Tuesday, November 30, 2021

In the Shadows, Pointing to the Light

 

St. Andrew, Apostle
November 30, 2021
John 1:35–42

Poor Andrew. Always in the shadow of his younger brother, Peter. You know, Peter. The rock. The one who is always at the center of attention. The one who was the leader of the twelve apostles and then the entire Church in Jerusalem. The one who wrote two books of the Bible. Everybody knows Peter. Everybody loves Peter.

But what about Andrew? Many may not even be able to say that they know Andrew is one of the original twelve apostles. Poor Andrew, standing over there in the shadows. It is John who tells us that Andrew is Simon Peter’s brother. Notice that the older is the brother of the younger.

But we’re also told that if it weren’t for Andrew Peter would not have known Jesus. Andrew is the one who introduced Peter to the Lord. And while Peter was usually the one to be speaking it was Andrew who also brought some Gentiles to the awareness of Jesus.

Andrew also gets the distinction of being the one whose day in the Church Year actually determines when the Church Year begins. The First Sunday in Advent is always the Sunday that is closest to St. Andrew’s day.

So we know a lot about Peter. We don’t know much about Andrew. As with many of the other apostles we’re given to know a little about this man Jesus called to be an apostle. The Holy Spirit has inspired the writers of Scripture to give us what we need to know.

Andrew may have been in the shadows. But he was always pointing people to the light. It may seem that we don’t have much to offer. We’re ordinary Christians. We’re not pillars of the faith, we’re not apostles. We certainly are not like Peter.

But Andrew may have thought of himself more in the way we think of ourselves. Yes, he was an apostle, and there were only twelve of those. But he was in the shadows. All that he did he did not do in the limelight. And so it’s kind of like you and me. Most people don’t know us. And history probably won’t immortalize us. But though we’re in the shadows, we point people to the light. Just like Andrew did.

Andrew was called by the Lord Christ not to fame but to a life of following Him. Where Jesus led him to was death. No, Andrew was not crucified on the cross by Pontius Pilate. That was reserved for Christ alone. He alone suffered on behalf of the world. But Andrew did live a life that was not his own. He pointed people to Jesus even though it meant that he was martyred for the faith.

Now you and I may or may not be martyred. But you and I live a life that is a lot like the way Andrew lived his life. You may be in the shadows, but it is exactly where God has called you to be. Amen.

SDG



Rev. Paul L. Willweber
Lutheran Service Book Lectionary: One-Year, Gospel
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, San Diego, California

Sunday, November 28, 2021

The Lord Goes Before You

The First Sunday in Advent
November 28, 2021
Matthew 21:1–9

Do you know what we were doing on December 1 of 2019? It was a Sunday and we were right here where we are now. It was the First Sunday in Advent just as it is today and we were beginning a new Church Year just as we are now. Advent being a season of preparation we were preparing for our celebration of Christmas at the end of the month. Our focus was on worship.

But we had no idea what was coming. Many of us didn’t even know what had already happened in October or November of that year, that there was a virus that was spreading. In the new year more was heard about it and then halfway through our observance of Lent there were lockdowns all over the world. The pandemic brought with it fear, confusion, and division. When we began a new Church Year two years ago none of us knew what would be coming our way.

Those who lived on the island of Oahu woke up on December 7, 1941 unaware that Japanese planes would soon be raining bombs on them. Many of us woke up on September 11 of 2001 getting ready for another Tuesday, having no idea that the World Trade Center would soon come crashing down and bringing thousands of people to their death. Or what about when your own personal world came crashing down? You may still remember what you were doing the day you were given the news that you were stricken with cancer, or that your loved one was killed in an accident, or that you were fired from your job, or that your spouse told you they wanted a divorce.

Some things we can prepare for. Others come out of nowhere and you are shocked and perhaps afraid or despondent. We don’t always know what will happen. We’re not always prepared. At times in life we are left flailing. We’re stricken with grief or fear. We may feel life is hopeless.

Today we are beginning a new Church Year. We are excited about going through the seasons of the Church Year. But we do not need to ignore the real tragedies in life. We do not need to check our fears or doubts at the door of the sanctuary. We are here, right where we need to be, and that includes being who we are. We not only are in constant struggle with our sinful nature but we are battered by outside forces of temptation and trials.

We’re about two years removed from that strange time when Covid first came upon us. We’re still wondering how it will all shake out. Many of us have long since given up on predicting how things will go or even determining how to move forward. But there is a reason we are here today. It is the same reason we were here two years ago. We don’t know the specific things that will come upon us but we do know that living in a fallen world we will continue to suffer trials. How they come about and how they play out, we will leave that to God.

Two years ago we couldn’t know what would happen with the pandemic. But being here in the House of God we were without realizing it being prepared for it. Today we are preparing for our continued life in this Covid world and for any other adversities we will endure. The Church Year is designed just for this. It follows the pattern God set forth for His people in the Old Testament with the various observances and festivals which highlighted God’s saving acts for His people. Now in the New Testament the pattern follows the saving acts of God in Christ. The Church Year takes us through Christ’s life and ministry and His work in bringing about salvation. In this way we are prepared for anything and everything.

The way the Church Year begins is with preparation. On one level it is preparation for our celebration of Christmas. Advent is from the Latin arrival. As the people of old looked forward to the arrival of the Messiah so we look forward each year to celebrating that arrival of Him being born in Bethlehem. So Advent is reminding us to look back to what God did when He sent the Savior.

On another level Advent is turning our gaze to what is to come. As He promised to come the first time our Lord has promised to return. If His first arrival was in humility then when He returns it will be in glory. We don’t know when it will be. But we know He will come again. So we are already prepared. We will not be surprised. We don’t need to wonder if He is coming again. We know He is.

In this way we face the future and live each day of our lives: we do not go alone. Our Lord goes before us. The Church Year has a striking if not strange way of showing us this when it takes the event that begins Holy Week and brings it right to the front. On Palm Sunday Jesus rode into Jerusalem, as seen so clearly in Lent and at the head of Holy Week, in order to suffer on account of the sin of the world.

But how does Christ coming into Jerusalem on a donkey fit in with the beginning of the Church Year and beginning our Advent preparation? It shows us that our Lord goes before us. Did you feel things were out of your control two years ago when the alarm was raised and lockdowns were enforced? Do you feel like you are not in control when your personal world is upended and you face trials that come out of nowhere? You are not always in control and this is why Jesus did what He did on that Palm Sunday. The Gospel reading speaks of many people doing various things on that day but Jesus was the one who was in control.

Jesus sent His disciples to get the donkey. He directed them to the village where they would find it. He is the one who determined that He would ride in on a donkey. He is the one who made it possible for them to retrieve the donkey that was tied up, even if someone should ask about what they were doing. He told the two disciples, If they say anything, tell them that the Lord has need of it.

Jesus was aware of everything that needed to happen. Matthew tells us that it was in order to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: Tell Daughter Zion, “See, your King is coming to you, gentle, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

See how Jesus is in control. He is the King, the Lord, the God of all creation. And He sets about going into Jerusalem to accomplish salvation by riding in on a donkey. He humbles Himself to go in on a donkey. When things are spinning out of control Jesus has everything under control. He has come and He came in humility. He will come again and He will come not in humility but in glory.

For now, He goes before you. You do not know what will happen, and yet, you do. You know that no matter what happens you are prepared. You go forward in faith; sometimes in agitation, perhaps fear, maybe even doubt. But isn’t that what faith is, believing even in uncertainty? And so you go forward in faith, and Sunday after Sunday the Church Year will take you back, again and again, to your Lord who went to the cross and who goes before you. Amen.

SDG


Lutheran Service Book Lectionary: One-Year, Gospel
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, San Diego, California

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Set Free

Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity
September 18, 2016
What would be worse, to be a slave or to be a prisoner? People normally don’t choose these stations in life. Who wishes to be a slave when one can be master of their own destiny? Who would willingly be bound in a cell when one could be free to live as one pleases?

The apostle Paul could speak to each, both being a slave and a prisoner. You may wonder when Paul had ever been a slave. He had been a Pharisee, and he was like the Pharisees in the Gospel reading. He knew his position and it was a pretty high one in the eyes of his Jewish compatriots. He knew he was blessed by God because his life was devoted to his God.

But then that same God turned his sight into darkness. He now had Paul’s attention. The very Lord Paul had been trying to stamp out was now calling him to be His apostle. And so, when writing the inspired words of Scripture, Paul would often refer to himself as an apostle. And yet, because he now understood that his life as a Pharisee had centered on himself, he was now just as at home calling himself a slave. He, an apostle of Christ, was by virtue of that calling, now a slave of Christ.

When writing to the Ephesians, though, he doesn’t refer to himself as a slave of Christ. As we see in the Epistle reading, he writes to them as a prisoner of the Lord. As he wrote to the Ephesians, he did so from a cell. But far from seeing this as a punishment of God, Paul saw it as a blessing. He was still able to make known the Gospel.

Having been rescued by Christ and called to serve Him as a Christian he now saw that he was truly free, whether he was journeying to countries to spread the Gospel or whether he was locked up in a cell. He had been set free by Christ. Being a slave of Christ was being truly free, whether or not he was a prisoner.

Paul had a stellar resume as a Pharisee. Had he been present at the gathering in the Gospel reading the host would have escorted him right to the front for the best seat. But Paul now saw himself for what he truly was. He was bound. He was wrapped up in his own sinful flesh, bound by the chains of his sinful desires. If all of his righteousness and unwavering dedication to God’s law couldn’t save him, he was happy to be humbled and now see himself, as he says in chapter 3 of Ephesians, “I am the very least of all the saints.” Paul had been one of those Pharisees Jesus was addressing. He now saw that humility is the order of the day when it comes to Christ.

We see in the Epistle reading his urging to the Ephesian Christians “to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which [they had] been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

What the apostle Paul, the slave of Christ and prisoner for the Lord, was exhorting those Christians, was what Jesus was showing the Pharisees in the Gospel reading. One of them was one of the higher-ups and invited Jesus to his home for a meal. But this was a set-up. They were bringing Him into that setting so that they could scrutinize Him. They disdained His teaching and His ministry. Perhaps if they overwhelmed Him with their religious superiority they could get Him to cave, or at least diminish His reputation in the eyes of the common people.

They of course did not believe Jesus was Lord. Even though He was, when He was invited to a meal He did the opposite of the Pharisees. Instead of expecting to be waited on He takes on the role of servant and giver.

In contrast to all the Pharisees and religious teachers present, who basked in the light of their own self-importance, there was a man who came up to Jesus who had dropsy, a condition of swelling due to abnormal accumulation of water. It was the sabbath, the day of rest. Jesus wanted to know: Would it be right to help this man? Would it align with the sabbath laws to deliver him from his condition? Or would it rather be God-pleasing to observe the law of the sabbath rest and leave him in his plight? They couldn’t respond. What were they going to say? Don’t you dare heal him, that would not be pleasing to God? Even so, the very acknowledgement that Jesus could in fact heal the man put them in a position where they seemed foolish to continue to deny Jesus.

Jesus gave to the man what he needed. Jesus was showing what God had intended the sabbath to be for. It was a day of rest and renewal. It was a day in which God gives to you what you most need, restoration. Jesus healing the man shows what Jesus came to do, to restore people to God.

These Pharisees were so swollen with pride that when it was time for the meal they jockeyed for position. Their sense of themselves exceeded their awareness of their need for what Jesus had come to give them. Jesus pointed out to them the obvious, but it’s what they already new. We heard it in the Old Testament reading. Jesus is pretty much quoting that. But they are blinded by their own self-centeredness. They think so much of themselves that they don’t even see that if they seek to attain the highest place they will lose it and be relegated to the lowest place.

Rather, Jesus says, seek the lowest and you will be moved up higher and be honored in the sight of everyone. They would never lower themselves to take the lowest place, though. All they saw in Jesus was someone who was disputing their self-made righteousness. They needed to see themselves as approved by God because of how holy they viewed themselves. They didn’t see that they were bound by their sinful flesh. They were prisoners of the devil’s schemes.

You are not see free from your lowly status by attempting to achieve a higher one. You are exalted when you humble yourself. You and I ought to take note. You and I may not be in high positions such as those Pharisees were, but do we miss what Jesus is showing us? It would be one thing if He were simply telling them and us to be humble. But we’re prisoners, remember? We are often swollen with pride ourselves.

Here’s what Jesus has done. Far from simply speaking from heaven the definitive word, “Humble yourselves and you will be exalted,” He has come down Himself! He did the very thing He was impressing upon us. Jesus is the Lord, and yet He exhibits the very thing He was urging upon the Pharisees and us. He is God and yet bound Himself in a human body. Even more, He submitted Himself to suffer and die on the cross for the sin of the world. For all of those sinners, even, who think of themselves more highly than they ought.

In the Gospel reading we saw how Jesus when invited to a meal became the servant. Giving to a man who had been humbled by a debilitating illness reprieve. Restoring him to wholeness. Jesus is God and Lord, how do you see yourself before Him? Listen to His words and go to the back. Humble yourself before Him. Confess your sin.

And then see what He has done and know that He does so for you still. He humbled Himself to become man and to die on the cross. He now tells you to come forward, all the way to the front. He doesn’t simply invite you to a meal, He gives you a feast to celebrate with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. He doesn’t preside over His feast as the glorious Lord but rather as the humble servant, giving you His body and blood for you to eat and drink for the forgiveness of your sins.

He sets you free by forgiving you. You no longer are bound by your stifling thoughts of righteousness. You are, rather, free to dine with the Lord of all creation and all who have gone before you and who even now feast in glory. You are free because you know that your Lord, though He is Lord of all creation, never sees Himself as so far above you that He won’t help you but rather freely gives of Himself to you and restores you. Amen.

SDG

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be

Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity
September 11, 2016
When I was growing up I remember people who said they remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when our nation was attacked on our own soil on December 7, 1941. I couldn’t identify with that. We had been blessed for many years not to undergo something like that again, and so I would just listen to those who spoke of the shock and the helplessness when they heard the news.

But I distinctly remember where I was fifteen years ago on this day, September 11, 2001 when I became aware of what was happening, that we were being attacked on our own soil by a foreign enemy.

Much of what happens in life fades away from memory. But certain things are seared into your brain and you will never forget them. When they come to mind you still feel the feelings you felt back then. Especially when it’s something that has been taken away from you. You still feel the loss. You still feel helpless. Your heart still aches, even though the years continue to take you farther away from what happened.

We’ve all heard stories about those who were part of the events of 9/11. Some were supposed to go to work that day in the World Trade Center but for various reasons didn’t, and so weren’t killed in the attack. Some just happened to be there on that day, where they normally weren’t and so lost their lives. Many of us don’t personally know anyone who died in that horrific event. Those who do still face the questions of why things couldn’t have gone differently, why did their loved one have to lose their life in a senseless and unprovoked act and so leave behind their spouse, their children, their loved ones.

The attack on Pearl Harbor and the attack on the World Trade Center touched the collective soul of our nation. They affected all of us. But for most of us it still doesn’t hit home the way it does when violence or loss or grief hit you personally. When the woman in the Gospel reading for today lost her son she must have felt like her whole world came crashing down.

Her husband had already died. He was no longer there to provide for her. In that culture, women generally weren’t self-sufficient but were provided for by the men as they made a living and the women ran the household. Now that her husband was gone she at least had her son who could provide for her welfare.

But then a cruel turn came to fruition when her son died. This is not the way things are supposed to be. She was supposed to live to a good old age and as God was ready to take her home her son would be able to say goodbye to her and express his love for her. But now she was the one burying her son.

When Jesus was entering this little town of Nain He came across this funereal procession. He saw how she was weeping in her grief. He knew that this wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. His heart went out to her. His compassion for her led Him to go up to her. He said to her, “Do not weep.” When you lose someone you love, that’s not what you want to hear. When you’re comforting someone, it’s a good idea not to tell them to not cry. Crying, in fact, is a blessed emotional release in the midst of grief. It’s okay to cry.

But Jesus doesn’t come to her in the same way you and I would when we seek to comfort others. Oftentimes we don’t know what to say. But Luke tells us in the Gospel reading that this isn’t an ordinary person coming up to this woman. He calls Jesus the Lord. The Lord said to her, “Do not weep.” He’s not trying to make her feel better, He’s telling her that she doesn’t need to cry anymore because He is going to remove the cause of her grief.

He doesn’t tell the pallbearers to stop. He gently reaches out and touches the platform they are carrying the dead body on so that they will stop. His words to the woman to not weep will be attached to action which will remove her sorrow. His next action is remarkable. His action is one which won’t do any good for anyone. He speaks to the dead man. Sometimes people will talk to their loved ones who have died, but they are speaking to them because it’s comforting to be able to talk to them as they did when they were still alive.

But Jesus speaks to this dead man as if he will hear Him, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” But because Jesus is the Lord the dead man does hear Him and gets up and begins speaking. He is alive. Death is not the way things are supposed to be. Especially when people die young and parents experience the loss of their child. But we live in a fallen world, one in which people die. And when people die, they can’t overcome that. When you lose your loved one, you know they’re gone.

Jesus speaking to a dead man is not the way it’s supposed to be. People don’t come back from the dead. But Jesus is reversing the course of this fallen world. He is coming to bring true comfort to people in their grief. Not platitudes, “Don’t worry, things will get better.” “Don’t cry, things could be worse.” “You hurt now, but time heals all wounds.” These things don’t bring comfort. There’s no true sympathy here, let alone empathy.

Jesus comes with true compassion. He comes with compassion which is able to bring about joy in the midst of sorrow. He gives the young man back to his mother. She was the one Jesus was ministering to. He saw her in her sorrow and brought true comfort to her by removing the cause of her sorrow.

Of course, it’s glaringly obvious that the exact thing He did for her is not what He does for us. Those who continue to grieve the loss of their loved ones in 9/11 aren’t likely to get a visit from the Lord as the widow in Nain did. Those of us who still deal with the daily pain of losing those close to us shouldn’t be counting on a spoken word from the Lord, “Do not weep, I am going to bring your loved one back to life.” Her sorrow was turned to joy, what about for us?

It’s worth considering that while this woman was truly blessed, this was not the ultimate reason Jesus came. And there are hundreds and hundreds of other people who were touched by Jesus, recipients of His spoken word, healed, restored, and even raised from the dead. What this means is that there were millions more who were not. While Jesus came to carry out these actions, it was not for their sake alone. It was a part of His ultimate ministry.

It’s not the way it’s supposed to be, but His ministry is that He came to die. If His heart went out to this widow in her sorrow, perhaps it’s because He knew what His own Father would experience when His own life would cease on the cross. It would have been an enormous display of power if Jesus had come to go around to as many places as possible and heal as many people as possible and raise as many people from the dead as possible.

But this is not what He did. It’s not what He came to do. Instead, He confined His ministry to a mere three years of time and to a geographical area about the size of San Diego county.

No, what Jesus came to do was die. It’s not the way it’s supposed to be. God is eternal. God is without beginning and without end. God does not die. He can’t die, He’s God. And yet, in compassion beyond our understanding, He became a man. He was born. He lived. And He came to a point where He willingly suffered Himself to be nailed to a cross and have to look down upon His mother whose heart and soul was wrenched as she saw her Son in agony and finally draw His last breath.

It’s not the way it’s supposed to be. But we weren’t supposed to sin, either. When we did, God in compassion came to us and said, “Do not weep.” It’s not a platitude. It’s a statement of authority, power, and compassion. It’s also an action. In speaking, your Lord brings you into joy you cannot comprehend.

And contrary to what it may seem, it is in the same way He did it in the Gospel reading. Paul says in the Epistle reading that God “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.” Certainly the widow at Nain saw that the Lord did more abundantly than she could ask or think. But it so with you as well. You were as the dead son in Nain. You were dead in your sins. In Baptism you died another death, brought by the Holy Spirit into the death of Jesus, who is your Lord. He raised you in those waters where His word was spoken to you, “I Baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

You were born in sin. It’s not the way it’s supposed to be. But Jesus died so that you wouldn’t die eternally. He was raised from the grave so that you will be raised from yours. It’s not the way it’s supposed to be, but you continue to sin. It grieves your Lord, but He comes to you in compassion. You need to repent. You need to grieve over your sin yourself so that you may see that your Lord loves you so much that He is willing to give you Himself to bring about true joy. He gave His life for you on the cross and gives it to you in bread for you to eat. His lifeblood was poured out for you on the cross and He pours it into His holy cup so that you may drink the blood of life.

He forgives you, He restores you, He gives you true comfort, true hope, true joy. Amen.
SDG

Lutheran Service Book Lectionary: One-Year, Gospel

Sunday, August 21, 2016

See What Christ Shows You

Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity
August 21, 2016
What Jesus shows you in the Gospel reading today isn’t easy to see. What you see is a confirmation of what you already think. That Samaritan guy who helped out the other guy in need—that’s what we ought to do. Jesus said it Himself, “Go and do likewise.” The man who approached Jesus asking what he must do to obtain eternal life was given the answer, “Be merciful to others. Help them in their need.” And this is on top of what Jesus had told him earlier, “Love God and love your neighbor. Do this and you will live.”

What you see is not what Jesus is showing you. You see what you want to see. You see what you want Jesus to show you, but not what He actually is showing you. You want Jesus to confirm what you already know and think. If you do certain things and live a certain way, you’re in. You’re good.

But this is the world’s view of Christianity. And you are at home with this form of Christianity. You identify with the lawyer who came up to Jesus. You want to know what you should do. Because of your sinful nature you take the same approach to Jesus that the world does. It doesn’t matter if others belong to other religions or say they have no religion, you want the same thing they do. And you want it in the same way.

The lawyer in the Gospel reading was a professional. He wasn’t a lawyer as we know them today. He was a professional in the Word of God. He knew the Scriptures. That was his job. As a lawyer, he didn’t study the law of the land. The lawyers of Jesus’ time were those who were trained in the Law of God. They knew the Bible.

So he knew what he was supposed to do and not supposed to do. But he didn’t know grace. You can see exactly how well he knew the Scriptures in that he got every question right Jesus asked him. And yet, he got the whole thing wrong. He knew what the Bible said, but he didn’t believe in the grace of God. He didn’t see that God’s Law isn’t the whole of God’s revelation in the Bible. Grace is the thread that runs through the whole Scriptures. The expert in the Law was under the misunderstanding that it is all about the Law. He comes up to Jesus to test Him. He thinks Jesus is going against God’s Law and so wants to trap Him. But when Jesus actually confirms what the Law of God says, namely, to love God completely and your neighbor as yourself, the lawyer knew that that didn’t get him any better off than he was before. So he wanted to justify himself.

If you look at God’s Law and think you’re doing pretty well you’re not taking it at its word. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. Love God with your whole being; with everything you are and do. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love your neighbor not with conditions and expectations attached, but simply out of what he needs.

The world looks at the Law of God and sees it as confirmation of their goodness. The hymn Salvation Unto Us Has Come eradicates this notion by showing what God’s Law really shows: “The Law is but a mirror bright To bring the inbred sin to light That lurks within our nature.”

What about Jesus’ parable? He tells us about a good Samaritan and then says, “Go and do likewise.” Isn’t this Jesus answering the lawyer with what the lawyer should do? It seems so. But Jesus isn’t giving the world’s version of Christianity. He is giving His. And when He gives His He shows you what you cannot see except by faith. What He shows you is not what you should do, which is what the lawyer and the world and you seek. What He shows you is Himself.

First you need to see yourself. When He holds up the mirror of the Law, pray the Holy Spirit to show you your utter failure at keeping God’s Law. Repent of your sin. See yourself as what you are, dead in your sins. The man who was beaten, robbed, and left for dead wasn’t able to get up and walk for help. He wasn’t even able to cry out for help. It was only when someone else saw him and his need that he was able to be saved.

And who was it that saved him? It wasn’t the priest. The priest was bound by the laws of purity, not able to touch a man in such a condition. He put the Law before his neighbor. The Levite followed suit. These men thought they were keeping God’s Law but Jesus shows that they missed the whole point of the Law. It is compassion. It is not your being pure in the sight of God but rather getting your hands dirty where the need is. The lawyer was pictured in the priest and Levite. He could not see himself as the one in need. He was too busy focusing on what he must to do earn favor from God.

The Samaritan saw the man in need and had no thought of what he must do. He had compassion. Compassion flowed over into action, using all that he had to bind up the man’s wounds and carry him to safety where he could be restored.

Jesus says, “Go and do likewise.” But how can you do so when you at first you do not see yourself in the man who was left for dead? We call the Samaritan in the parable the Good Samaritan, but Jesus is really showing us Himself. He is the true Good Samaritan. He sees you in your need and binds up your wounds. When you’re dying in your sins He doesn’t tell you to get up and stagger for help. He lifts you up and carries you to the place of rest, His Holy Church. There He pours on you the oil of the waters of Holy Baptism and gives you the wine to drink of His very blood.

Your answer to What must I do? is what Jesus shows you. What He shows you is Himself. He gives of all He has to bind you up and save you. You need look no further than the cross to see the extent of what He has given you. He gave of Himself completely on the cross, giving His life and shedding His blood. He has done everything to save you. He raises you from the dead.

The answer to salvation is Christ. The answer to what you must do is not what you must do. It is how you live. How you live is in Christ. The lawyer who came to Jesus seeking to know what he could do to gain heaven apparently interrupted Jesus telling His disciples that they were blessed to see the things they saw; things the prophets who went before them longed to see. This is what the lawyer missed, though Jesus was standing right in front of him. How often do you miss the very same thing? You have even more than the apostles did. You have the fullness of the Scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments. You don’t talk to Him face to face, but you commune with Him. You are united with Him in Baptism. You say with Paul, “It is no loner I who live but Christ who lives in me.”

Because you live in Christ you do not live as the lawyer or the priest or the Levite, focusing on what you must do; in other words, on yourself. You live, rather, as one who has compassion on others, showing mercy to others. Your thought is not for yourself but the Lord your God and those He has placed in your life to serve. This is why you come here to the Lord’s House. Certainly it is to hear the Gospel and be forgiven. But it is also so that you may be here for your brothers and sisters in Christ, an encouragement to them. It is why you give a portion of your income as an offering. Not simply to keep the electric bill of the church paid but also so that the mission of the Church continues in making known the Gospel in this community.

It is why you take care of your family, and pray for your neighbors. It is why you smile and ask others how they are doing. It is why you take the time to listen to them and pray with them and give them your aid as you are able. It is why you care enough about your friends who do not believe in Christ to tell them of Him and how He loves them enough to die for all of their sins and rise from the grave to accomplish eternal life for them.

See what Christ shows you and go and do likewise. See what the lawyer failed to see, the fulfillment of the Law, Christ Himself. See that it is not what you do that saves you, but what Christ has done. See what the hymn Salvation Unto Us Has Come helps you to see about the relationship between faith and works: “For faith alone can justify; Works serve our neighbor and supply The proof that faith is living.” God works flow from faith. You are not saved by good works, you are saved for good works. Luther said, “God doesn’t need our good works but our neighbor does.”

He has saved you, bound up your wounds, raised you from the dead. You are free. You will live eternally and you are freed up to live in compassion and mercy. Amen.


SDG

Sunday, April 17, 2016

The Timelessness of Eternity

Fourth Sunday of Easter
Jubilate
April 17, 2016
What do you think heaven is going to be like? We know heaven is perfect, but what will it feel like? What will you do for all eternity? Will you get bored? Will you be aware that you are in heaven forever? Will it seem like it’s taking a long time? Can eternity take a long time?

Heaven is what God wants for you for eternity but it’s impossible to comprehend eternity. You can only think in terms of time. You know when events begin and when they end. Sometimes they fly by, sometimes they drag on. If someone tells you not to think in terms of time, you can’t do it. You are bound by time. You cannot remove yourself from time. The closest to it is being asleep or in a coma. But even so, when you wake up you are aware that time has elapsed. Time continues when you are not in a conscious state.

God, however, is not bound by time. He is eternal. He has no beginning and no end. Things don’t go slow for Him or take a long time. He is outside of time. He created it.

But He did something remarkable, perhaps even strange. He placed Himself into time. He bound Himself to it. He became a man, a human being. He was born in a specific moment in time. He lived in a particular era of history; He lived for a certain amount of years. He who is not bound by time was now having to wait 365 days to turn a year older.

We know God did this to save us. But did He have to save us in this way? Why would God submit Himself to what we endure in this life? He’s God, He can do anything. What moved Him to bind Himself to time?

Jesus shows us with His words to the disciples in the Gospel reading. He told them He would be leaving them. But then He would return to them. They had no idea what He was talking about. They were trying to figure it out.

He was referring to the fact that He would be going to the cross where He would die. He would be leaving them. But then He would come back to life and so He would be with them again. This is what He was talking about. They didn’t get it. And they continued to not get it until He rose from the dead.

He said they would fall into deep sorrow. They wouldn’t come out of it until they saw Him again and they would rejoice in seeing Him alive. They weren’t getting it when He was telling them, but afterward they would remember that He had told them beforehand. And that was a comfort to them.

But the apostle John was not writing this down out of historical interest. The apostle John was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write this down for you. What Jesus told His disciples has meaning for you. It applies to you because what He said to the disciples shows you why God saved us in the way He did, humbling Himself to become a human being, to be bound by time, to suffer and die.

He is showing you how He uses time to save you. Jesus wasn’t just telling His disciples what would happen. He was saying that He would be leaving them in a little while. And then it would be a little while when He would return to them.

When you are experiencing sorrow it doesn’t seem like a little while. It seems like it won’t end. Jesus uses the example of a woman giving birth. She’s not thinking that this is a brief moment of difficulty. She must endure it because her baby is not coming right away.

But Jesus’ words are what determines what is. When Jesus was gone the disciples despaired in sorrow. But in the light of eternity it truly was a little while.

And now you experience a similar thing to the disciples. Jesus went away from them when He died, but then He returned to them when He rose. But then He left again, ascending into heaven. The disciples were left without Him but then He returned. You are left without Him and it seems anything but a little while until He returns to you.

And you know why this is? No, it’s not because two thousand years since Jesus ascended is a really long time. You are bound by time. You are viewing what Jesus says through your limited understanding. You need to see time from His perspective, not yours. You need to view your life the way He views your life, not in a way that makes sense to you. You need to see your life not as your own but as what God has given you to live and to see yourself not as who you are but who you are in Christ.

As a Christian you are not bound by time. You are not waiting around for God to save you. You aren’t in a holding pattern until God brings you to heaven. As a Christian you have eternal life. That’s life outside of time. It’s without end. It is life with God whether you are awake or asleep. You are not in a state of grace one moment and then apart from Christ the next if you have an evil thought. You are either in Christ or you’re not. If you’re in Christ you have eternal life, not salvation that will be given at some future point.

Jesus speaks of a little while because there is no long while with Him. Time is at His disposal. You can’t make time do what you want. You have only so much of it and it’s the same as what everybody else has. But Jesus? He uses time, something He is not bound by, to bring eternity to you. Since you cannot bring yourself out of time, He comes to you, in your life, in time, to give you eternal life. You now have life that is timeless, it is not here and then not, not flying by or dragging on interminably. It is life with God in Christ, forever.

Now, if you’re thinking, Okay, I have eternal life but I’m still here, aren’t I? I still have to set an alarm clock and be at meetings and appointments on time, don’t I? If I tell my boss that I have eternal life and so am not bound by time, he’ll tell me that if I’m late again I’ll be fired. Right?

Yes. You live in time and you should. God has given this to you to do. Having eternal life doesn’t remove you from your life here; your time, your vocations, your duties and responsibilities. The beauty of God giving you eternal life now is that it frees you up. And what Peter says about that in the Epistle reading is, Live as people who are free. You are a Christian, live like one. Don’t use your being freedom to just live as everyone else does, where they are constricted by time and cannot see beyond it.

Live, as Peter says, as one who freely gives of your time, because you are not subjugated to it. It’s not your time. You have eternal life! What is using your time to help someone when you’re tempted to think that you’ll be inconvenienced. Jesus freed you up from such a shortsighted and constricting view. You are freed up to help others. To serve them. To give of yourself to them. Your time, your resources. What are these in eternity? They are nothing more than as Jesus describes, a little while.

In a moment of time Jesus took in Himself the sin if the world. In that moment there was no time, Jesus brought eternity to earth. In Him God was reconciling the world to Himself. When you are reconciled to God, there is no time, only eternity. Time is momentary. Eternity is forever.

That’s why you need to stop thinking of God and what He does for you in terms of time. In a moment of time you were Baptized and you were no longer bound by time as you were brought into eternal life with God, you were and are now in Christ, who is above time. When He gives you His body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar, it is in a moment of time but there is no time. You are feasting with the angels and the archangels and the whole company of heaven. This is the Eternal Feast, the Feast of the Lamb. It has no ending; you are brought into this eternal Feast as you commune at this altar.

Heaven is not a place. It does not start and go on for a period of time. Heaven is being with God, without time, forever. He gives you heaven, eternity, in Jesus. He gives you Jesus right here, in this place, in this moment, at this altar. No time, no ending, just eternity. Amen.

SDG