Better to Be Humble

Text: Proverbs 25:6-14

St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness.” (Ephesians 4:1-2 English Standard Version) Our Lord said in the Gospel, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14:11) In a way, both of these sayings may be sermons on the words of the Holy Spirit through Solomon in the Old Testament text, “Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence or stand in the place of the great, for it is better to be told, ‘Come up here,’ than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.” (Proverbs 25:6-7) If there’s one word that should appear ahead of all others in our minds this week it’s this: humility.

The Holy Spirit directs us in all three readings to the humility that befits us as Christians. Mindful of the humility of Christ – how He submitted Himself to take our form and to suffer death on the cross for us – we should, in turn, count others as greater than ourselves. The encouragement toward humility this week doesn’t just concern how we relate to other people, however, but also how we relate to our God. We should be aware of our many sins and not be so quick to stand before God on our own two legs. Still, because we often fail at humility in both these areas, Jesus thought less of Himself for us.

I.

The book of Proverbs is not a particularly easy book to understand or preach on. To us, much of it seems like unconnected and disjointed sayings. There are glimmers of clarity. Confirmation verses are often chosen from this book, but beyond those verses we don’t always “get it.” The book itself has contributions from multiple human authors – each writing by the inspiration of the Spirit – but the bulk comes from the pen of King Solomon. Solomon, as you remember, was blessed by God with wisdom beyond all other humans both living and departed. He writes in Proverbs about this wisdom. This wisdom is not purely human wisdom, but the wisdom of God formed through faith in Christ. Faith is the starting point in our text today. Though it seems to be only about how to behave in front of people more powerful than you, Solomon and St. Paul (and our Lord) are all of the same mind.

Solomon wrote, “Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence or stand in the place of the great, for it is better to be told, ‘Come up here,’ than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.” It’s hard to say more on that than what our Lord said. When in the presence of those higher in station than yourself, Solomon would say, don’t be so quick in assuming your own worthiness. Instead, act humbly. Place others above yourself in your own mind, says Solomon. It’s better to afterward be raised up, than to be lowered in the sight of others. Better to be humble than to be humbled. Even though Solomon writes about being in the presence of kings, we can take this idea to all our interactions with other people. The wisdom we receive through faith in Christ should lead us to live in humility before all people.

II.

The reality, though, is that we don’t always behave in such God-pleasing ways. Through the Fall into Sin, we were all born with an innate lack of humility. This is the reason why we all need to be taught humility. Instead, too often, the Old Adam within us asserts himself and we place ourselves – in mind and action – above our neighbor. By nature, we are wired to place more value on our own well-being and desires than those of others. Even in this last week, we have behaved this way. There were opportunities for us to help and be our service to our neighbor in Christ that we squandered. Perhaps we felt it would’ve taken more time, more effort, than we were willing to give. Maybe we thought that, even if we didn’t help, someone else would. On the other hand, there were times this week where others served us and we were well-pleased by it. 

Not only are we hardwired through the Fall to think more highly of ourselves than our neighbors, we also have a skewed idea of our standing before God. St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” (1 Cor. 10:12) He said this right after recalling for them how many of Israel were disciplined by the Lord for their lack of faith. They had a skewed sense of their standing before God and, as a result, some were bitten by serpents and others were struck by plague. We, also, have presented ourselves before God with a lack of humility. We freely confess most of our sins, but there are those sins for which we are not sorry. We have been so corrupted by the Fall that we often think to act before God as if we were anything other than poor, miserable, wretched sinners. In short, although King Solomon, St. Paul, and the Lord all encourage us toward humility, we have not always so behaved either before others or, even, before God.

III.

Therefore, St. Paul says, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8) St. Paul pictures our Lord to us as a humble servant. Though He is the author of life and creator of all things, worthy above all to be served, He chose rather to serve. He stepped down from His throne and was born and raised, just as we were. He suffered all the same things we endure; He resisted all the same temptations so that He might serve us this way: by dying for the sins of all on the cross.

He did not count His equality with the Father as something to be doted upon, but in humility thought of us more than Himself. Though He would have every right to humble us with the condemnation of hell, He chose to be humbled Himself so that we, by faith in Him, might be raised up from death. Through our Baptism, by the Word of God, we have received the Holy Spirit who created faith in us. By this faith, we receive the fruit of Christ’s humiliation for us – the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life. The same Holy Spirit now leads us, in turn, to count others more highly than ourselves. 

This is a challenge because, as we said, the Old Adam continues to rage within us and inflames us to a lack of humility. Let us hear the lessons this week, though, and confess that it is better to be humble than to be humbled. God grant us His Holy Spirit that, mindful of the humility of Christ, we also would behave humbly toward our God and neighbor. The Lord grant us humility this week in all that we say, think, and do.

Life through Death

Text: 1 Kings 17:17-24

When you are “at the end of your rope,” they say, you have run out of options. To be at the end of your rope means you have exhausted all your chances and your possibilities, and you are now resigned to suffer whatever it may be that is coming your way. We might say that the widow of Zarephath was there last week. When she encountered the prophet Elijah, she was gathering sticks so that she could make one last meal for her and her son, and then they would die. Elijah promised from the Lord, “The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.” (1 Kings 17:14 English Standard Version). The Lord kept His promise and the three of them ate for many days. It had seemed like the widow was at the end of her rope, but she really wasn’t. The Lord had a way out.

Our text today continues the story of this widow, her son, and Elijah and presents us with another such situation. This time, her son dies. She concluded that now this really was the end, the punishment of her sin brought upon her by housing the prophet. Again, though, the Lord had a way out. The same Lord who creates life is able, also, to bring life back from the grave. The Lord heard the prayer of Elijah and restored life to that young man. Today we confess that, though the rope of our lives will also end in death, yet through Christ we will be led out of the grave to eternal life.

I.

The Holy Spirit tells us in 1 Kings 17, that “she and he and her household ate for many days. The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that He spoke by Elijah.” (vv. 15-17) The reason why this is a big deal is that the Lord had raised a drought over the Northern Kingdom as punishment for their unfaithfulness. This drought lasted three years. As the Lord usually does, He brings down the proud but raises the humble. He sent Elijah to the widow and they were preserved from danger, Elijah living in a separate portion on the roof of her house. In the course of time, however, the son of the widow grew ill. It says, “his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.” In other words, he died.

In response, the widow concluded that she was back at the end of her rope. By housing Elijah, she felt that the Lord’s gaze had more directly fallen on her. He observed her sin and was now punishing her. In Bible times, widows were often of little means and had to rely on others – particularly sons – for provision. Without a son, she would surely die. Her conclusion was incorrect, however. In the Gospel there are two occasions that speak to this. Before Jesus healed the man born blind, the disciples asked Him whose sin had caused his blindness – his or his parents’. Jesus said, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” (John 9:3) Also, with Lazarus – whom Jesus raised from the dead – He said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (Jn. 11:4) The death of this widow’s son was not to punish her, but so that God’s glory might be revealed.

Elijah took the young man up to his chambers, it says. He laid him down on his bed and prayed, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” (v. 21) The Lord heard his prayer and returned the boy to life. This is the first time a resurrection happens in the Bible. The boy being raised, Elijah returned him to his mother. This was her new conclusion, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.” (v. 24) She now understood and believed that the God of Israel is the true God and His Word through Elijah is true – He who is able to bring life even out of death.

II.

In Confirmation class we’re working through the First Commandment, which teaches us to fear, love, and trust in God above all things. We are to do this recognizing that all good things come from our Father’s loving hand. Out of love, He has provided for us every day of our lives – the present, included. Just as He was with the widow through the days of drought, He remains with us through the difficult times of our lives and He brings us through them – one way, or another. There have been many times where we have found ourselves at the end of our rope, and the Lord has provided a way of escape previously unknown to us. It says in the Psalms that the afflictions of the righteous are many, but the Lord delivers them from them all. (Ps. 34)

We must confess, however, that although the widow’s conclusion was incorrect – she thought God was punishing her sin by the death of her son – this conclusion is correct: someday you and I will die. We will die because we are sinners. Death is the wages we have earned and should expect for our many sins. God told our parents this would happen; and so, it does. Because we have been born of the sinful seed of Adam and Eve and have ourselves continually given into the lusts and desires of the Old Adam within us, even having heard the Word of God, we will receive the punishment and we will die (pending our Lord’s return). However, death is not the end of our rope.

III.

It would be a sad story, that one, to end a sermon with the fact that we are all going to die. But, as we heard in two of our readings this week, death cannot outdo the power of God. The same God who created all life out of nothing is not stopped by death; He does not reach the end of His rope there. Instead, He calls life back from death. Through the work of the Triune God, the widow’s son was restored in Zarephath and through the Word of Christ, the young man was raised in Nain – himself a widow’s son. In that case, what had been a funeral procession became a march of life. But, as great as these two were, they also pointed ahead to a greater resurrection: our Lord’s.

Both we and those young men in the lessons encounter death through our fall into sin. Death is a consequence of sin. If one were without sin, he need not face the consequence of sin. Yet, that’s exactly what Jesus chose to do. He had compassion on us and did not choose the easy part. He entered this fallen creation to take in Himself the guilt of our continual sinning. In His death, Jesus suffered the consequence of our sin and the wrath of God which we have deserved, He bore in full. By His resurrection, the Father shows that Jesus’ sacrifice for us is complete and acceptable to Him. By raising Jesus from the dead, the Father kept the promise He made through David: that He will not let His Holy One see corruption. And, through Him, neither shall we.

When Jesus rose from the dead, it wasn’t only for His good; it was for us. By faith in Him, Jesus’ resurrection becomes our resurrection. By our Baptism into Him, we were buried to sin and raised to new life. Just as He was raised by the glory of the Father, so shall we be. Sometimes, we do find ourselves at the end of our rope. The present situation with the coronavirus has, at times, set our own mortality before our eyes. We have been nervous, anxious, depressed. We learn this week, though, that the Lord has ways of extending our ropes. In this case, our lives. Though, because of sin we will die yet, in Christ, we will live. 

Coaching the Word of Life

Text: Deuteronomy 6:4-15

In John 6, the day after the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus taught the people the meaning of that miracle. He had not come down from heaven to give them only bread for their stomachs, but the true bread for their souls. The bread that Jesus would give for the life of the world would be His own flesh. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:53-54, English Standard Version) He means, unless you believe in Him, in His work of salvation and the promise of His Word, you cannot enter eternal life. Sadly, the people did not receive this teaching; they would not trust that faith in Jesus is the only source of salvation. St. John wrote that, after this, “many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him.” (v. 66)

Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked them if they, too, would like to stop following Him. St. Peter spoke for the group in the words we well know, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (v. 68) The Twelve confessed that Jesus’ Words are the words which grant eternal life. They are the truth and by them the Holy Spirit works faith in those who hear. Faith is what receives the forgiveness of sins. Bearing this in mind, we confess from the Old Testament reading that since the Lord has saved us from sin through His Word, we teach it to our children so that they may be saved, too.

I.

The context of our reading from Deuteronomy is Israel’s preparations to enter the Promised Land. They had been at the entrance before, 40 years prior. But, when they doubted God’s Word and refused to enter, He disciplined them with 40 years of wandering. Even then, throughout the Wandering, He provided and cared for them. In our reading, they are at the end of their discipline and Moses is preparing them with one final sermon. He reminded the people how the Lord, “brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” (Deut. 6:12) The Lord was remembering His promise, the oath He swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that He would bring the children into their own land – where they could live and worship without fear. They could live in faithful fellowship with God and each other. In short, Moses’ sermon reflected on the Lord’s salvation for His people and encouraged them to remember His mercy and teach it to their children.

Throughout Scripture, the exodus from Egypt into the Promised Land is used as an illustration for how we have been saved from sin. Once we were lost in sin, slaves in the Egypt of sin. All our thoughts, words, and actions were tainted by it, and we earned by them an eternal separation from God and damnation in hell. We were slaves in the Egypt of sin until our Lord called us out of darkness into His marvellous light. He stepped down from His eternal throne to take hold of us. He became one with our flesh and blood, yet remained without sin. He fulfilled the Law of God and then bore the punishment of our sin in His death on the cross. After His resurrection, He commissioned the Apostles to preach His Word to the whole creation. By the inspiration of the Spirit, they set Jesus’ Word to writing, which is how it has come to us. Through the Word, Jesus reached out to us and claimed us for His kingdom. Through the Word, He brought us to faith and made us no longer slaves to sin, but slaves to righteousness and heirs of eternal life. We may not have been physically brought out of Egypt, as the people in our text, but Moses’ wise words might also be directed to us.

II.

He said, “O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children.” (vv. 4-7) Through Moses, it is really the Lord our God speaking to His people. He reminded them not to forget Him when they came into a land full of cities they didn’t build and houses they didn’t fill and wells they didn’t dig and vineyards they didn’t plant. Instead, they were to love Him with their heart, soul, and might. And, so that their children might do the same and live long in the land the Lord was giving them, the Lord commanded His people – particularly, parents – to teach these things to their children.

The Word that the Holy Spirit uses implies a constant, continual teaching; “coaching,” might also give us a good sense. The Lord commanded His people to coach their children in His Word. They were not to teach it once and call it good, nor were they to confine their teaching to a few short years and count the children as responsible for themselves. No, they were to speak of His Word together while they were at home, when they were away in the course of life, when they went to bed and when they woke up again. “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be frontlets between your eyes,” God said. (v. 8) In other words, God commands that parents teach their children His Word by setting it before them in all things, all times and situations, in conversation and by behavior.

It is in this spirit, then, that we are beginning our Sunday school and Confirmation instruction again. In decades past our fathers in the faith in Fairbank and Jesup were drawn together by the Holy Spirit through the Word to see that Christian worship services were held, that encouragement in the Word was given and received, and that their children were taught the mighty acts of God. This last part was not viewed as optional, but as a serious and vital task entrusted to parents and to the congregation, corporately and individually. Therefore, in thanksgiving to God and mindful of His mercy, we hear His command that our children be taught and we trust that He will bless. But, why does the Lord so solemnly command this?

III.

St. Peter answers for us, again, in the second reading. He said, “The promise is for you and for your children.” (Acts 2:39) He means that the promise of forgiveness is not just for you and me, us adults, but for all people – our children, included. It was for them, too, that Jesus took on flesh. It was for their sins, too, that Jesus died. It was so that they, too, might live eternally that Jesus rose again. These things, He gives to them, too, freely through faith. We also know this passage, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ.” (Rom. 10:17) It is through the Word that the Lord saved us, and it is how He saves our children.

In their Baptism, Jesus united them to Himself through the washing of the water and the Word. He gave them His Holy Spirit and created in them clean hearts through faith. Through the Scriptures, He comforts them and strengthens their faith when they continually hear all that He has done and even now does for them. As they grow and become adults and parents themselves, it is through the Word alone they will be kept as heirs with us of eternal life. We have the privilege, the honor, and yes, the duty, to teach them these things now. The Lord bless our work. May He grant that we would be mindful of the mercy we have received in Christ, how we have been saved from the Egypt of Sin. The Holy Spirit strengthen our faith, so that by word and deed we would be faithful witnesses to our children. And finally, the Lord bless our children in their instruction this year. Amen.

In Just a Little While

Text: Isaiah 29:17-24

“Just a little while,” and “in just a bit” are phrases that often come out of our mouths. We use them when we have more than one task at hand. We are occupied with one at the moment and we will get to the other in, “just a bit.” Sometimes we say, “just a little while longer,” to comfort ourselves while waiting for some future consolation. When I wrote this sermon, that’s what I was telling myself while awaiting the arrival of my son; “just a little while longer.” Soon my wait to see this gift of God will be over, and I will be comforted by his arrival. That is the sense of our Lord’s Word today. In just a little while, things will be different.

It’s sometimes hard to parse through the poetry of the prophets, and just why the Holy Spirit speaks this way, we don’t know; maybe just because it’s beautiful and cool-sounding. The point this week is that things will soon be different. Although some deny the Second Coming of our Lord and others, sadly, have given up hope, we confess that, in just a little while, the Lord will come. In just a little while, Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field and the field into a forest. That is to say, in just a little while the Lord will put an end to the present order of things even as He is already making all things new in Christ.

I.

Our passage today from the book of Isaiah is set against the temporal destruction and restoration of Jerusalem. St. Isaiah lived and prophesied well ahead of those events, but that didn’t stop the Holy Spirit foretelling it through him, also. That is the immediate context of these words, but they really speak to an event that even we are still awaiting. We are awaiting the arrival of our Lord and the renewal of all things, including His good creation. This is what is foreshadowed in those words, “Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field and the fruitful field a forest? In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.” (Isaiah 29:17-18 English Standard Version) We must confess at this juncture that the present way of things is not how it always has been.

The creation, nature, for example, does not exist now as it once did. Already this year, we have experienced much the destructive nature of creation: the coronavirus, the derecho, hurricanes in other parts of our country, and the general lack of rain. The devastating effects of nature now betray the serene and tranquil calm of the Garden. Instead of a pristine beauty – through the Fall – we now experience a wild creation. This wild creation includes a wild, unbelieving population. The Lord denounced in the text, “the ruthless…the scoffer…those who watch to do evil…[who] lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate.” (vv. 20-21) The Lord describes a people who have no qualms about sinning, who scoff at the Lord’s Word and attack those who would encourage them toward repentance. Among these, we were once found (and would still be), had the Lord not brought us out of darkness into His marvellous light through Baptism. In short, what is now is not how it always was; nor is it how it always will be.

II.

“Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field and the fruitful field a forest?” Here, our Lord promises a glorious renewal of His creation. Its beauty and bounty will be changed in such a glorious way that we will not even recognize what once was. Creation will be restored to reflect fully the beauty of its Creator. Our Lord did once say, “Behold, I am making all things new.” (Rev. 21:5) St. Peter says that with a roar and fire, the Day of the Lord will come and the present order of things will burn up and dissolve. But, he also said, “according to His promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Pt. 3:13)

At our Lord’s return, in a moment, the present creation will be changed, made new; and that includes our bodies. We confess every week in the Creed that, at our Lord’s return, the dead will be raised. When our bodies are raised from their graves, they will be restored and made perfect. The deaf will hear, the blind will see. There will be no disease, no coronavirus. There will be no weakness due to age or injury. There will no longer be any death. Instead, the days of God’s people will be like the days of a tree, it says elsewhere in the prophets. That is, we will live eternally with Christ and our fellow believers in Him. On that day, the ruthless will be no more. Those who scoff at us and hate us for our faith in Christ will be forever separated from us. We shall, “obtain fresh joy in the Lord,” and “exult in the Holy One of Israel.” (v. 19)

III.

In just a little while, these things will happen. The present order of things, of creation and its inhabitants, will be undone. It will all be restored to how it was at creation. However, this restoration has already begun in Christ. In the Gospel, we witnessed a miracle of Jesus to open the ears and tongue of a deaf man. The miracles point to the restoration that is already come through Him. By His life and death, and by His rising again, Jesus has ushered in a new age, the age of grace and forgiveness through faith in Him. Through our Baptism into Him, we received that gift of faith and mercy from our Father. We were restored to a right relationship with Him and call upon Him as dear children do their own fathers. Through Christ’s work for us and by faith in Him, we are no longer children of darkness but of light.

Therefore, we are waiting for the Day of the Lord. In just a little while, He will come. He will make all things new. He will put an end to all sin, to all its destruction, and bring in an eternal joy. No longer will our father Jacob be ashamed, but our forefather will sanctify with all his children – including us – the God of Israel. May the Lord grant us patience in this sad time and hope for the life to come. Amen.

Faith, A Better Sacrifice

Text: Genesis 4:1-15

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” so says the Holy Spirit in the book of Hebrews. “By [faith] the people of old received their commendation…By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through faith, though he died, he still speaks.” (Hebrews 1 English Standard Version) Often, when we hear the account of Cain and Abel we hear it in connection with the Fifth Commandment. Cain was the first to break the Fifth Commandment when he murdered his brother Abel. In the words from Hebrews 11 that I just read, though, the Holy Spirit provides us with another lesson to be learned – the difference between a righteousness of works and the righteousness that comes by faith.

Over the course of the lesson, we heard how both Cain and Abel offered sacrifices to God. Cain offered fruits of the field and Abel, fruits of the flock. Yet, only one was accepted by God – the sacrifice that was offered in faith and thanksgiving to God. The other offered a sacrifice not out of faith, but only as a work to be done to appease a vengeful God. That sacrifice was rejected because it did not come from faith. The Scriptures say that whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. It was out of jealousy and hatred, then, that the one brother rose up against the other. The one who insisted on a righteousness of works persecuted and killed the one who held to the righteousness that is by faith. This is the story of history, and even ourselves. Today, we confess that, by faith, Abel offered a better sacrifice. God receives those who look to Him in faith.

I.

Our text this morning takes place sometime after our first parents were removed from the Garden of Eden. As punishment for their disbelief and disobedience toward God, they were driven from the Garden to toil and labor for their daily bread. However, this command from God was still in force: Adam and Eve were to be “fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” (Gen. 1:28) This command from God included both the procreation of children and their instruction in the Word of the Lord. The family was and remains God’s original institution to raise up faithful Christians. So, in time, Adam “knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain…and again, she bore his brother Abel.” (Gen. 4:1-2) Blessed with the gift of children, Adam saw to it that they each were raised according to God’s Word.

As the brothers grew older, they took to different vocations. Cain, the firstborn, learned the trade of his father and became a “worker of the ground;” Abel was a “keeper of sheep.” (v. 2) In the course of time, they both brought offerings to the Lord – Cain from the fruit of the ground and Abel from the “firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions.” (v. 4) The Lord received Abel’s sacrifice, but He had no regard for Cain’s. In response, Cain lured his brother Abel out into the field. While they were there, “Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.” (v. 8) Between that sad verse and the following conversation between God and Cain, we see what effects the Fall had on the heart of man – even only one generation from the Garden. In Cain’s heart resided jealousy, hatred, and violence. We must confess that these dwell in our hearts by nature, also.

II.

When Martin Luther preached on this text, he explored this question: Why did God accept Abel’s sacrifice but not Cain’s? In history, some suggested that God preferred sacrifices of blood over other types, but that doesn’t ring true because grain offerings of all sorts are commanded by and pleasing to God throughout the Old Testament. No, Luther took from the words of the Holy Spirit in Hebrews that Abel’s offering was made in faith. In thanksgiving to God and trusting in His promise of the mercy to be revealed in Christ, Abel offered up the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. In contrast, Cain’s offering was offered only to appease a God of wrath. As firstborn, Cain prided himself on his own standing in life and concluded that he would be righteous if only he obeyed God’s command according to the letter. His retort to God about being brother’s keeper and Cain’s distress over his punishment betray that Cain felt he had been wronged by God – that he was righteous and did what was right only to be shunned. This, then, was the motive for the killing: Cain, who held that he could be righteous by his own work, killed Abel, who trusted in the Lord as his righteousness.

Now, it may not be as outwardly drastic, but we have the same conflict going on within ourselves. We have heard God’s Word, that true righteousness is a gift of God through faith. The righteousness which endures to eternal life is not one of our own, but Christ’s righteousness counted to us by faith. And yet, each of us thinks to ourselves that we are, all things considered, good people. We expect that our lives should be good, both in their course and end, because we are good people. We expect reward from God based on our good conduct in this life. We have all been to funerals, and sometimes we have contributed, where the sentiment is that the deceased was a good person and, therefore, was surely in heaven. This all is textbook righteousness by works. To be short, it was the faith of Cain that he could be square with God through his own effort.

Lest we should feel this way, let’s consider our righteousness according to the Fifth Commandment which is, You Shall not Murder. Now, we know from our Lord that this commandment not only directs against outward violence but also the inward violence of the heart. If, by the grace of God we have been kept from murdering someone, we have not kept the Commandment if we have at any time become angry in our hearts. If we have wished someone harm – even for a split second – we have broken this Commandment. If we have been pleased, even for a moment, at someone’s pain we have broken this Commandment. If we have thought or spoken poorly of another human based on the color of their skin or their national origin, we have broken both the Fifth and Eighth Commandments and more. If we find ourselves ignoring all these things, then we are behaving like Cain, who held that as long as the outward actions are done, righteousness is upheld. But what do the Scriptures say? “The wages of sin is death.” By the way, the word “sin” there is singular. The wage of one sin is death.

III.

Therefore, we should not believe like Cain, whose sacrifice was rejected by God, that we can be righteous by works. Instead, we should beat our chests like the tax collector – and Abel before him – confessing that we are the most wretched of sinners. We have sinned in thought, word, and deed; we have justly offended our God with our many iniquities. Instead of thinking of ourselves as righteous, let us throw ourselves before the mercy of God. As Jesus said, it is in that way that we return from here justified. When we confess to God that we are sinners, He speaks to us that He is merciful. When we confess to God that we have failed to do what is right, He comforts us with the fact that all good things have already been done on our behalf. Jesus has already secured for us the salvation of our souls by His death for us and by His rising again. The forgiveness He procured, He gives freely, not to those who think they don’t need it, but only to those who confess they stand in great need – like the tax collector, like Abel, and like us.

Let us learn from this text, then, that God receives those who look to Him in faith. He takes no pleasure in the death of sinners, but that we turn to Him and live. He works in us by His Holy Spirit, leading us to confess our sins and trust that Christ’s blood avails for you and me. Strengthened and led by this faith, we then offer to God the true good works. In the Lutheran Church we do not forbid good works; we do them. We believe that faith is bound to bring forth good fruits, which are produced in our lives by the Holy Spirit Himself. These are pleasing to God because, like Abel’s sacrifice, they are produced by faith. May the Lord grant us ever to rightly hear His Word, that we might confess our sins and be strengthened by Christ’s work for us. May He work in us through His Holy Spirit, that we be kept in this true faith and, by faith, offer acceptable sacrifices to our Lord and God. Amen.

Ready to Forgive

Text: Jeremiah 8:4-12

This week we get another of the hard Sundays in the Church Year, although the last few Sundays have kind of been preparing us for it. Two weeks ago, we heard our Lord’s warning about false prophets. Last week, we heard how the Lord brings down the proud, but raises up those who trust in Him. In the Old Testament reading today, we heard St. Jeremiah deliver Word from the Lord that Jerusalem would, in fact, be destroyed for her unfaithfulness. In the Gospel, Jesus foretold how Jerusalem would – again – be destroyed; this time, for failing to recognize, “the day of [her] visitation.” (Luke 19:44 English Standard Version) We must confess that, sadly, these things did happen. The city of God was destroyed both in 586 B.C by the Babylonians, and in 70 A.D. by the Romans. Each was a punishment from God for the unbelief of His people.

After Jerusalem was destroyed by Babylon, the people were led off into exile. After 70 years, the Lord brought them back to their home. Under the faithful leadership of men like Ezra and Nehemiah, the city was rebuilt. After the walls were rebuilt, the people held a feast to God and they sang these words in praise of Him: “Our fathers acted presumptuously…[they] did not obey Your Commandments. They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that You performed among them…But You are a God ready to forgive, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.” (Nehemiah 9:16-17) Today we confess that our God is a just God, who punishes those who despise Him; but even more, does He stand ready to forgive those who trust in Him.

I.

Like we said, this is one of the hard Sundays. Next to the crucifixion of our Lord, the destruction of Jerusalem in the Old Testament is the most painful lesson to read and learn. There’s actually a whole book of the Bible devoted to it, the book of Lamentations. This destruction wasn’t without warning, however. We heard in the text how the Lord, “paid attention and listened,” hoping that His people would listen to prophets and repent of their sin; but they would not. He sent them one prophet after another; Isaiah and Micah, we know by name – but Scripture indicates there many were others, too. The prophets came foretelling the destruction that loomed on the horizon, and also the Lord’s mercy. Even in the face of disaster, the Lord stood ready to forgive them. If His people confessed their sins and trusted in His Word, He would turn the disaster around in an instant – even at the last moment. We heard the Lord speak through Joel back on Ash Wednesday, “‘Yet even now…return to Me with all your heart…’ Who knows whether He will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him.” (Joel 2:12, 14) But, His people would not listen.

“When men fall, do they not rise again,” God said. “If one turns away, does he not return? Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return.” (vv. 4-5) By return, the Lord means repent. Here, the Lord laments the refusal of His people to trust in Him. The stork in the heavens knows her time, the swallow and crane, too; but not His people. Fueled by lying scribes and prophets, who took the Lord’s name in vain by teaching His Word falsely, the people learned to hold fast to sin and not God. They charged headlong into sin like a horse to battle. Their consciences became seared. They no longer knew how to repent; they forgot how to blush. The Lord longed to gather His people like a hen does her chicks, but they wouldn’t have it. “Therefore,” God said, “when I punish them, they shall be overthrown.” (v. 12)

II.

We cannot confess our God to be a God of mercy and forgiveness without confessing that He is also a God of justice. This thought is brought up in our text. There cannot be forgiveness without some transgression to forgive. The Lord has revealed to us and all people His standard of righteousness in the Ten Commandments. He wrote them both on stone and upon our hearts. To go against the Commandments is to disobey God’s will in favor or our own. It is in fact, to despise what is good and love what is evil. Justice demands that there be punishment of sin. Even still, the Lord is ready to forgive those who repent of their sin. The Scriptures tell us that forgiveness is freely given and received through faith in Christ. There is no work to do, no merit to earn by good behavior. God simply forgives those who confess His Word to be true, who repent of their sins and look to Him.

Those who refuse to repent of their sins, who hold to them, also refuse God’s mercy. Instead of acknowledging God to be in the right, they exalt themselves into His place. And God will not have His glory be shared. Therefore, He pronounced His just judgment against Jerusalem. The Lord raised up Babylon and brought them into the Holy Land. He used King Nebuchadnezzar as His instrument, hoping – even then – that His people would repent. And when they didn’t, Jerusalem was destroyed. The glory of the Lord left the temple, and it was torn down. The walls were leveled and homes destroyed. The people were forced to run from their homes. Thousands were captured and exiled to live in Babylon, while others occupied their houses and businesses. Many perished. Ours is a God of justice, who punishes those who despise Him.

III.

This is a hard week in the lectionary, but let’s have it be hard for the right reason. The destruction of Jerusalem in both the Old and New Testaments should rouse in us an awareness of what awaits us if we continue in sin. We all have an awareness of this by nature, St. Paul said to the Romans; but it becomes clouded when we give ourselves away to sin. To sin is to reject God, to reject His mercy and choose His justice. We have done this throughout our lives, even today. Today, we have done what is evil, proving that the Lord is justified in His words and blameless in His judgment. (Ps. 51) The same that happened to Jerusalem stands ready to happen to us as individuals, on an eternal basis. Thankfully, the Lord has provided a way of escape. This way is Jesus.

The people sang in Nehemiah, “You are a God ready to forgive, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.” It is this love that caused God to put forth His own Son, Jesus Christ, in our place. The destruction we merited by our sins, the Father placed upon His shoulders. On the cross, Jesus was forsaken by God for us and the temple of His body was desecrated so that we might be cleansed from sin. This cleansing and deliverance from sin is not something we can earn or purchase or deserve; God gives it freely out of His own mercy. God does not wait to mete out justice on those who hate him; He longs to forgive those who trust in Him. He desires, above all things, to forgive and do good to those who recognize Him to be in the right, who repent of their sins and trust in Him.

This is one of the hard Sundays, but there is a reason we hear these texts around this time of year. Normally, this text comes about the middle of summer when people are all relaxed and secure, perhaps even secure in their sin – as even we may sometimes be found. Let us hear the sadness in our Lord’s words, that He will punish those who reject Him. However, He longingly desires to forgive and gather together eternally those who repent of their sins and trust in Him. May He cause His Holy Spirit to work in our hearts, that we would always be aware of the sin that clings so close, repent of it, and so receive His merciful forgiveness and be gathered together in His eternal kingdom. Amen.

My God Lightens My Darkness

Text: 2 Samuel 22:26-34

“You are my lamp, O Lord, and my God lightens my darkness. For by You I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall. This God – His way is perfect; the Word of the Lord proves true; He is a shield for all who take refuge in Him.” (2 Samuel 22:29-31 English Standard Version) They say that, when you’re young, it’s common to feel invincible. Many of us long for those days when we felt like we could go anywhere, do anything, survive anything that might come our way. Over time, that sense starts to dissipate. Whether it’s due to time, changing responsibilities, or declining health, eventually we no longer feel the same sense of invincibility that we once did. And yet, these words today from King David – where he more or less feels invincible – come near the end of his earthly life. The next chapter in Samuel contains “the last words of David.” (2 Sam. 23:1)

David confessed this feeling not because he himself was invincible – for his body would soon give out and be buried with his fathers. No, David confessed this feeling of invincibility through the mercy and strength given him by God. Throughout David’s life, the Lord proved His Word to be true. He continually had mercy on David and forgave him his many sins. Time and time, again, the Lord by His Word gave strength to David to rule in justice and, in time, to die in peace. The Lord lightened David’s darkness. He does the same for us. Our Lord God is continually merciful to us by forgiving us our sins and He strengthens us with His Word so that our feet are, “like the feet of a deer.” (v. 34)

I.

We don’t know when exactly David sang this song, but the Spirit tells us earlier in the chapter that it was, “on the day when the Lord delivered [David] from the hand of all his enemies.” (v. 1) This could really be anytime in his life, but its spot at the end of the book suggests this is a song David sang while looking back on the Lord’s deliverance throughout his life. David did have no shortage of enemies – all of whom the Lord saved him from. For example, we know Goliath – how the Lord delivered David from the hands of that Philistine with just a sling and a stone. There were also the decades that the Lord delivered David from the hands of King Saul, who had been trying to kill him. Then, there was the revolt of Absalom – one of David’s sons – when David had to flee Jerusalem in haste. There were also a number of other revolts and wars, from all of which the Lord delivered David.

The Lord provided David deliverance from all of these things not because David deserved it – for we also know David to be a great sinner – but because of His own mercy. The Lord’s grace was what caused Him to raise David up from shepherding the sheep to be shepherd of His people, Israel. The Lord, through His Word, gave David the gift of faith in Jesus. By this faith, David received mercy from the Lord. Throughout his life, David was led by faith in Christ. When he fell into sin, as he often did, he came to this conclusion – as we spoke this morning – “I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.” (Ps. 32:5) David confessed his sin, trusting in Christ’s death for him, and the Lord had mercy on him. The Lord forgave his sin and delivered him from all his enemies. “My God lightens my darkness,” David said. “[He] has made my way blameless.” (vv. 29, 33)

Looking back on the Lord’s mercy and deliverance, David said, “The Word of the Lord proves true; He is a shield for all who take refuge in Him…He has made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights.” (vv. 31, 34) In other words, David felt strengthened, nimble, invincible. When David was in trouble, surrounded by enemies, he turned to God’s Word. By the Word, the Lord strengthened David. He assured him of His mercy in the forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal life through the Resurrection of Jesus. Through the Word, David was strengthened to face his enemies and endure all things, trusting in the Lord, his shield.

II.

We, also, have received deliverance from the Lord our shield. King David was among those whom, St. Peter once said, saw ahead in the Holy Spirit to the ministry of Christ. They witnessed and prophesied for our benefit, we who live near the end of the ages. We are able to look back to see and read the deliverance we have received in Christ. For us, keeping true to His promise, Jesus took on flesh, being conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of Mary. For us, He kept the Law of God fully – in thought, word, and deed. In His death on our behalf, He drank the cup of wrath that was ready to be poured out on us. By these things, and by His resurrection, He has secured for us deliverance from our chief enemy, the devil, and from the power of sin. By His rising, He made it so that our deaths will only prove the doorway from this sad life to joy immortal with Him and our fellow saints.

As with David, the Lord grants us this deliverance not because we deserve it, but solely by His mercy. We, who have lived long enough to no longer feel invincible, have also found in ourselves the corruption of sin. It courses through our veins in an intangible yet ever-present way. If we stop paying attention, if our eyes move from the cross of Christ, we fall. Time, and time again, we sin and continue to fall short of the glory of God. And yet, He has mercy on us. The Lord takes no pleasure in the death of anyone, therefore He brings us to repent of our sins through His Law and, by His mercy, forgives. “The Word of the Lord proves true.” When we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The result of all this, of the Lord continually delivering us by His mercy, is that we can walk a little lighter. Maybe our feet aren’t quite like those of a deer – the Holy Spirit did grant David the gift of poetry, after all. However, here we are in the midst of a pandemic. Here we are singing praise to our God. Here, we receive the forgiveness of our sins as our God serves us in the Absolution and in the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. This, by the way, is why it’s called “The Divine Service.” In the Liturgy, God serves us; we receive His mercy and sing back to Him of the good things He first gave us. Here, the Lord strengthens us with His Word. When we are faced with difficulty of one sort or the next, we can find comfort here in the Word, where we hear that the Lord has already and will deliver us from our enemies – from sin, from the devil, and from death.

They say that when you’re young you feel invincible. You aren’t really, but you feel that way for a time. But, there is a truth to be had in this in that we are – properly understood – invincible. This isn’t something we possess ourselves, but it’s granted to us by God’s mercy through faith. He has delivered us from all our enemies, and He will yet do so. By His mercy, He continually forgives us our sins; He strengthens our faith through His Word. Even though everything else will fade away, we will endure in Christ. He is our strong refuge and has made our way blameless. “You are my lamp, O Lord, and my God lightens my darkness.” Amen.

The Whole Counsel of God

Text: Jeremiah 23:16-29

“You yourselves know how I lived among you,” St. Paul said to the Ephesians, “how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ…I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” (Acts 20 English Standard Version) These were some of St. Paul’s last words to the Ephesians, after spending several years with them. Just after his farewell, St. Paul boarded a ship for what would be his last trip to Jerusalem. There, St. Paul ended up being taken into Roman custody and remained so for three years, eventually testifying in Rome before being set free. As a farewell to the Ephesians, Paul wanted them to be prepared for the false teachers who would soon appear in his absence. 

One tell-tale mark of these false preachers and prophets would be that they would not teach the whole counsel of God, but would teach only the desires of their own hearts, thus said the Lord in our text from Jeremiah. Jeremiah prophesied during the lowest point, spiritually and morally, in Judah’s history – the decades leading up to its fall. A large factor in the fall of Jerusalem is condemned by our Lord in this text: false prophets who teach only their own dreams, along with the willingness of the people to listen to them. Today, we confess that God calls true prophets to preach His whole counsel, which includes both Law and Gospel.

I.

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.’” (Jeremiah 23:16) That’s pretty much the key verse in the whole text, the whole point of it. Remember that Jeremiah prophesied during the decades leading up to, and then during, the Fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians. We’ve talked before about the role of kings in the Old Testament, how they were meant to be shepherds of the people. Kings were to see that the people were also cared for spiritually, that they were taught rightly to believe and truly to confess God’s saving name. When kings were faithful to God then, generally speaking, so were the people. When they were unfaithful, that unfaithfulness was carried on and enhanced among the people. After the kings, the next biggest influences on the people of Israel were the false prophets. In Jeremiah’s time, they were a dime a dozen. Remember Elijah and the prophets of Baal? That was 1 versus 450.

Although there were a multitude of false prophets, they were united, as the Lord said, in that they did not speak His Words but the visions of their own minds and the “deceit of their own heart[s].” (v. 26) The Lord continued, “They say continually to those who despise the Word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’” (v. 17) There was no preaching of repentance and faith on the part of the false prophets, no mention of sin – or even forgiveness. The topics of their sermons were only health, wealth, and happiness. And, because those are things that we all like to hear, the false prophets were very well-received. They had no trouble gathering audiences, since their message was, essentially, that people could live and do as they please, without fear of punishment or judgment from God. The result was a generation of people worshipping every “god” but the true One, who, in fact, hated the true God, and were bankrupt of morals. “If they had stood in My council,” God said, “they would have proclaimed My Words to My people, and they would have turned them from their evil way.” (v. 22)

II.

Just before our text, Jeremiah complained that his heart was broken and his bones shook, “because of the Lord and because of His holy Words.” (23:9) Jeremiah is often called “The Weeping Prophet,” because of the burden placed upon him as a true prophet of God. Jeremiah’s call was to preach the Word of the Lord to His people in full, which included both Law and Gospel. The Law to be preached in Jeremiah’s time was that, if the children of Israel did not repent of their wicked and evil ways, they would be overthrown. The Lord would send Babylon upon them, as Isaiah prophesied a century before, and Jerusalem would be destroyed as punishment for her sins. Jeremiah did preach this, and the people hated both the message and the messenger. They attempted to kill him. But, even then, there was a remnant. There was a small group of people who heard Jeremiah’s preaching and listened. They confessed their sins and looked to God for forgiveness and life.

That, really, is the goal of Christian preaching. We aren’t after peace and security as the world seeks it, but a Godly righteousness that endures unto eternal life. Godly righteousness is produced by faith in Christ, which includes repentance over sin. Because we are by nature hard-hearted and evil, God sends us His Word of Law to break our stony hearts in pieces. He does this when He shows us that all the things we naturally like to do are sinful. For example, none of us keeps as close a watch on our mouth as we should. We curse and swear and take His name in vain. We do not close our ears to gossip. Nor do we guard our eyes as the lights of our bodies. When something is placed before us that is against the Sixth Commandment, we do not avert our eyes as we should. Rather than step away from our program, we tell ourselves the story is worth the unsavory elements that burrow into our hearts. This is what God says about our sin: we shall die.

God sends true prophets to preach His whole counsel, which includes the Law and the Gospel. The Gospel is not that God doesn’t judge us, it’s that the judgement that God has rendered against sin was carried out on Christ, and not on you. The Gospel is that the wrath that God had stored up for you when you were living in unbelieving sin was poured out on Christ, instead of you. When you hear this, that Jesus has paid for your sins, and believe it, you have the forgiveness which Christ won. This is what it means to be saved by faith. We recognize from the Law of God our own sinfulness, along with the temporal and eternal punishment which we have earned. We confess our sins and receive from God the free forgiveness won for us by Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross. But, how can we have faith without the Gospel, and how can the Gospel be preached without the Law? Therefore, God sends true prophets to preach His whole counsel, both Law and Gospel.

III.

There is a portion of the Catechism that goes well with, really, all our texts this week. I invite you to turn with me to the First Petition in the Catechism (pg. 323 in the hymnal). Let’s read it together. I’ll ask the questions.

What is the First Petition?

Hallowed be Thy name.

What does this mean? 

God’s name is certainly holy in itself, but we pray in this petition that it may be kept holy among us also.

How is God’s name kept holy? 

God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven! But anyone who teaches or lives contrary to God’s Word profanes the name of God among us. Protect us from this, heavenly Father!

The Law of God is Good and Wise

Text: Exodus 20:1-17

We’ve been working our way through the Augsburg Confession in Bible study, lately. This Confession is what marks us as Lutheran Christians. We have all promised multiple times that we accept it as true: in our confirmation vows, in my ordination vows, when you became a voting member of the congregation, were installed as an officer, and so on. Although Martin Luther was not the author of the Augsburg Confession, he himself said that it is still his teaching. After Luther died, the Evangelical theologians split over a few topics that come up in the Confession. One of these comes up in our readings this week. The issue concerns the Ten Commandments. Should they still be preached and taught in a Christian congregation? Some said yes; others said no.

We said earlier in the Psalm, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right…more to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold.” (Psalm 19 English Standard Version) If we combine this with our Lord’s teaching in the Gospel that His Word remains forever, we can see that, yes, the Law of God in the Commandments should continually be preached and taught in Christian congregations. But, why? In the Ten Commandments, the Lord gives us the standard of what is right and wrong, shows us our need for Christ, and prompts us to love and serve our neighbor.

I.

These three things are called the 3 Uses of the Law or the 3 Functions. In Confirmation we learned them as curb, mirror, and guide. Today, let’s remind ourselves what these mean. We heard in the Old Testament reading the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. The Lord, rich in grace and mercy, led forth the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt and brought them to His holy mountain. There, they witnessed the greatness of His might and the vastness of His glory. For 40 days and nights Moses remained at the top of the mountain and God spoke to him, inscribing on stone what He originally wrote on human hearts at the Beginning. When Moses came down to the base of the mountain, he held in his hands two tablets of stone. Written on these were the Ten Commandments of God.

The first function of the Law, the Ten Commandments, is to be a curb. The purpose of a curb is to keep cars on the road, so also bumpers with bowling balls at the alley. We see this function in the words, “You shall not.” In the Commandments, God sets before us the standard of what is right and what is wrong. We live in a time where many believe there is no objective right or wrong. As Christians, however, we confess that there is a standard of righteousness, and it is revealed to us here by God. With the Commandments, God sets a boundary between things we should and shouldn’t do. We should not murder, commit adultery, steal, lie, or covet. The Lord enforces these boundaries in our lives by earthly authorities. St. Paul wrote to the Romans, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God…[governing authorities are] God’s servant, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” (Rom. 13) All of us in our lives have been disciplined by parents and teachers, as well. The first function of the Law is to show us God’s standard of good and evil.

II.

Ever since the Fall into Sin, however, we don’t receive the Commandments as such. Instead, we receive them as something bad – like when a little boy is told not to eat from the cookie jar. What is the first thing he does when he thinks no one is looking? He takes from the jar. Through the corruption of the Fall, we rebel against the Commandments. We disregard them or belittle them. We forget them and act against them. Often, we excuse or exempt ourselves from the Commandments, while at the same time measuring them heavily against those around us. Sometimes, we aren’t even aware of all this. Or, if we are, we hide it. Our Lord once said, “Nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.” (Mt. 10)

The second function of the Law, and the main reason why it must remain in our preaching and teaching, is that it acts as a mirror. The Ten Commandments show us what good things we have failed to do, and what evil things we have done instead. Remember how the prophet Nathan went to King David after he had committed adultery. He said to him, “You are the man,” (2 Sam. 12) demonstrating from David’s own words that he deserved to die for his sins of adultery and murder. The Law also shows us our sin. When we rightly contemplate the Commandments, we learn from them how we have failed to love God and our neighbor and we hear from them what we deserve for our sin: death. Because we are sometimes blind to our own sinfulness, it is part of the pastor’s call to preach the Law to us, whether it be in a sermon or in a visit. When the pastor preaches the Law to us, it is not because he is angry with us or is trying to irritate us. He is trying to show us why Christ died for us.

The Law acts as a mirror to show us our sin, so that it can also point us to Christ, who bore our sin on the cross. When Nathan preached the Law to the king, David was convicted. He knew and felt his sin in his heart. Then Nathan said to him, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.” (2 Sam. 12) Nathan preached the Law to David so he could also preach the Gospel. The sins that David committed – those sins are what Christ bore in His body on the tree. The same is true for you and me. The Commandments act as a mirror and show us our sins. They show which sins Christ died for – all of them. When the Commandments are preached to us and we realize that we, too, have sinned and are deserving of both death and hell, we can then take comfort in Christ’s death for us. We preach the Law so that we can also preach the Gospel. You cannot have one without the other.

III.

Now we get to where the theologians argued over after Luther’s death. Some taught that Christians, who are redeemed by faith in Christ, no longer need to hear the Law. They simply do what is good out of love, without any further instruction. I mentioned a little boy before, who takes from the cookie jar when no one is looking. If we love our children, but never teach them what is right and wrong, can we expect them to do only good things? No, we love them and teach them what is right. We pray that, in time, they also will love what is good and hate what is evil. Although, initially our children listen for fear of punishment, we hope in time that they listen out of love and appreciation.

For the first two functions, alone, the Law ought to be preached and taught continually. The Law shows us God’s standard of right and wrong, it shows us our need for salvation. Because we continue in this impure flesh until the Resurrection, we will always need reminders. Therefore, there is a third thing the Law does, and it only does this among Chrstians. The Law also acts as a guide. It teaches how one lives a God-pleasing and righteous life. Through faith in Christ, we no longer see the Commandments as something bad, but as a true good. The Commandments are good, and we want to do them. Though we, by nature, were once children of wrath, by the working of the Holy Spirit we are now God’s children and we want to do what pleases Him. What sort of works please God? Works that are pleasing to God proceed from faith: in thanksgiving for the mercy we receive in Christ and according to the Commandments.

This was a struggle in the early history of Lutheranism (which, actually, also happened in the early Church). By God’s grace, we have been preserved in true teaching. The Commandments will continue to be taught in this Christian Church because they perform three functions. The Commandments show us God’s standard of good and evil actions. They show us our sins, for which Christ has died and risen. Lastly, they provide a guide for us as Christians seeking to love and serve both God and neighbor. Incredibly, the Law does these things all the same time. It will continue to do so until the day of our Lord’s return. When our bodies are raised, we shall be fully purified from sin and we will keep the Law perfectly, for the Law of God is good and wise. God grant this unto us all. Amen.

What Are We Doing Here?

Text: 1 Kings 19:11-21

“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. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9-10 English Standard Version) Thus said St. Peter in his first epistle. He answers, in part, God’s question to Elijah in our text, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Ki. 19:13) We could also ask ourselves this week: what are we doing here? 

The Lord’s question for Elijah was not coming from a place of ignorance. The Lord, of course, knew why Elijah was there at Mt. Sinai. The question was to make Elijah aware of what he was not doing. He was not out exercising his office as prophet – the office to which God had called him. He was not proclaiming the Word or teaching it. He had, in fact, closed his mouth from princes and kings to hide God’s Word in his heart. In the text, the Lord comforted Elijah with His Word and then sent him back out to do what the Lord called him to do in the first place. The Lord also calls us, His Church, to proclaim His Word in the world, even as He comforts us through the same voice of His Word and Sacraments.

I.

Our text this week comes shortly after Elijah’s showdown with the prophets of Baal. You remember how it was – Elijah on one side versus 450 prophets of Baal on the other. Those prophets called out to their god all day long and no one answered. Elijah, on the other hand, totally soaked his sacrifice, the altar, and a trench around it with water. After his prayer, the Lord sent fire from heaven and consumed the sacrifice, the altar, and even the water around it. It was a definitive answer from the Lord that He alone is God. The prophets of Baal were sentenced to death. Queen Jezebel, after hearing this, sent word to Elijah. She said, “So may the gods to do me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” (1 Ki. 19:2) Hearing this, Elijah was filled with fear. He went and hid in the desert. Elijah prayed to God to end his life right then, but the Lord declined.

Elijah journeyed 40 days and nights to Mount Horeb, which is another name for Sinai, and he hid there in a cave. Even though he had witnessed the great power of God – even the power to raise the dead, as the Lord did for the widow at Zarephath – Elijah was filled with fear, and he hid. The Lord had called him to proclaim the Word to the world, to be steadfast and immovable; well, Elijah was immovable, just hiding in a cave. He feared persecution and earthly death more than he valued his duty to proclaim God’s Word. The threats against him were real, but let’s not be so sure to commend his retreat.

That’s hard to do because, well, we are tempted to do the same. At present our lives are not in danger because we are Christians, although this danger exists presently around the world. It may come to our country in time. No, at present, there are other things we fear as Christians. We fear a financial downturn, both personally and as a congregation. We fear a lowered social standing. There was a time when all the prominent members of the community were Christians, but that is fading. A time will come when those who wish to remain faithful to the true teaching of Scripture will be marginalized. Perhaps, this time is beginning. These are real fears because they represent changes to the ways we have lived and operated. When faced with these fears and others, even as Christians, we retreat.

We fear the prospect of a financial downturn among the congregation, so we “hedge our bets” by decreasing our giving rather than rejoice at the opportunity for a greater use of the resources God gives us. At times congregation members use their giving as their voice, and for fear we have listened to the voice of men above the voice of Scripture. For fear of how those outside the Church might respond, we neglect to speak to or address certain topics; or if we do, we are careful to choose our words so as to not cause discomfort. Faced with these fears, and others, we, too, retreat. We retreat here to our pews where it’s safe to be a Christian. We’re right to feel safe here because here we receive the forgiveness of our sins through the pure Word of God and the Sacraments. But, at times, we turn the sanctuary of God into a hideout. God asked Elijah, “What are you doing here,” not because He didn’t know, but to teach Elijah what he should’ve been doing.

II.

We heard Elijah’s complaint to the Lord: that he alone was left to serve. He had been zealous for the Lord, but the people had broken God’s covenant. They had torn down His altars and killed the prophets. Now Elijah was left by himself and would rather die. While Elijah was there, there was a “great and strong wind.” (v. 11) Then there was an earthquake and a fire. All these things have been signs of the Lord’s presence before. This, by the way, is all happening on Mt. Sinai. When the Lord delivered the Commandments, there was also quaking and fire. This demonstrated the severity of the Commandments and the weight of God’s Law. But, here, after the wind, quake, and fire, came “the sound of a low whisper.” (v. 12) Here came God’s Gospel voice and said that there were, indeed, “seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” (v. 18) Elijah was not alone. 

The Lord comforted Elijah with the promise that, as He said before the Apostles, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against,” His Church. (Mt. 16:18) The Lord will always defend His Church from evil. He will always work through and in it, forgiving iniquity and passing over transgression, as we heard from Micah a few weeks back. Contrary to his fears, Elijah was not alone. The Lord was with him, and so were 7,000 other members of the Church. The world would not overcome him. Emboldened by this word from the Lord, God sent Elijah back out. He said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place.” (vv. 15-16) In other words, Elijah’s got work to do. He was to go and proclaim God’s Word to kings and prepare Elisha to follow after him as prophet. 

When Elijah was afraid, he retreated to the mountain of the Lord and attempted to make it a hiding place. Instead, it became a springboard of sorts. The Lord reassured him that, contrary to appearances, everything was not falling apart. The Lord was with him, and would continue to be him in his work of preaching and teaching the Word. Sometimes, we’re tempted to retreat like Elijah. We see the way the world reacts to the Word and we’d rather avoid it. But here’s the thing: just as the Lord remained with Elijah, so He is with us. He has promised to never leave us nor forsake us. Instead, He remains with us continually – in the Word, in the Sacrament. Through these things, these Means of Grace, He works to forgive us our sins “daily and richly,” as we learn in the Catechism. By these things He bids our fears depart. 

St. Peter said, “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.” This is perhaps the answer to the question, “What are we doing here?” Why has the Lord provided for us to remain hearing His Word and receiving His gifts these many years? Because there’s work to do. By faith in Jesus, we, too, are called to be “fishers of men.” (Mt. 4:19) Though the world may threaten with disaster, let it not rob us of our cheer, “for He who is of death the master with aid and comfort e’er is near.” Amen.