The Sixth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 6)

(Audio)

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

 

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

What is a Christian to do when the culture seems to be at odds with Biblical faith? Generally, there are three possible courses of action: Separate, regenerate, or accommodate.

Separatist Christians are easy enough to identify; they are those individuals, sects, and denominations that try very hard to not engage in the parts of culture and society they deem to contradict Biblical teaching. I am not referring to those who merely abstain from physical pleasures and entertainments (drinking, television and theater, gambling, etc.), but, rather, those who isolate and remove themselves altogether from the secular culture and society. While groups like the Amish and some conservative Mennonites have established separate, parallel societies, even more mainstream Christian groups and denominations have created their own Christian “Yellow Pages” of businesses and services that they might, as much as possible, interact, do business with, and support only other like-minded people.

Quite the opposite in approach, other Christians believe that it is their Biblically mandated purpose to actively regenerate our fallen, broken, and sinful culture and society. Perhaps, in the United States, Christians of this stripe are most represented by the Christian Religious Right and by mainstream conservative Protestant Evangelicalism. Such groups actively work in and through the secular government to create and pass laws that they believe are in accord with Biblical doctrine, morality, and ethics. Most likely, they would say that the United States is fundamentally and intentionally a Christian nation, while the most zealous might desire a theocracy (a nation ruled by God’s Law).

The third approach, accommodation, is the chief approach of mainstream liberal Protestant Christians and church bodies. Such Christians appeal chiefly to the Gospel of Jesus Christ with little or no regard for God’s Law. Jesus is understood as having fulfilled and thereby having abolished the Law so that all things are good and permissible when they are done in love, or at least not to the direct harm of another – even things that were previously forbidden by the Law of God. God’s Word, as recorded in the Bible, is understood to be the work of fallible men with particular limited understandings and knowledge about science, the world, and human development and who were often culturally, racially, and sexually biased. Therefore, the Bible is to be interpreted critically in light of thought and opinion today in order to find meaning and application today.

Now, it is my intention to demonstrate to you, from God’s Word, and particularly from the Scriptures appointed for this day, that all three of these courses of action, beliefs, and approaches to our culture and society are incorrect and are misinterpretations of God’s Word and will for Christians in the world, but not of the world.

Today’s lessons speak most directly against the third and last approach I discussed – accommodation. Once again, this approach is typically justified by an appeal to Christ’s own teaching in the Gospel about loving your neighbor, even your enemies, and doing good to all. These are indeed Jesus’ teachings, and all Christians are to strive to do this with the grace and help of God by the Holy Spirit. However, proponents of accommodation seemingly overlook many of Jesus’ other teachings, or they explain them away by an incorrect interpretation of Jesus’ Words such as we have in today’s Gospel lesson where Jesus says: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Proponents of Christian accommodation of the culture seemingly believe that Jesus did away with all that Law-talk of the Old Testament. But, clearly He did no such thing. For, Jesus Himself says that He did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it, and that not a letter of it has passed away. What does this mean? This means that the Law of God is no longer a fearsome thing to those who believe and are baptized into Christ Jesus, because He has fulfilled all its rigorous and unwavering demands, perfectly, for all humanity. Yet, the keyword here is fulfilled, not abolished. The Law is still there, but it’s not a threat any longer, that is, to those who will repent and believe that they are saved by God’s grace, through faith in Christ Jesus, who alone has fulfilled the Law’s demands. For, when something is fulfilled, it is not abolished, it does not disappear or go away, but it is still present and active, but satisfied.

In fact, not only does Jesus not abolish the Law, but He actually expands it, saying: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder.’ […] But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.” And, likewise, Jesus teaches: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Jesus even taught that, “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Wham! Now, the scribes and the Pharisees get a bad rap for their hypocrisy and misunderstanding and unbelief of the Gospel, and justifiably so, but, don’t kid yourself, they were righteous in the eyes of men, and they kept the Law of God better than anyone, better than you! They prayed more than you pray. They worshipped more than you worship. They gave tithes of their income more than, and more faithfully than you do. They were the best of the best when it came to faithful Jewish practice, and everybody knew it. Therefore, if Jesus says that you must be more righteous than even them, what hope is there for you?

Thanks be to God, in Christ, there is every hope for you, for, in Christ, your righteousness does indeed exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. And, that is precisely Jesus’ point. That is what it means that Jesus has not abolished, but has fulfilled the Law and the prophets, for you. You are free! You are free from the impossible burden of having to fulfill the Law of God perfectly as it demands – a task that neither you, nor any Christian, nor even the scribes and the Pharisees in all their righteousness could ever do! Jesus has done it for you, and He has set you free, not from the Law, which is still in force, but from the burden of having to do it in order to be righteous before God. But, the Law has not passed away, and you have been freed, not from the Law, but you have been freed to do the Law in love for God and for your neighbor in and through Jesus Christ.

That is why a Christian cannot simply accommodate the culture in which he lives. Jesus did not abolish the Law of God, nor did He override it with the Gospel, and neither did He lower the bar on the Law of God, but, rather, He fulfilled it for you. Jesus has freed you from the fear and curse of the Law that you may do it freely, and boldly, in love. What this means is that, as you strive to do God’s Law faithfully, knowing fully that you will at times fail and at all times fall short of the perfection it demands, you may do it, nonetheless, without fear of judgment and condemnation, for Christ has perfectly fulfilled it for you, and even your weakest good works, God the Father looks upon as holy and righteous through His holy and righteous Son.

You see, you, as God’s child of His own creation, you were made for good works. This is why the first approach I named earlier, separation, is incorrect. God’s people are not to separate and isolate themselves from the world, society, and culture, but they are to remain distinct within it and for the benefit of it – that is to say, we are to live in the world while remaining not of the world. You do this through your God-given vocations, callings, in which you serve your brother and neighbor and glorify God.

Similarly, under the same dictum, “in the world but not of the world,” the second approach I named, regeneration, is also incorrect, for you do not, and cannot, regenerate anyone, or anything, but the Holy Spirit alone regenerates where and when He pleases through the proclaimed Word of God and the Blessed Sacraments. Moreover, Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world, therefore, though He will work to provide for and to protect His people through vocations in government and bureaucracies, He will do this even through unbelievers and despite any godless or wicked intent or purpose they may have.

Therefore, the answer to the question, “What is a Christian to do when the culture seems to be at odds with Biblical faith?” is, negatively stated, none of the former mentioned approaches – not separation, not regeneration, and not accommodation. But, rather, positively stated, what you are to do is love, by living in the love and life-giving freedom of the Law of God fulfilled by and in Jesus Christ. While, being free in Christ may be different than the kind of freedom the flesh, our world, and culture values and desires, it is, nonetheless, the greatest and the only true freedom. It is not a freedom that permits you, or anyone, to do whatever you want, even in contradiction to God’s Law; nor is it a freedom that comes from all things being permissible. Rather, the freedom you have in Christ is the freedom to live a new life, a baptized life of daily dying to sin and living to God in Christ Jesus. For, when you know that the Law no longer judges and condemns you, then you are freed to no longer judge and condemn others, but, rather, to show them the love, mercy, and forgiveness you have received, whether they receive it or reject it.

However, as St. Paul writes, you are not freed to keep on sinning as if the Law of God was no longer in effect – that is the way of the old man who has died. The way of the new man is to do the works of the Law without fear of judgment and condemnation, but in the spirit of love to the glory of God in Christ Jesus. For, the truest and only freedom is to be a slave of Christ. Thus, St. Paul writes, "For freedom Christ has set you free." "Therefore, stand fast in your freedom. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, to pursue its sinful lusts and desires. But live by the Spirit, in Christ, in fervent faith toward God the Father, and in fervent love for one another."

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, your Christian vocation is not to separate from, to regenerate, or to accommodate to this world and  culture, but you are to be the hands, heart, ear, and voice of Christ in this world, but not of this world. As St. Paul wrote, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” For, the Law of God has not passed away, but it has been fulfilled. Therefore, you are free to obey the Law and to do the Law in love, without fear – in love for your brother and for your neighbor, to the glory of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Fifth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 5)

(Audio)

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

 

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

There is nothing particularly attractive or exciting about Christianity when you get down to its nuts and bolts. After all, as Americans, we extol freedom – and, by freedom we mean the freedom to do whatever we want, whenever we want, so long as it doesn’t hurt or harm or interfere with someone else’s freedom, for the most part. However, Christianity actually inhibits that kind of freedom. There are explicit things that Christians are commanded to not do. Christianity goes against the grain of our permissive culture and even our own flesh.

Moreover, the doctrines and beliefs of Christianity are, well, quite simply, absurd to human reason. We worship a God whom we confess to be one, but also three. And, for a God who is supposedly all-powerful and good, He sure doesn’t seem to do much to prevent evil and suffering in the world. And, where is He anyway? Why doesn’t He make Himself visible and demonstrate His power for all to see? Then we’d believe in Him, right? Of course, Christianity teaches that He did make Himself visible once. But, consider the circumstances: He was born of a virgin mother who had never had sexual relations with a man. Yeah, right. He spent His time hanging around the low-life and the riff-raff of society – prostitutes, tax collectors, the poor, and the diseased. He kept talking about a kingdom that He was ushering in. Oh, they crowned Him king alright; they put a purple robe on Him, beat Him, crowned Him with thorns, then stripped Him naked and nailed Him to a cross for all to see. Pathetic. Unattractive. Foolish.

And, the same goes for so-called Christians themselves. They preach about meekness and humility, being charitable and forgiving, and loving their enemies, but look at how so many of them live. They chase after wealth and possessions, power and prestige just like everyone else, except they are hypocrites about it, play-acting like they’re so noble and pious and it’s everyone else that is selfish, self-serving, ambitious, and cut-throat. What’s worse, though, is how they are so quick to judge and condemn others when they lie, cheat, and steal to get what they want, when their marriages end in divorce at the same rate as non-Christians, when they give in to their passions, desires, and lusts for drug and drink, food, sex, power, money, and whatever else. Then, they are so quick to judge what’s right and wrong, good and evil, and to make rules and laws that limit or take away the freedoms of others, all the while crying that their own precious religious freedoms are being threatened and attacked. Pathetic. Unattractive. Foolish.

Satan knows this about you, and he uses it as a lure and as a weapon to get you to take his bait and to choose to listen to a voice and a word other than God’s. That’s what he did to Eve in the garden: “Did God really say?” “Hmmm? Now that you ask the question, I know what God said, but somehow, now it just doesn’t sound right.” That’s what he tried to do to Jesus in the desert: “Go ahead! Throw yourself down from the temple spire. God’s angels will catch your fall.” “Yeah, well, you kind of left out that part about walking in God’s ways and not putting Him to the test.” The question, the doubt, exposing the absurdity – that’s the lure. When you choose to listen to a voice and a word other than God’s – And, I ask you, whose voice and word would that then be? – you take Satan’s bait, hook, line, and sinker, and you choose to act upon your will – which means that you are not acting upon God’s will – and you break the First Commandment: You worship a false god before or in place of the true God; you worship yourself, and by worshipping yourself you worship Satan.

Alright, so maybe that sounds a bit dramatic. I just want you to think about the seriousness of those sins that you like to think of as “little,” “minor,” or “white.” While the only un-forgivable sin is unbelief – the outright rejection and refusal of the Holy Spirit’s work in you – there are no little, minor, or white sins. Sin is sin, period, and a single sin of thought, word, or deed merits you eternal death and damnation. This is why St. Paul says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and, quoting the Psalmist, “There is none righteous, not one.” Indeed, the purpose of God’s good and holy Law is to show you just that – that you are a sinner, curved in upon yourself, whose every thought, word, and deed before God’s grace is corrupted by evil, unholy, and unclean. The Law is meant to break you, to crush you, to kill you so that you stop trying to justify yourself, stop trying to make God’s ways fit according to your ways, stop trying to force His wisdom to submit to your fallen and corrupt wisdom. For, only then can you receive the Gospel – the Good News God loves you anyway and that He forgives you and restores you to holiness, not because of anything good, or evil, that you do, but because of the perfect and holy good that He has done for you in His Son’s selfless, sacrificial suffering and death upon the cross.

I know. Your flesh, your reason, your wisdom, and the so-called reason and wisdom of the world cries out, “Foul! It can’t be that easy! It doesn’t make any sense! That’s ridiculous! That’s absurd! That’s not fair! That’s not how justice works!” Indeed, thanks be to God! All that thinking and offense, all that scandal – that’s the way of your fallen sinful flesh which, at once, hates the Law of God, but also seeks to justify itself according to the Law. That’s why the flesh seeks out any other gospel but the Gospel of Jesus Christ – not that there is any other gospel. That’s why most of the denominations of Christianity other than confessional, orthodox Lutheran doctrine, work in just a little bit (or a lotta bit!) of your own work, your own choice, your own merit, your own decision, and your cooperation with God in your justification and salvation. But these are the teachings of demons, says St. Paul. They are the lies, deceptions, and temptations of Satan to lead you back into the bondage of sin and the Law and to keep you in chains there forever.

By nature, man is a theologian of glory, because Satan is a theologian of glory. “But, I thought glory was a good thing? What’s a theologian of glory, and why is that a bad thing?” Good question! A theologian of glory refuses to accept things and believe things the way there truly are, the way God has ordained them to be. To use Luther’s words to Erasmus in the Heidelberg Disputation, “A theologian of glory calls evil good and good evil.” Thus, a theologian of glory looks at the Trinity, which is good, and calls it preposterous, ridiculous, foolishness. Likewise, a theologian of glory hears God’s command to not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and says that God’s command is unfair, unjust, even evil. And, worst of all, a theologian of glory looks at God’s plan of salvation in Jesus Christ crucified and dead upon the cross and exclaims, “Pathetic. Unattractive. Foolishness.”

All of you, according to your fallen and sinful flesh are, by nature, theologians of glory. In contrast, God calls you to be theologians of the cross who do not call evil good and good evil, but who call a thing what it is. The fall into sin was rebellion, apostasy, and real and damning sin. Jesus’ crucifixion and death was Jesus’ victory over sin, death, and Satan, and the glory of God. The kingdom of God is not powerful and glorious according to the wisdom, reason, and reckoning of the theologian of glory, but to the theologian of the cross it is a glorious kingdom and reign of grace, mercy, and forgiveness in Jesus Christ.

The theology of the cross does not come easily to us theologians of glory. Indeed, when Jesus began His ministry and called His first disciples, they were theologians of glory too. They vied for positions of honor, power, and glory in Jesus’ kingdom and they asked when Jesus was going to restore glory to Israel. Yet, even His disciples were not honorable and glorious in the eyes of their contemporaries, but they were fishermen, a tax collector, a zealot, and others of common, ordinary, and even low estate. Still, the Lord worked through them and with them to establish His kingdom and reign of grace and mercy and to establish His Church, which remains to this day and will remain until the day of His return. They often stumbled over Jesus’ ways, trying to send away the children, the women, and others in need who were drawn to Jesus. They refused to believe Jesus when He taught them about His Passion and resurrection. They all abandoned Him when He was arrested and crucified. And, when He died and was buried, they were despondent and without hope, believing that they had made a great mistake in following Him. They were theologians of glory, calling good evil and evil good. But, at Pentecost, Jesus made them to be fishers of men and theologians of the cross when He poured out His Holy Spirit upon them and His Church.

There isn’t much that is attractive or exciting about you, O Christian, or this little outpost of Christ’s Church in Waverly, IA to which you belong and worship. However, you have been given a new mind, new reason, new eyes, ears, mouth, and soul to know the kingdom of God for what it is, the power of the God for the salvation of all who believe. Your fallen reason and wisdom, the world’s ungodly theology of glory, looks at Christ’s Church and cries, “Pathetic. Unattractive. Foolish.” But you, O theologian of the cross, call a thing what it is, God’s kingdom of grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness breaking in and spreading throughout this world, reclaiming it for God in Christ Jesus.

Do not be afraid or dismayed. The Lord is with you. He will never leave you or forsake you. Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

(Audio)

Luke 1:39-56; Romans 12:9-16; Isaiah 11:1-5

 

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

Often the blind have better vision than those who can see. Often the deaf comprehend more than those who hear. For, the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom. And, His ways are not our ways; His thoughts are not our thoughts. Indeed, we live in a time when only that which we perceive is believed to exist. What supreme arrogance, even foolishness, to think that this enormous and, apparently, expanding universe must operate according to the limitations of our five senses and our reasoning. For, what are they in comparison to the impenetrable depths of our galaxy, let alone what lies beyond? And, what are they in comparison to that of which they are made of, let alone the one who made them, upon who’s speaking the foundations of the universe were made and all things came to be and are yet sustained?

When God speaks His powerful, creative and life-giving Word, stars and planets find their course, mountains and oceans take their place, plants and trees begin to grow and to bear fruit, hearts and lungs begin to circulate life-giving blood and air, eyes and ears begin to see and to hear His handiwork, and minds begin to know their Creator through His creation, even through their very own selves, and they are attuned to His voice and to His Word, even if they try not to hear. For, the Word of God has gone out into the world and it will not return to Him void, but it will accomplish the purpose for which it was sent.

And so, when God’s life-giving and creative Word was spoken by an angelic messenger into the ear of a young virgin maiden, chosen by God by His unique grace, mercy, and wisdom alone, that Word accomplished what it said, and Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Son of God, the same way that she, and Abram, and all the faithful, had conceived their faith long ago – by hearing. Though she did not understand the how and the why, Mary believed the Word of the Lord and she said “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” Henceforth, all would call her blessed because she “believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” And, to this day, Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus, is rightly remembered and venerated, not because of her unique holiness or her important works, but because of the unique grace and mercy the Lord showered upon her and because of the unique faith He created in her, faith that simply received, clung to, and even conceived the Lord’s life-giving and creative Word. To this day, Mary remains for us a premiere example of the childlike faith Jesus calls us all of us to, faith which He says enters into the kingdom of God.

The Church calls Mary Theotokos, which means, the “Mother of God”, for the child she conceived, carried, and bore was not only a man, though He was truly a man, but He was the Son of God – perfect God and perfect Man. Her womb had become the ark and temple of God, yet greater, for abiding therein was much more than the glory of God, but the glory of God as a man, fully alive. God had visited His people to redeem them. This, Mary’s aunt Elizabeth, herself six months pregnant with a son who would be called John the Baptist, acknowledged and confessed by the Holy Spirit upon Mary’s greeting saying, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” She couldn’t help herself. The Word of God had located Himself in the womb of Mary, and in His presence, and at His command, faith is created, life is given, the sea roars, the rivers clap their hands, and the hills sing for joy together before the LORD.

Dear Christians, receive the clear and constant teaching of the Holy Scriptures that life and faith come from God’s life-giving, creative Word. We are the passive recipients of His gifts even as our eyes receive light, our noses receive aromas, our hands receive sensations, our tongues receive tastes, and our ears receive sounds. So are we the recipients of God’s gift of faith and knowledge of Him, even as we are the recipients of His gracious gift of life itself. The Word of the Lord alone has the power to open deaf ears to hear and blind eyes to see, to release the mute tongue to speak and to sing praises, to release from the bondage of sin and guilt, and to raise the dead to new and eternal life. When the LORD speaks, people listen – even the mountains, the oceans, and the stars listen – unless you willfully stop your ears. Yet, even then, you cannot silence the Law of God that is written upon your heart and neither can you refrain from observing God’s handiwork in creation and His sustaining providence for all, even those who reject Him.

John the Baptist could not help but leap for joy in his mother’s womb, for the Word of God, even God Himself, had entered His presence. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and confessed God’s presence in Mary, and she confessed the blessedness Mary had received in humble faith. And Mary confessed that she was the humble recipient of God’s gracious visitation, a servant and a magnifying glass for the glory of the LORD. She confessed the external and objective workings of God to bring righteousness and justice to His sin-wrecked people and creation as He had continually promised to Abraham and to his offspring forever.

As Jesus taught in the Beatitudes, there is blessedness in being poor in spirit, meek, and humble. There is blessedness in hunger and in thirst for righteousness. There is blessedness in showing mercy and in making peace, even in the face of persecution. These qualities are means of blessing, not because they are meritorious works, but because they restore a right relationship between yourself and the Lord. He is your God, who desires above all else that you receive His good gifts. And, the less that you have of the qualities and distractions that the world and the flesh value, the more your God and Lord can, and will, shower upon you His grace, mercy, and love.

What we celebrate on this The Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is not Mary’s greatness or holiness, or even her strong and humble faith which, nevertheless, is a great example for us, but what we celebrate is the LORD’s gracious visitation of His people to redeem them from their sins and to restore us to communion and life with Him. This Mary believed and received in humble faith. This Elizabeth acknowledged and confessed upon Mary’s greeting. And this caused John the Baptist to leap for joy and to be filled with the Holy Spirit, that he might proclaim the coming of the one whose sandals he was not worthy to untie – the shoot from the stump of Jesse, upon whom the Spirit of the LORD rests and remains – the Messiah, our Lord, our Savior, and our Redeemer Jesus Christ.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Presentation of the Augsburg Confession

Matthew 10:26-33; 1 Timothy 6:11-16; Nehemiah 8:1-2, 5-6, 9-12

 

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

“I will speak of your testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame.” Notice that the psalmist doesn’t say “I might speak,” or even “I should speak,” but rather “I will speak.” You will speak too. But what will you speak? You must know that you will speak something, even if you do not speak at all. And what you speak or don’t speak, that is your confession.

The Greek word that is translated confess or acknowledge in our Gospel reading is ὁμολογέω, which literally means “same word.” The Latin confiteri, from which our English word confess is derived, also means “same word.” Thus, to acknowledge or to confess means “to say the same word.” When you confess your sins, for example, you are “saying the same word” that God has said about your thoughts, words, and deeds, that they miss the mark His holy Law demands. However, you also confess your faith, and when you do you “say the same word” that God has said in His Word, in His Son Jesus the Christ. So, whether you confess your sins, or your faith, or remain silent, you are always making a confession, you are always saying something. But are you saying the same word that God has said?

We Lutherans identify as a confessional church. We begin our confession saying, “We believe, teach, and confess,” and then we say the words concerning what we believe, teach, and confess. We say the same word that God has said in His word. We are a confessional church because we say with our mouths, and also with our deeds, what we believe in our hearts, and we teach the same to our children and to each other, and we confess the same before our neighbors, our enemies, the world, even before kings. In so doing we stand with Christians of all times and all places, with John the Baptist, Stephen, Peter, Paul, and all the Apostles; with Polycarp, Perpetua, Felicity, and Ignatius; with Jan Hus and William Tyndale; and with Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, John the Steadfast, Frederick the Wise, Martin Chemnitz, and so many others.

Truly, all men are confessional, whether they acknowledge it or not. But what do they confess? Tragically, many do not “say the same word” God has said in His Word, but they deny it, despise it, contort it, and contradict it, and they encourage others to do the same. They say that what God has declared evil, even an abomination, is good, while they call the good things of the LORD and His word evil. They make their confession in words and deeds, and even without words and deeds. Our Lord has said, “Everyone who confesses me before men, I also will confess before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.” To confess or to deny, these are the only possibilities. In our corruption, we like to believe that we can stand in some neutral gray area and avoid making a confession, but this is a lie and a deception of the devil who conspires with our sinful flesh and fallen reason. The Lord has also said that “he who is not with me is against me,” and that the neutral and the lukewarm he will spit out of His mouth. When it comes to your confession, what comes out of your mouth and the deeds that you perform before men, there is no gray area and there is no fence-straddling. You will confess. But what will you confess? Will you say the same word that God has said? Or will you say another word.

It would have been easy for our Christian forebearers to remain lukewarm. The Romans were polytheists, they had no problem believing that there were more gods in the pantheon than they were aware of. Like the Greeks before them, they even had altars and temples to the unknown gods, just in case. In this sense the Romans were exceedingly tolerant. What the Romans wouldn’t tolerate, however, was the exclusive confession of the Christians that their God was the only true God, and that the only way to Him was through His Son Jesus Christ, who was also God as a man. Your average Christian could get by if he would only confess perhaps one or two of the Roman gods, or Caesar as a god, by burning some incense before his image, yet countless faithful chose hefty fines, imprisonment, and death rather than go against their confession, their conscience, and their God.

Though it should have been, it really wasn’t all that different for the Reformers of the 16^th century. The chief difference was that it wasn’t polytheists and pagans that were pressuring our Lutheran forebearers to compromise their confession, but the temptation and the threat came from within the Church itself. There was no argument concerning how many gods there were. The Apostle’s, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds had locked down the worship of the “Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity” over a thousand years earlier. What was at stake for the Reformers was not the Trinity or the two natures of Christ, but the very heart of the Christian faith, that men are justified freely by God’s grace alone, apart from works, through faith in Jesus Christ.

October 31, 1517 was not the beginning of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, but it certainly got the attention of the Church of Rome. Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses Against Indulgences wasn’t a problem for Rome because of its doctrine, but because of its practical effects. Countless variant teachings were permitted by Rome and were accepted as quaint, provincial eccentricities, but to raise doubt concerning the buying of indulgences hit the Roman church in a place it couldn’t ignore, the treasury. Luther was debated for a while, but when his teachings caught on with the laity and with dukes, princes, and electors, Luther was excommunicated, and the Pope demanded that he recant. In 1521 before the Imperial Diet at Worms Luther made his confession, “Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason - I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other - my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen.” Luther said the same word that God had said before the king and emperor. Then he was stolen away by men under orders of Frederick the Wise and was kept and protected at the Wartburg castle near Eisenach.

Even this was still not the beginning of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. That would come roughly nine years later on June 25, 1530 at an event we commemorate this day, when the German electors, princes, and estates presented a written and spoken confession of their faith to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in Augsburg. It was an irenic confession intended to demonstrate that what was believed, taught, and confessed in their territories was only that which the Christian Church had always believed, taught, and confessed. From the Preface: “It shows, from the Holy Scriptures and God’s pure Word, what has been up to this time presented in our lands, dukedoms, dominions, and cities, and taught in our churches.” They made their confession before the king and emperor, and it still stands, “a confession that will even prevail against the gates of hell, with the grace and help of God.” They were right, for their confession was nothing more than the same words God has said in His word.

 “[You and I] will speak of [God’s] testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame.” If you say the same word that God has said in His word, then you are guaranteed of at least two things: First, your confession is true and immovable, and you have nothing to fear. Second, your confession will be opposed – perhaps fiercely so – by men, the world, and Satan. But you will speak. You will confess, even if you say nothing at all. The list of things you will confess is lengthy: That there is one God who is the creator and sustainer of all things. That He created all things by the power of His eternal Word. That He created each kind and species of life unique and distinct, able to reproduce its own kind, and that He created human beings in His image, male and female, and joined them in marriage and blessed them to be fruitful and multiply. That all men are conceived and born bearing the stain of original sin and belong to the devil until God claims them as His own in Holy Baptism and the blood of Jesus. That God is the giver of all life and that all life is sacred from conception in the womb to burial in the tomb. These truths you will confess in word and deed, and for your confession you will be opposed by men, the world, and Satan.

The early church and the 16^th century were alike, and also very different, in a number of ways. They were alike in that Christians had to confess what they truly believed before kings and emperors at risk of their livelihoods and life itself. They were different in that the pressure came from the government in the early church, and from the church itself in the 16^th century. Today you will confess before kings and emperors once again, but this time the pressure to compromise your confession comes from both the government and the church. You will make your confession at the risk of your livelihoods and life itself. You will lose friends and make enemies. Your families will be divided. You may lose your license, your job, or your business. You may become a social pariah and have horrible epithets flung at you destroying your good name and reputation. You may be fined or imprisoned. Mobs may seek to vandalize your home, your church, your business, and harm your family. “Have no fear of them,” says our Lord Jesus, “and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” “What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.” That is to say, if you believe, you must confess. And your Lord Jesus will confess you before His Father in heaven.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Second Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 2)

(Audio)

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

 

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

Today’s Gospel lesson from St. Luke is often called The Parable of the Great Banquet. In context, in Luke’s Gospel, however, today’s pericope is one of four teachings of Jesus that occur during a single meal at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees. Throughout that meal, Jesus had occasion to teach about how love is the fulfilling of the Sabbath Law, how humility is a virtue as opposed to the vice of pride, and about the virtue of charity and grace, selfless giving without thought of recognition or compensation.

But what occasioned our Lord’s teaching in The Parable of the Great Banquet was the exclamation of one of those who sat with Him at the meal: “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” The man was most likely thinking of the type of banquet that would typically be held by the Jews following a great victory in battle. Many Jews of Jesus’ day held the false belief that the Messiah would be a great king like David who would free Israel from bondage and captivity to the Romans. Even if the man were thinking about a spiritual victory, feast, and kingdom, he was sighing for something he believed to be far off, while the Bread of Heaven Himself sat there before him.

Parables are funny things, they seem so simple on the surface, and yet their meaning eludes and confounds so many, so that seeing, they do not see, and hearing, they do not hear. Often this frustration is expressed “Why doesn’t Jesus just speak plainly? Doesn’t He want people to understand and believe?” Well, of course He wants people to understand and to believe. Nevertheless, He will not force Himself on anyone. Jesus preaches to the Law inscribed on all men’s hearts even while He extends to them the Gospel invitation. Only those who feel the conviction of the Law and drop their facades of pride and self-righteousness will turn in repentance and receive forgiveness and life. Ironically, how often a pastor is told by his parishioners, “You should just preach like Jesus, you know, simple stories, and parables. He was always so clear; a child could understand Him.” Such a comment, however, brings to my mind something one of my seminary professors is still known to regularly say: “You know not the Scriptures or the power therein.” God’s foolishness is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the parables were constructed by the Wisdom of God incarnate, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. It is Wisdom that speaks when Jesus speaks, and the truly wise among men bring nothing to the table but humility and repentance.

The Church’s lectionary has wisely paired the wisdom of Proverbs this day with the wisdom of The Parable of the Great Banquet. Recorded nearly a millennium before the advent of Jesus, our pericope from Proverbs is The Parable of the Great Banquet told in the high form of wisdom literature: Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town, “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks sense she says, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.” In both Proverbs and in the Parable, the great feast is fully prepared, and many are invited simply to come, eat, and drink. Yet, how so very many refuse! In the Parable, those who refuse offer worldly and fleshly excuses or justifications. These betray their pride and self-righteousness and expose their false religions and idolatries. In Proverbs, those who refuse are scoffers and wicked men. It is the humble and selfless man who accepts reproving and instruction that is wise and righteous. In accepting reproving and instruction, the wise man becomes wiser still, for, to the one that has, more will be given, and to the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away; for, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

Let us now turn directly to the Parable. The “man” is God the Father and the “great banquet” He has prepared is the fulfillment of the Passover Feast in the flesh and blood of the Lamb of God, His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. All was fully prepared, and “many” were invited to the feast, so God “sent His [Suffering] servant to say to those invited ‘Come, for everything is now ready’. But they all began to make excuses.” One has purchased a field and must attend to it. Another has bought five yoke of oxen and must examine them. And another has married a wife and cannot come. All three excuses sound reasonable enough to fleshly ears and worldly wisdom. In fact, at least two of the excuses were counted as reasonable exceptions to military service in the Old Testament (Deut. 20:6-7). However, this story being a parable, and parables being what they are, there is at the same time a literal and true meaning and a deeper, spiritual meaning. Spiritually, the excuses offered by the three invitees had to do with their preoccupation and love of worldly, physical, and fleshly things over and against the spiritual gifts of God. Here, the Fathers of the Church, especially Augustine and Gregory, offer us insight as to how the early Church understood this parable.

Augustine writes: In the purchase of the farm, the pride of dominion is signified. For to have a farm, to hold it as their possession, to occupy it, to have it subject to them, to rule it, delights men. The first man wished to rule and wished no one to have dominion over him. And what does having dominion mean but taking delight in one’s own power?

Augustine and Gregory both understand the five yoke of oxen as a symbol for the five senses of man, which also are yoked in pairs: two eyes with which to see, two ears with which to hear, two nostrils with which to smell, a tongue and palate which work together to taste, and a sense of touch, paired in a concealed manner, being both internal and external. The five senses are creaturely and of the earth; they can only perceive what has been made by God and according to God’s own design. Yet, men trust in these creaturely senses and not in their Creator. They will not believe anything unless what they can discover by the fivefold perception of the body. They regard these five senses as the sole norm of their decisions. Such a man was the Apostle Thomas who famously insisted “Unless I see with my eyes and touch with my hands, I will never believe.” Such a man also was the guest at the meal who exclaimed “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” Again, this man was sighing for what he believed was far off, while the Bread of Heaven Himself sat there before him. For, it is not what is seen that feeds us, but what is believed. Indeed, what faithlessness and idolatry that our God-created and God-given senses should be loved and trusted more than our Creator and Giver God!

Augustine and Gregory alike also see the man who has taken a wife as a symbol for the desires of the fleshly over and against the spiritual. Augustine summarizes all of the excuses of the invitees, saying “Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life.”

But are not these the excuses that serve all men who decline to come to the Lord’s Banquet? The invited guests offered these excuses to justify their absence, to justify their refusal to come to the feast that the Lord had prepared for them. And their excuses demonstrated their belief in their own self-sufficiency, that they had no need of handouts from the Lord. The owner of the farm viewed himself as the owner of his own life, dependent only upon himself and his own works and labor. The owner of the five yoke of oxen, likewise, has made himself the judge of what is real and what is true; but the reality is that man is slave to his senses, created by God, perceiving only what God has created them and allowed them to perceive. It is the Lord who is Truth, not what can be perceived by our God-created and given senses. The man who has married a wife and cannot come is one who is completely enslaved to fleshly desires and passions. For him, the sensations of the flesh have become all important and above the One who created the flesh and its sensations that He might be worshiped and glorified as the Lord and giver of all things.

And the Master was angry with the invited guests and their excuses. He ordered his servant to bring in those people who were unable to provide for themselves, people like the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. These are set in contrast to the invited guests who made excuses. For, the truth is that the invited guests should have seen that all the material and worldly things that they valued and loved were gifts from God; they should have gone to the Master’s feast out of love, reverence, and thanksgiving. But they refused. For, they did not truly love the master. They believed that their fields, oxen, and marriage were the fruits of their own labors. They did not respect, love, or thank the master for his kindness, grace, and mercy. And none of those invited, offering their own excuses and justifications, will taste of the Master’s banquet, but even today the invitation is extended to all those pilgrims on the highways and the byways of this world who will receive and not refuse the Lord’s gracious invitation.

For, God the Father’s Suffering Servant has called you by His Word to the Master’s Banquet where He is both Host and Meal. His invitation will not be rescinded, it can only be rejected. All is prepared for you, the finest of meats and the choicest of wines, that you may eat His flesh and drink His blood and live. There is no need to covet dominion, power, and control, for the Lord knows what you need, and He willingly and lovingly gives you all things. Must you see and touch, taste, hear, and feel to believe? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed. Nevertheless, the Lord graciously meets you where you are in Word, Bread, Wine, and Water that He might dwell in you, flesh, blood, and Spirit, and you in Him. Have you a spouse to love you and to give you physical comfort and security? They are a gift of God to you that you might have a glimpse of the love and comfort you will find in the Lord. And this feast, at which we recline this day and every Lord’s Day, is but a foretaste of the Feast that is to come, the Marriage Feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom which has no end. For, blessed is everyone who eats bread in the kingdom of God. “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The First Sunday after Trinity (Trinity 1)

(Audio)

Luke 16:19-31; 1 John 4:16-21; Genesis 15:1-6

 

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

Lazarus was literally living proof of who Jesus was and what He could do. Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. The man who had been dead four days so that he stinketh, Jesus raised him up by speaking His life-bestowing Word. Without a doubt, Jesus was the Messiah, God’s anointed one. He was the resurrection and the life, both on the Last Day, and now.

Why did they not rejoice? Why did they not receive Him with joy, and praise, and thanksgiving? The religious leadership of Israel did not rejoice, they could not praise Him, because they, long ago, had given up true hope and true belief in God’s promised Messiah, because they, long ago, had given up true hope and true belief in God’s Holy Word, and because the only law that mattered to them was the law which they themselves bound men with when they taught the children of Israel that they could please God by their own works and merit, and that material wealth and prosperity was God’s blessing upon them for their faithfulness. This horrible doctrine enabled the religious leadership of Israel to self-righteously establish a sort of spiritual caste system, consigning the poor, the ill, widows, and children to the lowest caste, while they enjoyed the privileges and the luxuries of the upper caste.

For them, the Law of God was a law of the do-able, and they believed that they obeyed the Law very well, so well, in fact, that it seemed easy for them, as natural as breathing. Such is the pride and the arrogance of self-righteousness that Satan breeds in the hearts of those who hearken to his tempting voice. So, the religious leaders added to the Law of God their own laws and commandments; in fact, there are 613 Mitzvoth, or commandments, which are drawn from the Tanakh (the Old Testament), and there are thousands of other laws recorded in the Jewish oral law called the Talmud. The religious leadership of Israel used all these commandments to keep the people enslaved by a law of works that could never release them from their sins, while God Himself had given only Ten Commandments, and those ten can be whittled down to but only one: Love.

Jesus’ story of the Rich Man and Lazarus is ultimately about love. It is a warning about how misplaced love – love for riches and power and reputation, which is idolatry – inhibits the true of love of God and the neighbor, which is the fulfilling of the Law of God, fulfilled and made perfect in God’s love for the world in sending His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross. The Rich Man is the self-righteous man who believes that he fulfills the Law of God by his good works and merit. He perceives that his riches, power, and reputation are blessings from God and rewards for his faithfulness. As Jesus tells the story, however, the Rich Man showed no love for his neighbor, particularly for poor Lazarus who begged for crumbs from the Rich Man’s table. Amazingly, as Jesus tells it, even in death, the Rich Man considered Lazarus to be in a servant caste beneath him and he showed him no love at all. But Lazarus, reclining at Abraham’s side, was loved by God, and, the Rich Man too was loved by God as is indicated by Abraham calling him “child”.

The problem for the Rich Man is the problem for all who trust in their works and merits according to the Law of God: If you believe that you keep the Law and so are righteous, then you will be judged according to the Law. The law of works is diametrically opposed to the Law of Love that Jesus calls us to. The one who believes that his works are righteous, and merit him righteousness before God, cannot love God; firstmost, he is deceiving himself by believing that his works are meritorious, and second, he must necessarily see God as a severe and unjust master who takes what he did not deposit and reaps what he did not sow.

The Rich Man believed that his riches, power, and reputation were his rightly earned and merited blessings from God, therefore he felt no guilt in feasting sumptuously and dressing in the most expensive of clothes. Likewise, he felt no guilt in walking past and ignoring poor Lazarus who laid at his gate, for he felt no love for anyone that he deemed to be beneath him, and further, he believed that Lazarus’ suffering was God’s curse upon him because he was unrighteous.

In His story, Jesus describes a great chasm that separates those who dwell in hell from those in heaven. While we should resist the temptation to interpret too literally the detailed descriptions Jesus offers of the afterlife, the general concept of a chasm between heaven and hell serves to illustrate the great separation from God that unbelievers experience after death. Jesus experienced this separation from God His Father according to His human nature when He cried out on the cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?”The concept of a chasm that separates unbelievers from God is truly remarkable considering that God fills all things and is everywhere at all times. As David sings, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.” This only serves to emphasize how serious a problem is sin, that it separates a person from God’s gracious, merciful, and loving presence.

Interestingly, it seems that after the discussion about the chasm of separation between heaven and hell, the Rich Man finally begins to think of someone else other than himself. The Rich Man appealed to Father Abraham to send poor, servant-class Lazarus to his father’s house to warn his five brothers so that they would not also come to the place of his torment. Abraham’s response to the Rich Man is really the crux of Jesus’ story: They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them. If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.

Moses and the Prophets are the Word of God, both Law of Gospel. God gave the Law, the Ten Commandments and the ceremonial laws, through Moses so that men would see their sin and repent. God gave the Gospel in the promise that He would not look upon their sin because of the innocent blood of animals they shed in sacrifice. Even though not a single drop of all that blood of bulls, goats, and lambs ever took away a single sin, God accepted it as a covering for sin and, even more, it served to point to the blood sacrifice that God Himself would provide in sending His Son Jesus to die as the one sacrifice that has secured an eternal atonement for all people of all times in all places.

The Rich Man and his brothers in Jesus’ story represent the religious leadership of Israel and all who have been poisoned by their false teaching to believe in a false religion of works and self-righteousness. They had Moses and the Prophets, the Law and the Gospel of God, and they rejected it for themselves, and they added to it their own laws so that no one could know the sweetness and the gift of the Gospel.

Lazarus died. Jesus said that He was glad that He wasn’t there; He was glad that His friend had died, so that His disciples would believe, for He knew that He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. The man had been dead four days so that he stinketh, but Jesus raised him up by speaking His life-bestowing Word. Without a doubt, Jesus was the Messiah, God’s anointed one. He was the resurrection and the life, both on the Last Day, and now. His disciples and many others believed in Him. Even the religious leadership of Israel believed in Him. They believed in Him so much that they plotted to kill Him. Their words in John’s Gospel are telling: What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let Him go one like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. The religious leadership of Israel believed that Jesus was the anointed one of God, the Messiah, and they decided that they loved their riches, power, and reputation, which they now ascribe to the Romans rather than to the blessing of God, they loved these more than they loved God or His Messiah. These same religious leaders sought to kill Lazarus, to get rid of the evidence, and, after Jesus’ death and resurrection, they denied that He had been raised form the dead and they attempted to convince the people that His body had been stolen and that it had all been a hoax. If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.

Jesus’ story about the Rich Man and Lazarus is ultimately about love, for God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. We obey the Law of God because He loves us and has forgiven us in His perfect gift of love, Jesus. We fear God because of His boundless love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. And, because of God’s love for us in Jesus, we love one another. We are not compelled to obey God’s Law because of fear that He is a severe master who takes what he did not deposit and reaps what he did not sow, but we freely obey because of God’s love for us and because His Law and His will are love for us, for our brother and neighbor, and for all the world. We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

God the Father has called you in His Son by His Holy Spirit to love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind and to love your neighbor as you love yourself. You do not need to fear losing anything that you have or not being loved in return or anything in this life at all, for there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For, you are loved with the perfect love of God in Christ Jesus and you will stand in confidence before Him on the day of judgment.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Feast of Pentecost

(Audio)

John 14:23-31; Acts 2:1-21; Genesis 11:1-9

 

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

The Feast of Pentecost is the restoration of the right and proper order of things: God gives. Man receives and returns thanks and praise to God.

After the flood, Noah’s descendants did not disperse and fill the world as God had commanded, but they settled together in one area, they all spoke one language, and they were unified as one people. It was not long until they conspired to build a tower rising into the heavens that they might make a name for themselves, as gods unto themselves, a transgression akin to the pride and envy of Lucifer’s primordial power-grab and the sin of our First Parents Adam and Eve. Theirs was a transgression of the First and Greatest Commandment, “You shall have no other gods,” and “You shall fear, love, and trust in God above all things” – even, and especially, above yourself.

Men are indeed capable of doing great and mighty things, from harnessing the energy of the atom to the construction of stations in space, from the mapping of the human genome, to the cloning of animal and human cells. On this Graduate Recognition Sunday we are right to celebrate and to give thanks to God for the accomplishments of our young high school and college graduates. We are rightly excited, and we anticipate what great things they will do! And yet, what is man’s greatness compared with the greatness of man’s Creator? How much greater would man’s works be if they were conceived, consummated, and accomplished in accord with God’s holy will and to His glory?

Do not think that your God and Creator is opposed to man’s achieving greatness, for He is not. Indeed, He, Himself, crowned man King and Queen of all that He had made. But man’s dominion is an authority given and vested by God; man is not great by his own accord, but He has been made to be great like his Creator – great in mercy, great in compassion, great in love for all that God has made, as His stewards and managers, that all the world might know its God and Maker. Thus, God is not opposed to or against man’s achievements in science and technology, his attempts to make the world better, however, when these are ends in themselves, or when they serve the elevation of man apart from God’s will, Law, wisdom, and guidance, they cannot achieve the good they were intended to achieve, for they are a good pursued in the wrong way.

Thus, the LORD confused the language of man and dispersed them over the face of the earth so that they left off building their great city and tower. This was much less an act of judgment than it was an act of mercy and love akin to God’s banishing of our First Parents from the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life. If man were left to pursue his own wicked ends, it would result in his destruction and eternal separation from the source of his life and the reason for his being, communion with his Creator and God.

But God does indeed love the good works of men when they flow from His Holy Spirit. And thus, He would not leave His children in this confused state, but He would gather them together again as one people, one body, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wing. In many types and figures, in prophets and judges and kings, God called His people to repentance, and He gave them one spiritual language. But, still, His children regularly strayed and sought power and glory, strength and might in ways and in things contrary to God’s Holy Law and will and Spirit. Until, in the fullness of time, God sent forth His only-begotten Son into our human flesh, that He would be obedient to God’s holy will and Law, and walk in perfect communion with Him all the days of His earthly life. Then, in one final act of obedience, Jesus submitted to the misdirected “good” deeds of men as they tried and convicted Him, mocked, and scourged Him, and crucified Him on the cursed tree of the cross, and He died for the wickedness, guilt, and sin of the creatures who, as God, He had Himself created. As the prophet Isaiah has prophesied, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”

In His timeless apologetic for the Christian faith, Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis wrote of man’s wickedness saying, “Wickedness, when you examine it, turns out to be the pursuit of some good in the wrong way.” Indeed, man, created in the image of God, has the desire and the capacity to do good. Men desire to love and to be loved. Men desire both to control and to be controlled. Men desire to create life and to nurture and grow living things, be they plants, animals, or children. And men desire to build houses and cities, roads and bridges, telescopes, and rocket ships. And these are all good desires and pursuits in and of themselves. There is nothing wicked about them. Indeed, God Himself does good, loves, controls, builds, and gives life. But, for men, these good desires and pursuits become wicked when they are divorced from God’s holy Law and will and Spirit.

Before His death, Jesus comforted His disciples saying to them, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my Word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. […] …the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my Name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” Jesus kept this promise when the Father sent the Holy Spirit upon His disciples on the Day of Pentecost. We rightly celebrate this day as the birthday of the Church. For, on that day, the confusion of Babel was undone once and for all, as the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles and gave them the ability to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all the languages of the world so that men, dispersed to the four corners of the earth, could hear the Good News of God’s salvation in their own language and tongue. For, the Gospel is a message and a language that transcends all languages. It doesn’t matter if it is spoken in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic. It doesn’t matter if it is spoken in German or English (in the KJV, ESV, RSV, NIV, NLT, ASV, NAS, or whatever!), Chinese, or Swahili. For, there is one Gospel, just as there is one LORD, one God, one Christ, and one Holy Spirit. And there is one holy catholic and apostolic Church, one Baptism, one Communion, one body having one head, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

Pentecost is the reversal of Babel. Only, this time, it is the LORD who has called, enlightened, sanctified, and kept in faith His people by His Holy Spirit. And, though there are still many languages, there is one Gospel which transcends them all and is spoken in all by the guidance and inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit. Though the Church does not celebrate Pentecost anew, or receive the Holy Spirit anew, She prays, nonetheless for the continual sending of the Spirit of Christ, that Her works and deeds may be conceived, consummated, and accomplished in accord with God’s holy will and to His glory. For, like every other human desire and endeavor, apart from the guidance, counsel, and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, even the Church’s works and deeds can lead to wickedness, destruction, and eternal separation from the source of Her life and the reason for Her being, Her own communion with, and Her bringing others into communion with, Her one Creator and God.

For, in the end, the Holy Spirit is not a spirit of numerical growth, although He can cause that. Nor is He a spirit of worldly glory, although He sometimes blesses the Church with glory in the eyes of men that they may see God’s blessing in ways they recognize. Nor is He a spirit of monetary wealth, although He invites you to test how He will measure back to you so much more if you will but give to others in faith. But the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, which is to say that He is the Spirit of compassion and mercy and love; and He is the Spirit of bold confession and unwavering faith. For, the chief work of the Holy Spirit is to draw men to Jesus that they may receive what He has accomplished.

In your lives you are tempted to fret and to strive to build your own towers into the heavens that you might control all the seemingly out of control things in your life and world. You think that by electing the right candidate, by passing the right law, by spending money the right way, and by defending the right ideology you will make the world a better place, a safer place, a place that values what you value and condemns what you condemn. But whatever you desire and love, if it is not in accord with God’s holy Law, will, and Spirit, and is not conceived, consummated, and accomplished by the Holy Spirit, it is wickedness and mindless babel. And so, let us pray today, and every day, “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your love.” And the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ will give you His peace – peace, not as the world gives, that your hearts need not be troubled or afraid.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Exaudi - The Seventh Sunday of Easter (Easter 7)

(Audio)

John 15:26 – 16:4; 1 Peter 4:7-14; Ezekiel 36:22-28

 

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

Because of their idolatry, apostasy, and unbelief, the LORD delivered the children of Israel into exile in Babylon. Yet, more than their idolatry, apostasy, and unbelief, what incensed the LORD against His people was that they profaned His Name among the nations. Rather than being the holy people they were called to be, set apart from the nations by their obedience to God’s Law, instead they adopted the culture, the religion, and the practices of the nations around them, and they blended in with them, and did not glorify the LORD. Thus, when the LORD disciplined them by delivering them into the hands of their enemies, the Babylonians chided the Israelites and derided their God saying that He was unable to help them, or that He couldn’t be bothered to – they profaned and blasphemed the Name of the LORD. Therefore the LORD commanded the Prophet Ezekiel, “Say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the LORD God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of My holy Name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of My great Name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the LORD God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.”

The past several weeks we have heard Gospel readings from Jesus’ Farewell Discourse from St. John’s Gospel, chapters fourteen to seventeen. Making up nearly twenty percent of John’s Gospel, our Lord delivered these words on Holy Thursday during the course of the Last Supper and in the Garden of Gethsemane before His betrayal by Judas and arrest by the Temple Guards under authority of the Sanhedrin. This may seem somewhat out of place in the weeks following the Church’s celebration of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, but they serve a crucial purpose in our life together in this world after Jesus’ Ascension until His Parousia and return on the Last Day. In this discourse, Jesus was preparing His disciples then, and now, for what we would face after His Ascension: “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.”

For, our Lord knew that we would be tempted by, and that we would succumb and capitulate to, our world and our culture, that the temptations would be strong and severe, and that our fear would be great. Indeed, like the children of Israel, we too have profaned the Name of the LORD in idolatry, apostasy, and unbelief. We too have adopted the culture, the religion, and the practices of the world, and have acquiesced and blended in with them. Not only is divorce accepted among us, for example, but no one bats an eye when a couple cohabitates and fornicates outside of marriage. Many of us turn a blind eye towards abortion and justify it as mercy and compassion for an unwed mother, for a mother lacking the financial means to raise a child, for a child who is expected to suffer severe abnormalities or a short and painful life, or for victims of rape and incest. We support our children to participate in sports, the performing arts, to study, or to simply to sleep in and get some rest on the Lord’s Day, and then we wonder why they don’t believe that church attendance is important, and why they adopt the language, the culture, and the practices of their peers. But, we do all these things with good intentions, right? Yes, yes, truly our Lord Jesus was right – in doing these things, we think we are offering service to God. Would we be more merciful than God Himself and, in so doing, set aside His clear Law and commands? No, but God’s Word must be the only rule and guide of our faith and life, the only lamp for our feet and light for our path.

“But when the Helper comes,” says Jesus, “whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” Because we have profaned the LORD’s Name among the nations, we have been poor witnesses. We have not been a light shining in the darkness or a city sitting on a hill, but we have assimilated the culture and values of the world and have blended in with the darkness. Nevertheless, we will be the LORD’s witnesses, not for our sake, but for the sake of His Name, Jesus. Jesus has said all these things to us to keep us from falling away. Truly, the temptation to compromise and to acquiesce, to bend the truth of God’s Word, to, in the best intentions of course, bless what the LORD does not bless and speak peace where there is, and can be, no peace, is intense. Indeed, to stand firm in the Word and commands of our LORD is uncomfortable and, at times, perilous, inviting ridicule and mocking, hatred and derision, and defaming and reputation-staining accusations of bigotry, racism, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia, and more. “Indeed,” Jesus says, “the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor Me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.”

According to Open Doors International, an organization that tracks worldwide Christian persecution, one in five Christians are persecuted in Africa, two in five in Asia, and one in seven worldwide. In the past year 5,621 Christians have been murdered, 2110 churches have been attacked, and 4542 Christians have been detained. We must not only pray for these brothers and sisters in Christ, but we must rise to their defense in any godly way possible and not ignore their plight, casually going about our comfortable lives. To paraphrase the words of the Lutheran pastor Martin Niemoller following the Holocaust in World War II, “First they came for the Jews, and I remained silent because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Syrian Christians, and I remained silent because I was not a Syrian. Then they came for the Coptic Christians, and I remained silent because I was not an Egyptian. Then they came for me, and there was no one to speak for or defend me.” Now, in no way do I mean to suggest that the trials, tribulations, and persecutions we now face, or are likely to face in the foreseeable future, are to be compared to the religicide our Syrian and Egyptian brothers and sisters in Christ are suffering, but only that we must stand with them against a common enemy and not make their martyrdoms seem inconsequential or insignificant. Yet, we do precisely that when we fail to stand firm upon God’s Word and commands and acquiesce and capitulate to our pagan culture. We trivialize our faith, we trivialize their martyrdoms, and we trivialize our God, and so we profane His Name among the nations.

“It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act,” says the LORD, “but for the sake of My holy Name, which you have profaned among the nations.” “Through you I will vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes and be careful to obey My rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be My people, and I will be your God.” Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our LORD and God has done this for you and to you in Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. You have each received this work of the LORD personally in your Holy Baptisms. The LORD has washed you clean of your sin, guilt, idolatry, and apostasy, and He has removed your heart of stony unbelief and replaced it with a heart of flesh. He has breathed into you His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth to guide you into all the Truth. Yes, you stray, often daily, and you will sin much in thought, word, and deed. Yes, you will succumb to temptation and are weak to stand before those who mock, ridicule, hate, and persecute you because they mock, ridicule, hate, and blaspheme your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore, return to the LORD in humility and repentance and be restored, daily, to holiness and righteousness in Christ our Lord. And, gather here with the body of Christ, the Church, around His Words and His Holy Wounds, that you may be forgiven, renewed, strengthened, equipped, and sent to be His witnesses, His martyrs, before the nations to the glory of His Great and Holy Name.

Jesus Christ has ascended to the right hand of His Father in heaven where He reigns and rules over heaven and earth and fills all things. He has sent His Holy Spirit upon His Church, upon you. The Holy Spirit bears witness about Jesus, and He causes you to bear witness about Jesus too in your words, in your deeds, in your lives, and in your deaths. Jesus has given you the Holy Spirit that you might not fall away, for, as St. Peter warns, “the end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” And, “Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share in Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed.”

The LORD has vindicated you, not for your sake, but for the sake of His Holy Name, for the sake of Jesus. But, this is good news for you! The LORD has vindicated you, not because of your faulting prayers, not because of your imperfect works, not because of your grudging obedience to His commands, not even because of your weak and little faith, but because of His Holy Name, because of Jesus’ faith, prayers, works, and obedience unto death for the sake of His Holy Name. You will be His witnesses for the sake of His Holy Name. When the fiery trial comes upon you, remember that the Lord has said this to you in advance, and that they do these things because they do not know the Father, nor Jesus. In your witnessing, in your martyrdom, in your selfless love and sacrificial service to all, let them see Jesus that His Name may be glorified. In this way you die every day and are raised to new life in Christ. For, to live must be Christ, and, therefore, to die is gain.

In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.