The Glass Cross

Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany
February 15, 2009
Mark 1:40-45

If you would please take the Bible that’s in your pew and look at it. Don’t open it up, just look at it. What do you see? You see the Bible. Now look at it as though you’re looking at it through glass. It looks the same, doesn’t it? But imagine if that glass you’re looking through is in the shape of a cross. The Bible still looks the same, only now you’re not just seeing the Bible, you’re also seeing the cross. Not only that, you’re also seeing the Bible through the cross. Now open up the Bible, to any page, it doesn’t matter. Every word in that Bible is the Word of God. Every sentence, every phrase, every narrative is God speaking to you what He wants you to know.

Don’t just look at every word, though. Don’t simply believe it’s the Word of God and read for what you can get out of it. See it for what it really is. Look at it through that glass cross. When you read the Word of God see the cross as you’re reading.

This is what Jesus was trying to get the man to see in the Gospel reading. He didn’t want the man to see Him as the one who would take away his leprosy. He wanted the man to look at Him through a glass cross. In the Old Testament reading Naaman wanted to be healed from his leprosy. Elisha wanted him to see that God would offer him so much more. Naaman could only see that, though, if he looked through a glass cross.

Elisha didn’t know the specific name Jesus, the specific person Jesus. Naaman didn’t know anymore than Elisha did. The leper in the Gospel reading was face to face with Jesus, the one Elisha believed in as the promised Savior. But the leper didn’t know Jesus. He was looking at a man who could heal him. He didn’t look at Jesus through a glass cross.

We don’t know what happened to this man later on. But we know what happened to Jesus. The cross. The cross is what happened to Jesus. What Jesus was doing with that man who wanted healing was all about the cross. Elisha’s directive to Naaman was all about the cross. Jesus knew these things. And we know these things, too. Because we have the Word of God, the Bible. And we have a glass cross to see the Bible through.

Nothing Jesus did makes sense without the cross. Or at least, it’s ultimately meaningless without the cross. Everything in the Bible is useless to us without the cross. If you look at the Bible through any lens other than the cross you will not see Jesus and what He does for you. You will see a lot of things. But none of them will have anything to do with Jesus’ work of salvation for you.

When you see things through the glass cross you will see things differently than if you’re looking to get your due from God. You will begin to see that all that appears not quite right in your world is swallowed up in the cross. If the lens through which you’re looking at the world and your life is your problems and unmet needs, then you will miss the cross. And when you miss the cross you miss the salvation Christ brings to you.

You might wonder how in the world you can take the story of Naaman and the story of the leper in the Gospel reading and see it as all about the cross. The cross isn’t mentioned. The cross hadn’t even happened yet in both cases. How could these men be expected to know that that’s why Jesus came? And you might even wonder what the cross has to do with your life, and your problems, and your needs. How does the cross help you feel better when you’re suffering severe illness like the men in our Scripture readings? How does the cross impact your life in your struggles at work or with your family? How does the cross help you out when you have some real needs—not just wants—when you’re struggling financially month to month, when you fear you’re on the chopping block at work?

Talk about the cross is one thing. Jesus dying on the cross is all nice and good. But life is another thing. Practical life stuff is real—how does the cross make this stuff better? How does it help you in your life? Naaman found out. The leper in the Gospel reading found out. You can find out, too. Because you have something. You have a glass cross. Hold it up. Look at that Bible. Look at the words on the page. See what God does for you through the cross. See that the healing of Naaman and the leper of the Gospel reading were stops along the way to the cross. They were little snippets of the salvation God brings to you in the cross.

Whatever it is you’re going through, stop worrying about it and put the cross up before your eyes. Whatever your struggles, quit blaming God and look at the cross. You want to know what He’s doing to help you? Look at the cross. That’s what He does. He sends His Son to suffer in a way that you could never quite understand or endure. He sends His Son to come into this world where there are some who can’t even be around others or everyone else would suffer from such a horrible condition. But Jesus doesn’t just heal. He touches. He’s not afraid of leprosy, or anything else you might come to Him with. He’ll touch you in your condition and take it upon Himself. In fact, He’ll take it to its death in His own death. That happened on the cross. Nowhere else. In no other way. The cross. Not by you straightening up and flying right. Not by you believing enough or suffering enough. Not by you being a stronger Christian than some that you know aren’t as strong.

The cross. There’s only one reason Christ came. There’s only one reason God sent His Son. The cross. If this is the way it is for God, then why are we looking at everything but? Why are we wondering why we suffer as we do, when Christ has given us the cross? When He shows us that suffering is swallowed up in His suffering? Why are we questioning God when we struggle; when we don’t understand how He works—when He gives us the cross? Is it really so hard to see that it’s all about the cross? That that’s what Jesus is always pointing people to? That it’s what He is always pointing us to? Is it really so hard?

Yes. It is. We know it. We know it’s hard. We know we can’t do it. The doubts creep in. Pain piles onto more pain. Temptations come harder and more frequently the stronger we become. Struggles never seem to go away, only change their circumstances. What we do through all of this is see ourselves in it all. We ask the questions. We wonder why. We lament that it doesn’t seem all that blessed to be a Christian.

And you know what God’s reaction to this is? He’s angry. He’s beside Himself that we don’t see it. There’s one thing there, but we miss it. We can spot everything else and miss the one thing. The cross. Why else did Jesus speak harshly to the man after healing him? Because it meant nothing without the cross. The man didn’t see that. He went on his merry way, rejoicing in his freedom, and forgetting about what Jesus had told him. Apart from the cross the man’s healing means nothing. Apart from the cross our lives are separated from Christ, ultimately eternally in hell.

Through the cross, though, through the cross, you have life. You have life in Christ. You have life eternal. You have life in which you know that everything is given by God to you for your good or used by God for your good. You don’t have to wonder—you know. You know because you have a glass cross to look through. You know because He didn’t leave the cross back there, on Calvary, two thousand years ago. You know because He brings the cross to you. Today. Every day. In your life. Eternally. He brings the cross to you in your Baptism. In Baptism you died with Christ so that you may rise with Him. He brings the cross to you in Absolution. In Confession and Absolution you are slain, your sinful flesh convicted and brought low so that you may be raised up to new life. He brings the cross to you in His Holy Supper. In His Holy Supper He invites you to come and feast on Him. Come thirsty. Come hungry. Come with your illness, your sin, your guilt. He brings to you the cross. His body hung on that cross. His blood was shed on that cross. He brings you that. Yes, Himself.

That’s what the cross is all about. It’s all about Him. That’s what we need. We need Him. Not just whatever He can do for us (which is anything). What He did on the cross. That’s what He gives you. That’s why He came. That’s what you always have. Look through that glass cross and see Jesus. See your salvation. Amen.

SDG

Vocation, Vocation, Vocation

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
February 8, 2009
Mark 1:29-39

The three most important words in real estate are location, location, location. If your real estate agent shows you a gorgeous house that’s in a dumpy neighborhood you might think twice about buying that house. On the other hand, you might be willing to live in a house you’re not crazy about because of the area you’ll be living in.

Buying a house isn’t the easiest thing in the world. There are a lot of factors involved, more than just the location. Your financial situation, the economy, your plans for the future—all these things play into your decision to buy a house and whether or not you can do it. At the same time, it’s not the hardest thing in the world either.

Living the Christian life is, though. We often wonder, don’t we, why it’s so hard to be a Christian? We seek guidance in how to live a God-pleasing life. We look for practical advice—specific things we can do to live in the way God wants us to live.

So as one might give this advice to someone buying a home: the three most important words are location, location, location, let me give you this advice: the three most important words in living as a Christian in this world are vocation, vocation, vocation.

What is vocation? Vocation is not a job, although your job may be your vocation. Vocation is not a theory, although it’s not as easy to pin down as the location of a house or a particular job. Vocation is not theological jargon intended to side-step so-called practical advice on how to live in a godly way, although it is rich in theology and ultimately deeper than notions such as, here are ten practical ways to love God more, or to be a better spouse.

Vocation is a calling. It is what God has called you to. Vocation is not just a job, it’s a way of life. It’s who you are because of Christ. Vocation is service. Vocation is living in such a way that you’re not living for yourself but for God. Where you are serving God by serving others.

It’s too easy to discount the simple and ordinary things people do. Often when people are doing simple and ordinary things they are doing the greatest things. Because they are doing what God has called them to do. There is nothing higher than that. It is vocation. When Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law, she got up and served them. This shows us that Jesus healed her. But it also shows us that He healed her in order for her to carry out her vocation. Her serving them was every bit as much much a holy work as was Jesus healing her.

Location is as important to Christianity as it is to real estate. God had called her to serve there, where she was. Jesus Himself healed her there, where she was at. Not every Christian is called to serve in a “spectacular” way. In fact, most Christians are called to serve in very simple and ordinary ways. But we should never think that just because they are simple and ordinary that they’re not important and not as faithful of ways of serving God as the ones that look spectacular. In getting up and serving Jesus and her family Peter’s mother-in-law was carrying out her vocation. This was a blessed sight in the eyes of God.

When you watch a sporting event, you want to watch the players play. There are other people on the playing field with the athletes, though—the refs. But you’re not there to watch the refs. You want to see the game. You want to watch the players play. If the refs are doing their job, you won’t notice them. When they blow a call, that’s when you notice them and begin yelling at the TV. But every once in a while, I actually like watching the refs. I enjoy watching them do what they do, which is their job. They do their job very well, and I love to see people doing what they do when they make an effort to do it well. This is vocation. When you do what God has called you to do. Refing a game is an example. Playing a game is another. Mopping the floor is one. These are not spectacular things, they’re ordinary things.

After He healed Peter’s mother-in-law, Jesus went out and healed a bunch of people. Jesus is doing what He had done in Peter’s home, healing. The people He is healing are also doing what they have been called to do, receive what Christ gives to them. We’d normally think of vocation as something we do, but God calls us to receive before we give. That’s what happened with Peter’s mother-in-law. She was unable to carry out her vocation until she had first received help from Christ.

The carrying out of our vocation as Christians is not just doing good works. It is receiving from Christ what He wants to give us so that we may then serve. This is what the people were doing. They were receiving from Christ. This is what Satan does not want to happen. He tries to prevent us from receiving from Christ. He was hard at work with his demons when they were getting in the way of Jesus healing the people. But since this is Jesus’ vocation He would have none that. He made clear that the demons were not to speak.

There’s a lot of healing going on in today’s Gospel reading. That’s, after all, Jesus’ vocation. He heals Peter’s mother-in-law, He heals all the people that come to Him, He goes out from there to other towns to heal people. We saw what happened when Peter’s mother-in-law was healed—she got right to work carrying out her vocation. We don’t hear what happened with all the crowds. Did some of them get right back to work, serving where God had called them to serve, carrying out their vocations? No doubt some of them did. Did some of them just go back home and never give it another thought that Jesus had called them also to Life? That is, eternal life, and were therefore free to serve others? No doubt there were these, too.

That’s the way it is with Christ. He calls you. He gives you life. He gives you to a place where you may serve. He calls you to carry out a vocation that is specific to you. Nobody can make you do it. God’s not going to bash you over the head if you’re too lazy to serve others. But He does call you. And with the call comes the reward. Think about this. If you reject His call, you are rejecting the reward. If you don’t want to go to heaven, you won’t. If you want to be eternally in hell, you will. God simply gives. He doesn’t force.

That’s what vocation is all about. It’s about your Lord carrying out His vocation of saving you. He heals in the ways we need the most. The Gospel reading speaks of fevers and diseases and demon-possessions. The healing Jesus brought to these people was a present manifestation of His healing of souls. He forgives your sin. He heals your sinful condition. His disciples brought the message that people were looking for Him. No wonder! But He moved on from there: “‘Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.’ And He went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.” And He kept on going, all the way to the cross.

This is the way God works. He carries out His vocation—which is to save us. How He does it is often through very simple and ordinary ways. And it has everything to do with where He locates Himself. For three years, it was in the Person of Jesus Christ, walking the land to heal and teach and finally to suffer in the place of every person. This salvation is yours, where you’re at. Where you’re at is where He has located you. Where you’re located is where you serve, where you carry out your vocation. Don’t worry, He’ll never tire of His vocation of serving you, of giving you what you need in His Word and Sacraments. That’s where He locates Himself so that when you draw your last breath you will find that He has called you Home. Amen.

SDG

Never Count Him Out

Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
February 1, 2009
Mark 1:21-28

Maybe he was getting a little too big for his britches. A little too full of himself. Who did he think he was, anyway? Why was it that everything he says goes? Why shouldn’t others also have a say in how things would go?

There were some who actually stood up to him. Some who told him what they thought of him. You don’t have a corner on God wants. We also want to have a say. So they told him. They would bring him down a notch. Maybe then he would see that it wasn’t all about him, but about them as well.

Moses had actually tried to get out of this gig when God first called him to it. If only Aaron and Miriam would have thought things through they would have realized that Moses had never wanted it to be about him. He wanted God to call somebody else. But when God calls a man God is the one calling the shots. You’re free to reject the call, of course. But, then, you’re rejecting God as well. He will find somebody else. He always does. And that’s really the reason why it’s never about the person He calls. He can always find somebody else. But when He calls you He’s the one at work. He’s the one doing the thing that’s being done.

Something Aaron and Miriam had forgotten. They accused Moses of it being about himself when really they were the ones wanting it to be about themselves. It’s hard to see who it’s really about when you’re concerned with it being about you. Moses finally got it. He tried to get out of God’s call at the beginning not because he didn’t want it to be about himself but because he did. He didn’t want to follow God’s call but go his own path.

Today’s Old Testament reading shows us that the greatest prophet of the Old Testament—Moses—has no greatness in and of himself but his greatness lies in pointing us to the Prophet par excellence, Jesus Christ. Why did God point to the greatness of Moses in the Old Testament? Because in looking at Moses you were seeing the representative of God—of, in fact, Jesus Christ. You weren’t supposed to listen to what Moses had to say, but what God was saying through Moses. When God called Moses to speak then you were to listen. That’s what God does, He calls people to speak so that you may hear Him, that is, God. You discount Moses, you discount God. Never count Him out, though. God will find a way to speak to you, even through a stammering Israelite like Moses.

Never count Him out. Even when He comes into a small town like Capernaum. Even when He makes His grand entrance to earth in a little town, and there, in a stable. Even when He’s then incognito for thirty years. Even when His grand Ministry is often carried out in small towns like Capernaum. Never count Him out, because He is the Prophet par excellence, the one God promised in the Old Testament reading. The one God Himself sent.

Moses showed up and told the people of God what God had to say. Jesus showed up, too. He went into that synagogue and spoke the Word of God. What did Satan think of all this? Well, he doesn’t like it when God is constantly getting His Word out. Through people, of all things. So Satan attacks those people. Moses was doing his job, bringing the Word of God to the people of God, and he was attacked by those people, his own brother and sister, no less. This is what Satan does. He tempts us. He gets us thinking that God wouldn’t work in the way He does. He should work in a way that conforms with our sensibilities.

This is what God does, though. He gets His Word out. Through people. Through His own Son, in fact. He is the the very Word itself. The Word made flesh. Never discount God. Even when He comes Himself. Even when He comes in His own way. As a man. Coming with His very own Word to give. The people were astonished at His words. How could a man from these parts have this kind of authority? How could He be speaking authoritatively, unlike the scribes who were professional teachers of the Word of God?

In fact, it seems that we’re often the ones who count Him out. Satan never does. That’s why he went after Moses. That’s why he went after Jesus in the wilderness. Failing there, he kept after Him, in this case a demon trying to put a stop to Jesus’ bringing God’s Word to the people of the synagogue. The demon even clearly says he knows who Jesus is. And then he even says it! There’s no discounting who Jesus is by Satan.

But there’s no returning the favor, either. Jesus not only counts out Satan, He brings him to his knees. If God will not allow His people to go against His chosen vessel, whether Moses or His Son, neither will Jesus allow Satan to be the one telling the world who Jesus is. Be silent! Come out of him! There is no way Satan could count out Jesus. No way. The demon came out of the man even as he was commanded to.

The people? They were still kind of dazed. What was going on? How did this man come to be able to do this stuff? In other words, they were still counting God out. Not quite sure what to make of Jesus; not quite sure if God really could work through an ordinary man. His fame spread, though. And no wonder. The things Jesus was doing were amazing. But His fame should not be confused with seeing that Jesus was indeed very God of very God and the Word made flesh. Crowds that thronged to Him during His Ministry were nowhere to be found in His suffering and death. Even here God was at work in Jesus and even then should not have been counted out, because it was in that very suffering and death the Word of God was most clearly brought to mankind.

If you wonder what to make of the Church that sends regular men to pastor congregations; what to think of the Church that Baptizes babies as well as those who haven’t long to live; what to make of the Church that centers its life around a meal that doesn’t offer much to eat but trusts that what is being partaken of is food of nothing less than immortality; what to make of God doing His work that He does through ordinary words—written on the pages of the Bible, proclaimed by those He calls, spoken to His people to forgive their sins… then take a look at Jesus. Don’t count Him out. If He wants to come to you in water and bread and wine and ordinary words, marvel if you will, but especially rejoice! Rejoice that as He sauntered into that synagogue in Capernaum, so He comes into this House here today, to do the very same thing: forgive you and bring you life. Amen.

SDG

Jesus Calls You to Die

Third Sunday after the Epiphany
The Conversion of Paul
January 25, 2009
Mark 1:14-20

In the Gospel reading we have an end of an era, a beginning of an era, and the one who stands in the middle of it all. John the Baptist was on his way out. Peter and Andrew, James and John, they were on their way in. Jesus, He was always there—before John was ever born, and long after the last apostle was laid to rest.

The Gospel, then, is never about John, or John, or his brother James, or Peter and his brother. It’s never about you and me, but always about the one who is in the middle of it all, the one who has been around long before we ever knew there was a Gospel.

If you look at what happened to John the Baptist and what would happen to Peter and John and their brothers, you might wonder exactly what good the Gospel is. John the Baptist gets arrested, and then decapitated. Peter, Andrew, and James, and all the other apostles were likewise martyred. John was the only one not martyred, and even then, he was sent to the island of Patmos to live out the rest of his days in isolation.

Where is Jesus in all of that? Jesus didn’t go get John the Baptist out of prison, He simply called more men to be martyrs for Him. And that’s exactly what He calls you and me to. Today. Every day. For our whole lives.

It doesn’t sound so great, does it? Maybe even kind of dreary… But it’s right there, in His very own words: “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” He is calling you to die. And in calling you to die, He is calling you to life. Just as He did with John the Baptist; just as with Peter, and Andrew, and James, and John. This wasn’t the end of one era and the beginning of another, after all. It was simply what our Lord has been doing ever since His first promise of the Gospel in the Garden of Eden. Calling sinners to repentance. Calling them to life.

When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said “Repent,” He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.

Everybody dies. There is no escaping death. The question is, what kind of death are you going to die? When Christ calls you, He calls you to life. But true life can only come through death. You cannot circumvent death. So He gives you life through death. Repentance is death to self. It is the drowning of the Old Man and the resurrection of the New. Repentance and faith go together: Repent and believe in the Gospel. Repentance turns away from the wretchedness of selfishness and sin. Faith clings to Jesus Christ and His righteousness. There is no true life without death to the sinful nature.

Jesus is always there in the middle of it. He didn’t go get John out of prison. He didn’t prevent John the apostle from being incarcerated on Patmos. Didn’t step in when the other apostles were martyred. Jesus, in fact, was only around for three years in His Ministry. That’s what He came for.

He came to do His thing. Not get us out of jams. Not pave the way for us so that things would go smoothly. Not to make everything work out for us. He came to minister. To serve. To save. He came, in fact, to die. That’s why He came. And that’s why He calls us. He calls us to die, too. He came to die in order to bring life. He calls you to death in order to bring you to life.

In that prison cell, John the Baptist had life. In his prison cell on Patmos John the apostle had life. In the moments before their martyrdom and in their deaths, the apostles had life. Jesus had given all of them eternal life in their Baptism. Daily they lived out their Baptism, repenting of their sins and believing in the Gospel.

You have this same life. Because you have died the same death. You, too, have been Baptized. You too, repent of your sins. You also believe that Jesus is your hope and salvation. You, too, have been called by Jesus. And you also endure suffering for the sake of Christ. There may come a day when you, too, will be martyred on account of Christ. There will come times when others see you as weak for leaning on a God you cannot see for your help and your hope. You will be derided by those who are offended at your certainty that there is salvation in no one other than Jesus Christ. Your life on this earth ultimately isn’t what your life is about. Your life in Christ is. Your life on this earth continues because you sustain your life. Your life in Christ is sustained by daily dying to sin.

As you go through life Jesus isn’t standing next to you, but He’s in the middle of it all. He is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, the one in whom you live and move and have your being. He is, He was, and He always will be. He is the eternal God who died for you. He is the eternal God who bids you die to bring you life that has no end. The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. God comes to you in His Son. He comes as the one born a baby of Mary, the one who was Baptized by John, the one who called Peter and James, the one who lived and suffered for people who are dead in sin.

And who are those people who are dead in sin? Your neighbor. Your boss, your employee. Your dad, your daughter, a person on the other side of the world you don’t even know. John the Baptist. John the apostle. Peter. You and me. We could go on with the list, but there’s no need. The answer is everyone. Jesus died for everyone who has ever lived. He wants all people to live forever with Him and that only comes through death. His death is what brings about life for everyone. You are brought to life when you die in Christ. This death occurs in your Baptism. That is how you die to sin.

Since while you live on this earth you remain in your sinful flesh, you must die daily. That’s what repentance is. You confess your sins. You turn from your sins and believe that Jesus is your salvation from them. You struggle daily against your flesh. It wants to feed your sinful appetites. But in the new life Christ gives you in Baptism you are fed by His Word and by His Body and Blood. That’s why you need to sustain yourself with Christ and not what you are tempted with.

How do you repent? How do you believe in the Gospel? The answer is Jesus. It’s how John the Baptist, Peter, Andrew, James, and John repented and believed and it’s how you do, too. When He calls you, He calls you to die. That’s how you repent. That’s how you believe. He is the one who kills you and He is the one who makes you alive. He has the power to do it, He is the Creator of universe. He has the love to do it, He died for the sin of the world. Repent and believe in the Gospel. Rejoice in Christ’s call to you to die, which is nothing else than His bringing you to life. Amen.

SDG

Come and See

Second Sunday after the Epiphany
The Confession of Peter
January 18, 2009
John 1:43-51

Everything goes back to the First Commandment. When God says you shall have no other gods He means exactly that. It’s easy for us to say and believe we believe in God and therefore do not have other gods. But the fact is, we do have other gods. We do put other things before God. We don’t mean to. We don’t like to. It doesn’t seem that we do.

But we do.

When God says, “You shall have no other gods,” what does He mean? He means that anything that comes between Him and you is your god. He means that whatever you place before Him is you not believing in Him as your true Lord and Savior.

Am I saying that you’re not Christians, after all? That you don’t really believe in God? Yes, I am saying that. And yet, you do believe in God, don’t you. You who are Baptized and believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior are Christians. So how can these two opposite things both be true? They are both true because in your heart you have other gods before the one true God and at the same time by God’s grace you believe with all your heart in the one true God.

If this doesn’t make sense, then you’re right where you need to be. It doesn’t make sense. The Bible makes no attempt to make sense out of it, and neither should we. Belief in God is not understanding that God exists and is the true God. Believing in God is trusting in Him above all things. And we don’t do that, do we? And yet, by God’s grace, we do.

If you wonder why Nathanael thought it was so amazing that Jesus knew him because He saw him under the fig tree, then you’re in the right position to be in. If you can’t figure out why Jesus said that this was so spectacular, then you’re right where you need to be. On the other hand, if you’re insistent on figuring this stuff out then that is your god. Yours is not the true God.

It’s fashionable among Christians to know God is real in your life because you feel it. It’s common in Christianity to go to great lengths to provide evidence for the truth of the Bible and the truth of Christ’s resurrection and so forth. There are strands in Christianity that state categorically that if things aren’t going well for you it’s because you don’t have enough faith. It’s sensible that if we clearly present the Gospel to others that they will “get it” and convert.

But these things become our gods. God gave us feelings, but we can’t rely on them. It’s valuable to build a case with the evidence for the truth of the Bible and the existence of God, but that’s not going to save anyone. If we think things should always go well for us, what need is there for faith? We are to share the Gospel with others, but should we expect that they will be converted? If they are not, do we despair of ourselves or of the Gospel?

Where is God in all these things? He’s not there. You can look for Him, but you won’t find Him. That’s why He’s given us the First Commandment. Because we are constantly having other gods. We don’t think we are. We may not mean to. But we are. We search for Him in all these other ways thinking that we’re finding God because it seems that it’s right in our hearts or we feel His power in our lives or we see the evidence of a person’s conversion because things are going so well for them now. These things are persuasive but have nothing to do with God. They have everything to do with us.

That’s what Nathanael wanted, wasn’t it? How can anything good come out of Nazareth? Certainly you can offer me something better than that. Surely this guy can’t be the real deal, I don’t feel anything special when you tell me about Him.

What should Philip do, then? Try to persuade him? Show him the evidence? Chide him for not having enough faith? We see a lot of that kind of stuff in the Church, don’t we? Maybe we do it ourselves, perhaps without even realizing it. We wonder why some don’t believe when we lay it all out for them. We’re amazed that people keep having the same problems in their lives even though they appear to be strong Christians. Perhaps your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ have left you feeling less sure of your faith in times where you need to be encouraged and strengthened.

Maybe Philip took the lazy way out. Let’s see, do I really want to take the time to explain things to this guy? I’ll just tell him to come see for himself. Actually, what Philip did was get out of the way. He let Jesus do the work. Far from taking the lazy way, Philip did exactly what Nathanael needed him to do: give him Jesus. Nathanael didn’t need Philip and all his evidence and persuasion and strong-arm tactics. He needed the Gospel. That’s it. The Gospel.

You shall have no other gods means exactly that. And when people need the Gospel, they need exactly that. They don’t need all kinds of other stuff that is only going to move them to place their trust in other things. They need the Gospel, which will instill in them faith, trust in the one true God. Because when you give them Jesus you give them everything they need.

And that’s why you have preaching. Not an extended Bible Study. Not a persuasive speech. Not a step-by-step of how to be a better Christian or parent or employee. Preaching. The Gospel. That’s what you need. It’s what Nathanael needed. It’s what Philip had received from Jesus and was now giving to Nathanael. Christ crucified is the Gospel. It has been preached for two thousand years. It will continue to be preached. Those who don’t want to hear it will content themselves with other gods. The one true God will keep giving you His Son, Christ and Him crucified. Come and see. Your Savior hung on the cross for all the world to see what good has come out of Nazareth. Only the salvation of the world.

Come and see, your Savior once again delivering Himself to you, this time not on a cross, but in bread and wine. You will find Him here. At His altar. Not in your heart, where your feelings reside and are ever so slippery. Here. At His altar. In bread and wine, delivered into your mouth so that you may not feel God’s presence but be forgiven of your sins. So that you may be strengthened in the faith He has given you in the Gospel. So that you may know that you don’t have to keep searching for evidence, or that your life is going pretty well, or whatever it is you seek from God. Come and see Him where He’s at and in the way He comes to you. His body hanging on the cross was tangible. His blood that was shed flowed freely. That very body and blood are given to you today in the Supper He has prepared for you.

Come and see. Don’t take the easy way out and seek comfort and strength in other gods through your feelings or evidence. Come and see the one who washes away your sins in the water of your Baptism. You will indeed feel very loved by your Lord at times. You will undoubtedly rejoice in how well things are going for you at times. You will certainly be strengthened by knowing that the evidence for Christ being true God is ample and overwhelming. But don’t seek these things for assurance. Know simply that you are Baptized. Know that your Lord has made you His own in your Baptism.

The whole episode of Jesus and Nathanael is odd, isn’t it? Nathanael scoffs at Philip’s invitation. And yet, Jesus appears to praise Nathanael as one who it without guile. Maybe a better way of saying it is that Jesus was commending Nathanael for being a straight shooter, he told it like it is. He wasn’t convinced. But that made no difference to Jesus. He doesn’t care which gods you place before Him, they’re all the same to Him. All He cares about is giving you what you need. And that’s Himself. It’s the Gospel. He never came to lay things out so that you could perfectly sort them out and understand them. He came simply to give you Himself. Come and see, just as Nathanael did. With Jesus you begin to see how foolish you were in all the different gods you sought after. You begin to see how grateful you are in how generous the true God is in inviting you to come and see Him in His Son. Amen.

SDG

One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism

The Baptism of Our Lord
First Sunday after the Epiphany
January 11, 2009
Mark 1:4-11

God has called you. That’s something you may forget in the ordinary things you do each day. You may not see why it matters when you’re working at your job every day. You might not understand what it means at all for God to call you. You might see your life as made up of a hodge-podge of different activities and roles you carry out, with no apparent integration in your life.

But God has called you. The Scriptures show us this. When you look at the Scriptures you may see the same thing you see in your life. No apparent meaning for your day to day activities and experiences, uncertainty about its application for your life. The Bible may seem to you a bunch of stories of people and events that are unrelated to each other and even more unrelated to you and what you experience.

God has called you. Just as He called the many people we meet in the Scriptures. Of all the millions of people in the world, He wants you to know He has called you. Just as He wanted the many people we meet in the Scriptures to know He called them. What He called them to He calls you to. What He wanted for them He wants for you. What was true in their day is true for you in your life.

There is one Lord. He is your Lord just as He was theirs. What their Lord did for them He does for you. He called them, He calls you. There is no difference to the faith they believed in and the faith you believe in. There is one Lord and one faith. He brings His people into the faith through means. The promise from Him is that He will be your God and you will be His people. The promise He gives He makes good on through the means He institutes. In the Old Testament it was circumcision, in the New Testament it is Baptism. The one Lord brings you into the faith through Baptism. There is one Lord, one faith, one Baptism.

In the Gospel reading John the Baptist appears in the wilderness. But He doesn’t appear out of the blue. This is all part of God’s eternal plan. This is part of the unfolding of God’s calling of His people. The Lord John the Baptist pointed people to was the Lord of Abraham and David and Isaiah. The faith John the Baptist preached was the faith of Adam and Moses and Elijah. In introducing Baptism, John the Baptist was introducing something new in the sense that it was distinct from circumcision, but the same in the sense that the one Lord was calling His people to the one faith in the means of Baptism, just as He had done for centuries through circumcision. John the Baptist is the bridge between the Old Testament and the New Testament, both of which call us to the one Lord, the one faith, the one Baptism.

The Bible uses language the way we do. Sometimes it speaks literally, sometimes figuratively. When Mark tells us that “all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to [John] and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins,” he obviously didn’t mean that every single person in Judea and Jerusalem were going out to John. This is a way of speaking, that John’s arrival made a big impact. But it means something else, also. It means that the one Lord came for all. Not just those who came out to listen to John and be Baptized by him. For all. Jesus Christ came in the place of all. God desires that all people be His people. God gives the one Lord, to call everyone to the one faith, and receive the one Baptism.

When John came on the scene, what did he do? He preached, he baptized. He preached Christ, he Baptized with a Baptism of repentance. He came as a servant. He came to serve Jesus, the one Lord. He, John said, would Baptize with the Holy Spirit. And that’s exactly what Jesus does. He Baptizes you with the Holy Spirit; just as His people received the Holy Spirit through circumcision. He calls you to the one faith through the one Lord in the one Baptism with which He Baptizes you.

When Jesus came, what did He do? Did He Baptize? No, John was doing that. Did He preach? John was doing that, also. What Jesus did when He came on the scene was be Baptized. The one Lord is the Lord of the one faith and gives His one Holy Baptism that we may called by God. So why did He come and not start Baptizing? Why did He come and be Baptized Himself when He is the one who calls, not the one who needs to be called?

Because He is the one Lord of the one faith of the one Baptism. God doesn’t just call us, He calls us through Christ. He brings about faith in us through Christ, the one Lord. He calls us to eternal life through Christ, in whom we are united in Baptism. You are not called out of the blue. God calls you in Christ. He doesn’t call you to strive for obedience to Him, He calls you through the obedience of the one Lord Jesus Christ who came as Servant. All of Judea and Jerusalem needed the Baptism of John. They needed to repent of their sins. That’s because all people do. All people need faith. Jesus does not need to repent, He is the author of faith. He is the Lord.

But all are granted forgiveness through the one Lord who serves by taking their place. Jesus was Baptized by John for you. John didn’t want to Baptize Jesus because he knew Jesus is without sin. Jesus wanted to be Baptized by John because He knew that when He takes the place of sinners He is the one counted a sinner by His Heavenly Father and the sinners are declared without sin by His Heavenly Father. What God the Father declared to His only-begotten Son at His Baptism, God the Father declares to you in your Baptism. There is one Lord, one faith, one Baptism.

The one Lord is the one who suffered in your place, dying and rising for you. The one Lord is the Lord who brings you into the one faith, the faith of those who have gone before you and which is yours in Baptism. What God calling you means for you is that in your day to day life you possess eternal life. What God calling you means for you is that you are a child of God. God calling you means that you don’t just go through ordinary activities every day—that there’s meaning to your life. You’re a servant to your family, your friends, and the people of the world. Don’t you want to tell your brothers and sisters of this world the Good News that the one Lord Jesus has come to serve them and bring them into the one faith of eternal life? Just as the one Lord came in your place to serve and save you, you are in His place as you carry out your calling in your daily activities and interaction with the people in your life and the strangers you meet.

All are in need of the one Lord who has come to serve. All are in need of the one faith to which He calls us. All are in need of the eternal waters of Baptism. This promise is for you in your Baptism. God has called you to serve Him; He has called you to eternal life—by the one Lord, in the one faith, through the one Baptism. Amen.

SDG

Do You Take Yourself too Seriously?

Second Sunday after Christmas
January 4, 2009
Luke 2:40-52

Jesus was an obedient child. Mary and Joseph were comfortable in leaving Him to come home with relatives in the group without checking in with them. They trusted Him. But when they needed to talk to Him they were struck with the realization that “boys will be boys” evidently applied to their son also. They still didn’t have an understanding of the whole Jesus thing. They were still somewhat stuck on themselves.

Why were they astonished at what they witnessed in the temple? Why did they insist that He should have been with them rather than in the House of God? Why did they not understand what their precocious boy was insisting on?

It’s because they took themselves too seriously. This is a characteristic of us Christians. I guess we should lump the non-Christians in here also. We’re always getting in the way of Jesus doing His thing. Notice how very unseriously He takes Himself. He obediently goes with His parents to Jerusalem for the Passover. When He goes, He seems to be the only one in the group—including His parents—who seems to know why they really were going there. He stays behind. Not to get into trouble as boys can be prone to do. To be in His Father’s House. To be about the business of what the Passover is all about.

And as we know from the New Testament, what the Passover is all about is Jesus. Jesus knew this, even at twelve years old. Jesus was in His Father’s House because it’s communion with Him that is the ultimate goal. The Passover of the Old Testament was the shedding of a lamb’s blood to be painted on the doorpost so that the Angel of Death would pass over that house and the occupants would be spared. By being in God’s House even at such a young age, Jesus was being prepared by His Heavenly Father for Himself being the very Lamb of God whose blood would be shed so that we may be spared eternal death and receive salvation, communing with God eternally in heaven.

Oftentimes precocious little boys can take themselves far more seriously than what they ought to. Not Jesus. He knows who He is, but when He is with the teachers in the temple He is listening and asking questions. Jesus is always Jesus. He is always God and always working His work to bring salvation. But He never is full of Himself. He always is coming in humility. And that is why even when everyone is amazed at His understanding and His answers, it’s not through standing up among men and teaching them a thing or two, but through listening and asking questions.

And even though He corrected His mom, He never once upbraided His parents. Rather, He went home with them and was submissive to them. That’s what we learn in the fourth commandment, and in Jesus it is fulfilled in perfection. That is because Jesus is the ultimate servant, delighting in God’s will. He never took Himself too seriously but always took seriously the passion and will of His Heavenly Father to save the people He created.

That’s why we need to get out of the way. So that we can stop dwelling on ourselves and get caught up in the salvation work of our Lord. It’s a shame we so often take ourselves too seriously. We’re very concerned about our rights. Kids want to make sure everything’s fair. But don’t we want our due? Aren't we envious of those who seem to have more or better when there’s no reason we don’t deserve it as much as they do? When we have difficult decisions to make, aren’t they often difficult because we want to get out of doing the right thing to ensure we can get what we want?

Perhaps you made new year’s resolutions. Look them over. What ways have you determined you’re going to improve yourself? Are they all concentrated on what you need to do to be better? Do they focus on how you can enjoy life more? None of this is bad. But are you taking yourself too seriously? Do you easily dismiss the true and eternal focus and basis of your life? Mary and Joseph did. He was right there with them. After twelve years of raising the Son of God they still took themselves too seriously. They still weren’t ready to see in Him the very salvation of the world. They still needed to think of themselves as the ones who were calling the shots.

They weren’t quite ready for kings bowing down before their baby. They weren’t thrilled with their twelve year old son who wandered off on His own to be about some business they didn’t quite understand. They weren’t ready for a son who went out and got Himself arrested and brutally beaten and killed on a cross.

We take all these things for granted because we’ve heard them so many times. But do we take ourselves any less seriously than Jesus’ parents? We might not have much problem with a baby who has come to save us. Or even a twelve year old. Or an adult. But how much stock do we put in our Baptism when things get rough in our lives? How much do we long for Holy Communion when we’re troubled by our sins? How much do we really take comfort in hearing the Gospel proclaimed to us for the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our faith?

Mary treasured up all those amazing events in her heart. We ought to do the same. Because it was only through her Son that she had true life. It is only through her Son that we see we don’t need to take ourselves so seriously because He has taken seriously our condition and need for salvation. He has taken it so seriously that, even at age twelve, He was about His Father’s business. So seriously that He was ready and willing to suffer for our sin, for our guilt, and in our place. So seriously that it was not beneath Him to become a man as we are. To be a servant and delight in His Heavenly Father calling on Him to love and serve and save.

Do you take yourself too seriously? Try something refreshing for a change. Look to Jesus. Whatever He’s doing, He’s doing it for you. Whatever He is about, He’s about it for your salvation. When He Baptizes you, you’re Baptized—and that means He’ll never let you go. When He gives you His Body and Blood in His Holy Supper, that means He is giving you Himself—so that you know you don’t need to rely on yourself for the strength you need in life and for eternity. When He comes to you in the preaching of His Word, you know that no matter how seriously you take yourself, He’ll strip you down so that all you’ll be able to see are your sins and His eternal sacrifice on the cross that wipes them out. When He comes again in glory you will laugh, or maybe cry, at how seriously you had taken yourself. But because He loved you even when you were His enemy, you will rejoice that He is very serious about saving you and always working out salvation for you for all eternity. Amen.

SDG

On the Shedding of Blood

New Year’s Eve
Eve of the Circumcision and Name of Jesus
December 31, 2008
Luke 12:35-40

First let me say, “Happy New Year!”

Now we can get to the actual business of why we can wish each other a Happy New Year. It’s worth our noting that we’re in the House of God on the last day of the year. It’s worth noting that we’re here because we’re Christians. Anyone can wish anyone a Happy New Year, and we shouldn’t deny them that in any way.

But it’s also worth our time to be very specific about why this year ahead is a Happy New Year. It is because of the shedding of blood. It’s not because God will cause you to prosper financially, although if He does, you may certainly count that as a blessing. It’s not because He promises all your children will be healthy and successful, although you ought certainly to thank God if you receive those blessings. It’s not because He promises to bring to an end the wars of this world and the suffering people endure at the hands of tyrants, although anytime those things happen we may rejoice in God’s continued care for His creation.

The reason the new year will be blessed is because of the shedding of blood. The reason we are here is because of the shedding of blood. The reason we have existence in the favor of God is because of the shedding of blood. Not because He brings all wars to an end, because your children are free from sickness, and you have the financial capacity to care for your family. All of those blessings are wonderful, which is why they’re called blessings.

But without the shedding of blood they vanish before you know it. Is it hard to see how fleeting they are? We’re already here to 2009! Where has the time gone? We know at some point it will come to an end, perhaps sooner rather than later. We can rejoice in all the temporal blessings God gives us but we should do so asking Him that He would grant us the peace of always being mindful of and trusting in the eternal blessings He grants to us. Those come through the shedding of blood.

That’s why it’s going to be a Happy New Year. How does our Lord describe Himself in the Gospel reading? As one who serves. He’s not a servant. He’s the Master. And yet, He serves, doesn’t He? How He serves is by coming to those He serves. In the Gospel reading the description points us to His coming again on the Last Day to serve them one last time on this earth. The way He will do that is by taking them from the earth into the eternal glories of heaven. He tells us this beforehand so that we may be ready.

How do we get ready? We get ready by fixing our faith on the shedding of blood. The Bible fixes our focus on the shedding of blood of a specific person—Jesus Himself. He, the Lord, has served us by shedding His blood. The New Year coincides with the festival in the Church Year of the Circumcision and Name of Jesus. We know what circumcision is. There is shedding of blood involved. Even here as an infant, Jesus was already accomplishing His work of salvation, His work of serving us. The shedding of His blood as an infant in His circumcision points to the shedding of His blood on Calvary.

On the eighth day of life Jesus was given His name. Matthew says the reason for the name was because He would forgive His people of their sins. His name and its meaning is tied to the shedding of His blood at His circumcision. All of this points to His shedding of His blood on Calvary and why His blood was shed in that sacrifice. It was for the forgiveness of sins. That means eternal life. We are reconciled with God. It means in the new year we have new life every day. Because Jesus shed His blood you can wake each day in the new year knowing that you are forgiven.

The year ahead is a blessing God gives you to serve you. He came to serve by giving His lifeblood for you. When He comes on the Last Day He will serve you by welcoming you into His eternal home. In the coming year and throughout your life He serves you giving you in His Supper the very blood He shed on the cross. He does this because He has exhorted you to be ready for His coming on the Last Day. How can you be prepared if you’re left to your own will and ability? You can’t, but being forgiven and strengthened by Him serving you you can and will. The year ahead will bring unknowns, challenges, problems, and sadness. Rejoice that despite and even in those things you are forgiven, your Lord who shed His blood for you forgiving you each day and always. Amen.

SDG

Why We Celebrate Birth

The Nativity of Our Lord
Christmas Day
December 25, 2008
John 1:1-14

We celebrate birth because with birth there is new life. Where there is new life there is opportunity. There is hope, there is joy. With birth there is the promise of tomorrow.

When life is taken away there is sadness. It seems to suck out our hope. There was potential for so much and now it seems to be gone. There are times where we are relieved that our loved one is now free from tremendous suffering, but when your child is lost in the womb or infancy there doesn’t seem to be any reason for joy or hope. When your loved one is taken in the prime of their life you try to make sense of it. We celebrate birth; we celebrate life—when that is taken away, there is sorrow and sadness. We easily know why we celebrate birth.

But often something happens after that. We celebrate life in the birth of our children, in the birth of our relatives’ and friends’ children. But what happens after their birth? Do we feel that same joy and opportunity as they grow and live their lives? You’re not aware of your own birth, but you’re very aware of the life you live. Do you have joy and see opportunity every day of your life? Or do you just live, trying to get by?

Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter are the three Christian festivals which most distinguish what God says about our lives in comparison with what we often think about our lives. Humans throughout history have sought meaning in their lives in countless ways. How else can you explain the thousands of religions and belief systems? People seek meaning in all kinds of ways, trying to accomplish joy in their lives, seeking to capture the opportunity of life.

Some people gain their significance through their work. Some seek happiness in their children. Some search for contentment in various religions. Some attempt to find meaning in their lives by trying something new, hoping it will give them the joy they are lacking. Although there is variety in these things there is one thing at the center of them: the person seeking fulfillment. We are by nature the center of our own lives. When all is said and done, we seek joy and meaning in ourselves. When a baby is born, guess who’s at the center of attention? The baby is who everybody talks about and ogles over. But as we grow, we continue to make ourselves the center of attention for ourselves.

It’s not that we shouldn’t celebrate birth and life. And it’s not that we shouldn’t seek to be happy and desire fulfillment. It’s that we’re going about it the wrong way. We’re looking inward, when God tells us that we ought to look outside of ourselves. Not by looking for meaning in manmade things, that’s the same as looking within ourselves. By looking at the specific way God gives us true fulfillment, ultimate joy, the greatest opportunity.

That’s why we celebrate Jesus’ birth. That’s why we give thanks for Good Friday. That’s why we rejoice in Easter. God tells us to get off ourselves and latch onto Christ. His birth, His life. Jesus’ birth gives true meaning to our birth. He was born that we may not die. Our birth is something indeed to celebrate, but there is only true opportunity in new birth. The Gospel reading gives true hope because of the second birth God gives us. It comes about because God chose to be born. Jesus was born of Mary so that we may be born of God.

We celebrate life, and we have every reason to. But there is the ultimate lost opportunity if our celebrating and search for meaning is joy apart from the one was born in a stable. There is the ultimate tragedy if our joy is not centered in the one who was born to live in order to die in our place and rise to guarantee us unending joy in heaven.

There’s a lot wrapped up in that little baby lying in a manger. The very Son of God. The salvation of the world. Hope that is secure because it’s hope in Him and not ourselves. True joy, because it’s joy in Him and what He has done for us, not what we seek to do. True life, because it is the life of God Himself, not just a temporal life. We celebrate life, but especially life in Christ. We celebrate being born, but especially being born of God. We celebrate Jesus’ birth because in doing so we celebrate His death and resurrection for our ultimate and eternal joy with God Himself. Amen.

SDG

Expect

The Nativity of Our Lord
Christmas Eve
December 24, 2008
Luke 2:1-20

What are you expecting this Christmas? You have expectations in your life, and certainly at Christmas. You might be expecting a certain gift you’ve been wanting. You might be expecting, or at least hoping, that things will turn better in your life. Whatever your expectations, you are here this evening. You’re here for a reason and you’ve come with your expectations. Are you here because you’re in the Christmas spirit? Maybe you want to get away from all the commercialization of the holiday season. Maybe you’re desperate to take a break from what the world says about Christmas and hear the true meaning of Christmas. Maybe you’re here because you want to hear, once again, that story we know so well of what Christmas really is. You might be here simply because it seems that’s what you should do on Christmas Eve.

Whatever your reasons, whatever your expectations, one thing you do expect is that you will hear that same Christmas story. The Christmas story in Luke starts off with these words: “In those days.” We live in an age where those words aren’t necessarily valued. People love to hear a good story, but some don’t have much regard for what has happened in the past. Especially so long ago and with so much religious baggage. When you come to church and you hear the words, “in those days,” do you find yourself feeling like you’re not hearing something relevant to your life? We know what happened in those days. What about in these days? What does what happened in those days have to do with our lives today? Shouldn’t we be hearing about what God is doing today? How can you know that God has a plan for your life today; that you’re not just hearing stuff that happened long ago and doesn’t apply to your daily life?

The first way is with the words themselves, “in those days.” The use of these words shows us that what is being told really happened. The events are historical. They are no less real than the events that happen today. They may not seem as relevant, but that doesn’t make them any less real. If they don’t seem real it’s because of your expectations. You expect that current events are real but past events, not as much. But as relevant as you think the events that happen now are, the real events that happen in our lives will not be any less real a hundred years from now when someone is hearing about them. They may wonder what they have to do with them, but they don’t have to wonder if they were real. The reason the events being historical matter to you today is because no one can take them away from you. They may deny them, but they can’t change the fact that they are real.

The second way the events of the Christmas Gospel are relevant to you is that they don’t just tell a story. The events are the Gospel itself. The Christmas story isn’t just a story about Jesus being born, it is the very bringing about of the Gospel. The Gospel saves you. There is nothing more relevant than that. What are you expecting? What is Christmas about? It is about salvation.

This is what you expect to hear, isn’t it?— Christmas is all about the spiritual... It’s about the promise of eternal glory in heaven... It’s about what Jesus does for my soul... We expect to hear these things and we so often pass them off because they seem so irrelevant. How does salvation help me now? How does it help me in my life?

Maybe Christmas for you isn’t all joy and good tidings. Maybe you hear the Good News of Jesus’ salvation for you and it falls flat. Maybe during the Christmas season there is sadness for you. Perhaps in the midst of all the joy and the hubbub you are falling into despondency. Maybe your holiday season has been marked in the past by the death of those close to you and your looking forward to this time of year is tempered by the reality of painful memories. Maybe the stresses of your life and of this time of year overwhelm you instead of bringing you contentment.

Your expectations are very different from wanting to hear Good News that your sins are forgiven. But if you see the words of our Christmas Gospel as not just the recounting of a spectacular story that happened back then, but as the very Gospel of life you will see that it impacts your life here, now, every day, for all eternity. You will see that your expectations fall pathetically short of what Gods expects to give you.

That Joseph was of the house and lineage of David means that you are one with him in being an inheritor of the promise of God that He will guard you in all things, whether danger or sadness or seeking. That Jesus was born in a humble manner, in a stable, means that your re-birth of humble manner, water connected with God’s Word, is birth to eternal life, not simply of life on earth. That ordinary shepherds were the first recipients of the news of salvation means that you and I never have to wonder if we are out of the loop with God. He wanted the shepherds to know, He wants you to know, He wants the whole world to know.

Expect, then, what God delivers to you. Salvation. Life. Forgiveness. Expect that it won’t always seem relevant, because your sinful flesh will always want something that makes your life easier and free from pain and loss and sorrow. But He expects to give you His gifts in the midst of those things. He delivered the Savior in a stable two thousand years ago. He delivers Him to you today in His Holy Gospel. He delivered Him to you in your Baptism. He delivers Him to you at this altar in the bread and wine.

Nobody expected Jesus to be born in such a way as He was. Nobody expected Him to suffer and die as He did. Nobody expected Him to rise from the grave. Expect what God gives you: His Son, your Savior. Amen.

SDG

No Place to Call Home

Fourth Sunday in Advent
Thomas, Apostle
December 21, 2008
Luke 1:26-38

“the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Matthew 8:20

You’d think that if God is going to become a man He’d at least find decent living quarters. I’m sure the family He grew up in was loving and He was happy in His modest home. But when it came time for the Ministry, the three years of preaching, teaching, and healing, why was there no place for Him to lay His head? These are His own words: “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” Jesus was right at home being transient.

He wasn’t here for lounging around. He didn’t come to be served. He came to serve. He didn’t need a mansion. He’s God. He owns everything. He didn’t need a house, He came to earth to be among the people He created. To serve them, to save them. Why does He need a home for that? He is at home being among His people.

God dwells in the heavens, but He has come down to earth. He didn’t live the life of a king, though He is the King of all creation. He had nowhere to lay His head because He didn’t rest until He accomplished salvation. Then His rest was for three days in a tomb. But even there He was at home. Even after dying He was at home descending into hell to proclaim victory over Satan on his home turf. And yet, Jesus was not at home in the tomb because the tomb could not hold Him. Enough resting, Jesus walked out of that tomb so He could continue His work of salvation.

Oh, it was accomplished, all right. Now to the work of delivering it. He is still at home in the heavens. He is still seated at the right hand of God. But He still comes to earth. He loves to dwell among His people. He’s been doing that from the beginning.

In fact, King David has a problem with it. I’m in a palace and the Ark of the Covenant is in a tent. David thinks this is an insult to God so he’s got grand designs for a House just for God. It will be a spectacular temple, dedicated to the one true God, the one who deserves the very best building on the earth. And it was eventually done. God got His temple. And He was at home in the temple. But that wasn’t His home, in that He didn’t really need it. In fact, come forty years after Jesus’ ascension into heaven the temple was destroyed, and God was at home with that as well, because you can’t destroy God’s home. You can destroy a building. The house Jesus grew up in is no longer standing. But God is at home in His creation, even as He is the Lord of the heavens.

God is the Lord of the heavens, but is perfectly at home in humble abodes. When the Israelites wandered in the wilderness He dwelled in a tent. When Joseph and Mary reached Bethlehem there was no vacancy. No problem. God was perfectly at home in a stable. Among animals. Dirt. Smell. Probably cold. The nine months before His birth He was at home in the womb of Mary. Granted, as a human being He was not aware of His nine month stay in the womb, even as none of us were. But God was at home with that, to be one with us in humanity. To not just enter the world as an adult and avoid the being cared for, the puberty, the demands of making a living.

Our Lord was at home in being a Master who wraps a towel around His waist to carry out the work of the slave. Our Lord was content in being ridiculed and taken advantage of. He was at home in being rejected by the very people He created and reached out to in love. He did not long for a quiet, comfortable home to be in when He was beaten and bloodied and mocked. He was at home in suffering for the sin of the world, considering it joy to endure the punishment for our sin. This He is at home with: joy. Joy not of being the Almighty Lord of the universe, but of doing everything He could to save us so that we may be at home with Him.

The Son of Man had no place to lay His head because the Son of Man chose to lay aside His glory. The Son of Man chose to be the Son of Man even though He is the eternal Son of God. How can this be that God would choose to have no place to lay His head when we are so often worried about our material existence? It could be because we so often turn our energy toward our material existence whereas our Lord expends His energy in saving us for our eternal home in heaven.

The promises God gave to King David about how the Savior would reign come to pass in a remarkably unpretentious way. A girl is greeted by an angel and told that she will be the home of God for nine months and the very mother of God. Yet, the promises of God to David were that the Savior would rule. Mary was just trying to figure out how she would give birth being a virgin. The answer was simple: with God nothing is impossible. Mary still didn’t comprehend how God could accomplish such a thing, but she believed it. And we can believe that the promises God gave to David have been fulfilled in this action of God of moving into a very strange home: this earth.

We can believe that God continues to make His home with us, His people, in Baptism. He dwells in us. We are a very strange home for God, but then, Mary thought the same thing. May we believe as she did, not demanding comprehension but simply being grateful for a life of servant-hood to her holy Lord. The One who came in poverty of body and spirit, all in order that we may be rich in grace and mercy. That we may dwell in the mansions of glory in heaven. That we may see that that promise is as astounding as the ones to David and Mary, and yet, just as true and awesome.

This is not our home, in the sense that we don’t belong here forever. Heaven is our home. We’re transients like Jesus in that sense. Here on earth to carry out the work our Lord has given us to do. It’s easily lost in the Christmas season. The world wants to talk about Christmas spirit and love and ignores the glorious temple God chose to dwell in, the baby Jesus. The man who was spat upon and scourged. Who was charged as guilty and condemned to death and damned to hell by God the Father Himself. You won’t hear much talk of that at holiday parties, but here in the House of God it’s the only thing there is to talk about. You may hear that we’re all the children of God, but you won’t hear much talk about Baptism, the very way we become the children of God and are given a place at the Table of God in eternity.

If your joy of Christmas centers in the God who is at home in bread and wine you’ll be scoffed at or maybe just ignored as having strange beliefs. God is obviously at home everywhere since He owns everything, but loves to be at home in the water of Baptism and the bread and wine of His Holy Supper. Since He didn’t have a home, He instituted His Holy Supper at the home of someone else. He doesn’t need a home to save us, He just comes to us right where we’re at. In water with His forgiveness, in bread and wine with nourishment for our souls. He is at home in the flesh. Offering it on the cross for the sin of the world. Giving His Body and Blood to us right here at this very altar. It’s a nice altar, but it’s nothing fancy. And yet, He’s perfectly at home there. Inviting us to His Holy Meal in His Holy House. Preparing a place for us in His Heavenly Home. There’s no place like home. Thank God it’s not a fantasy. Amen.

SDG

Prayers of Preparation: the Restoring God

Midweek in Advent 3
December 17, 2008
Psalm 126:1-6

The God who listens to us is the God who has favor on us. He hears our plea for mercy and forgives and saves us. He has favor on us because of His mercy. These are good things to know when it seems like God doesn’t hear us. It’s comforting to know when we wonder if God loves us. What it means day after day is that God doesn’t give up on you. He doesn’t leave you in the lurch. He stays with you no matter what.

Have you seriously messed something up? God doesn’t hold it against you. Have you strained a relationship because you made some assumptions instead of putting the best construction on things? The other person may hold it against you but God will restore you to Himself. Do you find yourself feeling far away from God? He will come near to you when you most need it.

Restoration. One of the most important things we need to know about is God’s work of restoration. During this season of preparation we need to know that God is a restoring God. Our whole lives are lives of preparation, we need God’s work of restoration. We are preparing ultimately for life with God in heaven. The people of God in the Old Testament were preparing for the actual birth of the Savior. Since He has already come we do not need to prepare for that. Our celebration of His birth focuses our attention on Christ. We prepare for our celebration of Christmas by meditating on the reason He came. He came for the cross. Christmas is ultimately about the cross. Without the cross there is no place awaiting us in heaven.

The Old Testament people of God placed their hope in the coming of the Savior. We rejoice that our hope is in the fact that He came. Our hope also looks to the future. To the day when He will return. We will not know glory until that day. That is why preparation is necessary. That is why we pray to our God who listens and ask for His favor upon us. His mercy and love restores us. We are brought back to His loving care. We too often forget the devastation sin wreaks on our lives. We are not in a right relationship with God when we are caught up in our sin. He is constantly calling us to repentance so that He may restore us.

We so often brush our sin aside. We often treat it as a minor defect. Our sin separates us from God. His restoration of us is a serious matter. We need it and He knows that. He also knows that only He can provide it. If He doesn’t act to save us we are eternally lost from Him. His answer to that is His Son. His salvation of us is His pure joy in giving us a gift beyond measure, Jesus the Savior.

The very fact that we can pray to our God in the midst of our sinful lives shows us that God is merciful to us and desires to restore us. He not only desires it, He acts on it. He brings it about. He turns our despair into hope. Our mourning into joy.

The next time we gather here mid-week we will be celebrating the birth of our Savior. It goes without saying that we rejoice in this miraculous event. It also should go without saying that we never cease to rejoice in it. It should go without saying that we never tire of praying to our God, because He never tires of listening to us, of shining His favor upon us, of restoring us to His eternal care. Our preparation is continual because our need is continual.

Our only hope is in the God whose love and favor, mercy and restoration is never-ending. Our only hope is in the God who sent the Savior, accomplishing salvation that never ends. Our only hope is in the God of Bethlehem and Calvary and the Word and Sacraments through which He comes to us. Our only hope is in the God of heaven who has heard, who has shown favor, who has restored us. This is why we believe and rejoice that His coming again on the Last Day will be a day of rejoicing and our ultimate restoration. Amen.

SDG

One You Do Not Know

Third Sunday in Advent
December 14, 2008
John 1:6-8, 19-28

“among you stands one you do not know”

The murder mysteries where everyone is in a mansion and no one can leave are fascinating. Everyone knows that one among them is the murderer, but no one knows who it is. John the Baptist said to the religious leaders that they did not know the one among them he was pointing them to. It was mystery. A mystery that was about to be revealed. We know who He is. They didn’t. But that’s why John the Baptist was there.

How do we know who Jesus is? The way we know is that He comes among us. No one can know who Jesus is apart from Him being among them. It is impossible for you to know Jesus apart from Him coming to you in His Word and Sacraments.

John the Baptist’s interaction with the religious leaders raises questions about Jesus, even though we who know who He is. How do we know who He is? Is there anything about what John the Baptist says to the religious leaders—who didn’t know who Jesus was—that applies to us? If so, how? What do we need to do in order for us to fully know Him?

Reason won’t help here. There is no proof that Jesus is who He says He is. Many people heard John’s proclamation and repented and were Baptized. Many did not. Both groups, though, did not know who Jesus was. John was the one who came to tell them. To point the way. John the apostle says that John the Baptist was “a man sent from God.” For all the crowds knew, he was just another eccentric preacher. For all the religious leaders knew, he was just another pretender.

There was nothing about John that made him special as the Messenger of Jesus Christ, the voice crying in the wilderness. It’s not that he was a powerful preacher, or that he was different, or that he had the credentials. No, it was nothing like that. It was simply that he was sent from God. It was nothing more than that he preached the Word of God. It was nothing else than that he pointed the way to Jesus.

John the Baptist is sent from God. He might have been tempted to think highly of himself for that fact. But being sent from God he realized that it really wasn’t important who he was. It was all-important who the Christ was that he came to point to. The religious leaders wanted him to talk about himself, they wanted to know who he was. But, nope, that’s not what he wanted to talk about. That’s not why he was sent. I’ll tell you who I’m not. And I’ll tell you about another person you do not know.

When John came on the scene no one knew who Jesus was. What does it mean to know Jesus? We cannot know Jesus apart from His revealing Himself to us. That is why He has come among us. We celebrate His birth at Bethlehem for the reason He was born at Bethlehem. Joseph and Mary knew their son. But did they really know Him? Did they look down at their cute little baby and see God? Did they know He was the Promised Savior who would suffer for the sin of the world?

We can’t get into the minds of those people back then. What we know is what we know. And we know who Jesus is. But do we look at the things He’s given us and shrug them off as insignificant? Do we hear His Word as simply a nice message? Do we treat our Baptism as something that happened to us so long ago—and we’re glad it did—but we’re not sure what impact it has on our lives day to day? Do we take the Lord’s Supper for granted, much the way we take many of our meals?

If you are staying away from the Gospel, if you are ignoring your Baptism, if you pass off the Sacrament as merely a ritual, you do not know Christ. These are the only ways you can know Him because these are the only ways He is among you. The religious leaders questioning John not only didn’t know Jesus, but when they were met with Him in the flesh they rejected Him.

What about us? We can handle the baby Jesus in the manger, the healing and preaching Jesus, the suffering Jesus on the cross, and certainly the Jesus who rose from the dead —but what do we make of the Jesus who comes among us in words and water and bread and wine? Is it really Him? It is really the Incarnate God, Jesus, coming to us in those simple ways? Is He really delivering to us in that Word and those Sacraments forgiveness of our sin and eternal salvation? Is He actually coming among us in those means, uniting Himself with us in those ways?

John would say yes. The one he pointed to would say yes. God’s Word says yes. All who point to Jesus say yes, who preach that very same Gospel of one among you who is your Savior. And, yes, you do know Him. You know Him because He is among you. Because He dwells among you in the flesh in His Word and in His Sacraments. You know Him because He knows you and dwells among you. You know Him because He has claimed you as His own in His Gospel, coming to you in your Baptism, coming to you in the Supper He prepares for you. You know Him because you have come to see as John the Baptist did that it’s not about you but always about the one he pointed to.

Jesus knew that when He came He would be rejected by many. That didn’t stop Him from coming. John stayed the course when they tried to steer him off course. There’s a reason God sent John. To show people the among-you-ness of the Gospel. That God sends people in the flesh to bring about salvation. John, coming to people to point them to the One. The One Himself coming in flesh, among us, to be the Gospel incarnate. Coming in the flesh to suffer in the flesh—His body sacrificed, His blood shed. Coming in the flesh in your very life, as you live and breathe by every Word that comes from the mouth of God; the flowing water of life in your Baptism; the Body of Christ sustaining you, His Blood coursing through your veins. He is among you and knows you, even as you know Him. The one among you will come again in glory that you may be with Him in glory forever. Amen.

SDG

Prayers of Preparation: the Favorable God

Midweek in Advent 2
December 10, 2008
Psalm 85:1-13

Why dos our Lord look upon us favorably? Is it because there’s something about us that is favorable? Well, as a matter of fact, there is. What it is is that we have been created by Him. He created us because He loves to share the wealth. He owns everything and wants to spread around His abundance to us. He wants us to delight in His joy and glory.

So what it is about us that makes Him favorable toward us is not something of ourselves but of who we are. We are the crown of His creation. He looks upon us with favor even though we have not lived as who we are. He loves us even though we have spurned His love. That is the essence of His favor toward us, it is because of His grace and mercy, not because we deserve it. The fact is, we don’t deserve it.

His favor toward us is in view of Jesus Christ. When God created humans He loved them. Of course He did. When people have children, they love them. When God created us, He loved us. It came naturally to Him. So what was His reaction when Adam and Eve sinned against Him? Did He stop loving them? Did He give up on them? No, His reaction was the same. Love. Compassion. Favor.

But how can this be when He promised them they would die? How was it that He loved them when because of their sin they were separated from Him? The way it is is that His love moved Him to tell them that they were now separated from Him. If He would have ignored their sin they would have been lost forever. To truly love them, to truly help them, He had to confront them and their sin. This is favor. It is compassion which moves you to do those things that are hard, that seem unloving.

But this favor is in view of Jesus Christ, right? So what did that have to do with how God looked with favor upon Adam and Eve? It has to do with who God is. He is the Creator. As the Creator, He is the one who naturally loves us. His love for us moves Him to do all within His eternal power to care for us. In the case of our sin against Him, what that means is action similar to His first action of creating us. We could call it His act of re-creation. That action of God is done in His Son Jesus Christ.

It’s not something that only those during His life on earth and since then receive. God’s act of re-creation in Jesus Christ is for all people of all time. His favor is upon all because of the once for all sacrifice of Jesus. The prayer of the psalmist, and it is the prayer of all the people of God, that God be favorable to us, is a prayer that He would look upon us because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We pray He look favorably upon us because of the righteousness of Christ.

Those who truly desire life, eternal or otherwise, apart from Jesus Christ, desire life apart from God. He will always look with favor upon them but will never force them into His eternal presence. God’s sending of His Son, even as He first promised to Adam and Eve to send Him, is the sign that God is favorable toward all people. God didn’t explain away Adam and Eve’s sin, even as He doesn’t ours. But He did deal with it. He convicted them of their sin to bring them to repentance and the belief that Jesus is their only hope from sin and separation from God. He does the same with us.

During Advent we take time out to ponder the faithfulness of our Lord. In His favor He has blessed us beyond imagination. He promised to bring about salvation and did. He promises that the Savior He sent at Bethlehem will return once again—this time in glory. None of these things are for a select few. They are for all. We can take comfort that God does not favor some over others, that He loves all sinners equally.

Our prayers, then, are always that of sinners pleading to God for mercy because of Jesus Christ. Our prayers are always prayers of forgiven children who look to God in gratitude for His favor in Jesus Christ. The Psalm last week gave us comfort that when our prayers are raised to God, He hears us. He is the Listening God. We are also given comfort that He looks favorably upon us. He created us, He has made us righteous in His Son Jesus Christ. This favor He extends to us in His Word and Sacraments until that day when He will send His Son again to take us home to heaven. Amen.

SDG

Continuing with the Beginning

Second Sunday in Advent
December 7, 2008
Mark 1:1-8

We know the way it begins: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. You’d expect the beginning to begin with the beginning. You’d also expect the story to move on from there until it gets to the end. But this story has no end. The story continues; it moves on from the beginning. But what it moves on to is other beginnings. Such as the one we have today in the Gospel reading. Mark tells us that what he is going to tell us is the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We might have expected talk about beginnings last Sunday when we actually began the new Church Year. But here on the second Sunday in the Church Year what is appointed is talk about beginnings. That’s because the story didn’t begin only at Genesis 1:1. The story doesn’t just continue, it continues with beginnings. That’s what this story is, a story of beginnings. There was never supposed to be an end. There was the threat of an end, if Adam and Eve decided they didn’t like the whole idea God set up of living forever in perfection and glory under God’s gracious hand. But even then, when they decided to bring it all to an end, God loved them too much to bring their blessedness to an end. So He created a new beginning.

That new beginning He brought about immediately upon their fall into sin. The beginning of the Gospel Mark is talking about in our Gospel reading was brought about way back there in the Garden of Eden. God promised to save them. He promised to send a Savior. Even though they wouldn’t die then and there, they were condemned in their sin and all their offspring would be born in sin. For the Gospel to be the Gospel, for it to be effective, it had to begin right then and there. When all their hope was lost God brought about hope from the beginning.

You can imagine that with this second chance there was relief on the part of Adam and Eve. Their children and grandchildren and many descendents were grateful that God didn’t bring it all to a halt right then and there when Adam and Eve chose the path of death. You can also imagine that there was much struggling with God and with each other, having inherited the sinful nature Adam and Eve chose for themselves. You can imagine what it was like to wake up each day and still be bound to that Old Adam you were born with. You can imagine what it was like to long for hope even as God gave hope to Adam and Eve when they were in utter despair.

You can see the need for a new beginning. And you can see that it’s needed every day. You can imagine all this and know the need for God’s hope because you live this existence every day, as all who have gone before you have. You know very well how deep it is as you see it on a daily basis in others and as you catch yourself doing things wondering what might have possessed you to do them. You know very well what it is like to hope for a second chance.

This is how the story goes in the Old Testament. God always going back to the promise—the promise of salvation, the promise of the Savior. The story progressing by going back to the promise, which brings about new beginnings. The people of God, just like us today, choosing that path that Adam and Eve chose, and God giving them hope, a new beginning. There are countless examples in the Old Testament, today’s Old Testament reading is one of them. The people of God are the people of God, but they need to be constantly given that hope, constantly given new beginnings.

So Mark begins his Gospel account in that way. He says the Gospel began this way: Centuries before, Isaiah prophesied the messenger to pave the way for Christ. John was preparing the people for a new beginning, he himself the product of the promise of a new beginning—that the Messenger would come. What does the Messenger do? He baptizes. Baptism is all about new beginnings. In Baptism you are given new life. So the way to prepare for the coming of the Savior was to show the people that this was all about new beginnings. Without repentance they would be left in their sins. They would be left for dead spiritually, so they needed a new beginning.

John came preaching. He came baptizing. He came talking about repentance and the forgiveness of sins. The messenger God sent to usher in the Messiah baptized with water. The new beginning would come shortly with the Messiah bringing a Baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is Baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. This is God’s continuing act of creation in you. It doesn’t take us long for us to mess things up. Adam and Eve managed to take care of that shortly after creation. Our daily lives as Christians are new beginnings. Daily in repentance you are created anew. As He gave you a new beginning in Baptism, He continues to create in you new life daily in repentance and recalling your Baptism.

The Gospel is what saves you. The Gospel is what gives you new life daily. When the breath of our Lord expired on the cross the Holy Spirit took it to breathe it into you in your Baptism. The death of our Lord wasn’t the end, but a beginning. Your Baptism is the beginning for you. Each day in repentance you die to sin and rise to new life, to a new beginning. This is the story. You are very much a part of it because Jesus died for you. He died to give new life to the fallen world. It is the same hope He gave to Adam and Eve. The same salvation. The same joy that has no end. It is ever new and continues forever. Amen.

SDG

Prayers of Preparation: The Listening God

Midweek in Advent 1
December 3, 2008
Psalm 80:1-7

Advent is a season of preparation. That doesn’t mean we only prepare during Advent. It means that it is a time in the Church Year that reminds us that our entire lives are that of preparation. How you learn to prepare is by being formed by the Holy Scriptures. Your Lord prepares you to be prepared for Him. He mostly does this by giving you His Gifts. He provides for you and sustains you. He does this through His Gospel and His precious Sacraments.

But there’s even more. He also gives you things that you do in order to be strengthened by Him. One of these is the discipline of prayer. Being the giving God that He is our Lord teaches us to pray. He prepares us to pray to Him. One way He has done this is by giving us the Psalms.

In Psalm 80 we are encouraged to take heart that He is the Listening God. “Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,” the Psalmist prays to his God. Why does he want God to listen to him? Because he needs salvation. He prays to his God who is like a shepherd. A shepherd leads his flock. He is the salvation of his sheep. He listens to his sheep. If the sheep are in trouble they will cry out in the hopes that their shepherd will hear them. Sheep who have a faithful shepherd count on their shepherd hearing them.

That is why the Psalmist prays as he does. His Shepherd is faithful. His Shepherd listens. His Shepherd is standing at the ready with salvation. In Advent we learn how to prepare for the way our Lord, our Shepherd, brings to us His salvation. The way He brings His salvation to us is by Himself saving us. A shepherd won’t call across the pasture to his sheep that is in trouble that everything will be all right. The shepherd goes to his sheep and gently pulls him out of being stuck in the fence.

Our Lord has listened to us. He doesn’t speak to us from the Heavenly Realms with soothing words. He comes to us in our need with His salvation, with Himself. So why do we need to be prepared for this? If He comes to us to save us, what do we need to do to get ready? We need to be prepared that it won’t be comfortable. Our Lord saving us doesn’t mean it will be pleasant. We need to be prepared that we are going to be relying on things that go against what seems should be the case. We need to be prepared for our Lord coming to us with His salvation in ways that we would never expect.

We so often treat the ways God comes to us with His salvation as afterthoughts. They are miracles, they just don’t seem like it because they seem so ordinary. We need to be prepared for the fact that when our Lord saves us He does it through humble means. Beginning with Himself. He is All-Powerful but comes in humility. He can do anything but comes as a baby. He alone is Judge but sacrifices Himself in the shedding of His blood. He has power to destroy the earth with a flood but saves you through ordinary water in Baptism. He is the Creator of the universe but feeds your soul with simple bread and wine.

This is where prayer comes in. This is how we prepare for our Lord to bless us in these ways. We pray that He would increase our faith so that we do not go through the motions in repenting of our sins and receiving the Body and Blood of Christ and hearing the Gospel proclaimed, but that we would hunger and thirst for them as if we were hungering and thirsting for water and food in the desert. When we pray that our Lord would listen to us, we pray for Him to prepare us for His coming to us with His salvation. Prayer is formed by our being in the Word of God. When we meditate on His Word He is preparing us for the ways He brings His salvation to us.

He listens to us in our need. The reason we need to be prepared by Him is that He understands our need better than we do. That is why we need to be prepared by Him. When we are prepared by Him then we are able to prepare for Him. We can take comfort in the fact that our God is the Listening God; but He doesn’t just listen to our story and have an understanding of what we want. He listens to us in the best way possible, listening with an ear toward acting toward us in the way that will bring about our greatest good.

His listening to us moves Him in action toward us in His Gospel and His Sacraments. If we doubt He’s listening, then we should turn even more to His precious Word and to our Baptism and to His life-sustaining Body and Blood. When we pray to our God to save us we can be assured He hears us, that’s why He’s given us Himself. That’s why He gives us His Gifts. We’re always in invited to pray and may always rejoice that He hears and answers us in His Son. Amen.

SDG