The Festival of the Reformation (observed)

(Audio)

Matthew 11:12-19; Romans 4:19-28; Revelation 14:6-7

 

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

“We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.” That’s a first century Judaic way of saying, “There’s no satisfying you. There’s nothing that can be done to make you content.” Jesus says that’s what the Jews of His day were like: They were like discontent and unsatisfied children. When John the Baptist came preaching to them, they thought he had a demon because he fasted and abstained from wine. And, when Jesus came preaching to them, they accused Him of being a glutton and drunkard, cavorting with tax collectors and sinners. However, Jesus says that such discontent and dissatisfaction with both John and Himself are indicative of a much more serious problem – the people and their religious leaders were inflicting violence upon the kingdom of heaven, attempting to take it by force.

What Jesus is speaking of is much less physical violence against John and Himself – though they violently opposed them and murdered them both – but Jesus was speaking of their violence against the Word of God. Both John and Jesus came preaching the Law and the Gospel of God, but like the prophets before them, and the evangelists after them, the people were discontent and unsatisfied. They reacted violently against the Word of God and the preachers of His Word. They sought to take God’s kingdom by violence, according to their own wisdom and judgment of what is right and wrong, good and evil. They would not tolerate God’s Word. They closed their ears and shut their eyes tight, making themselves to be spiritually deaf and blind. They set their wisdom and word above the Word of God. “The Word they still shall let remain nor any thanks have for it,” then, now, and always. 

This is the work of Satan, who continually inflicts violence upon the kingdom of heaven by inflicting violence upon the Word of God. Satan began his attack in the garden, tempting our First Parents to doubt the Word of God asking, “Did God really say?” Then he attacked and murdered those preachers of the Word, the Prophets, Apostles, Evangelists, and Martyrs who undauntedly called men to repentance through their faithful and persistent preaching of Law and Gospel. Satan tempts men to prideful self-righteousness, resulting in their resentment, fear, anger, and hatred of the LORD and His Word of Truth that continually shows our sin, guilt, and iniquity and stains our conscience and enslaves us. Willfully men close their ears and eyes and hearts to the Word of God still as Satan snatches the Goodly Seed from their hearts so that they do not and cannot believe. Generation after generation of men forgot the Word of God and sought to justify themselves by their works. Whereas Satan inflicts violence upon the Word of God by distorting it and tempting men to doubt it, men inflict equivalent violence upon the Word of God by trusting in their works to justify themselves. For four hundred years before Christ the Word had not been heard in Israel. No prophet called men to repentance nor proclaimed the Gospel of the Messiah. By the time the Word became flesh in Jesus Christ, there was but a remnant of faithful watchers upon the earth.  

Over millennia, men have forgotten the Word of the LORD. Today, we do not teach it to our children. We do not bring our children to Jesus. Generations come and go and the Word of the LORD seems now an alien word, a myth, a bigoted and hateful word, foolishness and something of which to be ashamed and to discard as the primitive superstitions of an unenlightened people. That is where we are today. That is where we were in Luther’s day. That is where we were throughout the four hundred years of silence before the coming of Jesus. We do not remember the Sabbath Day or keep it holy, and so we forget. When men hear the Word of God today they hate it, and they hate you who keep it, they hate Jesus, and they hate God. Is it any wonder that our congregations are in decline? Is it any wonder that our culture and government are embracing evil and godlessness? Is it any wonder that our schools teach that there is no God but that you are gods, or the government is god?

And so, today we do remember. Despite our sin and accommodation to the fallen world and our own sinful flesh we strive to remember. Today we remember the Word of God and we keep it sacred and holy amongst us. Today we remember the many reformations the Church has undergone throughout the millennia. Luther was hardly the first to cry for reform, and, God help us, he will not be the last. Ecclesia semper reformanda est – The Church is always being reformed. How do we remember? We remember by keeping the Sabbath Day holy. We remember by gathering here at this place and time to hear the Word of the LORD and to receive His gifts. And, how do we keep the Sabbath Day holy? We “fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.” The Word of our LORD is our life, apart from which we die. The Word of the LORD is the bread of which we eat and live, a spring of living water of which we drink and never thirst. The Word of the LORD is not practical advice for living, though it is good and helpful for you. The Word of the LORD does not promise you happiness or success or prosperity or health, but faith, contentment, and strength to persevere and endure. For, this world and this life is not the fullness of your life, but it is the first baby-steps of your life that will never end. The things that you believe in this life and the works that you perform in this life matter, not as works that earn and merit you forgiveness and justification, but as fruit which are the proof and confirmation of your forgiveness and justification. Those who try to earn or merit the kingdom by their works despise the Word of God and attempt to take His kingdom by violence.

How do we remember? We remember by receiving God’s Word, and His Word made visible, touchable, and tasteable in the Blessed Sacraments, the Word made flesh, Jesus. Our Lord Jesus commands us to make disciples by baptizing and teaching all He has commanded. However, Christians have forgotten this Word of the LORD and seemingly despise it. They declare people to be Christian simply because they feel that they are, or say that they are, even while they willfully and defiantly live and act in disobedience to His commands and teach others to do the same. No, in place of a steady diet of holy things, things that are truly good for us and give us life, we have indulged ourselves upon garbage, a sewer of entertainment and corrupt media, not to mention the indoctrination of the public school system which actively seeks to destroy belief in God, in the Christian faith and its doctrines, in biblical morality, values, and ethics. We do not bring our children to the altar of Jesus, but we bring them to altars of football and soccer, of television and video games, or just sleeping in, and we wonder why they don’t believe in God, why they don’t behave like Christians, why they view pornography and engage in pre-marital sexual acts, and experiment with drugs, and have short attention spans and will not tolerate anything that demands patience and attention and analysis and critique, anything that does not gratify immediately but takes work and effort. We wonder why they don’t come to church, when we their parents don’t bring them, when we their parents don’t come to church. We wonder why people leave and others do not come. It is because we, as a people, even as a people who consider themselves to be Christian, do not remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy, but we despise preaching and the Word of God and crave and lust for the words of men.

And so, we despair and wring our hands and contemplate lowering our standards, modernizing, and becoming more friendly and welcoming to a culture that stands in direct opposition to the Word of God and His commandments and hates and despises them. God has given us an Ark, but we choose to stand outside its doors cursing His Name and drown in the flood of His wrath. Or, perhaps the problem is messenger? That is what Satan would have you believe. He causes your ears to itch and tempts you to find a false prophet who will scratch them preaching, “Peace, peace, where there is no peace.” Well, there is an easy and surefire way to tell if your pastor is a false teacher, but it requires your not despising and inflicting violence upon the Word of God. Check what he preaches and teaches against the Word of God – the real and true Word of God, and not some baloney you’ve heard elsewhere or made up yourself. The question that faces every Christian individually and every congregation corporately is this: Does the Word of God claim authority over me, or do I claim authority over Him? If your answer to this question is the former, then you are a Christian and God’s child. If your answer is the latter, then you are no Christian and you have made yourself to be your god.

This is my God (point to crucifix) – Christ crucified. This is your God. This is the God of all true Christians. Now, how does this look to the world, to man’s reason and vaunted wisdom, and to the culture? Weak, sad, pathetic, pitiable, humiliating, a disgrace. Well, as the world views Christ, so does it view you, O Christian. Satan tempts you to do violence to the Word of God, to do violence to Jesus Christ and Him crucified, to remove the offense and speak not of it, to hide it away in shame and speak of more seemly things. But, you are called, O Christian, to confess Christ before the world with the promise that He will confess you before His Father in heaven. But, if you deny Him before men, He will deny you saying, “Depart from me, you wicked; I never knew you.”

It's been 507 years since Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg, also known as the Castle Church, effectively beginning what we now commonly call the Reformation. Contrary to what many believe and claim, Luther was not protesting anything at all. Indeed, the subject of all 95 Theses was the singular practice of the selling of indulgences by which believers were told they could purchase the forgiveness of sins for their loved ones in purgatory. This idea that you can justify yourself by your works, by following the world’s word and wisdom or your own, is violence against the Word of the God. You cannot take the kingdom of heaven by violence and force. You cannot earn or merit it by your works. But, you must receive it as it comes to you from your merciful Father through His beloved and righteous Son whom He has put forward as a propitiation for your sins and for the sins of the world. Ecclesia semper reformanda est, the Church is always being reformed. I say to you that our church must be reformed still, and that reform starts right here, right now, in repentance, which is faith, and by remembering the Sabbath Day to keep it holy – not despising preaching and His Word, but holding it sacred and gladly hearing and learning it. “Lord, keep us steadfast in Your Word; curb those who by deceit or sword would wrest the kingdom from Your Son and bring to naught all He has done.”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Mission Festival (LWML Sunday) at Immanuel Lutheran Church - St. Ansgar, Iowa

I was invited to preach at Immanuel Lutheran Church in St. Ansgar, IA for a Mission Festival / LWML Sunday as part of the congregation's year-long celebration of their 150th anniversary. Here is the sermon.

(Audio)

Luke 24:1-12, 36-49; Romans 10:9-17; Isaiah 62:1-7

 

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

Today’s Gospel is the account of the faithful women arriving at Jesus’ tomb early Sunday morning. What I think we tend to forget, however, is that the women did not expect to find the tomb empty, the stone rolled away, and their Lord Jesus’ body gone. They did not come in hopeful expectation of Jesus’ resurrection, but they came to complete the unfinished work of preparing his dead body for burial. They did not come seeking the living but the dead. However, they were greeted by two angels, holy messengers of God’s Word, who proclaimed to them, “He is not here, but has risen!” The messengers called them to remember Jesus’ words, that “the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” At their word they did remember, and they ran at once to the eleven and to all the others to tell them the Good News!

All four of the Gospels record the account of the women at the tomb, and all four accounts agree that the women did not initially believe that Jesus would rise. But that is not a slight on the women uniquely, for no one believed, hoped, or anticipated that Jesus would rise. Apart from the life-giving and faith-creating Word of God we are all like Lazarus, spiritually dead and unable to believe. However, once that Word has been proclaimed to us, the Lord willing, we are resurrected to faith and life, and our all-consuming desire and passion is to go and tell anyone who will listen to the Good News!

The Scriptures attest to this in numerous places. For example, when Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, some Pharisees wanted Jesus to rebuke his disciples for praising him with the Messianic titles, “Hosanna, Son of David” and “Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the LORD.” But Jesus answered them saying, “If they remain silent, the very stones will cry out!” Often when Jesus healed people, he exhorted them to remain silent and to not tell, yet they could not contain their joy and went and told everyone they could. When the man born blind was healed, he went and told everyone how Jesus had restored his sight. The ostracized Samaritan woman at the well went and told everyone in her village about the man she had spoken with, and she proclaimed that he could be the Christ. You see, faith is never silent, but it is always active, speaking, singing, praising, serving, confessing the Good News of forgiveness, life, and salvation in Jesus.

We often wrongly think of mission work as sort of a vocational specialization that only certain people having certain skills and abilities are called to do, while the rest of us support them financially and with our prayers. While it is a wonderful gift and blessing that the Lord has raised up such missionaries in his church, it is not true that mission work is, can, or should be done only by such professionals. All who have received the gift of faith are bound, blessed, equipped, and sent to share what the Lord has done to the glory of God. St. Paul has written, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” Similarly, Jesus has said, “Everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father in heaven.” Every Christian is a missionary, indeed a little Christ, proclaiming the Good News of what the Lord has done in word and deed. “How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim the good news!”

So, the women came to the tomb that Easter morning seeking the dead, spiritually dead in terms of their faithful hope and living joy. But after hearing the Word of the holy messengers, they ran, their hearts full of fear, love, and trust, and perplexed hope and joy, to tell the others! Truly, it was not only their Lord who was raised, just as he said, but they too were resurrected, and their mission became that joyful message in their lives, words, and deeds! This is the mission to which you have been called, my Christian brothers and sisters! And that is the mission of Immanuel Lutheran Church of St. Ansgar, Iowa today, even as it has been your mission these past 150 years. You have been blessed, and you ARE blessed to be a blessing! “Thank the Lord and sing his praise; tell everyone what he has done!”

Now, I was asked to speak to you this day concerning the service of Christian women in the Church. The reason I am here specifically is because I am the senior pastoral counselor for the Iowa East District of the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League. I was elected pastoral counselor back in 2022 and have served the District LWML two full years and am now in my third year. I will confess that I didn’t know exactly what I was getting into back then. Sure, I knew about the work of the LWML and have worked with my congregations’ local societies and zones, but what I have experienced the past two-plus years has been nothing short of revelatory and a great blessing to me personally. The LWML is truly a mission society. What I mean is that the entire organization in its mission and vision, organization, and service is mission-minded through and through.

Here’s some boilerplate background for you: The Lutheran Women’s Missionary League (LWML) is an official auxiliary of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Since 1942, the LWML has focused on affirming each woman’s relationship with Christ, encouraging and equipping women to live out their Christian lives in active mission ministries and to support global missions. Mission Statement: As Lutheran Women in Mission, we joyfully proclaim Christ, support missions, and equip women to honor God by serving others. Vision Statement: The LWML is the leading group for LCMS women where each woman is welcomed and encouraged to use her unique God-given gifts as she supports global missions and serves the Lord with gladness. Now, if this sounds a bit corporate, well, that’s ok, it is. Nevertheless, it’s a pretty good guiding position statement that serves to keep the organization grounded and centered in the Gospel nationally, district-wide, and locally in both zones and congregation societies.

I suspect that most everyone knows about the LWML’s chief fundraising program, the Mite. LWML Mite Boxes are inspired, of course, by the Gospel account of the poor widow who put her two last pennies (mites) into the offering box. Jesus praised her for her faith and trust in the Lord in giving, out of her poverty, want, and need, everything she had. Now, it is of course true that the pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters that typically find their way into a mite box are rarely anyone’s last two pennies, but they are more likely the change left in our pockets at the end of the day or week. Nevertheless, those mites, when combined with hundreds and thousands of other gifts from zone, district, and national LWML offerings provide hundreds of thousands of dollars which serve to support vocational missionaries and mission work, to provide scholarships for Lutheran pastors, deaconesses, DCEs, teachers, and other church workers, along with missionary efforts in our districts, zones, and congregations.

However, it’s not just the mites and the money, but women in the LWML regularly serve with their hands, hearts, voices, and prayers by collecting needed items for food pantries, schools, pro-life women’s support organizations, and much, much more. They also make quilts, shawls, and other useful items, they write letters of encouragement, make crafts that proclaim the Good News of Jesus to others and encourage them to share their faith, and, it goes without saying, prepare countless meals for funerals and congregation celebrations throughout our Synod. In the Iowa East District, our LWML has pledged to support thirteen unique mission endeavors along with several scholarships and grants totaling $90,000 over the next biennium. One of those mission grants supports the campus ministry that I and my congregation at St. John provide to students attending Wartburg College in Waverly. Others include Lutheran Family Services, Lutheran Disaster Relief, Mission Central, Lutherans for Life, and Word of Hope Suicide Prevention for Post-Abortive Women, among others.

Here at Immanuel, your Lutheran Ladies Society was first organized in 1917 under the pastorate of Rev. Paul Brammer. In 1947 your society joined the LWML. Over the years the Immanuel Lutheran Ladies Society has cared for altar paraments, banners, and vestments, altar flowers, the church kitchen and its appointments, and much, much more. Members of the society regularly visit church members, particularly shut-ins, and provide for the welfare of church members in need. A church history book ends its section on the LWML with these words: “What is the LWML all about? Being missionaries where we are! We pray the Lord’s blessings attend our efforts for Him and His church as we continue to Serve the Lord with Gladness.”

Two thousand years later, your missionary work is not really all that different than those women who ministered to Jesus and supported his ministry, the same women who sought to care for his body that first Easter morning. Those women have come to be known in Christendom as the Holy Myrrhbearers for bringing myrrh and aloes to anoint Jesus’ body in loving service and devotion. The Myrrhbearers were women who followed Jesus, served him, and witnessed his crucifixion. They were with him throughout his ministry and accompanied his body to the tomb. The Myrrhbearers represent the good and holy in the Christian faith. In loving devotion, thanksgiving, and fear, love, and trust they served their Lord in life and in death. After the angels’ announcement they served the Lord and glorified him by telling all that he was risen and all that he had done. This remains the mission of God’s people until he comes again on the Last Day.

“For Zion's sake we cannot keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake we cannot be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory” […] “On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the LORD in remembrance, take no rest, and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth.” Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! And Christ is present with his words and wounds to forgive you anew, to strengthen your faith, to equip you for every good work, and to send you forth as his hands, feet, mouth, and voice, as little Christ’s, serving your neighbor and glorifying his name until he comes. The tomb is empty, the stone forever rolled away. Death has died and life lives, and you get to be the messengers of Jesus’ victory in your lives, words, and deeds. God bless you saints of Immanuel Lutheran Church, and the LORD continue to make you a blessing.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 21)

(Audio)

John 4:46-54; Ephesians 6:10-17; Genesis 1:1 – 2:3

 

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

Genesis chapter one is the account of God’s creation of the universe, “In the beginning….” God created everything ex nihilo, that is, out of nothing, by the life-giving, creative power of his Word alone: “And God said…; and it was so.” In his Gospel, St. John takes us back to the beginning to make it clear that the Word of God is not like a word spoken by men, but is in fact God’s eternally begotten Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity: “In the beginning,” writes John, “was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” It was the life-giving, creative Word of God, through whom God created everything that has been created, His only begotten Son, who became flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary and made his dwelling amongst us: “and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

That was Genesis chapter one. In Genesis chapter two we hear of the unique creation of humankind, male and female. God created the man, not by speaking, but from the earth he had made, and then he breathed his own life-giving breath into him and the man became a living being. It was to this first and only human man that God spoke his Word and Commandment concerning the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Then God put that man under a deep sleep and removed from his side a rib. God made from the rib of the man a woman and brought her to the man who immediately recognized her to be flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone. The man then proclaimed to the woman, his wife, the Word that God had spoken to him before she was made.

Genesis chapter three is the account of our First Parent’s rebellion and fall from grace. The serpent tempted the woman to question and doubt the Word that God had spoken which she had heard from her husband. You must note that the enemy didn't tempt Adam & Eve to murder, to steal, or even to tell a lie, but he tempted them to question and to doubt the Word of God: “Did God actually say…?” Up until that moment they had never known or considered another word. They were completely and perfectly content and at peace with the Word that God had spoken. The temptation was not immediately to disobey God, but it was to question and doubt what he has spoken, his Word. You must understand, his tactics haven't changed.

It's all about the Word of God, always and forever. In the beginning there was God, period. And then God spoke; God spoke his creative and life-giving Word, his Son. Everything that is, is because of him, the Word, and everything continues to be and is sustained by that very Word. The first temptation was to question and doubt what God had spoken, and ever since that first sinful rebellion humankind has been at enmity with God and with creation and with each other. God’s Word is good, orderly, creative, and life-giving; any and every other word is evil, chaotic, destructive, and brings death. The woman was deceived, but the man chose freely and willfully against his better knowledge to rebel against the God who made him and who spoke to him his Word and so plunged humanity and all of creation into darkness, sin, and death.

God could have destroyed it all and wiped the slate clean. By all right he should have. But he didn’t; that’s not God’s proper nature. Instead, God proclaimed a Gospel promise: A seed from the woman who was first deceived – not from the man who willfully and intentionally rebelled – would crush the serpent’s head. This covenant promise was restated again and again, though men continued to reject God’s Word and rebel, and it was believed and trusted in by the patriarchs, and was proclaimed by the prophets, until it was fulfilled in Jesus Christ: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Though men rejected, mistreated, and killed the prophets of God’s Word, surely they would receive God’s Son. But no, they thought, this is the Son, the heir, if we kill him then the kingdom will be ours. And so they crucified the incarnate Son of God. But the Word of God cannot die. Jesus rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, reigns at the right hand of God, and is coming again as King and Judge on a day no man can know. The righteous One died for the transgressors, the innocent for the guilty. Jesus fulfilled the Law that Adam and his children failed to keep, and he suffered and died in their place. He rose again triumphant over sin and death, having crushed the serpent’s head, the firstborn of all who will believe and trust in him.

Still, the enemy tempts you to disbelieve God’s Word. His tactics haven’t changed. What is a Christian to do? Well, only the Word of God is good. Only the word of God gives life. You must stand firm in the Word of God. You must be clothed in the Word of God. You must trust in the Word of God, no matter how tempting the deceiver’s voice might be, how much your sinful flesh desires to seek pleasure in that which is contrary to God’s Word, how much the words of godless men seem like wisdom to your fallen reason. Thus does St. Paul exhort you: “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Paul speaks of armor. Armor is like clothing, something you put on. Armor is not part of you, but it comes from outside of you. Moreover, armor is defensive, not offensive; armor is not used to attack, but its purpose is to defend you from attack, the fiery darts of the evil one. The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the readiness of the gospel as shoes for your feet, the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation: This armor will protect you from the attack of the evil one. It is nothing other than being clothed and armored by the Word of God. How do you acquire this armor? Well, you cannot buy it, that’s for certain. Neither do you deserve it, nor can you earn or merit it, but you must receive it as a free gift of God’s grace for the sake of the Word made flesh Jesus Christ who suffered and died and shed his holy, righteous, innocent blood for you. This armor is Christ’s righteousness which covers you, his blood which cleanses you and speaks a better Word concerning you than the blood of righteous Abel. You receive it when you are baptized and believe, and you maintain it by returning to your baptism through repentance, confession, and absolution. You keep it clean and strong by regularly hearing the Word of God, by taking Sabbath rest in his Word and Sacraments, just as you are doing this day.

You are at war, dear Christian. To be more accurate, you are under spiritual attack, and the devil will use deceit and lies, and he will tempt your fallen reason, corrupted desires, and weak flesh to question and doubt God’s Word. But God’s Word is the only thing that can protect and shield you from his attack. The last piece of armor Paul names is the sword of the spirit. Now, I know that a sword seems like an offensive weapon, but it is not; the sword of the spirit is the Word of God itself, and it is a defensive weapon by which you can stand against the devil’s attack. This is precisely what Jesus did when he was tempted by the devil forty days and nights in the wilderness. The devil tempted Jesus to question and doubt the Word of God. The devil even used the Word of God as a weapon against Jesus, taking it out of context, omitting parts he didn’t like, twisting its interpretation and meaning in order to lead Jesus astray. But Jesus stood firm on the Word of God and nothing else. He leaned not on his own reason, wisdom, strength, and understanding, but put all his fear, love, and trust in God and His Word. The devil fled from him and angels came and ministered to him. No, you cannot fight the devil using the Word of God as an offensive weapon; the devil knows God’s Word better than you do and he will use it to deceive you. But you must trust in God’s Word and in the Word made flesh Jesus Christ and flee to him for refuge when you are under attack. Do not despise the preaching of God’s Word but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. “Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever.”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Twentieth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 20)

(Audio)

Matthew 22:1-14; Ephesians 5:15-21; Isaiah 55:1-9

 

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

You are invited. Only, you can say “No, thank you”. You are in. Only you can make yourself to be out. Such is the nature of kingdom of heaven. Everything is prepared. God has done it all. He has slaughtered His Lamb. He has done what was necessary so that you could come. He has sent His servants to you with this Gospel, this Good News, that you are invited, that you are in. It’s done! It’s finished! Only you can say “No”. Only can make yourself to be out.

The invitation was sent first to the King’s chosen ones, those ordinary, sinful, idolatrous people upon whom God chose to show His mercy and shower upon His grace. The invitation went to Abram and to his descendents, a people who were no nation, whom He made to be a nation, even His own children, by grace. Their history has been one of faith and prosperity followed by betrayal, idolatry and denial, leading to judgment, repentance, restoration, repeat. But then, when the time was right, God sent His only-begotten Son to end that vicious cycle by fulfilling God’s holy Law and by suffering and dying in the place of men. It’s done! It’s finished! God, the King, sent His servants to call His children to the feast, but they would not come. Some were distracted by the pleasures of life and they paid no attention. Some were embroiled in their work, their wealth, and their possessions. Some violently opposed Him, and treated His servants shamefully and killed them. The King was angry. He sent His troops and He destroyed those murderers, and He burned their city. They were invited. They said “No, thank you”. They were in. They made themselves to be out.

But the King did not prepare the feast for nothing. His only-begotten Son did not suffer and die in vain. His wedding hall will be filled. Therefore, He sent His servants to the main roads to invite as many as they would find there. And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good, for the wedding invitation is not based on the qualifications of those invited, but it is based upon the grace and mercy of the King and the merit and work of His Son. The feast is free, as the Prophet Isaiah declared saying, “he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” You are invited. Only you can say “No, thank you.” You are in. Only you can make yourself to be out.

Thus far, this parable of our Lord Jesus proclaims the universal grace and mercy of God the Father, and the universal atonement accomplished by the selfless, sacrificial, and substitutionary suffering and death of His Son. There is no one who has ever lived, or who will ever live, that is left out of the LORD’s gracious invitation. There is no one for whom the Lord Jesus did not suffer and die. There is no one for whom is not provided the wedding garment of Christ’s holy, innocent, and righteous blood. But that garment is necessary. Jesus’ blood is necessary for admittance into the wedding hall of heaven.

It is here that our Lord’s parable takes a slightly unexpected turn. There was a man there in the hall that had no wedding garment. He had been invited. Likely he was one of those good or bad found walking on the main roads. He was there at the LORD’s invitation and as His guest. But he was not wearing the proper wedding garment. Perhaps to your ears this seems a light, pardonable offense, and perhaps you are taken aback at the King’s response to the man found without a wedding garment? The King said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” You see, the man was not even expected to come wearing the proper garment, but wedding garments were provided all of the guests. The implication is that this man refused to wear the garment. He insisted on participating in the feast on his own terms, according to his own will, desire, and wisdom. Can you now see the great offense this was to the King? However, the offense is seen even more clearly when the spiritual meaning of this parable is understood, that the wedding garment is the sacrificial blood and righteousness of the King’s Son, Jesus Christ. Through Jesus’ atoning blood, you are invited. Only you can say, “No, thank you.” You are in. Only you can make yourself to be out.

The ungarmented man had no answer, he was speechless. Then the King said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” This is the King’s righteous and just judgment. Does it seem harsh. Yes, indeed it does. But, as much as we misjudge the breadth and depth of God’s mercy, grace, love, compassion, and forgiveness in Jesus, so too do we misjudge His holiness, righteousness, and justice. God’s holiness and righteousness cannot permit even the smallest sinful imperfection – that’s simply the nature of who God is, His holiness, and what it means to be God. Yet, He has made it possible for all of us and everyone to stand before Him without fear by covering us with the cleansing, holy, innocent, and righteous blood of Jesus. This is the garment that is absolutely necessary to enter His presence. You receive that garment when you believe what God has done for you in Christ Jesus and do not reject Him. Baptism is a sacramental sign and seal of God’s promise made and kept for you in Jesus. To reject Jesus, or to attempt to enter God’s presence apart from Jesus, without His cleansing blood, is to stand before God naked in your sin. Thus, it is not wickedness on God’s part that casts you out, but it is your own refusal and rejection of the atonement He provided for you at great cost in the blood of His own Son, Jesus.

And, what of the weeping and gnashing of teeth? Is this not the fruit of the knowledge of what could have been and what should have been? Those who reject the LORD’s gracious invitation and the garment of Christ’s righteousness, when they find themselves locked outside of the feast in the wedding hall of heaven, they will weep and gnash their teeth in the full knowledge of what they gave up entirely of their own free will and of their own fault. As the time will be too late then to repent and receive God’s gifts of love and forgiveness, grief and sorrow over their self-chosen fate consumes and contorts them so that they are bound hand and foot in anger and fury and grief in the darkness of separation from the God of light, holiness, and righteousness. For many are called, but few are chosen. Indeed, all are called through the chosen One, Jesus Christ. And rejection of Him alone is the cause of being cast into darkness.

So, what are you to make of this parable? What does it mean for your lives today? Well, you can take great comfort in the breadth and height of God’s love for all mankind in Jesus Christ, that He has invited all to the wedding feast in heaven and that He has provided in His Son Jesus all that is necessary to stand in His holy and glorious presence. And, you know that His invitation is for you today, now, as St. Paul has taught you, “Now is the day of salvation.” Further, Isaiah teaches you, “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near,” and St. Paul exhorts you, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” For, if you are invited – and you are, and, if you are in – and you are, then what do you have to fear? Nothing! What do you have to be anxious about? Nothing! All that you need, all that is necessary for your eternal life and salvation has been accomplished for you, and no one can take it away from you. You are sealed and clothed in Christ’s holiness and righteousness, cleansed and purified in His innocent shed blood – You are in!

What does this mean for your life now? Live like you believe and know that this is true! Live like you already have one foot in heaven and that you’re patiently looking forward to standing there with both feet, body, and soul. That is to say, live like the Christ you have been given, the Christ you have received, and, indeed, the little-Christ you have been made to be – now! – making the best use of the time, because the days are evil, not being foolish, but understanding what the will of the Lord is, not getting drunk with wine, but being filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.For, the time is short, and while the Enemy seeks to lead men astray by means of lies and deceit, let yourselves, people of God, work to lead your brothers and sisters and your neighbors to believe and receive the LORD’s gracious invitation and live, now, and forevermore.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.