Homily for The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 17)

(Audio)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Christian Funeral for Virginia Mikalsen

(Audio)

John 14:1-6; Revelation 21:1-7; Isaiah 25:6-9

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

Kristine and Kevin, Thomas and Caroline, Barbara and Joseph, Ryan, Connor, Kayla, and Alex, and all of Granny’s beloved grandchildren, and extended family, neighbors, and friends of our departed sister in Christ, Virginia Mikalsen: Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to remember and to give thanks for the life and faith of our sister Virginia, and to give thanks to our Lord and God who purchased Virginia from sin and death in the holy, innocent shed blood of His Son Jesus Christ, and has promised forgiveness and life everlasting to all who trust in Him: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

God redeemed Virginia from sin and death when Jesus died on the cross for her sins, and for the sins of all people. But, Virginia received that forgiveness and life personally when she was baptized seventy-five years ago. Then the old evil nature she was conceived and born with was drowned in those cleansing and purifying waters and the Holy Spirit took up residence in Virginia and created and sustained faith in her throughout her life until the day her soul was taken to Jesus. In Holy Baptism, God made His covenant with Virginia personal, and He named her and claimed her as His own daughter with the promise, “I will never leave you or forsake you. I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. And, nothing can separate you from my love which is in Jesus Christ.” Therefore, you who grieve and mourn, take comfort and find peace, not in empty platitudes like, “Virginia was a good woman,” but in the rock-solid, objective love, mercy, grace, compassion, and forgiveness of God in Jesus Christ. God made a promise to Virginia, even as He has promised you, that even a mustard seed of faith will receive sonship to the Father, the entirety of the Kingdom of Heaven, and life everlasting in Jesus Christ. God is good. God is love. God is truth. And, God is unchanging. Therefore, do not fear, but give thanks to the LORD and glorify His Name by trusting in Him and clinging to Jesus in faith for forgiveness, life, and salvation, and show and share His love, mercy, grace, compassion, and forgiveness to others to the glory of His Most Holy Name.

Listen again to the words of the Prophet Isaiah from the Old Testament reading you heard just a moment ago: “He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces.” This is true now for you in Jesus Christ, and yet the fullness of this truth you do not yet experience. But, Virginia does. Likewise, when St. John proclaims in the Revelation, “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, for the former things have passed away,” this promise is both now, and not yet, for you, but Virginia is experiencing this peace and comfort right now. As Jesus promised the repentant thief who was crucified with Him saying, “Truly, this day you will be with me in paradise,” even so Virginia, and you, and all who die in the Lord, are with Jesus in paradise.

The Lord is your Shepherd as you make your way through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. That valley is not something you pass through only when you die, but it is your life, right now. From conception to death, you traverse through that valley. And, as you make your pilgrim way, you are not alone, for your Lord Jesus is with you caring for you, guiding you, and protecting you, feeding you with His body and His blood, leading you where He Himself has already trod, out of death and into life everlasting in His Father’s house. What comfort and peace this Word and Promise should bring you even now, even as you grieve and mourn the death of Virginia.

Therefore, let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in your Lord and Savior Jesus. In His Father’s house are many rooms. Jesus has gone before you to prepare a place for you there. And, one day, He will come again to take you to be with Him forever, to be with Virginia forever. Until then, be comforted in the assurance that Virginia is with Jesus. However, even more, rejoice, that one day, you will see her again. You will see your mother and grandmother, your friend and your sister in Christ once again, with your own eyes. You will hear her voice with your own ears. You will hold her real flesh and blood hands and throw your real flesh and blood arms around her real flesh and blood shoulders. The way it was once is the way it will be, only forever, and without cancer, without pain, without suffering, sorrow, grief, or tears, but only perfect peace, contentment, happiness, and joy. You can scarcely imagine, now, what it would feel like to have no want. But, Virginia knows. Virginia feels. Virginia experiences, now, that perfect fulfillment that comes only from being in the presence of Jesus without any dimness, darkness, or impediment.

The selfless love that Virginia showed to you and to others throughout her life is now being showered upon her in the fullness of God’s grace without any impediment of sin. Truly Virginia was concerned more about others than herself. She would do anything for anyone, but especially for her children and grandchildren. Virginia loved and cared with a seemingly boundless love and care. Truly it was boundless, for she shared with you what she herself had received from the Lord: Grace, mercy, love, compassion, and forgiveness. Virginia loved and cared for her husband Arthur, visiting him daily at the nursing home, bringing him his favorite strawberry milkshake. Virginia loved and cared for her grandchildren with whom she lived this past decade. She was such an irreplaceable part of that family that, now, no one can find anything anymore! Granny always knew. And, Virginia loved all of her grandchildren the same. She would, literally, give you the food off of her plate if you needed it, if you wanted it. And, if you were a furry, four-footed creature, well, you held a special place in her heart. If an animal was injured or in need, she could not let it suffer or go unaided. And, dear Lucy, surely there was never a dog so adored and pampered and spoiled. Even the neighbor’s pets were cared for by Virginia. And you, you wanted to help her, and God knows you tried. But Virginia wouldn’t hear of it. She would find some way to turn it around, and there she was loving you, and serving you, and caring for you, and providing for you. Just like Jesus.

However, none of that is surprising. That was Virginia. And Virginia was that way because she had received such blessings herself from the Lord. Virginia loved with Jesus’ love. She gave with Jesus’ gifts. She forgave with Jesus’ forgiveness. And, she served in Jesus’ selflessness and sacrifice. And that is what we are all called to do, to share the love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness we ourselves have received from the Lord with others, without feeling slighted, without resentment, without counting the cost, and without any sense of loss. No, that wasn’t surprising at all, for you could see Christ in her – you knew that she was Christ’s disciple by her love. Perhaps the best way that you can honor Virginia and remember her is by extending the love that she showed you to others. You know how that would make her feel. She was so very proud of you. She loved you. And you loved her. And, that is why her death hurts so very much.

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Jesus. You will see Virginia again and your hearts will rejoice. And no one will be able to take away your joy.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Homily for The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 16)

(Audio)

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

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

Back on July 31, The Tenth Sunday after Trinity, you heard the Gospel account of Jesus’ visitation of the Holy City Jerusalem. Then Jesus wept over the city because of its unbelief and apostasy, and for the destruction that He foresaw would befall it but thirty years later at the hands of the Romans. For, when Jesus entered the temple courts in visitation He found moneychangers and vendors of sacrificial animals extorting the faithful and stealing from them. In His righteous anger Jesus cleansed the temple of this corruption and disease, overturning the tables of the moneychangers and vendors, crying out, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” Back then I explained to you that the word visitation meant ecclesial oversight, such as a bishop conducts when he visits the parishes of his diocese. Jesus had visited His people in grace, but what did He find? Greed, selfishness, lack of mercy, compassion, and love. And, what will Jesus find when He visits His people, even you, on the Last Day, in judgment? What will you be found doing? Will you be found extending His love, mercy, grace, compassion, and forgiveness, or will you be found robbing and stealing from Him, and selfishly and unmercifully withholding, even stealing, from others, especially the weakest among you and those in greatest need? Truly, Jesus may come in visitation on any day, at any hour. What will you be found doing? Will you be found waiting, watching, and prepared? Therefore, keep your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith and you need not fear His visitation, for you will be found doing the loving, the merciful, and the compassionate thing, for even your imperfect and sin-corrupted deeds will be counted as righteousness through faith in Him. Therefore, always show mercy and compassion, always love and forgive, for love covers a multitude of sins: your neighbors’, and comfortingly, your own as well.

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Homily for The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 15)

(Audio)

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

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

These past two Sundays the Word of the LORD has exhorted you to live your lives in the freedom of the Gospel – in love, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness towards your brother and sister in Christ, towards your friends and your neighbors, and even towards your enemies. This is not a preaching of the Law, but it is the fruit of the Gospel, the fruit of faith that has set you free from the coercion and condemnation of the Law and has cleansed you from guilt and fear. For, when you are profoundly aware of the love, mercy, compassion, and forgiveness that you have received from the LORD in and through Jesus Christ, you simply will desire to, and will in fact, show the same towards others. No longer do you need to be coerced or guilted into loving action, but you are encouraged and equipped to go and love in thought, word, and in deed. This is the freedom you have to live as your LORD created you and redeemed you to live – not as a slave or a prisoner, in fear and resentment, but as a child of God, created in His image, free to love and to give and to share without fear, without resentment, or any such thing. You can show love to your brother and sister in Christ, to your neighbor, and even to your enemy, and help and befriend them in their bodily needs without considering whether it is right or wrong, whether it is patriotic, or whether it will cost you anything. For, like the Samaritan leper who returned to Jesus and thanked Him, glorifying God, you also walk in a new way, in the Light of the Word of God, according to the Spirit, resisting the desires of your flesh.

Then, why are you so anxious and afraid? Why do you worry about what you will eat and drink, about what you will wear, and where you will live? Why are you terrified at the wars and rumors of wars abroad, and political wars at home? Why do you fear losing your so-called freedoms and your rights? These are but a few questions you might ask yourself in light of today’s Gospel and subsequent readings. Your LORD and God has already set you free in Jesus Christ and has given you true freedom along with all that you need to support your body and your life. These so-called rights and freedoms that you strive to protect, and fear losing, are not God given, but they are given by men, written in a constitution, interpreted and protected by lawyers and judges, and enforced by laws. I am not saying to you that these man-made rights, freedoms, and laws are good or bad, but I am saying to you that they are man-made rights, freedoms, and laws, and that, if your fear, love, and trust is in them over and above God so that the thing you would die for is keeping them and the thing you fear most is losing them, then you just might have an idolatrous fear, love, and trust in them above and before the LORD. This, especially today when so many of the man-made rights and freedoms we cherish are being threatened and taken away, is something that we are all at risk of doing, and have even done, so that we must be on guard for this temptation, repent and trust in the LORD and His Word, receive and be strengthened, equipped, and protected in His gifts, and walk in His Spirit, Truth, and Light.

Thus, Jesus compares your fear and anxiety to slavery, and rightly so. When He says, “No servant can serve two masters,” it is slavery that He means to communicate. A slave has only one owner, one master. And, when you have fear and anxiety over fleshly, earthly, and worldly cares, values, and possessions, you have given yourself over to slavery to them and to your fear and your anxiety. And, if you are a slave to these, then they are your master, and you cannot have the LORD as master as well. Your LORD’s First and greatest Commandment to you is “You shall have no other gods before me.” Your LORD is a jealous God; He will not share you with other gods, which are truly idols and demons.

What is it that you need that your LORD does not graciously provide? Food, clothing, and shelter? Your body and soul, it’s members, reason, and senses, which He still preserves? Husband, wife, and children? Jesus has taught you to pray with Him, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Does the LORD not answer Jesus’ prayer, and your prayer, graciously providing you “everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like?” Look at the birds and the flowers, Jesus says, how they neither reap nor sow nor worry about clothing or food, and yet the LORD provides for them and marvelously arrays them. The point is not that you be like the insentient beings and not work and be responsible stewards of what the LORD provides, but that you are of infinitesimally greater value to the LORD than these humble creatures for whom He provides all that is needed. How much more does He provide for you whom He has created in His own image and likeness and has redeemed in His Son Jesus Christ incarnated as your brother having flesh and blood human needs just like you?

You were not created to live in anxiety and fear, but in faith and trust in the LORD. Our First Parents’ sin was the result of fear, love, and trust, not in the LORD, but in things that He has given and created: knowledge, wisdom, freedom, etc. They loved these creatures, these gifts, more than the LORD who created and gave them, and they feared losing them, or not having them, more than they feared the LORD who created and gave them. Their trust was not in the LORD but in themselves. They had become gods unto themselves, which is precisely what you do when you worry and are anxious and fearful of not having, or of losing what you have, or of what might happen to you. Willfully you cast yourself into slavery to anxiety and fear, which is truly worship of a false god, another master, effecting that the LORD is not your master. But, that is not the life that the LORD has called you to. As in the beginning, so now, the LORD has created you and called you and given to you and equipped you to work in His creation and to care for it and its inhabitants, both the sentient and the insentient. You simply cannot be a steward of the LORD’s creation if you are anxious and afraid – no servant can serve two masters. You are called to be a light to the world dwelling in darkness. How can you be a light when you are turned in on yourself in anxiety and fear? That is the way the Gentiles, the pagan unbelievers, live, but not you children of God, children of the Light.

Once again our epistle lesson from St. Paul makes a distinction between the way of the Spirit and the way of the flesh saying that the way of the Spirit is the way of humility and peace, contentment, patience, compassion, mercy, and forgiveness, gentleness and charity, etc. But Paul warns that, “God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the own who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” Again, you are called and equipped to work in this world. However, while your new man, your spirit is willing and desiring, your flesh is weak with passions and desires, fears and anxieties. When you serve them, you sow to your flesh, and the LORD warns that you will reap corruption. But, if you live in the freedom of the Gospel and walk in the way of the Spirit, what you sow will reap eternal life. When you are anxious and worried about having and losing, you often find yourself going through the motions of your vocations, of being a husband or a wife, of being a father or a mother, of being a citizen, even a patriot, of being an employee, and even of being a Christian. Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian, but faith in Christ for your life and salvation does. Neither does attending Bible studies, serving on a committee, or even saying your prayers make you a Christian, though those are certainly good things, but only faith in Christ – that is fear, love, and trust in God above all things – makes you a Christian. And, this is not a one and done sort of thing, but it must be your life, every day. St. Paul exhorts you to “live by the Spirit” and to “walk by the Spirit.” Living and walking are ongoing, every day, lifelong activities. Beware of anxiety, worry, and fear that tempt you to walk another path, to become proud and greedy and selfish, that rob you of contentment, comfort, and peace. Do not grow weary of doing good, for in due season you will reap the eternal reward reserved for those who trust in the LORD, if you do not give up.

Elijah was one who, according to the flesh, had every reason to give up. So, likewise was the widow of Zarephath. The land was stricken by drought and famine. However, Elijah did not fear dying of starvation, and the widow, who was preparing to eat her last meal and die, did not lose faith and blame and curse God, but she obeyed the Word of the LORD by His prophet Elijah and baked a cake first for him and then also for her and her son. Together, in fear, love, and trust in the LORD, they ate for many days, the jar of flour was not spent and the jug of oil was not empty until the LORD sent rain upon the earth. It is no different with you, O you of little faith. Even now your LORD presses your meager offerings of bread and wine into holy use and feeds you with the sin-forgiving, faith sustaining, life-giving body and blood of Jesus. Truly, the LORD hears your prayers for daily bread and He answers, providing you all that you need for your body and life, and more to share with those less fortunate. Do not be afraid! The LORD is for you. The LORD is with you. The LORD will never leave you or forsake you, and nothing can separate you from His love for you in Jesus Christ. He has lead you out of slavery to anxiety, worry, and fear, to sin and death and the grave, through the waters of your Holy Baptism. Come, eat His body. Come, drink His blood. The jar of flour will not be spent and the jug of oil will not be empty until He returns for you and takes you home. But, until then, your true Master has work for you to do: Love one another, show mercy to one another, be humble, not proud, and readily forgive, even your enemies, as you have yourself been forgiven all in the mercy of the LORD shown to you in Jesus Christ. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.