Homily for The Feast of All Saints (Observed)

(Audio)

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

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

What is a saint? A saint is not a sinless person. If that were the definition, then no one could ever possibly be a saint. Neither can you become a saint because of your works, even were you to perform a miracle or two – that in itself is a misguided notion. Further, you cannot earn or merit sainthood, and you cannot make yourself to be a saint. No. But, to be a saint is to be holy and blameless before the Lord and set apart. That is literally what it means to be a saint. And, since these are qualities that you cannot do or earn or merit on your own or for yourself, they are qualities that are applied to you, even credited to you, by your heavenly Father, not on account of your qualities and works, but on account of the qualities and works of His beloved Son Jesus Christ. On account of Jesus’ sinlessness, obedience, righteousness, suffering and death, your heavenly Father declares you to be sinless, obedient, righteous, holy, and set apart – that is, your heavenly Father considers you, and credits you, and declares you to be a saint in and through and because of Jesus Christ in whom place your fear, your love, and your trust. So, what is a saint? You are! Not because of anything in you, but because you are in St. Jesus who alone is holy and makes men to be holy in His innocent and holy blood shed for you and for the world upon the cross. Though you remain a sinner, your sins have been atoned for, your sins have been covered, your sins have been taken away in the blood of Jesus. Though you are still a sinner, in the eyes of God your Father you are 100% saint. Yes! This Feast of All Saints is a feast of you! But, it is not a feast of you alone – perish the thought! Indeed, the point of the Feast of All Saints is that you are not alone, but you, we, are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses to Jesus’ faithfulness and holiness and to the Father’s love for you and for all the world in His Son that we need not be afraid “though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.” Have no fear little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom, for He is fully pleased with you in His Son with whom alone He is fully pleased.

But, what does sainthood look like? Surely there are identifying characteristics and qualities that we can recognize. Of course! The Holy Scriptures call them fruits. What are the fruits of sainthood, of holiness, of faith? Well, Jesus lays out some of them in the Beatitudes, or Gospel reading for the Feast of All Saints: Poverty of spirit which is repentance, meekness, and humility; mourning, grief, and sorrow over sin and the offense they are to our God and Father and to our neighbor; hunger and thirst for true righteousness and holiness before God; mercy towards others; purity in heart and spirit; peacefulness and gentleness; bearing with and enduring and persevering through reviling, mockery, evil, and violence for the sake of Jesus. These are but a few of the fruits of sainthood, elsewhere described as the fruits of the Spirit. Yet, these qualities are descriptive, not prescriptive. That is to say, do not turn this list of qualities and characteristics into a honey-do list that you can check off one-by-one and justify yourself. No. These qualities and characteristics are not prescriptive. They are not a new Law commanding you to go and do. No. These qualities and characteristics are descriptive. And, what they describe is Jesus Himself who alone was perfectly poor in spirit, perfectly sorrowful over sin and unbelief, perfectly meek and humble and repentant, perfectly hungering and thirsting for the righteousness of God, perfectly merciful, pure in heart, peaceful and patient, who was persecuted, reviled, and was mocked, who suffered evil and violence and even death at the hands of fallen, sinful, self-righteous and evil men – even you and me and all who have ever lived and died and will ever live and die. What does sainthood look like? Sainthood looks like Jesus, and so do you look like Jesus, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.

Jesus is the True Vine, and you are His branches. Once you were not His branches; indeed you were a lifeless and fruitless branch fit only for the fire. But, God the Father, the Vinedresser, has grafted you into the True Vine Jesus Christ so that His life flows through you and makes you fruitful, bearing the fruits of the True Vine Jesus. Once you were profane and cursed, lost in your sins, fruitless, and dead, but the Holy Spirit has called you by the Gospel, enlightened you with His gifts, and has sanctified and kept you in faith – He has made you holy; He has made you a saint – and now He keeps you with all His saints, the one, holy, Christian, and Apostolic Church, in Jesus Christ. However, to be a saint is to be holy, it is to be set apart, it is to be other. This means that you will not be comfortable in this life and world. Oh, your flesh, your passions and desires, and the devil will conspire against you, will tempt you to be comfortable and at peace with the world, to value what it values and to hate what it hates, but you must resist these temptations. For, the world and the flesh value independence, self-sufficiency, and self-righteousness, but you are called to die to your flesh and its desires and passions and to think more of others than of yourself. The world and the flesh value wealth and material possessions, but you are called to live in poverty of spirit and in hunger and thirst for an external, imputed, and declared righteousness. The world and your flesh want you to find peace in worldly and fleshly things – things that are year by year, day by day, and minute by minute passing away. But there is no peace in such things at all, though you are tempted to settle for false peace at the expense of true and lasting peace with God. And so, the world will persecute you and ridicule you and mock you and revile you and speak all kinds of evil against you. But, in all these things rejoice and count yourself more than conquerors through Him who loves you.

For, you are conquerors in Christ. The First and Last Beatitudes are in the present tense: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” and “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” These Beatitudes, these blessings, are realities now in Christ though they remain unseen. You are saints now. You are the kings and queens of heaven and earth now in Christ your Lord, though realized in fullness, not yet. Or, as St. John puts it in our Epistle Lesson today, “We are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.” Like the saints John beheld in His vision of heaven, dressed in white robes with palms in their hands, you have already, even now, come out of the great tribulation having washed your robes white in the blood of the Lamb Jesus Christ. The reference is to your holy baptism in which Christ washed away your sins with His atoning blood and clothed you with the robe of His righteousness. You are forgiven. You are holy. You are a saint in Christ now. And you are not alone! You are never alone!

Undoubtedly, one of the most awe inspiring and beautiful truths we remember and celebrate on All Saint’s Day is the fact that those we love who have died in the Lord are not dead. They are not as they were created to be, but they are not dead. Their souls are with Jesus even as their bodies lay in rest awaiting their resurrection and glorification when Christ returns. Our blessed dead are alive in Jesus and are with Him where there is no want, no tears, nor hunger or thirst, no sorrow, no pain, and no death. And yet, Jesus is here with us, therefore, so are they! Jesus is here with you in Word and Sacrament, most specifically and particularly in this Holy Meal, “with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven.” “All the company of heaven” includes your beloved grandparents, parents, and children, your friends and your neighbors, the elderly, the middle-aged, the young, as well as the unborn – all those saints purchased in the blood of Jesus who believed in Him, who did nor reject Him. Because you cannot ascend to heaven, because of your sin that prohibits you from entering the glorious and holy presence of the Godhead, heaven has come down to earth through the humble means of Word and Water, Bread and Wine, to forgive you, to strengthen you, to equip you, and to send you.

So, if you want to be near those you love who have died in the Lord, don’t just go to their gravesite and say a prayer, but come to the Sacrament of the Altar, come to where Jesus is really and truly present in flesh and blood and spirit. As you kneel at this communion rail and receive Jesus’ precious body and His holy blood, you are not alone, but you are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, all those who have died in the Lord and are with Him, along with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. They are the saints of God. You are the saints of God. And, together, we are the Church of Jesus Christ, His Bride, purchased and cleansed in His precious, holy, innocent shed blood, made to be holy and set apart, saints, elect and glorious in His presence. You are God’s children now, but what you will be has not yet been revealed. This feast is but a foretaste of the Feast that is to come. It is meant to preserve you and to keep you, to equip you, and to send you until that yet more glorious day when Christ returns and our bodies are raised to be reunited with our holy souls to live in His presence and serve Him for ages upon ages that will never end.

What does it mean to be a saint? It doesn’t mean that you are sinless, but it means that you are in fact a sinner, but a sinner who is forgiven in the blood of the Lamb Jesus Christ. Don’t forget: Only sinners can be forgiven! Only sinners can be saved! St. Mary was a sinner who confessed her faith in God her savior. St. Peter was a sinner who was absolved by Jesus after three times denying Him. St. Paul was a sinner, a murderer who murdered the first Christians, but Jesus forgave them and changed them into saints. You are a sinner. And, in the blood of Jesus, you are a saint. The Feast of All Saints is a Feast of you, and of me, and of saints like Mary, and Peter, and Paul, and a countless multitude of others who have died in the Lord, who live in the Lord now, and who will live in Him through your witness to Christ and Him crucified. Come, partake of this foretaste of the Marriage Feast of the Lamb and His Bride the Church in his kingdom of mercy and grace and forgiveness that will not end. Only saints can partake of the Feast, and partaking of the Feast makes you and keeps you in sainthood. You are not alone. You are never alone. Go and share this Good News with all in your words and your deeds and never worry about how imperfect and sinful you may be. Strive for faithfulness, and repent of your unfaithfulness. The Lord is with you, along with so great a cloud of witnesses, that you may be forgiven and encouraged, equipped and sent, to the glory of God the Father, in the holy, innocent shed blood of His Son, preserved and kept by His most Holy Spirit. To God alone be all glory in your life and in your death in Jesus Christ our Lord.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Homily for The Feast of the Reformation (Observed)

(Audio)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On October 31, 2017, one year from now, it will have been 500 years since Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg, also known as the Castle Church, effectively beginning what we now commonly call the Reformation. Contrary to what many believe and claim, Luther was not protesting anything at all. Indeed the subject of all 95 Theses was the singular practice of the selling of indulgences by which believers were told they could purchase the forgiveness of sins for their loved ones in purgatory. This idea that you can justify yourself by your works, by following the world’s word and wisdom or your own, is violence against the Word of the God. You cannot take the kingdom of heaven by violence and force. You cannot earn or merit it by your works. But, you must receive it as it comes to you from your merciful Father through His beloved and righteous Son whom He has put forward as a propitiation for your sins and for the sins of the world. Ecclesia semper reformanda est, the Church is always being reformed. I say to you that our church must be reformed still, and that reform starts right here, right now, in repentance, which is faith, and by remembering the Sabbath Day to keep it holy –not despising preaching and His Word, but holding it sacred and gladly hearing and learning it. “Lord, keep us steadfast in Your Word; curb those who by deceit or sword would wrest the kingdom from Your Son and bring to naught all He has done.”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Homily for The Twenty-Second Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 22)

(Audio)

Matthew 18:21-35; Philippians 1:3-7; Micah 6:6-8

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

On the corner of West 44^th Street and 6^th Avenue in Manhattan you will find the National Debt Clock which keeps a running, cumulative accounting of the national debt year after year, day after day, minute by minute, second by second. Needless to say, it has a lot of digits. On the left side of the clock, the numbers, thankfully, move rather slowly, but on the right side, even into the thousands of dollars, the numbers fly by so quickly that they appear as a digital “8,” the shape from which all the other numbers are formed. Recently I Googled the words “National Debt Clock” and I found the website USDebtClock.org which features a multitude of real-time “clocks” monitoring U. S. debt and all sorts of financial indices. As of Wednesday afternoon, the U. S. Debt was roughly $19.7 trillion. That breaks down to $60,685 per citizen and $165,073 per taxpayer. Suffice it to say, our nation, and every citizen and taxpayer in it, is in serious debt.

Ah, but that’s ok, right? After all, some of the richest and most powerful men and women in the country have mastered the art of turning debt into wealth. For them, debt is good! Well, debt may be acceptable and necessary at times, so long as the one you owe the debt to doesn’t come expecting payment, though I’m uncertain how it can be good. The U. S. economy is, seemingly, based upon, even dependent upon, debt. The only reason that we haven’t tanked is because we are generally thought to be “good for it.” That is to say, other nations, banks, etc. are willing to loan the U. S. money (or products) on credit with interest in the belief that the U. S. will be able to pay it back. And, truth be told, many American households are run on this principal as well. But, what happens when you don’t have good credit? What happens when the lender wants to be paid now and you don’t have the cash? That’s when the chickens come home to roost. That’s how it is with you concerning your sin.

Before God, you are a debtor having no credit and no way to pay Him back what you owe. You inherited your debt from your father, and from you grandfather, and from your great-grandfather, all the way back to your First Father Adam himself. And, don’t think that it’s somehow unfair that you are held accountable for someone else’s debt, for “in Adam we have all been one, one huge rebellious man.” No, Adam’s debt is truly your debt, and my debt, and the debt of every human soul, and your debt must be paid back in full. However, the debt you owe God because of your sin is only half the problem. You transgressed His commandments. You rebelled against your God. You chose to exercise your will over and above and in opposition to His will. You put your fear, love, and trust in other things and in yourself before God. You wanted to be a god unto yourself. The wages of this, your sin, is death. Now, supposing you could pay back your debt to God for your transgressions, which you cannot, you still must die for them. Your death is the fair, just, and righteous penalty for your sin. Death is what you have earned and merited. Death is what you deserve. You can pay it; in fact, you will, even as you are paying it in the decline of your body and mind right now. But, when you have paid your debt in full, you will have nothing left, you will be dead. And, worse than that, you will suffer in hell for eternity. You will never get out.

This is what Jesus had in mind when He taught His disciples in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. Yes, Jesus’ point in the parable is that you must forgive as you have been forgiven, just as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Some translations read, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors,” for it is our debt to God that has been forgiven in Jesus’ suffering, crucifixion, death, and resurrection. However, to illustrate the enormity of the debt you owe to God the result of your sinful transgression, Jesus speaks in terms of financial indebtedness. Suffice it to say, the debt the U. S. owes, exemplified by the National Debt Clock, is but a drop in the bucket compared to your debt, and my debt, to our holy and righteous God.

Once again, Jesus begins by saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to…,” for this is yet another parable of the kingdom. Whatever you are to learn from Jesus in this parable is meant to teach you something about God and His kingdom. The parable begins with a servant who owed his master 10,000 talents. The amount is equivalent to something like ten billion dollars, an insurmountable and impossible debt for anyone to pay. The point is that the debt you owe to your Master God is insurmountable and impossible for you to pay. However, because the indebted servant pleaded with his Master for mercy, even if wrongly trying to strike a deal for more time to pay, the Master unexpectedly, amazingly, and graciously canceled the entire debt and let His servant return home forgiven and free. That is precisely what God your heavenly Father has done for you in Jesus Christ, giving Him unto death to satisfy your debt and pay the penalty you owed for your sin, death, that you might be forgiven, restored, and live. And so, the rest of the parable is truly about you: Do you recognize the debt your LORD has forgiven you? Do you recognize the love and mercy He has shown to you in canceling your debt in the blood of His own Son? If you do, then how can you hold anyone in their sins and transgressions against you? If you do, then how can you withhold forgiveness from those who are indebted to you a mere pittance in comparison to the debt your LORD has forgiven you?

As Jesus tells His parable, the servant for whom the Master had canceled the entirety of his debt and set him free went immediately to a fellow servant who owed him a small debt and demanded from him repayment in full. The unforgiving servant showed no mercy or forgiveness to his fellow servant but had him arrested and thrown in prison until he could repay the entirety of his debt. Of course, in prison, the poor indebted servant could never repay. When the Master received word of this He was understandably furious and He revoked His mercy and forgiveness and delivered His unforgiving servant to the jailers until he should repay the entirety of his debt. And, because this parable is not about financial indebtedness at all, but about forgiveness and the lack thereof, Jesus added, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

Now, again, this parable is a parable about the kingdom of heaven. What it reveals is that your God has mercifully and graciously, completely and entirely forgiven you the debt you owed to Him in the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ. This is real and true for you, and it is irrevocable and certain. However, you must bear the fruit of the LORD’s forgiveness in your own love for your brother and sister, for your neighbor, for the stranger, and even for your enemy. To refuse to forgive others as you have been forgiven will not revoke the LORD’s forgiveness of you – that remains and stands irrevocable in the blood of Jesus Christ – but it is for you to refuse and to reject the LORD’s mercy and forgiveness yourself. If you refuse to forgive from the heart, then you have refused and rejected the LORD’s forgiveness for yourself.

Remember that Jesus told this parable to Peter and the disciples who had sought to place a limit upon forgiveness. “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?” asked Peter, “As many as seven times?” Peter thought he was being generous! “I do not say to you seven times,” replied Jesus, “but seventy times seven.” Do not think that Jesus meant that you should forgive only 490 times, but, rather, that you shouldn’t count, but forgive always and without consideration. But, even if you did attempt to limit your forgiveness to only 490 times, you would surely lose count before that.

Now, I’ve preached it and taught it and said it countless times before, but it needs to be said again: When you forgive others, you forgive with God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ. It’s not really your forgiveness, but God’s. Therefore, what have you to lose? Nothing! When you forgive another who has sinned against you, it costs you nothing. In fact, when you forgive others you also free yourself from the self-imposed burden of keeping another person down. Or, to put it another way, you are an extension of God in Christ to others. You are Christ’s hands and heart, mouth and voice. When you forgive others, you extend to them Christ’s forgiveness. You are a branch of the True Vine Jesus, and the fruit you bear is forgiveness, mercy, love, and compassion. Needless to say, as a fruitless branch is cut off and thrown into the fire, so there can be no such thing as an unforgiving, unmerciful Christian. That is why the judgment against the unforgiving servant is so extremely harsh. By not loving and forgiving others, the unforgiving Christian demonstrates his lack of fear, love, and trust in God.

“If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O LORD, who could stand?” Thus we prayed in the Antiphon to the Introit this day. This is the confession of the Christian who knows the debt he owed to the LORD that the LORD has mercifully and graciously forgiven in the blood of Jesus. This is also the confession of the Christian who knows that he is no better off, no less sinful and guilty and in debt before the LORD than his brother or sister, than his friend or neighbor, or even than the stranger or his enemy. As Martin Luther famously confessed as he was dying, “We are all beggars.” Just as we all share a part in our national indebtedness, right down to every taxpayer and every citizen, so much more are we all together indebted to our God and Father. Therefore, in humility and lowliness we think no one beneath ourselves. However, in faith and trust and in fervent love for our God and Father we believe and know that we are forgiven, for He poured out the life of His Son Jesus in death upon the cross for our sins and for the sins of all the world. And, He invites you to come, drink freely of His mercy and forgiveness. Let His mercy and forgiveness fill you and flow out of you unto others for the life of the world. You are an extension of His grace and mercy, love and forgiveness, to the glory of His holy Name.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Homily for The Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 21)

(Audio)

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

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

Why didn’t Jesus do as the grief-stricken father pleaded with Him to do and come to his home on the spot and heal his son who was dying? Why didn’t Jesus come immediately to His friend Lazarus when He received word that he was dying? Why didn’t Jesus just heal the paralyzed man on the spot instead of proclaiming his sin’s forgiven? Why doesn’t Jesus answer your prayers in a direct, obvious, and satisfying way and heal your cancer, mend your broken marriage, or reform your rebellious teen? Time and time again you come to Him in prayer and nothing happens, nothing changes. Maybe He isn’t listening? Maybe He cannot help? Maybe He doesn’t care? Maybe He isn’t even real? Or, maybe, you are not so unlike the people of Jesus’ day, refusing to believe unless you see signs and wonders?

Jesus performed numerous signs and wonders during His earthly life and ministry, and an even greater number in the times before then as the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, exacting astounding plagues upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians, parting the Red Sea and the Jordan River, providing manna, quail, and water from the rock to sustain the children of Israel in the wilderness, guiding them in their journeys in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, appearing in a burning bush and with fire and smoke and an earthquake upon Mount Sinai, and more. You have all these signs and wonders and still you refuse to believe Jesus’ Word and promise to you. If He says that you are healed, then why do you not believe? If He says that you will be raised, then why do you not believe? If He says that you are forgiven, then why do you not believe? If He says that He is with you always, even to the end of the age, and that He will never leave you or forsake you, then why do you not believe? If He says that you have died with Him in Holy Baptism and that you will be raised with Him in His resurrection, then why do you not believe? If He says that He is present with you in this Holy Meal that you may eat and drink and commune with Him in flesh and blood and spirit, then why do you not believe? O, you of little faith? Do you, like Thomas, refuse to believe unless you see and touch?

No, you are not alone in this, your weakness and smallness of faith. Though Abraham believed the LORD so strongly at first, when Sarah did not conceive according to his timeline he took matters into his own hands and conceived a son with Hagar, his wife’s maidservant. But, Ishmael was not the son of promise, and the LORD provided still a natural son for Abraham and Sarah in Isaac, through whom all the nations of the earth are blessed in Jesus. Likewise, Moses and the Israelites, who had witnessed many signs and wonders, failed to trust in the LORD and obey His command to travel around the land of Edom for fear that they would perish of starvation. Because of their sinful unbelief the LORD sent fiery serpents to bite the people, and many died, that they might turn in repentance and be forgiven and healed. Even then, many refused to look upon the bronze serpent to which the LORD had attached His Word of Promise and healing. Though forgiveness and healing were provided them, they chose unbelief and death over faith, repentance, and life in the LORD. And, then there was Peter, who gave a bold confession in reply to Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am?” answering, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” But, then, Peter was overcome with fear and doubt when Jesus explained that the Son of Man must suffer and die, and on the third day be raised. Peter refused to believe Jesus’ Words, and Jesus rebuked him saying, “Get behind me Satan.”

They had seen so much. They had come so far, lead and fed, cared for and protected by the LORD and His Word. And, still they struggled, at times they failed, to believe. And, so do you. “Unless you see signs and wonders you will never believe.” This Word of Jesus was at once a rebuke, a statement of fact, and a commiseration, for your Lord Jesus is a flesh and blood human just like you, experiencing the temptation to fear and doubt and unbelief that come with hunger and thirst, pain and sorrow, and ultimately death, just like you. Jesus knows what it is like to be you. The LORD your God knows what it is like to be you. Therefore He grants you signs and wonders that you may hear with your ears, see with your eyes, touch with your hands, and taste with your mouths that He is good, that He cares for you and guides you and protects you, because He loves you and He does not desire to see you perish. God loves you, and God loves the world so much that He has given His Son into your fleshly weakness, has suffered temptation and overcome Satan by faith and trust in the Word of the LORD, and has submitted to death on the cross, the death you deserve, that you might have, in exchange, His life that cannot die, that you might be restored to sonship with His Father as you were created to enjoy in the beginning.

It happened in Cana, where Jesus had performed His first wondrous sign changing water into wine at a wedding feast. He did not do this simply to bring pleasure and joy, but Jesus changed the water into wine that His weak-faithed people might see and believe. And, many did. One of those who saw and believed that day may very well have been the official in today’s Gospel who, hearing that Jesus was near, came to Him and pleaded with Him to come to his home and heal his son who was near death. The official had faith, though it was small faith. That is why he came to Jesus. However, Jesus desired to strengthen his faith, just as He would strengthen Thomas’ faith saying, “Do you believe because you have seen? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Jesus told the official, “Go, and your son will live.” Though he was surely disappointed and struggled to believe, the official “believed the Word that Jesus had spoke to him and went on his way.” “As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, ‘Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.’ The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live.’ And he himself believed, and all his household.”

The Word might seem weak as a foundation for faith unless it has something visible, physical, and tangible with it. But the Word is sufficient by itself. Compare Jesus’ Word to Jesus Himself and you’ll see how true this is. Jesus seemed like a weak foundation for salvation. His strength was beaten out of Him. He stood helpless before His accusers. He was too weak to carry His own cross all the way up Golgotha. He died quickly as far as crucifixions go, letting go of life long before the criminals crucified on either side of Him did. Is this seriously your foundation for salvation? Yes! Yes it is! Jesus may have looked weak, but that’s how He chose to defeat sin, death, and the devil.

What we were set up to expect in today’s Gospel indeed came to fruition: Jesus did another sign in Cana, and more believed. Jesus did not go to the official’s home, and yet He healed the man’s son by speaking His Word. In the end, the official’s faith depended on Jesus’ Word, and not upon his sight. Faith that believes without seeing is stronger faith. This your Lord would have for you. Faith that believes the Word of the Lord without accompanying signs and wonders is faith that cannot fail. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”

Now, you have heard countless sermons and teachings on the importance and power of the Word of God, and this is yet another. However, I will attempt to simplify things and get right to the point. The Word of God is not a word like you and I speak, a word that changes in meaning over time, a word that effects nothing true or lasting, a word that can be spoken falsely, insincerely, or in deceit, but the Word of God is a person, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God, even the Word made flesh Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Word God spoke in the beginning by whom everything was made and is still sustained. When God said, “Let there be Light,” Jesus was the Word that God spoke even as He is the Light of the world. God’s Word, Jesus, is a creative and performative Word, a Word that actually brings into being what it says. When God says, “Let there be Light,” there is Light. When Jesus says, “Your sins are forgiven,” your sins are forgiven. When Jesus says, “This is my body; this is my blood,” they are precisely what He says. And, when Jesus says, “I will raise you up on the Last Day,” you can trust that He will. So, when your Pastor tells you that you must believe and trust in the Word of the Lord, this is what he means by the word “word.”

Therefore, the Bible is not just a book full of words, written by men, therefore containing errors and myths and prejudices and agendas that our task today is to weed through and discard the chaff while ascertaining the wheat. No! The Bible is the Word of God, breathed by His Spirit through His inspired writers, testifying to all that God has done, is doing, and will do in and through His Son, the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. The Word of the Lord, the Bible, is authoritative and unchanging, true and without error, and Jesus Christ is the interpretive key and the revelation of its fulfillment and meaning. The Word of the LORD is sufficient for you. It is all you need. Whether or not the Lord provides you signs and wonders, you can trust His Word and promise that will not and cannot fail. And yet, your God is not a God who is far off, but a God who is near, even a God who has become a man, flesh and blood just like you. And, your God is present with you now, not only spiritually, but in signs and wonders that you can hear and see and touch and taste. Your God would have you believe without seeing, but to strengthen your faith and to lead you there, He washes your sins away in Holy Water, He absolves you anew through the mouth and the hands of your Pastor, He comforts, strengthens, and equips you through His Word of Law and Gospel proclaimed in the Church, and He feeds you and communes with you, filling you with Himself in the Holy Supper of His real and true body and blood. “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” Believe it for Jesus’ sake.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.