St. John, Apostle and Evangelist

Sermon on John 21:20-24
For Lamb of God Lutheran Church, Pleasant Prairie, WI
December 27, 2009 (St. John, Apostle and Evangelist)

Here we are, two days after Christmas. The presents have been opened, the toys played with, the food eaten (in some cases including my own way too much food was eaten), and all of the other things that go along with Christmas in our culture have pretty much taken place. Some of you who have widely scattered families might still have some Christmas celebrations yet, but by and large Christmas is over for most people, and we as a society are turning our attention to New Year’s Day and the various parties and other events that take place on that day. But here in the Church, Christmas has just started. To the world, the Christmas season is the Christmas shopping season, which runs from mid-November up until Christmas. But in the Church, the Christmas season starts on Christmas and runs until Epiphany. I’m sure all of you are familiar with the song, the Twelve Days of Christmas. There actually are twelve days of Christmas, from December 25 until January 5, with January 6 being the Epiphany of our Lord. That makes today the third day of Christmas. Back during medieval times in Europe, when a much greater portion of the population were members of one Church and even the secular and business worlds were more in tune with the Church’s calendar, these twelve days of Christmas were one big celebration, with Church services every day for twelve days in a row.

Each of these twelve days, however, had its own emphasis. Yesterday, the second day of Christmas, was devoted to commemorating St. Stephen, who was the first Christian to be stoned for his faithful confession that Jesus Christ, the baby born in Bethlehem, the man crucified and risen for us, is indeed the Son of God. Tomorrow, the fourth day of Christmas, is the commemoration of the Holy Innocents, those baby boys up to the age of two in and around Bethlehem who were killed by Herod’s soldiers when Herod had found out that a king had been born in that city. Today, the third day of Christmas, commemorates the apostle and Gospel writer St. John, whose teaching about the union between God and Man in the person of Jesus Christ gives us a new appreciation for the mystery and the wonder of what took place in that stable in Bethlehem.

The Gospel lesson for today took place after Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus had come to His disciples while they were fishing on the Sea of Galilee, and had given them a meal of bread and fish, which are the same foods He used for the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 earlier in John’s Gospel. After the meal, Jesus has a conversation with Peter in which he asks Peter to be a faithful shepherd, a faithful pastor, to Christ’s church, even though it will mean that he, Peter, will eventually be put to death for his confession of faith. Jesus did this because Peter had fallen away from Christ by denying Him during the trial on Good Friday, and without Holy Absolution Peter’s guilt would cripple his ability to forgive others of their sin and guilt. After that conversation, we read today’s text, in which Peter and Jesus discuss St. John, who was Jesus’ closest friend among the disciples.

Since Jesus had just told Peter that he himself would face martyrdom for his faithful confession of the truth, Peter is naturally curious about John. What about him? Will he also be put to death? Jesus tells Peter not to worry about John, but rather to focus upon the work that Jesus was giving Peter himself to do. God will take care of John through the course of his life, just as He will take care of Peter through the course of his life. We know from some of the ancient historians in the Church that John was the only apostle who died of natural causes in old age, even though ironically John’s older brother James was the first of the twelve to be put to death. The other apostles were killed either by the Jews or by the Romans for their faithful confession of the truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. This led to the rumor that John was not going to die at all until Jesus came again. This is why John writes what he does at the end, in an attempt to put that rumor to rest. John lived long enough to write five books of the Bible: the Gospel that bears his name, the three epistles or letters that also bear his name, and the Revelation to St. John. This was what God kept him alive to do, was to testify to the Truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and so to enrich God’s Word with his own uniquely simple and profound style of writing.

It may have been tempting for the other apostles to be jealous of John when they were imprisoned and put to death for their faithful confession of the truth. It’s not fair, it might seem, that even though all of them testify to the same truth, not all are given the same treatment. Most are killed, but one is not. That’s not fair! For us as well, it’s tempting to think that it’s not fair when it seems like it is those who have fallen away from the faith or are notorious sinners that seem to be doing the best in this life, while the nice guys, the good people, seem to finish last, at least from the perspective of this world.

But in the midst of thoughts like these Jesus’ words to Peter regarding St. John speak to us as well. “What is that to you?” Why should you care how someone else is doing? Look after yourself. Focus your eyes on what God has given you to do, the life He has given you to live. Look at others around you not as targets of jealousy, but as those given us as opportunities to show God’s love. Remember that no matter how bad you think you might have it, as a sinner you deserve worse. Remember that no matter how good you think others have it, they have problems and troubles of their own, and these problems and troubles are opportunities for Christ to love them through us. Remember especially that because of Christ’s suffering and death our own sufferings and deaths are merely temporary. We will be raised up with Christ on the last day to live before God in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. Let God worry about how others are doing. Your vocation is simply to confess Him whose suffering removes your suffering and theirs, through your confession of faith to them in word and deed.

Consider also our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He is the Lord and Creator of heaven and earth, ruling every cubic inch of this creation personally by His infinite power and wisdom. And yet, when He became man he had to become a lowly, helpless infant, who relied upon His mother for everything. He was born of a completely unknown family, in a stable of all places, because nobody would make room for Mary, Joseph, and Himself. Even though He is the eternal Son of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by Whom all things were made—even though He is all of that, He was born and lived as an ordinary man. And worst of all, He never boasted or bragged about being the Son of God, but He was put to death for claiming to be what He really was. If you think life is unfair to you, you have nothing on Jesus Christ!

But all of this, everything He endured, was for you. Everything that happened on Christmas, leading up to Good Friday and Easter Sunday, Ascension Day, and Pentecost, was for you. He gives you the blessings He earned by His suffering through Word and Sacrament even today. Just like John, we are to rely solely on Him, to be so close to Him as to lean on His breast when we suffer, so that we may receive comfort from Him through His Word and His body and blood, even as John did on Maundy Thursday. Receiving these blessings strengthens you to go and live the life God has given you to live, to serve your family and neighbors and those for whom you work in your daily jobs with the strength that Christ gives you to perform your duties faithfully and well. Living your life in thanksgiving to God this way, you won’t have the need to be constantly looking around at others who seem to be doing better than you are. You will be following Christ, even as both St. Peter and St. John did, each in his own way. And ultimately by God’s grace the destination will be the same as well: you will be reborn into eternal life just as Christ was born into our lives in Bethlehem to set us free. Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +

Wednesday of Advent 2

Sermon on Malachi 4:1-6
For Lamb of God Lutheran Church, Pleasant Prairie, WI
December 9, 2009 (Wednesday of the Second Week in Advent)

The great and awesome day of the Lord will burn like an oven and set the arrogant and the evildoers ablaze. But for those who fear His name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings. This past Sunday I mentioned how perverse it sounds that we are supposed to rejoice and lift up our heads when we see and hear about the wars and diseases and disasters that remind us that the Day of the Lord is coming. The Old Testament lesson shows us that same sharp contrast focusing on the Day of the Lord itself. That which is a cause for horror and despair for those who are not in Christ, is a cause for joy and profound relief for those who are in Him.

But who is this Elijah character mentioned here? Jesus identifies this as a reference to John the Baptizer, the last and greatest of the Old Testament prophets. But John was, in earthly terms, Jesus’ cousin, and his ministry overlapped Jesus’ ministry, close to two thousand years ago. His purpose was to prepare the way of the Lord in His earthly ministry. But Malachi makes it sound like he’s preparing the way for the end of the world and the final day of judgment, which to our time-bound human way of reasoning, doesn’t make any sense at all.

The key is found in Malachi’s description of what John will do. He will “turn hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers.” The separation between human beings, even members of the same family, is yet another tragic result of the fall of humanity into sin, along with the diseases and disasters mentioned elsewhere. Separations and disorders, leading to utter destruction and chaos, are symptoms and results of the first and ultimate separation caused by Adam’s transgression in the garden. The crown of creation, mankind, was separated from his creator. That’s where things started to fall apart, and the wars and disasters we see around us, and the hatreds and failures to forgive we see even among us, are all consequences of that fundamental separation. John’s job, according to Malachi, is to fix that. It is, in the words of the New Testament, to preach repentance and baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

But ultimately it’s not John who can do that. He can preach it, but the reconciliation that needs to happen is not just between human fathers and human children, but between our true Father and His true children. Only when the breach caused by sin is healed, can the hearts of fathers be turned to their children and the children to their fathers. Only if God forgives us, can we forgive each other. And that is the sense in which we are to remember the laws and statutes given through Moses. The summary of the Law is to love God with all our heart, and love our neighbors as ourselves. But even that, God has to initiate. We can’t heal the breach, we can only love each other if He first loves us. The separation is too great otherwise.

And so, in order for God the Father to turn His heart to us, He takes the separation, the division, the destruction, into Himself. His heart is turned away from His own Son. “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” is what David prophesies that His ultimate Son will say on the cross. The separations that plague us, the separations which will ultimately destroy this old world itself, are taken into the Godhead. And you can’t permanently separate the members of the Holy Trinity from each other. The separation is put to death. “It is finished.” God has unilaterally declared peace, and he proclaims this peace every time the Gospel is preached. And through it the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of the children to turn them back to their Father who loves them for the sake of their Brother, Jesus Christ. The destruction of the old world, like the destruction of Jesus Himself on the cross, is undone with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the first-fruits of the new creation where the Sun of Righteousness is our life, our joy, and our salvation. We died with Him, we rose with Him, and we partake of Him. The Sun of Righteousness will dawn on us on that last day, not with judgment, but with peace. Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +

Advent 2

Sermon on Luke 21:25-36
For Lamb of God Lutheran Church, Pleasant Prairie, WI
December 6, 2009 (The Second Sunday in Advent)

The signs of the end times which Jesus lists in today’s Gospel are pretty serious. Some might even call them horrifying. “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” It doesn’t conjure up a pretty picture to my mind. In fact, Jesus describes the reaction of most of the world to these events rather vividly: “men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth.” And, of course, the reminders that this old world is slated for destruction are not a pleasant thing to contemplate. In addition to the fact that these signs are unpleasant in themselves, they are also reminders that “security,” which is probably the biggest buzzword to sum up this entire decade since 2001, is only an illusion as long as we live in a world that’s been infected by sin, despite how we would like to think of ourselves as safe and secure, despite whatever steps we may take or what steps the government takes on our behalf. And that’s not a comfortable thought. The idea that no matter what we do or what the government does, we will never be truly safe from death or disaster, is not something most people like to contemplate.

And what comes after death is something that most people are even less equipped to handle. Facing the Judge who will hold them accountable for their actions is not something people appreciate having to deal with. It’s something that man by nature dreads. It’s something that our own old sinful natures dread. We haven’t been righteous. And we know it. Even our best attempts to please God are against the First Commandment because they come from us and not from Him. And so the reminders that this old world is headed to destruction are not something we like to contemplate. We’d rather wrap ourselves in as much “security” as we possibly can. Because as far as the old self goes, the alternative is death and judgment, panic and chaos. We want the illusion of safety, not just because of the potential of terrorism, but because we don’t want to face the judgment and would rather pretend we can ward it off by making ourselves as “secure” as possible.

And so it sounds a little bizarre when Jesus says a couple of verses later on, “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.” In the context of all the death and destruction and chaos that results from sin and warns us of the eventual doom of this old world, the idea that such things are a hopeful sign which should cause us eager anticipation, is more than a little perverse, from a human standpoint. And of course, Jesus isn’t saying we should take a twisted delight in wars or rumors of wars; even when necessary such things are murderous, bloody events which remind us daily just how far man has strayed from his creator. And we definitely shouldn’t take a perverse delight in natural disasters or the other symptoms of the impending destruction of this old world. None of these things in themselves are causes for rejoicing. Instead they are causes for compassion for the victims caught up in such things.

But in light of the Christian faith, they are reminders to us that “our redemption draws near.” And that is a cause for rejoicing for those who are in Christ, because it is a reminder that we will inherit a new heavens and a new earth that are not corrupted by this old world sins, where death is no more, and war and disease and disasters are no longer a possibility. That’s why Jesus uses the budding of trees in springtime as an illustration of what looks to the world like wintry chaos and judgment. The end of this old world signifies the beginning of eternal life.

But there still something a little strange about what Jesus says in this text. Here we are, nearly 2000 years later, and Jesus still hasn’t returned in glory. What, then, did He mean when He said that “this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place”? Well, remember that the paradox of things that look bad being good news for us is not only true of the end times. The same paradox is true of something that did happen before the generation that was then alive passed away. Good Friday doesn’t look very good when we look at it with human eyes. In fact, it bears a strong resemblance to the signs of the end of the world Jesus mentions in our text. On Good Friday, something happened which shook the entire creation, which caused the sun to become dark, earthquakes, the opening of graves, and the shaking of the faith of even Jesus’ most stalwart followers. The Son of God died on a cross. God Himself suffered the punishment for the sins of the world. At first glance, that, too, sounds like an occasion for sorrow and fear. After all, it was our sins that put Him there. It was our selfishness that caused Him to be tortured and die. It was our failure to love and trust in Him that caused Him to be abandoned by everyone, even His Father. At first glance, this doesn’t seem like cause for rejoicing.

But Good Friday is still known as Good Friday. And that’s because our sins were, in fact, paid for by Jesus’ death on the cross. God no longer sees them because Christ took our place, and so now we take His place before His Father’s throne. And that means that the events of Good Friday, though horrifying in themselves, are now a sign to us that sin has been done away with and our salvation has been won. An instrument of torture and execution is now the symbol of Christianity itself, the symbol to which we look for comfort when our conscience will not let us rest because of our sins. Likewise with Judgment Day. The reminders to us that this old world is won’t survive forever because of the sin of its inhabitants, is also a reminder to us that what happens then is the new heavens and new earth in which we will live forever with our God. Good Friday and Judgment Day are very closely related to one another, which is why the signs of Judgment Day were seen on Good Friday, with the darkness and the earthquake and the resurrection of the Old Testament saints. In both cases, events which are in themselves horrifying and upsetting are reminders to us that something better is coming.

After all, we already know what verdict will be pronounced upon us on Judgment Day. When Christ said from the Cross, “It is finished,” He was telling us that our redemption has been accomplished. What the Judge says about us on Judgment Day, namely that we are innocent and pure and sinless, is what that same Judge said already on Good Friday with the words, “It is finished.” And it’s the same thing He says through the mouths of His messengers every Sunday with the words, “In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Not only that, but the new heavens and the new earth which will replace this old world also already exist. And we are already partakers of that heavenly kingdom. Christ’s body is the first-fruits of the entire new creation. In Christ’s resurrected flesh the new creation itself is begun. And it is that new-creation body and blood of Christ which we eat and drink in the Lord’s Supper. Even while we must suffer the insecurity and the sorrow and the pain that so often accompanies life in this old world, we not only hear about with our ears, but we eat and drink into our bodies the new creation in which neither sin nor any of its effects exist at all. We already know the verdict of Judgment Day, and we are already citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Of course we don’t see that glorious reality with our physical eyes, and so we are in danger of walking away from it by the lure of this old world’s illusions of peace, happiness, and security. Which is why God continues to come to us to refresh and renew His promises to us by His Word and His resurrected body and blood. We are worthy to stand before the Son of Man, because He has made us so. And so the sorrows and troubles of this old life, even though in themselves they are a reminder of the sin and evil that has corrupted the world, have become for us reminders of the new life which is to come. Even the worst that Satan can throw at us, death, has become the gate to eternal life. And so all the things that lead up to death are reminders to us that this world will eventually be replaced by the new heavens and new earth of which we are already citizens. Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +

Two Jobs

The more observant among you will have noticed that the last sermon posted here was for Lamb of God, not Our Savior Norwood Park. My wife and I have decided that driving down to Chicago every week was simply getting too stressful for us, especially in view of how we both had to fit our respective jobs in. Tina works 4-8 am on Saturdays and Mondays, and so dropping me off and picking me up at the Antioch, IL Walmart both Saturday and Sunday (after Church) has meant that she was getting next to no sleep on the weekends, which is very detrimental to her health.

I appreciate the opportunity Our Savior congregation has given me to preach the Word and administer the Sacraments to them, and I have asked them to keep my name on their call list. I had, of course, hoped that the vacancy would not last nearly as long as it has, and simply driving down there each week and staying in a hotel one night a week has become very stressful for us, more so the longer the vacancy lasted, not to mention the fact that several of our pet birds became very stressed that we weren't home every night.

I do keep Our Savior Norwood Park in my prayers, as they do need a pastor right now, one who can be there more than once or twice a week for a few hours at a time. I ask any of you who read this to do the same. Of course, as mentioned in a previous post, I am off CRM status, having a part-time call to Lamb of God in Pleasant Prairie, WI, and on Sundays when I'm not "on duty" there I am once again available for pulpit supply around the area.

It was not an easy decision to discontinue serving Our Savior in their vacancy. I have grown to love the congregation, as any pastor does for those placed in his care. I originally accepted the offer to serve them with the understanding that, whether or not I would be their next pastor, the vacancy would be relatively short and so we would only be spending weekends away from home for a few months. Of course, the vacancy has lasted much longer than that, and Tina and I have our limits. I pray that God will watch over and provide for Our Savior congregation and the saints who gather around Word and Sacrament there, and that God will continue to provide me with opportunities to serve at His altar into the future.

Trinity 9

This was preached at the Wednesday evening Divine Service at Lamb of God Lutheran Church in Pleasant Prairie, WI. Pastor Gary Gehlbach preached (same text, different sermon) at the Sunday morning Divine Service.

Sermon on Luke 16:1-9
For Lamb of God Lutheran Church, Pleasant Prairie, WI
August 9, 2009 (The Ninth Sunday after Trinity)

All of us are stewards of God’s gifts. To be a steward is to be a manager, one who realizes that the things he is given responsibility over don’t belong to him but to the one who gave him the responsibility. Most of us are somewhat familiar with the distinction between a company car and our own personal vehicle, or the distinction between a company credit card and a personal one. Some of us may have taken legal and financial responsibility for the affairs of an aged or diseased relative who is no longer able to manage such things for himself. And so we know what it means to be placed in a position of responsibility, of management, for possessions and assets that are not our own, of which we are only taking care in behalf of someone else. We know that to use those things placed in our care for personal use, for reasons that are contrary to the wishes of the one to whom they belong, is to betray the trust that person has placed in us, and is often downright illegal.

What we too soon forget, however, is that everything we have in this life, including our own personal assets and finances, including our own clothing and homes and vehicles, including our very own bodies and even souls, falls into that category, the category of things that don’t belong to us but which we are managing in someone else’s behalf. Everything we have and, yes, even everything we are, is a gift of God and we are only managers or stewards of it in His behalf. In other words, stewardship is not just a matter of whether or not we donate to the Church or to missions, although it is true that what we do in that area shows how much or little we value Christ’s painful and bloody death in our behalf, of course. The fact that from God’s perspective we are merely stewards of everything we are and have means a lot more than that. It means that every decision we make as to what to do with the resources we have should be a decision that’s made with Him in mind. And those resources include, as I’ve said, not only our money and possessions, but our very lives.

So how are you doing in your management of what the Lord has given you? Have you ever used the things God has given you contrary to the ways in which He would have them used? Have you ever used the mouth he gave you for speaking lies rather than the truth? For gossip which tears down your neighbor rather than building him up? Have you ever used the brain He gave to think up ways of taking advantage of your neighbor rather than ways of helping him? Have the other parts of your body ever been used to take what God has not given you, whether in terms of property or in terms of relationships? Has the money He has entrusted into your care ever been used to get you things God has forbidden you to have? In other words, are you a sinner? As you consider your place in life according to the Ten Commandments, which the Catechism urges us to do before coming to confess our sins, have you gone contrary to the wishes of Him who gave you everything, in how you have used what He gave you?

Well, if not, you’re in denial, because you are a sinner, as are we all. All of us are basically in the same position as the steward Jesus tells us about in today’s Gospel lesson. This man was accused of being a poor steward, of wasting the resources his master had placed into his care. We don’t know whether the man was crookedly using what was placed into his care for his own selfish purposes, or whether he was simply an incompetent manager. It doesn’t really matter. In either case, he’s like us as we consider our management of the resources our God has given us. However, this man was allowed to continue as steward for a time, to give him a chance to assemble and present the account of his stewardship. He’s like us in this as well. We also are accused by God’s Law of being poor stewards of God’s assets and property, and yet we too are still stewards of it for the time being while we await the coming of the master to whom we will give a final account of our stewardship.

The steward who is in trouble cannot dig, and he is ashamed to beg. There seems to be nothing he can do about his situation. Likewise with us. There is nothing that we can do for ourselves that will do away with the accusation against us. What the man decides to do is to trust in the mercy of his master. Now, it may not look like he is doing that when you first read the parable, but that is really what he is doing. You see, by lowering the debt that these various debtors owe his master, he is making his master look good in their eyes. By the way, scholars don’t agree about whether or not the steward was being dishonest or doing something wrong when he changed the bills. I prefer to take the interpretation that the steward actually had the authority to set and change the amounts that others owed his master, and so he had every right to change the bills. It was part of his area of responsibility which his master had entrusted into his hands. He is also trusting that his master is a forgiving sort who approves of the lowered bills, since what the steward has done makes the debtors grateful to him. What he does relies solely on the mercy of his master. And the result is that the master, in fact, approves of what was done.

Now, to apply this part of the parable to our situation is a little tricky. We will not earn our way back into God’s favor simply by being generous to other people with what God has given to us. God is not impressed by good works done cynically to impress Him. This is where a parable such as this one only tells part of the story. God does not show grace and mercy to us because we are generous and help other people, give to the Church and to the poor, etc. This is where many “stewardship” sermons go very wrong, by giving the impression that giving to the Church, or working for the Church and participating in its activities, is somehow more holy and more noble than simply obeying God’s Commandments in our daily callings in life. Sometimes these sermons even give the false impression that we can earn our way into God’s favor with this kind of so-called “stewardship,” which of course is a denial of the most basic article of our faith, namely that salvation is a free gift from God for the sake of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. God has already showed grace and mercy to us while we were sinners, by sending Christ to die on the cross. It is not anything you do that earns you eternal salvation, but the gracious gift of forgiveness which was earned by Jesus Christ and which comes to you know through His Word and His body and blood. This is how God shows His gracious and merciful nature to us. The Second Person of the Trinity Himself becomes man and takes the accusation of poor stewardship upon Himself and bears it to the cross in our place. He gives us nothing less than eternity by forgiving us not just part, but all of the debt we owe His Father, giving us the oil of the Holy Spirit in Baptism and the bread of His body in the Lord’s Supper.

Because we have this gracious and merciful Lord and master whose stewards we are, it changes our whole outlook on how we conduct our stewardship. Our motivations are different from worldly people when it comes to physical possessions, and so our decisions will be different as well. How people use the physical resources they have been given is a confession before God and the rest of the world of what is in their hearts. Just as the steward did what he did because he trusted in the gracious and merciful nature of his master, we do what we do with His blessings to us because we know that He is gracious and merciful. As we relate to other people, we act as representatives of His grace and mercy to them. When you help out someone who is in need, whether that be someone who has lost their job or who is sick and in the hospital, or who just simply needs a shoulder to cry on or an arm to lean upon, you are acting as a representative of God to that person. You show by your actions how God thinks about that person, and by being merciful and generous you are preaching to them the glorious reality that God is merciful and gracious and generous. And as you do these things for those who need your help, you are serving God. Because God is not only the one who has given you what you have; He is also the one who receives what you give. “Insofar as you have done this for the least of these My brethren, you have done it unto Me.” God is on both sides of the equation. Your money, your possessions, your very health and life, are nothing. The God who gave them to you, and who receives them back in your giving them to others, is everything. You will receive a thousands of thousands times more than you have ever had here in this life when you enter into eternity. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost themselves will receive you into the everlasting dwellings, where the blessings in which you will partake are more than you can possibly imagine. Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +

Trinity 8

Sermon on Matthew 7:15-23
For Our Savior Lutheran Church of Norwood Park, Chicago, IL
August 2, 2009 (The Eighth Sunday after Trinity)

A good tree bears good fruit; a bad tree bears bad fruit. But what tree and what fruit are we talking about here? Often I hear people quoting these verses from today’s Gospel as if they referred first and foremost to Christian people doing good works during the course of their lives. Of course, the imagery of tree and fruit is applicable to the subject of sanctification and good works in a certain sense, but in context here in Matthew 7, Jesus is not talking about that kind of fruit, first and foremost, especially since the fruit of good works cannot often be seen anyway, as sinful as we remain while we are still in this life. Rather Jesus is talking about true and false prophets, that is, true and false preachers. And what is the fruit of a preacher or a teacher of the faith? His preaching. His doctrine. Whether or not what he says is in accord with God’s Word. That’s what Jesus is talking about here. True and false doctrine.

That sort of talk is unpopular today. Many religions in our day, including both the more liberal as well as many of the conservative neo-evangelical segments of Christianity, cry out, “Deeds, not creeds!” To many people, religion is about living a better life here rather than about arriving at the perfect life in heaven, the life that is given as a free and undeserved gift of God. And so the idea that we should evaluate preachers on the basis of whether their teachings are in agreement with God’s Word is rather unpopular, to say the least. Dare to insist in the public square that there is a difference between Christianity and other religions, and even the conservative political pundits and personalities will label you as narrow-minded, bigoted, intolerant, and whatever other names they can get away with calling you. After all, from a secular perspective, religion is just there to help people live a responsible, moral, conscientious life, since those who live such a life are much better citizens and workers than those who do not, generally speaking. Religion is good for the ordering of society, to this way of thinking. And pretty much all religions, even the New Age and neo-pagan ones, do that to some extent. And so when a particular religion agitates things and upsets people by claiming that it is true and others are false, that isn’t seen as good for secular society, especially in a time of war. Luther faced the same problem in his day as we do in ours; making a big deal out of religious differences seems (note, I said “seems”) to be unnecessarily disruptive when there’s a physical threat to national security.

The fact that this is what Jesus is talking about, namely true and false doctrine first and foremost, and good works only in a secondary sense if that, is shown not only by the warning against false prophets, that is, teachers of false doctrine, in the beginning of the text, but by what Jesus says after the parable about fruit and trees as well. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” It’s easy to attach Jesus’ name to something you do in the field of religion. Jesus’ name isn’t all that hard to pronounce. It’s only two syllables. But saying it doesn’t necessarily mean that the person who does so is doing Jesus’ will or that of His Father. The Mormons use it, and they aren’t Christians. So do the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who deny that Jesus is uncreated God equal with the Father. Muslims claim to respect Jesus as a great prophet of Allah before Mohammed came along, but they deny that He is God as well. And many Christian denominations, who get the basics right sufficiently to be recognized as Christian Churches that really do proclaim and distribute salvation and eternal life, nevertheless mix in false teachings that contradict and damage the saving message of the Gospel, and they also do so in Jesus’ name. Attaching Jesus’ name to something is no guarantee of the correctness of what is done.

So, Jesus is talking primarily about true and false doctrine here. But what’s doctrine? To most people, perhaps even to many of you, the word “doctrine” is a word that carries negative connotations. “We just want the simple Gospel, we don’t want all this doctrine,” is a statement that is often heard today from many Christians and even many Lutherans. Well, doctrine is a word that simply means “teaching.” And you can’t have the Gospel apart from doctrine, because the Gospel is doctrine. It is a teaching. In fact it’s the very center of Christian teaching. God the Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the same Person as Jesus Christ who spoke the words of today’s text, became man, became our brother, so that He might pay the punishment we deserved by our sins against God’s Law by dying on the Cross. He rose again on the third day to declare to us the victory He won by His death, and so that we, who are in Him by virtue of what God does for us in Holy Baptism, also might rise again. He now comes to us personally and gives us the fruits of this victory, namely the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation, by the power of His Holy Spirit, through the preaching of the Gospel, which includes both the reading and preaching of God’s Word as well as the direct forgiveness of sins in Holy Absolution, and through the administration of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, where Christ feeds us with His own body and blood. God did everything for us that we might be saved. Despite the fact that we are poor, miserable sinners, we have been restored to God’s fellowship, cleansed of our sins, and made to enjoy the love and the fellowship that even the three persons of the Holy Trinity share with one another. That is the pure doctrine. That is what we preach. It is this that Jesus urges us to defend. It is this that Jesus warns us against those who contradict it. It is this that is the very source and promise of our eternal life with Christ.

And so, since this is the very source of our life, we are charged to defend it. It’s important to us. It’s important to anyone who has come to the conclusion that they cannot save themselves by their own good works. It’s important to anyone who has come to the conclusion that life in this world is miserable and meaningless without eternal life to look forward to. It’s not just about getting people to do better in their lives here and now, though hopefully that is a blessed side-effect of becoming a Christian. It’s not about transforming society, either, although that has also been a blessed, if imperfect, side-effect in some times and places. It’s about realizing that you can’t save yourself but that Christ has done it all for you. You won’t be able to claim anything when you stand before the Judge’s throne on the last day. You won’t even be able to claim the things you really did do in His name, because those things were imperfect. I won’t even be able to claim that I really did preach the true doctrine, because even when I preach the truth there are some whose sinful natures will misunderstand and pervert it as they hear it, and part of the blame for that, believe it or not, rests on me for not being more clear in my preaching. No, we won’t be able to claim anything we did before the Judge on that last day. Rather our claim will be what Christ did for us. The only way any of us will stand righteous and pure before God’s throne is if God declares us righteous and pure for Christ’s sake. He does so through the fruit of His preachers. He does so through the doctrine, the message, the teaching of His Word of Law and Gospel, and through the Sacraments where that Word is poured on with the Water and eaten and drunk with Christ’s body and blood. Even the good work of holding on to Law and Gospel in their purity will not save us. Rather the Holy Spirit through that Law and Gospel work inside us and put us to death and resurrection so that we may live before God in righteousness and purity forever. That’s why the pure doctrine, the pure fruits of a true prophet, are so important to us. Simply because the Gospel of salvation as a free gift is the only thing that can save us. Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +

Trinity 7

Sermon on Mark 8:1-9
For Our Savior Lutheran Church of Norwood Park, Chicago, IL
July 26, 2009 (The Seventh Sunday after Trinity)

Following Jesus has consequences. Confessing Him in the midst of a world that would rather not hear it, including perhaps some of our own friends and neighbors who would rather not face the questions of sin and death and salvation and eternal life, all that has consequences. It sometimes means making decisions that run counter to what common sense would tell us is best for us. It means sometimes getting ourselves into situations from which there isn’t necessarily an easy way out, humanly speaking. It means sometimes setting ourselves up to be persecuted and slandered by the world around us. In some times and places, it has even meant the death of Christians, or at least arrest and imprisonment. It means sometimes being made to look bad even to our own fellow Christians so that we can patiently pursue the right solution to a problem rather than the easiest or most popular one. And even apart from criticism or hardship that comes from outside ourselves, we also have to deal with the energy-draining battle inside ourselves, the battle against temptation and sin and carelessness regarding God’s Commandments, and this too takes its toll on us.

For the crowd on the occasion recorded in our text, following Jesus meant getting themselves into a situation they didn’t plan for in terms of their own personal food supplies. Of course, unlike some of the situations I mentioned before, this wasn’t a matter of either following Jesus or denying their faith in Him; if they had followed Him only one or two days and then went back home before their food ran out, no one would accuse them of denying the faith. Nevertheless, to these people hearing Jesus’ preaching was so important that they were willing to risk starving to death rather than missing what He had to say. Jesus was the Messiah whom the prophets had promised for centuries. He was the One whose coming was the entire point of the Old Testament, the One whose birth was the entire reason for ancient Israel to exist in the first place. And He taught with authority, not like the scribes and Pharisees whom the people were accustomed to hearing. And so, even though it wasn’t a matter of either following Him out into the desert or denying Him, we still can’t blame these people for putting themselves in this situation in order to hear and learn what the Messiah had to teach them. In fact, we really need to seriously consider if we measure up to their level of commitment to hearing and following Jesus Christ, or whether we in our day have become too soft and complacent for that.

What Jesus says when He looks out at this crowd who had risked their lives coming out to hear him is a statement that could form the theme, not just of this text or of this Sunday in the Church Year, but of all Christian preaching in general. “I have compassion on the multitude.” Jesus has compassion. To have compassion means to be aware of others’ distress and to desire to alleviate it. Literally it means to “suffer with” them. After all, that’s what He came to earth to do: to relieve the distress that we are in because of our own sin and the sin of everyone else in the world around us by forgiving us that sin and taking us to a new, eternal life where sin and its effects no longer trouble us. And what’s more, he does that precisely by “suffering with” us, by living our life and dying the death we deserved. Jesus’ compassion on all of us, and on the whole world, is the entire point of what we come here to celebrate each Sunday.

But that’s not all that easy to remember, is it? After all, when push comes to shove, the devil, the world, and our own old sinful natures are right there, tempting us to see only the trouble and the hardship we endure, and to forget about the salvation and eternal life that await us after our struggle is over. The temptation then is to give up and give in. Eternal life seems so far away, and the troubles come with following our Lord so near. It is then that remembering that our Lord is right along with us is so important. He’s not just awaiting us at the end of our journey, He’s here all along the way to sustain and uphold us. Even though He might not always do a miracle to meet our physical needs like feeding 4,000 people with only a few loaves of bread and a few fish, He is constantly doing miracles to support our faith in Him and eternal life. Every Sunday His body is present in bread and His blood is present in wine for Christians to eat and to drink, and further, His body and blood are present on thousands of altars simultaneously, and given to millions of Christians. And no matter how many partake of Him Sunday after Sunday, His body and blood are never used up, just as the bread and the fish were not used up no matter how many ate of them.

And in fact He does also provide for our physical needs as we follow Him as well. Usually it’s not in the form of miracles, but even the ordinary means of making a living and getting our daily bread are actually means that God uses to provide for us. Even such simple things as a helping hand from a neighbor, a kind word in the midst of a difficult time, are reminders to us of Jesus’ compassion on us. They are reminders to us of the fact that where we belong and where we are going, none of the troubles we experience now, neither those that are simply part of life in this old world, nor those that come upon us because we are following Jesus Christ, none of these will ever bother us again.

And so Jesus has compassion on us, especially in those times when our problems and troubles are a direct result of the fact that we’re following Him. He strengthens and nourishes our faith in Him by His Word and by His body and blood, which is a miracle even greater than the one we read about in today’s Gospel. And He provides for our needs even when it seems like He won’t or can’t do so. Sometimes the way He provides for us is by taking us to that place where we will never hunger nor thirst again, and very often it is by the ordinary things He gives us in this life. And He uses our friends and neighbors as well, both to remind us of the Word we have heard and the Sacrament we have received, as well as to provide us with more ordinary means of facing life in the world in terms of daily bread. Our God has compassion on us. He suffers with us and for us. And because He suffered for us, our sufferings will have an end. Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +

Newsletter Article

This article is for the Olla Podrida, the quarterly newsletter of Our Savior Lutheran Church of Norwood Park.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, our Lord:

As I've announced over the last several Sundays in the Divine Service, I've been extended, and have accepted, a divine call to serve as an assistant pastor at Lamb of God Lutheran Church in Pleasant Prairie, WI. There has been some confusion expressed to me by members at Our Savior as to what this means, so I decided to use this newsletter article to explain why this happened and how it will (and won't) affect my service to you during this vacancy.

Firstly, this is a part-time call. Pastor Smallwood (Senior Pastor at Lamb of God) and I have discussed the situation and likely I will only preach at Lamb of God once a month or once every other month. Lamb of God has a Divine Service on Wednesday evenings as well as daily chapel for Christ Lutheran Academy during the school year, and Pastor Smallwood has indicated that I can serve the congregation during those weekday services, leaving me free on Sunday mornings to continue serving as your vacancy pastor.

The reason why Lamb of God decided to extend this call is because I was previously on what's called "candidate status" in the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. Pastors on candidate status are men who are eligible to serve as pastors but who do not have a current call to a congregation. Unfortunately, being on candidate status can be seen as a black mark on a pastor's record, since usually it means he resigned from a congregation without taking another call, which often means that the relationship between congregation and pastor ended badly. This can be due to bad behavior on the part of the congregation, the pastor, or both. But since most calling congregations do not know the situation and who may have been at fault, many congregations will instead choose to call a pastor currently serving a congregation, thus making it difficult for a pastor on candidate status to return to the ministry full-time.

I am not the only member of Lamb of God who was on candidate status. Pastor Gregory Grenyo, who resigned from his previous congregation in late 2005, is also a member of Lamb of God. He and I served for nearly a year as vacancy pastors for Lamb of God before Pastor Smallwood was installed last year. The congregation wished to tell the whole church that he and I are good pastors who don't deserve to be on candidate status, and the best way they could find to do this was to claim us as their assistant pastors. And so Pastor Grenyo and I were extended part-time calls as assistant pastors, partially to make it easier for both of us to receive full-time calls elsewhere.

I am aware that I am on the call list for Our Savior, and I do want to make it clear that my recent acceptance of this part-time call will not hinder me from considering a full-time call if one should come my way, since helping me to receive a full-time call was one reason why Lamb of God did what they did. I also want to make clear that this will not affect my ability to serve you during your vacancy. Pastor Smallwood definitely does not want this call to Lamb of God to disrupt my service to you at all.

Having said all that, I do believe it would be in Our Savior's best interest to proceed as quickly as possible with the call process. Whoever the congregation calls as pastor will need to be able to devote his full time to helping the congregation heal. There's a limit to what can be done when I'm only able to be in Chicago once or twice a week, and this congregation needs and deserves more than that. I realize that the call committee is waiting for the District President to return the call list, but it should also be noted that nothing in the Synod or District bylaws require a congregation to consult with the District before extending a call. Whoever the congregation decides to call, there is a limit to how long you can afford to wait before getting someone who can devote his full time to bringing you God's love, forgiveness, and healing. That's why God instituted the Office of the Holy Ministry. The church needs pastors, not just on Sunday morning, but full-time, because Christians need forgiveness, reconciliation, and healing not just on Sunday morning but full time.

Pastor Schellenbach

Trinity 6

Sermon on Matthew 5:17-26
For Our Savior Lutheran Church of Norwood Park, Chicago, IL
July 19, 2009 (The Sixth Sunday after Trinity)

The Pharisees were known for being “religious” in their day. The word “religious” is often used to describe those who are frequent in their Church attendance and who are seen as striving to follow God’s Law in their life even when it’s unpopular to do so. The thing is, often the people who refer to their neighbors as “religious” are those whose own consciences tell them that they have not done very well in these matters. Often, a statement will be made that goes something like this: “Well, so-and-so and his wife, they’re very religious people,” which tends to imply that the speaker is not so religious. And sometimes those who use the word feel that unless they also measure up to the standard set by these so-called religious people, that God will be displeased with them and that He will not listen to their prayers or give them any blessings at all in this life. And sometimes that sort of thought results in the further idea that since God’s already displeased with them, why bother even trying to follow His commandments or to be interested in what His Word says?

At first glance, this text seems to have nothing to say to such people, who know that they are guilty of sin and that they have not measured up to the standard set by their own friends and neighbors, let alone the ancient biblical scribes and Pharisees. “See there? See that? That proves it! God is angry with me because I’m not a religious person, and that’s why I feel so bad and so guilty all the time. That’s why He isn’t answering my prayers.” At first glance, this text only increases the despair of those who know that they aren’t righteous and who know that they can’t make themselves righteous by anything they do.

But that’s not the purpose here. Jesus isn’t trying to grind into the dust those who have already fallen spiritually and can’t get up. He is trying to point out to the so-called “religious” people that their own religiosity is not enough. He is saying to those who think that they are righteous and holy and who are proud of their own keeping of God’s Law that they still aren’t able to earn their way into heaven. No matter how good you are, you still aren’t good enough to earn God’s favor. No matter how much you do for the Church, it’s not good enough to make up for your faults. God’s grace and blessings upon us don’t come to us because we’re good people, because none of us are good people.

The fact of the matter is, as Jesus points out, that the righteousness which God expects isn’t necessarily seen in the fact that a person is careful to keep the Ten Commandments outwardly. Instead, this righteousness includes all the thoughts and desires of the heart, as well as the attitude toward the neighbor. Think about it. We learn in the Catechism that the Ten Commandments are supposed to be kept because they are how we show love to God and our neighbor. But if you are trying to do good or be religious with the motivation that God will be pleased with you and possibly reward you in some way, who are you really thinking of? God and your neighbor? Or yourself? A person who tries to be religious in order to earn God’s favor is really thinking only of himself when he tries to be good and to do good, because he’s thinking not of what he can do for God or for others, but what he wants God to do for him. A person who does a lot for the Church because he’s trying to show everyone what he can do, earns only condemnation for all his work. In this way the most religious and outwardly righteous person may in fact be committing the worst sins of all by their attempt to be righteous and to do good. They may be using their outward righteousness as a cloak to cover up the fact that they also know themselves to be horrible, greedy, lustful, murderous, hateful sinners inside. In fact, we all do that, whether we have been righteous or not. We try to do good in order to hide our sins, not only from other people, but also from ourselves. This is why Jesus says to go and be reconciled with our brother before offering our gifts to God, so that we don’t use our outward religious observances toward God as an excuse to try to cover up our sins toward each other.

And so, whether you are seen by others as a “religious” person or not, today’s Gospel lesson is frightening. Your righteousness must be greater than that of the scribes and Pharisees. Even the best and most outwardly righteous people in the world don’t cut it when it comes to God’s standards of holiness. How can we mere common people measure up? The answer is provided by St. Paul in today’s epistle lesson. You do measure up because when God looks at you He sees Christ. You have a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. You have the righteousness of Christ Himself. This white robe, which covers the stains of your sins, was put on you in Holy Baptism. Your sins, which would have kept you out of the Kingdom of Heaven, were transferred to Christ through the water of the Baptismal Font, and in their place His perfect and complete righteousness and holiness is now yours. You have been raised to new life by Christ through the Holy Spirit’s power, so that this righteousness of Christ which has now become yours is, in fact, lived out in lives of love and service to the neighbor.

Now, that’s all well and good, you say, and most if not all of us here have been baptized, but what about the fact that we have not always been righteous even after our baptism? What about the fact that even though we have been baptized Christians for many years we have still lusted and hated and stolen and otherwise sinned against our neighbors, if not in our outward actions, then at least in our hearts? Are the promises God makes to us in baptism null and void because of that? No! Baptism is not merely a past event, a one-time event that only gets you started in the Christian life and then stops there. Baptism is the reality of the whole Christian life. God’s righteousness is available to us even though we have left it behind many, many times. He still restores us to His righteousness and His kingdom, not by baptizing us again, but by returning us to the “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all” that we received in those first few moments of citizenship in God’s kingdom at the Holy Font.

Every time you hear the Word of forgiveness proclaimed to you in Holy Absolution, every time you hear the blessed Holy Gospel through the proclamation of God’s Word, every time you are reminded of these things through your personal devotions and readings in God’s Word, every time your brothers and sisters in Christ remind you of this forgiveness, this Gospel, through their encouragement and conversation with you—every time these things happen, you are restored to God’s Kingdom. You are restored to the righteousness of Christ which exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. Every time you partake of Christ’s body and blood you enter into the kingdom itself which this righteousness has won you. When you eat and drink of Christ Himself you are one with Him and with His Father and with all of those, both those living among us and those who have fallen asleep, who, like you, have received His righteousness in place of their sin. You cannot earn your way into God’s kingdom with your righteousness, or with anything that you do. But God has already given you a righteousness that is much greater than your own, and even greater than that of the scribes and Pharisees, the righteousness of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +

Trinity 5

Sermon on Luke 5:1-11
For Our Savior Lutheran Church of Norwood Park, Chicago, IL
July 12, 2009 (The Fifth Sunday after Trinity)

“Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” With these words Peter expresses the first reaction of anyone who knows that he is not perfect and holy upon realizing that he’s standing in the presence of the holy and perfect God who made heaven and earth. Of course, it’s a natural reaction. We know that to be sinners and to stand in the presence of a holy God, is to die. And we don’t like that idea. And so it’s so much more comfortable for us to not be reminded that we are in God’s presence or in His sight. Even though God is everywhere, we’d like to pretend that there are some areas of our life that He can’t see, so that we can pretend, at least for a little while, that He isn’t watching our pet sins or our habitual failings. And so we try to fend off His wrath by beating Him to the punch, by hoping that if we make a big show of punishing ourselves, He will just leave us alone.

In this case, it was actually a great blessing from God which prompted Peter’s wish that Jesus go away. Simon Peter and his coworkers, James and John, had just experienced a miracle which could only have come from God. After a long night of unsuccessful fishing, Jesus had used one of their boats as a pulpit and then asked Peter to take Him fishing. Despite being in the wrong part of the lake, during the wrong time of day, they caught an unbelievable number of fish, so many that their nets were breaking and their boats were sinking with the effort of bringing it all to shore. It wasn’t human wisdom or ingenuity or fishing experience which had provided all these fish; it was God. Of course, He is always the one providing for us even when the things we need for this life come to us in the ordinary way. But on this occasion it was obvious that it was God Himself who was with them in their boats, and despite the great blessing He had given them, His presence made Peter uncomfortable.

That’s the way it is sometimes with us, as well. It is precisely in giving us His greatest blessings, namely the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation itself, that God can make us the most uncomfortable. You see, the old sinful nature doesn’t want to die. He’s got the same self-preservation instinct that God originally created into us (after all, he is us), and so he would rather come up with all sorts of plans as to how he can make it better, cover over his sin, work his way back into God’s good graces, invent his own punishment, and otherwise keep God at arms length and himself in charge. But God wishes to give us salvation and eternal life as a free gift. And that means that the old self, which wants to work for God’s gifts, either by doing lots of good things or by punishing ourselves so that maybe He won’t punish us, must die. That’s the only way we can be reborn as those who fear, love, and trust in God above all things: if the self who fears, loves, and trusts in himself above all things is put to death. And putting to death the old self isn’t pleasant. The old self would rather just avoid God instead, or pretend that he is good enough to earn God’s favor. The crucifix upon which he was nailed when you were baptized, isn’t something he likes to see.

Of course, that tactic only works for so long. Really, it doesn’t work at all, because God is everywhere; even apart from His gracious presence, He’s still there. But He hides His presence most of the time, and so people delude themselves that He’s not there watching them, or that He doesn’t exist at all. But the day is coming, either when Christ returns as judge, or at each person’s own death, when that delusion will be stripped away. He is there, and He has always been there. Those who are not in Christ will then be completely exposed with their sin before His righteous wrath.

But those who are in Christ, who have been put to death and raised to life again in Holy Baptism, whose old Adam is continuously put to death by the Holy Spirit through the law and whose new Christ is continuously raised to life again through the Gospel every day and every moment of their lives, react totally the opposite from the way Peter reacted here. Since you are new creatures, your reaction is the same as the reaction of the psalmist who wrote the verses included in the antiphon to today’s Introit. “Do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation.” In Christ’s presence is precisely where we need to be. Those who wish Christ to depart from them must face His Father’s wrath over their sin without His help. But those whose sin has been covered by Christ’s righteousness, whose punishment has already been taken by Him on the cross, are shielded from His wrath by that white robe of righteousness which Christ has given them. Having died to sin and been reborn to righteousness, then, we wish to be in His presence as much as we possibly can, to receive again His Word and His body and blood by which He again gives us that new life and salvation which we so urgently need in order to face the battle that is life in a world messed up by sin, including the sin that remains in our own hearts.

And that is, of course, what happens here, today. Christ comes to you. He is here. Wherever two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them. We don’t come together as the Christian Church simply to talk about Jesus. We come to hear Him speak to us in His own words on the mouths of His chosen shepherd as well as ourselves and each other, as we sing and speak back to Him what He says to us. We come to be refreshed in the new life He has given us in Holy Baptism, and His Word of forgiveness restores us to the water and again drowns the old Adam so that the new man in Christ can arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever. And we come to eat His body and drink His blood, by which he sustains and nourishes us and gives us the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation He won for us, not just in our hears and our minds, but in our whole selves including our bodies. He is here among us today. He will be in you when you eat and drink Him shortly. And that’s not something to be afraid of. The Lord’s Supper is not something to fear, to put off until we feel really holy or spiritual. That’s the old Adam talking, wanting to fix the situation himself and for God to stay at arm’s length until then. Rather, the Holy Supper is something that we need as often as we can get it, especially when we’ve been dragged down and around by the battle against sin, death, and the devil, because by it our Creator comes to us and dwells within us, giving us salvation. “Do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation.” And indeed He will not. He will stay with you, and you with Him, in our Father’s house, forever. Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +