At Least We Have Pockets

A behind the scenes reflection on Waverly - Shell Rock High School's production of the musical "Annie" November 12-14, 2021

My family moved to Waverly a little over four years ago after I accepted the call to serve as pastor of St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church. Before accepting the call, we visited Waverly, and immediately we were taken by the “community feel” of the town. As it is one week from Thanksgiving, I was planning to write this article about the blessings of thankfulness and gratitude.

However, Eric Van Sickle, a reporter from the Waverly Newspaper, invited me to write about something different, about Waverly-Shell Rock High School’s recent production of the musical Annie, in which my senior daughter Cora performed the lead role as Annie and my freshman daughter Meredith also appeared in multiple roles. I graciously accepted the invitation and, as it turns out, this will still be an article about the blessings of thankfulness and gratitude, but less from a pastor than from the perspective of a proud and thankful father.

I didn’t know much about the story of Annie. I mean, I knew that she was an orphan and that she had a dog named Sandy, but that’s about it. I’d never seen a musical or a movie production of Annie before. I do remember the comic strip from the newspapers from when I was a boy, but it didn’t do much for me – Annie was just a girl that said, “Oh boy!” a lot.

As Cora and Meredith began learning their parts and their songs, I began to glean a little more about the story. Annie is set in Depression-era New York City. Lots of folks were unemployed and, supposedly, that was why Annie was left at an orphanage – her parents were victims of the depression, and they couldn’t afford to care for their daughter while they sought work elsewhere.

Thus, it is supposed, Annie isn’t an orphan at all; her parents were alive somewhere, and they left her a note promising that they would come back for her, and they also left her half of a heart-shaped locket as a sign of hope. At the time of the story, Annie had been waiting in hopeful expectation of her parents’ return for eleven years. Almost everyone had given up hope, and they all considered Annie’s hope to be only a fool’s hope.

I must confess, hearing my own daughter, as Annie, talk about how she wants to have her parents back more than anything else in the world, only to learn that they are deceased, was a bit surreal and emotional. Raising teenagers isn’t always easy, especially teenage daughters, and I wonder if in learning her lines for Annie she contemplated her relationship with her mother and father? I know that I did.

 

It is Annie’s hopefulness and optimism, however, that the story is truly all about, set against the darkness, despair, and hopelessness of the Great Depression. When the out-of-work residents of Hooverville complain that all they’ve got is empty pockets, Annie reminds them to be thankful that they have pockets at all. When they complain that their hands are cold, Annie reminds them to be grateful that they have pockets to put their hands in.

Annie’s optimism and hopefulness are epitomized in the musical’s main theme, “The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow.” It was Annie’s attempt to comfort a despairing President Roosevelt with those words that, in the story, inspired him to proclaim a “New Deal” for America to relieve it of its depression.

 

Our girls surprise my wife and I again and again because they are very quiet and secretive about all the things they are involved in. Of course, we knew that they were both in the musical, but we never really heard them sing their parts or rehearse their lines at home. Thus, when the Waverly Newspaper posted a video featuring segments of the preview performance of Annie performed at the W-SR High School on Tuesday before the premiere, we didn’t know what to expect.

What we saw blew us away and moved us to tears! Cora owned her role as Annie. She sang with full emotion and with crispness and clarity, and her performance was a balanced combination of her own personality, which we know so well, and her interpretation of the character Annie. Meredith also, this being her first musical, performed her role well and fit comfortably into the ensemble.

 

But then Cora was interviewed by reporter Van Sickle, and once again I was surprised and moved to tears of both pride and joy.

Eric asked Cora if she saw any parallels between the Depression-era setting and what is going on in the world today. Cora replied, “I’m hoping that the song ‘The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow’ will really get through to some people. With the pandemic and everything, it’s been kind of crazy. Hopefully, everyone can just take away from it that the sun will come out tomorrow, everything will be better, everything will get better for everyone.”

“I think there are a lot of similarities with people not having jobs,” Cora continued, “with just everything. I think [directors Allison Rasmussen, Greg Wessel, Jim Vowels, and John Atkinson] did a really good job picking [Annie]. I think they kind of do every year, pick something that really seems to fit into that specific year and speak to people that they can see a parallel in.”

 

I was amazed! My daughter's participation in a high school musical was much more than just singing and dancing, it was a true learning experience. The musical was chosen for some very pragmatic reasons concerning the students who were available to perform the necessary parts, but also taken into consideration was the theme and the historical setting of the musical in relation to those students and their experiences throughout the times in which they live.

Truly, the pandemic has had a depression-like effect on many of us and it’s all too easy to become despairing and hopeless. It seems that Annie was just the prescription we needed. Indeed, we still have each other, we have family, and we have community. There’s so much to be thankful and grateful for.

 

Both Cora and Meredith remarked that the cast and crew for Annie had become a sort of family. Indeed, following the final performance Sunday evening, Cora had tears in her eyes. The seniors in the cast and crew had just embraced knowing that this was their last musical together.

We were blessed to host a cast party at our home following Saturday’s performance. It was a delight to have around 50 high school students laughing and having fun in our family room. We are so very thankful and grateful for our schools, our community, our congregation, and for everything the Lord has blessed us with.

We are so very proud of our daughters, and we are grateful for their mentors who, through a musical about a hopeful orphan in the Great Depression ninety years ago, reminds us that, amid an almost two-year-long pandemic, we have so very much to be thankful and grateful for, especially family, friends, and community.

Never lose hope. At least we have pockets. And remember, the sun will come out tomorrow.

 

Pastor Jon M. Ellingworth

St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church – Waverly, IA

This article ran in the November 18, 2021 Waverly Democrat Newspaper

The Second-Last Sunday of the Church Year (Trinity 26)

(Audio)

Matthew 25:31-46; 2 Peter 3:3-14; Daniel 7:9-14

 

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

The temptation for us is to become myopic and shortsighted. What I mean is that, we humans are prone to getting caught up in the tyranny of the urgent and the cares, the worries, and the anxieties of our day to day lives. Whatever pressing travail afflicts us, we permit it to become all encompassing, overwhelming, and mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually crippling. While our natural, God-given response should be to either fight or to flee, too often we merely roll over and play dead and do nothing at all. Either way, our Enemy wins because he gets us to shirk our vocations and our God-given responsibilities when we fear losing all the transient and temporal things that we try to acquire and to hold on to so desperately, trying to convince ourselves that they really will last and not fade away.

Money, possessions, reputation, career, spouse, children – these we clamor to amass, to keep, to protect, and to hold on to at all costs. We permit our lives, our value, and the measure of our success or failure to be judged by these fleeting things. Of course this is idolatry and a violation of the First Commandment, as we continually place our fear, our love, and our trust in created things in place of the Creator of all things. And, when we are reminded of this, we may nod our heads and say, “Yeah, I know,” and wish that things could be different, never really believing that they will be and thus never really trying, ho-hum. However, such idolatry is not a victimless sin. We’re not only hurting God – if such a thing were possible – but we are hurting other people: our brothers and our sisters in Christ, our family and our friends, our neighbors. We are hurting them, a violation of the Fifth Commandment, by not helping and befriending them in their bodily needs. You see, when we are so worried and anxious for ourselves, we are literally incurvatus in se, that is, curved in on ourselves. This means that we cannot be looking outward towards others and their needs because we are too consumed with looking inward to our own real or perceived needs, wants, and desires exacerbated by anxiety, worry, and stress from clamoring to amass, to keep, to protect, and to hold on to whatever at all costs. Such idolatry is ultimately selfishness and a worship of the self. In Jesus’ parable today, it is precisely self-centered idolatry that makes for the difference between the sheep and the goats.

You see, the sheep were already sheep before the sorting, and the goats were already goats. It’s not like the Shepherd made them or judged them to be sheep or goats at the moment of the sorting, but he knows them by sheepish and goatish fruits they bear. Sheep do sheepy things, and goats do not, just the way a healthy tree bears good fruit and a diseased tree does not. And, the fruits the Shepherd is looking for are works of kindness, charity, mercy, and love towards others: feeding the hungry, giving the thirsty to drink, welcoming strangers, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and the imprisoned. You can only serve your neighbor in these ways if you are looking outward instead of continually inward to your self.

Consequently, the sheep, that is, faithful believers, were not even aware that they were serving their Lord, for they were simply doing the things they were given to do. As I said earlier, sheep do sheepy things. And so, it’s not that they were always conscious and aware, and certainly not keeping tallies and records, of their good works, but they produced these works much like fruit, the way an apple tree produces apples, or the way a grapevine produces grapes. The sheep do the things that they do, the things for which the Lord commends them and blesses them, precisely because they are sheep and not goats. Therefore, we must direct our attention and our meditation, not to the works themselves, but rather to what it means to be a sheep, and how one becomes a sheep in the first place.

The truth is, we were all once goats. And the truth is, we often still exhibit goatish behavior and do goatish things. And, if we focus only, or primarily, upon our behavior, our works, then we will likely despair believing that, deep down, we truly are goats and not sheep. The goatish things that we do not want to do, that is what we continually find ourselves doing, while the sheepy things we want to do, those things we do not do. Yet, even more likely, we will not despair our being goats, but we will pump ourselves with pride and convince ourselves that we are sheep, or at least that we are more sheepy than all the obvious goats we see all around us. No, we must not focus only, or even primarily, upon our behavior and our works – that is the way of the Law. Instead, we must focus upon our Lord’s behavior and His works, His humility and selflessness, His obedience and faith and His trust, His love and forgiveness, His death and resurrection for all us goats. In His suffering, death, and resurrection, our Lord Jesus, our Good Shepherd, has raised us from goatish death to new and eternal sheepish life. Behold, He makes all things new. He even makes the lame walk and the deaf hear. He makes goats to be sheep. Thanks be to God!

Your Lord Jesus teaches you that becoming a sheep is like being born. It is not something you do or decide, but it is something that happens to you, wholly apart from your will, your work, or your reason. Jesus also teaches that becoming a sheep is like having the wind blow upon you. You cannot make the wind to blow upon anymore than you can stop it from blowing upon you. That, Jesus teaches, is precisely the way the Holy Spirit of God works, creating faith and making sheep out of goats when and where He pleases.

However, while becoming a sheep is not a decision or a choice that you make, being a sheep is a considerably different thing than being a goat. Sheep do sheepy, not goatish, things. And, the sheepy things that Jesus’ sheep do are the fruit of His own love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness. And, that is what Jesus’ judgment parable about the sheep and the goats is really all about: love. The works of grace, mercy, love, and compassion the faithful sheep in the parable exhibit (works they are mostly unaware that they are doing!) are the fruit of the grace, mercy, love, and compassion they themselves have received from their Lord and their Shepherd. What they give and do for others does not even remotely strike them as a work or a burden, let alone a loss or grievance of any kind. And, when it is pointed out to them, they are likely to say, “That’s just what Christians do.” Christians do the good works that they do because of what Christ has done for them and for all: They give with Christ’s gifts. They show mercy with Christ’s mercy. They love with Christ’s love. They are compassionate with Christ’s compassion. They forgive with Christ’s forgiveness.

Not so the goats. Effectively, St. Peter describes the goats in today’s Epistle Lesson saying, “Scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.” That last part, “following their own sinful desires,” is key. You see, the scoffing is really just an attempt to justify their goatish behavior. You’ve heard it before; you’ve probably asked before: “If there were a God, why doesn’t He do something about evil and suffering in the world?” “If God is real and cares about us, why doesn’t He show Himself and destroy all doubt?” “From what I can tell, there is no God; everything evolved from molecules to man, and the origin of all things is some cosmic explosion fourteen billion years ago.” “There is no God. There is no morality. There is no truth. Whatever is true for you is true enough, so long as you don’t infringe upon anyone else’s truth.” “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” This is why goats act the way they do. They do not believe. They refuse to receive. Thus, they live for themselves and they serve themselves and they worship themselves. They do not fear, love, and trust in God above all things, but they are god to themselves and place themselves above all things. They neither acknowledge God nor their need for Him. They do not receive from Him, thus they have nothing to give. They are what they are by nature; they are goats.

But, they tempt the Lord’s sheep to return to their goatish ways. That is why St. Peter exhorts the faithful to “be diligent to be found by [the Lord] without spot or blemish, and at peace.” Now, to be found without spot or blemish is to be found in faith, trusting in the Lord and His Word and not in your works and merit. To be found at peace is to be found content and humble in the Lord’s providence and not seeking gain or profit, particularly at the expense of others. And so, being a sheep is much less about what sheep do as it is about what sheep do not do – sheep do not do what goats do, and thus, they remain the sheep that the Lord has made them to be. And, when they do do goatish things, they return in humility, repentance, and faith to the Lord that He might forgive them and wash them anew, making them white and righteous in His blood once again.

Our Lord Jesus, our Good Shepherd, desires for all to join His fold. He continues to call both sheep and goats, and His Spirit is blowing where and when it pleases Him, able to turn goats into sheep. “The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” We must not fret and worry about, and become overwhelmed with, cares and desires, fears and anxieties. Then we become incurvatus in se, turned in on ourselves. True freedom, the freedom that Jesus Christ died to give, is realized in grace, mercy, love, and compassion towards others. Therefore, your Lord Jesus invites you to find rest in Him: rest from your striving, rest from your anxiety, rest from your fear. Jesus is the Sabbath rest of the LORD. Jesus is peace with God. In Him you lack nothing. In Him you have everything, and more, to give freely as you have freely received.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Christian Funeral for Jerome Norris Hoins

(Audio) 

Matthew 6:25-33; 2 Timothy 4:6-8; 1 John 3:1-2 

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

I was born. I was baptized. I was confirmed. I was married. That’s pretty much how Jerry began a letter about six years ago summarizing his life up to that point, a letter that would eventually become the basis of his obituary. I don’t know if Jerry was aware of it or not, but that is precisely the order in which the rites appear in the Lutheran Service Book hymnal: Holy Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Matrimony, and lastly the Funeral Service which we are observing today. This order is not coincidental. These are the rites that mark the stages of a Christian’s life. These are the rites that marked the stages of Jerry’s life. And these rites mark the stages of your life and my life too. These events were of the utmost importance to Jerry, and so he began his letter summarizing his life stating plainly and clearly that he died in the waters of Holy Baptism and was born again, cleansed of his sins in Jesus’ blood, having received the gift of the Holy Spirit and faith, and that he made public confirmation of his faith before both God and man, and that he was joined in Holy Matrimony to a Christian woman whom God had brought to him. And today we observe and mark the next, though not final, stage of Jerry’s life, His death in Christ. Today marks the end of Jerry’s earthly life, but it also points us to Christ’s promise that those who believe in Him, though they die, yet shall they live, and everyone who lives and believes in Him shall never die. Truly, Jerry would like for nothing more than for the people he loved to know this and to believe this and so receive with Him life that cannot die, life in Jesus Christ that will never perish or fade away.

Now, of course, these rites are not the only important things in a Christian’s life. Jerry also noted his time in two different country schools in rural Nebraska, his education at St. Peter’s Parochial School, and High School graduation in Ruskin, Nebraska. Those were formative years for Jerry, years that shaped him into the Christian man you all knew and loved. I had very few conversations with Jerry in which he did not mention that he grew up in Nebraska and went to church in Ruskin. In fact, there’s a red hat with Jerry right now that reads “St. Mark Lutheran Church – Ruskin, Nebraska.” Jerry wore that hat all the time. After high school – six days after graduation – Jerry enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and spent time in Texas, Mississippi, Idaho, and Japan. Jerry has another hat with him honoring him as a veteran, and he will be honored as such at the cemetery later today. Thank you for your service, Jerry. Then Jerry moved to Waverly with his parents and worked several jobs, learned the appliance repair trade in which he was self-employed for thirty-three years, owned and operated a tropical fish store, and did custodial work at Wartburg College. Jerry was married to Lyne Mohling and became father to Diane, Chris, and Corey. Twenty-three years later Jerry married Vera Sherburne and became father (stepfather) to Susan, Darwin, Teresa, Jeff, and Rodney. And the story continues with grandchildren and great-grandchildren, with an additional great-grandchild due any day now.

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” Jerry became God’s child on May 30, 1937, and he lived his life as God’s child in all his many vocations: Son, husband, father, grandfather, friend, soldier, custodian, laborer, fish monger, appliance repairman, church trustee, head usher, congregation vice-president, and numerous others. What Jerry received from the Lord you also received from him: love, kindness, charity, mercy, forgiveness, patience, help in time of need, support and encouragement in all things. Jerry fought the good fight of faith. He finished the race. Now he rests from his labors, and there is laid up for him the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to him, and to all who love His appearing, when He comes.

Jerry loved his family – his great big, blended family. Blood or marriage, it didn’t matter, it doesn’t matter still. Whether it was the lake house in Minnesota or omelets in Shell Rock for Christmas, it was about having the family together, the more the merrier. Jerry’s confirmation verse was Matthew 6:33, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Jerry did, and they were. Just as Jerry marked his life by baptism, confirmation, and marriage, so did Jerry live his life as Christ’s child. God was always first for Jerry. That didn’t mean that others were second, but it was because of Jerry’s love for God that you experienced such love from Jerry. As the Apostle John has written, “We love because He first loved us.” Jerry’s love was the love of God in Christ Jesus. It was selfless and sacrificial love. It was patient and enduring love. It was love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Jerry didn’t always have much. And life was most certainly not always easy. In the few years I’ve known Jerry and Vera it seems that they have always had family members on the prayer list and there have been numerous serious illnesses and quite a few deaths along the way as well. However, the very same love of God that Jerry received made him a rock through those turbulent times, and Vera too. Jerry was not anxious about his life, what he would eat or drink, nor about his body and what he would put on. He knew that his life was more than food and his body more than clothing. More than that, He knew, believed, and trusted in God’s love for him and for all in Christ Jesus and, seeking Christ first, Jerry knew that everything that was needful would be provided him in God’s way and in God’s time. Again, Jerry would like nothing more than that those whom he loved should know and experience and share this same peace and comfort and love in Christ Jesus.

Jerry didn’t want the homily at his funeral to be all about him. Although I’ve said much about Jerry and his life and I’ve mentioned his name many times, still I insist that this homily has not been all about Jerry, but it has been all about Jesus who loved Jerry, and gave His life for Jerry, and lived in and through Jerry’s life, in whose presence Jerry is now at peace and rest until the day of his reappearing. Jerry was God’s child in his earthly life, but just because his earthly life has ended does not mean that Jerry’s life is over. Jerry, and all those who have died in the Lord, along with all the faithful here on earth, are looking forward to that “yet more glorious day” of Christ’s return, when “the saints triumphant rise in bright array” and “the King of glory passes on His way. Alleluia! Alleluia!” “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. […] Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Feast of All Saints (observed)

(Audio)

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

 

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

It is said that familiarity breeds contempt. Perhaps, when it comes to well known and beloved Bible passages, it can be said that familiarity breeds a sort of “been there, done that, bought the t-shirt” kind of contempt, a contempt that causes us to neglect revisiting the text and wrestling with it, so as to “suck the marrow” out of it, assuming that we know it well enough and understand it well enough so that there is no need to study it again.

It seems that the opening words of Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter five, the Beatitudes, are like that. “Blessed are the poor in spirit…. Blessed are those who mourn…. Blessed are the meek…, etc., etc.” You know those words well. Perhaps you believe that you understand them well enough? Well, maybe you do, and, maybe you don’t.

The common and popular understanding of Jesus’ teaching in the Beatitudes goes something like this: If you want to be blessed, then be meek, mild, poor, and merciful, etc., and you will be. In other words, the Beatitudes are a guide to living the Christian life or a sort of moral checklist by which you can chart your progress towards achieving blessedness. Though it may be common and popular, however, this understanding of Jesus’ teaching is dead wrong. This understanding makes the Beatitudes to be all Law and, it makes Jesus out to be a new Law-giver. But, worse yet, it makes your blessedness a work that you do. And, so we come full circle, and, we can understand why this understanding is so common and so popular. For, you like to think you can contribute to your sanctification. You like to think that you are making progress in becoming more and more blessed. Well, you’re not alone. In fact, you are in good company, for, the Pharisees thought this way too, especially, when they compared themselves to others whom they judged to be less sanctified and less blessed than themselves. It’s only human; sinful and damned, to be sure, but, human.

But, blessedness is not something that you progress toward or that you achieve by your works, rather blessedness is a state of being in which you find yourself wholly apart from your works, merit, or worthiness. Blessedness is not something that you achieve, it is something that you receive and thus you are, blessed. And, the first step in receiving such blessedness is to recognize that you are not it, and that you do not have it, in and of yourself, and that you cannot gain it by your merits, and that you do not deserve it, because you are a sinner. So, if you are to be blessed, then you must receive blessedness as a gift; you must be made to be, declared to be blessed by the one and the only one who isblessed, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, your Savior. Thus, it is, that the people whom Jesus addresses as blessed are not the “haves” of this world, but they are the “have-nots,” they are the crowds, the hoi polloi, both Jews and gentiles. “Blessed are the poor in spirit .... Blessed are those who mourn…. Blessed are the meek … Blessed are those who hunger and thirst … Blessed are the merciful … Blessed are the pure in heart … Blessed are the persecuted… etc.” The great crowds came from all over, from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan, even from the land of Syria, and they brought to Jesus their sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and He healed them.

Jesus’ blessing brings comfort and fulfillment at once now and not yet. In the now of this life, those who are emptied of self-righteousness and are impoverished of spirit are filled with the righteousness and the Spirit of Christ. Their hunger and their thirst are sated and quenched by His life-giving Word, body, and blood. In their mourning they are comforted in the Peace that is Christ Jesus and His victory over sin, death, and the devil. In persecution and reviling they do not strike back in anger or revenge, but, they remain steadfast in faith in the Christ who has suffered for them, the Christ who suffers with them now, and the Christ who is their unconquerable strength in weakness. That is now, in this life, this side of heaven.

What we see in the Revelation, however, is the other side of the coin, the not yet for us, but, the reality now in heaven for the Saints in Christ. Once again Jesus, the Lamb of God, stands in the midst of a great crowd of people, a multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” asks the Elder. “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” It is said that this great crowd, this multitude that no one can count, no longer hunger, no longer thirst, and no longer mourn. They are in the kingdom of heaven and they see God with their own eyes. “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” They are the remnant of Israel and countless gentiles from the east and the west, the north and the south. They are the blessed of the Lord, made clean in the blood of the Lamb, gathered together around the throne of God and the Lamb in ceaseless worship now, for them, and not yet for us.

All who have died in the Lord, they are part of that blessed throng, they have come out of the great tribulation that is this life and have entered into Life Himself. They are your husbands and your wives, your mothers and your fathers, your sisters and your brothers, your sons and your daughters, all who have died in the Lord. But, they are not dead; Indeed, in a way they are more alive than you! For, they enjoy in full, now, what you only know in part, but that doesn’t make it any less real and true for you who live in the not yet. Indeed, you blessed of the Lord in the now also live in the not yet; it as though you have one foot in the grave and the other in heaven. But you are destined for heaven, when, with both feet, you will stand with that blessed throng, with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, before the throne of God and the Lamb in ceaseless worship. That is a guarantee, backed by the blood of Jesus, sealed in baptismal waters. And, until that day when you come out of this great tribulation into heaven, heaven comes down to you as you kneel before this altar, the throne of the Lamb of God, who is truly present, and you behold with your own eyes, hear with your own ears, handle with your own hands, and taste with your own tongues, and you receive, as foretaste of the feast to come, blessedness Himself in holy communion with your flesh and blood.

For, you are His saints, made holy in His blood, and you are His blessed, now and not yet, destined for life with Him, in Him, and through Him for all eternity. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. […] Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” Your Lord Jesus guarantees, “And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure,” and that is blessedness. And all the Saints of the Church of Christ in heaven and earth cry out, “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly, come.”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Festival of the Reformation

(Audio)

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

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

The purpose of the Law of the LORD is to shut your mouth, to silence you. It does that quite effectively, don’tcha think? Well, truth be told, often you do not see it that way. In fact, your response to the uncompromising Law of the LORD is to, well, compromise it. You attempt to lower the bar of the Law, so to speak, to make it more do-able. You actually convince yourself that you can do the Law on your own, if only you understand in the right way. You see, the way it reads, the way the LORD gave the Law to you, simply terrifies you. You think to yourself, “Surely the command ‘Do not murder’ means only that I am not to physically kill someone in anger or rage. Surely it doesn’t mean things like terminating an inconvenient pregnancy, or assisting an elderly or suffering person out of their misery, or being angry, mean, spiteful, and unforgiving towards another person.” Same goes with the command “Do not commit adultery.” You think to yourself, “Surely this command does not prohibit looking without touching, viewing pictures and videos in magazines, on the internet, or on television. After all, who have I harmed if I haven’t touched?” In these ways you attempt to lower the bar of the LORD’s Law and make it more do-able. But, the Law of the LORD cannot be lowered; it cannot be bent, or revoked. The Law does not apply only at one time or another, but it is unchanging and it is uncompromising. The Law does not pass away.

The Law must be fulfilled. And, you cannot fulfill it. Therefore, if you will attempt to live by the Law, then the Law will crush you. No, you cannot fulfill the Law, therefore, I say to you, let it crush you. Let that weight fall upon you and break you into pieces. For, then, the Lord Jesus can raise you up. Jesus will raise you up from your failing to keep the Law. Jesus will raise you up from sin and death. Jesus will raise you up when you trust in Him, because He has fulfilled the Law of the LORD perfectly for you, and He has suffered and died for you, and He is raised from death victorious for you. The bar of the Law has never been lowered. It can never be lowered. But, better than that, the Law of the LORD has been fulfilled for you. Now your Lord Jesus invites you to share in the freedom and life that flows from the fulfilled Law of the LORD – His freedom and life which He graciously pours out for you, received by you in faith and trust without cost, without works, and without merit.

That is the Gospel, and that is what we are celebrating today on this Festival of the Reformation. We are not celebrating an historical event, a socio-political uprising with religious overtones, or the bravery of a medieval priest-monk-professor. And, we are certainly not celebrating the fracturing of Christ’s body, the Church. But, we are celebrating the restoration of the free proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which had become obscured, distorted, and compromised by men attempting to lower the bar of Law and justify themselves by their obedience, works, merit, and cooperation with God. This is the violence of which our Lord speaks, violence committed by men against the kingdom of heaven.

Men try to take the kingdom by force, that is, by works and by merit. But the kingdom does not come that way. The kingdom comes by grace alone. It cannot be taken by force, by works or by merit. But, now it has been manifested, revealed, uncovered, which means, it was there all along, but men couldn’t see it because their eyes were blinded by sin, their ears were stopped, and their hearts were hard. Some received the Law of the LORD in joy, deceiving themselves that they were righteous and kept it faithfully. Some received the Law of the LORD like a funeral dirge, yet they did not mourn and weep for their lost condition, but they hardened their hearts in pride against a God who set the bar so exceedingly high. They refused to fear the LORD and receive His Law as He gave it, for the purpose He gave it. It was to crush them and turn them to the LORD’s grace and mercy in repentance.

That was precisely the message that John the Baptist came preaching and teaching: “Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.” Our Lord Jesus preached the same message, and so did the Apostles after him. That same message is preached to you still today: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” This is the Gospel, even the eternal Gospel proclaimed by the angel of Revelation “to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people.” “Fear God and give Him glory,” the angel cried, “because the hour of His judgment has come, and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.” What hour was that? It was the hour of Jesus’ death upon the cross, the hour in which the Law of the LORD was fulfilled for you, the hour in which Jesus spoke “It is finished,” and it really, truly, completely, and forever was.

This is the Gospel, the eternal Gospel. This is what had become obscured, distorted, and compromised in Luther’s day. The Gospel was so obscured, distorted, and compromised that Luther himself was enslaved to the Law and could find no escape, no comfort, and no peace. For that is what happens to those who believe that they must fulfill the Law of the LORD in order to make peace with God, they are either pumped up with pride, convincing themselves that they are doing just fine, or they find themselves drowning in a pit of despair believing that, no matter how hard they try to keep the Law they still fall short and can never find peace with God. Again, the Law was not given that you might do it and justify yourself by it, but the Law of the LORD was given to shut your mouth, to silence you. God has given the Law that the whole world may be held accountable to Him. The Law serves only to reveal your sins to you; no man is justified by works of the Law. Therefore, be still, shut up, stop striving, and know that the LORD is God. God has manifested His righteousness, the righteousness that makes you righteous, apart from the Law – “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”

In Luther’s day it was believed that faith in Christ was not enough. Guess what, people still believe that today! The Roman Church sold indulgences, and still sells them today – pieces of paper that you can buy with money that forgive sins now and after death in purgatory (another unbiblical doctrine). Yet, no better are contemporary so-called Evangelical churches that preach to you the Gospel out of one side of their mouth and then shackle you under the Law again from the other. Their grace-talk is followed immediately by works-talk. They say contradictory things like, “Jesus saves you by grace alone, all you have to do is this, that, and the other thing. And once you’re saved, Jesus expects you to change, to be better, to make your salvation sure or maybe you weren’t really truly Christian in the first place after all.” Hogwash! “Salvation unto us has come by God’s free grace and favor; good works cannot avert our doom, they help and save us never. Faith looks to Jesus Christ alone, who did for all the world atone; He is our one Redeemer.”

While Luther and the Reformers affected many reforms within the Church, it all started with works and indulgences, attempts to do the Law of the LORD or to lower the bar of the Law to make it more do-able. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed the Ninety-Five Theses to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg, Saxony. Each of Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses dealt with the single topic indulgences, the idea that man’s work, merit, or money could pay for sins for oneself or for others. In nailing the Ninety-Five Theses to the church door, Luther did what was customary in his late-medieval college town in order to engage in a theological discourse and debate over this central aspect of our Christian faith and doctrine. However, due to the work of reformers like Wycliffe and Hus, who had preceded Luther, and the advent of the Guttenberg printing press, Luther’s theses were translated into the common tongue and were copied and spread throughout the Holy Roman Empire. Now, one could say that it was merely chance, or one could believe that the LORD had raised up Luther at the right time and the right place to manifest, reveal, and uncover the Gospel once again that those walking in the darkness of sin and death, held captive by legalistic teaching and preaching and false doctrine, could hear the pure, unadulterated, eternal Gospel proclaimed once again and find comfort and peace in the truth that “the righteous shall live by faith (alone).” We are justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone whom God has put forward as a propitiation by His blood, passing over our former sins.

“The righteous shall live by faith.” Luther claims that it was this passage, Romans 1:17, that cast the scales from his eyes and released the shackles from his soul, freeing him to live, not in a continual and losing battle to acquire righteousness by works, but in the righteousness bestowed upon Him by God through faith in the propitiation that God Himself has put forward, Jesus Christ. Indeed, Luther was so struck and convicted by this Gospel proclamation that he added the Latin word sola, meaning alone: “The righteous shall live by faith (alone).” From this we derive the classic Lutheran solas: sola gratia, sola fide, and sola Christus – grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone. And, there is yet a fourth, and appropriate, sola: sola scriptura – scripture alone is the sole source, norm, and rule of our faith, confession, and doctrine.

The purpose of the Law of the LORD is to shut your mouth, to silence you. What bliss, peace, and comfort there is in silence! Close your mouth, and have your ears opened. Listen to the Word of your LORD and God, and the Word made flesh Jesus Christ. Receive Him and trust in Him alone in all the ways He comes to you: Word and water, body and blood, for the forgiveness of your sins, salvation, and eternal life. You cannot take the kingdom by force, therefore, stop trying. But, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Grace alone. Grace upon grace. The righteous shall live by faith.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

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 Saturday afternoon, the U. S. Debt was roughly $28.9 trillion. That breaks down to $86,828 per citizen and $229,000 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 your 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.

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.

“Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” These words Jesus spoke to an official who pleaded that He would come to Capernaum and heal His son who was near death. I can almost imagine Jesus sighing and shaking His head in disappointment. However, this probably wasn’t the first time that He had encountered weak faith in men, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. As it was, the constant refrain of the people to whom He was sent, the chosen people of God, the children of Israel, was “What sign will you do so that we may believe!” Earlier in Cana, Jesus had changed water into wine in a quiet and decidedly unspectacular way, simply by speaking His Word. Initially, at least, this fact was lost on the official as he insisted that Jesus come down to his house. Likewise, even after feeding 5,000 with five loaves of bread and two fish, the crowds cried out for a sign like that of Moses and the manna in the wilderness. And, we cannot forget Jesus’ disciple, Thomas, who, upon hearing of His Lord’s resurrection from the dead infamously proclaimed, “Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into His side, I will never believe.”

Are you so unlike the official whose son was dying? Are you so unlike the hungry crowds in the wilderness? Are you so unlike Thomas, wrangling with his doubt? I know that I’m not. In fact, I am Thomas. I need to see and to touch Jesus’ wounds to believe. Thankfully, graciously, Jesus comes to me, and Jesus comes to you, not by Word alone, but also in the seeable, touchable, and tasteable means of water, bread, and wine to forgive our sins, especially the sin of unbelief, to strengthen our faith, and to give us life in and through Him. Your Creator, God, and LORD so loves you so as to condescend to come to you, who cannot come to Him, even though His creative Word alone brought forth creation out of nothing, spoke light into the darkness, and brought forth life where there was no life. Jesus is God’s creative Word become man and dwelling amongst us; His Word is forgiveness, life, healing, and salvation – with, or without seeable, touchable, and tasteable means which are bonus and icing on the cake.

What if you pray, but the cancer remains? What if you pray, but the baby dies? What if you pray, but the divorce still happens? What if you pray, but the job never comes? Did God fail you? Did He not hear your prayers? Is he cruel, vindictive, or simply impotent? Or, do you question whether He truly exists at all? If you are honest with yourself, and you need to be, then you will confess that you have thought these thoughts, entertained these doubts, and felt this way from time to time. Doubt is one of the ramifications of sin. Sin has separated you from God so that you cannot be in His presence, you cannot see Him or hear Him or touch Him. Though you are deaf, dumb, and blind in your sin, and though you cannot come to God or enter His presence because of your sin, your God comes to you, and He unstops your ears, looses your tongue, and opens your eyes that you may see, hear, touch, taste, and speak once again. However, doubt hinders your trust and weakens your faith so that you suffer from uncertainties, misgivings, and temptations to sinful fear and pride. Doubt causes you to need a sign, and to fall into greater doubt, eventually into unbelief, if you do not get what you think you want.

The official in today’s Gospel lesson was struggling with doubt. He had faith – faith enough in what he had heard about Jesus, about the miracle He had performed at a wedding in Cana, in order to compel him to go to Jesus and to plead for His help. But, still he was looking for a sign; he wanted Jesus to come to where his son was, maybe speak an incantation, call on some angels, wave His hands in the air, do something. Though Jesus called him to faith saying “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe,” the official continued to plead, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” But, you see, Jesus was right. In fact, Thomas was right too. You, I, we, mankind – we do need to see and touch and taste! Though the Word is sufficient in itself, though God’s grace is sufficient for us in all things, we need the Word of God made flesh, Jesus. God knows this, and He has delivered, and He delivers Jesus to us still in Word, water, body, and blood.

For your sake, God sent forth His Son, His Word, to become a man, to fulfill the Law, and to suffer and die for your sins and the sins of all mankind, and to be raised, victorious over death and the devil. For your sake, the Word of God became flesh, died in the flesh, was raised and ascended in the flesh, and will come again and remain forever in the flesh. While the official knew that he needed Jesus, he didn’t know that Jesus was God’s Word in the flesh. Thus, Jesus took the official’s faith in the Man, and He added to it faith in the Word of God that had become that Man. The Swedish Lutheran theologian Bo Giertz wrote, “Jesus had never worked miracles to impress people or to make himself popular or to be believed. To do this was one of the temptations of the devil that he resisted. He used his power to help others, but never himself. He used it to reveal the mercy of God and God’s presence. For those who had eyes to see, his miracles revealed that the kingdom of God was at hand and that the Messiah had come.”

To show this to the official, and to show this to you, Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the Word that Jesus spoke to him and he went on his way. Before he arrived at home, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering, precisely at the hour in which Jesus said, “Your son will live”. The official did not need to see his son healthy and standing in order to believe, but now he trusted, not only in the Man who could heal, but he trusted in the Word of God made flesh who is healing and eternal life. The man and his entire household believed in Jesus.

Your Lord Jesus calls you to such a faith – a faith that clings to His Word without seeing and without touching. Nevertheless, He has compassion for you in your weakness of faith and in your doubts and He gives you so much more than even His disciples and Apostles enjoyed, His glorified flesh and blood to see, to touch, to taste that you may commune with Him and dwell in Him and He in you. Still He directs you to the Word made flesh and dwelling amongst us that you may believe that you will live, even if you die, because He has died and yet lives. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. He says to you, “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” And then He asks you, “Do you believe this?” May your answer be the same as my answer, and the same as another father of a boy possessed by a demon: Lord, I believe. Help me in my unbelief. And, He does; and, He will.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.