St. John's and Grace Evangelical Lutheran Parish

The Secret to Being Content

Texts: Philippians 4:10-13; Matthew 6:25-34

“Not that I am speaking of being in need,” St. Paul said, “for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:11-13, English Standard Version) St. Paul wrote these words in the closing section of his letter to the Philippians while he himself was imprisoned in Rome. He found himself there for the sake of the Gospel only after being shipwrecked en route, and that after being imprisoned in Galilee for two years. His imprisonment was not due to a crime he committed, but was originally for his own safety after some had taken vows to kill him for his faith. St. Paul was also accustomed to being without a home, food, or clothing. In short, Paul was acquainted with suffering. Yet, he wrote, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.”

Name, our dear wife, mother, grandmother, sister, and friend also knew that same feeling. Name was born in Month 1954. She was baptized into Christ that same month. She was blessed to meet her future husband at a young age, though their courtship took a couple tries before it stuck. But, stuck, it did. The Lord blessed Names with 48 loving years of marriage resulting in three children: Names During those years, Name found many opportunities to love by serving at home, in the church, and in the community. However, as with St. Paul, suffering was known to Name, especially in these most recent years. Yet, her trials and struggles, the medical setbacks and what-have-you, she bore with patience. Every time I had the opportunity to visit her in the hospital, there was a smile on her face. She bore her suffering with patience, with faith, and – dare I say – with a sense of contentment. St. Paul said he knew the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. Name knew that secret, too.

But, what, we might ask, is that secret? Actually, it’s not a secret because we’ve already heard the answer. Jesus said in the Gospel,

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?…Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Matthew 6:25, 32-33

St. Paul’s secret to facing all things in all situations, to doing all things, is faith in Christ’s loving promise. Just a few moments ago, we confessed our Christian faith together using the words of the Apostles’ Creed. The Creed begins, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” In Martin Luther’s Small Catechism, we learn that this means that, not only did God create all things, but He preserves and provides for all things – even us. By the way, Name knew and believed this. She had the rare opportunity to take confirmation class twice, which, technically, makes her twice as Lutheran as any of us are.

Name knew that the Lord provided for all her bodily needs, but she knew His even greater provision, as well. We are here today because our sister has died. Yet, we also gladly confess that she is alive with Christ. That’s because Jesus won for Name the forgiveness of sins, and by His resurrection, secured eternal life for Name, too. We know from Scripture that death is not part of God’s good creation, but came through our own evil deeds when our first parents doubted and disobeyed God’s Word. All who are born of flesh and blood inherit the same corruption of sin, which is punished in all people by death. However, God is merciful and does not let death and the devil have the final say. God the Father sent forth His eternal Son to take on our same human flesh. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He was born without sin and did not sin. Though He alone was unworthy of death, He took the sins of the world away by bearing them in His body on the cross. Jesus died to make the perfect, full, and complete payment for sin. Then, He rose again. He gives salvation as a gift to all who believe this, as the Scriptures say, “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Eph. 2:8-9)

When St. Paul said that he knew the secret to facing all things in all situations, it wasn’t some strategy for us to learn, nor was it ever really a secret. St. Paul’s secret was faith in Christ’s promise to provide all that we need – both for the body and, especially, for the soul. Our heavenly Father knows exactly what we need, and well provides. He did so for Name throughout her life. But, beyond providing for her body in this life, He has provided bountifully for her soul. The Father sent forth His Son and purchased for Name the forgiveness of sins and the eternal life which she now enjoys. Today, this secret is once again made known to us.

The Lord’s promises weren’t only for St. Paul and Name, but they are for us, too. We now know the secret to facing all things: the promise of Christ to provide. He has promised to provide for us and He does, even if we don’t always realize or believe it. But, as greatly as He provides for our bodies, He provides for us to an even greater extent by giving to us the forgiveness of our sins. He paid for all sins by His death on the cross, and He gives forgiveness freely to all who believe. Those who believe in Him will live, even though they die. When it is the Lord’s will that our last hour comes, we, too, will depart to be with Him in heaven with all who’ve gone before us in the faith. When Christ returns, He will raise our bodies – He will raise this body. Then, we will fully know the love and care of God. St. Paul knew the secret of facing all things and our sister Name knew it. May Lord grant to us that same grace, even as we await our joyful reunion in heaven and the resurrection of the dead. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Dishonest Manager(s), Merciful Master

Text: Luke 16:1-9 (10-13)

The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
Luke 16:8-9, English Standard Version

The words of our Lord and our text for today. These are some of the most vexing words of Jesus that we hear in the Gospel; or, at least of those words we hear regularly on Sundays. When students are studying the parables in their sermon classes at seminary, they’re offered the opportunity to pick which parable they’d like to preach on. If a student should pick today’s, and preach it well, they get an automatic A in the course. Nobody picks this one. I certainly didn’t.

As we learned last week, one benefit of the lectionary is that it forces us to sometimes go outside of our comfort zone. Not everything that our Lord says is easy. The problem isn’t with what He says, but with us, who hear it. Today’s text is difficult not just because the story is somewhat strange, but also because of what it’s about – stuff, things, worldly possessions, and how to use them. None of us like to be told how to do things, or what we should do with what (we think) belongs to us. Yet, that’s what Jesus does today. The truth is, the things we have aren’t really ours, they’re God’s; we’re only the managers. Therefore, Jesus encourages us to use our worldly possessions in God-pleasing ways while also promising to forgive us when we do fail.

The first thing to do when interpreting a Biblical text is to look at the context. We must look at the verses surrounding a passage so that we learn the setting: who these words were spoken by and to whom, when, and, perhaps, for what purpose. If we do that with our text today, we find that, as the Gospel started, Jesus is speaking to the disciples. (v. 1) But, there’s a little more going on. The parable today follows in the same conversation Jesus has been having for a couple chapters. This parable follows right after the parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Prodigal Son. Jesus told those because the Pharisees and scribes grumbled that our Lord receives and eats with “tax collectors and sinners.” (Lk. 15:2) Evidently, Jesus quieted them down for a bit, but they’re still in the background listening in as Jesus taught the disciples today’s parable. St. Luke tells us that, “The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things.” (16:14) The parable today might be as much for their benefit as the disciples’ and ours.

Our Lord starts the parable by saying, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions.” (v. 1) This much, we understand. A rich landowner assigns management of his property to a manager and the manager squanders it. In the Greek, the manager does the same thing the prodigal son did with all his inheritance; he wasted in reckless living. The rich man receives word of this and demands an accounting from the manager. Now, this is where the manager thinks quickly. He said to himself that he’s not strong enough to dig, and he’d be ashamed to beg; then he figured out what to do. Jesus said, “Summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ [The debtor] said, ‘a hundred measures of oil.’ [The manager] said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’” (vv. 5-6) This went on all with the other debtors, as well.

Now comes a confusing part, “The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.” The master didn’t praise him in the sense that the manager’s dishonesty should be replicated, but that the manager’s singular focus on achieving his goal with what was available to him was commendable. The manager’s goal was to continue in his life of comfort, and he used his means to make that happen. Though dishonest, he still understood how to use earthly possessions, to make friends for himself. That gets us nearer, perhaps, to what we should take away from the text today.

In the parable, the master represents God. A few weeks back, we heard the Feeding of the 4,000 and I had us speak together the First Article of the Creed. We confess that God the Father Almighty is the maker of heaven and earth. Everything that exists came into existence out of nothing by His work alone. Because He made everything, everything belongs to Him. The Holy Spirit teaches this, for example, in Psalm 24, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.” (vv. 1-2) All things belong to our God because He created them. We belong to God because He created us. Yet, as we learn from Genesis, our Lord does place parts of creation beneath our care. God cares for us and we care for others through what God gives us. In other words, we are managers of what God creates and gives.

God blesses us by giving us everything that we have. All of our stuff, our things, our earthly possessions belong to God, but He gives them to us so that we might use them in faithful ways. We use our possessions faithfully, first, when we use them to God’s glory. This happens when we give of what is ours to support the work of the Church, whether financially or though our time and talents. When we give to beautify the sanctuary and enhance the worship happening there, that is really to God’s glory. When we give to support the spread of the Gospel, that is a faithful use of our possessions. We are only managers of what God gives, and we should use what He does place into our hands for His glory.

We should also use what God gives for the help and support of those whom He places in our lives. Fathers, you are called by God to support your wives and children, and the possessions you have are to be used toward that end. Likewise, mothers. Since we all live in the world, we also have neighbors, many who are in need. When we have the means and the opportunity to do so within our vocation, we should do good to all with what God gives us. In the third place, we may use what God gives us on ourselves. We aren’t called to impoverish ourselves. We are free to enjoy God’s good creation and the blessings He gives, to have hobbies and interests; but we should devote ourselves to those things only after caring for those whom God has placed in our lives and supporting the work and worship of His Church.

The master in the parable praised the manager for his devotion to his goal. He had priorities, he stuck to them, and he used his means to achieve his goal. Do we? We are Christians. We have been called to faith by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Word and the washing of Holy Baptism. Through these things we have received the forgiveness of our sins and entrance into eternal life. We know (and are reminded today) that what we have comes from God and should be used for His glory and the support of our neighbor. Only after that should we dote on ourselves. But, is that how we always order things in our lives? Do we not, more often, reverse them? We spend our time and money on ourselves, and then on our families. Then, in only a distant third place, do we give to God. To be sure, there are times where, by the working of the Spirit, we are faithful with what God gives us. But, we shouldn’t pat ourselves, because we all feel in our hearts the temptation to act otherwise. And we have, repeatedly, and sometimes, for years. We’ve placed our wants first, God’s last.

There’s one aspect in this parable that often gets overlooked, though, and that is the reaction of the master, the rich man. When he found out what the manager was doing, he didn’t punish him. He fired him; but he didn’t throw him in jail – which would have been well within his rights. Instead, he was merciful. Remember what we said, the rich man in the parable stands for God. God, likewise, places us as managers over what belongs to Him. And, He also sees how we often mismanage what He gives, and we sin by doing so. God sees our mismanagement, and you know what He does? He forgives. He has mercy on us. Instead of demanding an accounting from us for our evil deeds, He accepts Christ’s accounting on our behalf. Christ balanced the ledger by making the full payment for our sins, and it is counted to us by faith.

This parable’s a tricky one. I didn’t pick it to preach on in seminary, but we hear it together today. In this parable, Jesus teaches us that we are only managers of what is given to us. We should use our possessions to further our Master’s goals: that His glory would be proclaimed in all the earth, that our families and neighbors would be provided for, and – in third – on ourselves in thankfulness to God. We must confess that we don’t always keep those goals in the right order, and we sin. Like the master, however, our God is merciful. Let us pray this week that He would continue to grant us to think and do those things that are right with what, ultimately, belongs to Him.

Beware of False Prophets

*Note* I record sermons on my phone and this time some noises made it through. Sorry.

Text: Matthew 7:15-23

In today’s Epistle, we heard part of St. Paul’s farewell address to the pastors of the Church in Ephesus. Shortly after, he would be leaving them to go to Jerusalem and they would never again see him face-to-face. In his final words to them, Paul said,

I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with His own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert…
Acts 20:27-31, English Standard Version

St. Paul patterned his final words to the Ephesians in part after our Lord’s words in the Gospel today.

Our Lord teaches us in Matthew 7, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” (7:15) He has in mind those who would come after Him, who would speak in crafty ways to draw the sheep away into the mouths of wolves. Our Lord warns that false teachers and preachers would come, even seeming to preach the Word, who all the while deny that Jesus is God or that we are saved by His grace without our works. Our Lord also teaches how we will recognize such false prophets, “by their fruits,” (v. 16), which is to say, their doctrine. In the Gospel, our Lord teaches us to judge all teachings by His Word so that we are not led astray by teachers who, otherwise, appear right.

This is a difficult topic to discuss. I can sympathize with that, but I do not apologize. These words are Jesus’, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits.” (vv. 15-16) Our Lord models for us here two responsibilities of faithful pastors. They must preach and teach the true and saving Word of Christ – that, by faith in Him, we are forgiven all our sins and welcomed into eternal life. They must also speak and warn against all that is contrary to the one true faith. These are both responsibilities of faithful pastors, that they teach the true Christian doctrine and warn Christ’s flock against false doctrines. This is exactly what our Lord is doing today. Our text comes at the very end of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus just taught the crowd all that they should believe and do. Now, at the conclusion, He warns them against those who would teach contrary to what they just heard.

Our Lord has to do this because, even from the Garden of Eden, where God sends a faithful preacher, the devil sends two false ones. God provided Eve with a faithful preacher in her husband Adam, but then came the devil to twist God’s Word. Adam became a false preacher for a time when he did not warn Eve against eating the fruit. In the days of Noah, he and his family alone were believers while the whole world lived in unrepentant sin. In his days, Elijah stood alone on Mt. Carmel opposite 450 prophets of Baal. After Elijah came another true prophet named Micaiah. He was imprisoned by King Ahab after he prophesied that the king should not go into battle. Ahab instead listened to his 400 false prophets and, soon after, died in battle. False prophets continued in the time of the Apostles, as we read in St. Paul, St. Peter, St. John, St. Jude, St. James, and in the letter to the Hebrews. Where our Lord causes a spring of living water to well up into eternal life, there the devil tries to poison. Satan cannot stand that the Word should be preached purely and the Sacraments administered according to Christ’s institution, so he daily rages and tears through calamities, hardships, and, especially, false teaching.

How shall we recognize false teachers and how shall we guard against them? As Jesus said, “You will recognize them by their fruits.” The fruit of a pastor or teacher is his teaching, his doctrine. We should follow the pattern of the Bereans when St. Paul came to them preaching about Christ. The Holy Spirit tells us in Acts 17 that when Paul came to Berea preaching Jesus, “they received the Word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” (Acts 17:11) They tested what St. Paul preached against the Scriptures and found it to be true. A false prophet is anyone who teaches or preaches contrary to the Gospel of Christ and the witness of the Holy Spirit through the Scriptures.

We don’t need to look for false prophets; the world is filled with them. They come to us in our lives to contradict the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Perhaps the mark of a true false teacher is that they will use God’s Word in ways that sound right, but are contrary to how Scripture speaks. For example, we know how the Devil tempted Jesus to throw Himself off the temple. Satan quoted Scripture, but then left part of it out and twisted the rest. The devil continues to use the same tactic. In the Reformation the main false teaching was that we can earn merit before God by our good works. They said that “grace,” is not God’s favor toward us in Christ, but a power that God gives us to make our good works enough to gain heaven. They would use Scripture to try and prove this, but it doesn’t hold up. Our false teachers today also use Scripture, or arguments that sound like Scripture, in false ways to lead us astray. For example, some use St. Peter – when he says that to the Lord a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day – to teach that the universe was not created in six days. Our Lord clearly teaches in the Gospel that the Creation account in Genesis is literal and factual. This is only one example; there are others.

What do we do? It seems that with every passing year the Lord’s precious flock grows fewer and that our own church body is suffering. All the while, Satan is at work seeking to devour us with lies and good-sounding arguments that appeal to our sinful nature. Jesus says to be on guard against false teachers and that happens, first, through knowing the Word. Our God, out of His infinite goodness and mercy, has given us the true, perfect testimony of His loving will. Through His Word, He sets our hearts at ease by pointing us to His eternal Son, Jesus, who made full payment for all our sins. In the Word, He teaches us what is good and right and true, what is beneficial for us, for our neighbor, and for the world. The first step in guarding against false teaching is knowing the true teaching, and measuring everything by it. Should we encounter a new teaching, we test it by the Scriptures. St. Paul encouraged the Ephesians to study the Scriptures so that they would not be tossed about like a ship on the waves by every wind of doctrine. (Eph. 4:14) If you feel ill-equipped to judge whether something is right or not, come to Bible study or ask your pastor. In the meantime, remember what you’ve learned from the Catechism – which is all the basic teachings of Scripture in compact form.

We also guard against the devil and his false teachers when we give them no quarter in our lives. We should always pray to our Lord Jesus, that, as He promised, He would continue to send us the Holy Spirit. We should pray that He would produce ever-increasing fruits of love in our daily lives. The devil hates when we, in thankfulness to God and mindful of His Word, are faithful and loving spouses, children, parents, grandparents, and workers. We also should pray to the Holy Spirit that He would create a hunger in our hearts for the Word and Sacraments. It is through the Word we recognize our sin and realize how shaky the ground is upon which we stand. But it is also through the Word and Sacrament that our sins are forgiven, our joy renewed, our faith increased, and our love for each other caused to abound.

In heaven there will be no false teachers. There will be no diversity of doctrines. We, and all Christians, will be united in the faith in greater number and to a fuller extent than we can even imagine. When we commune together, we confess that we are united now in the faith and we anticipate our joyful unity in the world to come. But, until such time as our Lord returns, the devil will continue to prowl. He and his teachers will seek to lead us astray, and may even use Scripture in their attempts. We heed our Lord’s warning and hold fast to His Word. We know that, as St. John said, “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (1 Jn. 4:4) Amen.

Oh, How Great is Your Compassion

Text: Mark 8:1-9

In Psalm 23, King David confesses his faith in God’s loving kindness. He gives thanks to the God who leads him beside still waters, and who restores his soul by the saving Word. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,” sang David, “I will fear no evil, for You are with me.” (Psalm 23:4, English Standard Version) The Lord’s Word and Sacraments – His rod and staff – comforted David in all distress. The Psalm continues, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” (23:5) Here, David continues praising God for His kindness and grace in Christ. The forgiveness David had by faith in Jesus overflowed into a wellspring of eternal life. Yet, there were other ways in which David’s cup overflowed.

For example, the Lord provided him with a wife and children. He provided a faithful friend in Jonathan. David had food and drink, a home, a throne. Even in the midst of his enemies, the Lord provided for David. He provided for his soul, by granting him forgiveness of sins through faith and He provided for his earthly needs, as well. He didn’t do all this because David deserved it – quite the contrary, as we know. God provided for David because of His own grace, His love, His compassion. In our text from St. Mark’s Gospel, we see our Lord’s compassion on display as He abundantly provides for both soul and body.

In our text from the 8th chapter of St. Mark’s Gospel, the Lord is continuing His work of preaching and teaching, even among the Gentiles. Earlier in the Gospel our Lord had said to the Canaanite woman, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matt. 15:24) Yet, by healing her daughter, Jesus showed that the forgiveness and life that are in Him don’t belong only to those who are descended from Abraham by blood, but they are given to all who receive Jesus in faith – Jew and Gentile alike. This Good News, that God freely forgives all who repent and believe in Christ, regardless of race, drew people to Jesus. Many of them travelled, even great distances, to hear the Gospel from Jesus. By faith in Him – in His upcoming death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins – they were, indeed, forgiven and inheritors of eternal life.

St. Mark writes that at one occasion a great crowd had gathered and was listening to Jesus, but “they had nothing to eat.” (8:1) Whether they had forgotten to bring supplies or whether they had run out, we don’t know. What we do know is that this crowd had remained with Jesus for three days. They were listening to Him preach and teach, and none complained about how long His sermon was. They desired only to hear from Him the Words of Eternal Life. But now they were without food.

[Jesus] called His disciples to Him and said to them, ‘I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with Me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.
Mark 8:1-3

Our Lord had been feeding them food for their souls for three days, but now they needed food for their body. Our Lord didn’t send them away to fend for themselves. Instead, He had compassion. He had the crowd sit down. Then, He took the seven loaves of bread and the few fish that the disciples did have. He gave a prayer of thanksgiving and through the disciples distributed everything to the crowd. “They ate and were satisfied,” Mark said. (v. 8) All 4,000+ of them. When they went to gather the leftover broken pieces, there were seven large baskets full. With this miracle, Jesus, again, demonstrates that He is God. What’s more, this miracle gives a beautiful and comforting picture of our savior. Jesus tells us why He did this miracle. He said, “I have compassion on the crowd.” Jesus felt compassion for His little flock and set that compassion to work by abundantly providing for them in both soul and body.

II.

The Holy Spirit teaches us in the letter to the Hebrews that, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (13:8) Because Jesus is God, there is no change in Him. As Jesus was in the Gospel reading, so He was at the creation of the world. When our first parents doubted His Word and disobeyed His Commandment, He preached to them a word of Law. Because of their sin – among other things – childbirth would from then on be painful and man would have to work the ground to eat of it. Then, because of sin, they would die. Yet, our Lord always preaches both Law and Gospel. Even there in the Garden, our Lord’s compassion was on full display. He promised to Adam and Eve that one of their offspring would defeat death and the devil. In the Garden, Jesus showed compassion by promising His own death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins.

Such as Jesus was then, so He is now. Out of compassion, He continues to daily and richly forgive us our many sins. Though we, of ourselves, can do no good thing, Jesus continues to show us His compassion. He continues to cause His Word to dwell among us. He places His Word in our hearts and upon our lips, here and throughout the week. He graciously comes to us and dwells in us, also, by the blessed Sacrament of the Altar. There, He distributes to us the same body which was broken and the same blood which was shed for our forgiveness on the cross of calvary. By His Word and Sacraments, Jesus creates faith and sustains us in it; He gives to us the forgiveness of our sins by these means, and assures us of the same.

Our Lord’s compassion doesn’t stop at providing for our souls, however. Out of His great compassion and love, our Lord also provides for all our needs of body, as well. He causes the sun to rise and the rain to fall. He makes our crops and animals grow. He gives us homes, jobs, families, and food. In short, all that we need He graciously supplies. He provides for us through others and through us provides for even yet others – those whom He places in our lives. He doesn’t do any of these things because we deserve them, for we truly are not better than King David on his worst day. Jesus provides for us because He has compassion. In the Gospel, Jesus knew what the crowd needed even before they did. Before they could ask, He was already at work providing for them. This was King David’s faith, and it is our glad confidence, as well. Our compassionate Lord Jesus Christ abundantly provides for all we need in both soul and body.

With the Old Testament, Psalm, and Gospel readings today all speaking about our Lord’s creating and providing, it’s also a good opportunity to confess together the meaning of the First Article of the Creed. The First Article, we know, is “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” Because our God is triune, though we speak about the First Article being primarily about the Father’s actions, we also know that the Son is included in the work of creation and the Spirit, too. Let’s confess together the meaning of the First Article:

I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them.
He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all that I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life.
He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil. All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him.
This is most certainly true.
http://catechism.cph.org/en/creed.html

Altogether Different

Text: Matthew 5:17-26

In John 3, the Pharisee Nicodemus came to visit our Lord under the cover of night. As a member of the Pharisees near the beginning of our Lord’s ministry, he couldn’t be seen taking a positive attitude toward our Lord; yet, he desired to hear more from Him, so he went by night. We know from the end of the Gospel that Nicodemus was brought to faith – he assisted in the burial of our Lord – but, as yet, he wasn’t quite there. He said to our Lord, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” (John 3:2, English Standard Version) If you take this out of context, it doesn’t sound so bad. But, really, what Nicodemus is doing is buttering Jesus up. He’s flattering Him. Now, our Lord saw right through this and said to Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (3:3)

This might seem an odd way for our Lord to respond, but there is a logic here. Jesus said to Nicodemus that he was trying to approach Him by human reasoning and logic. Nicodemus was relying on his own mental capacity to propel him into a position of faith, but it doesn’t work that way. Jesus later said that flesh begets flesh, while Spirit begets Spirit. One cannot approach Christ through human means and methods; one must be “born again,” Jesus said. The word that Jesus used, though, isn’t the word for again. It means, “from above;” as in, “You must be born from above.” This confused Nicodemus, which is why he wondered if an old man could go back into his mother’s womb. What Jesus taught is that, to enter God’s kingdom, something’s got to change. We must become different than we are now, we must be born (given birth to) from above. We must receive a righteousness that exceeds that of the Pharisees and scribes. That righteousness is Christ’s, which He counts to us by His grace through faith.

Our text this week is one that we might be familiar with. It comes from a portion of our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, just shortly after the Beatitudes. In this passage, our Lord covers a lot of ground very quickly. And so, this time, I’d like us zoom in on this verse: Jesus said, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20) Up to this point, our Lord had been speaking about His relationship to the Old Testament. His ministry and teaching weren’t the abolishment of the Old Testament, but its fulfillment. Through the lens of Christ we receive the correct understanding of the Old Testament and a new relationship to it. He also taught that the Law must continue to be preached in its full sternness, so that we might learn to recognize our sin and look to Christ for forgiveness. The fact is, Jesus said, “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Now, let’s ask the Lutheran question. What does this mean? What is the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees? To be sure, there is a righteousness associated with the Pharisees and scribes. In Jesus’ time, the Pharisees were viewed as the good guys – the holy ones. They were viewed like this because the Pharisees and the scribes had devised a system, a system by which they could keep the Ten Commandments. They took the Commandments and broke them down into 600+ little pieces so that, with each of the Ten broken down, they were easier to keep. The problem was, these smaller commandments were man made; they were in addition to Scripture. Often, they contradicted or negated it. Still, the Pharisees (or, some of them) believed that by keeping these commandments – which they believed they could do – they would be holy, righteous, and good. There’s a word for this type of thinking, this type of righteousness which Jesus condemns – works righteousness.

We ourselves are not immune to this sort of thinking, by the way. We all, by nature, bear within ourselves the corruption of original sin – the Old Adam. And, the Old Adam, well, he loves this sort of thing. See, we’re always measuring ourselves against others and saying, “Well, I’m not as bad as so-and-so.” Or, when we hear a Commandment that speaks against something we have done, we try to weasel around and find some way that we have kept at least part of it. In the text, Jesus brought up the Fifth Commandment. How many times have you heard someone say, “Well, it’s not like I killed someone?” And we do this with every Commandment. We always try to find some way to excuse ourselves from the condemnation of the Law, some way to claim that we have kept the Commandments when we stand rightfully accused. We are all Pharisees, and a Pharisee’s righteousness by works will not help us. If we try to count on our works to carry us into eternal life we will end up in hell. The righteousness of the Pharisees and scribes must be exceeded, and there’s only One to do it. Christ.

St. Paul wrote to the Philippians,

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ.
Philippians 3:8-9

The righteousness which abounds beyond that of the scribes and the Pharisees is the righteousness of our Lord, Jesus Christ. He is the author and source of all life, the creator of all that exists. For us men and for our salvation, He came down from heaven by uniting Himself to our human flesh. Though He is the author of the Commandments, He subjected Himself to them – and He kept them, fully. He made no excuses; He kept Law according to the letter and spirit. But, then, He submitted Himself to the penalty of the Law and suffered the outpouring of the Father’s wrath in place of all mankind. He is truly righteous and the Righteous One. His, alone, is the righteousness which surpasses the scribes and Pharisees, and He counts it to us by faith.

Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born from above. He must be born in a different way, become different than he had been born naturally. Same for us. We each were born with the same corruption of sin, just like our parents, and their parents before them. Knowing that we, too, needed to be born from above, our Lord made it happen in the washing of Holy Baptism. In the washing of Baptism, Christ claimed us as His own. He united to His own death and resurrection so that we, too, might die to sin. In Baptism, Christ clothes us in His righteousness. He counts His righteousness to us when we believe these promises, which He also brings about by the Holy Spirit. || This last week the funeral pall has come up in a couple conversations. When we clothe the casket of our Christian brother or sister in that white garment, it symbolizes exactly St. Paul said in the Epistle. In Baptism, we were united to Christ. His death became our death, His life our life, His righteousness ours by faith. And that is the righteousness that exceeds the scribes and Pharisees.

There’s a hymn that sums this up probably better than I can. It’s “All Christians Who Have Been Baptized.” It’s number 596 in our hymnal. Stanza 2 goes,

You were before your day of birth, indeed, from your conception, condemned and lost with all the earth, none good, without exception. For like your parents’ flesh and blood, turned inward from the highest good, you constantly denied Him.
“All Christians Who Have Been Baptized,” from Lutheran Service Book. Stanza 2.

It continues,

But all of that was washed away – immersed and drowned forever. The water of your Baptism day restored again whatever Old Adam and his sin destroyed and all our sinful selves employed according to our nature. In Baptism we now put on Christ – our shame is fully covered with all that He once sacrificed and freely for us suffered. For here the flood of His own blood now makes us holy, right, and good before our heavenly Father.
“All Christians Who Have Been Baptized,” from Lutheran Service Book. Stanzas 3-4.

Jesus said that if we would like to enter heaven, our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees. Of ourselves, we could never do this. Therefore, He gives us His own, washing us in Baptism and counting His righteousness to us by faith.

Working with the Word

Text: Luke 5:1-11

St. Paul wrote to the Colossians, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” (Colossians 3:16, English Standard Version) With these words, St. Paul encouraged the Colossians in their Christian life together, as they bore the family resemblance of their heavenly Father in lives of forgiveness, love, compassion and generosity. In all things, the Word of Christ should dwell in them richly – in their hearts, in their teaching, in their admonishing each other, in their singing. St. Paul encouraged this because, of course, faith comes by hearing. The Word is the instrument of the Holy Spirit to create faith. Without God’s Word, everything fails. Faith is not created through being nice to other people, but by the Word of God. Without this, our work is in vain. But with it, faith is created and Christ’s Church is enlarged.

We are taught this from our text this week. Peter, James, and John toiled all night at the nets, but caught nothing. Yet, at Christ’s Word, they received a miraculous catch of fish. It even says, “their nets were breaking.” (Luke 5:6) They didn’t receive that catch because they found the perfect place to fish or a golden technique, but only because of our Lord’s Word. Then, the Lord commissioned them as His first disciples to carry that same Word into the world, to be, “catching men,” He said. (v. 10) Today, we learn that it is the Lord’s Word that does the work, and without it, our labor is in vain.

If you were to look at our text today in a Bible, you’d likely find the heading, “Jesus Calls the First Disciples.” The events in the text happen near the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry. The temptation of our Lord takes place in Luke 4, and after that He went up into Galilee. There, He taught, cast out demons, and healed many. As you can imagine, word about all this spread. Crowds started to follow our Lord, curious about the healings and desiring to hear His Word. “On one occasion,” St. Luke wrote by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, “the crowd was pressing in on [Jesus] to hear the Word of God.” (v. 1) Our Lord had been standing beside the Sea of Galilee and, noticing a couple boats there, got into one and taught the crowd from a little bit out. Now, St. Luke tells us, the one He got into was Peter’s.

When He finished teaching, Jesus said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” (v. 4) Up to this point, Peter had been listening to Jesus’ teaching while, also, washing the fishing nets. Washing the nets was something you did after you had finished fishing and, evidently, their previous night’s catch was disappointing. Peter said, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” (v. 5) They had toiled all night and were exhausted, even catching nothing, but the Lord’s Word produced a faith in Peter, James, and John that saw them putting out the nets once again. “And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.” (vv. 6-7)

If you think back to Trinity Sunday, the Old Testament reading was from Isaiah 6. That’s where Isaiah the prophet receives a vision of the heavenly throne room. Remember how the angels were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy,” and the foundations of the place were shaking. (Is. 6:3) Isaiah concluded from all this that he was about to die – being a sinner in the presence of God. But, then an angel flew to him with a burning coal from the altar and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away.” (6:7) The same sort of thing happens with Peter in our text. The miraculous catch didn’t come from fishing in a great spot or casting the nets just right, it was all Jesus; and he knew it. He begged Jesus to go away, since he was a sinner. Jesus said to him, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” (Lk. 5:10) With these words, Jesus heard Peter’s confession that he was a sinner and forgave him. Peter was right to feel guilty over his sin, but now he need not be afraid; he is forgiven. With these words, Jesus also called Peter, James and John as the first of His disciples.

II.

In the Gospel this week we see the power of Christ’s Word. With His Word, faith was created in the heart of the crowd and of these first Disciples. With His Word, Jesus healed the sick and cast out demons. With His Word, He produced the miraculous catch of fish. With His Word, He has also called us to faith. St. James, the brother of our Lord, wrote, “Of His own will He brought us forth by the Word of Truth.” (1:18) St. Peter, likewise wrote, “You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God.” (1 Pt. 1:23) Through the preaching of the Law, Christ brings us to know and lament our sins. Through the Gospel, He teaches us that He bore our sins on the cross and made the once-for-all-time payment for them in His death. By His Word, He calls us out of darkness into His marvelous light, He brings us to and keeps us in the faith.

Just a little later in St. Peter’s first epistle, he wrote, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (2:9) Peter isn’t saying here that we are all pastors, but he does mean that same Word by which Christ called us to faith He also places into our mouths. He does this so that in our daily lives, in our vocations as father, mother, grandparent, friend, worker, we might also bear witness of His love to those around us. We give evidence of His goodness by our works, but especially by our words. The Word is what convicts of sin, it is what comforts with forgiveness. It is what creates faith and saves.

We live in a time where there’s a lot of uncertainty. There’s a lot of uncertainty about the course of the world and even, in our congregation(s). If we’re being honest, we can see that there are empty spots. There are innumerable places out there offering strategies and solutions, who promise they can fix things if we just buy their product. Do you think our situation is new? Do you think that the Colossians might, also, have had the same worries as us? I’d bet so. This was St. Paul’s (or, really, the Holy Spirit’s) encouragement, “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.” It was the Lord’s Word that produced a miraculous catch of fish in the Gospel, and it’s the Word that produces miraculous catches today. Not all catches are huge in number, but they are all miracles. Jesus said a few weeks back, “There is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Lk. 15:10)

This is both our confidence and our encouragement today. The Lord’s Word does the work. It’s His Word that grows the Church. Not us. That doesn’t mean we should be lazy or lacking in labors of love. It does mean that the same Lord who worked through the preaching of the Apostles works through us. When His Word is present in our worship – through the Liturgy, the readings, hymns, Sacraments and sermons – and in our lives, there, the Lord is at work. He will grant growth where, when, and how it pleases Him. Let us give thanks that the Lord has given us His Word of forgiveness and pray that He would cause it to dwell among us richly – that it would both rest in our hearts and come out of our mouths.

Merciful Like Our Father

Text: Luke 6:36-42

In the Lutheran Church, nearly every confirmation class follows – more or less – the same course. Using Martin Luther’s Small Catechism, we first learn the Ten Commandments, which are God’s will for our lives as His people. Then, we learn the Apostles’ Creed – which is what God would have us believe – and the Lord’s Prayer, where our Lord teaches us to pray by putting His Words in our mouths. After these three come the Means of Grace: Baptism, Confession and Absolution, and the Lord’s Supper. Every confirmation class in the Lutheran Church learns these things. But, there’s one part in particular that goes well with the Gospel this week, and I want to see if you remember it.

In your mind (or in the hymnal) see if you can find the Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer. (It’s the part that goes, “Our Father who art in heaven.”) Martin Luther writes that, “With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.” In the Our Father, Jesus teaches us to pray to God the Father as our Father; our true father. He is our Father and we are His children through Baptism and by faith. Just as in human families there is such a thing as a “family resemblance,” so also in the family of faith. In the family of faith the resemblance is this: that our heavenly Father calls us, His children, to lives of mercy and forgiveness.

These are the words that begin our text. Our Lord said, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:36, English Standard Version) You see, He’s already calling to mind the family relationship that God has brought us into through the washing of Holy Baptism. A couple weeks back I brought up the idea of “clobber passages,” which, I said, are those passages that people pull out during theological conversations which are meant to end said conversations. Sometimes our text today is turned into one of those, particularly the part where it says, “Judge not, and you will not be judged.” (v. 37) That part is used by many as an excuse to either allow others to continue living in unrepentant sin, or else to comfort themselves in their own. By others, this passage is used as a condition for being a child of God. As in, if you want to be a Christian, you must first not judge. But then, that is to make our relationship with Christ one based on our works and not His – when the Scriptures clearly teach that He chose us.

Our text today comes from a part of the Gospel we know as “The Sermon on the Mount.” These words are teaching that Jesus gave to those who already had been brought to believe in Him by the work of the Holy Spirit. If we back up just a little bit, St. Luke tells us that, “ [Jesus] came down with [His Apostles] and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of His disciples…and He lifted up His eyes…and said…” (vv. 17, 20) The words here are not conditions of becoming a disciple of Jesus, but descriptions of what the life of a child of God looks like. He’s describing the family resemblance, and He starts with mercy. And this word that our Lord uses for mercy means to be concerned about someone else’s sorry state, their misery. Such has our Father had toward us.

In the service today, together we confessed that we are all sinners. And though we said it in only a few words, the impact is profound. You see, as sinners, we deserve nothing but death and punishment. We have all disobeyed God’s Commandments. We have sinned not just by accident, but on purpose. We have spoken and lived contrary to God’s good will, and acted as if we know and want what is best. This is what sinning is, and it’s what we have done, and we deserve the full and just punishment of our evil deeds. But, God, rather than pouring out His righteous wrath on us, instead, offered up His own Son, our Lord. He saw us in our sinful state and had mercy. Our Lord, as well, had compassion on us by willingly bearing our sins on the cross. Our God saw our sorry state and had mercy so that we might be saved eternally. This salvation He gives to us by grace – as a gift – through faith. He makes us to be members of His own family.

II.

Just as our earthly families have a family resemblance, whether it’s eye color, nose, jawline or whatever, so does the family which God has brought us into. This is what it looks like. Jesus said, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you.” (vv. 36-38) Yes, it’s true, as I said: many take this passage and use it as a clobber passage or else to teach works-righteousness (that these are conditions to be met in order to be saved). To do these things, however, is to destroy the context and miss the point. God our heavenly Father saw us in our sorry and sinful state, without hope and only on the path to eternal punishment. He saw us in our misery, and had mercy on us by sending us His Son. He purchased for us the forgiveness of our sins and brought us into His family by grace through the washing of Baptism. We are His children now. How do God’s children act? With love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, and generosity. These are the things He works in us by the Holy Spirit.

In our lives of faith, we do often fall into sin. We remain simul justus et peccator. That is, simultaneously saint and sinner. We often sin against others, and they sin against us. How should we react when someone sins against us? With harsh comments and anger? Or, with forgiveness? If someone hates us or speaks against us, should we do the same? Of course not. We have all behaved in hatred toward God (that is what sinning is), imagine if He acted so toward us? Instead, our God has called us, His children, to lives of mercy and forgiveness. He even produces these things (mercy and forgiveness) in our lives when we are regularly hearing His Word and receiving the Sacrament. Should we find ourselves lacking in generosity, love, or willingness to forgive there is a solution: come and receive the Supper. We confess in the Post-Communion Collect that our Lord gives us this meal to strengthen us in the faith and in “fervent love toward one another.”

Now, sometimes showing mercy and compassion to another is making known their sin to them – this is what our Lord brings up near the end of the text. Is it loving to allow another Christian, who may be unaware of a sin they’re committing, to continue in sin when the end result very well might be a loss of faith? It is not. When it is within our place to have mercy on a brother or sister in Christ by showing them their sin, we do it with a humble awareness of our own sin. We do not set out to condemn our neighbor and justify ourselves, but to remind them of the mercy we have all received, first, from God our heavenly Father. He stands ready to forgive all who repent, and to forgive to a greater extent than we could ever need.

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray to our heavenly Father as dear children ask their dear fathers on earth. We can pray this way because our God has had mercy on us: forgiving us our sins, bringing us into His family and, even, seating us at His table. Just as earthly families resemble each other, so we as God’s children resemble Him: in lives of mercy and compassion. May God the Holy Spirit work these fruits of faith in us all. Amen.

To Seek and to Save the Lost

Text: Luke 15:1-10

In Luke 19, just before the Triumphal Entry, our Lord passed through the town of Jericho. Now, in the town of Jericho there was a man named Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a tax collector. Or, rather, he was a “chief tax collector,” and he was quite wealthy. (Luke 19:2, English Standard Version) In Bible times, tax collectors were sort of the prototypical sinner. When the Romans took over a land they, of course, imposed taxes. Tax collectors would bid on opportunities to collect these taxes for a certain region or town. The way that they would make money back was by deception (telling people they owed the Romans more than they really did), or extortion of various kinds. For this reason, many felt that tax collectors were irredeemable. They were “unsaveable.”

Yet, when the Lord came to town, Zaccheus rushed up a tree so that he could see Him. Then, Jesus came right up to him and called him down, “for,” Jesus said, “I must stay at your house today.” (Lk. 19:6) Of course, at this, the rest of the people grumbled. How could such a man be part of God’s chosen? How could Zaccheus, a chief tax collector and great sinner, be forgiven? Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Lk. 19:10) We see this beautifully illustrated in our text this week.

The setting of our text this week is the same as it was last week. Our Lord was invited one Sabbath to break bread in the home of a ruler of the Pharisees. St. Luke’s account of this meal includes our Lord, first, healing a man right there. Of course, since this was the Sabbath, the Pharisees began to grumble. Then, our Lord gave the parable we heard last week, the Parable of the Great Banquet. In that parable those who first received the invitation to the banquet were, in the end, excluded, while the outcasts and outsiders were brought in to the heavenly feast. Many of the Pharisees were probably offended by this, but many others were encouraged by it. St. Luke tells us at the start, “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear [Jesus].” (15:1) They were encouraged by the reports and teachings of Jesus, of His promises of forgiveness and life for all who believe.

Some, however, were unhappy that Jesus should be in the proximity of sinful men and women. St. Luke writes, “The Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’” (15:2) Our Lord responded with beautiful words explaining who He is, who we are, and why He became flesh. This is the parable of the Lost Sheep:

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? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 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.’
Luke 15:4-6

II.

Our Lord often uses agricultural illustrations, and here is no exception. Shepherding was a common profession in His time. It is the shepherd’s job to take care of the sheep. In the morning, he leads them out to pasture; in the evening, guides them back to the fold. But this isn’t as simple as it sounds. For one thing, sheep wander. Although I myself have never worked with sheep, I’m told that that they will. They will wander and get lost. Then, when a sheep realizes it’s lost, it’ll sit down and not move. It will likely stay there, even at its own peril. The only solution is for the shepherd to come and save it. This is how the parable starts. A sheep wanders off from the flock and its shepherd.

Now, the shepherd notices this. He leaves the rest of the flock in the care of the other shepherds, and goes to seek the sheep that wandered off. Like a woman searching for a lost coin, the shepherd searches diligently until he finds that lost sheep. When he does find that sheep, he puts it on his shoulders, rejoicing. He carries it home and then calls together his friends to celebrate with him, because the lost sheep is found. In the parable, Jesus is the shepherd. And the thing that made the Pharisees grumble – that Jesus should associate with sinners – is exactly what He came to do.

Back on Trinity Sunday, we gladly confessed our faith – that Jesus is the eternal Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity. He, along with the Father and the Spirit, is the creator of all that exists – our own selves, included. In Hebrews it says, “He upholds the universe by the word of His power.” (1:3) In the Psalms it says, “We are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.” (95:7) Jesus is the shepherd, and we are the sheep. Only, we aren’t the sheep that stay put. We’re the one that wanders. All of us and each of us.

III.

The word for sin in the Greek means – more or less – “to miss the mark.” Imagine firing an arrow at a target and missing. One might also say, to go off course or to wander. That’s what sinning is, it’s wandering away from our Lord’s good Commandments. “Wandering,” doesn’t quite describe it, though, because it’s wandering while also despising the boundaries the Lord has set for our good and the good of others. And, like a sheep sitting down and refusing to move when it’s lost, we hunker down when we’re lost in sin. But Lord comes and finds us. He does this through His Word.

First, through the Law, He points out that we are in fact lost. And, by lost, we mean, sinners. He shows us by the Law how far we have strayed from His will. We have not loved Him with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors like we love ourselves. He has revealed to us what is good, right and true, and we have preferred to create our own truths. By the Law, Jesus shows us our sin, but by the Gospel He places us on His shoulders. And, by the Gospel, we mean this: all the evil things that you have done, the wicked thoughts, the unclean words and harmful actions – against other people, yourself and God – those are paid for. By His death, Jesus paid the debt you owe. Not because you deserve it, but because “God is love.” (1 Jn. 4:8) By the Gospel, Jesus places us on His own shoulders and carries us to His home rejoicing.

That is His mission, “to seek and to save the lost.” Should you feel today that you are lost, know that you are found in Christ. The sins you’ve committed and the debt you owe were paid for by Christ. You are forgiven, and He carries you now. You are His little lamb. In fact, in a way, He has already brought you home. In just a little while, we will gather at His table to receive the food of eternal life. In the Gospel reading, the people grumbled that Jesus should associate and eat with sinners. Well, He rejoices to do so and even does it again today. For, He came to seek and save the lost. Even you. Even me. Amen.

Living in the Mansion of the Lord

Text: John 14:1-6

Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. May the peace of Christ’s resurrection be especially of comfort to you, [family names] and all family and friends of Name. Because Christ lives, Name yet lives; and we will, too.

We have a wonderful and very comforting set of readings for our hearing this morning. In the Old Testament, the ministry of our Lord Christ was foretold centuries before it came to pass. He opened the eyes of the blind, unstopped the ears of the deaf, caused the lame to go leaping like deer, and the tongues of the mute to shout for joy. In the Epistle, St. Paul encourages us that those who have gone before us in the Christian faith are not dead, but will be raised together with us at Christ’s return and – together – we “will always be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:17 English Standard Version) In the Gospel, Jesus comforted the Disciples by assuring them that He was going to the cross to prepare a place for them in heaven, and would also take them there Himself. There is a thread which runs through these that I’d like us to consider this morning. Christ has prepared a place for all Christians in His heavenly home. He has gathered Name to His side, and will return for us, as well, that where He is, we shall be, also.

This is the comforting word which our Lord gave His Disciples that Thursday night. The Gospel reading this morning comes from Holy Thursday, shortly after the institution of the Lord’s Supper. In just a short while, Jesus would be betrayed into the hands of sinful men. The disciples would be scattered, He would be flogged and beaten, and, eventually, crucified. Nothing like all this had ever faced the Disciples before. They followed the Lord for three years. They were three years of miracles and teaching; no one ever touched them, so long as they were with Jesus. That would change. Their Lord would be parted from them, they would be filled with fear, and they would suffer. This much, Jesus was telling them that Thursday evening. But, then He said,

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also.
John 14:1-3

Jesus was allowing Himself to be parted from the Disciples so that He might secure for them a place which they had lost. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, disobeyed the Lord’s Commandment in the Garden of Eden. They doubted and distrusted His Word, and caused all human beings born from them to have the same sinful heart by nature. The punishment for this is death. But, Christ allowed Himself to be parted from the Disciples so that He might also submit Himself to death – our death, in fact. Jesus Christ is the sinless Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered and died as the full atonement for all human sin. By His death, He secured for us what we by nature lost: room in the Father’s house, a place in heaven.

Heaven is that place Isaiah prophesied, where blind eyes are opened, weak hands are strengthened and feeble knees made firm. This is the place where there is only everlasting joy, gladness, and singing. For in heaven, in the presence of Christ, there is no sin. There is no sadness. There is no death. There, all sorrow and sighing flee away. And, there, Arlene is.

II.

Name was born [date]. She was reborn through the washing of Holy Baptism on [date] that same year. She received the gift of faith through that sacred bath, and Christ claimed her as His own. Having prepared a place for her by His own death and resurrection, our Lord sustained Name in the faith throughout her life. She publicly confessed her faith in [year], and received Christ’s body and blood for the forgiveness of her sins for over 80 years. The Lord blessed her with a husband, Name, on Easter Sunday [year]. From their union came two children: [Names]. The Lord bestowed many blessings upon Name throughout her earthly life and, through her, has given many blessings to others, as well. Now, He has gathered her to the place prepared for her from before the foundation of the world.

Name is now in the presence of Christ and rejoicing with all the company of heaven. The promise that He made to her in Baptism, He has kept. He secured for her a place in heaven and has taken her there. She awaits with joy our reunion, and the Resurrection at Christ’s return. This is how St. Paul encouraged the Thessalonians and us to comfort each other. Those who precede us in the faith are not dead. They are with Christ, in the place He prepared for them by His own death and resurrection. Someday soon, He will return – just as He also promised. We will see Him coming on the clouds. Then, our bodies will be raised and renewed. Should we be alive at His coming, we will be caught up together with Name, and with our Lord. And we will be with Him forever.

This is a thread that connects our readings, a thread which gives us comfort so that, though we grieve, we grieve in hope. Our lives now are filled with trials and tribulations, with sin and the sorrow it brings. Yet, the Lord has prepared for us, for Name, and for all who love Him, a place in His Father’s house. There, there is no sorrow, pain, weakness, sin or death. For He makes all things new. By His death, Jesus paid for our sins and secured the place which we lost. He has brought Name to the place He prepared for her. Soon, He will return to take us Christians there, too. Jesus said, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in Me.”

The Heavenly Banquet

Text: Luke 14:15-24

The psalmist speaks prophetically by the Holy Spirit in Psalm 118, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.” (Psalm 118:22-23, English Standard Version) That verse is familiar to us because it comes up all over the New Testament. It is brought up by Sts. Peter and Paul in their epistles; it comes out of our Lord’s mouth on more than one occasion. The sense of the text on each hearing is that a stone cast away by some becomes the foundation of a house for others. Christ is that cornerstone.

We see this play out in our Lord’s parable this week, the one about the heavenly banquet. We’ll hear this parable again toward the end of the year from St. Matthew’s Gospel, where the focus will be on faith as the key to entrance into heaven. Today, the emphasis is how some of those who were previously invited to the feast were, in the end, excluded, while those who were not initially included are, in the end, the ones who celebrate. Our gracious Lord invites to His heavenly banquet those who were once far off, even us. St. Paul said, “Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Eph. 2:13)

The Gospel today is a portion of our Lord’s teaching which He gave at meal in a pharisee’s house. This happens a few times in the Gospel. Pharisees would invite Jesus to supper, and He’d go. He always used the opportunity to teach and preach both Law and Gospel. At this particular meal, our Lord healed a man, He gives the parables of the Prodigal Son, the Rich Man and Lazarus, our text in a few weeks (the Dishonest Manager), and also ours today. If you get the feeling that this meal is kind of a big deal, you wouldn’t be alone. In fact, that’s how the text starts. “One of those who reclined at table with [Jesus] heard these things, he said to Him, ‘Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.’” (Lk. 14:15) This is where the parable starts.

Our Lord tells of a man who gave a great banquet, “[who] invited many.” (Lk. 14:16) This man is, perhaps, a king and the word here used for “banquet” or “feast,” is elsewhere used in Scripture for a wedding feast. Now, it was the custom at the time to send out invitations, as we would. Then, when the time for the party came, you would send a servant to summon the guests. To decline an invitation was quite rude, especially so at the summons – when the servant came to collect you. But, that’s exactly what happened. “At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses.” (Lk. 14:17-18) One had bought a field and was going to see it. Another was quite wealthy and had bought five yoke of oxen (a typical farm only had one yoke). He needed to go examine them. Another had recently married. He couldn’t come.

The master of the house grew angry. It’s not that fields, oxen, and marriage are bad. It’s that they all knew about this feast, but were choosing to honor other things above it. So, the master sent out his servant again. This time, “to the streets and lanes of the city, [to] bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.” (Lk. 14:21) These were the outcast types, the sort you wouldn’t invite to a party – but they did come. Yet the hall wasn’t filled. One final time, the master sent out his servant, saying, “Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.” (Lk. 14:23-24) That wedding hall was filled, but not with those initially invited. It was the outcasts and outsiders who received the master’s summons.

II.

Remember Psalm 118, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” This helps us to understand what our Lord is teaching here. In some ways, He’s teaching what was going on in His ministry. Who was it that was receiving His Gospel? It was the tax collectors and sinners, the outcasts, right? They received the promise of the forgiveness of sins, while many others – the high society types – rejected it. The wedding feast, properly understood, is the heavenly banquet; but that heavenly banquet was already begun in the ministry of Jesus. That’s why we say in the Proper Preface, “with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven.” In the Lord’s Supper, we are participating now in that feast we will fully enjoy in the life to come. But, let’s go back to the text.

Those who rejected the summons to the feast are those members of the house of Israel who had formerly received the invitation through the prophets. This began all the way back with Adam. But then, when Christ was sent to summon all to the banquet (he’s the servant in the parable), they all rejected it. Therefore, others were brought in. These were those who knew and lamented their sins, looking to Christ for forgiveness. They were brought in to the feast. But, so were others, those on the highways and hedges outside the city. Here, Jesus speaks of the Gentiles. If Jerusalem is the city and those in it are those descended from Abraham, those outside the city are everyone else – even us.

We’re outsiders on two accounts. First, we’re outsiders because we were not among those to whom the promise was first given. I am not, at least as far as I’m aware, descended from Abraham according to the flesh. Second, we’re outsiders because of our sin. St. Paul spoke nicely in the Epistle by saying that we were once “far off.” Earlier in chapter 2, he said it like it is – that we are, by nature, “children of wrath.” (v. 3) Everything that we are, everything that we do, everything we want to do is either fully sinful or corrupted by sin. In us there is no good thing. Those excuses that the people made in the parable, we’ve made, too. We have put our possessions above Christ in our hearts; we’ve done it with money and family. Whenever we put anything above Christ, we are guilty of the First Commandment and fully deserve the punishment due.

St. Paul did say in the Epistle, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace…through the cross.” (Eph. 2:13-14, 16) Though we were once far off, being by nature children of wrath and without the right to eat bread in – or even see – the kingdom of God, this has all been done away with by the blood of Christ. By His coming, He brought us the invitation to the heavenly feast and by His death and resurrection has secured for us entrance into the same – which we receive by faith. He is the cornerstone, the door, and the key, as the Scriptures say in other places.

Our Lord teaches us a lot of things with this parable. It teaches why some enter His eternal gates and others don’t. It teaches us about the danger valuing the gift over the Giver – as in those who were invited but then excluded from the feast. But, it also teaches us about the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He didn’t cancel the feast when some rejected His invitation, but He opened it up to even more – even to us. Today, He continues to cause His Word to preached throughout the world, so that His heavenly hall will be filled. And that invitation has come to us, we who by nature are sinful and unclean. In Christ we have the free and full forgiveness of our sins. We have been brought near and into His heavenly banquet. Thanks be to God. Amen.