Third-Last Sunday of the Church Year (Trinity 25)

(Audio)

Matthew 24:15-28; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Exodus 32:1-20

 

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

These last three Sundays of the Church Year share Advent’s urgency: the faithful wait and watch in hopeful expectation for Jesus’ return. That return will bring judgment for those who reject Him and full redemption for those who trust in Him. When the signs appear, Jesus says, “straighten up and raise up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

The Lord is coming. That is a promise and a fact. He comes at a day and hour that no one can know, so we must be ready at every moment. This has been the Christian’s posture since the angels declared at the Ascension, “This Jesus… will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven.” If the wait feels long, give thanks, for “The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

Even a Word of judgment carries mercy. In today’s Gospel, Jesus warns the faithful to watch and flee. The judgment He describes fell first upon Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The Romans besieged the city, cut off food and water, and left the streets filled with the dead. The suffering was unimaginable. Yet Jesus’ words are filled with compassion: “Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.” These words echo His tears over Jerusalem. The Lord takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He warns, calls to repentance, and remembers mercy even in judgment.

He also warns of false christs and false prophets who arise in times of fear and uncertainty, promising deliverance and performing signs. They appeared then; they appear still. How do you recognize them? By their fruits. Does their teaching agree with the Holy Scriptures? The Spirit of God does not contradict the Word He has given. If their message denies the Law and the Gospel, or sets aside Christ crucified, flee from it.

The judgment on Jerusalem grew from long apostasy. For centuries God dealt patiently with His covenant people. They turned again and again to idols. Exodus shows the pattern early: while Moses was still on the mountain receiving the Law, the people demanded a calf of gold and declared, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” Aaron fashioned the image; the people rose up to play. The true God was abandoned for something they could see and control. The northern tribes later went into Assyrian captivity; the southern into Babylon. Even after the return, most remained impenitent. When the Savior came to His own, His own did not receive Him. After the Ascension, God granted another forty years of grace. Then the time of mercy closed.

Yet Jesus adds a word of comfort: the tribulation would be “such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.” And “if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.” Whatever trial you face, the Lord is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but with the temptation He provides the way of escape that you may endure and persevere.

You, the elect, will know temptation, trial, and tribulation. That, too, is promise and fact. Do not fear. Your Lord Jesus will shepherd you through financial strain, family trouble, illness, conflict, the death of those you love, and your own death. He is the Good Shepherd. He has already walked the valley of the shadow of death. By His cross and empty tomb He has broken the gates that would hold you in. Those gates now stand open to eternal life, life that is yours even now by faith. No one can snatch it from you. Only you can refuse it.

Therefore, do not let Satan exploit a crisis. In trial and death, turn again to the Lord and His Word. Test every voice: Does it proclaim Law and Gospel? Does it hold out Christ crucified, the free gift of forgiveness, life, and salvation? When the Lord returns there will be no mistaking Him. “As the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” Every eye will see Him; every knee will bow; every tongue will confess; and God will be glorified.

As another Church Year draws to its close, remain vigilant for His Second Coming. Do not live as those who have no hope. You have heard the Word. You have been raised from the death of sin to life in the Spirit. And you have the sure promise that those who sleep in Christ will rise.

St. Paul writes: “The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive… will be caught up together with them… and so we will always be with the Lord.”

While the vultures of false teaching gather around a dying world, you gather here around the body and blood of the Son of God. Here He feeds you with Himself for the forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of faith. Here He seals the promise of resurrection and life everlasting.

He will come at the hour the Father has set. He will raise your body, reunite it with your soul, and bring you into His kingdom forever. Put no trust in your own merits. Trust the Word and promise fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He is the true temple, built without hands. He is the Rock that cannot be moved. In Him is hope and plenteous salvation.

“Have no fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Feast of All Saints

(Audio)

Matthew 5:1-12; 1 John 3:1-3; Revelation 7:2-17

 

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

The kingdom of heaven is not so much a thing or a place as it is an action: the power and authority, the ruling and reigning of King Jesus. Thus, when Jesus preaches in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” He is saying that the poor in spirit are the recipients of His kingly action: His forgiveness, mercy, and grace.

Notice that Jesus does not say they will be blessed, but that they are blessed, right now. Nor is the kingdom something they will receive only at some future time, when Christ returns. It is already theirs, and they continue to receive it until the fullness of His kingdom comes. Indeed, all the other Beatitudes are founded upon this first one. Those who mourn, who are meek, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who are merciful and pure in heart, who are peacemakers, and who are persecuted for the sake of Christ are all blessed, even though they may not appear so from the world's perspective.

For this is what the kingdom of heaven is like. This is the kind of King Jesus is, and this is how He rules and reigns. His kingdom is not of this world. When Pilate questioned Jesus about His kingship, Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world.” That conversation took place just before Pilate handed Him over to be crucified. And there, on the cross, we see the ultimate expression of His kingship. His kingdom reaches its culmination in His death and resurrection, although it will become visible to all when He returns in glory on the Last Day.

For now, His kingdom remains hidden beneath poverty, mourning, meekness, hunger and thirst for righteousness, and persecution for His name's sake. But when King Jesus returns, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord.

Therefore, when we pray in the Lord's Prayer, “Thy kingdom come,” we are praying both that His kingdom would come among us now and that He would return in glory. As Luther explains in the Small Catechism, God's kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity. We pray that King Jesus would reign in us, upon us, and through us. Through faith, His kingdom is not only near us but among us.

The kingdom of heaven is the real and actual reign of King Jesus. There are no neutral kingdoms. One is either a subject of King Jesus or of Satan. Jesus has entered the world of His creation, a world enslaved to sin, temptation, and death. Through His incarnation, obedience, suffering, and death, He has overcome them all. Crowned in blood upon the cross and enthroned in His resurrection, He has begun the restoration of this fallen creation. He is making all things new through mercy, forgiveness, love, and grace. And He continues this redemptive work through the preaching of the Gospel in His body, the Church.

On this Feast of All Saints, St. John gives us a glimpse of the totality of God's kingdom, both on earth and in heaven. He first describes the saints on earth, you and me and all believers, who come through the great tribulation, having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Then he sees “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages,” standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes and crying out, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

But we must not mistake our final goal. It is not simply to pass from this earthly life into a heavenly existence, as though the death of the body were the release of the soul into its final state. Such thinking despises the body and the good creation God has made. No, our hope, as the Scriptures consistently proclaim, is the resurrection of our bodies and the eternal life we will enjoy with our Lord in the new heavens and the new earth.

John writes, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.” And he hears the voice from the throne proclaiming, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore.” That is our goal: eternal life with God in the new creation, in our resurrected flesh and blood bodies.

And that remains the goal of the saints who have died in the faith, whom we remember today. While it is certainly true that “we feebly struggle, they in glory shine,” they are not yet complete or fully glorified. Their bodies still rest in the earth. When Jesus returns, the dead in Christ will be raised, and those who are living will be transformed.

We must remember this because it is easy to fall into the pious sentiment that this earthly life is something to be discarded and that death is a blessed friend who releases us from it. But that is not what the Scriptures teach. Death is not our friend. It is our enemy, the last enemy, which will finally be swallowed up in Christ's victory when He returns on the Last Day. That is what we and all the saints are waiting for!

Therefore, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Keep your eyes on the whole Jesus and the fullness of His saving work. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn and destroy it, but to save and restore it through Him. Wherever Jesus went, He forgave sins, healed the sick, cast out demons, calmed storms, and raised the dead. His miracles were not merely demonstrations of divine power; they were manifestations of God's reign breaking into this fallen world. In Jesus, the restoration of creation had already begun. And when His reign comes in its fullness, He will heal our bodies, restore all creation, and raise us up forever.

Until that day, we wait with all those who have come through the great tribulation, whose robes have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. We take comfort knowing that those who die in the Lord are blessed, at peace and at rest in the presence of God. And we take comfort knowing that we, too, are blessed right now, even as we struggle through poverty, mourning, meekness, persecution, and reviling. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This is the gracious reign of King Jesus among His subjects, His body, the Church.

As St. John reminds us in his epistle, “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” This is our promise and our hope.

Our hope is to dwell with God in the new heavens and the new earth that Christ will bring when He returns. There we will enjoy the great wedding feast of the Lamb, of which this feast today is but a foretaste. Even now, our King and Bridegroom comes to us, hidden in, with, and under bread and wine. Then we shall see Him face to face.

Until that day, the Church on earth joins with the saints in heaven, with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, in singing the praises of our King: “Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabaoth; heaven and earth are full of Your glory. Hosanna. Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Christian Funeral for Anne Marie Tompkins

(Audio)

Luke 23:33, 39-43; Revelation 21:1-7; Isaiah 43:1-3a, 25; Psalm 23

 

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

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” These words from James chapter 4 were Anne's confirmation verse. They are fitting words for this day, as we gather to remember Anne, to give thanks to God for her faith and life, and to seek the comfort that only He can give in the face of death.

Anne was a quiet and gentle woman. Her family remembers her as someone who did not yell, who did not hold grudges, who did not have a bad word to say about others, and who did not want to inconvenience anyone. She loved her family, especially her grandchildren. She enjoyed camping and traveling with Frank, quilting, reading, and spending time in the kitchen. She served her congregation through the altar guild and handbell choir. Her faith was an important part of her life.

And yet, today is not simply a time to remember the good things about Anne. Nor is our hope today based upon how good a person she was. We gather because Jesus Christ has conquered sin and death. We gather because the promises of God are greater than our grief, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ assures us that death will not have the final word.

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” Those words remind us of our need for God. We are sinners who cannot save ourselves. We cannot overcome death by our goodness, our accomplishments, or even our love for one another. We need a Savior.

But notice what God has done for us. He has not left us to find our own way to Him. He has come to us in His Son, Jesus Christ. He has drawn near to us with His Word and promises. He has called us to Himself through Holy Baptism, where He places His name upon us and gives us the forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life.

Anne was baptized in Christ, and she made confirmation of her faith. The faith confessed at her confirmation was the faith in which she was taught to live: trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for her sins and rose again for her salvation. That is the foundation of our hope today.

Consider the words of Jesus in our Gospel reading. As He hung upon the cross, suffering and dying between two criminals, one of them turned to Him in faith and said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” What a remarkable prayer! This man had nothing to offer Jesus. He could point to no good works that would make him worthy of heaven. His life was coming to an end, and he could do nothing to change his past or rescue himself from death. But he turned to Jesus. And Jesus answered him with a promise: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

There is the heart of the Gospel. The dying Savior promises life to a dying sinner. Jesus does not offer this man a reward for his accomplishments. He gives him a promise grounded in His own saving work. The same Jesus who spoke those words from the cross is our Savior. He bore our sins in His body. He suffered the punishment we deserved. He died our death. And on the third day, He rose bodily from the grave, victorious over sin, death, and the devil. Because Jesus lives, those who belong to Him through faith have the promise of life everlasting.

This is why we can grieve today without grieving as those who have no hope. We miss Anne. We feel the emptiness left by her absence. Frank has lost his beloved wife of more than fifty-three years. Eric and Amy have lost their mother. Kelli, Jon, Luke, and Ti have lost their grandmother. The family and friends who loved Anne feel the pain of this separation.

The Christian faith does not ask us to pretend that death is anything less than an enemy. Death separates us from those we love, and that separation hurts. But death is a defeated enemy. Jesus Christ has entered the grave and come forth alive again. His resurrection is the promise that the grave will not hold those who belong to Him forever.

The Lord speaks this same comfort through the prophet Isaiah: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” Notice the personal nature of God's promise. “I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine.” God does not offer some vague hope that things might work out in the end. He declares that He has redeemed His people. Through the death of Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven. Through His resurrection, we have the promise of everlasting life.

Anne belonged to the Lord who called her by name. Her baptism points us to God's gracious promise, not to anything Anne accomplished for herself. Our comfort rests in the faithfulness of the Savior who gave Himself for her and who promises never to abandon those who are His.

And that brings us to the words of James: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” Anne's life gave her family many reasons to remember her with love. Her devotion to her children and grandchildren was especially evident. Her family was so important to her. She treasured the opportunity to watch her grandchildren grow, and she spent time caring for them and helping them along the way.

Proverbs 22:6 reminds us, “Train up a child in the way he should go.” The Christian faith is one of the greatest gifts that can be shared across generations. Parents and grandparents have the privilege of teaching children God's Word, bringing them to church, praying with them, and pointing them to Jesus.

Such love is not measured by perfection, nor does any parent or grandparent have the power to create faith in another person's heart. Faith is God's gift, worked through His Word. But what a blessing it is when a family is surrounded by the promises of God and encouraged to trust in Christ!

Anne's love for her family is part of the legacy for which we give thanks today. And the greatest comfort we can offer one another is to keep pointing each other to the Savior whom Anne was taught to trust.

Finally, we hear the beautiful promise from Revelation chapter 21: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore.” These words direct our eyes beyond the grave to the day when Christ will return in glory. God will make all things new. The dead will be raised, and those who belong to Christ will live with Him forever in the new heavens and the new earth.

This is more than a promise that Anne's memory will live on in the hearts of her family. It is the promise that Jesus Christ will raise the dead. Our Christian hope is not merely that the soul survives death, but that Christ will raise our bodies and restore His creation. The Lord who made us will make all things new.

Until that day, we live under the care of our Good Shepherd. As Psalm 23 reminds us, even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we need not fear evil, for the Lord is with us. His Word comforts us. His promises sustain us. And His goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our lives.

Dear family and friends of Anne, grieve her loss, but do not lose heart. Give thanks for the years you shared with her, for her love, and for the memories that will remain with you. And above all, cling to Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Savior.

The Lord who called Anne by name is faithful to His promises. Jesus, who promised paradise to the repentant criminal, has conquered the grave. And the day is coming when He will wipe away every tear from our eyes.

Until then, we commend Anne to the mercy of God, and we entrust ourselves to the care of our Good Shepherd.

For Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Festival of the Reformation (observed)

(Audio)

Matthew 11:12-19; Romans 3:19-28; Revelation 14:6-7

 

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

We celebrate the Festival of the Reformation, not because of the birth of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the translation of the Holy Scriptures into German, or even the great deeds and bold confession of Martin Luther and the other reformers. We celebrate because of the eternal Gospel, proclaimed by the angel “to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people.” And what is this eternal Gospel? St. Paul declares: “The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law,” the righteousness of God “through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”

The reforms accomplished by Luther and the reformers before and after him stripped away the layers of man-made laws, traditions, and superstitions that had obscured this pure Gospel: that men are justified, not by their works or obedience to the Law, not by personal piety or devotion, but by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, “whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood.”

Yet the Gospel had become obscured long before indulgences became common practice. It was obscured long before the Pharisees and teachers of the Law imposed their traditions upon God’s Word. Indeed, it was obscured long before Moses, Abraham, or even the incarnation of our Lord. From the moment God first promised a Savior who would crush the serpent’s head and deliver us from sin and death, sinful man has sought to offer something of his own to God as payment for his sins. From Cain and Abel onward, we have been tempted to reject the grace God freely gives and devise our own way to earn His favor.

But the Gospel is eternal. It was God’s gracious purpose before the foundation of the world, and it remains unchanged forever. When God sent His only-begotten Son to fulfill the Law in our place and suffer and die for the sins of the world, He accomplished everything necessary for our salvation. From the cross, Jesus declared, “It is finished.” Nothing remains to be added to His perfect, once-for-all sacrifice.

This is the eternal Gospel proclaimed by God’s messengers: angels, prophets, apostles, evangelists, pastors, and every Christian who confesses Christ before the world. “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

The eternal Gospel is extra nos, outside of us. That is precisely why it is Good News. Your justification does not depend upon you. Your standing before God does not depend upon your good works, obedience to the Law, personal piety, tithing, or church attendance. Your justification rests entirely upon Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, whom the Father put forward as the propitiation for your sins.

If your justification depended upon anything in you, you could never know true comfort or peace. You would always wonder whether you had done enough, given enough, or believed enough. There would be no certainty, no assurance, and no Good News. There would be only the rigid, inflexible, and condemning Law of God, which you cannot keep.

Yet sinful man insists upon finding some way to justify himself. We imagine that Christ has paid for our original sin but that we must somehow pay Him back for our actual sins. We may not purchase indulgences, but we can still imagine that our prayers, offerings, service, or personal devotion somehow make us more deserving of God’s forgiveness.

In effect, we say, “Thank You, God, for the gift of Your Son, but His sacrifice is not quite enough. Let me contribute something to make up the difference.” But any gift that must be earned, purchased, or deserved is no gift at all. If it is not a gift, it is not grace. And if it is not grace, we remain in our sins, condemned under the Law.

This is the conflict Jesus describes in our Gospel lesson: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” God desires to give His kingdom freely, by grace. But sinful man wants to seize it on his own terms. We want a salvation that leaves room for our accomplishments, a righteousness to which we can claim some contribution.

Jesus compares His generation to children who refuse to respond to either joyful music or a funeral dirge. They rejected John the Baptist because of his austere life, and they rejected Jesus because He came eating and drinking with sinners. Nothing satisfied them because the problem was not the messengers or their message. The problem was the stubborn unbelief of those who refused to receive what God was giving.

And so the question confronts us today: What do you tell God you will or will not do? What do you tell Him He can or cannot do? What part of His Word do you reject because you think you know better? What part of His Gospel do you hear and answer, “That is all well and good, but it is not enough”? Have you not heard that the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men? God alone is God, and you are not.

The First Commandment teaches us to fear, love, and trust in God above all things. This commandment does not encourage us to find new ways to justify ourselves. Rather, it exposes our sin and condemns our efforts at self-justification. The Law must silence every mouth and hold the whole world accountable to God, as St. Paul declares in our Epistle.

Only when we confess that we cannot justify ourselves can we receive grace for what it truly is: a pure and perfect gift. And when we receive this gift through faith in Jesus Christ, God is glorified as both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

There is a Latin phrase often associated with the Reformation: Ecclesia semper reformanda, the Church is always being reformed. The Reformation we commemorate today began, symbolically, on October 31, 1517. But Luther’s confession was part of a much longer history in which God continually sent His messengers to call sinners to repentance and proclaim the one eternal Gospel of justification by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

The Church must always be reformed because sinful man is always tempted to obscure the Gospel. The Church of Christ needs reformation today just as surely as it did in 1517. God continues to raise up messengers to proclaim the Good News to every nation, tribe, language, and people. And He has called you to confess Christ before your neighbors, in your words and deeds, trusting His promise: “Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven.”

There is no higher worship of God than to receive His gifts. And His most precious gift is the righteousness given to us in His Son, Jesus Christ. Do not strive to earn God’s favor through your works, words, or piety. Rather, hold fast to the Gospel, and do not allow anything or anyone to obscure the truth that Christ has done everything necessary for your salvation. God put Him forward as a propitiation by His blood, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Ecclesia semper reformanda. The Church is always being reformed, and so are all the members of Christ’s Church. Therefore, let every day of your God-given life be a Festival of the Reformation: a day of repentance, a day of faith, and a day of receiving God’s gifts. For here, in Christ Jesus, your sins are forgiven, your guilt is removed, and your righteousness before God is secure, not because of anything you have done, but solely because of what Christ has done for you.

This is the eternal Gospel. It was true before the Reformation, it was true in Luther’s day, and it remains true today and forever. You are justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And that is enough.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Twenty-Second Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 22)

(Audio)

Matthew 18:21-35; Philippians 1:3-11; Malachi 6:6-8

 

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

Do you not find it ironic that your Lord tells Peter to forgive seventy times seven and then tells a parable about a king who forgives only once? What’s with that? You are to forgive endlessly, but God forgives only once? But then, this is a parable of the kingdom of heaven, which is not like the kingdoms of men.

In the kingdoms of men, you think you want justice, what is right, above all else. Therefore, you sympathize with Peter in his desire to limit forgiveness. A repeat offender deserves justice and punishment, you believe. However, when the king exacts such harsh punishment upon a servant who owes him an enormous debt, you sympathize with the servant. The punishment seems excessive, unjust. And when the king forgives the servant’s entire debt out of pity for him, don’t you feel that is unjust as well? No one is supposed to get something for nothing. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, after all. Do you see how twisted your thoughts about justice are? By what measure do you decide what is just, right, fair, and good?

Jesus knows this about you. He is a master storyteller, and He tells this parable to expose your hypocrisy and self-righteousness. The servant who has been mercifully forgiven his enormous debt then literally grabs another servant by the throat over a comparatively insignificant debt. Though the man pleads for more time, the unforgiving servant has him thrown into prison until he can repay every last cent. But in prison, he cannot earn the money to repay the debt. He will never get out.

How does this twist in the story affect your sense of justice? Are you not outraged that the servant who was forgiven so much refuses even to be merciful toward a servant who owes him so little? Do you not sympathize with the fellow servants who witness this wickedness and report it to their master? And from what high place do you stand in judgment? Did you not sympathize with this man before, and now you condemn him? Remember, this is a parable about the kingdom of heaven. What, then, is Jesus teaching you?

Consider what happened when the Prophet Nathan confronted King David over his murderous sin. Nathan told David a story about a rich man who took a poor man’s beloved ewe lamb and killed it. David burned with righteous indignation and declared that the man deserved to die. Then Nathan said to him, “You are the man!” When you hear Nathan’s story, when you hear Jesus’ parable, you are quick to judge, filled with self-righteous anger and ready to condemn. But what is truly exposed is the truth that you are the man.

You are the unforgiving servant. You have received the Lord’s mercy, yet you withhold mercy from others. You have been forgiven a debt you could never repay, yet you demand payment from those who sin against you. And you are also the fellow servants who want the wicked man exposed and punished. You want people to pay for the evil they do, not only in this life but eternally. You condemn them and want them to get what they deserve.

Then be careful what you ask for. If you demand a God who condemns others and exacts justice from them, you must also stand before that God yourself. If that is the sort of king you want, that is the sort of king you will have. You, too, will answer for your sins.

You are not unique. You, too, have sinned. You, too, have been forgiven much. You, too, have received God’s compassionate mercy. Therefore, humble yourself before the King, for He alone is righteous, and He alone is the greatest in the kingdom. Do not demand justice for everyone else while expecting mercy for yourself. Repent, and receive forgiveness. Then forgive as you have been forgiven. Give as you have been given to, and do not condemn, as you have not been condemned.

For Jesus’ sake, God has forgiven you. And here we must be clear: God’s forgiveness is once for all, not because He forgives you only once and then refuses to forgive you again, but because Jesus Christ has made the once-for-all sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. Nothing can be added to His finished work upon the cross. Your debt has been paid in full, not because you deserved it, not because you earned it, but solely because of God’s mercy in His Son. And this forgiveness is continually delivered to you through His Word and Sacraments, so that you might receive it by faith, again and again, throughout your life.

But Jesus’ parable also contains a serious warning. The servant who refuses to forgive reveals that he despises the mercy he has received. He wants the king’s forgiveness for himself but refuses to extend mercy to his neighbor. He wants forgiveness without repentance, mercy without mercy’s fruit, and the king’s generosity without living as one who has been forgiven.

So it is with you when you refuse to forgive. You cannot cling to Christ’s mercy for yourself while insisting that mercy be withheld from your neighbor. When you persist in an unforgiving heart, refusing to repent of your bitterness and your desire to condemn, you reject the very mercy upon which you depend. You turn away from the forgiveness Christ has won for you and place yourself under the judgment of the Law. This is no small matter, for faith that receives God’s mercy does not despise that mercy but bears its fruit in love toward the neighbor.

When you pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” you confess that the forgiveness you receive from God cannot be separated from the forgiveness you extend to others. Your refusal to forgive is not a small matter. It places your own faith and salvation in jeopardy, because it is a rejection of the mercy of God.

But understand this: it is only through Jesus’ forgiveness that you are able to forgive others. You have neither the righteousness nor the strength to do so on your own. You need His mercy, His Word, and His Spirit. That is why Jesus tells you to forgive seventy times seven. There is no limit to the forgiveness you are to extend to your neighbor, just as there is no limit to the mercy God pours out upon you in Christ.

God’s forgiveness came at great cost: the cost of His only-begotten Son. Yet that sacrifice was necessary so that you might be justified through faith in Him. His forgiveness is yours freely, without any merit or worthiness in you. And when you forgive your neighbor, you are not losing something that belongs to you. You are bearing witness to the mercy you have received.

Do not imagine that you can earn God’s favor by forgiving others. You are forgiven for Jesus’ sake alone. Rather, because you have been forgiven, you are called to forgive. Faith receives the mercy of Christ, and that mercy bears fruit in love toward your neighbor.

As St. Paul writes to the Philippians, he is confident “that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” The Lord who has called you to faith will continue His work in you through His Word and Sacraments. He will expose your sin, call you to repentance, renew your faith, and strengthen you to live in the mercy you have received.

Therefore, do not look to your own righteousness, your own sense of justice, or your own strength. Look to Jesus, whose wounds declare that your debt has been paid. Return continually to His Word and His gifts, where your forgiveness is proclaimed and your faith is sustained. There, the Holy Spirit works in you the mercy you cannot manufacture for yourself.

And so the words of the Prophet Micah are fulfilled in your life: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

May the Holy Spirit grant you such humility, such faith, and such mercy, that you forgive as you have been forgiven, for Jesus’ sake.

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.

What does faith look like? What does faith sound like? What does faith do? St. James famously says, “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” Faith is something that can be seen and identified, primarily by our works. The problem, however, is that our judgment and evaluation of our own works, not to mention the works of others, are fallen, tainted, and corrupted by sin. We measure and evaluate according to our values, beliefs, and opinions rather than the truth and all-knowing wisdom of God. We value what God does not value, deem virtuous what has no virtue, and esteem as great what is nothing in His eyes.

Today’s Gospel reveals the nature and characteristics of faith: how it begins, grows, increases, and at last is perfected. Faith grows and matures throughout our lives. A seed does not ripen at once. It first springs up as a shoot, then grows into a stalk, and finally produces grain. So, too, the heavenly seed, God’s Word, is scattered. Received in faith, it brings forth fruit as we learn to trust God, love our neighbor, and discipline our bodies. We become a new creation in Christ, not all at once, but throughout our lives until the grave.

We see this in the Galilean official who came to Jesus, pleading that He heal his son. The father believed Jesus could and would heal his boy. His faith was real, true, and salvific, created in him by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. Yet his faith was not fully mature. He insisted that Jesus come physically to his home and heal his son. He did not yet fully trust that Jesus needed only to speak His Word. Like the centurion, he should have confessed, “Only speak your Word and my son will be healed.” He wanted signs and wonders to support his faith.

Look how Jesus responds to this man of weak faith, but of faith nonetheless. Our Lord rebukes him: “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” I sense disappointment in our Lord’s words. Some Christians have difficulty imagining Jesus as frustrated or angry, but to deny such emotions is to deny His humanity. Jesus was truly human, in every way except sin, and truly God in the one person of Jesus Christ. He was sorrowful and wept real tears at the death of Lazarus. He expressed righteous anger against the Pharisees and the moneychangers. And He was disappointed when those who believed in Him struggled to trust His Word.

That is why one of my favorite confessions of faith in all of Scripture comes from another father seeking healing for his son: “Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief.” And that is precisely what Jesus does for the official. He rebukes his weakness of faith, but then He gives him a promise: “Go; your son will live.” This Word is both a challenge and an invitation to believe. The father believes Jesus, and as he makes his way home, his servants meet him with the news that his son is recovering. When he learns that the healing began at the very hour Jesus spoke, he and his entire household believe. The father wanted a sign when he did not need one. Jesus had given him something better: His Word. And through that Word, faith was strengthened.

The Word alone. Sola. The Word comes to us by grace alone, sola gratia. It is given to us in Holy Scripture, sola Scriptura. The Word became flesh in Jesus Christ, solus Christus. And this Word is received through faith alone, sola fide. Only by the gift of the Holy Spirit, working through the Word, can we believe in Christ and cling to Him for forgiveness, life, and salvation.

For who is this Jesus in whom we trust? He is the very Word of creation, through whom the Father spoke all things into existence: “Let there be light,” and there was light. He is the Word by whom all things were made, the Word made flesh who dwelt among us. He is the Christ, the Son of the living God, upon whom He has built His Church, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail. This confession is the mature fruit of faith, made evident in good works that serve our neighbor and glorify God.

So, what signs and wonders are you looking for, O you of little faith? Do you hope that political leaders will restore godly order and morality? That violence and crime will disappear and peace and security return? That this congregation will be filled to standing room only, with overflowing coffers and programs to meet every need? Or do you simply hope your spouse will love you, your children will respect you, and you will have enough money to retire without sacrificing your comforts?

Perhaps some of these things will come to pass. Perhaps they will not. Thanks be to God that your faith does not rest upon these things, but upon Jesus Christ and His Word. For the Word of creation, Jesus Christ, is present with you now through His Word and His Wounds. He does for you precisely what He promises: your sins are forgiven. Your faith is restored and strengthened. His life-giving blood cleanses you from all sin, and you are declared holy and righteous in Him. He gives you life that will never end and promises to raise your mortal body from death, to be reunited with your immortal soul in everlasting life.

So, what does faith look like? What does faith sound like? What does faith do? Faith believes in Jesus, trusts in Jesus, clings to Jesus, and receives Jesus. Yet faith is never alone. It produces good works, works counted as good in the eyes of the Lord because of the atoning blood of Jesus.

Faith in Christ and His Word clothes you in His righteousness, as with defensive armor, making you strong in the might of the Lord against the spiritual forces of evil. The shield of faith extinguishes the flaming darts of the evil one, and the Word of God, the Word made flesh, is the sword of the Spirit that fights for you, defends you, preserves you, and keeps you through every trial and tribulation, even through death, unto life everlasting.

Faith is a continually growing and maturing thing. And yet it remains true faith at every stage. May the Holy Spirit who created this faith within you continue to nourish, strengthen, preserve, and protect you throughout all your days. May Jesus Christ, whose blood has cleansed you from all sin, remain your strength, life, and salvation as you receive forgiveness and life through His Word and His Wounds. And may the Father who created you work through you to give life to others, using your hands, your heart, and your voice in loving service, that others may know His Son and live, and that His Name may be glorified to the ends of the earth.

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.

God is holy, and God commands that you must be holy as He is holy. But what does it mean to be holy?

For God to be holy means that He is not like you. God is wholly other. His holiness is the very state of His being. And for you to be holy is not what you might think. Holiness is not morality, and sanctification is not simply moral improvement or self-improvement. Holiness is a state of being in which you share in God’s holiness, for only God is holy.

And yet, your Holy God makes you holy in the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. The prerequisite for sharing in God’s holiness is purity, being cleansed from the stain and guilt of sin. It is to be justified before being sanctified.

Therefore, when God commands that you must be holy as He is holy, He is not merely commanding something for you to do. He is declaring something about you that is true: you are holy, because God has made you holy in the atoning death and resurrection of His Son. In Christ, you are clean and holy, justified and sanctified. And this is entirely God’s work, done for you and done to you in Jesus Christ your Lord.

Consider those familiar words of Jesus: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” These words do not merely describe God’s affection for you, though they certainly do that. They explain how God has loved you. God loved the world in this way: He gave His only Son unto suffering and death.

God did not give His Son only for His chosen people, the moral and upright, the faithful and good. God gave His Son for the world, so that the world and everyone in it might be holy as He is holy. This is the doctrine of objective justification. The reason you are pure and clean before God lies entirely outside of you, in the objective death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus, the Lamb of God, died for the sins of the entire world. This is universal atonement: Christ’s death and resurrection were for the entire world and for everyone in it. There is no one whom Christ did not atone for. His blood is sufficient for all. Therefore, there is reconciliation with God, forgiveness, cleanness from sin, purity, and holiness in Jesus Christ.

But do not misunderstand. The fact that Jesus died for all does not mean that all will join in the marriage feast of the Lamb and His Bride, the Church. As Jesus says, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” All are invited. All have been atoned for. Yet many refuse to come. Many refuse to receive God’s gifts.

That is the picture Jesus gives us in the parable. A king gives a wedding feast for his son and sends his servants to call those who have been invited. But they refuse to come. Some are simply disinterested. Others are too preoccupied with work, possessions, and play. Others become angry and violent, mocking, abusing, and killing the king’s servants. They were invited by the king’s grace, but they despised the invitation. They counted their own affairs to be of greater value than the king’s gracious gift. And so they are judged according to their own works, merits, and worth.

Then the king sends his servants out again: “Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.” And they gather everyone they find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall is filled with guests.

But then Jesus tells us about one man who does not have a wedding garment. Remember, these people had not been preparing for a wedding. They had been going about their ordinary business. They were gathered from the highways and byways. Yet somehow this man is without the proper garment, a garment that was provided by the king! How is it possible that he did not have a wedding garment?

The man was invited. The king even addresses him as “friend.” He had been given everything necessary for the feast, including the proper clothing. But he refused the king’s gift. He rejected the garment that had been provided for him. And so he is cast into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. This is the warning of the parable: God provides everything. He provides the invitation. He provides the feast. He provides the garment. And the garment is Christ’s righteousness.

God is holy, and God commands that you must be holy as He is holy. And God has made you holy through the death and resurrection of His Son. You are invited to the wedding feast, and you have been clothed in Christ’s righteousness, which covers all your sins. You do not stand before God clothed in your own righteousness. You do not stand before Him clothed in your morality, your good intentions, your accomplishments, or your worthiness. You stand before Him clothed in Christ.

If you reject God’s gracious invitation and refuse His garment of righteousness, then you stand only with what you have to offer: your sin-tainted works and your sin-corrupted flesh and blood. But God has already provided what you need. His grace is not something you earn. His mercy is not something you accomplish. His righteousness is not something you produce. It is given to you in Christ.

God is holy, but He is not remote. God is wholly other, yet He has come to you. The Holy Spirit has called you by the Gospel, enlightened you with His gifts, sanctified you, and kept you in the true faith. He clothed you in the baptismal garment of Christ’s righteousness, and you are clean. And now He brings you to the wedding feast even now, giving you a foretaste of the feast to come. He feeds you with the choicest of meats and the finest of wines in the holy body and precious blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, your Savior.

The invitation is still being proclaimed: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

Come, then. Come to Christ. Come and receive what He gives. You are holy, not because you have made yourself holy, but because your Holy God has made you holy in Christ.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Feast of St. Michael and All Angels (observed)

(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.

You’ve heard the saying, “Pride goeth before the fall.” It comes from Proverbs 16:18: “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” How many fables, moral lessons, and stories are built upon this proverb, which we all know to be true? Those who are puffed up with pride and full of themselves may rise to lofty heights, but too often they also experience a precipitous fall.

Lucifer’s great sin, and the cause of his fall, was pride. Though he was one of the highest of God’s angels, an angel of light, he begrudged the Lord to be a servant, particularly a servant to God’s most treasured creatures, mankind. Did Lucifer want to be a god himself? Quite likely. But this much is certain: he did not want to serve mankind, whom he deemed beneath him. Yet God loved mankind. He gave man dominion over all that He had made, even the heavenly ranks of holy angels. Lucifer’s pride could not tolerate this. His pride consumed him, filling him with anger, resentment, and hatred for God, and, even more, hatred for man whom God loved.

Lucifer’s pride caused him to fall from the highest ranks of God’s holy angels to the darkness of hellish separation from God. In his fall, Lucifer became Satan, the adversary, the enemy, the accuser of men. He knew that he could not defeat God, so he attacked mankind whom God loved. He cunningly tempted our First Parents by appealing to their pride. He promised them that by disobeying God they would become like God. But it was a lie. They were already made in God’s image. They were already the highest of all that God had made. Yet Adam and Eve gave in to their pride, and they fell, just as Satan had fallen.

But God’s love for mankind moved Him to redeem us. Though our First Parents rebelled and fell from grace, God had compassion and mercy upon them. He set in motion His great plan of redemption through the sacrificial offering of His Son. Before the foundation of the world, God had ordained that His Son would become man, fulfill the holy Law in perfect obedience and righteousness, and suffer and die in man’s place, redeeming us from sin and restoring us to God.

Satan likely knew part of God’s plan. Yet once again his pride blinded him. He believed that by destroying Jesus he could thwart God. But when Jesus died upon the cross, Satan had not won. The opposite was true. Jesus knew no sin, but God placed upon Him the sins of all mankind. He took our sins to the cross, and there they died with Him. He alone rose from the dead.

The cross of Jesus Christ is the sign of Satan’s defeat. The Seed of the Woman, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, crushed the ancient serpent’s head. He rose from the dead on the third day, living proof of Satan’s defeat and of the forgiveness of sins through faith in the victorious and atoning death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The war in heaven described in Revelation 12 is the result of Jesus’ victory on the cross. Satan, the accuser of men, has been thrown out of the presence of God. No longer can he accuse you before the Father, for your sins are atoned for and forgiven in the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ.

Satan cannot accuse you, judge you, or condemn you, for you have been justified wholly apart from yourself by the obedience, suffering, and death of Jesus for you. But Satan still prowls the earth in a violent rage, because he knows that his time is short. He cannot defeat God. He cannot defeat Jesus. But he does have a dangerous weapon: lies and deception. He tempts you to sin. He makes sin seem attractive, even righteous. And then, when you sin, he accuses you. He tells you that you are not forgiven, that you cannot be forgiven, that you have gone too far and are outside God’s grace. That is a lie.

But how often do you believe it? How often do you allow Satan to cause you to doubt God’s goodness, mercy, love, and forgiveness? Satan’s purpose is to separate and isolate you, from your brothers and sisters in Christ, from your neighbor, and ultimately from God. He hates God, and he hates you because God loves you. He wants to see you destroyed eternally. But there is no victory for him to win. Christ has already won. Therefore, Satan is your enemy. Indeed, it is true to say that no man is your enemy, but all men have the same enemy. Satan’s hatred of God and his hatred of you is what drives him.

And here we see the work of God’s holy angels. The word angel means messenger. The holy angels are servants of God, sent to serve and protect His children. They guard and watch over you, just as Luther teaches you to pray in the morning and evening. But remember: angels are servants. You do not pray to them or worship them. You thank God for them and honor and glorify Him for their service. And you may emulate the angels by serving your brothers and sisters in Christ and your neighbor in need. Put away your pride. Serve others in the faith and knowledge that when you serve the least of your brothers, you are serving Jesus. Bear with your brothers, sisters, and neighbors in patience and kindness, even those who do evil to you or hate you. God alone is judge, and He works all things, even the evil things men do, for the good of those whom He has called in Christ. God has ordained a wonderful order of service among angels and men by which His children are helped and defended.

So, do not be afraid. Whatever befalls you in this life, nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. That is the truth. Anything else is a lie of Satan. He will continue to tempt you toward pride, division, judgment, hatred, and isolation. He will try to turn your eyes away from the cross of Jesus Christ and cause you to forget the redemption He won for you there. Therefore, pray that God send His holy angels to protect and defend you. Pray that the Church of Jesus Christ would persevere.

And, more than anything else, continue to gather around the Word and the wounds of Jesus Christ. Receive again and again the forgiveness of your sins. Be strengthened and encouraged by His Word. Commune with your Lord and Redeemer, who laid down His life in selfless and sacrificial service for you, to purchase, win, and redeem you for eternal life.

And there, as now, in a foretaste of the great feast to come, you will worship with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, God and the Lamb upon His throne, Jesus Christ, to whom be blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might forever and ever!

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 6)

(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.

The scene is descriptive. You can picture it in your mind with supreme clarity. A funeral procession is winding down the hillside away from the walled city on a hill. Men are carrying the body of a young man upon a bier. A great crowd follows, wailing in grief and sorrow because a young man is dead and a mother is widowed and childless. No one can do anything to change the situation. No one can offer any real comfort. It is an utter tragedy, senseless and inexplicable. But it is real. It is all too real.

But, by chance, there was another procession that day, one approaching the walled city on a hill. In this procession, no one is wailing in grief and sorrow and no one is dead. In fact, the great crowd was rejoicing, and the one leading the procession is the Lord of Life Himself, Jesus. The crowd accompanying Jesus had heard His teaching and had followed Him through Galilee as He healed the sick and cast out evil spirits. They had witnessed His power and authority over sin, and all that sin had brought into the world. Now they would witness His authority over death itself.

Jesus saw the grieving mother from a distance and had compassion for her. He did not simply feel sorry for her. He was filled with gut-wrenching compassion for her in her grief and lostness, and for the terrible wages of sin that had been paid out in the death of her son and, before him, her husband. Jesus said to her, “Do not weep,” for the weeping, grief, and sorrow would be borne by Him. Then He reached out and touched the bier, for the uncleanness of sin and death would be borne by Him as well. But the real miracle was in His Word, as it always is: “Young man, I say to you, arise.” “And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.”

The scene is descriptive. You can picture it in your mind with supreme clarity. Martin Luther put it this way in his hymn Christ Lag in Todesbanden: It was a strange and dreadful strife when life and death contended; the victory remained with life, the reign of death was ended. Holy Scripture plainly saith that death is swallowed up by death, its sting is lost forever.

Death is all too real. In a sense, we are all part of that funeral procession winding down the hillside away from the Garden of Eden. There, the poisonous venom of sin first entered our First Parents’ veins. Now it flows through the veins of all who live and breathe and die. That day it was a young man who received his wage in death. Tomorrow it will be an old man. The day after, a wife and mother. The day after that, a newborn child. The young man represented the best of us: alive, healthy, vigorous, with the whole world seemingly open before him. And yet death took him. If he could not escape death, what hope is there for any of us?

On our own, left to our own devices, there is no hope. We are dead. Even while we live, we live each day knowing that death is coming, sooner or later, at a time we cannot know. There is no hope, until we set our eyes upon Jesus. When we lift our eyes from this world of death, from its idols and corruption, and admit that we are dead, or at least that we are living the life of the dead, then we see Jesus, who has come and who comes to us now as the Lord of Life, our Redeemer and Savior.

Jesus has compassion, gut-wrenching compassion, upon you in your grief and sorrow, your sin and death. And He does the unthinkable and unimaginable: He touches your bier. He takes your sin. He takes your uncleanness. He takes your death upon Himself. Jesus did not simply cast death away. He took death into Himself and swallowed it up, as Scripture plainly says. He drank your cup of poison to the bitter dregs so that you could live. He took the serpent’s venom into Himself so that you might become what He is: truly and eternally alive.

Just as that dead young man represented the best of us, doomed to die despite how alive we believe ourselves to be, so Jesus has become the living Man for all of us, so that in and through Him we are alive now and will live, even through death, forevermore. Jesus is our true Adam, in whom we are all one. He has defeated death by dying for you, His Eve, His Bride. When faced with the serpent’s temptation, the First Adam fell. But when Jesus, our Second Adam, faced the serpent and bore the serpent’s bite, He remained obedient to His Father. He laid down His life in love, unto death, for you. Life died that you might live. The Bridegroom died that His Bride might live. The victory remained with life; the reign of death was ended.

The funeral procession that day was heading toward the tomb, and nowhere else. There was no expectation of encountering Life. There was no hope that anything could change that hopeless situation. But then Jesus came. The Son of God became the Son of Man. He who was highest in God’s glory humbled Himself and became the lowest. He who was without sin was made to be sin for us. He who is Life became obedient to death, even death upon a cross.

The crowd following Jesus had witnessed His authority over disease and demons. Now they witnessed His authority over death. But Jesus’ authority was not merely the authority of divine might. It was the authority of perfect and obedient fear, love, and trust in His Father, and perfect and obedient love for His neighbor. And so, people began to turn from fear, hopelessness, and despair to faith in God’s promises fulfilled in Jesus. They followed Him. They listened to His teaching. They witnessed His miracles. They told others. They brought their sick and dying, their demon-possessed loved ones, and their children to Jesus, that He might touch them with His holy hands and speak His life-creating Word.

And in a similar way, most of you were brought to Jesus in Holy Baptism. There, beside the still waters, through the hands and voice of His undershepherd, Jesus touched you with His holy hands and spoke His life-creating Word of blessing upon you. In Holy Baptism, the procession of death was met head-on by the procession of Life in that strange and dreadful strife. And the victory remained with life; the reign of death was ended.

In Holy Baptism Jesus has touched you and spoken His life-creating Word: “Arise.” And, as it was in the beginning, so it is now: His Word brings into being what He says. And then Jesus returned you to your Mother, the Church. Yes, we have the same Mother. For there is one body and one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

We have the same Mother, the Bride of Christ, the Church, which is one body and of which Christ is the Head. As the Fathers have taught us, extra ecclesiam nulla salus: there is no salvation outside of the Church. There is no salvation outside of Christ because the Church is His Body. We are saved by His perfect life, death, and resurrection, not merely in some external and objective way, but by being grafted into Him, born again from His death into His life, living in Him and from Him in selfless, sacrificial love and service to our neighbor, especially those who belong to the one body of faith.

And if we would bring people to Jesus, that He might touch them with His holy hands and bless them with His life-creating Word, then we must bring them to where He is present with His Word and His Wounds. We bring them to Holy Baptism. We bring them to Confession and Absolution. We bring them to the Word of God preached and confessed. We bring them to the Word of God eaten and drunk, to Holy Communion with the Lord and Giver of Life. For the procession of death still winds its way through this world. But Christ has come into it. Life has met death, and Life has won.

So, lift up your eyes. See Jesus. He comes to you with His Words and His Wounds. He touches you with His holy hands. He speaks His life-creating Word. “Arise.” And because Jesus lives, you shall live.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.