The Feast of St. Michael and All Angels

(Audio)

Matthew 18:1-11; Revelation 12:7-12; Daniel 10:10-14; 12:1-3

 

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

“Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Those were Jesus’ final words last Sunday, spoken to a bunch of Pharisees who wished to condemn Him for healing a man on the Sabbath. The Pharisees despised the man with dropsy because they were proud and self-righteous. They considered the man beneath them, socially and spiritually; therefore they thought themselves justified in not extending to him love, mercy, and compassion. The Pharisee’s pride had enslaved them, for pride is in continual need of maintenance to keep it high and lofty and full. Pride is insatiable and will not bear the slightest diminution. And, because pride must be maintained, satisfied, and protected, the proud are inhibited from loving others. Pride is the epitome of self-love, selfishness, and self-righteousness. The proud will not, and cannot, enter the kingdom of heaven, for the kingdom of heaven cannot be obtained by effort, decision, or choice, but it must be received as a free gift by grace through faith.

And so today we heard Jesus’ disciples question Him about greatness in heaven. It was a wrong-minded and backward, though innately human, question. Our fallen humanity’s predilection to selfish pride, self-justification, and a belief in the merit of our works is definitive of our fallen nature, the Old Adam in each of us. Try as we may, we simply cannot shake off the beast entirely or crucify our flesh and its desires and passions. And yet, that is precisely what Jesus calls you, exhorts you, and commands you to do, every day of your life. Every day you awake, remember your baptism by making the sign of the cross “In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Confess your faith by praying the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. And confess your sins and pray for God’s absolution and protection throughout the day using Luther’s Morning Prayer. And then, at the end of the day, before you retire, remember your baptism by making the sign of the cross once again, “In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit,” confess your faith and your sins, and pray for absolution and protection through the night using Luther’s Evening Prayer. Bookending each day of your life in remembrance of your baptism, in repentance for your sins, and in the confident assurance of God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ helps you to crucify your flesh and its sinful pride. It keeps you humble. It keeps you in Christ. It keeps you in the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus answered His disciples’ wrong-minded and wrong-hearted question about greatness by teaching them about the necessary Christian virtue and fruit, humility. Jesus placed before them a child, a paidion, that is, a young child, a helpless child, maybe even an infant. Such a child, like the widow, the unclean, Gentiles, or known sinners had absolutely zero social standing in the first century Jewish culture and religious community. Such a child was the epitome of humility. And yet, Jesus taught His disciples that, if they did not become like that little child, they could never enter the kingdom of heaven. This was a continual theme in Jesus’ teaching. He told Nicodemus that he must be born again, and Nicodemus was confounded asking, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” However, Jesus was talking about baptism, being born again of water and the Holy Spirit. Truly, being born is the most humble human experience there is. You did not decide to be born. You did not deserve to be born. You had no right to be born. You did not choose your sex, your race, your parents, your nationality, your financial or social status. Being born is not a decision or a choice, but it is something that happens to you in which you are completely passive. Jesus would have you understand that this is how you are in relation to your God. This is how it is that you come to faith and are saved: Passive. God causes you to be born again by the creative work of His Holy Spirit through His Word made flesh Jesus Christ. No one comes to the Father except through Him – period.

You must humble yourself like a little culturally and socially and spiritually irrelevant child. You bring nothing to the table with God, not a one of you, which means that you are no better than anyone else when it comes to your standing before your Creator. Therefore, you must view your brother and sister in Christ, you must view your neighbor, the stranger, and even your enemy as being no less than yourself. You must receive them and respect them and love them and forgive them as God, in Christ, has received, respected, loved, and forgiven you. Only when you humble yourself and repent of your sinful pride, selfishness, and self-righteousness will God declare you great in the kingdom of heaven.

God’s holy angels look after His humble, repentant, little children. That is why there is rejoicing in heaven over a sinner who repents. God’s mighty, powerful, holy angels guard, protect, and defend His children from the Evil One and his demonic horde. And woe to you, therefore, if you cause one of His little ones who believe in Him to sin. Woe to you if you present before them a stumbling block by your arrogant, prideful, selfish, and self-righteous treatment of them. So serious is the Lord about this that He says to you, “If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away,” and “if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.” “See that you do not despise one of these little ones,” Jesus says, “For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.”

Yes, God’s majestic angels, so mighty and powerful and holy, were created to serve Him and, perhaps surprisingly, they were created to serve you, His humble children. And, that was something one particular angel, Lucifer, could not handle. As I suggested last Sunday, Lucifer’s immense pride was, in large part, the cause of His fall. Lucifer could not accept the fact that God had placed Adam and Eve and all humanity above him and the holy angels. Lucifer perceived this as a slight to his pride and he was filled with anger and hatred for God, and for you whom God loves so very much. Therefore, since he could not harm God, his wrath was poured out against the object of God’s love, you His precious children. Truly, Satan hates you because he hates God. He doesn’t care if you worship him, but all he wants is for you to reject God and His Christ. He wants to destroy you, to murder you, to see you suffer the pain and eternal torment that he suffers. He knows that this is the only thing that can hurt God, to cause you to reject Him and burn in hell forever. Therefore, Satan tempts you. He tempts your pride, so that you look down upon others and judge and condemn them. He tempts you to selfishness and self-righteousness, to lovelessness and lack of mercy and compassion. He tempts you to justify yourself in your anger and hatred against others, to be merciless and unforgiving, to harden your heart so that you cannot love and, consequently cannot receive love or be forgiven. You will become like the hard packed soil of the path, and Satan will snatch the life-giving, faith-creating Word of the Gospel from you, and you will die.

There was a war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the great dragon Satan and defeated him. But he was thrown down to the earth in a great rage where he now afflicts the children of God. He is filled with great and desperate wrath because he knows that his time is short. He is a liar and a deceiver and a murderer. But he is defeated. His power to keep you in death was destroyed when the sinless Son of God Jesus Christ died in your place. Then the “Seed of the Woman” crushed the head of the seed of the serpent. Therefore, do not fear the one who can kill the body, but fear only the One who can kill both body and soul in hell. That One is NOT the devil, but that One is God.

There was a war in heaven, but now that war has come down to earth, and your soul is the battlefield. The truth is, your Enemy has been defeated, but still he tempts you and deceives you to despair that he is the victor and to destroy your faith in Christ. Do not give into him by being fearful and prideful and unmerciful and unforgiving. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Pray. And, repent, daily, in all humility. Return daily to your baptism and put on the armor of God by which you may withstand the fiery darts of Satan. Do not be afraid. You are not alone, but God’s holy angels watch over you, protect you, and defend you. God commands His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. And, do not, by your pride and arrogance, selfishness and self-righteousness, and lack of mercy, compassion, and forgiveness despise any of the LORD’s little ones who believe in Him. But, come, now, and be cleansed and forgiven, nourished, strengthened, equipped, and sent in the precious and holy body and blood of Jesus Christ that you may persevere and endure. To God alone be all glory, praise, and honor.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

IED LWML Westgate Zone Fall Rally Matins

(Audio)

Luke 21:1-4; Romans 12:1-2; Genesis 2:7-9, 15-25

 

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

Well, I hate to break it to you ladies, but the hymn that is your theme for this rally is not a Lutheran hymn. Sure, it’s appeared in several Lutheran hymnals: the LSB, LW, TLH, LBW, SBH, and the ELH to say the least. It’s been doctrinally approved, and you all pretty much have known it, well, forever. Still, it’s not a Lutheran hymn. “Take My Life and Let It Be” was written by Frances Havergal, an Anglican. She wrote both the text and the tune. What inspired her to write the hymn was a brief visit to Areley House in Worcestershire where Frances prayed that the ten persons in the house not merely be converted, but that they would be made rejoicing Christians. “Lord, give me all in this house!” she prayed. And, as the story goes, He did. Frances recounted, “Before I left the house everyone had got a blessing. The last night of my visit I was too happy to sleep, and passed most of the night in praise and renewal of my own consecration, and those little couplets formed themselves and chimed in my heart one after another, till they finished with, ‘Ever, only, all for Thee!’”

The consecration Frances mentions here refers to an experience she had December 2, 1873, while reading a devotional book titled “All for Jesus!” which set forth “a fulness of Christian experience and blessing exceeding that to which she had as yet attained.” “Although she had loved the Lord and served Him for many years, upon reading this book she realized her ‘experience was not up to the standard of full consecration and spiritual power, or of uniform brightness and continuous enjoyment in the Divine life’.” This yearning for an ever deeper spiritual experience was typical of the evangelical fervor of her day and, perhaps, of our day as well. Typically, it goes by the name Enthusiasm or Pietism.

Is such yearning for a fuller Christian experience and blessing somehow bad? Well, it certainly can be, as in the case of Enthusiasm and Pietism, but it doesn’t have to be, if understood in the right way. The LORD personally created our First Parents in His image having a holy desire for righteous communion with Him. After the Fall, that desire remains, though corrupted. As another popular hymn has put it, we’re “looking for God in all the wrong places; looking for God in too many faces.” People are want to say that we all have a “God-shaped hole in our hearts” that we’re desperately trying to fill. Suffice it to say, it is the human condition after our Fall from grace.

Frances states her desire for consecration plainly in the first stanza of the hymn: “Take my life and let it be / consecrated LORD to Thee. / Take my moments and my days; / Let them flow in ceaseless praise.” This pious and holy desire resonates with the language of the Psalms, particularly Psalm 139: “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” Frances goes on to pray that her hands and feet, voice and lips, intellect, heart, and love might all be consecrated to the service and glory of the LORD.

Consecration isn’t really a Lutheran word, at least when it is used in this manner. We often refer to the Words of Jesus spoken or chanted over the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper in the Divine Service as the consecration, but when we speak of using our bodies and minds, our lives, our intellect and talents, and our material resources to serve and glorify the LORD, the word we typically use is sanctification, a work of the Holy Spirit. Our sanctification is a pious and holy desire created in us by the Holy Spirit who “calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies, and keeps us in the one true faith.” Once we are justified, converted, through baptism and faith, we are also sanctified. The LORD declares us holy in Christ, and the Holy Spirit begins the lifelong work of making us to actually be holy, a work that is completed only in the resurrection of our bodies on the Last Day. Our sanctification, however, is not a feeling or an emotion, although it may evoke feelings and emotions, but our sanctification is a proclamation of the LORD and the work of the Holy Spirit. Thus, St. Paul writes, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”

To present your bodies as a living sacrifice is act of gratitude. When you recognize and confess that all you have, your body and soul, your reason and all your members, your time, treasure, and talents, the totality of your life, is a gift of God’s grace, then your sacrifice of these to the LORD is an act of confession and gratitude as you give back to God a portion of what He has given to you, and as you selflessly share your gifts with those the LORD puts before you to serve without hesitation, sadness, or resentment, but with Christian love and joy.

Which brings us to the story of the Widow’s Mite, the inspiration behind LWML’s most well-known symbol and source of revenue for National and District Mission Grants. “Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, ‘Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on’.” It is immediately apparent that what we give as an offering is much less about the amount than it is a matter of the heart, the motivation, the love. Jesus praised the widow for her offering because it was literally all that she had. Let’s be honest, if it came down to paying the mortgage, the utility bill, or buying groceries as opposed to putting money in the offering at church, for most the offering would be sacrificed. But the widow did not do that, but she gave her last two pennies. But why? Well, we’re not told precisely, but Jesus’ praise suggests that the widow gave all she had because she trusted in the LORD who had been faithful and good to her in the past, that He would continue to be faithful and good to her in the future. And she gave all that she had, not grudgingly or with resentment, but with contentment, peace, and joy. “Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.”

So, the idea of the Widow’s Mite is that you give out of your poverty, want, and need. The idea of LWML Mites is that you give out of your abundance, leftover pocket change. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Jesus doesn’t chide the rich who gave their offerings out of their abundance, but rather he praises the widow who gave all she had out of her poverty. A living sacrifice is, well, a sacrifice. LWML Mites are more akin to a fund-raising effort than an offering, but that’s okay. A whole lotta good is done when Lutheran women nationwide pool their resources to support mission endeavors of all kinds. Truly, giving back to the LORD is a personal confession of what you believe about the LORD: That He is good; that He is faithful; that, whether He is giving, or He is taking away, nothing has changed; that He works all things for the good of those who love Him.

Frances Havergal wanted to give her whole self, as much as possible, to the service and glory of the LORD. That is what “Take My Life and Let It Be” is truly confessing. Your living sacrifice is an outward confession of what you believe in your heart.

To God alone be all the glory.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 17)

(Audio)

Luke 14:1-11; Ephesians 4:1-6; Proverbs 25:6-14

 

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

“Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.” That is the Third Commandment. That is why we are here today. No, it’s not Saturday. It doesn’t really matter what day it is, but we gather on this day because it is the Lord’s Day, the day of Jesus’ resurrection. Sabbath doesn’t mean Saturday. Sabbath means rest. The Sabbath Day is a day to rest in the Lord. Yes, it is true that the LORD commanded His people, and you, to not work. There is even an account of a man who was caught gathering sticks on a Sabbath who was put to death for His contempt. That is why some sects of Judaism are prohibited to even flip on a light switch or to punch digits into a microwave oven on a Sabbath. To perform any labor, regardless of how menial, is thought to be a violation of the Sabbath law. Therefore, you can plainly see why Jesus fell so quickly out of favor with the Pharisees. Jesus regularly helped and healed people in need on the Sabbath. He encouraged His disciples to pluck grain and eat on the Sabbath. But, should we therefore conclude that Jesus had contempt for the Sabbath? Did Jesus have contempt for the LORD? No, of course not. But, once again, we see that the Pharisees believed that they practiced the letter of the law, which they truly didn’t, while they knew nothing of the spirit of the law, which is love. Love is the fulfilling of the law. Doing the godly loving thing is always the lawful thing.

The man who was executed for gathering sticks on the Sabbath was doing so, not out of loving service, but out of contempt for the Sabbath and for the LORD. Those who willfully neglect taking rest in the LORD, time to hear His Word and receive His gifts and return to Him thanks and praise do the same. Thus, Luther explains the Third Commandment in His Small Catechism saying, “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.” You see, there is absolutely nothing in this commandment about not working, not serving, not doing what needs to be done to care for yourself and others, but the Third Commandment is all about receiving – about setting aside sacred time to rest in God’s Word and Gifts, to thank and to praise Him. If your ox falls into a well on the Sabbath, by all means, help the poor beast and pull him out! And, if anyone has need and you have the means and opportunity to help them, even on a Sabbath, not only are you not prohibited by the Third Commandment, but you are actually commanded to do the godly loving thing, to do the lawful thing, and to help that person. As Jesus taught, “Just do it!” 

And so it was that Jesus was dining with the Pharisees in the home of a Pharisee on a Sabbath day. You can be certain that some goy (Gentile) prepared the meal, lit the lamps, and even opened the door for the guests. The Pharisees were watching Jesus carefully. That is to say that they were hoping to catch Him in some transgression of the law that they could accuse Him and condemn Him. It was a trap. “And behold, there was a man before Him who had dropsy.” Dropsy would be called edema today, a swelling of the limbs due to excess water. One who suffered from dropsy in the first century would have been considered to be especially unclean, both due to the disfigurement it caused and due to the assumption that dropsy was a result of immoral behavior. St. Luke introduces the man with dropsy saying “And behold!” It almost sounds as if he miraculously appeared before Jesus; and maybe he did. The Pharisees would not have permitted him in because of his uncleanness. Perhaps Jesus saw him outside the window or passed him on his way in. However he appeared there, the man with dropsy became an object lesson by which Jesus would catch the Pharisees in His own trap.

When the man with dropsy appeared before Him, Jesus turned to the lawyers and Pharisees and He asked them, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” They could not answer Him a word, so they remained silent. Though they wanted to say, “No, it is not lawful to heal on the Sabbath,” they could not, for the law that was written on their hearts and in their conscience convicted them. They knew that the spirit of the law was to love, that godly love is always lawful. This was an opportunity for the lawyers and Pharisees to repent, to be changed in their hearts and minds, and to be cleansed, healed, and restored from their sin-sickness-unto-death. And, over the course of Jesus’ ministry several did including Nicodemus and Saul. However, most did not, but they hardened their hearts against Jesus and against God’s law, against God Himself. In the end, they stood in firm opposition to the LORD, even though they knew in their hearts that He was right and true and innocent. They condemned Him and sent Him to the cross and murdered Him rather than risk losing their power, wealth, and influence among the people.

Jesus did not hesitate. He was not ruled by fear and coercion under the law, but was free in the spirit of the Law and the grace of the Gospel that He embodied and which He was proclaiming to all who felt the burden of their sins and uncleanness and cried out for mercy in humility and repentance. “He took him and healed him and sent him away.” Then Jesus pointed out the hypocrisy of the lawyers and Pharisees by reminding them how they would without hesitation help their son or daughter or a beast of burden that was in distress on a Sabbath, but they would not lift a finger to help the man with dropsy, claiming obedience to the law of God as an excuse for their lack of love, mercy, and compassion. Once again they had nothing to answer. They remained silent, convicted by the truth and righteousness of the Word of the LORD.

However, this incident wasn’t about the law at all, at least, not for Jesus, but it was about the Gospel. That is why Jesus quickly turns to teach about humility. Jesus knew the hearts of the lawyers and Pharisees. They were filled with pride and self-righteousness. Their reading of the law permitted them to judge and condemn others and to justify themselves. They believed that they kept the law exceedingly well, and they did in some respects, but, in truth, they had lowered the bar of the law in order to make it more do-able, and yet kept that bar high enough that most others fell short. It’s rather easy to keep the Sabbath if all it means is to sit on your butt and not lift a finger to do anything or help anyone. However, that is NOT what the Third Commandment commands. The Third Commandment, like all the Commandments, commands love for God first and, consequently, godly love for the neighbor – for all neighbors, at all times, without exception or discrimination, even on a Sabbath, perhaps especially on a Sabbath.

Jesus knew that the lawyers and Pharisees enjoyed and coveted the honor and prestige they had among the people. Therefore He told them a parable about not seeking the highest places of honor when invited to a feast or a banquet. Jesus instructed them to take the lowest place that they might, perchance, be invited by the master of the feast to move up higher, and then be honored in the presence of others since that means so much to them. Jesus doesn’t care about the honor of men, but He knew that the Pharisees did. Still, there was a barb in Jesus’ parable, for the entire situation placed the Pharisees in a passive and receptive position: They were invited to a feast. They might be invited to move up to a higher place. This was not the way the lawyers and Pharisees imagined themselves. They were proud. They assumed that they merited and deserved the invitation, that they merited and deserved the place of honor. Their pride blinded them. They couldn’t grasp the concept that, before the LORD, they were no more worthy, meritorious, or deserving of honor than were notorious sinners – tax collectors and prostitutes – or the unclean – lepers, Samaritans, Gentiles, the woman with the flow of blood, or even the man with dropsy whom Jesus had just cleansed and healed before them on a Sabbath. Indeed, that man was not invited to the feast by the lawyers and Pharisees, but he was welcomed and honored by Jesus in their presence and given the highest place – the love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, healing, and cleansing of Jesus, the Word of God made flesh, the fulfillment of the Law of God, the Lord of the Sabbath and of us all.

“Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” I suppose this is a law statement to those whose hearts are proud and hard like the lawyers and the Pharisees, but to those who are humble and broken, to those who confess and acknowledge their sinful weakness and unworthiness before the LORD, it is pure, beautiful, glorious, and liberating Gospel. And, that is what the invitation is in Jesus’ parable – Gospel. You do not get into the Wedding Banquet of King Jesus by your merit and worth, but you are invited by grace – grace alone, received through faith alone, in the Word of God Jesus Christ alone. And, though you do not merit a place of honor, you are honored with a place – a place Jesus has prepared for you in His Father’s House, to which He will come and raise you from death to reside forever with Him on the day of His return in glory.

It is said that the cause of Lucifer’s fall from grace was his pride, hence the phrase, “Pride goeth before the fall.” I suspect that there was more to it than that, but there is no doubt that pride was a significant part of his fall. However, pride takes many forms: Self-righteousness, self-importance, selfishness, arrogance, rudeness, insensitivity and lack of compassion and mercy, impatience, lack of self-control, wrath, intolerance, lovelessness. Therefore St. Paul exhorts you to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” This begins in your home with your husband, wife, and children, and in the church, your family of faith in Christ. Here is where you are given to love and endure and forgive, so that you may be a light, leaven, and salt when you leave this place and witness to Christ and the glory of the LORD in the world. Right here, in this place and in your homes, more than anywhere else, you must humble yourself and serve your brother and sister in Christ so that you may be equipped to love and show mercy, compassion, and forgiveness to your neighbor in the world, be he friend or foe. For, “there is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” The man with dropsy, the lawyer and the Pharisee, the tax collector and the prostitute, the homosexual, the tax cheat, the liar, the divorcee and the adulterer, the petty thief, the gossip and the backbiter, the fearful and the hateful, the unforgiving, and, yes, even you, are invited to the Wedding Feast. However, do not come with your prideful and arrogant expectations of self-worth and self-importance, but come in humility, in broken-heartedness, contrition, and repentance and you will be honored. You will be honored with forgiveness and healing and restoration and life that never ends with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For, all are one in the LORD, “there is no distinction: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This is His gracious invitation to you. As you have received, so must you also share, for this is the fruit of repentance and love to the glory of God.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Christian Funeral for Kathleen Marie Janssen

(Audio)

Matthew 11:28-30; Hebrews 12:1-2; Isaiah 61:1-3, 10

 

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

A good nurse is a force to be reckoned with. They can be stern, strict, and no-nonsense, and caring, compassionate, and empathetic, all at the same time. My mother was an LPN in surgery and recovery for thirty-five years and she has told me numerous stories of how she or another nurse saved the life of a patient by correcting doctor who was about to make a serious mistake. Personally, as a Pastor, I’ve witnessed nurses correct a doctor with a kind, but firm, word and a glance that said all that needed to be said. Nurses like that take their vocation very, very seriously. They are servants, not employees, and they do what they do out of love, compassion, true empathy, and not a small amount of faith. Our sister in Christ Kathleen Marie Janssen was such a servant, as a nurse, as a wife, as a mother, as a Christian, as a friend, and in countless other ways. Kathy was a force to be reckoned with, a force for great good, and we give thanks to God today for His good gift to us as we remember Kathy’s life and faith, and as we commend her to our gracious and merciful Lord who died and rose again to make Kathy and all who will believe and are baptized His own.

Kathy graduated the top of her class at Wellsburg High School in 1952. She immediately enrolled at Allen Memorial Lutheran School of Nursing where her lifelong passion for nursing began. She graduated in the fall of 1955 as an RN and began working at Allen Hospital. Within a year she was promoted to Head Nurse for the medical surgery floor. She was only twenty years old! Kathy counted becoming an RN one of the greatest accomplishments of her life. Doctors get all the attention and the credit, and usually the dollars as well, but anyone who has spent time in a hospital and observed what is going on knows that it’s the nurses who do the really difficult and necessary work: Drawing blood; hooking up IVs; dispensing medications; getting patients to the toilet and back; cleaning them up when they don’t make it; etc. Being a nurse is being extremely close to, even enmeshed in, what it means to be human: Laughter and tears, joy and sorrow, elation and suffering, life and death. Not everyone is cut it out for it, but Kathy was. Grace under pressure, a servant’s heart, strengthened and guided by her faith, an image of Christ and His love and mercy.

But Kathy’s servant heart was larger than that. There was room for a husband and family. Kathy married the love of her life Alfred Janssen on September 1, 1956. Al was as much a servant of the Lord as was Kathy. That force to be reckoned with had become a power couple! Together Al and Kathy served in numerous ways, most notably, for our purposes, in the church. Al & Kathy were members here at St. John for over sixty years! Kathy served on every single church committee there was, but without a doubt what she enjoyed most was serving in the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League. Locally, the St. John Dorcas Society, our congregation’s society of the LWML, serves the St. John congregation in numerous ways, but probably most noticeably by preparing and serving luncheon receptions at funerals, just as they will be doing today. Kathy helped to prepare and serve countless luncheons, and she was happy and joyful to do it. In fact, one of Kathy’s requests was that the luncheon for her funeral be catered, because she didn’t want her friends in the Dorcas Society to work so hard for her. However, they all feel the same way as Kathy; they want to do it, and they want to do it for her! So, the ladies will be preparing Kathy’s luncheon, and I know that Kathy would understand, because they share her servant heart and they want to serve, remember, and give thanks for Kathy by serving her family and friends in this way. But Kathy also served the LWML at the District level as a District Board member and as Vice President of Mission Projects and as District Historian. Kathy also worked on the Constitution Review Committee and served as a delegate to the International Convention in 1987. Along with nursing, Kathy counted this service as one of her greatest joys.

Together, Al and Kathy had three children, Marcia, Laura, and Daniel, seven grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. Laura said that she remembers how her Mom was always there when they got home from school. Marcia recounted the fresh baked treats Kathy prepared for the kids for when they came home after school. Other kids had Ding-Dongs and Ho-Hos, but they tasted like plastic compared to Kathy’s homemade cookies, bars, and banana bread. Kathy used her skills as a seamstress to make costumes for the kid’s school plays, many of them becoming part of the permanent costume department. Marcia, Laura, and Dan, all three, were into music and theater, and Kathy would attend every performance and tried to sit near the front. She would record the show on a tape recorder so that the family could listen to it again together later. All three kids remember how their mother exuded calmness and grace under pressure no matter what the crisis might be. She was a rock of stability and comfort. She would listen and offer advice if asked for, or she would remain silent and simply be present when her radar indicated that was what was needed most. If she didn’t know what to do, or there was nothing that could be done, she was there, nonetheless, radiating a quiet strength that was comforting and reassuring.

Now, if Kathy were here in person, I’d be getting a stern glance about now. Why? Because I’m probably doing, in her eyes, precisely what she didn’t want done: She didn’t want her funeral to be about her, but about her Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I would argue with her that this funeral is precisely about her Lord, and our Lord, Jesus Christ, and that there is absolutely nothing wrong in giving thanks to the Lord in these few memories and anecdotes which demonstrate the fruit of Kathy’s faith, Jesus’s fruit borne in and through Kathy, which has served others, and by which service the Lord is glorified. Where did Kathy’s servant heart and servant nature come from? It came from her faith in her Suffering Servant, her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who made her fruitful with His gifts and blessings that have served you and countless others and have served to glorify His holy Name.

Kathy’s confirmation verse was Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” I believe without any doubt, and I believe that you will agree, that Kathy lived this verse in her life and deeds, and this is what gave her such a servant heart and that grace under pressure she exuded. As she ran her race, the race that was her life, she kept her eyes on her Savior Jesus, “who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Not only that, but she drew confidence and strength and courage from God’s Word which accounts for the faith of a “great cloud of witnesses” who have run that race before her, who encouraged her for her own faith-race-and-life, and yours as well. And, at the end of that race is the Sabbath, rest in Jesus Christ who beckons, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Marcia, Laura, Dan; beloved grandchildren and great grandchildren; friends, neighbors; brothers and sisters in Christ; both Kathy and Al were a force to be reckoned with. You couldn’t know them without knowing their faith. You’d know it first because they would tell you, particularly Al. But you’d know that they weren’t blowing smoke at you because they’d also show you in their love, mercy, grace, and compassion, and most of all, in their service to you and to others and to the Lord in everything they said and did. They were branches grafted into the True Vine Jesus Christ, and Jesus made them fruitful in His abundance. Now he has called them to Himself where the Good Shepherd’s sheep may safely graze. I know that they don’t want you to grieve their absence, but rather to praise and give thanks to their Savior. And, perhaps more than anything else, they want for you to be where they are when you finish the race that is your life. Nothing would make them happier. Indeed, they have joined that great cloud of witnesses who have finished their course in faith, who now continue to serve as encouragement to you to not give up, to not lose hope, to not let the darkness and sin of this world keep you from serving others and praising and thanking our God who loves us, our Savior who has redeemed us, and the Holy Spirit who continues to sanctify us and keep us in the true faith. To God alone be all the glory through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 16)

(Audio)

Luke 7:11-17; Ephesians 3:13-21; 1 Kings 17:17-24

 

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

Back on August 10, The Tenth Sunday after Trinity, you heard the Gospel account of Jesus’ visitation of the Holy City Jerusalem. Then Jesus wept over the city because of its unbelief and apostasy, and for the destruction that He foresaw would befall it but thirty years later at the hands of the Romans. For, when Jesus entered the temple courts in visitation He found moneychangers and vendors of sacrificial animals extorting the faithful and stealing from them. In His righteous anger Jesus cleansed the temple of this corruption and disease, overturning the tables of the moneychangers and vendors, crying out, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” Back then I explained to you that the word visitation meant ecclesial oversight, such as a bishop conducts when he visits the parishes of his diocese. Jesus had visited His people in grace, but what did He find? Greed, selfishness, lack of mercy, compassion, and love. And, what will Jesus find when He visits His people, even you, on the Last Day, in judgment? What will you be found doing? Will you be found extending His love, mercy, grace, compassion, and forgiveness, or will you be found robbing and stealing from Him, and selfishly and unmercifully withholding, even stealing, from others, especially the weakest among you and those in greatest need? Truly, Jesus may come in visitation on any day, at any hour. What will you be found doing? Will you be found waiting, watching, and prepared? Therefore, keep your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith and you need not fear His visitation, for you will be found doing the loving, the merciful, and the compassionate thing, for even your imperfect and sin-corrupted deeds will be counted as righteousness through faith in Him. Therefore, always show mercy and compassion, always love and forgive, for love covers a multitude of sins: your neighbors’, and comfortingly, your own as well.

The people of Jerusalem did not recognize the time of their visitation. But, the people of Nain did. When Jesus entered the city with a procession of His disciples and followers, He met another procession on the way out of the city carrying a dead young man, the son of a widow, on a funeral bier. It was literally a collision of two processions – a procession of life, lead by Jesus, and a procession of death lead by the mourners and family of the dead young man. “It was a strange and dreadful strife when Life and death contended. The victory remained with Life, the reign of death was ended.” When Jesus raised the dead young man and restored him to his mother and his family, the crowds glorified God saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us! God has visited His people!”

Once again, your Lord was moved with compassion – a gut-wrenching empathetic grief. The widow’s loss was His loss, one for which He was even then making His own journey to death on the cross. Jesus approached the woman directly and He said to her, “Do not weep,” or, more literally, “Stop weeping.” You see, there was no need for her to weep, for, in the presence of Life Incarnate, the Word of Creation and Life made flesh, the boy was not dead but only sleeping. Then Jesus did the unthinkable in her mind, and in the minds of the crowds, He reached out and touched the funeral bier. The law forbade such a thing, for the body and the bier were unclean, and to touch either would make you unclean and in need of ceremonial purification before you could be restored to community and to worship in the temple and synagogue. However, that was of no concern for Jesus, just as it was of no concern for Him when the ten lepers approached Him, or when the Good Samaritan ministered to the man left beaten, bloodied, and left for dead in the ditch. It is not that the law did not apply to Jesus, but it was that His love was the fulfilling of the law. The loving thing is always the lawful thing.

It was a desperate situation the widow was in. She had lost her husband to death, and now she had lost her only son to death as well. In that culture, at that time, the widow herself was, socially, as good as dead, having no source of income, protection, or even a voice in her community. She was nearly as desperate and hopeless as the nothing into which God first spoke His Word, “Let there be light.” But, Jesus was that Word in the beginning, and Jesus was that same Word spoken to the dead young man. Jesus raised the young man by speaking His creative Word, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” As it was in the beginning, so it is now, and so it ever shall be, world without end. In fact, no one even asked Jesus to help this time. No one cried out to Him in faith and pleaded for mercy. No one in the funeral procession seems to have even noticed or recognized Him. But, Jesus came to the dead young man. Jesus came to this desperate situation. Jesus was moved by compassion for His people because they were lost and hopeless, like sheep without a shepherd. Mercy is who Jesus is. Mercy is who God is. Mercy is what Jesus shows, and what you, His people also show to others because you are in Him and He is in you.

Then Jesus reached out and touched the funeral bier. Yet, He did two things at once: He reached out and touched the bier, and He spoke His Word, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” Jesus often used His hands along with His Words. He put His fingers in the ears of the deaf-mute, and He spat and touched His tongue. At His Transfiguration He raised up His fearful-unto-death disciples by touching them and speaking, “Rise, and have no fear.” And, Jesus rebuked His disciples who forbade that their Master should be bothered by little children saying, “Suffer the little children to come unto me,” that He might bless them with His holy hands and absolving Word. Even still, your Jesus comes to you in your weakness, sin, and death and He speaks to you, and He touches you with cleansing water, His precious body, and His holy blood, ministering to you in your body and in your soul, in your flesh and in your spirit in which He created you, that you may be forgiven, cleansed, and healed, strengthened in faith, equipped for service, and sent to love and to show mercy and compassion to the most desperate and hopeless bodies and souls He places before you.

Jesus touches and He speaks. Forgiveness, healing, and cleansing come to you from outside of you. They come to you from God the Father, through Jesus His Son, in His most Holy Spirit. They come to you through the Gospel preached and through the Sacraments administered. They come to you here, in this holy house where the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies, and keeps you in the true faith until Jesus returns for you on the Last Day to take you home. Jesus came to Nain. Jesus came to the mourners, to the widow, and to her dead son when all they could think about was their grief, their loss, and their sorrow. Jesus came to them with His Words and His touch and He spoke into being a different reality. “Let there be light.” And there was. “Young man, I say to you, arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.” “Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has arisen among us!’  ‘God has visited His people!’”

Truly, God visits His people still, even now. Your God comes to you in your sinful uncleanness and death. He comes from outside of you to raise you from death to new and eternal life, to heal you, to make you clean again, and to restore you to a right relationship with the Holy Trinity and with Christ’s body the Church. More than that, He enters you and He abides with you, He communes with you, He fills you even as He sends you, He goes with you, “that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Indeed, He answers your prayer that His grace may always go before and follow after you, that you may continually be given to all good works, through Jesus Christ, His Son.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 15)

(Audio)

Matthew 6:24-34; Galatians 5:25 – 6:10; 1 Kings 17:8-16

 

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

Jesus says to you, “Do not be anxious about your life.” Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Easy for Him to say,” right? After all, there are an awful lot of things to be anxious about in your life, aren’t there? Money: Will you have enough of it when you retire? Will you have enough of it to send your kids to college? Will you have enough of it to buy groceries for the next week? Health: Will you develop heart disease, diabetes, or cancer? Will you maintain a sound mind into your old age, or will you suffer from senility, dementia, or Alzheimer’s disease? If you suffer a stroke or a completely debilitating health incident, who will make decisions concerning your treatment, whether you are given life support or whether they pull the plug? Kids: Will they remain safe from predators and abusers? Will they make smart and moral choices concerning sex, drugs, and alcohol? Will they get into a good college, find a good spouse, continue to practice their faith and attend church? And that’s just a smattering of personal, home and family life anxieties. That’s not to mention things like terrorism and war, crime, taxes, politics, etc. “Do not be anxious about your life?” “Right, easy for You to say, Lord!”

And, besides, you think, isn’t anxiety natural? Isn’t it irresponsible to not worry? Why, then, does Jesus exhort you to not be anxious? He exhorts you to not be anxious because anxiety and worry are a type of worship and bondage to a false god, an idol. He indicates this by saying, “No one can serve two masters.” Now, have you thought of anxiety and worry as a master? Likely not, but they most definitely are. Anxiety and worry can be all encompassing and enslaving. They can rob you of contentment, peace, and joy in your life, and they can be serious distractions to the work that you should be doing, the care that you should be giving, and the love that you should be sharing. Moreover, Jesus asks, “Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” You can’t, and you don’t! So, then, what’s the point of being anxious? Why worry? What does it benefit you? Absolutely nothing! Rather, instead, anxiety robs you. Worry kills you, little by little, each and every day of your life that you are consumed with fear of what tomorrow will bring, each day of your life that you live and love for fleeting, worldly pleasures and possessions, and each day of your life that you place your trust in people and things that do not, will not, and cannot last.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” Well, is it? For some of you, food and clothing are a pretty big part of your life and what gives it meaning and purpose. However, for others of you it’s success, your own, or your children’s. For others of you it’s sports, health, material possessions, the right car, the right house, the right husband or wife. But, are these things truly your life? Are they the meaning and the purpose of your life? Do they give definition to your life? If you are honest with yourself, and you might as well be, they probably do, at least in some small way. You see, Jesus didn’t teach against this because it was an uncommon human temptation and sin. Jesus would have you see that these created things are gifts of His Father, your Creator. If you are anxious and worried about obtaining them and keeping them, then you have placed your fear, love, and trust in created things, God’s gifts to you, instead of giving Him thanks and praise for them and receiving them as gifts, rich and abundant, to meet your own needs and to share with others. These gifts are for you, but they do not define you and give your life meaning. You are created in God’s image, therefore He must define you and give your life meaning.

Moreover, you are of much more importance to Him than the created material things He has made. Jesus’ point is that, “if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” The irrational beasts of the earth crave these things and are consumed with their pursuit, but God has created you and blessed you with a rational soul that you may be self-aware and aware of God. Therefore, you have the ability to see and to know that, not only does God provide you all that you need for your body and your life, but He provides these for you in abundance. You have enough for yourself, and surplus to share with others. You can freely give your last “handful of flour” and “a little oil” trusting that the Lord will provide for you and yours. For, when you give to others, your Lord promises that it will be given back to you, “a good measure, shaken together, pressed down, running over” which will be poured into your lap.

It is in this regard that Jesus makes a distinction between the faithful Jews and the uncircumcised Gentiles. He speaks of the Gentiles here much in the same way in which I did of the carnal beasts – they are driven by fleshly, carnal instincts to pursue carnal desires and passions. But not so you, Jesus teaches; not so you, children of the New Israel, who place your fear, love, and trust in Him. To you, Jesus says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow.” You see, it’s all about faith, which is, itself, a gracious gift of God your Father. God the Holy Spirit creates faith within you through the Word of God. It is faith that trusts God to keep His promises. It is faith that fears God’s righteousness and holiness and what it would mean if God were to renege on His promises. It is faith that loves God, His Law, His Will, and His Word, love that flows from His love for you poured out in His Son, Jesus Christ.

You do not live in continual pursuit of carnal desires and passions, but you live “by the Spirit” and you “walk by the Spirit.” Therefore, worry and anxiety over mammon – that is worldly, material goods and fleshly desires and passions – these are not your masters. Yet, you do have a master, the Lord. Here is where some Christians try to straddle the fence. While they try to shun worry and anxiety over worldly and fleshly things, they also remain unwilling to surrender completely to God and to submit to and confess Him as their Lord and Master. However, Jesus doesn’t speak this way, and neither does He allow for fence-straddlers. Indeed, He says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” No, Christ has not set you free to fend for yourself, but you still have a master, the Lord, and, in a sense, you are a slave. Yet, though you may be a slave, you are truly free in Christ. You are freer even than the birds of the air who neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet are fed by their heavenly Father. And, you are freer even than the lilies of the field who neither toil nor spin and yet are arrayed more than Solomon in all of his glory. This is similar to Jesus’ teaching, “He who is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” You either belong to God in Jesus, or, well, you don’t. But, if you don’t belong to God in Jesus, don’t bother kidding yourself that are free. Indeed, apart from Christ is the worst kind of slavery, even death.

St. Paul has words for you today about what it means, and what it looks like, to walk by the Spirit, to have the Lord as your Master, to be a slave of Christ. You must have a spirit of gentleness towards all, especially your brothers and sisters in Christ, bearing each other’s burdens, tolerating, enduring, and even suffering each other’s boorish behavior and annoying idiosyncrasies. You must seek to restore a brother who is enmeshed in sin, showing him mercy and compassion and forgiveness, keeping watch yourself that you are not tempted. You must be humble, for we are all slaves together under the same Master, members of the same body, brothers and sisters sharing the same Life and Breath, and “if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” Let your work be of and for the Spirit, doing good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Herein St. Paul describes the life of the Christian – you are an extension of Christ to others in this world, His hands, His heart, His voice, to the glory of His Father.

But, in your life and in your labors, do not worry and do not be anxious, for the Lord is working with you, and in you, and through you that you will be fruitful, having enough for yourself and abundantly more to give to others. Therefore, do not permit mammon – the world and your flesh – to distract you from the task at hand and the one thing needful, but in faith, “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” This is especially important to remember at this time of the year, even this very day, as children return to school, vacations are over and you return to your busy, work-a-day lives – remember what is the purpose and meaning of your work and your striving: Are you sowing to your own flesh, or are you sowing to the Spirit? Further, has the fruit of your labors become the thing in which you place your fear, your love, and your trust – the thing that you worry about having enough of and are anxious of losing? If so, then repent; return to the Lord in contrition, asking forgiveness. He will restore you and give to you and bless you that you might be a blessing to others, always, to the glory of His holy Name.

But now, come and receive of His gracious plenteousness. Be still and let the Lord work for you. He is present to pour into your lap a good measure, shaken together, pressed down, running over – His grace, mercy, love, and compassion in Jesus Christ. Come, eat and be satisfied. Come, drink and be renewed. The Lord feeds you with wholesome food and clothes you with His righteousness. He blesses you, that you might be a blessing – and you are.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 14)

(Audio)

Luke 17:11-19; Galatians 5:16-24; Proverbs 4:10-23

 

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

The Christian faith and life is one of mystery and paradox. Many of its claims and teachings are counter-intuitive – they do not follow or make sense according to human reason, wisdom, and perception. For example, if you want to be rich with heavenly treasure, then you must be poor in spirit. If you want to save your life, then you must lose it. If you want to live, then you must die. For, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, came, not to save the righteous, but sinners, and only sinners can be saved. This is the lesson that your Lord would teach to you again, today, from yet another perspective, that if you hope to enjoy resurrection to new life, then you must face and accept your death.

So, the Holy Spirit has inspired St. Luke to include in his Gospel an account of Jesus miraculously healing ten men afflicted with leprosy. In the story, there were ten lepers who, because of their leprosy, were dead to ordinary social life. They were unclean and thus cut off, separated, from the community. They had to stay a good distance from other people and shout out “Unclean!” when in the presence of others to warn them of their disease. They could not participate in the ceremonies of the temple or the fellowship of the synagogue. They were lepers, outcasts, dead to their families, dead to their former friends, dead to ordinary social life, and utterly incapable of being healed or changing their status on their own. They had nothing of their own – not health, not wealth, nor good reputation – so they had nothing to keep, and they had nothing to lose. Thus, they were in the perfect position to receive mercy. And it was mercy, and only mercy, that they cried out for from Jesus.

“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us,” all ten lepers cried from a distance. And what did Jesus do? How did Jesus respond to their plea for mercy? Jesus looked at them, and then He spoke to them saying, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” Did Jesus touch them, wave His arms in the air, and shout “Be healed”? No! Jesus did nothing of the sort. Rather, He told them to go and to show themselves to the priests. While they were still lepers, still outcasts, still dead to ordinary life, Jesus commanded them to act as if they were healed and no longer outcasts. “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” That was the protocol according to Leviticus 14:2-3 which specified the necessary ceremonies for the removal of ritual defilement from a leper who was already physically clean. Luke does not tell us what the lepers thought about Jesus’ response to their plea for mercy: Did they take Jesus seriously? Did they merely walk away confused and in dismay? They came to Jesus pleading for mercy, and He tells them to go and show themselves to the priests. Regardless of what they thought of Jesus’ response, however, they went as He commanded, and, as they went, they were healed.

Jesus did not heal them then and there on the spot, though He certainly could have done it that way. But why not? Why did our Lord choose to heal the lepers in such an unspectacular way, in a way which allowed for the likelihood that most would not see a connection between the healing of the lepers and Himself? Indeed, the Christian faith and life is one of mystery and paradox in which we walk by faith and not by sight, confident that Jesus’ cleansing words of forgiveness will restore us to wholeness in the resurrection. The ten lepers had nothing to lose and anything, everything, to gain; they were dead to the world and couldn’t help themselves in any way. Thus, they were prepared to receive mercy as a gift. They had the gift of faith, and it doesn’t matter if it was great faith or small faith, strong faith or weak faith, they had the gift of faith, first to call upon Jesus for mercy, and second to do as He commanded even though it seemed unspectacular and useless foolishness. They went as Jesus commanded, and, as they went, all ten were cleansed of their leprosy.

“Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.” One of the ten ex-lepers makes the connection. He knows that His cleansing was the result of God’s mercy in and through the unlikely means of this man Jesus. The man recognized that Jesus had not only cleansed him of his leprosy, but that he had restored him to his people, his community, his friends, and his family – that he was a son again! But to drive the point home all the more Luke informs us that this man was not only a leper, and therefore dead to ordinary social life and an outcast, but he was also a despised Samaritan. Thus, he was a twofold outcast, a double loser, a duck twice dead. Ten lepers were cleansed, but only one returned to give thanks, and he was a Samaritan.

Doubly dead, that is how you must see yourself in relation to your Lord. You have nothing to bring to the Lord to merit His favor. You have nothing to do for the Lord with which to earn His favor. You have only to pray Kyrie eleison, “Lord, have mercy.” You must walk by faith and not by sight, confident that Jesus’ cleansing words of forgiveness will restore you to wholeness in the resurrection.

Yes, in the resurrection – your confidence and faith is in that future and final healing and restoration. Through Holy Baptism and faith in Jesus Christ you are, even now, healed from the leprosy of sin and death, and you have, even now, the gift of eternal life. You live, even now, as a forgiven sinner, every bit as much as the ten men lived as cleansed lepers. You have died to sin in Christ and you have been resurrected to new life in Christ. But, just as this resurrection has occurred spiritually, so must it, and so will it occur physically in the resurrection of the body. Just as you died spiritually to sin in Holy Baptism and were raised to new life in Jesus, so too must the body die and be raised to new life in Jesus. Thus, by dying, you live and by losing your life in this world you save it. For, the Christian faith and life is mystery and paradox, and you must walk by faith and not by sight, confident that Jesus’ cleansing words of forgiveness will restore you to wholeness in the resurrection.

And this is where thanksgiving comes in. By returning to Jesus to give thanks and praise the Samaritan leper confirmed his faith in God through Jesus that it was God who had mercy on him and granted him cleansing and healing from his leprosy. God does not need our thanksgiving or our offerings, but we need to give them. In giving thanks, by offering our praise, our time, or talents, and our treasures and wealth, we are acknowledging that all that we have comes from the gracious hand of God. We give back to Him only of what He has given to us and thus glorify Him as our God, the Creator, giver, and sustainer of all things.

As we celebrate Labor Day this weekend, it is an opportunity for us to reflect upon how God provides for all our needs of body and soul through the multitudinous vocations of others. God heals through the vocations of doctors, nurses, and surgeons. God feeds through the vocations of farmers, millers, butchers, and grocers. God protects through the vocations of military service, policemen and firemen, and government. If God wants people to glorify and honor Him, why does He hide Himself in lowliness and weakness? God hides Himself in these ways because we need Him to. We need to become like the thankful leper and recognize with the eyes of faith how dead we are before God and merciful He is towards us, forgiving our sins at His own cost and providing for all or needs of body and soul.

Even now He requires nothing of you, He needs nothing from you, but He has called you here to receive His gifts: mercy, grace, forgiveness, faith, love. He is the God who came, not to be served, but to serve, and to lay His life down for the sins of the world. Let us return in thanksgiving, glorifying the Lord our God for the mercy He has shown to us in His Son Jesus.

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