Midweek Lenten Vespers in the Week of Laetare - The Fourth Sunday in Lent

(Audio)

1 John 4:17-21; The Passion History – Part 4: The Praetorium

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts our fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” Fear and love. Now there are two concepts that we don’t typically think about in conjunction. What is the relationship between fear and love of which John writes?

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve dwelt with God and with each other in perfect love and without fear. That harmony was ruined, of course, when the serpent tempted our first parents to believe that God was not loving, and they began to fear that He was holding out on them. What had changed? Nothing had changed about God, but everything had changed concerning our first parents. They thought differently about God, and they doubted His love and goodness. They thought differently about God’s Word and God’s Will. They began to resent Him and to believe that He meant them harm. They began to hate Him, and they began to fear Him, and, consequently, they began to resent, fear, and hate each other. Because they lost their love for God, they had no love for each other. It was a transgression of the First and only Commandment, “You shall have no other gods.” What does this mean? “You shall fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” That first and only commandment is summarized in this way: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” For, all the Law of the God is fulfilled in this: Love.

In his first epistle St. John famously provides us a definition of God saying, “God is love.” Three simple, clear words to define our God who is literally undefinable. The problem is that, if God is love, we need to know what love is, and we don’t often do so well understanding that. Part of the problem is language itself, particularly the English language. In English we have only one word for love, but in the Koine Greek of the New Testament there are four different words for love, each conveying a particular nuance and aspect of love: Love for family. Love for humanity. Love between a husband and a wife. And selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional love. It is that last kind of love that St. John says is our God. The word is agape, a selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional love – the kind of love that God shows and is, and the kind of love we His children are called to show both to God and to neighbor.

St. Paul devotes an entire chapter of his first epistle to the Corinthians, chapter thirteen, the great “love” chapter, to describing God’s love, agape love, by what it does: “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” All of these actions go out from a person towards others. They are inherently selfless (not concerned with the self but with others) and sacrificial, and they are unconditional, always acting regardless of the circumstances, risk to self, and without expectation of being repaid. This is agape. This is the love that God is. This is the love with which God so loved the world in giving His Son over to death on the cross. Truly, Jesus is God’s love for the world in person and in action.

Jesus is the love that perfects us. Jesus is the love that makes us confident for the day of judgment. Jesus is the love that casts out fear of punishment. Let me say a bit more about each of these defining statements.

Jesus is the love that perfects us. In paradise, our first parents had a perfect relationship with God and with each other. When Satan planted a seed of doubt within their hearts, however, that relationship was ruined. No longer could they perfectly love God or each other, for they were turned in on themselves and feared missing out, not having what they needed or desired, because their love was poisoned, corrupted, and perverted. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son to be the perfect man for us, in our place. Jesus perfectly loved God His Father and He perfectly loved us His brothers and sisters, His Bride. Greater love has no one that this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Jesus is the love that makes us confident for the day of judgment. In love, in Jesus, God fulfilled His own Law and righteousness which our first parents and we their children failed to keep thus bringing death into the world and God’s wrath upon us all. Our God who is holy and whose righteousness demands perfect holiness, obedience, and love, has so loved us that He has done what was necessary to make us holy, to fulfill perfect obedience and selfless love. Having received God’s love in Jesus we are confident and have no fear of the day of judgment, for God has already judged His Son guilty in our place and has judged us innocent in His holy, innocent blood.

Jesus is the love that casts out fear of punishment. In love, in Jesus, God has fulfilled the Law’s demands and has set us free from the fear of punishment for our sin and guilt. Jesus bore the fulness of God’s wrath against our sinful disobedience upon the cross. Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath against our sins to the bitter dregs, until it was finished and there is no more. We need not fear punishment, for there is no sin left to punish. God has reconciled us to Himself in His Son, the propitiation that He put forward for our sins.

And so, God is love. That is an ontologically true fact. However, God’s love is made known in Jesus, and Him crucified. That is how God has loved the world, and it is the love with which we love one another and so show ourselves to be His children. “And this commandment we have from Him: whoever loves God must also love His brother.”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Laetare - The Fourth Sunday in Lent (Lent 4)

(Audio)

John 6:1-15; Galatians 4:21-31; Exodus 16:2-21

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

After the five thousand were miraculously filled with bread and fish, they were ready to take Jesus by force and make Him king. I’m sure you can understand why. How often have you thought, if only God would perform some amazing miracle before you, then you would believe? If only God would do something that would irrefutably prove His existence, His goodness, and His power, then all the world would believe. But then, you wouldn’t really trust in God or in Jesus or in His Word, but you would trust in the sign, the miracle, the bread and the fish, or whatever. If you eat, you will be hungry again. God performs miracles for you every day, and yet you don’t believe, still you clamor for more. So too, Jesus taught His disciples, “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on Him God has set His seal.”

The bread that Jesus provided for them was just a sign of the True Bread from heaven that gives life to the world. That bread was not mere bread for the belly, but that bread is Jesus Himself. That is why Jesus had the disciples gather up the leftover fragments of bread, twelve basketfuls – He didn’t want the people to horde the bread, to trust in the bread, but in the provider of the bread, God, and the True Bread He has provided, Jesus. The same was true with the children of Israel in the wilderness. There, God daily provided them bread to eat and instructed them to gather only enough for the day. If they gathered more than a day’s bread, He caused it to spoil and to breed worms so that they would not trust in the bread, but in the provider of the True Bread, the Word of God. That is why, when Satan tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread and feed His belly, Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” It is a kind of slavery to trust in bread, wealth, flesh, and the knowledge of the mind. Therefore, your God, who would have you live free, takes from you the chains that you permit to bind you: bread spoils, wealth is stolen and decays, the flesh grows weak and dies, and knowledge cannot save you from death.

Allegorically, St. Paul compares your slavery to created things to the covenant of the Law symbolized in Hagar and her son Ishmael. God had promised Abraham that he and his wife Sarah would have a son of promise whose descendents would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens and from whose seed would come the promised Messiah. However, trusting in the flesh and not in God, Abraham took Hagar, Sarah’s Egyptian slave, and conceived a son with her, Ishmael, a son of slavery. Still, God kept His Word and promise, and Sarah conceived and bore the son of promise, Isaac. Paul states, “This may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. […] She corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.”

Abraham and Sarah were enslaved under the covenant of the Law to trust in their works. They did not trust in the Word of the LORD, that He would provide them a son, but they trusted in the works of the flesh to produce a son according to their will, in opposition to the will of God. Indeed, Hagar did bear a son, but he was not the son of promise, but a son of slavery. There was no blessing in Ishmael, but there was instead a curse – Ishmael and his descendents persecuted Isaac and his descendents. Likewise, trust in works, no matter how good they may be, cannot save but they lead only to slavery and death. But, you brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. Therefore, trust not in the works of the flesh or in any material, worldly, created thing, but trust in God, His Word by which a man may live, and the Word made flesh Jesus Christ who is the bread of life come down from heaven which a man may eat and truly live.

Interestingly, the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, each have an account of Jesus’ institution of the Lord’s Supper, but John does not. Or, does he? Yes, indeed He does, and the Feeding of the Five Thousand is the beginning of it in chapter six. Throughout John chapter six, Jesus teaches His disciples that He is the true bread come down from heaven saying, “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that comes down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” John tells us that the Jews who listened to Him understood Him literally and they grumbled saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus answered them saying, “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. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.”

The Word of God made flesh, Jesus Christ, is the only source of life. You scramble around in the darkness of spiritual ignorance trying to feed your bellies, trusting in your ability to earn bread and in the ability of bread to give you life, while you neglect the source of all life, the one thing needful for your body, soul, and life. You make yourself a slave to stuff, and to the desire for stuff, thinking that these will give you life, while you are dying, while you are literally starving yourself to death because such food does not last. If the fruit that brings knowledge also brings death, then what have you gained?

Come, eat. Come, drink. The LORD has provided. The LORD continues to provide daily bread that you may eat and drink and live. For, you are no longer “children of the slave but of the free”; therefore do not submit yourself once again to a yoke of slavery under the Law demanding works of the flesh, but trust in the Word of the LORD, His Word of promise. All your striving to attain your daily bread by the works of your hands serve only to fill your belly for a moment, which eventually ends in death. Jesus is the bread of life come down from heaven; Jesus is the bread of promise, a new covenant of grace that you may eat and be satisfied, that you may drink and never thirst again, that you may live eternally in Him.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Christian Funeral for Eleanor Lenora Munson

(Audio)

John 14:1-6; 1 John 3:1-2; Isaiah 43:1-3a, 25

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“God is my light,” that is what the name Eleanor means. Our Eleanor was a lamp bearing the light of God, and God’s light shone through her in all the ways she showed and shared His love with you and with countless others. Whether it was through the carefully planned, lovingly prepared, and simply delicious holiday meals she prepared for you her family, or simply dining out at Pizza Ranch or some other local eatery, or road trips to Amish and Mennonite farms and markets to purchase produce and flowers or to enjoy some authentic family farm cooking, where she knew the names of all the people who grew, sold, and served, or at St. John’s women’s Bible study which was as much about food, fun, and fellowship, and lots of laughter, as it was about serious study of the Bible and cultivating one’s faith, or if it was quilting bedspreads and runners and wall hangings and so much more, or even polka dancing in Decorah, and this is hardly an exhaustive list, Eleanor was a lamp bearing the light of God, and God’s light shone through her in all the ways she showed and shared his love.

However, that wasn’t always the case. Now, don’t hear me wrong – I’m not saying that Eleanor at one time wasn’t loving and caring and giving and sharing, or even that she was not a Christian – no, not at all. Nonetheless, there was a time in her life when she plainly didn’t know God and her Lord Jesus Christ in the same way that she so obviously did these past ten years or more. Eleanor seemingly was baptized and confirmed at the same time in 1958. She was twenty-two then and had just recently married Ralph. It appears that both Eleanor and Ralph were baptized and confirmed on the same day. That’s kind of sweet and very special. So, it was later in her life that Eleanor became a Christian, at least in an official manner. I have no doubt she had faith before then, but most of us know the Eleanor after then rather than before. Eleanor’s faith and Christian life really began to grow and bear fruit in large part, however, through her participation in the St. John’s Women’s Bible study and then her battles with cancer and other health challenges.

Becky McBurney related to me how when Eleanor first began attending the Bible study, she had only a worn-out and somewhat obscure translation of the Bible. So, Becky bought her a new Bible as a gift and Eleanor began to really tear into it. After that, Eleanor came to Bible study prepared, having read the day’s selection beforehand, and with an arsenal of precise questions to ask and to have answered. Where she had once been shy and afraid to read the Scripture aloud in front of the group, that all changed, and Eleanor became an extremely competent and confident reader admired by all. Isn’t it truly amazing what the Word of God and the Holy Spirit can do? The Holy Spirit bolstered Eleanor’s confidence even while He helped her to maintain a humble, servant demeanor. Eleanor used to count the number of verses that were going to be read in class and then sit one seat beyond that number away from Becky so that she could avoid having to read as turns were taken around the table. That was Eleanor then. The Eleanor we commend to the Lord today was much more confident, loved to read the Scriptures, took notes, asked questions, and saved clippings of verses, comments, questions, and articles. Becky said that Eleanor really “blossomed as a Christian” and that she underwent a “transformation.”

Eleanor would need that re-kindled faith to face cancer in the years to follow. The first time I met Eleanor was when she was in the hospital suffering from a mass in her abdomen. It was cancer again and things seemed grim, but they were able to operate and remove the mass and things went well for a while. But then the cancer came back again and there would be no beating it this time. However, Eleanor had a lot of support. She had her family, the church, and her friends from the Women’s Bible study; she had Hospice; but most of all, she had her faith in her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To quote Becky once again, “Eleanor’s faith gave her the peace and acceptance she came to embrace when the cancer came back this last time and she knew she didn't have long to live. She did what needed to be done and lived every day to its fullest right up to the end. She was a woman of fortitude.” This time the doctor advised that Eleanor should consider hospice care and told her that it would go quickly. Nevertheless, Eleanor stayed with us another year. Eleanor confided that she believed that all the prayers were why she was still feeling as good as she was. Before and after the cancer, and throughout it all, Eleanor held a fierce love for her family. She never missed a chance to go somewhere with her sons Marvin or Roger or to go to see a grandchild or great-grandchild participate in a school activity or sport. She always wanted them to feel special and loved. And they did. She loved cooking and baking and preparing festive meals for her family, laughing, and joking around, and just being with the people she loved.

“God is my light,” that is what the name Eleanor means. Our Eleanor was a lamp bearing the light of God, and God’s light shone through her in all the ways she showed and shared His love with you and with countless others. You see, what makes a Christian is not so much what they do as it is what they receive. A Christian receives God – the Word of God Jesus Christ – the way a lamp receives the light of a candle. The light shines within the lamp, but more importantly, the light shines out and through the lamp for the benefit of others. My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that is precisely what Eleanor did for you and for countless others – The light of God shone through her upon you, so that you could receive and experience the comfort of God’s love too.

God is love. Jesus taught that there was no greater love possible than to lay down one’s life for your friends – that means sacrifice. And Jesus commanded His disciples to love one another as He had loved them. This is what it means to be a Christian – to love God and to love others. However, we can only love if we first have God’s love ourselves. The result is that we love others with God’s love; we shine with God’s light. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God.” “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” In love for Eleanor, in love for you, and in love for all the world God gave His only Son Jesus that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Eleanor knew the love of God in Jesus, and you knew that love also in her love for you. This prayer was in her Bible on a handwritten note: “Father, thank You that You love me. Thank You that Jesus died for me. I want to come home. Thank You for waiting for me. Amen.” Eleanor has not perished, but she is with her Lord in His house where He has prepared her a room. Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Jesus; He is the way to the Father, the truth, and the life. With Jesus there is boundless hope; apart from Him there is no hope. That is why our hearts need not be troubled this day, for Jesus was Eleanor’s hope and she is celebrating her 86^th birthday today in His presence. As you have received and experienced the light of God’s love through Eleanor, so let it shine through you and share it with others to the glory of God’s holy Name. You couldn’t honor Eleanor’s faith and life, or celebrate her first birthday in heaven, in any better way or in a way that would make her happier.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Oculi - The Third Sunday in Lent (Lent 3)

(Audio)

Luke 11:14-28; Ephesians 5:1-9; Exodus 8:16-24

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

As Jesus was about to set His face to go to Jerusalem to suffer and to die for the sins of the world He asked His disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They responded with a myriad of answers ranging from John the Baptist, to Elijah, to one of the prophets. Then Jesus asked them, “What about you? Who do you say that I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Christ (the Anointed One), the Son of the Living God.”

In his classic apologetic for the Christian faith Mere Christianity C. S. Lewis tackled this important question, “Who is Jesus?” Lewis wrote that there are three possible answers to the question – Either Jesus is a liar, or He is a lunatic, or He is who He says He is and He is telling the truth.

This question, “Who is Jesus?” is part of what is going on in the first part of today’s Gospel Lesson from St. Luke. Jesus had cast out a demon from a man that had kept the man from speaking. The crowd watching was amazed, and they marveled at this miracle. But then the questions came, “Who is this Jesus?” “From where does He get His power?” Some accused Him of casting out demons by the power of Satan. Others demanded that He provide them a sign from heaven before they would believe Him. But Jesus Himself claimed that He cast out demons by the “finger of God”, the Holy Spirit. So, either Jesus is a demon possessed lunatic, or He is a liar, or He is who He says He is and He is telling the truth.

Isaiah prophesied “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20) The good work that Jesus performed in casting out an evil demon is called by some in the crowd an evil deed itself! But Jesus refutes this attack by stating that evil does not cast out evil, for a house divided against itself cannot stand. Yet, the second group also calls Jesus’ actions evil, demanding a sign to prove that He is not a liar. No, the demons flee at the command of the finger of God, for, in Jesus, the kingdom of God has come and is present.

The power of Satan is strong, and on our own we have no defense against him. But Jesus is stronger than Satan. He takes the devil’s armor of sin and death and destroys them from the inside out by the holy cross. He exorcizes and frees us by water and the Word. We were once darkness, but now we are light in Christ the Lord.

Oh what pitiable, half-hearted, milquetoast, fence-straddlers we are. We think we can have our cake and eat it too. We have had our demonic original sin cast out of us in the cleansing torrent of Holy Baptism. We renounced Satan and all his works and all his ways. The demons fled from that Holy Water, cast out, searching for dry and barren habitations.  But how quickly the flood waters have receded, and we have returned to our casual and unconcerned way of life, thinking that compromising your faith to avoid the worldly scorn of others does not matter. You think that a little sin won’t hurt? God doesn’t expect you to be perfect? You hear the Word of the Lord but you do not keep it. Often you act as if you cannot stand it. Do you believe that you are saved and you need not worry about the forces of evil, that you are freed from sin to keep on sinning?

The demon is gone, for now, but he will come back, and he will bring others, more evil than himself, with him next time. The only way to keep him out is to have the house of your soul occupied by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit does not and cannot abide with sin. “For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” If you are not with the Lord, then you are against Him. There is no fence-straddling. There is no middle ground. You cannot be a little bit sinful or a little bit holy any more than a woman can be a little bit pregnant. Only blessed are those who hear the Word of the God and keep it.

For you, this is impossible, but for God all things are possible. Apart from the Holy Spirit, you are a sinner and you will continue to sin, you are not holy. But the Stronger Man Jesus Christ has defeated Satan for you and has stripped him of his strong armor. He has poured into you in the Baptismal flood and in faith the Holy Spirit. Though He will not share you with sin and devils, He will defend you from them. And when you sin He calls you to repent that you may be forgiven and restored in the innocent, shed blood of the One stronger than Satan, Jesus Christ. For, to keep the Word of God is to cling to it in the face of temptation, to trust in it in humble and contrite repentance, and to give thanks for it in love, and praise, and service.

Even now you are invited to keep God’s Word in Sabbath rest as He feeds you, forgives you, and strengthens you as you eat and drink the body and blood of the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. Today, your Lord stands ready to forgive and renew you by the Spirit of God, the Spirit who drives out the demons as the finger of God and strengthens people for bold, uncompromising witness to Jesus Christ. He Himself wishes to take up residence within you through His Holy Body and Blood, once offered for you as that "fragrant and sweet-smelling sacrifice to God."

In the Name of + Jesus. Amen.

Christian Funeral for Myrtle Clarbelle Schroeder

(Audio)

John 3:16-18; 1 Corinthians 15:51-57; Isaiah 25:6-9

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sometimes people ask me if it’s difficult to do so many funerals. It might surprise you to learn that it isn’t. Don’t hear me wrong; yes, it is difficult to say farewell to cherished members and friends; yes, there is grief and sorrow, and yes there are tears; but, commending a saint in Christ to their heavenly Father and home is a good, comforting, and even joyous thing. When I baptize an infant, I can’t possibly know that child will remain a believer throughout his or her life. When I confirm a youth, they still have their whole life ahead of them fraught with challenges to their faith. When I marry a couple, I hope and pray that their marriage and faith will last. But, when a saint in Christ like Myrtle dies in the Lord, I know that they are in God’s hands, that His promises in Christ Jesus cannot be revoked, and that there is no way possible that person, or any other, or even the devil himself, can cause them to miss out on their heavenly goal any longer.

That is why I am happy today and joyful. I am happy and joyful for Myrtle Clarbelle Schroeder because she has fought the good fight, she has finished the race, and she has kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for Myrtle the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to her on that day, and not only to Myrtle, but also to all who have loved His appearing. There are four key events that mark a Christian’s life – Holy Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage, and Christian Burial – and our sister in Christ Myrtle has received them all. For ninety-eight years Myrtle received from the Lord grace, mercy, forgiveness, love, and life and for ninety-eight years Myrtle glorified her God and Lord by living and by sharing these gifts with you and with countless others. From St. Petri Lutheran Church in Gary, Minnesota to St. John Lutheran Church in Waverly, Iowa, Myrtle received from the Lord His gifts and shared those gifts with you and countless others as a Sunday School teacher, as a church custodian, in the Dorcas Society, in the Women’s Bible Study, in the choir, crocheting booties for Diana’s Angels, and as a wife, a sister, a mother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother, an aunt, and a friend. It was her pure joy to share with you what she had herself received. And that is what the love of God in Christ Jesus looks like. As Jesus teaches, “They will know you are my disciples when you have love for one another.” There is no doubt about it, Myrtle was a disciple of Jesus. Myrtle knew and received Jesus’ love, and she loved you with Jesus’ love.

Myrtle loved to sing. Myrtle loved to sing church hymns. Myrtle’s favorite church hymn was “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know.” When Sunday School was held in the church basement, you could hear Myrtle singing “Jesus Loves Me” over the room dividers. In worship, you could hear Myrtle singing all the hymns louder and better than most. And at Bartels these past few years, you could hear Myrtle singing all the hymns louder and better than most and at least two beats ahead of everyone else as well. Myrtle also loved to bake for her family. She baked lefse, krumkake, rosettes, bread, and she made the bestest, thickest, and airiest peanut brittle too, all the while singing “Jesus Loves Me” louder, better, and faster than most. And Myrtle loved children. As a Sunday School teacher of three and four year olds, Myrtle was formative of their young faith so that numerous now-adults remember fondly learning the stories of the Bible from her flannel board figures. Myrtle also provided childcare for children in her home, stayed with David Kueker so that Larry and Rae Jean could go to 10:30 church, and was everybody’s Grandma.

“Jesus loves me, this I know.” There’s a reason this hymn is beloved by Christians of all ages. It’s simple enough that a three or four year old can memorize it and sing it, and it’s profound in its simplicity and truth so that adults treasure it throughout their lives. God loved Myrtle. Jesus loved Myrtle. And Myrtle loved you. That’s the way God’s love works. John 3:16, the “Gospel in a Nutshell” as it’s often called, says it all: God loved the world and everyone it, without exception, that He gave His only begotten Son Jesus Christ over unto death on the cross so that anyone, absolutely anyone at all, regardless of what they’ve done that they shouldn’t have done or didn’t do that they should have done, should not perish but share in Jesus’ eternal life. Myrtle was the recipient of God’s great love in Jesus, and she shared God’s love in Jesus with you. That is what it means to be a Christian: To be a Christian is to be a recipient of God’s love and so love Him in return that you share that love with others to the glory of God and His holy Name. For ninety-eight years Myrtle had been a recipient of God’s love in Jesus, and for ninety-eight years you and countless others have been the recipients of God’s love in Jesus lived in and through Myrtle. The best way to honor and remember Myrtle’s faith and life is to share God’s love in Jesus with others just as she shared it with you.

Myrtle was a happy person. She always had a smile on her face and a positive word to share. Myrtle was a joy and a blessing to know, to be around, and to have in your life. Myrtle’s faith was a huge part of her joyful and happy personality. She was at peace. She was content with whatever the Lord provided her, both good and not so good. All her long life Myrtle knew that God loved her in Christ Jesus, therefore she wasn’t anxious or afraid and she didn’t worry about tomorrow. God would provide her daily bread – everything she needed for her body and life. Because of her faith in her Lord, Myrtle could be fully present for you. All her needs were met. Through Myrtle, God helped to provide your daily bread as well. It is so very liberating to be able to live your life in the freedom of not worrying about death, or even what will happen tomorrow, knowing that God is in charge and that God loves you. In Jesus Christ God has so loved he world, has so loved Myrtle, and has so loved you, that He has swallowed up death in victory. All we have to do is wait for the Lord – to wait for Him to act, to come, and to take us home. That’s what Myrtle did for ninety-eight years – Myrtle waited on the Lord in faith and trust and hope and in love – love for God, love for Jesus, and love for you. Take heart and be comforted, Myrtle is waiting no longer. She is with her Lord and God at peace and at rest, and you will see her again in time. Wait for the LORD and He will save us, and we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Midweek Lenten Vespers in the Week of Reminiscere - The Second Sunday in Lent

(Audio)

1 John 4:7-10; The Passion History – Part 2: Gethsemane

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

There are many things that can be inferred about God from the Holy Scriptures: God is almighty, eternal, immutable, omniscient, omnipresent, holy, a spirit, good, gracious, faithful, etc. While these attributes are all certainly true and appropriate, we need to be careful, however, not to infer more than what Scripture has plainly revealed about God, or to claim something affirmative about God when Scripture is silent. In respect of such caution, there is school of theological thought called apophatic theology, or negative theology, in which nothing is stated in the affirmative concerning God, but only in the negative. For example, in apophatic theology, it could be said that God is not omniscient or omnipotent, for such words are limited by virtue of their being human and creaturely and they simply cannot capture or communicate in fullness what it means for God to be omniscient or omnipotent. We see a little bit of this type of thinking in the Nicene Creed when we confess that God the Father is the maker of all things “visible and invisible,” and that Jesus Christ is “begotten, not made.” To confess that God is the maker of things that are “visible” is an affirmative statement that cannot capture the fullness of what it means that God has made all things, thus the negative “invisible” is also used to bolster its meaning. Likewise, to confess that Jesus Christ is “begotten” is an affirmative statement that is bolstered by the negative “not made.” Perhaps this strikes you as odd or purely academic – and that is fine – but hopefully it causes you to pause a moment to consider how limited our language truly is, particularly when trying to describe our limitless God. Therefore, it is always best to stick with what God’s Word in the Holy Scriptures has plainly said and not infer more than it has said nor rationalize away what it has said because it seems difficult or impossible to human reason.

Quite often, when we talk about God and His attributes, someone will counter saying, “You can’t put God in a box.” The Swiss theologian Jean Calvin struggled with precisely that issue when considering the manner of Christ’s presence in the Sacrament of the Altar. Because Jesus had ascended bodily to the right hand of the Father in heaven, Calvin posited, He could not possibly be in the bread and the wine on the altar at the same time. Relatedly, Calvin also posited that because the bread the wine are finite objects, they cannot possibly contain the physical body and blood of Jesus who is infinite. In other words, subjecting the Holy Scriptures to fallen human reason and logic, Calvin was arguing, “You can’t put God in a box.” While it is surely true that mere mortal creatures cannot put God in a box, there are times, however, that God, according to the clear testimony and meaning of Scripture, seemingly puts Himself in a box. The Sacrament of the Altar is precisely one of those times, as are Jesus’ incarnation and virgin birth and His bodily resurrection, ascension, and Parousia on the Last Day.

It shouldn’t surprise you that God is challenging to define, to put in a box. After all, God is before all things and the source, origin, and Creator of all things. What can the pot say concerning the potter who made it? Thus, if we are to affirm anything about our God we must turn to His Word, the Holy Scriptures, and what He has revealed concerning Himself through this means. This Lent we are meditating upon one of the chief attributes God has revealed concerning Himself: “God is love.” Three simple, unambiguous words: God – is – love. You want to know something about our mysterious and inscrutable God? Well, this is it: God – is – love. We cannot put God into a box, but God has put Himself into a box, so to speak – a heart-shaped box, for God is love. We cannot know much about God, but we do know something about love – imperfectly, mind you, but still. By exploring this love, by sharing this love with one another and with others we can know something about our God who is love.

St. John says that “love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” In other words, if you have love, that love is from God. And, if you are able to love another, that is because of God’s love for you. For, when you love others, you love them with God’s love. Your love is God’s love flowing through you so that you are both the beneficiary and the benefactor of God’s love. On the contrary, John continues, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” And so it is that the love of God is made manifest through us.

Of course, we do not know God’s love as an emotion, but as a will, a disposition, and as an action. That is to say, we do not know God’s love in an abstract way, but we know God’s love in an intensely personal way: We know God’s love in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. “In this the love of God was made manifest among us,” St. John proclaims, “that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.” This is the same St. John who penned the Gospel in a nutshell: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Let me unpack the meaning of this too-familiar passage: God loved the world in this way – He gave His only Son Jesus Christ over to death on the cross for the sins of the world and every single man and woman in it so that absolutely anyone who trusts in Jesus, regardless of what he has done or she has left undone, should not perish eternally, but instead should share in Jesus’ eternal life. This is what it means that God is love. This is what God’s love looks like and does. God’s love looks like the Father giving His Son as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God’s love looks like the Son so loving His Father that He willingly laid down His own life unto death for the world and the men and women in it He loved so much and in this way.

“In this is love,” John continues, “not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” As I stated earlier, we do not have this love within ourselves unless God has poured His love into us. Unless we have been the undeserving recipients of God’s love, we have no love for God, no love of God for ourselves, and no love to share with others. Because God has loved us, however, we do have love for others, and, as Jesus empowered us in His New Commandment, we are to love others as He has loved us, and by this act of loving others, others will know that we are Jesus’ disciples – they will know we are Jesus’ disciples when we have love for one another.

What can we say about God? Let us say what God has said about Himself through St. John: “God is love.” The next question, necessarily then, is “What then is love?” St. John has answered that question as well: God’s love is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is how God so loved the world. What does it mean for us to love God? To love God is to love those whom God loves, your brother and sister in Christ, your neighbor, your enemy. Jesus has commanded you, which means He has empowered you and sent you to love with His love. It’s not about thinking, and it’s not even about doing, but it’s about being. As St. John has said, “We love because he first loved us.”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Reminiscere - The Second Sunday in Lent (Lent 2)

(Audio)

Matthew 15:21-28; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-7; Genesis 32:22-32

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

What’s in a name? Often, quite a lot. The name Israel, for instance, means literally one who “struggles with God and prevails.” We receive this definition and understanding of the name Israel from Genesis 32:28, the account of Jacob wrestling with the Angel of the LORD, which was our Old Testament reading this morning. In this pericope, the Patriarch Jacob was in great distress, believing that his brother Esau was coming to kill him in revenge for his treachery. Thus, Jacob sent his wives and his servants, his children, and all his belongings across the river and he waited alone for imminent arrival of his brother. Only, Jacob wasn’t alone. There was a man with Jacob, and not only a man, but the Angel of the LORD, whom many theologians understand to be a pre-incarnate manifestation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God. This man engaged in wrestling with Jacob all through the night. Quite literally, Jacob “struggled with God.”

We all experience trials and tribulation in our lives. We have financial struggles, marriage struggles, and parenting struggles. We struggle at home, at school, and at work. When we come home in the evening, we are confronted with struggles in our community, our nation, and our world. We struggle to remain healthy against the natural forces of aging and mortality, and we struggle against spiritual forces which are continually against us, tempting us to sin or to despair so that we take our focus off of Jesus and place it upon something, anything, else. We all face these struggles and know them well, and we know that when we face struggles we should pray to God for help and strength and relief. However, if we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit that, sometimes…, sometimes it truly seems as if God is causing us to struggle, or at least permitting us to struggle. Sometimes it seems as if God is our enemy. We cry out, in our hearts or with our voice, “Why God? Why are you doing this to me? Why are you against me?”

If you’ve felt this way before, know that you are in good company! You stand in a long line of Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles including Jacob and Moses, David and Jeremiah, Peter and Paul, the Canaanite Woman, Luther, and a countless host of ordinary Christian believers who have felt as if God was against them at one time or another. I know that this sounds like something you’re not supposed to feel, to think, or to give voice to, but I say to you, “Go ahead. God can take it.” In truth, there is something very faithful about complaining to God in this way – As with prayer of a more positive nature, you are actually confessing faith in God when you complain. You are confessing that He is there and that He is in control. Such complaints, cries, and screams are still prayers – prayers that confess faith in the God who can bring rescue and who can allow trial and tribulation to come upon you, but always, always with the promise that His grace is sufficient for you, that His power is made perfect in weakness, and that He will never leave you or forsake you, but will see you through, one way or another, and that the victory His has secured for you in His Son Jesus Christ can never be taken away from you, no matter what may happen to you, good or bad, in this life.

This is the example we find in both our Old Testament reading about the Patriarch Jacob wrestling with God and in our Gospel reading about the Canaanite Woman, in effect, wrestling with Jesus. Each of these protagonists demonstrated strong and tenacious faith, even while struggling with a God who seemingly rejected them and even fought against them. Jacob cried out, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The Canaanite Woman took Jesus’ insult, calling her a dog, and insisted, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” God blessed Jacob and changed his name to Israel, which means, one who “struggles with God and prevails.” Jesus praised the Canaanite Woman saying, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.”

The example for us, however, is not that we need to do something, not that we need to have greater faith or hold on more tenaciously. No, that would be to miss the point altogether. The point of these lessons is not that Jacob had such great faith to hold on even when God fought with him and wounded him, nor that the Canaanite Woman was strong to hold on through Jesus’ insults and rejection. No, the point is what these two confessed about their Lord and their God. Jacob insisted on a blessing because he believed and he knew that God would bless. The Canaanite Woman insisted that Jesus have mercy because she believed and she knew that Jesus was merciful. In effect, they both held God to what God had revealed, to what God had said, about Himself. They used God’s own Word against Him. They held Him to His Word and His promises. And, you know what? God LOVES it when you do that!

You see, prayer isn’t a hope, a shot in the dark. When you pray, you can, you should, pray in confidence that God will hear – because He has promised to hear. When you pray, you can, you should, believe that God will answer – because He has promised to answer. Jesus taught that whatever you ask the Father in His Name He will give it to you. This is true! That doesn’t mean He’ll give you that winning lottery ticket you prayed for or that promotion you prayed for – but He will give you what you ask in Jesus’ Name. What does that mean? That’s a good question! To ask in Jesus’ Name is not merely to tack “In the Name of Jesus” on to the close of your prayer, but it means to pray in accordance with the Word and the will of God. Chances are that winning lottery tickets and promotions are not in accordance with the Word and the will of God. Maybe they are; probably not. However, what definitely IS in accordance with the Word and the will of God are the things that He has already promised to give and to do in His Word. Therefore, when you pray, hold God to His Word. Pray His Word back to Him and hold Him to it. That is what Jacob did. That is what the Canaanite Woman did. Even when God seems not to hear, even when He seems to be against you, ask, pray in Jesus’ Name, holding God to His Word. Don’t let go, no matter what, until He blesses you. In this way, your faith will be strengthened and God will be glorified.

This Sunday is called Reminiscere – Remember. It is not we who are called to remember, but it is we who call upon God to remember – to remember His mercy and His steadfast love as of old and to deliver us out of trouble: trouble of our sins, trouble of our enemies. Does God forget? No, of course not. But, He loves to hear you remind Him of His goodness, love, and mercy, and He loves to answer and respond in kind. And, He has answered, He has responded. He has sent you His Son, Jesus. Jesus was truly ignored, insulted, and forsaken by both men and God in our place. He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us, that we might, in turn, become the righteousness of God. Jesus is God’s Word, will, and promise kept for you. Therefore, ask, pray in Jesus’ Name, and do not let go. In this way you show yourself to be a true Israelite – one who “struggles with God and prevails.”

Life is a struggle, to be sure, and the Christian faith and life is a supreme struggle. Christians struggle against sin and the devil, against their own fleshly desires and temptation, against enemies who mock and take advantage, and sometimes even against God who tests our faith that it might increase and grow ever more fruitful. St. Paul provides a long list of fleshly passions and desires that we must strive to resist and overcome. Moreover, He says that it is God’s will that we do, that it is part of our sanctification, His making us to be His holy people. Therefore, you see how we do indeed struggle with God. Left to ourselves, we will surely fail. But, take heart, Christ has fulfilled the demands of holiness for you. Now you are covered in His righteousness and holiness. Trust in Him, especially in trial, tribulation, and temptation, that He has borne the burden for you and shares the burden with you even now. Jesus Christ is God’s promise fulfilled for you. In Him you are baptized. With Him you are fed. You eat, not crumbs from the Master’s table, but the flesh and blood of the Bread of Life Himself. In Him you are blessed. Trust and believe, and call your God to remembrance of this Truth. He loves to hear you remind Him. He loves to bless you anew and to make you a blessing.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Midweek Lenten Vespers in the Week of Invocabit - The First Sunday in Lent

(Audio)

1 John 4:7-10; The Passion History – Part I: The Lord’s Supper

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” This is an exhortation to Christian discernment. There are many spirits in this world, but only one is good and is from God, the Holy Spirit. But how is a Christian to know? St. John provides you the answer: “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.” Not every spirit or teacher speaks faithfully. The world speaks with a different message than the church of God. It may use the same words, especially the word love, but with different meanings. The world and every spirit opposed to God will never love hearing God’s Word nor our Words from God and will oppose them. But those who are of God listen to His Words, and those who know Him will be glad to hear our echo of these Words. 

On the evening of our Lord’s Last Supper, a spirit entered Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ friends and disciples. That spirit was not of God. That spirit was Satan. That Satanic spirit found a welcoming ear in the chief priests and captains who offered Judas thirty pieces of silver to betray Jesus. I am convinced that they actually did believe that Jesus was from God, that He was the Son of God and the promised Messiah. That was not their sin. Yes, they believed this about Jesus, but they did not believe in Jesus, and they were eager to destroy Him. Thus, when Judas offered to betray Jesus, “they were glad to hear Him.” Long ago they had set themselves against Jesus. But Judas was different. Satan had been working on him for a while, slowly, almost imperceptibly. Judas had experienced the love of Jesus personally. He had witnessed Jesus’ great signs. He had seen for himself that Jesus was fulfilling Messianic prophecy. And so, Judas was conflicted. He knew what God’s Word said and that Jesus echoed God’s Word. But he also heard another word, from another spirit, even from Satan Himself, and he began to doubt: “He can’t be the Messiah. The Messiah is supposed to be strong like David and make Israel great again! This man is essentially homeless, and, let’s be honest, He doesn’t seem all too interested in being a king like David anyway.” “And, if He’s the Messiah, why doesn’t He get on with it already and start the revolution? What are we waiting for? We’ve left everything to follow Him and what do we have to show for it? Maybe there’s another way to set things in motion?”

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.” The test is simple enough: Which spirit is from God? The Spirit of Jesus or the spirit whispering in Judas’ ear? Only one spirit speaks what God’s Word speaks. The other speaks the opposite. Only one spirit speaks in love. The other may use the word love, but with a different meaning. For example, there is little doubt that Judas believed he was doing the right thing at the time in betraying Jesus, His Master and friend. Perhaps he believed that he was actually helping Jesus accomplish His mission? Jesus would have wanted him to do it. In ways such as this the Satanic spirit twists God’s Word and the meaning of love, lies, and deceives so that the believer comes to call evil good and good evil and is fully convinced he is doing the loving thing.

But that is not love – not the love of God and the love of Jesus. Satan’s love, Judas’ love, the world’s love is a love curved in on itself, a selfish and self-centered love, a love that is only concerned with what “I” want and with what “I” need, regardless of what others want or need, and regardless of what is good, right, and true. That kind of love is exposed in the clear light of Jesus’ love in accord with God’s Word. While Judas was pondering how he might betray Jesus, Jesus became the servant of His disciples, including Judas, and in selfless humility and self-sacrificial love began to wash His disciples’ feet. Then He taught them, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you. For this I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Such selfless, humble, and self-sacrificial love is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. You will know this spirit, for it confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.” Spirits must be discerned by hearing the teaching of the teachers. The Holy Spirit is at work in the Holy Scriptures. The teaching and Word that proclaims Christ (that Jesus is God come in the flesh) is the Holy Spirit. Any word that speaks otherwise is a different spirit. The Holy Spirit keeps the Church in the one true faith by driving Her to confess what the Scriptures teach. When the pastor speaks Christ, that is the Holy Spirit’s working. When the church confesses Christ in the creeds, the Spirit is there. The Church’s liturgy and hymnody, catechism and creeds, preaching, teaching, word, and deeds are all the outward confession of what Her members believe about Jesus – that He is God come in the flesh, just as the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures, teach. By knowing God’s Word and by the regular hearing of God’s Word and the receiving of His Sacraments, believers are kept in the one true faith and are well-equipped to discern which spirits are from God and which are not. “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. They are from the world; therefore, they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Invocabit - The First Sunday in Lent (Lent 1)

(Audio)

Matthew 4:1-11; 2 Corinthians 6:1-10; Genesis 3:1-21

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

In His Baptism, Jesus became the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One. The Word of the Father proclaimed Him to be His beloved Son with whom He is well pleased. He was the Man, the New Man, the True Man, the Second and True Adam. The Holy Spirit of God rushed upon Him and remained with Him, marking Him as the Lamb that God had provided. Then He was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness or, as St. Mark records, the Spirit drove Him out, or even, threw Him out into the wilderness, to be tempted by the devil.

Jesus is your David. Jesus is your Christ. Jesus is your scapegoat. And Jesus is your Adam – which means, Jesus is you, for you are His Eve, His Bride. This time, when Adam squares off against the devil, He does not stand silently as the temptations befall you, but you are the one who is with Him, and yet says and does nothing. And, this is no garden of paradise filled with fruit-bearing and life-giving trees, but this is a barren and fruitless wilderness, and Adam is hungry and thirsty from fasting. The only thing that is the same is the temptation – “Did God actually say?”

The contrast is striking, and intentional. When your First Adam faced temptation, he had everything that he needed, he lacked nothing. He had plenteous food and water, he had Eve, his helpmate and wife of his own flesh and bone, and he had communion with God, walking and talking with Him, in harmony with His Word and His will. Likely, this is why Satan went after Eve. Eve hadn’t been around when God spoke to Adam about the Trees. She heard the Word and learned the command from Adam. Therefore, Satan sowed a seed in her heart and mind, a seed of doubt – “Did God actually say?” “Well, God has said thus and thus,” she thought correctly. But, somehow, she just wasn’t as certain as she had been before. She felt compelled to bolster God’s Word by adding her own word to it saying, “…neither shall you touch it.” And so, the answer to the devil’s question, “Did God actually say?” is, actually, “No, He didn’t.” He did not say what Eve said that He said.

Oh, Eve, Bride of Adam, what have you done? Oh, Adam, oh man, what have you done? You have traded the Truth of God for a lie. You forsook life and chose the way that leads only to death. You have rejected grace and have chosen wrath. You have rejected communion with God and have chosen forsakenness. You have fled from God in guilt and shame and fear. When He called to you, you hid, passed the buck, and blamed Him. Now you are barred from the garden paradise, life, and communion with God, for your own sake. Is there any hope for your restoration? How could there be? Only God knows. Repent. Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and He relents over disaster. Who knows whether He will not turn and relent?

And that is precisely what He has done. Before the sun sat on the day you rebelled and betrayed your Creator, His plan was already in action: The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Though you, oh man, created in the image and the likeness of God, desired to be God yourself and to judge for yourself what is good and what is evil, take heart, for, in mercy and in selfless love, your God and Creator has become a Man, your brother to defeat the devil and take away the sting of death forever.

In the incarnation, God became a Man and dwelt among us as one of us. He fulfilled the Law’s demands, perfectly loving both God and neighbor. And, when He was baptized by John in the Jordan, God proclaimed that He was His beloved Son, with whom He was well pleased. Then He chrismated and anointed Jesus to be the Christ, the Messiah, the Lamb of God’s offering. And the Holy Spirit lead Jesus into the wilderness as your David to do battle with the Satanic Goliath. However, Jesus did not face the devil and temptation simply in your place as your substitute, but He faced the devil and temptation in your flesh, with you, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, so that His strength in the face of temptation, his reliance on the Word of God, and His victory over the devil were, and are, your strength, your faith and trust, and your victory as well.

Though He was at His weakest according to His humanity, He found strength in the Word of God alone. Three times the tempter tempted Him, first to feed His belly, then to test God, and finally to claim power and glory for Himself, and three times He resisted, not with violence, not with anger, but with faith and trust in the Word of God alone saying, “It is written.”

Consider the objectivity of those words. Jesus understands the Word of God to be something that is true and certain in and of itself. Because this Word is written, because this Word has been spoken, you can bet your life on it. “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God.’”This Word is true! You can face any temptation, you can face the devil himself and overcome by trusting in it. “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” This Word is true! Here the devil cunningly quotes the Word of God, but only partially, leaving out the important Words “to guard you in all your ways.”Never had the Father commanded Jesus to jump from the pinnacle of the temple; thus to do so would be to “walk in a way” outside God’s Word and command. “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.’” This Word is true! And here, in this final temptation, Jesus, the Second Adam, has overcome and resisted all the temptations the First Adam failed. He perfectly feared, loved, and trusted in God above all things, for you, with you, in your flesh and bone.

“Ecce homo,”– Pilate said, “Behold the Man,” “Behold Adam.” When Jesus died on the cross, He died as the True Man, the True Adam, the True Son of God, for all men. He did not merit, earn, or deserve death – you do – but, He, who knew no sin, was made to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God. Your Lord Jesus has taken your Tree of Death and has died upon it for you, and with you, and He has made it to be for you again the Tree of Life. Because of Jesus’ incarnation, obedience, suffering, and death, you are no longer barred from the garden paradise, life, and communion with God, but you have access to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. When you die, death cannot hold you, for Jesus has taken death’s sting, sin, away, but death has become an open door to the Eden of Heaven where God Himself is present, and the Lamb, with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, and the Tree of Life flanks the River of Life that flows from the throne of God and the Lamb. Though now we see through a glass dimly, then we shall see face to face. And, until that day, He has given you a foretaste of the feast in heaven at this communion table of His body and blood that you, His Bride, may have strength, and hope, and faith to persevere until His comes.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Ash Wednesday

(Audio)

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21; 2 Peter 1:2-11; Joel 2:12-19

 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Today, on this first day of Lent, we remember. We remember that we are dust, and that to dust we shall all return. We remember that this is so because we are sinners, conceived and born in sin, sin that was inherited from our fathers, and from our fathers’ fathers, all the way back to our First Father Adam, and sin that we also have committed in the past and sin that we continue to commit in the present. And, not only do we remember that we are sinners, but we confess this fact about ourselves each and every time we gather in this place to receive our Lord’s gifts. However, this day we remember and confess our sins in a different way. Today, we wear our sins. We show them for all the world to see. We hide nothing. We wear our sins boldly, and not in shame, but in confidence, because we know and we believe that all our sins, all our guilt, that which we have committed ourselves along with that we have inherited from our fathers, has been forgiven, washed away, and absolved in the precious, holy, innocent, and cleansing blood of Jesus on the cross.

This day you were marked with ashes, you were marked with dust, as you heard these words: “Remember, O man, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” God made your First Father from the dust of the earth. Because of his sin, and because of your sin, you are destined to return to that earth and dust from whence you came, for you were conceived and born in sin, and sin continues to dwell in your flesh, and the wages of sin is always and only death. And yet, the ashes you wear are in the form of a cross, for your sins are absolved and forgiven in the holy and innocent shed blood of Jesus, the Second Adam, who, having no sin, submitted to the death you justly merit, in your place, that He might give you, in blessed exchange, His holy, righteous, and eternal life. For, in your Holy Baptism you were marked and sealed with a cross you cannot see, and even more, with the Word and Name of God that forgives your sin and seals you in God’s forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ. This is what you must remember this day, and every day of your life: That you are dust, but you are forgiven dust. That you are a sinner, but you are a forgiven sinner. We are all forgiven sinners, for only sinners can be forgiven, and Jesus Christ has laid down His sinless life unto death for you, and for me, and for all people so that, though we all return to dust, we all may be raised a new creation.

And so, today we remember. And what we remember is the goodness, the grace, and the mercy of our Lord and God. And so, we prodigal children also return to Him in repentance: “Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster.” Today we remember that our Prodigal Father is good, gracious, merciful, and unchanging. Today we remember that, though we have often wandered far from Him and squandered His gracious gifts, He remains for us, steadfast and waiting to receive, to forgive anew, and to restore. Therefore, remember and return. Return, therefore, remembering, that there is something, there is someone, to return to. Make your confession, but offer Him nothing; only receive what He gives: forgiveness, life, and salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. And, instead of mourning, He calls you to a feast and a blessing: grain, wine, and oil, His gifts of love to you, for “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.”

And, what shall you render to the Lord for all His benefits? Eat the bread of His body by which He gives you the forgiveness of sin, life, and salvation. Take the cup of salvation, and call upon the Name of the Lord. The highest worship of the Lord is to receive His gifts. Therefore, lay up your treasures, not on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up your treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Your treasure is incorruptible, for it is not a thing, but a person. Likewise, your treasure cannot be taken from you, for your treasure is Jesus.

And, because you have a treasure that cannot be taken away, that cannot be corrupted or lose its value, you have the freedom to live freely. For, you have been made partakers of Christ’s divine nature and are no longer ruled by the passions of the flesh. Remember. Remember who you are in Christ and do not submit yourself once again to the passions and the desires of your flesh. Therefore, this Lententide, take the opportunity to focus more upon those things that proceed from your heavenly treasure and less upon those things that merely satisfy the desires of the flesh. The traditional Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are useful and beneficial, for they focus the soul upon the true gifts that the Lord provides and they strengthen faith, love, and charity.

But, most of all, throughout this Lententide and all the time, remember this: There is always a home to come home to, and a Father with open arms watching and waiting for His wayward sons and daughters to return to Him. Even now the fatted calf is slaughtered and the feast prepared. Come, for everything is ready. Come, bringing nothing but your repentant and contrite hearts. Come, and receive forgiveness, healing, life, and salvation anew. For, the Lord is gracious and merciful, abounding in steadfast love for His children. Return, because there is something, there is someone, to return to.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.