Vespers in the Week of Judica (Lent 5)

(Audio)

John 6:47-58; 1 Corinthians 11:27-34; Psalm 50

 

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

“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.” It seems that whenever Jesus’ words in John 6 are considered a debate breaks out: Does Jesus mean a physical eating here, or a spiritual eating? Surprisingly and sadly, this was even a debate between Doctors of Theology, my professors, while I was a student at seminary. One professor and his supporters insisted that Jesus intended a physical eating; another professor and his supporters insisted that Jesus intended a spiritual eating. This was even a matter of debate during the Reformation that found Martin Luther himself siding with a spiritual interpretation. Following Luther’s death, the Lutheran Church nearly fell apart over several issues including this one, but all was finally resolved in the Formula of Concord, one of our Lutheran Confessions appearing in The Book of Concord. Drawing upon that confession, I resolved that theological tension for myself long ago. Does Jesus mean a physical eating or a spiritual eating in John 6? The answer is clearly and plainly, “Yes.”

Jesus begins tonight’s pericope saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.” It is entirely clear and without argument that it is faith in Christ that justifies, without which one cannot be saved. Then Jesus transitions to the object of that justifying faith, Himself, 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.” It is clear that Jesus is not speaking of mere physical bread, for such bread, like the manna in the wilderness, does not provide eternal life, for all who eat of it eventually die. The object of faith must be Jesus, the whole Jesus, His body and blood, His faith, works, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and coming again.

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven,” Jesus continues, “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.” Here Jesus inextricably links lifegiving bread with His body, His flesh. No, Jesus is not talking about cannibalism here, as many of his hearers understandably believed, yet He does mean precisely what He says – our confessional hermeneutic [our interpretation of Scripture] demands it. Words mean things; and if they are the words of Jesus, not only do Jesus’ words mean things, but Jesus’ words bring into being what they say. The bread the Israelites ate in the wilderness brought life only for a time. It was worldly bread, fleshly bread. The bread, the food, we eat today is no different. The bread that Jesus gives, the bread that Jesus is, however, gives life now and unto eternity. Jesus is the bread of which a man may eat and live, even though he should die physically in the flesh, such that man should never die. And Jesus says plainly and clearly that this bread is His flesh.

“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” The men who asked this question missed Jesus’ first point, “whoever believes has eternal life.” Faith in the Word, faith in Jesus, justifies and saves because of its object, Jesus, the Word of God made flesh. Because of the incarnation, there is no conflict or dichotomy between the Word and Jesus’ flesh, but they are one and the same: “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, and thus men live by eating the bread of Jesus’ flesh both spiritually and physically, for there is no distinction, dichotomy, or contradiction.

“So, Jesus said to them, “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.” Jesus Himself drew life from the Word of God when He fasted in the wilderness forty days before being tempted by the devil. The LORD sustained the children of Israel in the wilderness for forty years, feeding them with the manna and quail promised in His word. Just as men must eat physical bread to live physically, so must men eat spiritual bread to live spiritually and eternally. The thing is that, in Jesus, these two are one and the same.

Therefore, whether Jesus intends a spiritual eating or a physical eating in John 6 is truly the wrong question. In fact, there is no question, for the answer is “Yes, both.” At the point in Jesus’ ministry which John records in chapter six Jesus has not yet instituted the Lord’s Supper, not that John follows a chronological timeframe; he most certainly does not. In John 6 Jesus is catechizing His disciples and all who will hear and believe concerning the one thing needful, faith in His Word, and a spiritual eating. In His teaching, however, Jesus is already pointing them to an outward, physical eating, a sign, that He will institute on the night in which He was betrayed while eating one final Passover meal with His disciples. There is a reason that the disciples do not question Jesus concerning His words, “Take, eat; this is my body,” and “Take, drink; this is my blood”; they’ve already heard this teaching and are well familiar with it, even if they did not entirely understand. 

The Small Catechism teaches that physical, bodily eating and drinking Jesus’ Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper is the main thing in the Sacrament, along with the words, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” Jesus commanded that we physically and orally eat and drink the real bread and wine that He declares to be His true body and blood. But this physical, bodily eating is not the only kind of eating. In fact, without the spiritual kind of eating, faith and trust, the Lord’s Supper is not only not helpful, but is even harmful to us, as the Scripture testifies.

In order to eat and drink the Sacrament bodily for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, and not for judgment, one must also eat and drink Christ’s flesh and blood spiritually, as Jesus taught in John 6. This is nothing other than faith, which Jesus commanded when He said, “This do in remembrance of Me.” When we believe the Word of the Lord, that His body and blood are truly given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins, and then in faith eat the bread that is His Body and drink the wine that is His Blood, then we can be certain that our sins are surely forgiven us and that we will live with Christ forever.

“Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” These words of Jesus are so very comforting and should motivate believers to receive the Lord’s Supper as often as it is offered, for through it our Lord is with us, both spiritually and physically. As He is the vine and we are His branches, so His life flows through us, enlivens us, and makes us fruitful, bearing His fruits in our lives, words, and deeds. He is both host and meal as we make our pilgrimage through the valley of the shadow of death into our Father’s home. He is our manna in the wilderness, our water from the rock, our quail in the evening, our life and salvation now, and forevermore, spiritually, and physically.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Judica - The Fifth Sunday in Lent / Passion Sunday

(Audio)

John 8:42-59; Hebrews 9:11-15; Genesis 22:1-14

 

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

Isaac was the child of promise, a child that would be conceived in a barren womb by God’s Word of promise alone, much as that Word had been spoken into the nothingness in the beginning, conceiving the heavens and the earth. That is to say, what was physically impossible for Abraham and Sarah was possible for God, for whom all things are possible. There was nothing that Abraham or Sarah could do in order to conceive; there was no way to force God’s promise to be fulfilled on their own terms or by their own machinations. There was only faith, or better yet, trust – trust in God, trust in God’s Word, trust in God’s promise. There was only faith, but that was enough.

God chose Abraham. There was nothing special about him. He was an idolator amongst idolaters, a man of unclean lips dwelling amongst a people of unclean lips. God could have chosen anyone else, and probably should have chosen no one at all, but He didn’t; He chose Abraham and He called Him. And, Abraham believed God – Abraham trusted in God – and God counted Abraham’s faith, Abraham’s trust, as righteousness. That is to say, Abraham wasn’t righteous, and neither was his trust righteousness, but God chose to look at it that way; God chose to count Abraham’s faith as righteousness. So long as Abraham had faith – so long as he trusted in God and in His Word – Abraham didn’t have to be perfect, it didn’t matter that he was unclean, for God considered him clean – it was His choice, His work, His mercy, and His grace, because of the Son of Promise that God Himself would provide.

It was twenty-five years later that God fulfilled His promise to Abraham. Sarah conceived when she was ninety years old and she bore the son of promise, Isaac, whom God had promised would be the father of Abraham’s offspring as countless as the stars in the heavens. All along, God had been honing Abraham’s faith, strengthening it and increasing it. Though Abraham believed God in the beginning when He first called Him to leave his father’s home and journey to an unknown land that God would reveal to him, God continued to lead Abraham by faith and not by sight, blessing him again and again, answering his prayers, and increasing his wealth and prosperity. Though Abraham faltered when God delayed in blessing him with the son of promise, after Isaac’s birth, Abraham’s faith and trust was stronger than ever before. That is why, when God commanded that Abraham sacrifice his only son Isaac, the son of God’s promise, trusting in the LORD and in His Word of promise, Abraham was prepared to do it.

This story of the would-be sacrifice of Isaac, perhaps more than any other story in the Holy Scriptures, confounds believers and unbelievers alike, and provides unlimited fuel for the fire being fanned into flame by atheists and those who hate God and His Word. They ask, “How can a good God command His faithful servant to sacrifice the son that He promised to him? Even if God knew that He would stay Abraham’s hand, what wicked perversion to put a man through such torture and terror.” These are, of course, questions of theodicy, seeking a justification for God’s actions. Sometimes they are described as the problem of evil or the problem of suffering. Countless theologians, philosophers, and armchair psychologists have written treatises on theodicy, nearly all of them unsatisfying. I will simply remind you of what I stated earlier: God owed nothing to Abraham. He called Him of His own choosing, not because there was anything special or righteous or good about Abraham, but he was a sinner just like you and me. God chose to bless Abraham. If God chose to revoke the blessing, He was free to do so. God is holy; we are not. God is good; we are not. God is God; we are not, but we are His creatures. What complaint does the pot have before the potter? If the pot develops a crack, the potter is justified in destroying it. To approach theodicy in any other way is to transgress the First Commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me,” particularly yourself.

However, there is much in the story of Abraham and Isaac that the atheists and unbelievers, and, sadly, many Christians fail to see. This was a test, a test of Abraham’s faith and trust, not in God’s goodness, not even in God Himself, but of faith and trust in God’s Word of promise. Would Abraham trust in God’s Word even when it appeared to be so terribly wrong, even evil? Would Abraham kill his son of promise, trusting that God would still keep His Word and, someway, somehow, provide through him offspring as countless as the stars in the heavens? There is a powerful witness in this story that Abraham’s faith in God’s Word was precisely that strong. God was not wrong in counting Abraham as righteous, as He was not wrong in counting Job as righteous, as He was not wrong in counting Mary, the mother of the Son of Promise that God really had in mind, as righteous and blessed because she believed and trusted in the Word of God even when it seemed so terribly wrong, impossible, and even evil.

The first indication of the profound nature of Abraham’s trust comes when he first gazes upon Mount Moriah, three days journey from his camp. It was then that Abraham gave instruction to his servants traveling with him and Isaac saying, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” Was Abraham lying to his servants when he said that he and Isaac would return to them? No, he was not. In fact, the preacher to the Hebrews in chapter eleven, verse nineteen says of Abraham, “He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.” Abraham so trusted in God’s Word that he believed that, even if God required the sacrifice of his son of promise, God would still keep His promise and would raise Isaac from the dead. Abraham truly believed that he and the boy would return.

The second indication of the profound nature of Abraham’s trust comes when the boy Isaac asks his father, “Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Then Abraham answered him saying, “God will provide for Himself the Lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” Here Abraham confessed his faith that God, ultimately, would provide His own sacrificial Lamb. Indeed, God did just that when “the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, ‘Abraham! Do not lay your hand on the boy.’” Then “Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.” Thus, Isaac’s life was spared by the sacrificial lamb God provided. Yet, Abraham knew that this gift was but a foreshadowing of the True Lamb that God Himself would provide as a substitute for all the sons of men in His only-begotten, beloved Son Jesus – the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. “So Abraham called the name of that place, ‘The LORD will provide’,” and his offspring through his son of promise continued to confess, “On the mount of the LORD is shall be provided.”

This was the faith of Abraham, and this was the faith of his offspring through his son of promise, Isaac, the children of Israel – that the LORD would provide in His own Son of promise, the Messiah, the Lamb of God’s self-offering that would atone for the sins of all men, the sins of the entire world. What Abraham experienced that day on Mount Moriah was a type and foreshadowing of what God would accomplish on that very mountain upon which Jerusalem would be founded and the temple constructed, where the only-begotten Son of God, Jesus, would bear the wood of the cross upon His back and lay down His life into death for His friends, for His enemies, for those who hate Him, for the life of the world. That day on Mount Moriah was the day of which Jesus said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” Therefore you too, offspring of Abraham, children of promise, not according to Abraham’s flesh, but according to Abraham’s faith – we remember that day and we celebrate that day, the day in which God had mercy upon us all, loved us all, and died for us all that we might live in and with Him forever.

All who have Abraham as their spiritual father rejoice in the day of Jesus’ self-offering just as did he. They are the true children of Abraham, and they are the true children of God. However, those who reject Jesus have another father. Jesus Himself teaches that their father is the devil, a liar, and a murderer, and the father of lies. Those who reject Jesus reject the Lamb of God’s offering, the sacrifice that God has provided as a substitute. Therefore, they will not be released and return home, as was Isaac, but they will be burned in the fire of God’s wrath against sin. For, there will be a judgment upon those who reject the judgment that has already been placed upon and fulfilled in Jesus’ self-sacrifice upon the cross. For, Christ has been judged in your place, as your substitute, for the atoning of your sins. He, who was innocent, was made to be sin for you that you might become the righteousness of God. Never did the blood of countless bulls and lambs atone for sin, but the blood of the Lamb of God’s self-offering has taken your sin away that you may live in peace with God. More than that, in His Son He has adopted you as sons, sons of promise: “If anyone keeps my Word, he will never taste death.” He has been judged, guilty, in your stead. Therefore, you are judged, not guilty, even innocent, righteous, and holy by declaration of God’s Holy Word. It is finished. Go, in His peace.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Christian Funeral for Donald William Bahe

(Audio)

John 6:27-40; 2 Corinthians 4:7-18; Lamentations 3:22-33

 

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

Child of God, devoted husband, loving father and grandfather, hard worker, farmer, country boy, veteran, hero – there are many words that describe Donald William Bahe; these are but only a few.

Don grew up on the family farm east of Waverly. He was baptized and confirmed at St. Paul Lutheran Church, Artesian where he also attended country school. Don didn’t go to high school because his father broke his back and he had to help the family on the farm. Hard work was in his blood. Don wasn’t into sports, neither playing nor watching them. He would say, “Why like sports? You can spend all that energy on something productive.” In short, what did Don love? Don loved WORK! There was always work to be done on the farm. Inevitably, the cattle feeders were always empty when the family needed to be somewhere. “This won’t take long,” Don would say, but there was time, and then there was Don Bahe’s time.

Apart from the family farm, Don also worked at the Waverly Sales Barn, the Artesian Creamery, Armour Fertilizer Plant, and the Jens Olesen Construction Co (which later became Prairie Construction) for forty-three years as a heavy equipment and crane operator. As a crane operator, Don was instrumental in several major projects in the Cedar Valley including Covenant Hospital in Waterloo, the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls, and Wartburg College in Waverly. His dream was to operate a tower crane, and he got to do it on the Covenant Hospital job. Once again, Don was a hard worker and he poured everything he had into his work. Don became known as the best crane operator in Waterloo. Job, farm, family – that is what was important to Don, and in that order. One year the harvest needed to be finished on the farm, but Don said, “Nope, I gotta work.” Work always came first. That was just the kind of man Don was – Dependable, loyal, honest, good. Job came before farm and family sometimes because of his integrity; He had made a promise to do a job, to do it right, and to get it done, and the worst thing Don could do was fail to keep that promise. Still, he loved raising and selling cattle with help from Charlene and his sons. Don found the time to do it all.

Work even came before Don’s personal health and safety. Don once broke his leg changing the tire on a crane in icy weather. He put his leg up on the crane for leverage, slipped, and broke his leg. Another time he was operating a tractor with a hand clutch, with his broken leg in a cast. The hand clutch kept rubbing again the cast and eventually put a hole in it. When he went for his checkup, the doctor asked if Don had been protecting his leg, but he knew from the condition of the cast that Don had been working. Then on another day the workman’s comp inspector came to visit Don, who had to scramble to hide the fact that he was operating the tractor putting a roof on a shed. And, of course, Don was such a blessing to his church when they built the new addition and the new bell tower. To save the church money, Don brought his crane over. However, Don’s muscular disease at the time had progressed to the extent that he couldn’t climb up into the cab. Kenny Fischer offered to use his backhoe to lift Don up to the cab. Up Don went in the bucket and into the cab and he finished the project for his beloved church.

Though he was extremely talented, Don was a very humble man. He never boasted about his hard work, skills, and abilities, but he let other people do the talking for him. Don was an ingenious inventor of useful things. The family wouldn’t have survived on the farm without Don’s inventiveness to create useful things. He was always picking up miscellaneous parts and making new things out of them. Don built a bridge over a creek on the farm using hog panels and support beams taken from the old UNI Dome scoreboard. When it was finished, he put it in place over the creek with his crane. However, the bridge was too short. “Not a problem,” said Don, “we’ll just move the dirt closer!” And he did! He bulldozed the dirt on either side of the creek and created new standings for the bridge. Don also refurbished an old cement mixer and used to it to pour cement for numerous jobs. Son Dwayne is a PE teacher. One time he was telling Dad how his school needed some PE equipment but there wasn’t a budget for it. He showed Don the equipment in a catalog and Don said, “I’ll make it for you.” Don crafted a hula-hoop holder, a jump rope cart, and other things Dwayne needed for his instruction.

Don did slow down occasionally, sort of. Don and Charlene enjoyed wintering in South Texas. Eighteen years they traveled to Texas to enjoy the sun and the company of good friends. But even there Don had to keep busy. There was still work to do. There’s a photo of Don riding a scooter pulling a large piece of a shed down the lanes of the Palm Shadows RV Park. Where there’s a will, and a genius mind for ingenuity, there’s always a way.

Given Don’s love for work, solving problems, inventing solutions, and generally just doing all the time, and doing it himself, you can imagine how extremely difficult it was for Don to have all that stripped away from him little by little once the symptoms of Inclusion Body Myositis began to manifest. Don was diagnosed in 2008, but the symptoms were already manifesting at least a couple years earlier. One of the early symptoms Don experienced was the loss of strength in his hands and arms. There were some men in their eighties carrying five-gallon pails of oranges in each hand with no problem, but Don, much younger, struggled mightily to do the same. That was not normal. Something was very wrong. IBM is an inflammatory muscular disease that weakens the muscles over time, particularly in the hands and legs and feet such that common, everyday activities like turning a doorknob or zipping a zipper become impossible. Slowly, over time, the man who did everything for himself and for everyone he loved couldn’t do much of anything for himself, and worse, for anyone else. The man who had his own time, Don Bahe’s time, to work and get things done now had nothing but time and could do precious little but watch the world go by slowly and painfully.

Understandably, Don suffered from bouts of depression the result of his condition. The disease didn’t merely steal Don’s ability to work and do things, it stole his identity, and it made him feel worthless and a useless burden at times. Now, of course, he was none of those things, but Don was still a child of God, devoted husband, loving father and grandfather, hard worker, farmer, country boy, veteran, and hero, but he didn’t feel like it, and now he needed more love, care, and support from those he cared for all those years than he was able to give in return. And you gave it. You adjusted your lives to accommodate Don’s needs. You modified your home, your vehicle, your activities, and you kept Don going – still going to church, to fish fries, to Texas in the Winter, still going.

It was during the worst of those years for Don that I got to know him and visit with him. I knew that Don was struggling with several difficult questions like, “Why would God let this happen to me?” and “Why doesn’t God do something?” I shared with Don a biblical perspective I learned from Martin Luther known as The Theology of the Cross. In short, the Theology of the Cross is this: God hides Himself in weakness. St. Paul writes of this in his First Epistle to the Corinthians saying, “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” It’s the idea that what men most prize and value and covet in this life and world is foolishness before God, and what is wise in God’s eyes is often rejected as foolishness by men. Of course, Jesus Christ is the greatest example of this. Jesus was rejected by men as merely a humble carpenter from the backwater country village of Nazareth. For a time, some believed Him to be their king and Messiah, but He got Himself arrested, tried as a criminal, and executed by the Romans. In the eyes of men, Jesus’ crucifixion and death was sad, pathetic, weak, and a failure, but in the eyes of God it was, and it is, victory over sin, death, and Satan and the fullness of the glory of God. Jesus taught, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” We are all given crosses to bear. And we don’t get to choose our crosses, but our God and Father places them upon us to bear in faith, hope, and trust in Him that we will endure and persevere. There is no way around the cross, but Christ has borne the cross for us all, and He accompanies us as we bear our crosses through the valley of the shadow of death that is our life in this world. And He has traversed that valley for us already, and He has defeated death that would have kept us in our graves, turning it into an open door into His Father’s house where He has prepared a place for Don, and for you, and for all who trust in Him.

The past year Don’s disease forced him to spend some time at Bartels for rehabilitation. The staff there believed that he should remain there long-term. But Charlene knew that wouldn’t be good for Don. Don was a country boy. He wasn’t going to stay at Bartels and look at the tops of trees. At home, Don could look out his big picture window and he could see the highway, watch the crops grow, watch the clouds roll in and out. So, Don came home to the family farm. There was no place he’d rather be. Such loving care was involved in selecting Don’s final resting place as well. Don had written in some notes that he thought maybe Harlington Cemetery in town would be fine. However, the family just didn’t feel that was the right choice. Don was a country boy. “I just don’t see him there,” it was said, “in town, in the city. It’s just not him.” And so, Don will be laid to rest in a rural cemetery not far from the family farm and fields and open sky he knew and loved all his life. I think you made a good choice. That’s just Don.

Child of God, devoted husband, loving father and grandfather, hard worker, farmer, country boy, veteran, hero – there are many words that describe Donald William Bahe; these are but only a few. Perhaps hero is one that we should take a moment to consider. When Don died on Monday, Dwayne sobbed bitterly and said, “What am I going to do now? He was my hero.” Yes, Don was a hero. His hard work, determination, ingenuity, and sacrificial service to others was heroic. His battle with a terrible debilitating disease was heroic. His faith and trust in God despite it all was heroic. His thankfulness and gratitude, even through suffering, was heroic. Let us all honor Don by emulating his heroism in our own lives. And let us honor his faith in God and his Savior Jesus to whom be praise and glory in all things.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Vespers in the Week of Reminiscere (Lent 4)

(Audio)

1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Exodus 16:1-35; Psalm 34

 

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

There’s a game people like to play called Desert Island. The idea is to imagine that you are on a desert island, and that you only have access to a limited number of …, whatever: Books, songs, movies, food, you get the idea. The point is that you’re going to be reading, listening to, watching, and eating only those very few things every day for the rest of your life, so you better be selective in what those things are going to be. Truth be told, however, no matter how selective you are, and no matter what you select, you’re going to get fed up, bored, and tired of those things sooner or later, and then you’re going to start to grumble and complain. It’s only human; that is, since the Fall.

We have food to eat, clothing to wear, a roof over our head, and so much more, but it’s not good enough, or it’s not novel enough, or the grass is always greener somewhere else, or I’m bored, so something has to change. We crave novelty, excitement, and continual change, … except when we don’t. The bottom line is that we are never satisfied, never content, always restless, always seeking some great fulfillment, and we end up rejecting the good things that God provides us every day, thinking them common and mundane. Consequently, we are ungrateful, thankless, discontent, and generally miserable. Good thing we’re on a desert island all alone! Who would want to be us? And because we are so ungrateful, we fail to let our light shine, the light of God’s goodness, mercy, love, grace, and forgiveness, but we keep it under a bed or under a basket where, not only does it not help us, but it helps no one else either.

It had been exactly one month since the LORD delivered the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt through the waters of the Red Sea. He had demonstrated unequivocally that He was for them, and with them, and would never leave them, and that He keeps His promises. How quickly did they forget. How quickly did they cease to be grateful. “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” Think about their complaint for a moment. They preferred bellies full of meat and bread, along with slavery and harsh labor – even death! – to freedom and a more mundane diet that would still provide them necessary sustenance for health and life. Such thoughts are indicative, not merely of those who have forgotten the LORD and His goodness, but of those who no longer believe that the LORD is good, but instead believe Him to be capricious, malicious, and evil. They believed that the LORD who had preserved them in Egypt for 430 years, and who had lead them out of slavery with a mighty hand and powerful signs, did so in order to watch them suffer and die of hunger in the wilderness for His own pleasure. Truly, it is not the LORD who is capricious, malicious, and evil, but such are the corrupted hearts and minds of fallen men. They, and we, are the children of our First Parents who fell; and, as it is said, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve was not to disobey God, at least not at first, but it was to think of Him as capricious, malicious, and evil. His question, “Did God really say?” was intended to raise the suspicion that there was something more than what the LORD had said and that He was intentionally, maliciously, holding out on them and keeping something good from them. In that first question, the seed of doubt was already planted, and in Eve’s response it already bore its poisoned fruit. Eve responded correctly with the word of the LORD concerning the tree, “do not eat of it,” but she betrayed her doubt by adding her own words to strengthen that word and to reassure herself, “and do not touch it.” Satan knew that he had her, and he bald-facedly contradicted the LORD saying, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” And there you have it; the accusation was that God was willfully and intentionally, maliciously, holding back some good from them. “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” And all of this took place in a lush, fruitful, garden paradise where they were provided everything they could possibly need or want: Freedom, plenteous food, perfect health, life, righteousness, holiness, innocence, and a loving relationship with their Creator and LORD.

However, the LORD did not punish or destroy His children, but in His mercy and compassion He sent them out from the garden, away from the Tree of Life, and He put into motion a plan of rescue and salvation that they should be restored to Him once again and live. The LORD would send His own Son to become a man, the Seed of the Woman, that through His perfect, righteous, and sinless fear, love, and trust in God, and through His innocent suffering and death, Jesus would crush Satan’s head and fulfill for all men what our First Parents, the Israelites, and we their children, have failed to do, thus deserving temporal and eternal punishment and death. No, our LORD is not capricious, malicious, and evil, but He is the very essence of goodness, love, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness.

The LORD provided His people daily bread – literally “bread for the day.” He gave them manna in the morning and quail in the evening, bread and meat. And He sealed His promise with the sign of His presence among them, His glory appearing in a pillar of cloud. Yet still, many did not trust Him, and they hoarded the manna, which spoiled, stank, and bred worms. For forty years the LORD provided for His people and sustained them, for He heard their grumbling, and He knew their need, and He provided for their needs, not what they believed that they needed or wanted, but what He knew that they needed and what was best. The people were not to trust the LORD because of the meat and the bread, but they were to trust in the LORD because He is good and He keeps His promises. The food He supplies is not intended to fulfill our every desire, for our desires are fallen and corrupted by sin, but to fulfill our true need, our need for God and His Word. Simple bread and meat will fulfill our bodies’ needs for life and health well enough, but our true need is not physical and material, but spiritual. A bit of hunger is not a bad thing if it causes us to be aware of our spiritual need for the Living Bread of God’s Word, and the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ.

In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus has provided us a meal that meets our spiritual needs. The bread and the wine we drink is not intended to fill either our bellies or our desires, but to provide us the spiritual gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. We do not eat a multi-grain artisanal bread, but a bland, tasteless, thin wafer. We do not drink a fine Boudreaux, but an inexpensive, sweet, and syrupy wine. Nevertheless, in, with, and under these humble elements we receive precisely what Jesus’ words proclaim, His real and true body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins, life, and salvation. We do this in remembrance of Him. And as often we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. The Lord’s Supper is our manna and quail, our bread for the day, as we make our way from slavery and bondage to sin and death, through the wilderness of this valley of the shadow of death, into the promised land of God’s kingdom forevermore. We do not eat and drink because the bread and wine fulfill all our desires, but because they provide us all we need to sustain us spiritually along the way. He who created us, body and soul, provides us daily with everything we need for our bodies and lives. The LORD has heard our grumbling as well, and He graciously provides for us. Let us give thanks unto the LORD, for He is good, and His mercy endures forever.

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.

Just as there are but two ways, a way of life and a way of death, so also are there but two sources of food and nourishment, one that delivers life and one that delivers death. And, these two have been from the beginning, in Paradise, where God planted a tree whose fruit He caused to deliver life and where God also planted a tree whose fruit He caused to deliver death. And, as I have instructed you before, it was not the trees nor their fruit in and of themselves that caused them to deliver life or death, but it was God’s Word which He attached to those trees and their fruit that caused them to deliver life or death.

And so it is also with food, particularly with the symbolic staple that is bread: There is a bread of which a man may eat that always delivers life and there is a bread of which a man may eat that always delivers death. The bread of which a man may eat and live is the Bread of Life, the Word of God, and the Word made flesh Jesus Christ. The bread of which a man may eat and die is any other bread. To be sure, there is the bread made by the hands of men through the toil and sweat of his brow having its origin in grain sown and harvested by the famer, ground into flour by the miller, and baked into bread by the baker of which a man may eat and nourish his body and grow and live for a time, but it cannot deliver life eternal and its end is always and only death. This is the bread by which, alone, man cannot and does not live. Yet, there is a bread of which a man may eat and live and never die. Our Lord God provides us both kinds of bread, feeding us in body and in soul that we may live. However, only one bread delivers life that cannot and does not die. We must seek and find, desire and treasure that bread above all else. That bread is the one thing needful that feeds the soul even when the body hungers and languishes.

In captivity in Egypt, the children of Israel ate bread and meat until their bellies were full. For 430 years they ate and they slaved and they died while their souls longed for, desired, and were fed upon the spiritual bread of God’s Word that sustained them through those dark years. When the LORD delivered them from Pharaoh across the Red Sea, they left behind, along with their slavery and suffering, the pots of meat and baskets of bread, but they were free and they were happy for they had the LORD and His Word. But the desires of the flesh are against those of the Spirit and the people began to grumble that they had no food. They desired to dwell in Egypt in slavery once again where they at least had meat and bread and were not hungry.

They grumbled against the LORD and His servants, and the LORD heard their grumbling and promised to feed them. He caused manna to appear on the ground each morning. The people were instructed to gather only enough for their household each day. This was a test. Would they believe and trust in the Word of the LORD, or would they surrender to the desires of their flesh and gather more than a day’s worth? The manna was nothing to be desired, and intentionally so. They were not to trust in the bread, but in the LORD who provided the bread. He said it would be enough and, for those who trusted, it was. But, for those who did not trust, the extra they had gathered spoiled, stank, and bred worms. The LORD provides daily bread, bread sufficient for the needs of body and life for the day. And, the LORD provides spiritual bread, His Word, sufficient to sustain the soul for the day and for eternal life.

The LORD had lead the children of Israel out of Egypt in the Passover, where a great distinction was made between the way of life and the way of death. A clear distinction was made then between those who trusted in the LORD and His Word and those who did not. The LORD had commanded His people to mark the doorways of their homes with the blood of an unblemished one year old male lamb. The Angel of Death passed over their homes, not merely because of the blood, but because of the LORD’s Word of command attached to the blood. The homes of those who disregarded and did not trust in the Word of the LORD suffered the loss of their firstborn, both man and beast. It was not the blood alone, as it was not the fruit alone, as it was not the bread alone, nor anything else alone, but it is always the Word of the LORD in, with, and under these created things that delivers life or death in accordance with His Word.

And so it was near the celebration of the Passover that a great multitude had followed Jesus into the wilderness because they had seen the miraculous signs He had performed. Jesus took this opportunity to teach about the two ways, the way of life and the way of death, by teaching about the Bread of Life that is the Word of God. “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” Jesus asked His disciple Philip. It was a rhetorical question meant to test Philip’s and the other’s faith. “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little,” Philip answered. He was right. “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what they for so many?” said Andrew. He was right as well. There was nothing that man could do or produce to feed the multitude and satisfy them physically and make them live. How much less could man do to feed them with the Bread of Life that they might live spiritually and not die?

Once they had confessed their failure and inability to provide bread and life for themselves, Jesus had them all sit down in the grass. Now that they were done striving and worrying they were prepared to receive what the Lord Jesus would do in His Word. Jesus took man’s meager provisions and gave thanks to God, the giver of bread, life, and all things, and distributed the bread and fish, as much as they wanted, to those who were seated (were some perhaps still standing and missed out?). When the Word of God became flesh and made His dwelling amongst us, then also did the LORD take up man’s meager provision, flesh and blood, and provide of it sufficiency and abundance. Jesus is God’s gift of Bread and Life of which a man may eat and live and never die. Jesus is the spiritual fountain of God’s providence of which a man may drink and never thirst again. For, Jesus is the Word of God made flesh: He is the heavenly manna which continues to feed, nourish, and sustain our lives as we make our pilgrimage through this wilderness world and life to the Promised Land of God’s kingdom in heaven.

Man knows a good thing when he sees it! The multitude were so amazed and impressed with Jesus’ miraculous feeding that they rushed to make Him their Bread King. He was indeed their King and He would be their King, but not by force, and not the way they understood His Kingship and Kingdom. You see this is the problem with sinful men, this is the problem with us, and this is the problem with the so-called Prosperity Gospel and its proponents, men like Joel Olsteen, Oral Roberts, Ken Hagen, Benny Hinn, and nearly everyone on the Trinity Broadcasting Network: we see Jesus, we see God as a means to an end, a way to get what we want and desire. Jesus is King, not because He gives us what we want, but because He is what we need and He gives Himself freely to us. Jesus is the Bread of Life of which a man may freely eat and live.

Very soon now, in our Lenten pilgrimage, we will hear the voices of those who would make Jesus their King turn against Him and crown Him with thorns as they cry “Crucify! Crucify!” Like the children of Israel before them, they rejected the gift God gave them and hungered and thirsted for the meat pots, bread, and rivers of Egypt and that devil Pharaoh and slavery. Part of the reason that fasting is recommended during Lent – and even throughout the year – is that, by causing the body to experience even a twinge of hunger, fasting can be used as a spiritual discipline to remind ourselves that man does not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God and that our lives do not consist of the abundance of our possessions, but that it is the Father’s good pleasure to give to us the Kingdom.

The children of the free woman must not submit themselves once again to a yoke of slavery, but live in the freedom of grace and the Gospel. Their bread is not what fills the body but what nourishes the soul. Come, eat this bread that will surely not fill your body or the desires of the flesh, but will nourish your soul and strengthen your faith, for it is the body of Christ given for you. Come, drink this wine that surely will not quench your thirst, but will comfort your soul, for it is the blood of Christ shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. Jesus says to you, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.” “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.”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Vespers in the Week of Oculi (Lent 3)

(Audio)

Luke 22:19-20; Acts 2:42-47; Psalm 116

 

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

There is a method of praying the Psalter known as in persona Christi, that is, in the person of Christ. First, you heard me correctly, you do not merely read the Psalms, but you pray the Psalms. Second, you should think of the Psalms as Jesus Christ’s personal prayers to His Father, which He invites you to pray with Him; not merelybeside Him or at the same time as Him, mind you, but to actually pray the Psalms with Him and as Him. This method of praying the Psalms works better with some Psalms than with other, but in general, your understanding of all the Psalms will benefit from praying them in persona Christi.

This evening’s Psalm 116 is one that particularly benefits from such a reading. In the Septuagintal Greek, the Psalm is divided into two parts. The first part of the Psalm begins with the words “I loved the Lord,” and the second part with the words “I believed.” The voice in the Psalm is that of Christ our Lord. It is He who says, “I have loved” and “I have believed,” for loving and believing are not simply religious requirements laid on the Christian conscience, but they are characteristics modeled in Christ the Lord. All love and all belief begin in Jesus. Any loving and believing that we others may accomplish is an inner participation in His loving and believing, for His loving and believing form the font of our salvation.

Jesus loved the Father in His Passion, the mystery of His suffering and death endured for the sake of our salvation in loving obedience: “The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.” Jesus did all these things because of His love for the Father: “I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father” (John 14:31). Yet, Jesus did all these things because He loved us as well. St. Paul refers to our Lord simply as “Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). Because of His love for us, Jesus gave Himself up to death on the cross: “The life I now live in the flesh,” writes St. Paul, “I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). The self-offering of Jesus is the supreme proof of His love for us: “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2). So, in this Psalm, which is especially concerned with the mystery of His sufferings, Jesus our Lord begins His prayer: “I have loved.”

In the midst of His suffering and distress Jesus called upon the Name of the LORD. Then, abruptly and dramatically, the tone of the prayer changes to a hope all but realized as though His suffering’s supplication had already been answered: “Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; our God is merciful. The LORD preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.”

Truly the Lord’s Passion was a sustained act of worship. Out of love for His Father and for us “He offered up Himself” (Hebrews 7:27). The death of Jesus was not a mere miscarriage of human justice; it was the supreme act of worship that endowed all mankind with God’s justice. It was the single deed of such fitting and supreme devotion as to render possible humanity’s access to God for all time and into eternity.

You will recall that James and John, the sons of Zebedee requested to sit at Jesus’ right and left side in His kingdom. Ironically, this request followed upon Jesus’ clear teaching concerning His coming suffering and death in Jerusalem. In response to their inappropriate request, Jesus asked them a question, “Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” (John 20:22). The cup to which He refers is the cup of His Passion and death, the very cup He prayed to be removed from Him in Gethsemane. Not understanding Him, however, the brothers confidently answered that they could drink of that cup. Jesus assured them that they would indeed drink of His cup, but it was not His authority to grant their request to sit at His side.

In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus beckons us to participate in His worshipful sacrifice: “Do this in remembrance of me.” “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” That cup contains the very price Jesus poured out for our salvation: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16). The drinking of this cup of salvation is itself a proclamation of the mystery of the cross, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). Thus, the question Jesus put to the two sons of Zebedee – “Can you drink the cup of which I am to drink?” – establishes the essential relationship between our reception of the Holy Communion and our dedication to follow Him along the way of the cross. Like the mystery of the cross itself, drinking the cup involves both God’s grace and man’s response of love and thanksgiving: “What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.”

The “cup of salvation,” wrote Origen in the third century, is the cup of martyrdom, the Christian’s supreme identification with the death of the Lord. For the tradition of the Church, “the cup of salvation” refers to the Holy Eucharist in its fullness, the wide dimensions of which include at once the grace of God, the cup of blessing, the baptismal vows, the gathering of the Church, and the vocation to martyrdom. Thus, Psalm 116 is prayed from within the very heart of the Christian mystery.

The Gospels indicate that Jesus and the disciples sang hymns at the end of the Last Supper. As it was Passover, they undoubtedly sang the Hallel psalms which include Psalm 116. Thus, in the very setting of the Institution of the Holy Eucharist, just before He went forth to the Garden of Gethsemane to accept the cup from the hand of his Father, Jesus stood with James, John, and the other disciples singing; “What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.”

Thus does the Lord’s Supper stand in the very center of everything the Church believes, teaches, and confesses, received by the faithful every Lord’s Day, that is every Sunday, as described in Acts chapter 2: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” So they loved, and so they believed, and so we love and believe, until He comes.

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.

“There are two ways, one of life and one of death, and there is a great difference between the two ways.” So begins the ancient Christian document dated to the end of the first century known as The Didache or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, essentially an early Christian catechism. The Didache goes on to say, “The way of life is this: first, you shall love the God who made you; second, your neighbor as yourself, and whatever you would not have done to you, do not do to another.” As you can hear, the Didache is not a novel instruction, but simply a reiteration of the Great Commandment to love God and to love your neighbor. What is striking about the Didache, however, is how it denotes strongly, and immediately, that there are only two possible ways – one way that leads to life, and one way that leads to death, and that there is a great difference and distinction between the two ways.

But this distinction is not novel either. Indeed, it is a continuous doctrine throughout the Holy Scriptures. In his farewell address to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 30:19, Moses said, “Today, I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants.” The same two ways are found in Jeremiah 21:8 and in Jesus’ words from Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” Likewise, in today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” Indeed, when it comes to faith, life, and salvation, there is only one way, Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, apart from whom no one can come to the Father.

After the fall, all humanity, all creation was plunged into sin and the way that leads to death. It was God’s gracious and merciful work that set man on the way of life once again. God clothed our First Parents’ nakedness by shedding innocent blood, pointing to the sacrifice that He Himself would make, shedding the blood of His Son Jesus as a sacrificial Lamb to take away the sins of the world. The entire Old Testament is the account of those were called off of the way of death to walk in the way of life, and those who, by their own fallen will and decision chose to walk the way of death apart from and against the LORD. God set His people apart, He sanctified them and made them holy as He is holy. They were not to be like the pagan nations that surrounded them. Even when He caused them to go down into Egypt, the LORD set His people apart as holy and His own.

We see the LORD in action in the account of the Ten Plagues. Pharaoh’s magicians were able to mimic a number of the plagues initially, however, soon they were unable to copy the works of the LORD done through His servants Moses and Aaron. Thus, we see not only that the devil is a liar and a deceiver, but that, ultimately, His power is limited and controlled by the LORD Himself. Pharaoh’s magicians had to confess, “This is the finger of God.” The “finger of God” is an anthropomorphism for the Holy Spirit. In today’s Gospel, Jesus claims to exorcise demons by the “finger of God” as well. After the plague of gnats, which Pharaoh’s magicians could not mimic and copy, the LORD began to make a clear distinction between His people Israel and Pharaoh and the Egyptians. In the next plague, the plague of flies, the homes of the Egyptians would be filled with flies while the homes of the Israelites dwelling in the land of Goshen would be spared that the Egyptians would know that the LORD dwelt in the midst of His people.

All of the Levitical laws served to set God’s people apart as holy and distinct from the pagan nations surrounding them. The LORD’s people were not to participate in the activities and ceremonies of the pagan nations: They were not to tattoo, scar, or pierce their bodies in any way; they were not eat the blood of animals; they were not to worship images carved from wood, bone, or stone; they were to worship one God, the only God, and serve Him only. This sanctification, this setting apart for holiness, continues in the New Testament Church as St. Paul writes to the Ephesians in our Epistle: “Be imitators of God, as beloved children. […] sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, […] Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, […] but let there be thanksgiving, […] for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true).

Jesus had just cast out a demon from a man who couldn’t speak. You would think that people would view this as a good thing, right? Instead they accused Jesus of casting out the demon by Beezelbul, that is, by the power of Satan. Jesus effectively called his accusers on the ridiculousness of their thinking saying, “Excuse me, but is a mute man regaining his speech a good thing or an evil thing? Is a demon being cast out of a man a good thing or an evil thing? You agree with me that it is a good thing, right? Then, let me ask you this – Does Satan work for good? Does Satan cast his own demons out? Would Satan work to release this man from Satan? No, of course not! Satan would be working against himself. Therefore, I say to you, every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?”

There is a way of life and healing and forgiveness and all that goes with it, and there is a way of death, which is any other way. If Satan’s kingdom is being overrun, if his palace is being plundered – and it most certainly is – then you may know that the kingdom of God has come upon you. In fact, Jesus is the King, and He brings the kingdom with Him. When He casts out demons, when He heals, when He raises the dead, when He opens ears to hear and eyes to see, when He baptizes, forgives sins, and restores life, Satan’s palace is being plundered and God’s kingdom is being established. Satan’s kingdom and household fall about him and there is nothing he can do.

When Peter answered Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am?” with his great confession, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” Jesus praised Peter saying, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” Then Jesus said to Peter, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hellshall not prevail against it.” Contrary to our Roman Catholic brothers’ and sisters’ belief, the rock upon which Christ promised to build His Church was not the man Peter, but rather that man’s confession, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Moreover, Christians often misunderstand Jesus’ meaning when He said, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Too often Christians think this means that hell will not conquer the Church. While, this is most certainly true, that is not precisely what Jesus says. Rather, Jesus says that hell will suffer and fall under the attack of Christ’s Church. It is the defensive gates of hell that will not prevail against the Church. Gates don’t attack, they defend and keep out. Jesus is saying that the gates of hell will not be able to stand against the advance of the church, the kingdom of God. And that is precisely what Jesus demonstrated in His ministry: “The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” Blessed are those who are not offended by Him.

One of the ways in which the kingdom of God is established and Satan is cast out is through Holy Baptism. When a child is baptized, Satan’s palace is plundered just as it was when Jesus exorcised the demon from the mute man in today’s Gospel. This is why the baptismal liturgy has traditionally included an exorcism in these words: “Depart thou unclean spirit and make way for the Holy Spirit, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” Yes, in Holy Baptism, Satan is cast out and the soul is reclaimed for God’s kingdom. This is why Baptism is no light or trivial matter. It is not a mere ritual performed by men, but it is the “finger of God,” the Holy Spirit, in action.

However, as Jesus warns in today’s Gospel, the Holy Spirit must take up residence in the person from whom Satan has been exorcised, or else he will return, and the fate of that person will be worse than it was previously. This is why Holy Baptism does not work ex opera operato, it is not a work that is efficacious in itself, but it must be accompanied by faith in order to benefit a person. In baptism, the Holy Spirit creates faith, but faith is sustained and strengthened by the Word of God. Thus, when a woman in the crowd cried out to Jesus saying, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” Jesus replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.”

When you are reclaimed for the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ, you become His servant in His kingdom. Christ has called you to follow Him in the way of life. You remain in that way by keeping His Word and receiving His gifts. But, it is a narrow way, and broad and easy is the way that leads to death. You must take care not to stray off the way. Yes, the Lord will keep you and protect you; staying on the way is not a work you do, but straying most certainly is. You belong to Christ, but Satan, your enemy, will lie to you and try to deceive you that you are not Christ’s or that Christ is an unfair master. This is why you must keep God’s Word, hear, learn, and inwardly digest it. This is why you must receive the Lord’s gifts regularly for forgiveness, the strengthening of your faith, life and salvation, and protection from the lies and deceits of your enemy. It is the Holy Spirit who keeps you in faith, but if you resist Him and stray from Him, over time your heart will grow cold and will harden. How much time? Only God knows, but it is not prudent or faithful to put the Lord to the test. Therefore, He gives you this promise: Remain in Him, and He will remain in you. He will never leave or forsake you. May your eyes be ever turned toward the LORD, for He will pluck you out the net of your enemy, and He will keep you in His kingdom until He can crown you with eternal life.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen. 

Christian Funeral for Betty Lou Nielsen

(Audio)

John 14:1-; Romans 8:31-39; Job 19:21-27

 

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

Betty was always happy. She enjoyed the simple things of life: Family, making a home, crafting, horse and buggy rides around town, enjoying time with her children and grandchildren. Betty and Harold were married fifty-four years when Harold died in 2011. They had a good life together and they were happy.

I met Betty when I was called to be the Pastor of St. John Lutheran Church here in Waverly about five and a half years ago. By then Betty had become a resident at the Shell Rock Nursing Home. Having never been to the nursing home, I walked in and was greeted by a smiling, joyful woman sitting at a table in the entranceway coloring with markers and colored pencils. It was Betty. Though we had never met before, Betty recognized my uniform and collar. “Are you my Pastor?” she asked hopefully. “Are you Betty?” I asked in return. “Yes, I am!” she answered enthusiastically. “Then I’m your Pastor!” I confirmed. I sat down with Betty, we talked for quite a long time, and then we received communion together. This was interrupted several times as Betty had to introduce me to everyone who walked by saying, “This is my Pastor!” She was always so very happy and joyful. Every time I would visit, I would take her off to the side of the main dining room, trying to get a little privacy to have a conversation and to receive communion, but it was always public, and Betty always wanted to introduce people to her Pastor.

I didn’t have the blessing of knowing Betty when she was healthy, vibrant, and independent. So, I was happy to hear a bit more of what she was like from Bill and Julanne the other day. Nevertheless, what they shared with me fit very well with the Betty I did know. Through those meetings with Betty at the nursing home, I witnessed her simple, childlike faith. She loved Jesus, there’s no doubt about that. I’m not so certain that she always understood everything I tried to share with her from the Bible, but so long as it was about Jesus and His love, Betty was right there with me, and she wanted to share that love with others. In those early years, while Betty was healthier in both body and mind, she was essentially the Queen of the dining room, holding court with all her subjects, both residents and staff. On more than one occasion she was even wearing a tiara! Everybody knew Betty, and Betty was always smiling and spreading joy and happiness to others.

The past two years were especially difficult for Betty. When the pandemic broke out in 2020 the Shell Rock Nursing Home, like most across the country, strictly limited visitors and the conditions under which they could visit. I’m sorry to say that this deeply affected my visits with Betty. One day during that time I received a phone call from the nursing home informing me that Betty had entered Hospice care and was failing quickly. I went over there right away, but they wouldn’t let me enter the building. They invited me to walk around to the back, to Betty’s window and communicate with her that way. Well, that didn’t work very well; in truth, it was a complete failure. Betty was in bed on the other side of the room away from the window. Further, she couldn’t hear all that well when I sat next to her, let alone from outside a window across the room. So, I did the best I could; I screamed a prayer and made sure Betty knew that Jesus loved her. Clearly the LORD wasn’t ready to call Betty home just yet, but the next time I was able to visit with Betty, she was in a considerably worse state than when we used to sit and talk together and have communion. Visits were short and mostly one sided. My goal was to bring the comfort of Jesus to His dear child.

In circumstances such as that, I believe that the words of St. Paul from Romans chapter eight are extremely comforting: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? […]  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” No matter what we face, we never face it alone; moreover, Christ our Lord has faced it all before us and has won for us the victory over sin, death, and the grave. Truly we are more than conquerors through Jesus because He has conquered, and He shares His victory with us.

It was Jesus’ victory over sin, death, and the grave that gave Job his great confidence and peace in trial, tribulation, and suffering as well, and that was over two thousand years before Jesus’ birth! You will recall that the LORD permitted Satan to afflict Job with intense suffering and loss to prove that Job feared, loved, and trusted in Him freely, and not merely because God had blessed him so richly. First Satan took Job’s livelihood by taking his livestock. Then he took Job’s children in tragic death. Lastly, he took Job’s personal health and wellbeing. In all this Job did not sin; he would not curse God and die. Job confessed, “The LORD has given, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the Name of the LORD.” And when Job was but a breath away from death, he took comfort in Jesus’ death and resurrection, which wouldn’t happen for two thousand years, proclaiming, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!”

Now, I doubt that Betty had these Scriptures in mind, per se, or that she thought about what she was going through and her faith in the manner of either St. Paul or Job. No, I believe that Betty’s faith and understanding was much simpler and more childlike than that. And that’s perfectly okay. In fact, that’s wonderful! Betty simply knew that Jesus loved her and that she loved Jesus. And that gave her peace and comfort and hope and joy all the days of her long life. And that should give you peace and comfort and hope and joy, amid your sorrow, grief, and loss, knowing that Betty is with her Jesus, safe and at peace, and that, if you share her simple, childlike faith in Jesus, you will see her again one day, a day on which the sun will never set, and no one will ever take that joy from you.

“Let not your hearts be troubled,” Jesus said. “Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Let not your hearts be troubled. Our Good Shepherd Jesus has called His dear lamb Betty home to His heavenly pastures where His sheep may safely graze. There she has joined her beloved Harold and others she loves in peace and joy in the presence of Jesus. There she waits for others she loves to join her, for Jesus has prepared a place there for you as well. This is His amazing grace.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.