Why We Start Here

First Sunday in Advent
November 29, 2009
Luke 19:28–40

Today is not Palm Sunday. Today is quite a ways away from Palm Sunday. Lent is even a bit away; we haven’t even gotten into Christmas yet. Today we begin the Church Year and the Church Year always begins with Advent. So why do we start here, with the account of Palm Sunday?

Because we always start in the same way. Your focus is always on the cross. Today’s Gospel reading is pointing us to the cross. Each portion of the Church Year will be preparing us for Palm Sunday, which begins Holy Week and the Passion of our Lord. That week is at the center of the Church Year and the center of history and the center of our lives. From Easter on through the rest of the Church Year, there is nothing that is different from our focus. It remains on Christ and Him crucified. The one who is risen from the grave is the one who suffered on the cross for the sins of the world. The Lamb who was slain is the one who reigns forever in glory.

Throughout the Church Year our focus will be on Christ and Him crucified. As we move through the Church Year we will be centered in Him and His cross. Everything we hear in the seasons and Sundays of the Church Year will flow from that singular event of history, the crucifixion of our Lord.

That is why we start here. Throughout Advent we will be preparing for our celebration of the birth of our Lord. We will have an eye also toward that Coming of our Lord that is yet to be, the glorious Return on the Last Day. Because of that, our eye will also be on the coming of our Lord here in time and nature in our Baptism and His Holy Supper; in the proclamation of the Gospel and the pronouncement of the Absolution.

Why we start here with the account of Palm Sunday is to help us see that the birth of Christ is not so much a beginning but a prelude. What Luke tells us in the Gospel reading is more of a beginning: “When He had said these things, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.” He was beginning His trek toward the cross. That’s what we need to be focusing on here at the beginning of the Church Year.

As He entered Jerusalem, He did so in a way that seems odd to us. He came in on a donkey. He came in with pomp and circumstance, but that was because of the crowd. They were singing His praises. But the donkey is what really tells us what our Lord is about. He is about coming in humble means. As we prepare for our celebration of Christ’s birth we ought to prepare now that His coming as Savior was not in glory but in humility. He didn’t come in a castle but a stable. Not much changed thirty years later when He entered into Jerusalem on a donkey.

Not much has changed even two thousand years later. He still loves to come to us. And He still comes in humility. He comes to us in the water and the Word. He comes to us in the bread and the wine. In the lowly words spoken by a preacher. In the simple words on the pages of the Bible. Why we start here is because that entrance into Jerusalem by Jesus really says it all. He came in a lowly way to die a lowly death.

He did this to raise us to the highest heaven. To the heights of His eternal glory. And if we are tempted to seek glory apart from the humble coming of our Lord in a manger, a donkey, and a cross, then we ought to be reminded that our Lord can cause even the stones to cry out His praises. If we can be replaced with stones we shouldn’t think too highly of ourselves. What we ought to do is simply see ourselves in light of the cross. Our lives are bound up in the cross. That’s why we start here and why we continue through the Church Year and our lives in looking to the cross and living because of the cross.

The Lord who had need of a donkey to usher Him to the cross has need of water that washes away your sins in Baptism, ushering you into the Kingdom of Heaven. The Lord who had need of a donkey to carry Him to the place where He would sacrifice His body and shed His blood for the sins of the world has need of bread and wine that carries Him into your mouth for you to eat and drink for the forgiveness of your sins. The King who came in the name of the Lord on Palm Sunday is the King who comes in your Baptism and His Holy Supper to bring you peace in heaven and glory in the highest.

Why we start here is because it’s where our focus always is and where we always end up. Look to the cross and there you will see your salvation. He brings it to you in His Word and Sacraments and will bring you into it in glory when He returns in glory on the Last Day. Now is a prelude, then will be the beginning for you of eternity. Amen.

SDG

First Sunday in Advent

The Church Year begins ahead of the calendar year. It’s out of sync with the rest of the world, much like the Church itself is out of sync with the rest of the world. That’s what I love about the Church Year. That’s what I love about the Church. It’s counter-cultural in that respect. The Church Year doesn’t seek to conform to what is being observed or celebrated in society. It seeks to focus on Christ and Him crucified. The Church Year follows the life of our Lord. It is only in His life that we have life. At least eternal life. Ultimately, that is what matters.

Not that this life is not important. It is vitally important. Otherwise, why has God placed us here on this earth to live? He has given us all things and we live our lives in light of the place He has prepared for us from eternity. As Christians we don’t live with our head in the clouds. We live with an eye toward eternity but our existence is very real, very here and now. God doesn’t expect us to reach up toward Him, He comes down to us.

Advent begins the Church Year with this focus. “Advent” is from the Latin for “coming.” Advent is all about our Lord coming to us. The Church Year is all about His coming to us. This is the very heart of Christianity. Our Lord came at Bethlehem, He will come again in glory on the Last Day. In Advent we meditate on our waiting for that Day. We are reminded that each day of our lives is lived knowing that we cannot reach up to Him but He comes to us in His Gospel. He comes to us in Baptism. He comes to us in the proclamation of His Word and the pronouncement of His Absolution. And He comes to us in His Holy Supper.

I can’t think of a better way to begin the new year.

Where Thanksgiving Fits In

Day of Thanksgiving [Observed]
November 25, 2009
1 Timothy 2:1-4

Where does thanksgiving fit into your life?

Every year we celebrate national holidays. On the Fourth of July we commemorate the freedom we have in this country. That doesn’t mean it’s the only time we recognize or are grateful for our freedom. The other holidays we celebrate also are not the only time we recognize what we’re celebrating. That should certainly be the case with Thanksgiving. If that’s the only day we actually gave thanks, we would be truly ungrateful people.

As a church we have more to celebrate than a national holiday of Thanksgiving. Having been inspired by the Holy Spirit Paul spells out where thanksgiving fits into our lives as Christians. It fits in in everything. Our prayers are to consist of “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings.” These supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings are to be made for all people. We are to pray on behalf of others, for their needs.

The first three words Paul uses are along the lines of what we usually think of when we think of prayer: asking God to help us and others in their needs. We have a lot of them, maybe that’s why Paul is emphasizing the point. We have a lot of needs, so Paul uses three different words for this kind of praying.

But there’s another kind, and that’s what he gets at in his fourth word: thanksgivings. Thanking God is to go right along with praying for the needs of others. We are to pray for all people, including our leaders, and we are to give thanks in all things for others, including our leaders.

Why? So “that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” There is a method to the madness, so to speak. In other words, there’s a reason we pray. God knows what we need. He knows what we need better than we know what we need. And God blesses us and all people abundantly even without our prayers. But we pray for others so that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

I don’t know about you, but if I don’t pray, I tend to get pretty ungrateful. It’s amazing how saying a simple “Thank you” to someone can help you recognize how grateful you are that others help you out. When you don’t say “Thank you” to others you easily take others and their help for granted. It’s the same with God. When we give thanks to Him we realize more and more what a blessing it is that He helps us in our needs and that without His provisions through our leaders there is a far greater chance of us not having a peaceful and quiet life.

I love the way Paul goes on to speak about this: “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior.” Paul can’t help but speak of the salvation of God. It is always in light of God saving us that Paul exhorts his brothers and sisters in Christ to live in the way God desires them to live. This goes for prayer, too. When we pray, it is in the light of the salvation of God in His Son Jesus Christ that we pray—that we offer up supplications on behalf of others, that we offer our thanks to God for, well, everything.

This is indeed good and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior. And if we’re still not convinced of why we ought to be thankful, Paul has an answer for that: our God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Why do we pray for all people? Why do we give thanks in all things? Because God desires that all people be saved. Because He desires that all come to the knowledge of truth. We give thanks in all things because our minds and hearts and desires begin to reflect the heart of God. His salvation. His love. His grace. His mercy. His passion for the people He created. The people His Son Jesus Christ died for. The people He offers His full and free salvation to. The salvation we have received in Baptism. That we partake of often in the Holy Supper of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

This is where thanksgiving fits in. In the love of Christ for the world. In Him giving to us in a personal real tangible way in His Supper where He breaks bread and gives thanks, where He pours out for us His lifeblood, given for us to drink, His body for us to eat.

We know what our needs are, do we see that we need to give thanks in all things? There is so much to be thankful for! We can’t quite see it all now, but in heaven we will see in the fullness of glory all God has given to us. Then there will be no question of thanksgiving. It will be as natural as it is now for us to pray for our needs. We give thanks that He helps us in our needs until that day He brings us to heaven where we will have none. Amen.

SDG

The Vigil at the End of Time

Last Sunday of the Church Year
November 22, 2009
Mark 13:24-37

The Vigil begins now. There is no waiting to begin it. There is waiting involved, that’s what a vigil involves. But there’s no putting it off. Vigilance is called for not at some point in the future. Our Lord calls us to be vigilant now. What He says to us He says to all: Stay awake. The vigil is the people of God being vigilant. We know what will happen we just don’t know when. Our Lord lays it all out for us, He just doesn’t tell us when it will all come about. That’s why we’re in the Vigil. The Holy Christian Church is the Church of the End Time Vigil. It is the Church of Vigilance.

This is in direct contrast to most people’s day to day existence. Most people are too caught up in the things of the world to be vigilant. They’re just trying to make it through the day. They’re not necessarily even caught up in evil things; much of the time it’s ordinary things they need to concern themselves with to live. It’s hard to take fifteen minutes out of your day to be vigilant, reading and meditating on the Word of God. Or to wake up fifteen minutes earlier to begin the day in the Word of God and prayer when there are so many pressing things that need to be done. Or to spend the last fifteen minutes of your day in quietness with God’s Word when you’re so exhausted you can barely stay awake any longer. Or you can’t fall asleep because your mind is racing with all the things left undone and all the worries about tomorrow.

I think that by nature we are not only sinful and unclean, we are not vigilant. We hear the words of Christ in the Gospel reading and have a hard time relating that stuff to what’s going on in our lives. While there’s much here that’s difficult to understand He boils it down to one simple thing: Stay awake. Be alert. Be vigilant. Be on your guard. We don’t know when the end of time will be but we know we are at the end of time. We don’t know when our Lord will return in glory but we know He will. And we must be ready.

So often we don’t even think of the end of time. Jesus’ description of His return in glory is strange to our ears. All the talk about tribulation, the sun being darkened, the moon not giving its light, the stars falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens shaken. I don’t know if there are any scenes in the new end-of-the-world movie 2012 that are on the scale of what Jesus describes here, but what He describes is disaster of epic proportions. But in the midst of that disaster of the fallen world is glory. The “Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.” Every eye will see Him. All will know. If they don’t know now, or refuse to listen now, they will know without a doubt then. And our Lord will be coming in glory for the purpose of sending out the angels and gathering “His elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.”

You don’t know when this will happen. But you know it will. Mark Twain can joke all he wants about death and taxes being the certainties of life, but there is only seriousness here on the part of Jesus of what is certain. This life will come to an end as we know it. Your life on this earth will come to an end either through your death or Christ returning in glory to take you to heaven. When you know that you are armed and you can be vigilant. If you choose to ignore it you do so at your eternal peril.

Most everyone can look around themselves and see from the trees the changes of the seasons. Even in Southern California we get a sense of that. Jesus uses a fig tree as an example: “as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.” The point is simple: “So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that He is near, at the very gates.” Since the signs are taking place, since we’re at the end of time, we must be vigilant, we must be on guard.

The way Jesus talks it seems as if everything He is saying is imminent. When we hear it all two thousand years later it doesn’t come across with the same force as it did when Jesus spoke it back then. When Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place,” it seems that He meant that it would all come about in their lifetime. The most natural reading of Jesus’ statement would appear to be that He’s referring to those people He was talking to, that it would all come about in their lifetime. A sensible reading would appear to be that Jesus is referring to that generation in the future, the one who will witness all of these things, will not pass away until they all take place.

But the fact is those people listening to Jesus at that time were every bit as much in the End Times as we are today. They were to be as vigilant as we are. The natural reading of the generation Jesus was speaking to may not seem to make sense, it may even seem flat out wrong since the end of the world did not come in their lifetime. Unless—one looks at the cross and views everything else through it as the lens through which to see and understand everything else. The things Jesus has described have taken place in the Great Day of the Lord of Good Friday. The apocalyptic signs described by Jesus and elsewhere in Scripture were present on that day Jesus suffered on the cross. The glory of the Lord was revealed in that suffering and death of the Savior of the world. Salvation was secured for the world on that day and there is no greater glory than that. Christ’s return in glory, while beyond compare, will be more along the lines of icing on the cake in light of the incomparable glory of God’s salvation for the world in His Son on the cross. The generation Jesus was speaking to witnessed that.

It is through this event of history that we should understand what Jesus means when He says: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.” The world did not come to an end the day Christ died, but when it does, we know His Word will remain because He remains our Savior who will have come again to take us home to heaven.

He is the Lord Almighty, but we must always remember that He is the Lord who suffered in our place. He is the Lord and yet did not consider it below Himself to become a man as you and I are humans. How else could He say what He says that “concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Jesus is true God. He does know all things. And yet He is also true man and chose to not make full use of His divine glory and power as a man. He is perfectly at ease in His manhood that He doesn’t have a clue when He will return in glory. He truly became one with us in our humanity, and we do not need to worry about what we don’t know, when our Lord Himself is content in His humanity of not knowing when. What we know is what He knows, that it will happen. Our Heavenly Father knows when and we’ll leave it up to Him.

What do we need to concern ourselves with? The Vigil at the end of time. The Vigil that begins now. The vigil that is what we keep until our Lord calls us home through death or His glorious Return on the Last Day. His words to us are as pertinent now as they were two thousand years ago. They are as relevant to our lives now as they will be throughout the rest of our days:

Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the cock crows, or in the morning—lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.

The time is now, the vigil has begun and we are called upon to keep it. Live every day in the remembrance of your Baptism. Receive the Lord’s Supper often as the very food you need to for your body and soul to survive. Hear the Word of the Lord and rejoice in it for the refreshing of your soul. You don’t know when the end of time will come but you know that you are at the end of time. Your Lord has called you to eternal salvation and wants you to be with Him for all eternity. Amen.

SDG

The Greatest Stewardship Sermon Ever Preached

Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
November 15, 2009
Mark 13:1-13

The words Jesus speaks in today’s Gospel reading may seem to have nothing to do with stewardship. But they have everything to do with stewardship. What He speaks here isn’t the greatest stewardship sermon ever preached, but there is a greatest stewardship sermon ever preached. I’m sure you will agree with me that it’s not this one you’re hearing.

Jesus’ sermon here puts things into perspective for us. That’s what a good stewardship sermon does. That’s what every sermon should do. The disciples look at the temple and are focused on the building. Jesus’ focus is on the Church. He’s telling them that all they see will be no more at some point in time. When they want to know when this will be He re-focuses them on what’s important. See that you’re not led astray. There are so many things that can capture our attention. Many of them good things. But if those things are our focus then we miss Christ.

We have a beautiful building ourselves, even if somewhat modest. We’re grateful to have the sanctuary we have and the facilities we have at our church. But if our focus in our little congregation is not on Christ then it doesn’t really matter if we have a shack or a cathedral. This building will one day be destroyed but the Church will remain forever. It’s natural for us to focus on the building. The upkeep of it. The costs associated with it. Where the money will come from to keep the building and facilities maintained and the salaries paid.

Jesus’ perspective is much broader than that. That doesn’t mean He doesn’t concern Himself with money. After all, He gives us money, just as He gives us everything else. He gives us our minds, our abilities, resources, possessions. His perspective concerns all these things. He is concerned with our lives. How we spend our time. How we use our abilities. How use our possessions. And, as everyone expects to hear in a stewardship sermon, how we use our money.

In today’s Gospel reading Jesus paints a bleak picture of what will happen. This is one reason this is such a good message for stewardship. With our concern for balancing the congregational budget and wondering where the money is going to come from, a pretty bleak picture can seem to be before us. If we even casually look at the picture Jesus paints in the Gospel reading we will readily see that His is a much bleaker situation than what we see before us in our congregation. And yet, the picture He paints in the Gospel reading is exactly that of our congregation, because we are part of the Body of Christ; we are members of the Holy Christian Church. What He describes is what is ahead for us as Christians and as a congregation that is part of the Holy Christian Church. Our small congregational budget is a drop in the bucket in light of the realities of the End Time tribulation we will face.

That’s all good and well, of course, but we still have a budget to balance and approve. On Saturday reality hits in what we will vote on in our Voters’ Meeting for the coming year in how our congregation will spend the money we have for the furthering of our congregation and its mission.

Since we’re going to get very specific at our meeting on Saturday, let’s get very specific here. Treat your money the way you ought to treat everything else in your life as a Christian. It’s all God’s. He owns everything, He’s given you what you have so that you may glorify Him with it and serve others with it. You do this with your time. All the time you have is God’s, you don’t get to keep some of it for yourself. Use it all to His glory. And even though some people think it’s not very spiritual or godly, yes, this means that when you’re watching the Charger game you are glorifying God. He has given you all things in His creation for you to enjoy. The problem isn’t with us enjoying His gifts, it’s with our sinful flesh wanting to use them in ways that are sinful. So if you put your sports, or whatever you enjoy doing, above your responsibilities as a father or child or employer, then you’re not using what God has given you to His glory.

This also is the case with your abilities. He’s given you talents. If you use them simply to gratify your sinful desires then you are taking what God gives you and treating them as if they’re purely for you and not in gratitude toward His love for you. There are many ways you can use your time and abilities to serve others. One of the things we do as a congregation is do things that we otherwise could not do on our own. Can you imagine what the Holy Christian Church would be like if every Christian tried to go it alone? In a Christian congregation you receive the help you need in hearing the Word of God, receiving the Lord’s Supper, and encouraging one another to live as God would have us live. Use a portion of your time in reading and studying the Word of God by yourself daily and weekly with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Be here in God’s House to receive the Gospel and the strength you need in the Lord’s Supper.

This puts perspective on the one that’s often hard to talk about—money. Look at your money in the same way you look at your time and your talents. You don’t give some of it to God and the rest is all for you. It’s all His. The really weird thing about it is that He doesn’t need it. He owns everything. But then again, He doesn’t need your time and talents either. He gives us all of these things for our benefit. We use them for that and recognize also that we have it all from Him to serve others.

Maybe the reason we often have trouble as Christians when it comes to money is because time and our abilities are intangible. If a friend calls you up in the middle of the Charger game it might be easier to pull yourself away to help him than it would be to write a check off the top of your paycheck to the Church, because that hits you where it counts. In this age of DVRs it’s easy enough to record the game, but if I give a certain amount of money off the top to God, what will happen if I don’t have enough to pay the bills at the end of the month? What happens if there’s an unexpected emergency?

Perhaps the reason the Bible gives tithing as a guide for giving to God is because the pocketbook is what hits us the most. It’s the one we worry about. It’s the one we want to hold on to the most. We often readily give of our time and abilities, but want to use our money for our own enjoyment. But the beauty of God’s guide in tithing is that it doesn’t matter whether you’re rich or poor, greedy or content, good with money or don’t have a clue about finances. Tithing isn’t based on how much you have, how much you think you need, or what you know. It’s based simply on a percentage. That percentage, ten, is a guide in order to help you understand whose money it is you’re dealing with. Since it’s all God’s and He has all things and therefore doesn’t need anything from you, the percentage you give to God is to help you see that everything you have and everything you do is from Him and for Him.

If you’re not giving ten percent there’s no better time to work toward that than now. Making the jump from two percent to ten may be a shock. But God is patient. Working toward it over a period of years is far better than giving a paltry sum to God and thinking that all the rest is yours. If you’re giving ten percent you’re in a great position to realize that God gives you what you truly need, that you have nothing without Him. That, as Paul quotes Jesus as saying, “It is more blessed to give than receive,” moving beyond ten percent will bring you to the realization that God is in the business of blessing us and blessing us abundantly.

When it comes to our congregation and we ask the question, Where is the money going to come from? well, the answer is, of course, God. And the way He gives that money is by giving it to us and we giving a portion back to Him. Being a congregation is tough. Being a Christian is tough—giving of your time, your abilities, your money. It may be tough for you to add some time to your schedule to serve those who are in need. Percentage giving may not be easy for you—working toward ten percent if you’re not there and working beyond it if you’re already there. But in the midst of the bleak picture Jesus paints He gives hope: the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Jesus’ sermon in the Gospel reading is not a stewardship sermon, per se. But it is the same thing He always does, and that is preach the Gospel. And when Jesus preaches the Gospel, He preaches Himself. When all else fails, you still have Jesus. When everything around you crumbles, the cross of Christ remains. When the world is going to hell, and for that matter, hating you because you cling to Christ, you still have Christ and His salvation. That’s why He preaches Himself in this sermon as He always preaches Himself. The sermon Jesus preaches in today’s Gospel reading is not the greatest stewardship sermon ever preached. Historians could search every sermon ever preached by anyone, including Jesus, and wouldn’t be able to say, “There it is, the greatest stewardship sermon ever preached!”

But the greatest stewardship sermon ever preached exists. It is, in fact, alive and well. It is, in fact, constantly being preached. It is nothing other than the Gospel. It is Jesus Christ Himself, who He is and what He has done for the salvation of the world. It is His life, suffering, death, and resurrection for the sin of the world. It is our Lord and Savior working actively in His Holy Christian Church and in our lives in and through Baptism, preaching and Absolution, and His Holy Supper.

In a few moments we’ll be coming to the altar to give our commitment forms and offerings. Even a few moments later we’ll be coming to the altar again, this time to receive. It is only by the mercy of Christ, His life and death and resurrection, His giving of His body and blood for our forgiveness that we have anything and can do anything and give anything. Stewardship is really that simple: Christ living and working in your life to bring you eternal life so that you may rejoice in Him and serve Him. Amen.

SDG

Who Are the Saints?

All Saints’ Day
Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost
November 1, 2009
Matthew 5:1-12

In the 1960s Roger Moore played the secret agent style character Simon Templar in the TV show, The Saint. The introductory scenes would often end with someone referring to the Saint as “the famous Simon Templar,” at which point an animated halo would appear above his head at which point he would look at the camera or directly at the halo.

Wouldn’t it be great if it were that easy to spot the saints of the world? Often in Christian artwork of the past certain people would be pictured with a halo over their head, as a visual way to say, Here’s a saint, give the honor that’s due him or her.

But we all know it’s not that easy. Some people you can tell easily that they’re no saint; look no further than infamous tyrants like Hitler or Hussein. Some people in your life may seem just as evil to you because you know their hideous actions or their dark secrets.

But if you look around at your fellow Christians you will see a lot of nice people. A lot of people that may as well have halos over their heads. But you don’t know their deep dark secrets, do you? You don’t see the way they treat their family members at home, do you? You don’t see them sneaking supplies from their work, do you? You don’t know what they’re really looking at when they’re on the internet, do you? You don’t see inside their minds and hear the thoughts they’re thinking as they talk to their neighbors and look down on them, do you?

If people did have halos over their head so that you could tell they were a saint, what would happen when you discovered their dark secrets, when you ended up on the receiving end of their unconscionable behavior? You would not see a saint but a hypocrite. You would think the halo needs to be replaced with horns. There’s a difference between the way we see people in real life and they way we see them in artwork.

Who are the saints anyway? Can we know who is a saint and who is not? God knows what is in everyone’s heart, we cannot. What we do know about everyone is that they are sinners. Every person born in history except Christ is a sinner. This makes it all the more dramatic that we have a festival in the Church Year called All Saints’ Day. Were these saints of old somehow more religious than the rest of us ordinary Christians? Were they more saintly? We know they didn’t go around with halos on their heads, but there are a lot of Christians throughout history we don’t honor as great saints of the faith because they were simply ordinary Christians like you and me. Most of them we don’t know because their lives weren’t recorded in history.

But we can easily name off many of the great saints of old because we know their stories well, Abraham, David, Elijah, Hannah, Peter, John, Mary, Paul, Augustine, Luther. Men and women God used to do mighty things for His great plan of salvation. We rightfully honor them because God has called upon us to honor those in authority over us and they were great leaders in the faith. We give thanks to God for them because He used them to give us examples of living in the faith.

There’s another reason we can also be grateful for and give glory to God. And that is that He used them. Specifically, He used people like us. Most of these people weren’t great people. Most of them weren’t already powerful or well-known people. Many of them were ordinary people like you and me. But even more to the point, every one of them were like you and me in that they were sinners. There were no halos over their heads by any worthiness of themselves.

All Saints’ Day isn’t a celebration only of the saints of the past. It is a celebration of all the saints. Those of the past and those of the present and those of the future. This is a celebration not of people who are really good people but of sinners who have been declared holy by God Almighty because of the righteousness of Christ. Jesus alone you can look at and see no hypocrisy or unworthiness or sin. Every saint, from the greatest to the least is blessed purely by God’s grace and mercy. That’s why each Beatitude starts off the way it does: “Blessed are those…” You are a saint not because you’re good or worthy, but because you are blessed. You are made a saint by God because He pours out His blessing upon you.

The word saint means “holy one.” There is one who is holy and that is God. How we are made holy is that God makes us holy, accounting the righteousness, the holiness, of Christ to us so that we actually stand before Him as ones who are holy, saints. This is the way it has always been done by God, with Abraham and David, Mary and Peter, and Augustine and Luther. And you and me.

Who are the saints? They are the ones who waited for the blessings of God and even now rejoice in them in their fullness in eternal glory. They are the ones who even now are waiting for the blessings of God in their fullness and trust that they will rejoice in them in eternal glory with all the saints of heaven. When Jesus says to us, “Blessed are you,” He is speaking that blessing as a fact. You are blessed. Even now you have the Kingdom. And even now you wait in this lifetime. You trust in your Savior for the comfort you will receive. You wait for the inheritance given you of the eternal Promised Land. You know you will receive righteousness in all its fullness even as you hunger and thirst for it in this lifetime. You humbly await that Judgment Day when you will deserve nothing but damnation from God but will receive mercy. You will see God face to face in eternity. You are called a son, a daughter of God by your Heavenly Father. You may rejoice and be glad even when you are trampled on for walking in the way of Christ.

Jesus speaks His Beatitudes to His holy people, His saints. Lutherans like to refer to Christians as saints and sinners simultaneously. In Christ there is not any sin or unrighteousness in us. We are saints in every sense of that word, we are holy. At the same time, we are wrapped up in this sinful flesh while we remain on this earth and so are completely sinful—there is not anything good within us in God’s holy sight. How is it that we are saints and sinners simultaneously? That we don’t fluctuate back and forth between the one and the other, that we’re not half saint, half sinner? That the eternal condemnation we deserve is exactly that, what we deserve and the salvation we have received is exactly that, purely what we have received?

The answer must always go back to Christ. He is man and God simultaneously. Fully God and fully man. God became flesh for sinners. Jesus was condemned in our place so that we may receive salvation. The sinless for the sinner. The eternal righteousness given to the unrighteous. The eternal Lamb of God slain so that sinners may be saints.

This is who you are. This is what Jesus is saying in the Beatitudes. Blessed are you. And it is so. In need of comfort? Come to His Table where He gives you the Kingdom. Hunger and thirst for righteousness? Partake of His Holy Meal, which is nothing less than His holy Body and Blood, given and shed for you, for you to eat and drink, for you to be satisfied, sustained; blessed in Him forever. Amen.

SDG

An Eternal Gospel

Reformation Day [Observed]
Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost
October 25, 2009
John 8:31-36

A historian once said that those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it. We all need to be historians. Because it’s true. If you do not know history you are a slave. You have no freedom. If you’re behind bars, it’s clear to you that you aren’t free. But if you go through life ignoring reality and truth you think you are free when in fact you more of a prisoner than one who is behind bars. We are shortsighted. We often see what we want to see. Jesus has an everlasting perspective.

He proclaims an eternal Gospel. That’s what the First reading from Revelation says, an eternal Gospel is proclaimed. But doesn’t that sound odd to us? Why should there need to be an eternal Gospel? Doesn’t the Gospel only come into play when Adam and Eve fall into sin? Why would the Gospel need to be in existence from eternity? And isn’t there no longer a need for the Gospel when Christ returns in glory and puts an end to this world and we reign in heaven forever without sin and condemnation? Why does the Gospel need to remain for eternity?

Jesus answers that question in the Gospel reading. It’s something along the lines of, those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it. The people Jesus was speaking to had short memories. Never had been enslaved to anyone? Had they forgotten the Egyptians? And the Babylonians? And what about the Roman occupiers in their own day? But even all of this misses the point, which is why Jesus doesn’t bring it up, as obvious as it is. Their refusal to learn from history is to not acknowledge their slavery to sin.

Paul is forced to make this clear in his letter to the Christians in Rome in our Epistle reading. The Law of God breaks through in this life so that every mouth may be stopped. That doesn’t keep us from talking though, does it? Me, a sinner? Well, yes, but I’m not really that bad. I don’t sin all the time. And the sins I commit don’t really hurt people that much. I could be a lot worse.

By this way of thinking we have shown ourselves to be slaves to sin. We’re so convinced we’re not that bad of sinners we forget the root problem: Original Sin. Yes, you don’t always do really bad things. And some of the really bad things you do don’t come close to comparing to the heinous acts that some, even many, people commit. But you are bound up in your sinful flesh—you are a sinner not just because you sin, but because you are born in sin and are enslaved to it. Those who ignore this are condemned.

Since our memories are so short, God has a way of dealing with this that is outside of our realm of dealing with time and figuring out which sins are really bad and which ones aren’t as big of a deal—it’s His eternal Gospel. It’s the truth that will set you free. If His Gospel is from eternity and lasts for eternity there’s no way you can wonder if your being bound up in your sinful flesh is not covered by His grace, His mercy, His love. It is. It’s eternal. He always had in view, from eternity, loving you and being in relationship with you.

You are free by what God has done in His eternal action of the Gospel. Believing in Christ is abiding in this eternal Gospel, something that is outside of yourself, from before you were ever around and that will last forever. When the people talking to Jesus wanted to place the ground of their faith in themselves He insisted that it must be grounded in Him and His eternal Gospel.

Jesus says those who commit sin are slaves to sin. He doesn’t go down a list to help them sort out whether they’re really bad sinners or sinners who just do some bad things now and then. Those who commit sin are slaves to sin because they are born in sin and are wrapped up in their sinful flesh. To be freed from this you must be freed from it. You cannot free yourself from it. You must be freed from it by something outside of you. By someone who is not bound by sin. You are set free by the Son who from eternity is your Savior.

It’s not easy to abide in Jesus’ Word. It means doing what we do when we confess our sins. That we are by nature sinful. That there is nothing good within us and nothing good we can do in the sight of God. That we deserve His temporal and eternal punishment. There’s nothing easy about this.

But there is something freeing about it. There’s something amazingly revolutionary about it. Standing before God and not making a case for yourself. Not justifying your sinful actions or rationalizing them away. Simply confessing them. Simply saying, God, what you say is true, I am a sinner, condemn me because it’s all that I deserve. There’s something freeing about this, because as we stand before God in this condition—sinful, unworthy, condemned—we are standing before a God who tells us to lift up our head. To turn our gaze to a hill that stood just outside of a small city. A hill upon which was another sinner. A sinner who was crucified on that hill. A sinner who is God the Father’s very own Son.

But this is all wrong! He’s not the sinner, I am. How is it that God points us to the one on the cross as the sinner when we are the ones? How it is is the eternal Gospel. Jesus becomes the sinner so that we may be set free. Free from sin. Free from the condemnation of the Law. Free from any notions that we’re not that bad and only need to keep trying a little harder. And even more, freed from the Law that is constantly beating us down that we haven’t loved enough, shared the Gospel with enough people, haven’t been in the Word of God as much as we should be. Freeing us up from this condemnation to simply live in His grace. To be freed to serve in our simple, humble, often awkward ways. Even our sometimes faltering ways.

That’s what the eternal Gospel always does. When you are freed you are not then put under a new Law in which you must now do stuff for God. When the Son sets you free, you are free indeed! He has had this in view from eternity! Jesus is your Lord eternally. He is your Savior eternally. You are free eternally. You are not condemned. You are not bound. You are Baptized. You are fed by Your Savior Himself. His very Body, His very Blood, placed in your mouth for you to eat and drink and be filled and refreshed and forgiven and freed.

This is not of anything you do. Thank God! It’s everything of God and by God, eternally, for you. Amen.

SDG

An Alternative Way

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
Luke, Evangelist
October 18, 2009
Mark 10:23-31

The man who came to Jesus in last week’s Gospel reading asking how he could gain heaven walked away from it all because He didn’t want the way Jesus offered him. In today’s Gospel reading Jesus fleshes out what it means to follow Him.

In one word it is humility. Jesus doesn’t tell us how to be humble. He doesn’t even tell us to be humble. But that’s what He’s preaching. The way Jesus gives us is a different way than the world offers us.

What does the world offer you? Why not get the most out of life you can rather than submitting to the demands or wishes of others? Even so, there are many people in the world who are not Christians who are very kind and generous. They help others and even put others before themselves. But what happens? The world points to those people and says, See how humble they are! They’re enamored with the person, which kind of takes away from the humility. The world offers in the form of many religions a system in which you attain reward because of who you are or what you do. This way is no more possible than passing through the eye of a needle, something you no more can do than can a camel. What is demanded in all these religions is not humility but perfection. There is no point in even attempting to meet the demands of these religions because you’re sunk before you even begin.

Jesus offers an alternative way. It’s getting out of the way. He embodies this Himself. He is the embodiment of God. God doesn’t sit on His throne and command us to be humble. He humbles Himself to come to us. We entered the House of God this morning in His Name, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Moments ago we confessed our faith of who He is in the Nicene Creed: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is the true God, the only God. And the thing about the true God… He gets out of the way. He humbles Himself by passing, so to speak, through the eye of a needle knowing that we cannot. In other words, what is impossible for us, but demanded of us in order to be saved, He accomplishes, because all things are possible with Him.

The Holy Spirit is fully God, the Lord and Giver of Life, and yet gets out of the way. He points to Jesus, delivers Him to us. Jesus is true God—God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God—and yet points us to the Father. Jesus’ concern is glorifying His Heavenly Father. The Father is God—Almighty, maker of heaven and earth—and yet points us to His Son, Jesus Christ. This is My beloved Son, listen to Him.

In a sea of people boasting of their humility, looking for ways to humble themselves, attempting to be more humble, God offers an alternative: Himself. The Lord above all humbles Himself and gives Himself to us. In our attempts to gain recognition for what we do either by others lauding our efforts, or our listing our accomplishments to God, He simply shows us one thing that has been accomplished. And it has been accomplished by Him. It is truly the greatest accomplishment and yet done in the humblest of circumstances. Our Lord suffering in our place, taking upon Himself our sin.

It’s really hard to talk as Christians about humility. Once you point it out it becomes the focus, and that kind of takes out the point. The way to be humble is to get out of the way. What is our tendency? The disciples don’t want to take Jesus’ way as the way, so they exclaim: “Then who can be saved?” Humility would simply accept Jesus’ word for what it is. Peter doesn’t want to get out of the way and focus solely on Christ so he mentions a fact his Lord apparently wasn’t aware of: “We have left everything and followed You.”

The amazing thing about God is that He really gets out of the way. He knows that we’re constantly wanting to go back to our own notions of how we’re in the good favor of God, and He still uses us for His eternal will of accomplishing salvation for the world.

I like to give the Confirmation kids quizzes. And I think they like them, but you can ask them. So here’s a quiz, but don’t answer them out loud, just answer in your head these two questions, true or false:

1. You don’t do the works God has called you to do in your life.
2. You do the works God has called you to do in your life.

In a humorous vein, you can test out your humility by seeing your reaction if you get both answers right whether you congratulate yourself or not. Or, conversely, if you get one or both wrong, if you congratulate yourself on your humility because you failed the test.

But to the serious point of the answers to the two questions, the answer to the first question—you don’t do the works God has called you to do in your life—that’s true, you don’t. The answer to the second question—you do the works God has called you to do in your life—that’s true also, you do.

This is God offering an alternative way of humility, some would say nonsensical. And they would be right. Jesus doesn’t spend His time explaining that His way is logical, He just says it. The truth is, we don’t do the works God has called us to do. We fail miserably. We try. Sometimes we don’t even try. But try or not, we don’t accomplish what God demands. If trying were all that were needed the Bible wouldn’t have been nearly as long as it is. But in the manifold pages of Scripture it becomes abundantly clear that what God demands is perfection, and that is where you come up short. Convince yourself all you want to the contrary, but the answer to number 1 is No, you don’t do what God has called you to do.

But there’s another truth. And that is the truth of statement 2. You do what God has called you to do. You do the works He commands of you. And this is not some sort of trying thing either. You do them perfectly. Exactly as the Law of God demands. God the Father is as pleased with your works as He is with His own Son, Jesus Christ. And this is the key to it all. Jesus is the one who brings about humility in us, not our attempts at it.

Jesus is the reason we can say without doubt that we don’t do what God demands of us. Otherwise, why did Jesus suffer eternal condemnation in our place? Jesus is also the reason we can say in full confidence that we do what God has commanded us. Otherwise, why did Jesus accomplish the perfect fulfillment of the Law in our place? The way Jesus talks in the Gospel reading shows us how both of these things are possible at the same time. “There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for My sake and for the Gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time.” On the one hand, when you stand before the altar of God to confess your sins, can you honestly say that you have done what Jesus demands, what Peter was convinced of that he did? Instead, haven’t you put all of these things before God in your life? At the same time, as you stand before the altar of God and hear His proclamation of the Absolution of your sins, can you not but thank Him for the amazing opportunities He gives you in your life to serve Him right where you’re at? In your home, loving and taking care of your family. Helping out your neighbors when they’re in need.

There is no one who has not left “houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life” who has not done so by Jesus Christ Himself accomplishing it. It is indeed no longer you who live but Christ who lives in you. No wonder you’re able to live as God has called you to live! He accomplishes even this. He frees you up to serve Him. He frees you from the constraints of the Law to practice the Law of love, humbly, joyfully serving those God has placed in your life. When you get out of the way the Holy Spirit has a field day working through you to serve others.

But if you wonder at the many ways the world offers; the appeals of your sinful flesh; the temptations of the devil; know that there is an alternative to all of that. It’s not just another way. It’s the way. The way of humility is not trying to be humble, it’s simply the way of Christ. It’s Christ being humble on your account. “Many who are first will be last, and the last first.” Christ is first of all and became last for all. Christ is Lord of Creation and yet humbly offers you His body and blood in a simple meal at this altar. The Holy Spirit fills you up with the righteousness of Christ so that the Heavenly Father may look upon you and be pleased and pour out upon you all His eternal blessings. Amen.

SDG

What Must I NOT Do to Be Saved?

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
October 11, 2009
Mark 10:17-22

You do a lot of things. Conversely, there’s a lot of things you don’t do. A lot of what you do you do purposefully, a lot you simply do with no thought to it. At the same time, there are things you don’t do because you choose not to do them, just as there are things you don’t do because it never comes to mind.

Today’s Gospel reading is all about doing and not doing. In other words, it’s just like life. There are two people here, Jesus and a man who comes up to Him, both of whom are doing distinct things and not doing distinct things.

Jesus is as He always is. He is doing something but not just anything. He is going about His specific work of salvation. Mark says Jesus is setting out on His journey. We know where that journey led Him, to the cross. Nobody else around had a clue that that’s what Jesus was doing.

Certainly not the man who showed up who likewise was doing something very specific. Accomplishing a lifetime of obeying God’s Law, he found in his life there was still something missing. Jesus, what must I do to be saved? There’s got to be something more than what I’ve already done.

His focus was on what he must do. Jesus answers that it is not what he must do but what he must NOT do. What He is getting at is the First Commandment: You shall have no other gods.

Interesting, then, that He doesn’t mention that commandment at all. He lists seven commandments. The first three of the Ten Commandments He doesn’t state. The ones He does all deal with the second table of the Law, the ones dealing with our relationship with others. The first three commandments, the first table of the Law, deal with our relationship with God. The first table is the one Jesus is concerned with with the man who seeks to gain eternal life. The whole Law is summed up in the First Commandment: You shall have no other gods.

What must you do to be saved? It’s what you must NOT do. You must have no other gods. This was this man’s problem. This is our basic problem. We have other gods. We put all kinds of things in place of God. Actually, that we place many things in place of the true God is the way we place ourselves in front of God.

If we search for what we must do we will not find it. Rather, God says, You shall have no other gods. Jesus was the one rightly doing something in this episode. He was on His way. He was heading to the cross. That’s where salvation takes place. Not in your heart where you are proud of yourself for obeying the second table of the Law. You take care of your ailing parents and patiently put up with their eccentricities and demands. You bite your tongue when your co-worker makes backhanded insults to you. You obey copyright laws even when no one would ever know if you didn’t. These are all good things. And we should do them. God’s Law is clear on that. But do these things end up becoming our gods? The apostle Paul even said of himself that before he became a Christian “as to righteousness under the Law, I was blameless” (Philippians 3:6).

The man who was seeking salvation from Jesus went to the right person. But he had it all wrong. Jesus, what must I do? No, it’s rather what you must not do. Why did Jesus go to the cross if you could gain salvation from obeying the Law? Why was Jesus so intent on getting to that cross if it came down to you doing something in order to be saved?

It’s what you must not do to be saved that Jesus drives home in His directive to the man, to sell all he has and follow Him. The man was convinced he had kept all the commandments. Jesus doesn’t dispute that. His reply is simple: “You lack one thing.” The one thing is the only thing. It is the main thing and the thing without which you have you have nothing. It is having no other gods. It is fearing, loving, and trusting in God above all things.

Money may not be your thing, like it was for that man. It may be your charisma, or your unwavering service to others, or your comfortable habit of being here in God’s House when it’s convenient, or your consistency in being here in God’s House. There are a lot of things we do. So often in our lives what we do reflects our natural penchant toward ourselves rather than having no other gods.

The man walked away from Jesus and what he had been seeking, eternal life, not because his wealth was his god, but because he himself was his god. If what you do gains for yourself eternal life you don’t need Jesus. The man didn’t want Jesus, he wanted Jesus to clue him in on what he was still lacking. Or perhaps he just wanted Jesus to confirm the man’s worthiness. You’re good to go, pal. Keep up the good work. Wish there were more guys like you.

But Jesus gives us the one thing we lack, and that is, well, it’s Him. Jesus gives us Himself. He is the heart of the First Commandment. Having no other gods means nothing other than Jesus is your hope of salvation. Jesus didn’t go to the cross for nothing. He went to the cross for the world. Nobody was doing anything that accomplished their salvation while Jesus was hanging on the cross. Jesus was doing it all. Salvation is in Him: His suffering, His death, His resurrection.

What you must not do to be saved is have other gods. What you must do is nothing. You’re very good at doing all the things you do and very good at not doing all the things you don’t do. Don’t continue down that road. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. It’s also the road of a lot of people doing a lot of things; many of them good, wonderful things—loving people, being kind to them, obeying God’s Law.

The road to salvation is the road Jesus walked. It’s the road that led to the cross and continues on from the empty tomb. This is the road you follow. You’ll still be tempted to think of this road you’re on, the one of following Jesus, as one in which you’re doing good things for Jesus. I’m following Jesus, it’s a good thing I’m doing this! I serve Jesus, it’s a good thing I’m doing what He wants!

But on this road Jesus will keep bringing you back down to earth: There is one thing you lack, and that is Me. What I accomplished on Calvary. What I give to you in My Holy Supper, My very Body and Blood, given and shed for you. In this way He raises you up to heaven. Amen.

SDG

A Messy Affair

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
October 4, 2009
Mark 10:2-16

This came in the email just in time for today’s Gospel reading which is about marriage and family. Questions about marriage are asked of children:

“How do you decide who to marry?”

Alan, age 10, says: You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.

Kirsten, age 10, says: No person really decides before they grow up who they’re going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you’re stuck with.

“What is the right age to get married?”

Camille, age 10, says: Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then.

And you have to wonder what kind of home Freddie, age 6, grew up in to say: No age is good to get married at. You got to be a fool to get married.

“How can a stranger tell if two people are married?”

Derrick, age 8, opines: You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids.

Out of the mouths of babes often comes the harsh reality of how sin has impacted God’s instituting of marriage. One of my favorite comic strips, the Wizard of Id, shows us exactly the problem here. A woman in a funeral home standing next to the coffin of her deceased husband says to another woman: An operation might have saved him, but our insurance denied it. Apparently he had a pre-existing condition. To which the other woman asked, What was it? This met with the response: He was alive.

Jesus shows us that this is our problem in the Gospel reading today. Whether you are married or single, divorced or have never been married or are widowed, have children or not able to, grew up in a big family or are an only child, adopted or orphaned, there is something you all have in common: you are all part of a family. In families genes are passed along. We carry on certain traits. One thing that has been passed along from Adam and Eve was alluded to in the comic strip and evidenced by the children who were asked how they view marriage: we are all born in sin. This is called original sin and we can no more escape that genetic trait than we can our eye color or a congenital disease.

God’s creation is perfect, our sin has damaged it. How we approach the good things God has created is even tainted with sin. Today’s Gospel reading gives us some good examples of this. How the Pharisees approach God’s gift of marriage betrays their approach to it. They ask a question consistent with the Law. But this begs the question, doesn’t it? After all, who is the author of the Law? It is God. Jesus even affirms that the Law in the Old Testament permitted divorce. Here Jesus is speaking against it and then admits that God allowed divorce. Oh, He gives a reason. But He allowed it. I hate it when God gets things wrong. How are you supposed to teach that divorce is against God’s will when He gave people an out because of the hardness of their hearts? Wouldn’t that just give people an out today?

Actually, what Jesus is doing is what He always does. He responds according to what is in our hearts. He responds according to what He knows we need. If you seek what you want according to the Law what you will get is the Law. If you are given the Gospel it will be Law to you. On the other hand, if you seek the Gospel that is exactly what you will get. If you get Law you will think it is Gospel, only, it won’t be. God always gives you exactly what you need. Sometimes you need Law. Sometimes you need Gospel.

It all gets to be a very messy affair, this business of Law and Gospel. It’s kind of like a family. Having a family is a messy affair. There’s all kinds of people running around the house complaining about how so and so isn’t doing enough work and so and so messed up my homework and so and so won’t leave me alone and so and so said she’d play with me but now is playing with so and so and some people in the family are just wondering if there will be any peace and quiet at some point in this day or if the yelling and the TV and other annoying sounds will continue on into eternity.

Families do not always seem to be a place of refuge of love and peace and quiet. Maybe that’s why the Pharisees come at the whole situation to Jesus from a Law perspective. If it gets to be where being in this family is bringing me down, can I just get out? I notice Mark yet again doesn’t tell us what the disciples asked Jesus but he does give us Jesus’ response, and if we can judge from that we can see that the disciples still weren’t getting it. Though not testing Jesus as the Pharisees were, they were approaching marriage and family from the same Law perspective as the Pharisees were.

There’s not a whole lot of difference between the Pharisees and the disciples. Conversely, there’s a universe of difference between them and Jesus. They approach marital and family matters the way they approach life. What do I need to do to make this better? How can I make this work? What can I do to get out of it what will be best for me? We are heirs of an astonishingly pathetic tradition. It can be summed up in the cartoon. It’s a condition we all suffer from. We’re alive. Which means, we’re dead. Living for us means what can we do to satisfy ourselves in this life. What that means for us is death. It means if we approach these matters, and life itself, from a Law perspective we’ll get a Law answer. And the Law always condemns. It doesn’t only condemn, but it always condemns. It guides and instructs and shows us the best way, but it never leaves you where you need to be. It always leaves you coming up short. It always ends up condemning you.

On the other hand is the Gospel. But this too is a messy affair. Because the Gospel only comes in when you’re in the mess of sin and need. The Gospel comes in for you, a sinner. Those cute little kids that were being brought to Jesus were cute little sinners. We can smile all we want at the cute little baby in her little white Baptismal outfit. But the true joy that comes from that baby’s life is not in being cute but in being drowned in the waters of Baptism and raised to eternal life.

There will come a point where God will leave you to your own desires. Your ways are the ways of the Law. He will not force the Gospel upon you. He will always offer it to you, but never beat you down with it. If you want to get out of marriage or life only what you want to get out of it He will let you go your own way. But He will always be there for you, offering you the blessing you need. That’s why He blessed those children, because they needed it. They weren’t just cute. They were sinners. They needed to be forgiven. That’s why they were brought to Jesus. That’s why we bring babies and children and adults to the font to be Baptized. To be blessed. To receive the blessing of Christ. To receive salvation. To receive eternal life. To be forgiven of all their sins. To go from that font a child of God.

No matter, our sinful flesh will sit there and step into the role of Pharisee or ignorant disciple. But the Kingdom of God belongs to children! Why do they need Baptism if Jesus says to such belongs His Kingdom?! Yes, our Old Adam loves to approach things from the Law. That’s what got us into the mess we’re in and the need for the Gospel in the first place. We’re shackled by the Law. It’s like being in a marriage you feel like you’re suffocating in. Your consuming thought is How can I get out of this? It’s like longing for the day you can get out from under the demands of your parents so that you can have the freedom that will make your life so much better. The Law will always get you to a place that will leave you coming up short.

Jesus does not say the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to children. You don’t get into heaven simply because you’re a child. You get into it when you are such as they are. And how is that? Well, they certainly didn’t do anything. They didn’t come to Jesus. They didn’t ask Him for anything. They were brought. They were brought to Jesus by their parents. And that is how we must be. We must be brought to Jesus. We can’t come to Him on our own. They didn’t do anything; neither can we.

We get in not because of what we do but because of what has been done to us. We are brought into the eternal Family of God through Baptism. Our Lord is our Savior. Our Master is not ashamed to be called our brother. He has brought us into His family in which there is no longer any genetic strain of sin. We are born of God and inherit the righteousness of Christ. We are brought into a relationship that is of unconditional love. Our Lord is our Husband. We are His Bride. We are joined to Him in Baptism. He invites us to celebrate the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.

We await that day. We await it by celebrating a foretaste of it in His Holy Supper. It was a messy affair what Jesus did in instituting His Holy Supper. About to die. To put His life in place of ours. To be the sacrifice, the one slain, the one whose blood was shed. There was no messier affair, the sins of fallen humanity shouldered by the sinless Lamb of God, and yet no more beautiful thing in all of history, no greater love shown. The risen Lord and Christ now comes to you in His very same Body and Blood to grant you His life, His forgiveness, His salvation. Amen.

SDG

A Simple Faith

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 27, 2009
Mark 9:38-50

Sometimes you’re met with a passage of Scripture and the only thing you’re convinced of is that you don’t know what it means. You struggle with interpreting it, understanding the meaning of it, and you walk away with an uneasy feeling, that maybe your faith is now a little weaker. You wonder that if it’s this hard then maybe it’s better just to stick with the basics, Jesus died for you and has saved you. You know that. Faith ultimately tells you that. Your faith at least clings to that.

If you look at the words of Christ in the Gospel reading and you’re left scratching your head, know this—He is doing His usual thing: He’s preaching Himself into your life. He’s calling you to and instilling in you faith. And if it seems it makes no sense then take comfort that He’s calling you to a simple faith.

This in no way means a simplistic faith. You might not want to hear it, but it doesn’t mean an easy faith, either. But it is simple.

Life often is not easy. Some seem to have a simplistic life. Most people I know have anything but. Lots going on all over the place and difficulty trying to keep up with it all. We might wish to come in here on Sunday morning, away from our hectic lives, and hear a nice simplistic message from God. But God’s life and message are not simplistic anymore than our lives are not simplistic.

But simple is something He is very willing to offer. Simplistic things don’t have much to them. Simple things can be as profound as anything. This is what we have here. Far from not having much to it, the simple faith Jesus calls us to and instills in us has more to it than we can ever imagine.

We tend to approach faith, our Christian life in a simplistic way. We get a little too full of ourselves and think that the Kingdom of God will go astray if it’s not under our tight control. Jesus nudges us back a little and says, “Don’t worry about it, the Kingdom of God will increase by all those people over there preaching the Gospel in a way that doesn’t fit into our mold.”

But what about heresy? What if they’re teaching false doctrine? Shouldn’t we be spending our time preventing those people from engaging in Ministry that could lead people astray? Jesus Himself vehemently attacked those who were leading people astray. Didn’t He strictly warn us about those who are wolves in sheep’s clothing? Is Jesus going soft on us in today’s Gospel reading?

No softer than when spoke on the cross: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Preaching or teaching false doctrine is an attack on Jesus Christ even as nailing Him to a cross was. Jesus came to seek and save the lost, even those who oppose Him in their false teaching. Jesus died on the cross for everyone—it includes them. Paul says to the Philippians: “Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the Gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.” (ESV) It’s as if Paul was taking his cue from Jesus, hearing the simple message from his Lord: Chill out.

Jesus’ ways are never our ways. We desire a strong faith. A mighty faith. A faith that can move mountains. Jesus calls us to a simple faith. That is what He instills in us, through His very preaching as we have it here today in this Gospel reading. He never justifies false teaching, but even He can work through it. He even uses us in our lives even though we remain sinners.

And maybe that’s the point. We get caught up in personalities and mannerisms and customs and Jesus wants us simply to see Him. A simple faith. That’s what He is calling us to. How else could a simple cup of water be such a big deal in God’s eyes? Anyone can give a cup of water to anyone who’s thirsty and go on their merry way feeling pretty darned pleased with themselves. But to Jesus this is as if it is the very key into the gate of heaven. He will by no means lose his reward.

A simple faith has no thought of it this way. A simple faith simply clings to Christ. It sees in one who is in need not an opportunity for extravagant claims to God of righteousness within oneself but rather simply an opportunity to serve. A simple faith does that. With no thought to it. With no claim to eternal reward but simply out of thanks for that eternal reward. If this were simplistic Jesus would just say: Help people out who are in need so that you may be rewarded for it. That is the way of the world and is therefore the dominant world religion. Jesus counters with a simple faith: cling to the one who hung on the cross and thirsted so that we may drink freely of the water of life and share that simple cup with others.

That’s where a simple faith is always looking to. Where it is always focusing on. Jesus. Christ and Him crucified. It takes the words that He says and takes them for what they are: an opportunity to be slain by the Lord Himself in order to be raised to new life in which we are sustained daily in simple faith. Being sustained in this faith means a daily dying and rising. While the picture of a man being weighted down to the bottom of the sea is a frightening one, and a warning to those who are in the faith, one who is in the faith cannot help but notice this is the kind of God we’re dealing with. One who likes to operate in this dying and rising mode. Jesus Himself going to the cross. Jesus Himself conquering the very death that had captured Him by rising from death. Jesus Himself slaying our sinful nature in the waters of Baptism. While His words of the Gospel reading are a warning, the actual occurrence of what happens in Baptism is that we drowned in those waters. We die. We are joined to Christ in His death. This is what faith always clings to and it is first given in Baptism. Faith makes that Old Adam come alive in the form of a New Man. The old sinful nature that clung to us is drowned and raised to new life.

It is a life of faith. Simple but never simplistic. It is a constant battle, one of scratching our heads of what is Jesus talking about? We look at His words in the Gospel reading and He seems to be all over the map. Maybe He’s trying to keep up with us. Because our faith, simple as it is, often seems to us simplistic and we find ourselves searching more. Things that entice us sometime get a hold of us. Our clinging to Christ seems to slip away. You are Baptized. You may lose your grip but He’s not going to let you go. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Our sinful nature says: There won’t be any of me left! A simple faith says: Maybe that’s the point.

There shouldn’t be any of you left. Only Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. It is by faith I live. Simple. Constantly clinging to Christ, not those urges I have to tell a white lie, or think that that other guy over there is going about things all the wrong way, or sneaking a peak at someone else’s wife, or using your feet to go into places you shouldn’t be going—even if it’s a restaurant during the time you should be here.

A simple faith sees in the life God has given us an opportunity for sacrifice. Thank God you don’t have to get out your knife and start chopping yourself up when you sin. Christ has made that sacrifice. It was whole and it covers your sins. A simple faith clings to that and that alone. Your life is now a sacrifice. You can thank of it as a sacrifice of thanksgiving. This is the sacrifice of the whole body. Or rather, your whole life. Old Testament sacrifices were seasoned with salt—it’s amazing what you learn when you keep going back to the Scriptures. I didn’t know that, or had forgotten it long ago. You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. “You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.” (Leviticus 2:13 ESV) Now Jesus is saying that we are the sacrifice. Rather than cut off your hand or pluck out your eye, your whole being, your life, all who you are is seasoned with the salt of fire.

A simple faith clings to Christ. It seeks what our Lord seeks. We subdue our selfish desires and seek to be at peace with one another. Have you tried that? It’s hard. It’s easy to argue, to get the upper hand. In fact, hey, I know some people like that. The disciples had just gotten through with a session of who is the greatest apostle. They had just tried to tell off an outsider that he wasn’t one of them so he should bug off. But to be at peace with one another, that often seems a fantasy rather than a reality.

But Jesus is simple in His call to faith and instilling it in us: Be at peace with one another. Have salt in yourselves. He doesn’t simply exhort us to that way of life but brings about what it says. Paul in Colossians says, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” I can only attribute it to the power and grace of God that I have held my tongue at times and have been at peace with certain people. A simple faith does that. Because Christ is, simply, your Savior. Amen.

SDG

The Greatness of Weakness

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 20, 2009
Mark 9:30-37

He was teaching His disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And when He is killed, after three days He will rise.”

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Why are you praying for strength when you ought to be praying for weakness?

Are you still caught up in the way the world looks at things that you would seek the opposite of what God thinks you ought to have? Do you so easily go through the motions of the liturgy that you don’t take time to meditate on what each part is saying to you, the faith that you are confessing, what it means for you?

In the Collect we prayed: “O God, whose strength is made perfect in weakness, grant us humility and childlike faith that we may please You in both will and deed.”

I have prayed for strength many times. I desire it often. Especially in times of need. Especially when I’m weak. It’s natural, isn’t it? Maybe that’s the problem. We’re weak, so we need strength.

But that’s not what the Collect says. It’s not what we prayed. It’s not what we ought to seek. What we’re praying for is weakness. It is in our weakness that we are strong. Not when we’re strong. When we’re strong we’re weak. Paul says God’s power is made perfect in weakness so that’s what we pray in the Collect.

We pray for strength. We pray everything will be all right. We ask God to turn things favorably our way.

But we don’t pray for weakness.

That’s why we need the liturgy. The liturgy helps us pray for what we ought to pray. It guides us in praying in the way we ought to pray.

And so we pray for weakness.

God is great, of course. We are comforted in knowing that we have an all-powerful God. But His greatness is not in His greatness but in His weakness. The genius of God is that He makes Himself known in weakness, humility. His power is made perfect in weakness.

Why were the disciples discussing among themselves who was the greatest? Was it because they were arrogant? Were they like many men who couldn’t keep from making a competition out of everything? Had one of them issued a challenge and the others couldn’t help but accept the challenge?

Mark says they didn’t understand what Jesus had been saying to them. Here’s the thing, it was the opposite of who was the greatest. Jesus wasn’t trying show them how He was greater than all of them combined, He was preparing them for His suffering and death and resurrection. They didn’t understand what He was getting at. And they were afraid to ask. We don’t have to deal with that now. It was a long trip back to Capernaum and they had to talk about something. Perhaps the failed attempt at casting out the demon from the boy was still fresh in their minds, sparking protests of fault and rationalization to go around.

There’s no weakness here. There’s no talk of Christ. It’s all about strength. It’s all about how you’re consumed with yourself and how pleased you are with yourself. How much better off you’d be if things would work out a little better in your life than they do. It certainly should follow that a great God—the Almighty God, Lord of Creation—would bring about great things in your life. But instead, He invites us, pleads with us, to pray for weakness. That’s where power is known. That’s how His greatness is perfected.

In weakness.

They didn’t understand. Will we? Will we see in His words what we need to know so that we may be content, even seek weakness? Jesus wasn’t just telling them He would suffer and die. He was laying out on the table how God brings about His power. It is in weakness. “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.” He doesn’t say that He will walk up to that cross to die on behalf of the world. He will be handed over. Betrayed. He will willingly suffer the indignity of being falsely accused and arrested and mocked and led to the slaughter. He will walk to that cross in humility, in weakness.

The whole way through Jesus never prays for strength. He never seeks power from His Heavenly Father. He humbly goes the way in weakness.

How can you receive strength if you are praying for it? How can you expect power from God if you are seeking it? Instead, learn from the liturgy and pray for God’s strength to be made perfect in weakness. Learn from how we pray in the liturgy that after we are absolved of our sins we pray the Kyrie. The words “Kyrie eleison” mean “Lord, have mercy.” Why do we pray for mercy right after being absolved of our sins? Are we ever not in need of Christ’s mercy? Might we go from the Absolution and think that now we’re good to go? Might we walk away from there forgetting that it is always the mercy of God we need? Not power. Not strength. Not greater.

The Absolution is, of course, pure mercy. It is the pure forgiveness of sins, God’s mercy toward us in His Son Jesus Christ. But we tend to forget that, don’t we? Perhaps even in the seconds after being absolved. So there is the Kyrie to turn us back toward Christ. The plea for mercy. The prayer of the one who is weak, not strong.

Why are you seeking greatness and strength from God? Rather, seek weakness. He comes to you plainly. In ordinary bread. In ordinary wine. He said it to His disciples but embodied the words Himself: “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” There will be multiple times this week you will wish you had stronger faith—turn your thoughts back toward the very Body and Blood of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is in the humble means of bread and wine—not in power—that He has delivered Himself over to you so that you may receive Him in His Holy Supper.

God’s greatness is in His weakness. He made Himself weak so that you may be strong. Your strength is in weakness. When you are being bugged by people you will recall in the liturgy that it is in your weakness God has called you to be their servant. Glory in the fact that you are a poor miserable sinner. Mercy is your plea and mercy is what your Lord God grants you. He has come, after all, to serve you. Amen.

SDG

A Life of Prayer

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 13, 2009
Mark 9:14-29

I imagine you haven’t attempted casting out any demons lately. Probably, you’ve never done so in your life. The disciples had. Why couldn’t they do it now? What was wrong? Why wasn’t it working? Things had worked so well previously when Jesus had sent them out with authority over demons. But now, nothing.

Why couldn’t they do it?, they asked Jesus. “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer,” He told them. So there you have it. If you’re ever in need of casting out a demon, you have the method straight from Jesus.

Does this imply that the disciples had not prayed in this instance? Does it mean that when they had been casting out demons previously that they had done so in prayer? And for some reason this time they forgot? Or that they had begun thinking a little too much of themselves and thought they could simply waltz over to the boy and cast that demon out?

We don’t know. What we do know is that they didn’t approach this situation in a prayerful manner. What we know is that Jesus cast out the demon immediately. Did He pray beforehand? Was he, as Paul similarly exhorts all Christians to pray constantly, in a state of constant prayer?

Jesus utters no prayer in this incident that Mark records. But could we see in Jesus’ cry of exasperation a cry of prayer? He is speaking of a world that is in unbelief, and yet, in that very cry we also see infinite longsuffering and mercy. “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?” How long would He bear with them? Well, as long as it would take. Here we see the life of prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ. His life was a prayer. A willingness to offer Himself up as the servant of His Father to a lost and foundering world. His cry was not one of giving up but of a longing for the people He created to trust solely in Him.

This life that Jesus lived consisted not only of dying on the cross and rising from the grave, His life was one of living in such a way that you and I cannot. And perhaps more to the point, that you and I are unwilling to do. We all too easily pronounce the work of God as dead when He is at His most powerful. How many times have we thought that God was unable or unwilling to act when our loved ones lay helplessly on their death bed? How often have we questioned His power or His will when we are unable to see the light at the end of the tunnel when we are experiencing difficult times?

We’d like the work of God to be clean and easy, painless. Instead, we see God at work and it’s messy and even brutal. When Jesus came on the scene and discovered the affliction of the boy He could very well have ousted the demon and been done with it. But instead Jesus prolonged the agony of the boy by asking the father questions. Then, when Jesus finally ousted the demon, He allowed it to have one last hurrah, so much so that the boy was violently convulsed and looked to be dead rather than freed from the demon.

And though the child was not dead Jesus certainly showed what His work is all about. Or perhaps a better way of saying it: how He works. Through death and resurrection. The boy they thought was dead was now being raised up by Jesus’ own hand. The demon who appeared to have so much agonizing power over the boy was now merely a wisp in the wind. Jesus did indeed allow that demon to shake up the boy so that we can see that even when it appears that the forces against us are more powerful than God that God indeed is the one who is mightily at work, and who Himself is having the last hurrah. This was a prelude for Jesus’ own death and resurrection. Satan Himself was allowed by God to violently shake the world of Jesus, even bringing Him to His knees in death. But who was really exerting the power? It was Jesus Himself. In His humble and merciful way. Choosing a destiny far worse than what that boy had experienced. Jesus took on that boy’s sin. And the sin of his father. And every person’s sin, including yours and mine.

Some had accused the disciples of being fakes, they couldn’t even exorcise a demon from a boy. People said worse about Jesus Himself. The one who vanquished the demon from the boy was Himself vanquished on the cross. “Come down from the cross and prove to us You are the Son of God.” None of this becomes clear of why Jesus did this and what it means until He walks out of His grave. Things certainly hadn’t been clear to the disciples. They asked Jesus what was wrong. They didn’t understand that their Lord was the God who takes on Satan and sin head on by dying and rising.

How could they understand this if they were focused on this power they had over demons? The power they had over demons had nothing to do with anything inherent in themselves. It had solely to do with Jesus giving them the power. They had gone in headfirst without any thought of their Lord and Savior and their reliance on Him. This kind cannot by driven out by anything but prayer. They were following along with Jesus, but did they trust solely in Him? Following Jesus is living a life of prayer.

The father questioned whether Jesus could heal his boy. Jesus could have shown the father what was what—that of course He could heal the boy—but instead said that all things are possible for one who believes. This is what the disciples had been missing. A life of prayer. A life of faith. A life in which you see that you are not your own, your life is bound up in the one who is in the dying and rising business.

If the disciples had any further questions; if we have any doubts still; we can see what living a life of prayer means in the response of the father: “I believe; help my unbelief!” The life of prayer is one of constantly being aware that we are ever lacking in our faith, that we are always in need of the help and power and work of God. That in Christ alone is our hope of living even though we die. Of help even when all seems lost. Of comfort even when we’re in despair. That little or weak though our faith may be, the Holy Spirit has indeed given us faith.

That we prayerfully approach our Lord’s Table, knowing that without Him we can accomplish nothing. That the reason we need our Lord’s body and blood is because there is nothing inherent within us that can overcome the power of Satan. That no matter what we’re facing—spiritual struggles, or problems at work, or frustrations at home, or struggling against temptations, we may cry out, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!” That as our Lord has lived a life of humility in prayer He will hear yours. As He has gone to the grave Himself and walked away from it, He has united Himself with you in your Baptism so that you also have died and risen. He sustains you in the faith He has granted you in body and soul, now and to life everlasting. Amen.

SDG

Why the Cross Is the Center of History

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Rally Sunday
September 6, 2009
Mark 7:31-37

If the Gospel reading were the crucifixion of Jesus you would obviously have good reason to focus on the suffering and death of Christ. If the Gospel reading were of Jesus speaking of His suffering and death it would make good sense to emphasize that.

What about today’s Gospel reading? There’s no talk of the cross. There’s no mention of Jesus suffering and dying. There’s miraculous action He accomplishes. There’s mercy shown. There’s a bunch of people making known how great all of this stuff is.

But no talk of the cross.

It would be a great passage to show how God exhibits His power in our lives today as He did with the man who had his ears and mouth opened. A jumping off place to encourage us to make known far and wide the glory of Jesus and His miraculous power even as the crowds did back then. An obvious place to remind us that the Lord who showed mercy on that man is the same Lord who shows mercy upon us.

Yes, this passage would be great for all of that.

But better to do is ask, What is this passage telling us? What is it getting at? If we look at it simply for what it’s showing us we will come to see that the thrust of the passage is how the cross is the center of history.

With no mention of the cross, how can that be? It can be because that’s what Jesus is all about, the cross. Who He is and everything He does is all about the cross. This passage shows us that.

The people bring the man in need to Jesus and they beg Him to lay His hand on him. Even in our day of modern medicine we understand the healing power of touch. There’s something about a loved one or a person of authority holding your hand or placing their hand on you that immediately makes you feel better. But perhaps because of our reliance on modern medicine we have lost much of the significance of laying on of hands and of touch. The request of Jesus had as much to do with the wish to receive a blessing as it did to receive some sort of healing touch, if not more.

Jesus’ response shows us that there’s more to His answer of the request than meets the eye. He’s not helping out that day simply to give these men, and that man specifically, more than they had expected. No, He was wanting to show above all how the cross is the center of history.

And how is that? In the very act of opening the man’s ears and releasing his tongue Jesus was fulfilling what Isaiah prophesied in the Old Testament reading we heard this morning: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.” Isaiah prophesied not of a miracle worker. Not of a healer that would be the talk of the town. Not of glory and power to be made known throughout the land. He prophesied of the Messiah. This was one of those many prophecies, allied with countless prophecies in the entire Old Testament, of the Messiah. The Messiah, the Savior of the world, would come to suffer and die in the place of sinners. This man who couldn’t hear and who had a speech impediment was one of those sinners. He received mercy that day. Not just in being able to hear and speak plainly, in being forgiven his sins because the one who touched Him was the Messiah, the one who went to the cross.

How we know the cross is the center of history from this remarkable event is because Jesus’ response to their response to Him doesn’t make sense apart from the cross. They had just witnessed a miraculous display of power and mercy. How could they not speak of it? Well, they could have obeyed Jesus. He charged them not to tell anyone. Why was that? Because the cross is the center of history. Not Jesus’ healing of people and not even His merciful helping of people in their needs. The cross.

The reason they disobeyed Him is because they didn’t understand this. They didn’t know. If we look at this passage and see no mention of the cross and deduce from that that the passage and the incident is not about the cross, then we’re as little understanding of who Jesus is as they were. They didn’t know about the cross. They were just gonna’ go tell everybody what they saw!

How the cross is the center of history is shown by Jesus trying to keep those people quiet about what they saw until after. After the cross. Because it doesn’t mean anything without the cross. Nothing.

It means nothing.

Apart from the cross nothing in the Bible makes any sense. Apart from the cross we have in Christianity one more religion among many. How the cross is the center of history is shown in Jesus’ emphatic but failed efforts to keep those people quiet. Because when it was time for the cross there was no one there. No one to speak of the glory or the power or the mercy or the miraculous. There was no one there because Jesus came for the cross, not for miracle working. There was no one there because no one wanted to have anything to do with a Messiah who would be beaten up and crucified.

But how the cross is the center of history is great and all, yet doesn’t quite tell us what we need to know. The sermon title isn’t how the cross is the center of history but why the cross is the center of history. You can know all about God’s power and miraculous work all you want, but you won’t get from that what you need to know, not apart from the cross. You can even know how the cross is the center of history but it will mean nothing to you if you don’t know why the cross is the center of history.

If we can rejoice in how people can blindly stumble into something good, then we can rejoice in those people who said something they didn’t understand but was very much true and of far greater importance than they had realized. “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” Yes, He did indeed do these things. And yes, He has indeed done all things well. Brothers and sisters in Christ, you know the reason He has? The cross.

The cross is how our Lord has done all things well. What those people spoke of was miraculous power, not suffering and death, and yet, even in their feeble attempts to glorify God, they spoke of the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, that the Messiah would come to do these things. What those people would soon find out, and what we gratefully know, is that in doing those things He showed He is the Messiah. And what did the Messiah come to do? Die on the cross. Suffer on behalf of the world. Receive the punishment every sinner who has ever lived deserves. That’s why the cross is the center of history.

God comes to you in your life in the same way He did with that man that one day as recorded by Mark. In mercy. In power. In the person and work of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world. Your Savior. Baptizing you so that your ears may be opened to continue hearing His Gospel your whole life through. Daily forgiving your sins as you die and rise remembering your Baptism, confessing your sins, rejoicing in His manifold forgiveness. Giving you His very Body and Blood in His Holy Supper so that your mouth may be opened to eat and drink of them and then to proclaim His death until He returns in glory. Calling to your mind His promises as He brought them through Isaiah and the prophets, Paul and the apostles, when you’re flat on your back in the hospital and could use some miraculous healing, if not simply a hand to hold yours. Strengthening you in those dark times when you’re hurting because you feel alone or are carrying a burden. Your Lord is the Lord who opened the ears and mouth of a man who needed a Savior. He is the one you know is your Savior because He is the one who went to the cross.

Without the cross there is no salvation, no forgiveness, no restoration of God’s creation. The cross is the greatest miracle, it is the most astonishing display of power and mercy in all of history. Why the cross is the center of history is because God saw humanity in its lost condition and looked upon it as He did that one man and opened to us the gate of heaven. Amen.

SDG