His glorious judgment is doing just that– returning. He’s been here before, the historical events we celebrate from Christmas through Ascension, and He is even now in our midst according to His promise, in His flesh, fully. Your salvation, and the rescue of your loved one and neighbor, if they will have it, is in Christ’s presence now, the Mystery of His presence among His own between the history of that first advent of Jesus, and the future of His returning on the Last Day.

Therefore it is given to set before you the Mystery Gift of God. Here is Life in Christ, and He is for you, rampant in triumph over your sin, Gracious in loosing your well-earned bonds of death forever. Hear the Word given to be spoken, Christ Jesus lived and died for you, and in Him choose Life, or turn to your own work to your own sin, yes, even to your own virtues, and die. Life and death are here, and you are on the precipice of eternity. Choose Life, your Salvation, your Savior, Who in dying in your place has stretched out His arms to you in His crucifixion and taken you to be His own, He for your sake a sinner, and you for His sake a saint. Isn’t that a wonder! Live in the One who gives you life.

You cannot effect your salvation. But the day of doom is not yet upon you. And Jesus has come to bring you salvation. Emmanuel, God With Us has come to us, and now comes to you with healing, forgiveness, salvation! He once came in humility both to actively fulfill the Law and to offer Himself passively into suffering and death, making the perfect payment of the eternal penalty of your sin. Jesus entrusts this gracious work to you for your salvation in Him precisely where He promises it: in His Word, in which the Holy Spirit continues to breath life and salvation to all who hear and believe. Jesus comes to you by to His promise, chasing the devil and his demons from you in the watery word of holy Baptism, and creating in you faith to hear and believe His Word. Jesus feeds His body and blood, borne of Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, into your mouth to eat and drink, delivering to you fresh and new and unending His redeeming sacrifice made once and for you and for all. Jesus breathes forgiveness into your heart and mind and makes you His own. You are covered in His righteousness by His promise in His Word and these means of His grace.

Oh, insofar as you can see, you are a sinner, and woefully so! But you are in Christ Jesus, and you believe His promise, and His Spirit enables you to hold God Himself to His Word. And when the day at last arrives, and you are made to stand before Him in judgment, and all the world around you is cowering in unworldly fear, you, lift up your head! Lift up your eyes and behold! Your Savior has come, and in His most unrelenting and eternal judgment you have your salvation, life, joy, and peace! Your sin is forgiven. You see your sin, He does not. You see your flaws, God With Us sees none at all, for you are entirely wrapped up into His Glory, His Word fills you, and leaves no place for the word of condemnation. The water has washed you and you are clean. He has fed Himself entirely to you and you are filled up with Him. You are become the very Glory of the Lord which an unbelieving world cannot even see. You are transfixed here, between history and future, and are met by Jesus, and you are saved, redeemed, restored, forgiven, graced to be His holiness, wrapped up altogether in His righteousness, made a participator in His uncreated light and Life forever. And here you may abide, at Peace in Christ.

Jesus has already won your salvation. Worry about it no more. You are forgiven every sin. You are made spotless in the Blood of the Lamb. You are free. So serve one another, and serve those whom you may. Don’t bother whom you serve, just do so in the gladness borne of an heart set free in the grace of Jesus. And with glad surprise hear on the Day to come, just Whom you are credited with serving. Your life is gift. Your salvation is gift. Your sin is no more, by gift you are holy made. You shall not die, but live. God With Us in His Glory gives You His Glory, covers you over and fills you up in His Glory. Lift up your heads, your Redeemer comes nigh!

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your heart and mind through Christ Jesus your Lord. Amen.

Reformation Sunday – Psalm 46

: sermonguy; October 30th, 2011

Grace to you and peace, from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ:

Our text this morning is the forty-sixth Psalm, which is the inspiration for the great Reformation hymn by Martin Luther “A Mighty Fortress” The Psalm begins this way:

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear,
Though the earth be removed,
And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
Though its waters roar and be troubled,
Though the mountains shake with its swelling.

This is your word heavenly Father, sanctify us by your truth, your word is truth. Amen.

Beloved in Christ: People are scared. It’s all about to come crashing down you know. Everybody knows that things are bad. The Mayans predicted it, right? 2012 the calendar runs out! That guy Camping prophesied the end of the world was going to happen a couple of weeks ago, again. Ok, so he was wrong, again. Superbugs, super-weapons, 500 foot tall tsunami, magnitude 10 earthquakes, choose your poison. I’ve found myself in weird, unexpected conversations as I was breathlessly informed–how there are mylar strips embedded in our paper money and how these strips can read the numbers off of your credit cards when you put them together in your wallet and then the computer codes on the back of traffic signs then read the information transmitted from your money as you drive by! Conspiracies and the unlikeliest catastrophe somehow makes more sense than the chaotic emotion of undefinable dread.

What is the ultimate source and foundation of the fear that haunts us? While bad things may most certainly be going on out there in the world, I would challenge you to consider something that I think is commonly overlooked: the true source of your darkest fear is within yourself. All the evil which we see happening around us, the conspiracy theories which continually present themselves as truth, and the real conspiracy of wickedness which so harms the common affairs of our action and behavior and word spoken and done out of evil motivations–all these are the outward evidence of the inward existence of sin– the sin which has been your constant companion since you were woven together in your mother’s womb. You know fear, because you are a sinner. This is common to all of us, for we are the offspring of a race fallen since the Garden. And because we are sinners, because we fall short of the Glory of God and His perfect Law, we have good reason to fear. In our sinfulness we see the ever present threat of punishment and eternal death before us. Sin makes us spiritually blind because death fills our spiritual field of view. No matter where the sinful man looks he sees the result of his sin which is death, and so he is fearful and filled with the vision of evil and conspiracy permeating the whole world.

Because of sin, we see disaster on every side, and, to use Luther’s words “devils all the world should fill, all eager to devour us...” Nevertheless, the message our Lord sends us through this forty-sixth Psalm is one which is ultimately reassuring. Each of us, in our own heart has felt the dreadful fear which is the message of the Law. God’s Word delivers a new message:

God is for us. And more than lending us moral support, He is our refuge, our strength, to use Luther’s paraphrase, “A mighty fortress is our God, a trusty shield and weapon.” No matter what happens, as you remain in Him, you shall be kept safe from the root of the threats you know too well, revealed through the fear which fills each sinful heart. We know the message of God’s Holy Word, that we were lost and helpless in sin and the fear which filled our hearts was wholly justified for we faced eternal death. But God loves and saves us. He was born among us and fulfilled the Law in our place, He suffered willingly for you and died that you should live. Through His life, death, and resurrection Jesus has made Himself your hiding place. He has weathered the full attack of sin and death and in Him, covered in His blood, you no longer need fear. He has saved you.

But what form has this salvation taken? What is the entrance into this mighty fortress which Jesus for your sake has become? The Psalm continues:

There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God,
The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved;
God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.
The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved;
He uttered His voice, the earth melted.
The LORD of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our refuge.

What is this river whose streams make glad the city of God? This is a description of Holy Baptism, which is the foundation of the city of God. The glad city of God is the Church– the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. And this holy place, this Church is not merely an institution, this is not merely a sanctimonious club meeting that we've gathered for, for as the Psalm says "God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved;" You have received the life of Christ in the washing of your rebirth in holy Baptism, and you all together are now made the Bride of Christ, and in this hope, this reality, and this blessing we shall not be moved. We shall be like a tree, planted by the water, for God is with us, He has rooted us in the banks of this holy river, and here He feeds us with all good things even as the storm of sin and death rages all around. Come what may, even if the earth itself should melt away, the Church of Christ shall remain, for we are kept safe for eternity in the blood of the Lamb, Jesus our Lord.

This is no mere wish or dream. The Church–the assembly of the believers around the Word of God, the Gospel of Jesus, delivered through the Holy Mysteries of Grace, the Keys, which open heaven's gate, the water, which washes us and clothes us in the Son of God, the bread and wine which feed us on the body and blood of Jesus– this is the breaking through of heaven on earth. What happens in the Church is the perfection of the saints, the cleansing of sinners, the renewing of hearts and minds, the strengthening of human spirits by the Power of the Holy Spirit and the formation of the people of God as the Bride of Jesus Christ our Lord. In this place, this time, this reality which transcends this world and brings to us God Himself with all His gifts and all His love we take refuge from the world and are revealed as the children of the King. God’s children for Jesus’ sake. Christ’s bride by the power of the Spirit. Living sacrifices set apart and made holy unto God by the blood of Jesus that we die to this world and live to eternity.

But in the world, people still fear. In the world, sin still thrashes and destroys and murders. It all seems so out of control. In the world it would seem that God is losing everything, even the life of His beloved Son, and that we too shall lose everything. But in the face of the world, sin, death, evil, in the face of the devil himself, we remember that God truly is in control of His creation and will not surrender even the least of those whom He has called. As the Psalm continues:

Come, behold the works of the LORD,
Who has made desolations in the earth.
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two;
He burns the chariot in the fire.

Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!

The LORD of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our refuge.

Jesus Christ has eternally defeated the evil one, and we live in Him. He shall not fail us for He has already defeated death itself and gives us life. No matter how bad or fearsome things may seem, no matter what may be taken, we lose nothing for we have Jesus, and He has us. As Luther wrote:

The Word they still shall let remain
Nor any thanks have for it;
He’s by our side upon the plain
With his good gifts and Spirit.

And take they our life,
Goods, fame, child, and wife,
Though these all be gone,
Our vict’ry has been won;
The Kingdom ours remaineth.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.

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