The Eighth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 8)

(Audio)

Matthew 7:15-23; Romans 8:12-17; Jeremiah 23:16-29

 

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

Defining the term “religion” can be quite a challenge today. People regularly interchange the terms religion, faith, and spirituality, and they use these terms inconsistently. So, you will commonly hear someone say, “I’m spiritual, not religious,” and you are left wondering, “What does that mean?” Nevertheless, we charitably assume that they mean something. It’s clear that they are making a distinction between religion and spirituality and that, in weighing the two, they have decided in favor of spirituality. But, why the negative view toward religion?

Arguably, a religion is an organized system of beliefs and doctrines and explanations for why everything is and for the way things are, a worldview, if you will. But a religion does not necessarily have to include God, or gods, or any sense of divinity, thus, even atheism and agnosticism can be religions, environmentalism can be a religion, identity and LGBTQ+ ideology can be a religion. By definition, however, a system of beliefs and doctrines holds its adherents to certain expectations, rules, and laws. Adherents to the religious system, themselves, are, at once, bound, even as they bind others, with the expectations, rules, and laws of the system. Understanding this, perhaps we begin to see more clearly why someone would claim to be spiritual and not religious; perhaps they object to the expectations, rules, and laws of the religious system.

We should not, however, be too quick to cast off objections to religious systems as mere rebelliousness or immaturity, for religious systems are constructed by sinful men and, therefore, they are the fruit of man’s sin-tainted reason, wisdom, and will. Some religious systems need to be rejected. But how do we judge? How do we know if a religious system and its prophets is good or bad? “You will recognize them by their fruits,” says our Lord Jesus. “Every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.” So, what do the adherents of the religious system believe, teach, and confess? What do they say and do? These are particularly important questions to ask when evaluating religious systems and their prophets claiming to speak for God. How do we judge? What criteria do we use? Again, what are the fruits of the religious system and its prophets? Do they honor and obey God’s Word, Will, and Commandments or do they defy and deny God’s Word, Will, and Commandments?

It is helpful, perhaps, for us to take a moment and reflect upon the nature of trees and their fruit. A healthy apple tree, for instance, produces good fruit, apples. The apples, in fact, are the criteria for judging the tree healthy. Any apple tree that fails to produce apples is judged unhealthy, diseased, or dead; it’s cut down and thrown into the fire. Further, an apple tree only produces apples, never grapes, or pears, or figs; you know it is an apple tree by its fruit – apples. But which came first, the apple tree or the apple? Well, according to the Word of God in Genesis which we believe, teach, and confess, the apple tree came before the apple, just as mothers and fathers come before sons and daughters, dogs come before puppies, and, yes, even chickens come before eggs. [There, solved that one for you!] And, as the fruit is indicative of the kind of tree we are observing, so is the health of the fruit indicative of the health of the tree – “You will recognize them by their fruits.”

But Jesus isn’t really talking about trees in the Gospel lesson today, is He? No, He’s talking about false prophets, those trying, by deception, to sell you a false religious system. How do you recognize a false prophet of a false religious system? The same way you recognize good and healthy trees and diseased and dying trees – by their fruits. Jesus says that false prophets come to you disguised as sheep, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. That’s kind of like an orange famer painting the fruit of his trees red so as to deceive you into thinking that the orange trees are apple trees. Just because, to the eye, the red-painted oranges might look like apples, does not make them to be apples or the trees that bore them to be apple trees. “Beware.”

There are a lot of false religious systems and false prophets in the world today. Some of them are quite easy to identify, but many others look appealing to the senses and even human reason and wisdom. Still, that does not make them good, healthy, or true. Hear again the Word of the Lord from the mouth of His prophet Jeremiah: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’”

There are false prophets of false religious systems today who tell their followers to kill the infidel. Even though the Word of the Lord clearly condemns murder, these prophets say to their followers that it will be well with them, even pleasing to God, that God will reward them. Other false prophets of false religious systems tell their followers that it is okay, even good, for a man to lie down with a man and for a woman to do unnatural things with a woman. Even though the Word of the Lord clearly condemns homosexuality, these prophets tell their followers that it will be well with them, even pleasing to God, to bless and to legitimize such behavior and unions. Such false prophets as these are fairly easy to recognize – their fruit is radically different than the Word, Will, and Commandments of the Lord.

But Jesus warns us, however, that the most deceptive false prophets will be much more sly and cunning and that they will arise from within the ranks of the Christian Church. They will call Jesus Lord and they will claim to preach in His Name, but still, they will be known by their fruits. Generally, these false preachers fall into one of two camps: Legalists or Antinomians.

The legalist preaches heavy on the Law, often adding to it the law of men, and he preaches righteousness by works according to the law. He preaches peace to his followers apart from repentance in their hearts so long as they perform the works of the law. Such preaching causes hearers either to fall into hopelessness and despair, because they cannot do what the law commands, or it causes them to become proud and self-righteous, believing that they observe the law quite well enough. In both cases, however, the hearers are lead away from trust in Christ alone for righteousness, either to trust in one’s self or to despair of righteousness at all. “Beware.”

The antinomian preacher, on the other hand, minimizes the Law of God by teaching that, since Christ has fulfilled the Law for us, no longer must we observe and obey it. For many antinomians today, they understand Christ’s teaching, that “Love is the fulfilling of the Law,” to mean that all the things previously forbidden are now permissible according to the law of love. They seemingly disregard or interpret away, however, Jesus’ clear teaching that, although the Law is fulfilled, the Law does not pass away.

As the Law does not pass away, is it truly loving, then, to permit a brother or sister to engage in acts condemned by the Law? Is it truly loving to permit a brother or sister to commit adultery by having sexual relations outside of marriage, to murder an unborn child, to steal what is not theirs through fraud and deception, to slander and gossip about another? Is it truly loving to permit brothers and sisters who are under the influence of false prophets, adhering to false religions that permit and condone acts and beliefs in opposition to the Word, Will, and Commandments of the Lord, to remain in sin: homosexual relations and marriages, women pastors, abortion, indulgences, meritorious works and penance, believer’s baptisms, the non-presence of Christ’s body and blood in His Supper, an unbiblical working of the Holy Spirit apart from the appointed means of Word and Sacrament, the belief that salvation can be attained apart from faith in Christ if only one believes whatever they believe fervently, that worship is about what we bring to God rather than what God graciously and mercifully gives to us, that God helps those who help themselves, etc.?

No, it is not loving to allow a brother or sister to remain in sin. The fruits they are eating are bad and they are diseased; and the trees, the prophets and religious systems they come from, are bad and are diseased. They may look and sound good on the outside, calling out “Lord, Lord,” but they are workers of lawlessness; they do not do the will of the Lord and they teach others to not do the will of the Lord. On the Last Day Jesus will say to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” How can we judge? How can we know? “You will recognize them by their fruits.”

Now, I know this is a hard lesson teaching to hear, especially in our day and culture where the chief religious system is tolerance. Yes, tolerance is a religious system and it has its prophets and its followers, its expectations, rules, and laws. And, its fundamental, overarching law is that “All things are tolerable except intolerance.” And guess who and what is perceived to be intolerant: You, and the Word, Will, and Commandments of God that you love and strive to obey in love.

To be sure, tolerance is fine and good, that is, when tolerance is understood as being different than acceptance or affirmation. Perhaps a better definition of tolerance, at least in terms of the Christian faith, is endurance. Christians, in love for God and for neighbor, are the most tolerant and enduring people on the planet. However, part of what it means to love God and neighbor is to not accept that which is in discord with God’s Law and will. Christians cannot and must not tolerate false teaching, it must be exposed and brought to light, that is the only faithful and loving thing to do. But we do, however, endure as false prophets and religious systems surround us and infiltrate us, knowing that such has been from the Fall in Eden and will be until the return of our Lord in glory.

Until then, we cling to, and we cherish the good fruit of the True Tree Jesus Christ - His Word, His Body, His Blood - for forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation. In Him alone is righteousness; in Him alone is fruitfulness. He is the Vine, and we are His branches, and, remaining in Him, we bear good and much fruit. Only the fruit that comes from Him through us, His branches, will He recognize. Beware of the false prophets who tell you to be satisfied with other fruit, or with no fruit, or to trust in your own fruit and your works. For, the Law of God does not pass away, but it is fulfilled for you in Jesus that you may do it in love for the Lord and for your neighbor to the glory of God in Christ Jesus.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 7)

(Audio)

Mark 8:1-9; Romans 6:19-23; Genesis 2:7-17

 

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

In times of need, and in times of plenty, your Lord provides you all things good, beneficial, and needful to your body and soul. As you walk through the valleys of your life, always in the shadow of death, your Good Shepherd leads and guides you to His font of living water and to His life-giving banquet, even in the presence of your enemies – sin, death, and Satan. Before His Incarnation, He provided the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, holy manna in the wilderness, and water from the rock which St. Paul tells us was the Christ, Jesus. After His Incarnation, in two distinct and unique events, Jesus fed five thousand, and then four thousand men with a small amount of bread and fish. In each event, basketfuls of leftovers were collected after the masses had eaten their fill and were satisfied. Then, on the night in which He was betrayed, in fulfillment of the Passover, Jesus fed His disciples with bread and wine, in, with, and under which were His life-giving body and blood for the forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of faith by the power of His performative and creative Word. And, your Lord has left you His meal of sustenance in your times of need, and His feast and banquet of joy in times of plenty, that you would be provided all things good, beneficial, and needful to your body and soul until the day He returns and you will, once again, eat from the tree of life in the presence of God in a day upon which the sun will never set.

Today’s Gospel lesson is the account of one of these miraculous feedings, the lesser celebrated, the Feeding of the Four Thousand, recorded in St. Mark’s Gospel, chapter eight. Likely, some of you were not aware that there was a feeding of the four thousand, but you know only of the feeding of the five thousand. And, likely, some of you have been instructed, or believe, that these two accounts are but two tellings of the same event. But this is not the case.

In the first place, St. Mark’s Gospel contains both accounts – both the feeding of the five thousand in chapter six, and the feeding of the four thousand in chapter eight. In the second place, the details of each feeding are different and unique. In the feeding of the five thousand, the crowds were not far from towns and villages where they could easily purchase food to eat. Nevertheless, Jesus instructed His disciples to feed the crowds in the desolate place where they were. St. Mark tells you that the people sat down in green grass in groups, as at tables at a banquet. There is no sense of urgency or desperation in the feeding of the five thousand as there is in the feeding of the four thousand. However, in that second miraculous feeding, the crowds had been following Jesus for three days, presumably with little food or drink, and many of the people had come from far away. They could not simply be released to purchase food in nearby towns and villages, for the people were weak and would faint on the way. Again, Jesus instructed the four thousand to sit down, not on green grass, but on the ground in that desolate place. There is no mention of the four thousand being seated in groups, as in a banquet. In contrast, in the feeding of the five thousand, the Lord had compassion on the people because they were like sheep without a shepherd, but, in the feeding of the four thousand, the Lord had compassion on the people because they had nothing to eat.

No, these two accounts of miraculous feedings are not one and the same, rather, they are to be contrasted and compared, their similarities and their differences, that the Lord’s constant presence and providence may be revealed. In those times in your life when you seem to have all that you need, when it is easy to believe that you are the master of your life and the provider of your own sustenance, then the Lord continues to provide you all that you need for your body and life. Though you may take His providence for granted and fail to return thanks, your Lord invites you to His feast and banquet of the finest of wines and the choicest of meats. And, in those times in your life when you are in need and want and you do not know how you will overcome the challenges, deadlines, and debts that lie before you, and you are tempted to despair and hopelessness, your Lord provides you a meal of sustenance to carry you through the lean times, for He has compassion for you and He will not let you perish. And so, this continuing miraculous meal of the Lord’s body and blood is at every serving a banquet and feast for some and a meal of sustenance and survival for others. Thus, Jesus says to you, eat and drink of it often, for, in times of plenty and in times of need, at all times, His flesh and blood is what you need for your body and soul.

But there is also a connection to creation in these miraculous feedings. In both the accounts of the feeding of the five thousand and the feeding of the four thousand, Jesus had placed both His disciples and the crowds in a situation where the very best of their efforts were not enough. In the feeding of the five thousand, though the villages and towns were not far off, Jesus insisted that His disciples feed the crowd in the desolate place where they were. Considering only their own meager offerings of bread and fish, the disciples despaired of their ability to obey Jesus’ command and feed the crowds. Similarly, in the feeding of the four thousand, Jesus had led His disciples and the crowds three days into the wilderness and there had arisen a crisis situation where they were hungry and there was no food to be found. In both cases, the only hope for the disciples and the crowds was the miraculous providence of Jesus. However, in both cases, also, Jesus performed the miracle through the ordinary work of His disciples. He did not wave His hands in the air or utter grand poetic incantations, but Jesus took the bread, gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to His disciples to set before the people. And then He blessed the fish also and had the disciples set them before the people. And, in the distribution, they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces that were left over – twelve basketfuls in the feeding of the five thousand, and seven basketfuls in the feeding of the four thousand.

So, what is the connection with creation? Well, first and foremost, your Lord Jesus created and provided what was necessary for the life and sustenance of His people by the creative and life-giving power of His Word. What was, and is, impossible for man, is possible for God who created and still sustains man and all things by the power of His Word. But second, the numbers in the accounts of the feedings are meaningful – the number of the days, the loaves, the fish, the leftovers, and the crowds. In general, the numbers of the loaves of bread and the fish fall short of an important Christological number, eight. It is the number seven that is prominent in the feeding accounts – there are five loaves and two fish in the feeding of the five thousand, and there are seven loaves and a few small fish in the feeding of the four thousand. While the number seven is an important biblical symbol indicating fullness and completion – as God created all things in six days and rested on the seventh, proclaiming it a Sabbath day of rest – after the fall into sin, the number seven is no longer sufficient, but it must be fulfilled and superseded. That brings us to the number eight, a number singularly connected with the resurrection of Jesus Christ – who was crucified, died, and was buried, and, on the third day (or, the eighth day) rose again from the dead. The significance of Jesus’ resurrection on Sunday, the third day after His death on Friday, or the eighth day when taking into consideration the entire seven-day week before it, is that Jesus fulfilled God’s Law and command on behalf of fallen, sin-wrecked man and the former creation, and He died, He fulfilled the Sabbath by resting in the tomb, and He rose again, in the flesh, at the dawn of a new day, the first day of a new creation, a day on which the sun will never set.

Jesus had intentionally led His disciples and the crowds to end of their own providence, to the point where they realized their dependence and turned to Him for help. In both feedings, Jesus worked through and with the bread and fish and the hands of His disciples to provide for His people. He fulfilled all things, and there were abundant leftovers – twelve basketfuls in the feeding of the five thousand, and seven basketfuls in the feeding of the four thousand – for, with Jesus, there is always more – more forgiveness, more sustenance, and eternal life and salvation for anyone and everyone who will not reject Him and His gifts.

For you, to make that three-day journey in this wilderness life is to leave you depleted, empty, faint, and dead – still in your tomb. Your seven loaves – your work, your toil, and your sweat – earn you only death. But Jesus has taken your death into himself and, in exchange, He has given you His life. For, He is the Bread of Life, come down from heaven, as both sustaining manna in your wilderness life, and as a rich banquet feast of abundance and plenty, giving eternal life in heaven. In Jesus Christ, you have been fulfilled. Therefore, in Jesus Christ, may you also find satisfaction from want or need in your life, but also abundance from which to share and give to others.

May you so cling to Jesus in faith and trust and love and so receive His comfort, strength, and forgiveness to complete your journey through the valley of your life, surrounded by the shadow of death. For, you are not alone – you are never alone – but the Lord, your Good Shepherd is with you, guiding you, providing for you. And He has passed through this valley before you and for you and has emerged victorious over death in new and eternal life. He knows the way. He is the Way. He is the Truth. He is the Life – even the Life of the world. And He is present here, now, in this meal of sustenance for you who are famished and fainting from the travails of life in this sin-wrecked world, even as He is present in this banquet feast of plenty and joy for you whose needs are fulfilled at this present time. He is for you, He is for all, that you may be satisfied and full, with an abundance of love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness to spare, to the glory of God the Father, in His holy Son Jesus Christ, through His most Holy Spirit.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Sixth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 6)

(Audio)

Matthew 5:17-26; Romans 6:1-11; Exodus 20:1-17

 

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

Law and Gospel. If you’ve been a Lutheran Christian for a length of time, you’ve undoubtedly heard about Law and Gospel and how it is very important to properly distinguish between the two. In fact, Lutherans pretty much wrote the book on the topic – well, at least one particular Lutheran, C. F. W. Walther, “The Proper Distinction Between the Law and the Gospel,” which is required reading in our seminaries before the student sits down to write his first sermon. Martin Luther himself famously stated, “Whoever knows well this art of distinguishing between Law and Gospel, him place at the head and call him a doctor of Holy Scripture.” Luther never claimed to have perfected this art himself, but there is a Doctor of Theology who has, and at whose feet we all must sit, and listen, and learn – Jesus Christ.

For, that is precisely what Jesus was doing in today’s Gospel lesson – distinguishing between Law and Gospel. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” You see, you must not conclude that the Law is bad and that the Gospel is good, or that the Law is old and the Gospel is new, or that the Gospel supersedes and replaces the Law – No! Both the Law and the Gospel alike are the Holy Divine Word of God. And yet, they are distinct and they have distinct purposes and uses.

The Law is the perfect, holy, righteous, and just will of God. The Law is the unflinching, unbending measure of all that we think, say, and do. However, because God’s Law is perfect, holy, righteous, and just, and because it is unflinching and unbending, St. Paul rightly confesses that, in it’s light, “there is no one who is righteous, not even one,” and “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” You see, the Law was not given to us that we might be justified and righteous before God by doing it and keeping it, but the Law was given as “our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.” The bottom line concerning God’s Law is that it cannot save us. We cannot be justified by obeying it, by doing the works it commands and by avoiding those works it forbids. It was not given for that purpose, but it was given to set God’s holiness, goodness, and righteousness before us and to turn us in repentance at the realization that we do not keep it, and cannot keep it, perfectly as it requires and demands. “The Law is but a mirror bright to bring the inbred sin to light that lurks within our nature.” Or, as I regularly teach our catechumens in Confirmation, “The Law always S.O.S. – Shows Our Sins.”

In contrast, the Gospel is the pure, unconditional, free proclamation of God’s grace to sinful mankind in and through and because of the faithful obedience and works of God’s Son Jesus Christ and His suffering and death upon the cross for the sins of the world. The Gospel makes no demands upon us as to what we must or must not do, but it proclaims to us always what God has done for us all in Jesus Christ. “Yet as the Law must be fulfilled or we must die despairing, Christ came and has God’s anger stilled, our human nature sharing. He has for us the Law obeyed and thus the Father’s vengeance stayed which over us impended.” Or, as I regularly teach our catechumens in Confirmation, “The Gospel always S.O.S. – Shows Our Savior.”

The Pharisees in Jesus’ day plainly failed to distinguish Law and Gospel. They taught the Law, but incorrectly, and they failed to proclaim the Gospel at all. For example, the Fifth Commandment, “You shall not murder.” The Pharisees taught that, so long as you have not physically killed someone, you have kept the Law. Similarly, they taught concerning the Sixth Commandment, “You shall not commit adultery,” that, so long as you have not had physical sexual intercourse with a man or a woman to whom you are not married, that you have kept the Law. Thus, the Pharisees prided themselves that they kept the Law of God so exceedingly well. They considered themselves righteous because of their obedience and their good works according to the Law. However, while they taught the people the same, they harmed them in two different ways: First, they taught the people to trust in their obedience and works according to the Law just as themselves. Second, they offered no mercy, no grace, no Gospel to those who, being more honest with themselves, realized that they did not keep the Law of God very well. That is to say, the Pharisees directed people to find comfort and peace in their obedience and works instead of in God’s grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness. This is why Jesus once rebuked the Pharisees and called them “whitewashed tombs,” for they appeared clean and holy and righteous on the outside, but on the inside they were filled with “dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.”

The Pharisees lowered the bar on God’s Law and made His commandments more do-able so that they could justify themselves. However, Jesus called them out on this and pointed out that, not only do they not keep the letter of the Law, but, worse, they knew not the spirit of the Law – love. Already in Deuteronomy had the spirit of the Law been revealed to God’s people, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might,” and in Leviticus, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The Fifth Commandment is not merely a prohibition against physical murder, but it is a command to love your neighbor, even your enemy, as you love yourself, to “help and befriend him in every bodily need.” Likewise, the Sixth Commandment is not merely a prohibition against adultery, but it is a command to love your neighbor, to love all people, with honor, dignity, and respect for their bodies and to treat your own body with honor, dignity, and respect. However, what the Pharisees taught was the lowest, physical obedience to the Law – obedience in which they took comfort, believing they were justified and righteous – while they neither taught, nor practiced, the spirit of the Law, which is love. They were the epitome of Isaiah’s prophecy, of whom Jesus said, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”

Today, men still honor Jesus with their lips while their hearts are far from Him, and even the best of us must take care to resist the temptation to relax God’s Law to appear righteous in the eyes of men or to win their favor. Jesus did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. The Law has not, will not, and cannot pass away, but it remains forever, for it is the perfect, holy, divine will of God. However, our race and our culture are so mired in sin that God’s clear and holy Law sounds out of step with modern wisdom and values, even discriminatory, bigoted, and hateful. In the Church, we are tempted to relax or to bend or to explain away the uncomfortable rigidity, universality, and unchanging nature of God’s Law concerning numerous moral, social, and intellectual issues such as evolution, divorce, homosexuality, abortion, capital punishment, war, and countless others, effectively answering Satan’s question, “Did God really say?” with a tremulous, “No, He didn’t.” Truly we must still hearken to Jesus’ words, “Truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

God’s Law has not, will not, and cannot pass away. But, it has been fulfilled; therefore, our relationship to God’s Law has changed, for we have been changed. Since the Law cannot pass away, Jesus willingly, out of love and obedience to His Father, did what was necessary to fulfill it and to set us free from its curse. That has changed our relationship to God’s Law. No longer do we see it as a terrible taskmaster to be obeyed grudgingly out of fear of punishment, out of coercion in order to justify ourselves, but we see it as it truly is – holy, righteous, good, perfect, and true. Our hearts, which had been far from God, are once again near to Him and we see His Law as it is and always has been instead of through sin-corrupted reason and wisdom. Since the Holy Spirit called you out of darkness and death into light and life through the Gospel marked by the sign of Holy Baptism, not only do you not physically hurt or harm your neighbor, but you desire to help him and befriend him in his bodily needs. Not only do you not desire to take what belongs to your neighbor, but you desire to help him keep, preserve, and protect what he has. Not only do you not lie about, slander, or denigrate your neighbor, but you seek to speak well of him and always put the best construction on his words and deeds. The Law has become for you, no longer a loathsome and fearsome rule, but a holy guide for the life of a Christian. The Church calls this the Third Use of the Law. The Third Use of the Law recognizes and confesses that the Law of God has not, will not, and cannot pass away, but it has been fulfilled; therefore, our relationship to God’s Law has changed.

“What shall we say then?” St. Paul asks rhetorically. “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!” St. Paul goes on to explain that we, who are baptized into Christ Jesus, have died to sin, have died to our old sinful ways, have died to fear, loathing, and hatred of God and His Law and our neighbor, and have been raised in Christ to walk in newness of life. We have been changed, already now! “We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.” Dear Christian, you were a slave under the Law, but now you are free. You were a slave, but now you are a son, and if a son, an heir. So you must consider yourself every day of your life. When you are tempted to view God’s Law the way a slave does, you must remember that you have died with Christ and have been raised with Him, that you are a son and an heir with Him of God the Father. Never permit yourself to be placed under the Law again as a slave, for if the Son has set you free, you are free indeed. Live in His life and liberty – true liberty, true freedom – and freely love all, no matter what, as you have been freely loved, forgiven, restored, and adopted as sons of God.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Fifth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 5)

(Audio)

Luke 5:1-11; 1 Peter 3:8-15; 1 Kings 19:11-21

 

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

There were two boats. Jesus, the Messiah, came to fill one of them and to leave the other boat empty. Our Lord chose Simon’s boat. He stepped into it, had Simon push out a little from the land, and then He sat down and began to preach.

There were two boats. One remained tied to the land and worldly concerns, empty, while the other floated on the water like an ark, tossed about by the wind and the waves; but it was not empty, it carried the Lord of the wind and the waves and of all creation, the Word of God that gives life to the world. The first boat is the church of the Law, the synagogue. The second boat is the Church of Christ, the Church of the Gospel, the ark of salvation, in which the Lord saves His children from death in this wilderness world and from the depths of their guilt and sin.

After teaching the masses on land, our Lord prepared His Church for service to the world. Jesus commanded Simon to put out into the deep and let the nets down for a catch. Simon, having just finished cleaning his nets, weary from the night’s profitless labor, did not want to do as His Master had commanded; everything that his experienced wisdom informed him and that his own eyes beheld told him that this was senseless and fruitless. Nevertheless, out of respect for his Master, more than love or faith, he obliged to Jesus’ Word. And, soon the pair were hauling in more fish than either their nets or boat could bear! They called to their idle companions, James and John, to come and help. And soon their nets and boat were filled to breaking and overflowing too!

How is this possible? When men have exhausted their efforts and abilities and are ready to throw in the towel, defeated, in the most foolish of times and of places, in the most unlikely of situations, they find that they are catching fish wholly despite their own weaknesses and failings. Indeed, our Lord often puts us in such predicaments so that we can see that it is not we who are doing the catching of fish at all!

Simon had an epiphany; his eyes were opened, and he knew who it was that stood before him, the Holy One of God, the Messiah. And Simon knew who he himself was, a poor miserable sinner who should not live in the presence of God’s holiness and glory. And he was correct. Thus, Jesus absolved Simon, He forgave him his sins saying, “Do not fear, but know, you are no longer merely a fisherman, but you will catch men lost in the depths of sin and death and unbelief.” For, no one has an encounter with the Lord of Creation Jesus the Christ and walks away unchanged. You may receive Him in faith to your great blessing, or you may reject Him in unbelief to your judgment, but you will be changed. And, you have been changed.

For, Jesus takes the stuff of His creation – common boats and buildings, common people and their common vocations – and He transforms them into powerful tools and instruments in His work of seeking and saving the lost. The boat was a common fishing boat, now it is a symbol for the ark of salvation, the Church. The net was a common fishing net, now it is a symbol for the Means of Grace, Word and Sacrament, by which men are caught out of sin and death and brought into the safety of the Church. And Simon, James, and John were common fishermen, now they are fishers of men, preachers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They knew that everything had changed! So, they brought their boats to land, left them, and followed Jesus from that day forward.

But why does the Lord work in such mysterious ways? Why all the hiddenness and symbolism? Why doesn’t He just come out with powerful works and convince everybody that He is God in human form, the Messiah and savior of the world? Well, sometimes He did. Many people witnessed Jesus’ miracles firsthand: The feeding of 5,000 with five loaves of bread and two fish. The stilling of the storm. Walking on the water. Even raising several persons from the dead! Was everyone convinced in Jesus’ day? Did everyone believe? Does everyone believe today? No. For, as Father Abraham replied to the rich man in hades, so is it true today: “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets [the Word of God], neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.'"

For, the Word of God is not a very flashy thing before the eyes of men. We are much more impressed by bright lights, loud noises, and big shows. Not unlike many in the Church today who look at Her declining numbers and seeming irrelevance in the world and are disheartened, so too the prophet Elijah was disheartened in his day, saying, “The people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down you altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” To put that in layman’s terms, Pastor Elijah observed that God’s Church was in shambles. No one kept the Lord’s commandments. No one made the Lord their first priority. No one tithed, but they gave grudgingly of what was left rather than of their first fruits. They wanted to throw out the prayers (the Liturgy) and the sacrifices (the Means of Grace) and even the pastor who faithfully insisted that these must be kept. So, today there are many pastors that would voice Elijah’s despair and there are many churches that resemble the people of Israel. The boat and nets passed down to us from our forefathers seem foolish, antiquated, and irrelevant in today’s culture with its high-technology, visual-orientation, and fast pace, we sometimes feel like screaming: “We’ve fished all night with these boat and nets and have caught nothing!”

“But at Your Word we will let down the nets.” For, it is not by man’s power, reason, or will that fish are caught and men are saved; it is by the power of the Word of the Lord in His ark of salvation, the Church, working in and through our humble and common nets of water, word, bread and wine. These humble elements are transformed into powerful Means of Grace by the Word made flesh Jesus Christ who is present in His Church in, with, and under these elements for the life of the world. He is not in the great and strong wind. He is not in the mighty earthquake. He is not in the raging fire. But He is the still small voice, even a whisper, saying, “I Am the Word of God made flesh, crucified, died and buried, risen from the dead, ascended to the Father, reigning, returning for you. Do not be afraid, from now on you will be catching men.”

And the Word of God is powerful and efficacious; it brings about what it says. For, by the Word of God you have been caught and called and pulled into the ark of salvation; and by the Word of God in your Holy Baptism and faith you have been transformed to catch others with the Gospel Word in your holy vocations. St. Peter teaches you how to do this: “All of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. […] Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Fourth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 4)

(Audio)

Luke 6:36-42; Romans 8:18-23; Genesis 50:15-21

 

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

Why do we stand for the reading of the Gospel? We stand because the Gospel is the very Word of our Lord Jesus Christ. For, while “all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” we afford the Words of our Lord Jesus the highest honor. And, when Jesus speaks His Word to His disciples and His apostles, He speaks His Word to you. And, when He speaks His forgiveness to repentant sinners, when He heals the sick, cleanses the unclean, and raises the dead, He speaks His powerful, re-creative, salvific, and life-giving Word to you. And, when He rebukes the self-righteous and the hypocrites, so does He rebuke your self-righteous and hypocritical Old Man that he may drown and die in the baptismal waters of repentance once again, and rise up to new life as God’s adopted son. Therefore, when you listen to Jesus’ Words in the Gospel, you must listen to Him as if He is speaking directly to you. For, He is. And, not with mere words does He speak to you, but with the living, powerful, and life-giving Words of God the Father. For, indeed, He is not merely speaking to you, but He is speaking into you.

And, Jesus’ Word to you today is this: “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” If these words are just words, then Jesus might as well have commanded a stone to become bread! Ah, but therein lies a clue, does it not? For, Satan knew and believed in the power of Jesus’ Words. He knew that Jesus could indeed turn stones into bread by the power and authority of His Word alone if that were in concord with His Father’s will. Thus, when Jesus commands you to “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful,” He is not commanding you to do something that He is not at the same time empowering you to do! For, when He says to you, “Be merciful,” He is speaking His mercy, His Father’s mercy, into you. In fact, it is with His Father’s mercy, alone, that you are able to be merciful, just as, without Jesus’ Word, a stone is just a stone. However, with His Word and His Father’s will, even a stone becomes life-giving bread.

Likewise, the same is true with Jesus’ other commands in today’s Gospel: “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you.” You must note the conditional tie between your own attitudes and actions and the attitudes and actions that you will be treated with. And, though it may sound, at first, as if the Father’s attitudes and actions toward you are normed, ruled, and governed by your own attitudes and actions, I suggest to you that all of these conditional commands are normed, ruled, and governed by the first command Jesus spoke in today’s Gospel: “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” That command is the key to understanding the others. For, again, your ability to be merciful is conditional upon the Father’s mercy shown to you so that, in truth, it is with the Father’s mercy that you are able to be merciful to others. For, apart from the Father’s mercy, you have nothing to show, nothing to give, and nothing to do. Apart from the Father’s mercy, you are like a stone. Likewise, apart from the Father’s judging you not, condemning you not, but forgiving you, and graciously giving to you for Jesus’ sake, you have nothing to show, nothing to give, and nothing to do, but you are like a stone, dead and lifeless.

Jesus illustrates this point brilliantly by saying, “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” Now, again, though it may sound at first as if Jesus is saying to you, “Give, then the Father will give to you,” that is not it exactly, for, you can give only of what you have first received. And, what you have received has been a “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over,” that is to say, the Father has shown mercy to you, has not judged you or condemned you, but has forgiven and given to you an abundance, even more than you need, so that you are overflowing with His mercy, His forgiveness, and His grace. In fact, it is with that surplus that you are able to show mercy, forgiveness, and grace to others; for, it is not your mercy, forgiveness, and grace, but it is your Father’s. Therefore, with the measure of your Father’s mercy, your Father’s forgiveness, and your Father’s grace that you show to others, will you be compensated, filled up again, to overflowing, that you may show it, and do it, again, and again, and again.

But then, Jesus changes the direction of His teaching to another point: “You must be holy, that is perfect, as your heavenly Father is holy and perfect.” Now, Jesus does not say that, exactly, in the Gospel, but, in so many words, he reiterates what Moses taught in Leviticus 20:26. What Jesus does say is this: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.” Jesus’ point is, as Bo Giertz has written, that “He who takes the commandments seriously will cease comparing himself with others. The Law demands instead that we compare ourselves with God. We ought to be perfect as He is perfect, merciful as He is merciful, holy as He is holy. The law does not allow any possibility for us to be satisfied with ourselves.”

A little over a decade ago, much ado was made of God’s purpose for each one of us, thanks to Southern Baptist mega-church Pastor Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life. Warren was right in at least one thing, God does have a purpose for each one of us, and Jesus proclaimed that purpose clearly, summarizing the Torah, saying, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Unfortunately, Warren must have believed that would have made too short of a book, and so he went on to write hundreds of pages filled with advice and counsel on how to find out what God’s purpose for you is and then how to do it.

But that’s precisely where Warren, and all who seek to do the Law of God, get it wrong: The Law of God is not something for you to do, but it describes what you are to be in Christ Jesus. For, when it comes to the Law, you have more than a log in your eye, you are a disciple and not the Teacher, and you are as blind as anyone else on this planet. Only Christ, who is not corrupted by sin, can see the Father’s Law clearly and do it and be it. Therefore, Christ alone is the Teacher whose Words must not be spoken merely to you, but into you, that you may truly be His disciple, and one day be like Him. Likewise, only Christ, whose eye is clear of sin and guilt and shame, can remove the log of sin, guilt, shame, and death from you that your eye may be clear. Then, forgiven and washed clean in His blood, restored to sight, and disciplined in the Law of love, you will be equipped and empowered to lead, and to teach, and to remove the speck of sin from the eye of your brother. For, this is your Father’s purpose for you, that you might serve your brother and neighbor in love and glorify Him in Christ Jesus.

Another thing that Warren gets wrong, however, is that, if you are doing and being what God has purposed for your life, all will go well, or at least mostly well, with you. Actually, quite the opposite is true; don’t forget Jesus’ teaching, “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” After all, what did Jesus’ mercy, forgiveness, and grace get Him: Ridicule and mocking, scourging, crucifixion, and death. That is why today’s Gospel about what you are to be in Christ through your attitudes and actions towards your brother and neighbor is coupled with Joseph’s forgiveness of his brothers and Paul’s comparison of “the sufferings of this present age” to the “pains of childbirth”. For, after all that his brother’s had done to him – throwing him in a pit and telling his father he had been devoured by lions and then selling him into slavery – after all those years they believed him to be dead, and how he so missed his father and his young brother Benjamin, in the end Joseph confessed, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” Likewise, Paul confessed, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Beloved children of the Father: You are loved that you may love others. You have been shown mercy that you may show mercy to others. You have been forgiven that you may forgive others. And you have received from the LORD a “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over.” Your Lord Jesus is speaking directly to you, His disciples, His brothers, and friends today. Yet, He does not merely speak to you, but He speaks into you His powerful and empowering, creative, and life-giving Word that you may be as He commands, for He will be these things for you and in you and with you. Even now He is present with His life-giving Words and His healing Wounds that you may receive Him into you physically and spiritually, that you may remain in Him, and He in you, that you will bear much fruit. And, His fruit is love, the fulfilling of the Law. Go in His Peace.

In + the Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Third Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 3)

(Audio)

Luke 15:1-10; 1 Peter 5:6-11; Micah 7:18-20

 

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

“This man receives sinners and eats with them,” grumbled the Pharisees and the scribes. It’s not only that they didn’t like the people Jesus ate and drank with, but they were beginning to seriously not like Jesus either. “Those people are sinners,” they thought, “and Jesus chooses to eat and drink with them and not us? There is something seriously wrong with that man. He must be a sinner too!”

It was in response to this complaint of the Pharisees and scribes that Jesus told three parables (Luke chapter 15) about something, or someone, that was lost and was then found: The Parable of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Son (The Prodigal Son). When each of these lost things/persons were found, Jesus said, there was rejoicing in heaven. And rejoicing in heaven brings rejoicing on earth among those who love God and, as a result, love their brother and their neighbor, sinners all.

The Parable of the Lost Sheep is patently outrageous. “What man of you,” Jesus posits to the Pharisees, “having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?” The Pharisees had to be thinking to themselves, “No one would do such a thing!” When sheep are in the open country, that is when they need a shepherd the most! There are dangerous predators in the open country, and food and water can be difficult to find. Sheep need a shepherd to defend them and protect them and to guide them to green pastures and clean water. No shepherd wants to lose a sheep, but he’s not going to put the ninety-nine he has at risk to find one that has wandered off. It’s simple economics.

Ah, but the parable isn’t about economics, is it? Of course not. It’s supposed to offend our pragmatic sensibilities. The truth of the matter is that the ninety-nine are just as lost at the one. The ninety-nine are in the open country, surrounded by both physical and spiritual dangers. You are amongst the ninety-nine right now in this valley of the shadow of death you know as the world and your life in it. Jesus says, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” NINETY-NINE RIGHTEOUS PERSONS WHO NEED NO REPENTANCE??? You know that there is no such thing, but all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is none who is righteous, not even one; not you, not me, and not the Pharisees and scribes. That is Jesus’ meaning.

The Pharisees and the scribes, however, believed that they were righteous, that they kept God’s law and commandments, and that they were superior to the obvious and notorious sinners Jesus kept company with. The truth is, of course, that the Pharisees and scribes also are sinners, that we are all sinners, and we alike are lost until our Good Shepherd finds us and forgives us and restores us to His Father. Heaven rejoices at each and every sinner who repents. We are all sinners, and we are all lost, but the Gospel Good News is that our Good Shepherd Jesus came to seek and to save the lost! Only the lost can be found! Only sinners can be forgiven!

Jesus’ Parable of the Lost Coin makes the same point, but it condenses things down from 1 in a 100 to 1 in 10. The stakes are bit higher now, for each of those ten coins equal a day’s wage. Thus, the urgency in finding that lost coin becomes more palpable and meaningful to us. Once again, there is immense joy when the lost coin is found, and Jesus says once again, “there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

From 1 in 100, to 1 in 10, and now to 1 in 2: The third parable Jesus teaches in response to the grumbling of the Pharisees and scribes is the Parable of the Lost Son (The Prodigal Son), which is actually not appointed to be read today. Nevertheless, it is the coup de grace and arguably the most sublime and profound of Jesus’ parables. Permit me to summarize the story:

There was a patriarch, a wealthy landowner, who had two sons. The younger son asked his father to give him his share of the inheritance now. This would have been a scandalous and egregious offense for at least two important reasons: First, the son was essentially saying that his father was dead to him, a horrible lack of love, respect, and honor towards his father. Second, the younger son was also displaying a lack of love and respect towards his older brother, who would rightly be the first to receive the inheritance. And, of course, the lack of love for both father and brother betrays a lack of love for God the Father of us all. For all this, the younger son has received the epithet “The Prodigal Son,” and we can well understand why. However, I maintain that it is not the younger son who is the true Prodigal in this story, but rather the father.

Even more shocking and scandalous than the younger son’s request is his father’s response: The father gives the younger son what he asked for, and he gives the inheritance to his older brother as well who, at this time, seemingly knew nothing of what was transpiring. No patriarch of this man’s standing would do such a thing! By all rights the younger son would have been disowned and banished, and likely even killed! But this Prodigal Father does the unthinkable, the unimaginable – he gives the inheritance to both of his sons, undoubtedly with great sadness, and he waits, and he watches patiently with longsuffering endurance as the story plays out.

Quickly, the younger son liquidates his assets and journeys far from his father, his brother, his home, and his people and squanders everything he has on riotous, self-indulgent pleasures and living in a pagan land. When he finds himself penniless and destitute, he hires himself out to a pagan employer who sends him to tend his swine. Still, the boy is so hungry that he is reduced to eating the food intended for the pigs. This would be rock bottom for anyone, but the meaning for a Jewish audience would be uncleanness, depravity, scandal, and offense of the highest imaginable proportions. The boy was completely and utterly lost; he might as well be dead.

But we often must hit rock bottom before we are brought to our senses. Sometimes it is good and holy Fathering to let our children lie in the beds they have made for themselves. The boy remembered his father, his goodness, kindness, and love. He would repent; he would go back home, confess his sins, and offer to work for his father and pay him back. A great plan, except he was wrong to believe that he could pay back his debt. What he wasn’t counting on was grace. He still didn’t love his father, his brother, or his God, and so he couldn’t imagine the kind of love his father was prepared to shower upon him.

Before he got to his home his father saw him coming. How long was the father watching and waiting, hoping, and praying? All the time his son was away, after all the evil he had shown him, he still loved him, was watching and waiting, hoping, and praying for his return. And when he saw him, this prodigal father once again did something that was unexpected, improbable, and scandalous to human reason – he ran out of the house to his wayward son, embraced him, put the family ring on his finger, sandals on his feet, a robe on his shoulders, and he ordered his servant to go and slaughter a fattened calf and prepare a feast because his son was lost, and now he is found; he was dead, and he is alive. There was no working for his father, for his father had fully restored him as his son with all benefits and privileges as if nothing had ever happened at all. He could never repay the debt. He could never right the wrong. He could never heal the wound. Because of the love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness of his father, he didn’t have to. He was lost, he has been found. He was dead, he is alive. End of story, for the younger son.

Now begins the story of the older son, and we come full circle back to the Pharisees and scribes and their complaint about Jesus eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners. Hearing the noise of a party, the older son inquired what was going on. When he learned that his younger brother had returned and that his father was throwing a feast to celebrate, the older brother was furious…, with his father! “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!” This statement reveals that the older son did not love the father any more than the younger son did. In fact, the older son resented his father. He only served his father and stayed at home so that he could one day receive the inheritance, and the sooner his father was out of the picture the better. He didn’t love his father, he wanted to party with his friends; and he didn’t love his brother and couldn’t care less that he was back home and restored to the family.

The older son in Jesus’ parable unmistakably represents the Pharisees and the scribes who had no love for the people they were called to shepherd, tax collectors, sinners, people just like you. Further, they had no love for Jesus, but they resented him, envied him, and hated him. And they had no love for God the Father; they resented his commandments and felt them a burden to fulfill, so they interpreted them in a way that would make them look good in the eyes of men and yet still be unfulfillable by others, thus securing their self-righteousness, power, and prestige in the eyes of men.

Of course, the father in Jesus’ parable is God the Father of us all. Both sinful, unloving, and the unmerciful sons in the parable find their antitype in Jesus who perfectly loved, honored, and obeyed his Father and perfectly loved and laid down his own life as a sacrifice for you whom God the Father loves so much that he gave his only son unto death on the cross to restore you to himself.

“Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot.”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

To be a father is to have a vocation of selfless sacrificial service.

“Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments!” – Psalm 112 ESV

 

Father’s Day did not become a national holiday until 1972 when President Richard Nixon’s administration declared the third Sunday in June a day to recognize and honor the role of fathers in society. In comparison, Mother’s Day became a national holiday in 1914. Whereas mothers are typically honored with gifts of cards, flowers, chocolates, and jewelry, fathers are most often honored with BBQs, picnics, and outdoor activities with the family. Whereas Mother’s Day is primarily a celebration of motherhood, Father’s Day is more a celebration of the family.

 

In Christendom, Father’s Day has its roots in the medieval observance of the Feast of St. Joseph which was celebrated on March 19. St. Joseph, being Jesus’ adoptive father, has been given the title Guardian of Jesus. One of my favorite images of St. Joseph depicts all three persons of the Holy Family – Mary gazing downward upon the infant Jesus laying in her lap, and Joseph, betrothed, but not yet married to Mary, and the guardian Father of Jesus, staring piercingly, not at Jesus nor at his mother Mary, but directly at you, the viewer, as if to communicate, “Be warned! I will protect this child and his mother with my very life!”

 

I believe that it is extremely important to consider that, though Mary was not yet Joseph’s wife, nor was Jesus his biological son, nevertheless, Joseph took up willingly his God-given vocation as husband and father, provider, guardian, defender, and protector of the holy family. Upon learning that his betrothed was suddenly with child, knowing that he was not the father, Joseph was at first of a mind to release Mary from their betrothal in a way that would protect her honor and dignity and, quite likely, preserve her and her child from death by stoning under the suspicion of being an adulteress. But an angel of the Lord visited Joseph in a dream and assured him that the child conceived in Mary’s womb was by the Holy Spirit of God. Joseph believed the word of the Lord and he took Mary to be his wife, and the son she carried he received and cared for as his very own. At the word of the Lord, Joseph took on the guardianship and protection of a family.

 

Are fathers important? God seems to think so. God called Joseph to be a husband to Mary and a father to Jesus. And Joseph, like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and David before him, believed the Lord and obeyed his word. “Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments!” (Psalm 112 ESV).

 

Joseph’s fatherhood wasn’t about glory, praise, or power, but it was about servanthood, even as was Jesus’ sonship, and Mary’s motherhood. Each of these vocations are unique and distinct and, together, they serve the family, a holy trinity of mutual sacrificial love and service. Thus, in the marriage of a man and a woman, and in the procreation of children, there is a beautiful reflection of our holy Triune God himself as each person performs their unique and necessary role in relation to the others.

 

To be a father is have a vocation of selfless sacrificial service for your wife and children. Perhaps this truth is reflected in the family traditions of Father’s Day, enjoying a BBQ or a picnic with the family, playing games with your children, and enjoying God’s creation together.

 

Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood is named, we give You thanks for our earthly fathers. Give them confidence in their station and zeal for their task to care for their families faithfully. Make them examples to their children of godly life and love of Your Word. Bless their work of bringing up children in the fear and instruction of the Lord and give them the comfort of Your absolution over all their shortcomings. Gather us together with all our fathers to Your eternal household; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

 

Rev. Jon M. Ellingworth – Pastor, St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church – Waverly, IA

This article ran in the June 13, 2024 edition of The Waverly Democrat Newspaper

The Second Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 2)

(Audio)

Luke 14:15-24; 1 John 3:13-18; Proverbs 9:1-10

 

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

Wisdom is not the same as intelligence. A person lacking a formal education, even a person having a lower-than-average IQ, can still be wise, whereas many who are highly educated and have many letters behind their names can be fools. But if wisdom is not intelligence, then what is it? What does it mean to be wise? As it turns out, the Book of Proverbs is a good place to begin! Solomon writes, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Now, this is not a new concept for Solomon, but it is a restatement of God’s covenant given through Moses in Deuteronomy, “And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” From this it seems clear that wisdom is not knowledge or information -- some of the most knowledgeable and informed people in the world lack wisdom -- but wisdom begins with a right relationship to the Lord, specifically “the fear of the Lord.” If you are an unbeliever, then the fear of the Lord is a true fear of his judgment and hell, eternal separation from the Lord; if you are a believer then the fear of the Lord is a deep love, trust, and reverence for the Lord because you know and believe that his word, commandments, law, precepts, rules, testimonies, statutes, and ways are true, righteous, holy, and good.

Moreover, in the Wisdom books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon, wisdom is personified as a woman, chokmah in Hebrew, sophia in Greek. That wisdom is personified as feminine has much less to do with wisdom having a feminine quality than it does with Hebrew and Greek grammar and the literary form being utilized which is more akin to poetry than to either narrative or history. We might be tempted to conclude that the traditional feminine qualities of nurture, care, love, devotion, and virtue are what are in view, however Solomon later uses the figure of a woman also as a personification of foolishness in contrast to wisdom. Personified wisdom is described as doing traditionally feminine things: Making a home, preparing a meal, teaching and leading others to wisdom. In contrast to the lady wisdom who provides fine food and wine, the woman folly provides stolen water and bread eaten in secret. Wisdom leads to even more wisdom and a lengthening of years; foolishness seduces, deceives, and leads to death and destruction.

“Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table.” Wisdom has done it all. Everything is prepared. There is nothing to do and nothing to bring; just come to the feast! “She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town, ‘Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!’ To him who lacks sense she says, ‘Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight’.”

There is nothing to do, nothing to bring. If you want to earn, merit, deserve, or buy your place at the table, this feast isn’t for you. Remember, wisdom isn’t about what you have (knowledge, intelligence, or anything at all), but it’s about your relationship to the Lord; do you fear him, love him, and trust that he is good, that his word is good, true, and righteous? And do not think that your “accepting” the invitation is a work that you do, for the fact is that you are invited, and that is the work of the Lord; refusal of the Lord’s gracious invitation is the only possible work that you can receive credit for, and what you will receive is precisely what your rejection of the Lord indicates you desire, judgment and hell and eternal separation from the Lord. If you have been invited, you’re already in; the only way to make yourself to be out is to refuse the invitation.

Jesus used several analogies to describe himself and his mission: “I am the light.” “I am the bread of life.” “I am living water.” “I am the door.” “I am the way.” “I am the Good Shepherd.” “I am the vine.” “I am the resurrection and the life.” All these images serve as analogies for wisdom as well. Indeed, Jesus is wisdom, for he is the word of God made flesh, the light that illumines the path to God, and he is the way, the path itself, apart from whom no one can come to the Father. When someone told Jesus that his mother, and brothers, and sisters were nearby, Jesus replied, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” To follow the path of wisdom is to hearken to, take to heart, trust, and walk in the way of God’s holy word. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; the truly wise continue to hear the word of God and keep it and do it.

Jesus’ parable of the great banquet follows in response to several events that occurred at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees. First, they likely set Jesus up to entrap him by inviting to the meal a man suffering from dropsy, to see if Jesus would heal the man so that they could accuse him of breaking the Sabbath law. But Jesus sprung their own trap upon themselves by asking them the question first, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” When they refused to answer, Jesus exposed their hypocrisy saying, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” Of course, they all would do this, so they remained in silence. Then, Jesus, having observed how the Pharisees were careful to choose the seats of honor at the table, and that the host had invited only the richest, most powerful and prestigious guests to his home, said to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” At this, one of the guests exclaimed, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” In answer to this outburst and all the preceding events Jesus taught them the parable of the great banquet.

Just as in Proverbs chapter nine, everything was fully and completely prepared – the beasts were slaughtered, the meal prepared, the table set, the wine poured – all that was left was for the invited guests to sit at the Lord’s table and receive his gifts. But those invited each made excuses and refused to come. Here you must remember the meaning of the invitation: Those invited were in. Nothing was required of them, all was gift, pure grace, but they refused the gracious invitation. They were in, but they made themselves to be out. I don’t know that the context of a banquet is really all that important; it’s not unlikely that Jesus chose that context simply because he was attending a banquet in the home of a ruler of the Pharisees. Likewise, I don’t know that the excuses offered by the invitees matter all that much either. Each of the excuses were valid to exempt one from military service under Jewish law. The master was understandably angry and, because the invitees had things they had to attend to and refused his invitation, the master sent his servants to bring in those who had absolutely nothing at all, the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. Who was now invited? Anyone who didn’t refuse to come. Those who were in chose to be out; Those who were out were made to be in by grace, and by grace alone. There is no other way.

Now, to fully understand Jesus’ parable we must consider the entire context: The pharisees used a man with dropsy, a man they would normally not associate with, considering him a sinner and unclean, to entrap Jesus that they might accuse him. Further, only the wealthiest and most prestigious were invited to the banquet, and they all coveted the best seats for themselves. In sum, they showed no love for Jesus, for the man with dropsy, or even for each other, and they showed no love for God. You are invited to the Lord’s feast, not because of anything you did or who you are, but because of who the Lord is. You are in by his grace alone; only you can make yourself to be out. How then should you treat your brothers and sisters, your neighbors, even your enemies, if your Lord has been so gracious to you? Ah! Perhaps you didn’t see that coming? This parable is not about the banquet or the excuses or about who it was that refused to come, Jesus’ parable is all about receiving God’s good gifts of grace and bearing the fruit of his love. “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” It’s all about the fear of the Lord and walking in the way of wisdom, walking in God’s word, commandments, laws, precepts, rules, testimonies, statutes, and ways all the days of your life.

And to help you, keep you, and equip you in the way of wisdom, the Lord has prepared this feast, and wisdom has issued the invitation: “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.