All Theology Is Plagiarism—Part 2: All Theology Is Communication

Sixth Sunday of Easter
Job
May 9, 2010
John 16:23-33

Perhaps because it’s so much an ordinary part of our daily lives we don’t realize how important communication is. But if you do doubt it just don’t call your mom today or give her a card. You’d really find out how important communication is if you went the whole day today without talking with her on Mother’s Day.

Of course talking with your mom, telling her you love her, giving her a card, maybe some flowers, doing something nice for her, all this isn’t communication for communication’s sake. Communication is the vehicle used to actually love your mom, to show her you appreciate her and all she does for you.

What happens between us and God? We communicate. He gives us His Word. We pray to Him. We use words to offer our petitions to Him even as He uses words to express His love toward us. And how do we share the Gospel with others? We communicate it. We tell others. We express God’s love toward them by putting into action His love toward them. We help them and are kind to them.

At the backbone of all this communication is the Word of God. Whether it’s our prayers, or what we say to others in evangelism, our communication with God and with others about Him must rest in the Word of God. Last Sunday I kind of slighted the notion that the book of Psalms is the Prayer Book of the Bible, emphasizing that the entire Bible is fundamental to our prayer life. But it really is genius what God did in giving us the psalms. The Psalms are the Word of God. The Psalms are also prayers. Here we have the Word of God, what God has given to us. And here we have the words of human beings, the prayers God’s people lift up to Him. The Psalms are prayers even as they are the Word of God. They are the Word of God even as they are the words Christians lift up as prayers. God communicates this to us in this form. When we struggle with what to pray for, God gives us what we need to be praying in His Psalms.

Are you having trouble praying? Spend some time in the Psalms. You will find them inspiring, challenging, even troublesome at times. But you will find there the Word of God even as you will find the words to pray, because they are right there before your eyes, right there in your mind and heart as you pray them, right there on your lips as you speak them. Reading the Psalms, praying the Psalms, will lead you into a deeper understanding and praying of the Lord’s Prayer. Our Lord’s Holy Prayer doesn’t stand on its own. It is not given or prayed in a vacuum. It flows out of and is at the heart of the Psalms. We could also say that the Psalms flow out of and are at the heart of the Lord’s Prayer. That’s why He’s given us His Holy Prayer to pray. That’s how our Lord works, He’s happy to plagiarize. Especially Himself.

You might have heard the saying that as you pray so you believe. I’ve always thought that it makes more sense that as we believe so we will pray. That, if you believe a certain thing, it will inform the way you pray. That’s true. But it’s also true that the way you pray informs the way you believe. If you keep praying a certain way you will end up believing according to what you’re praying. The way you pray will actually form the way you believe.

This really helps us out when it comes to what we should pray, how we should pray, what words we use, and where we come up with the words. It informs also what we say to others when we are sharing the Gospel with them.

When Christians gather for worship how that worship is done impacts what they believe. If you worship in such a way where the focus is primarily on yourself, guess what, your beliefs will primarily focus on yourself. Your prayers, also, will primarily focus on yourself. Even what you say when you evangelize to others will focus on yourself. If you worship in such a way where the focus is primarily on God, then your beliefs will focus on Him. In the same way, your prayers will also.

This brings us back to plagiarism. If we pray what God has given us to pray, then we will be praying in line with His will. We will be speaking the Gospel to others as He has given it rather than simply what we feel. The reason the Church down through the ages has drawn from the Word of God in the forming of the liturgy is because if a bunch of theologians or church councils got together and tried to be creative who knows what they would have come up with?

Actually, we do know. They would have come up with something that focuses on man. Something that appeals to our sinful nature. Something that is all about me and what I want and what I need and what things I’d like God to do for me. That’s the way our prayers naturally are, that’s the way our worship naturally is.

In the liturgy we have the Word of God. The liturgy is formed by the Word of God. Our prayers should be too. As we gather for worship, the liturgy forms our prayer life, focusing on God, receiving what He has to give us, and responding to Him in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving by saying back to Him what He has said to us. That’s why God has given us His Word, the Bible; it’s why He’s given us His Word, His Son. The liturgy forms our prayers and we learn to pray according to God’s will because in the liturgy God is blessing us with His gifts, the opposite of our trying to offer anything to Him of value.

We can never exhaust the Word of God. Our Lord teaches us to pray throughout our lives. Each day God builds us up with the words to share with others. When it comes to the Word of God plagiarism is a good thing. When we are in the Word of God and we pray we are praying according to His good and gracious will. Praying according to what He says, not what we think. What He desires, not what we want. What He has come up with, not what we dream up. What He has creatively brought about, not what we tiredly revert back to in our sinful flesh.

For example, in the Bible our Lord gave us the Lord’s Prayer. His prayer is meant to be plagiarized. He didn’t say, Hey, here’s some good ideas for you to base your prayers on. He said, This is how you pray. You take what I have said and you say it. And you don’t just say it, you pray it. You believe it. You take it to heart. You meditate upon it and take refuge in it. Because it’s not what you can’t know for sure to be of value or the right thing to say. It’s what you do know to be what He Himself wants for you. You can see this in each petition of the Lord’s Prayer:

You know the Father’s name is holy and that it is holy among you because of Christ and His Cross. And so you pray it.

You know His Kingdom comes and that it has come to you in the incarnate Son of God who has joined Himself to you in your Baptism. And so you pray it.

You know that God’s will is perfect and holy and that it is done among you because of His mercy in His Son Jesus Christ who lived and suffered for you on Calvary. And so you pray it.

You know that God gives you your daily bread and that He gives it to you because He has given you all things in giving you His Son to suffer all, even death on a cross, and conquer the grave in His resurrection. And so you pray it.

You know He forgives you of your sins and helps you forgive others theirs and that He forgives you because He has separated you from your sins as far as the east is from the west in forsaking His only-begotten Son. And so you pray it.

You know God does not lead you into temptation and that He guards you in the time of temptation because your Lord Himself has endured temptation beyond what you have experienced and has overcome temptation in the Holy Word of God and in suffering for our sin of falling into temptation. And so you pray it.

You know that God delivers you from evil and that it is so because He delivered you from the punishment you deserve, delivering His own Son over to the punishment in your place. And so you pray it.

You know that His is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever and that it is so because Jesus rose from the grave, ascended into heaven, and reigns on high forever, coming to you in His Word and Sacraments to forgive you and sustain you in faith. And so you pray it.

You know it’s all true and so you say “Amen.”

There’s no shame in this kind of plagiarism. There is only the glorious prayers of the saints of God lifted up to the eternal and merciful God who has given His saints the freedom to go against their stifling and short-sighted sinful nature. Freedom from our harmful desires and wants. Freedom to plagiarize straight out of the God’s own Word.

In the Gospel reading today Jesus is talking about prayer. It doesn’t seem like it because He is talking to His disciples and He is standing right in front of them. But isn’t that what prayer is? Talking with God? Communicating with Him? He communicates with us and we respond, communicating with Him. And to make matters even more interesting Jesus talks about things that only people interested in language and words and communication theory would be interested in: figures of speech. It’s true that many people have no interest in this. But it’s also common that everyone uses them. Most people are also aware that things can be very confusing if figures of speech are being used and the person who is hearing or reading them doesn’t have the foggiest idea of what is being communicated.

He says there will come a time when He is no longer with them. A time when He will no longer use figures of speech, where He will speak plainly. In His Holy Word He not only comes to us but communicates with us. Likewise in Baptism and His Holy Supper.

What we must always remember when it comes to communication in our relationship with God is that He hasn’t simply given us His Word, the Bible, He has given us the Word made flesh, His only-begotten Son. What we must always remember when it come to communication in our response to Him is that there is nothing better that we can do then plagiarize Him, say back to Him what He has said to us. For example, on this day, and really every day, as Christians, we don’t just thank God for our mom, we are grateful to Him for mothers who are godly, who raise their children in a Christian home. We don’t just love our mothers, we pray for them. We don’t just tell them we love them, we communicate to them God’s love for them by how we treat them.

Theology is nothing without communication. Communication is a natural part of life, even as it is in God’s relationship with us. How has God loved the world? He gave His Son. How has He forgiven us of our sins? Jesus suffered in our place. How has He guaranteed a mansion for us in heaven? He raised His Son from the grave on the third day. This is what God has given us, communicating it to us in His very Son, both in His life, suffering, death, and resurrection and in His Word and Sacraments. It is the vehicle as well as the subject of our communication now and always. Amen.

SDG

All Theology Is Plagiarism—Part 1: All Theology Is Repetition

Fifth Sunday of Easter
Athanasius of Alexandria, Pastor and Confessor
May 2, 2010
John 16:12-22

Some of you have heard this in a slightly different form. But that’s okay, because repetition can be a very good thing. It can also be bad, if we’re repeating things that are not good. When we begin to learn that all theology is repetition we will begin to see that too often those things we want to hear are the things that aren’t good for us and the things we’d rather not hear consistently are those very things we need to hear.

Do you ever feel like you don’t know the words to use when you pray? Do you sometimes think that you’re not praying the ‘right’ way? Do you struggle with the words to say to someone who is hurting? Do you find yourself tongue-tied when you are sharing the Gospel with others? All our prayers, all our words, all our beliefs come from somewhere. The question is, where? When we learn that all theology is plagiarism we begin to see prayer and what we say to others in a whole new way.

In today’s Gospel reading Jesus is preparing His disciples for His suffering and death. We know what comes after that, His resurrection and ascension. He says to them: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come.”

If you hear this in passing you miss what an astounding statement this is Jesus makes about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, as is Jesus and the Heavenly Father, is God. And yet, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak. Now, if this is true of God, how much more should it be of us. The disciples are to repeat what they receive from the Holy Spirit. And guess what? The Holy Spirit simply repeats what He Himself receives from the Heavenly Father.

Repetition is a good thing when we are saying, praying, believing what God has given us. In those times we don’t know what to say, how to pray, or we’re not sure what we believe, our Lord gives us an opportunity to plagiarize Him.

It’s tough to be a Christian. We’re supposed to have all the answers. We’re the ones with the strong faith. We’re the ones who know that God is in control and is working everything out for good. Some people genuinely turn to us for answers, but we are caught like deer in the headlights. Some will scoffingly ask us what good God is making out of the bad situation they’re in and, deep inside, we’re wondering the same thing.

Some of us marvel at those who are creative, how they are able to think up things that no one has before. How are they able to create a work of art, when all we can do is stare at a blank slate and see the blank slate? If only we could be creative. If only we could come up with something no one has before. But we just go through life saying and doing normal things. We pay to see others do the creative and artistic things.

We also have an awareness that that is their own creation. It is their possession. If someone writes a book they should get the money for it. If someone makes a movie they should get paid for it. If someone comes along and says, Look at my book I’ve written, and later on it’s found that he stole the idea or the words from someone else, then he’s in trouble. God even has a commandment against that: You shall not steal. If someone else wrote the book, it’s their book. You passing it off as your own is called plagiarism.

Here is the definition of plagiarism: 1. the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own original work. 2. something used and represented in this manner. [Dictionary.com Unabridged, Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010.]

When it comes to prayer, what you say to others in their troubles, when you evangelize, what you believe, I want to encourage you to plagiarize. What I’m not going to do is try to convince you that, generally speaking, it’s okay to plagiarize—to just go ahead and steal away! After all, the Bible itself said that there’s nothing new under the sun.

We need to think about prayer, and sharing the Gospel, and what we believe in an entirely different way from the way that we usually think about them. When it comes to these things, originality is not where you want to go. The creative realm is best left to the movies and to books and the arts. With prayer, evangelizing, and what we believe there’s nothing wrong with not knowing what to say. In fact, it’s a good thing. After all, what you come up with yourself can only be against God’s will since your sinful flesh is concerned only with itself, not God. In prayer, in speaking to others in their difficulties, in our beliefs, it is entirely a matter of plagiarism. You might even say that it’s a God-blessed license to steal.

You could read books on prayer. You could talk to others who naturally gravitate toward those who evangelize. You could seek the wisdom of the many religions of the world. But what we believe, how we pray, what we tell others, all boils down to one source: our sinful nature.

There is another source. The source is God. More specifically, it’s God as revealed in the Bible. We could even get more specific, in that it’s God revealed in His Son. When we say that God is the source for our prayers, what we say, we need to understand that our prayers need to be plagiarized prayers, our words to others, plagiarized words. We can’t just get ideas from God on some things we should pray for. We need to be praying what God wants us to pray for. That means stealing from God. Jesus had this very thing in mind when He gave His people His Holy Prayer to pray. 

Jesus has actually given us the words to pray. He said, “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name…” He wants us to plagiarize His stuff! When the disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, He gave them the words to say. He’s not impressed with hearing something new. God desires to hear what He’s already given us in His Word. In His Son.

Books on prayer keep coming out. Shelves at Christian bookstores are lined with “how-to’s” on Evangelism. But really, how many pages can it take to say one simple thing: if you want to learn how to pray, get into the Word of God. If you want to prepare yourself for sharing the Gospel with others, spend time in God’s Word. Read it. Dig into it. Study it. Hear it proclaimed. God will give you the words to say. He already has given you the words, they’re in His Holy Word, the Bible. Not that it’s not good to read books on prayer or evangelism. But being formed by the Word of God is how you will learn to pray and what to say to others.

Let’s take prayer as a specific example. No doubt you’ve heard that the Psalms are the Prayer Book of the Bible. And that’s certainly true. But isn’t the entire Bible the prayer book of the Christian? No, it’s not comprised of a bunch of prayers. But it’s a book which teaches us to pray. It forms our prayers. It’s a plagiarism factory waiting to explode.

I’m not saying that the more you’re into the Word of God that you’ll suddenly be a master pray-er. That you’ll be able to fashion beautiful and well-sounding prayers. That people will marvel at your eloquence in lifting prayers on high.

But you will be able to pray in a godly fashion. You will be able to pray according to God’s will. You will be praying what God desires to hear from you. Because you will be growing in the Word of God. You will be saying back to Him what He has already said to you. You will be praying God-pleasing prayers, prayers according to His will.

Think about it. Why did Jesus, in the Prayer He gave us to pray, give us the petitions He did? Why did He have us pray, for example, “Hallowed be Thy name”? Don’t we already know that His name is holy? And even if we didn’t have the Catechism to remind us, wouldn’t we already know that we pray this petition that it may be kept holy among us also? Yes, we do, and yes, we would. But Jesus has given us this petition because we need to say it. We need to say it because we need to say to Him what He has said to us. If we didn’t, what would we say?

Well, I don’t know about you, but my prayers often go a lot like this: Dear God, I would like this, and this, and that, and these other things. There’s the things I want, the things I need, the things I don’t like that, God, You should really take care of, the things I like but don’t have enough of, and there’s these other things on my mind, and… well, you get the idea.

My prayers are all about ME. They’re about what I want because that’s what my sinful flesh excels at. It doesn’t need to plagiarize anybody or anything because it’s already consumed with itself.

But that’s where God comes in and says, Hey, why don’t you stop trying to think about what you should be praying for and just plagiarize. Listen to Me. Hear what I have to say. Concern yourself with My Words, My will. Say back to Me what I have already said to you.

And you know the great thing about this? It’s because He knows what we truly need. So when He shows us what to pray for, we see that it is actually really about us after all. When we think we’re praying for what’s best for ourselves, we’re really praying for what’s NOT best for ourselves. But when we take God’s words and make them our own, we actually ARE praying for what’s best for ourselves.

If Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to bring to us what we will say, then we can be confident in knowing that He will guide us in our prayers, go with us as we give comfort to those who are hurting, bless us as we share the Gospel with those who are without a Savior.

And if we are still struggling then we can know that it is not just words that He has given us but the Word made flesh. His very own Son is who we have by virtue of our Baptism. He is who we have when we feel we are on our own without an idea of what to say to God in our prayers. He is the one who offered up the perfect Word to His Heavenly Father—Himself, the Word in the Flesh. Our Heavenly Father hears us through Him. His prayers on the cross were perfect prayers, offered in our place, offered for us. He Himself was offered for us and there is nothing better that we can hear of or continue to make known. Amen.

SDG

Your Shepherd, the Lamb

Fourth Sunday of Easter
Mark, Evangelist
April 25, 2010
John 10:22-30

So they wanted to know who Jesus was. If You’re the Messiah, just tell us. Don’t beat around the bush. Well, He had tried that and it didn’t work. They didn’t believe Him.

So He’ll try another approach. I am the Good Shepherd. I am the Shepherd of the sheep, and, oh, by the way, you’re not part of My flock. Sheep know the voice of their shepherd and you’re not listening to Me. You don’t believe that I’m the Christ and you don’t believe that I’m the Good Shepherd. My sheep have eternal life.

And if that’s not enough He goes all the way and says He’s God: I and the Father are one. Now this is really the last straw, as all four Gospel writers tell us that the Jewish religious leaders couldn’t tolerate this kind of blasphemy. They sought to kill Him. And as we know they were ultimately successful.

We, of course, know and believe that Jesus is God. We rejoice and give thanks that He is the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior of the world. He is the Good Shepherd. He is our Shepherd.

But if we step back and see Him as He presents Himself to us we must ask if we really know Him. Do we know Him as well as we ought to? Jesus is all of those things, things we have no problem with, but He is also something else. He is something that doesn’t quite register with us.

Because, well, He’s God. He’s the Savior. He’s the Good Shepherd. He’s the powerful one. The one who can do anything. The one who’s going to get us through the valley of the shadow of death. The one who will prepare a table before us in the presence of our enemies and feed us His Heavenly Feast.

He can’t be the other thing He says He is. Maybe He was. But now? No, now He’s the Almighty God and Lord. He’s our Good Shepherd who leads us beside still waters and protects us.

So what is it that He is that we might have so much trouble with? He’s the Lamb. The Shepherd of the sheep is also the Lamb for the sheep. Our Good Shepherd is the Lamb. But not just a lamb. The Lamb. The Lamb who was slain.

He doesn’t say it here in the Gospel reading. He says that He is the Christ, He is the Shepherd, and He is God. He doesn’t say He is the Lamb, and furthermore the Lamb who was slain. But here’s what He does say: “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” My Father, who has given to Me My sheep, I being their Shepherd, is greater than all, I having humbled Myself as a man to suffer and die, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. Why are the sheep of the Good Shepherd Jesus safe and secure in the Father’s hand? Because of Christ humbling Himself to His Heavenly Father. Christ the Good Shepherd not only sacrifices Himself by laying down His life for His sheep, He is the sacrifice necessary. He is the Lamb who was slain.

The apostle John wrote down these words of Jesus for us in the Gospel reading. He also wrote down His vision he saw in the book of Revelation. He says there, as we heard in our second reading, “For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their Shepherd.” He is the Shepherd and we are the sheep. But He is also the Lamb. The Lamb who was slain so that we may be guided to the safe harbor of eternal life.

We must never forget that the Jesus is the Lamb. He is the Lamb who was slain. In a world that holds up glory and pleasure as the ultimate goal, Jesus offers Himself to you, the Lamb who was slain. Many in the Church want to take the path of the Pharisees. Jesus, what have you done for me lately? Why do those who don’t believe in you gain the wealth and the power and the glory? Why do we, Your sheep, so often suffer and struggle through trials? Where too often in the Christian Church the pursuit of glory is taken right from the pages of the world at large Jesus humbly submits Himself to you for your salvation.

Your Shepherd is the Lamb. You are sheep of the Good Shepherd, the Lamb who was slain. So if you hear His voice hear what He says to you: He is the one who was offered up and offers Himself to you in His Word and Sacraments. It’s true that as God He can do anything. Of all that He can do, of all that He does, He continues to come to you as the Lamb. He comes to you lowly and humbly as He did at Bethlehem, as He did in the Garden of Gethsemane, as He did in His suffering and death on the cross.

He is indeed your Good Shepherd. He leads you. He guides you. He protects you. He is with you always. He is your Good Shepherd because He is the Lamb who was slain.

He is never too powerful or almighty to be the Lamb whose blood was shed for the sins of the world. You hear His voice because His words rang out on Calvary, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. On the cross He was the sacrifice. He was the go between. Interceding for us so that we may make it through the valley of the shadow of death. He remains forever the Lamb who was slain even as He guides us through the darkest valley.

There is something dynamic about Christ being the Lamb who was slain. He is the Good Shepherd, and there’s tremendous and eternal comfort in that. But never forget that He is the Lamb who was slain. When you’re in the darkest valley know that your God, your Shepherd, is the one who was slain. The one who was slaughtered so that you may make it through.

We need to know that He is God. He is all-powerful. He is the One. He is the Everything. But without the one thing, the Lamb who was slain, the Everything is nothing. He is nothing for you if He is not the Lamb who was slain. Your Shepherd is your dynamic living God because He is more than just the one who can do anything for you. He has done everything for you in His suffering and death. In being the Lamb, the one who was slain, all things are yours and you are led through this vale of tears to eternity without sorrow or fear or hurt or sin.

Don’t listen to the voices that offer you a God who is gives you glory. Listen to the ones that offer you a God who is humble and lowly. One who was slain. One who shepherds His sheep by laying down His life for them. By being the very sacrifice for all their sins. Your enemies are worse than you can ever know. He knows them. He died because you face them. He suffered because they have a hold on you. You walk through the valley of the shadow of death because too often you listen to the voices that promise glory and a Christian life free from trouble.

Your Good Shepherd calls you by name. He Baptizes you and makes you His own. The Lamb who was slain gives you, as He did at Calvary, His very Body and Blood for the forgiveness of all of your sins. Hear His voice. He prepares before you a table in the presence of your enemies. He calls to you in His Holy Supper: take and eat, take and drink, this is My body and blood for you. I am the Lamb who was slain. Forever in glory as the Lamb who was stricken and smitten for the sins of the world.

Why would you want a Shepherd who offers you glory when you have heard the voice of the one who offers you simply Himself? Your sinful flesh will latch on to the glory, but you are a new creation in Christ. What you need is forgiveness. What you need is new and eternal life. The glory will come. It will be far greater than whatever glory you seek in this life. Your attempts to avoid pain or suffering in this life will give way to a humble and joyful magnification in heaven of your Good Shepherd, the very Lamb who was slain. Amen.

SDG

When Jesus Shows Up, All Bets Are Off

Third Sunday of Easter
April 18, 2010
John 21:1-19

When Jesus shows up, all bets are off.

There’s really no way to get people to see this. They really have to see it for themselves. What gets in our way is that we want to approach Christ from our starting point and He comes in and everything changes. We go to the Scriptures and try to get them to make sense according to our framework but they come at us like a Mack truck and blow away our pre-conceived notions. We want to fit God and His goodness into our tidy understanding of what should be and how it should be, when God has no regard for what we think or want or wish. When Jesus shows up, all bets are off.

You may have come here today with a certain idea of what you expect to get out of this worship service or this sermon. You might walk away from here today feeling like your expectations were not met.

You should be praying and hoping that that is the case. Pray you are so blessed that none of your expectations were met, that you got nothing out of this worship that you were hoping for. All of it is tainted. All of it is as filthy rags. You have nothing you desire that is not ultimately turned in on yourself. You bring nothing to the table of worth to the Almighty God. Pray that what you get out of today is what God wants for you.

And that’s why Jesus shows up. All bets are off. When He comes on the scene He comes to bring about your destruction. This is what is exhibited in all three Scripture readings for today. Saul is very pleased with himself that he is following the will of God in terminating these heretic followers of this new Way, the followers of Jesus. He’s got everything figured out until he meets Jesus and he is brought to his knees. Those who stand before the scroll in John’s vision are unable to open the sacred book because none of them are worthy. Peter realizes who it is that brought about this miraculous catch of fish after he and his buddies have spent all night toiling out on the water and he can do nothing but take a plunge into that water.

It seems he’s just trying to get over to Jesus faster than the rest of the crew. But to John, the inspired author of this book of the Bible, Peter is being destroyed. He cannot face Jesus in his sinful state. He must first be destroyed. In the time and culture he lived in the sea was a place of destruction. It was the Great Unknown. Although we are rapidly discovering more and more of the universe, I suppose space is our Great Unknown in a way similar to how they perceived the sea. What was down there? All they knew was that if you ended up there then you ended in destruction. Remember Jonah? He knew the only way to end the storm was for the crew to throw him overboard. He knew he would be destroyed. The reason the crew didn’t want to do it? They knew it also and it scared them even as the storm did. So Peter wasn’t just getting to Jesus in the quickest way possible. He was getting to Him in the only way possible. By first being destroyed. Drowned to his sinful flesh.

When Jesus shows up, all bets are off. Jesus wasn’t there so that they could get their fish, after all. He was there to show them that they were nothing without Him. They were going fishing, but when He shows up, all bets are off. When He comes on the scene they realize that He alone can provide for them. He alone provides for their needs of body and soul. They’re fisherman, for crying out loud. They know fishing and if anyone can catch fish it’s them. But Jesus shows them that even the fish they catch are a gift from Him. Paul told the Corinthians that we preach Christ crucified. He said to them that when he was with them he determined to know nothing among them but Christ and Him crucified. That’s nothing. As in, nothing. Zip, zero, nada. Nothing means nothing. Not that and some other things in addition. Nothing. That’s because there is nothing we receive from God apart from Christ and Him crucified. All His blessings are because of Christ and Him crucified.

The Lamb that receives all honor and glory in the reading from the Book of Revelation is the Lamb who was slain. The Lamb who was slain is the one who comes to Saul on the road to Damascus. The Jesus who shows up on the beach after an unsuccessful night of fishing for Peter and Company is the one with nail marks in His hands and feet and a scar from a big gash in His side.

The one who was crucified and is now risen is the one who shows up. And all bets are off.

When He goes through that, there’s really nothing you can say. There’s nothing you can do. Nothing you can offer Him. There’s no plea bargain or settling out of court, or paying off the judge. There’s no hoping it will all work out or just sticking with what you think you would like it to be.

There’s only Christ standing before you. The one who was slain and now lives forever. With Him on the scene all bets are off. He is going to bring you to your knees so that He can raise you up. Put away any notions you have of what should be. Resist temptation. Stop dwelling on your wishes that you could be free of pain or trials or that giving into temptation isn’t that big of a deal because it doesn’t kill you or anything. Stop trying to convince God, or yourself for that matter, that you are faithful unto death.

All bets are off. You need to be destroyed. Daily. Daily drowned so that you may rise up to new life daily. Jesus’ vivid reminder of that to Peter is a lesson for us. It was around a charcoal fire in the courtyard of the high priest where Peter sat to see what would happen to his Lord. A charcoal fire to warm himself. But sitting at that fire something disastrous happened. He denied his Lord. He may have walked away from his livelihood when Jesus had called him, but he hadn’t given up everything. His life was too precious to himself. He held on to his fears and denied his Lord.

That’s why when Jesus showed up on that morning at the beach, all bets were off. Jesus sat down this time around a charcoal fire and invited Peter to join Him. Not to rub salt in his wounds but as a vivid way of showing that the one who was denied was the one who never gave up on Peter. He was now calling Peter again. Calling him anew. He needed to daily be destroyed and to daily rise. Plunging into the waters of Baptism will do that. Jesus shows up there, that’s why we can count on it. Jesus made sure that Peter knew that he was forgiven, calling him three times, just as he had denied Jesus three times. Giving Peter food that He Himself provided, not what Peter had brought out of the lake.

When Jesus shows up, all bets are off. He lays it all out on the table. It’s not about you. It’s about Him. It’s not what you bring to the table, it’s all in what He offers you at His Table. This is His Table [pointing to the altar]. What He brings to the Table is Himself. Sure, you come to His Table, but as He said, No one comes to the Father except the Son of Man draws Him. He lays a meal before you and in His Meal He offers you Himself. For you to eat and drink. For you to be forgiven. For you to be sustained. For you to receive what you truly need. You have been destroyed in Baptism. You may now rise up and partake of the eternal Meal of the Lamb who was slain. There is only what He offers you. As He was lifted up on the cross and stepped out of His tomb, He offers you the body given on the cross, the blood shed on the cross. The risen flesh and blood body that rose and came to the disciples on a cool morning on the beach, to a ravenous man out for blood on a road, to a lone apostle in a vision beyond what we can imagine in which he saw nothing but at which he could simply marvel. All bets are off.

Jesus shows up. Everything who He is, everything He offers, He lays before you at His Table. Rise up and partake, for you are feasting on eternity. Amen.

SDG

The Christmas Word Is the Easter Word

Second Sunday of Easter
April 11, 2010
John 20:19-31

At the beginning of his Gospel account the apostle John goes one up on the beginning of the Bible that says that God created the heavens and the earth. John says that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1 ESV) A few verses later he makes a startling statement: “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1:14 ESV)

What does this mean? What is the Word? What does it mean that the Word was God? What does it mean that the Word became flesh? And what you also might be thinking: What do these things have to do with me and my life?

Jesus is here to answer your questions. He shows up when He’s not expected. He comes in when there’s no way to get in. He comes despite unbelief and doubt.

More animals were around when God became flesh than were people. God becoming a man just wasn’t on the radar of most people. God coming out of His tomb wasn’t either. It’s just as hard to believe the little baby born in a stable was God as it was to believe that the man Jesus who was lifeless in the tomb was now alive.

But everything depends on words. The Bible tells us that in the beginning God said. This is what He said: “Let there be light.” We all know what the Bible says next: “And there was light.” God is God. He could have created the universe in any way He wanted.

He chose to do it by speaking it into existence. The Word. He used words. Speaking into being what He was saying. God’s Word brings about what it says. We don’t have that power. God does. He’s God.

But the thing about God is He doesn’t go around convincing us that He’s God. He just does what He does as God. And what that is is saving us. Forgiving us, loving us, sustaining us in salvation. Bringing about in us the salvation He eagerly wants us to have.

I have learned over the years to be very careful about what I tell people I’ll do. Too often I have said, I’ll do this. Or I’ve offered to do something. Or I’ve said yes to a request to do something. Once you say it it sticks with people. If you don’t do it they’ll remember that. He said he would do it and he hasn’t done it. And saying, Oh yeah, I’ll still get to that, doesn’t help anything. The proof is in the pudding as they say.

So some have also said that you should say what you mean and mean what you say. That’s what John is getting at when He says that the Word is God and that the Word became flesh. God doesn’t just tell us He’s God. He does His being God. He puts His money where His mouth is. He doesn’t just talk the talk, He walks the walk. The proof is in the pudding. If you don’t believe it, just look in the manger. There’s God. Why would He be there if He weren’t serious about being God and saving us? If you doubt it, look at the empty tomb. Why would God go through the suffering and dying and being laid in a grave if He weren’t intent on being our God, our Savior?

When God says He’s going to do something, He does it. He puts His action where His Word is. But actually, with God His Word is His action. His Word brings about what it says. When He says He is our God He does what it means to be our God. He saves us. He doesn’t use His Word to tell us how to save ourselves, He by His Word saves us.

And what is His Word? Himself. Jesus is the Word of God. He is the Word made flesh who dwelt among us. And what does this Word do? He goes about being who He is, which is God. He goes about doing what God does, which is saving us.

Nothing will impede Him. The locked doors on the first Easter Sunday didn’t prevent Him from being the Word made flesh and dwelling among us. He was right there among His disciples, being their God, in the flesh. Risen, alive, bodily. They were in there, locked up, because they were afraid. Because they listened to their own reason and the words of unbelievers. Jesus was dead, He’s gone. Those who killed Him are going to come after us.

But Jesus breaks through this world of unbelief in coming bodily to them just as the light broke forth in the darkness when God spoke His Word at the dawn of creation. Jesus, the Word made flesh who dwells among us, is present among us and speaks to us. “Peace be with you.” The Word He speaks is His Word that brings about what it says. When He says “Peace be with you,” He’s not just saying it so they might have some peace after all they’ve been through. He’s bestowing on them peace. He’s bringing about Peace in their lives by speaking it into their ears. John shows us this when he says: “When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.”

But there’s more. With God there’s never just something. There’s always more. “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.’” He is the God who goes about being God. He doesn’t sit around hoping we’ll get the picture that He is the Almighty eternal powerful God and that we’ll give Him homage for it. Nope, He goes about being God, our Savior. He goes about saving us. He’s the God who comes into our world, our lives, with salvation. He comes to us to save us. He is the God who is always present not just because He’s always present, but because He comes to us in the Word made flesh.

He bestows on them once again peace. He is pleased as peaches to have been sent by His Heavenly Father. He is just as pleased to send out these pathetic excuses for disciples. One moment they’ve given up on Him the next they’re overjoyed that He’s really with them. These are the guys He’s going to send out.

Because it’s all about the Word. Not about them. In other words, it’s not dependent on them. It’s dependent on God. On the Word made flesh. They are to speak words. Not just words, the Word. The Word the Word Made Flesh gives them to speak. If they forgive the sins of those who are repentant the repentant will be forgiven. If they withhold the sins of those who are unrepentant the unrepentant will not be forgiven. This isn’t because these guys are way more on top of it than the rest of the poor saps who haven’t gone to the seminary. No, we’ve just established that these guys were pathetic and Jesus had every reason to give up on them. But He didn’t. Because it doesn’t depend on them but on Him, the Word made flesh.

But we need to keep ourselves in check because it’s too easy to dismiss others as Doubting Thomases and exempt ourselves from such a distinction. It’s true, when Thomas, the poor guy wasn’t there when Jesus made His grand entrance, heard the news he didn’t believe. He wanted to see for himself. He wasn’t going to take their word for it. But even as he was indeed Doubting Thomas, weren’t they all? Weren’t they all holed up in the room believing they would never see Jesus again? Hadn’t they despaired of hope when Jesus died rather than taking His word for it when He had told them He would die and that He would rise?

So, no, we are usually wrong when we think we are any more firm in the faith than the Doubting Thomases in the Christian Church. But the good news is that Jesus remains the Word made flesh. He continues to dwell among His people. He is ready and willing to bring Himself into our midst so that we may see Him and touch Him and believe in Him. Jesus came to them again and said, “‘Peace be with you.’ Then He said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here, and see My hands; and put out your hand, and place it in My side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.’ Thomas answered Him, ‘My Lord and My God!’” God’s Word brings about what it says. What we need to remember is that God’s Word is His Word in the flesh, Jesus Christ, the very Son of God, our Lord and Savior. We cry out with Thomas, “My Lord and my God.”

Thomas was given a great gift on that day. He wasn’t there the first time so Jesus came to him the second time. This time he believed. He had seen. He had touched. “Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” We are given a great gift also. We haven’t seen the Word made flesh as Thomas and the disciples did. But we believe. We are blessed by Him as they were. Jesus comes to us in the flesh and dwells among us. He comes to us in our Baptism, in His Holy Supper, even in His very Word which is read and proclaimed.

The Word made flesh at Christmas is the Word risen bodily at Easter. The risen and bodily Word that sprung from the tomb at Easter is the Word in the flesh and dwelling among you in Holy Communion. At His birth He was called Emmanuel, which means God with us. The God who came to be with us at His birth continues to come to you as the risen Lord in His Word, through your Baptism, and in His Holy Supper. He is with you always. Amen.

SDG

The Amen of the Resurrection of Christ

The Resurrection of Our Lord
Easter Day
April 4, 2010
Luke 24:1-12

Our observance of Lent has given way to our celebration of Easter. But there’s one more thing we need to do before we leave our Lenten focus. There’s one more word left in the Lord’s Prayer we need to meditate on. Our look at the Lord’s Prayer and the cross of Christ during Lent has shown us that the prayer our Lord has given His Church has as its foundation and essence His suffering and death on the cross. It is because of the cross He has given us His Prayer to pray. It is by the cross that everything we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer is applicable to our lives and profitable.

But even as we have looked at the Lord’s Prayer in light of the cross we have now come to the place where we are zeroing in on the Resurrection. The empty tomb has replaced our focus on the cross.

The last word of the Lord’s Prayer reflects that. The word “Amen” is a word that finishes off our prayer the way the Resurrection finishes off the suffering and death of Christ. It puts a stamp on it. Christ rising from the dead isn’t so much icing on the cake as it is a stamp on what was accomplished through the Cross. It seals the deal.

Everything for salvation was accomplished through the Cross. That’s why we can pray the Lord’s Prayer in confidence. Jesus said it Himself on the cross—It is finished. But it is still true that if Christ had remained in the tomb then all would be lost. Our faith would be in vain. We would have no hope. The Resurrection puts the stamp on the salvation accomplished in Christ’s suffering and death.

That’s how it is when we say “Amen” at the end of our prayers. Amen, it is true. What I have prayed for is in accordance with Your will. That’s assuming, of course, that we have prayed according to God’s holy will. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer we can be assured that we are. It is, after all, the prayer our Lord has given us to pray. The petitions He has given us in His Holy Prayer encapsulate His will for us. How can we say anything but “Amen” after praying it?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t always feel especially spiritual or conformed to God’s will when praying the Lord’s Prayer. Sometimes it just seems like words I’m praying. I know the words. I know what God wants me to be praying for. But I don’t always take them to heart.

The women and the disciples had a little problem in this way, too. They went to Jesus’ tomb on Sunday morning expecting to see His body slowing decaying. They certainly didn’t expect to see it gone. But their eyes didn’t deceive them, His body was not there. It was their lack of faith that deceived them. Jesus had told them He would suffer, die, and rise. He told them beforehand. But it all just seemed like words to them.

They could not say their “Amen” to the words of Jesus because they couldn’t get it passed their feeble minds that Jesus would actually die, much less, when He actually did, rise from the grave. Now on Sunday morning their fears were giving way to surprise, their surprise was giving way to belief, and their belief was springing forth in joy and amazement. They could now say their “Amen.”

Jesus had suffered and died. He was the ground of their faith. His sacrifice on Calvary for the sins of the world. Because of that we can say Amen when we pray. He had now risen from the grave. He had accomplished salvation and now sealed the deal. We can be sure of who He is and what He has accomplished. We can know that when we pray the Lord’s Prayer we are praying for what He knows we need. It may sound at times like so much words, but they are the words of the one who was crucified, rose, and goes before us as we pray to our Heavenly Father and live out our lives.

Try this, the next time you’re down and out, or you’re in over your head, or you’re frustrated, at you’re wit’s end, or you’re confused, or you’re worried, or you’re doubting, or you’re not all that happy with God, or you’re even angry with Him, or even if things are going well and you’re not thinking about all this stuff all that much—remember that one little word at the end of the Lord’s Prayer. Keep that word in mind. You have finished your prayer off with a word, a conviction, that what you have just prayed is what you need, whether you feel it or not, whether realize it or not.

When you say “Amen” you’re saying, God, You take it from here. You accomplished salvation for me and sealed the deal. You sustain me. You keep me in the faith. Keep me firm in the knowledge that the one who was crucified was the one who rose. That the one who rose has come to me in my Baptism. That the one who came to me in my Baptism comes to me at this altar, giving me His body and blood for the forgiveness of all of my sins and the strengthening of my faith.

Much more could be said. God’s Holy Word is inexhaustible; the Lord’s Prayer itself is inexhaustible. His work of salvation in His suffering and death and resurrection can never be delved into enough. His blessings are ever new and eternal. But no matter where you’re at or what you’re going through, you know one thing: Jesus died and rose for the sins of the world. He has given you new and eternal life and you may conclude that among all the other things there are to say, “Amen” puts a seal on things very nicely.

SDG

The Kingdom, Power, and Glory of Christ

Easter Vigil
April 3, 2010
Luke 23:49-56

There’s something strange about talking about the Kingdom of Christ, His power, His glory, in connection with His burial. They don’t seem to fit together. Being buried means you’re dead. It means you’ve come to the end. It means you’re no longer overseeing your kingdom, you’re out of power and the next guy gets to take over. There may be glory in how you’re remembered, but you don’t get to bask in it because you’re underneath the ground.

But not with Christ. It is precisely in His death and burial that Jesus comes into His Kingdom. God’s power is made manifestly superior to every other power when Jesus suffers, dies, and is buried. The glory of God is most brilliant in the death of Jesus Christ and being buried in a tomb.

The hours between Jesus’ life coming to an end on the cross at 3:00 on Friday afternoon and His coming to life again sometime during the early hours on Sunday morning are somewhat mysterious to us. What kind of state was Jesus in? Was He unaware of what was going on, as with any dead person in a grave? Or, because He is God, was He fully aware?

In the Creed we confess that Jesus descended into hell. This was after He was buried. He died on the cross, was taken down, and laid in a tomb. His descent into hell was the exercising of His power, a display of His glory, and the proclamation to Satan on his own turf that Jesus’ Kingdom is eternal. That He has the victory. That Satan is defeated, that even death cannot hold Jesus.

Luke tells us that Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the council, the group of religious leaders that brought Jesus down, and yet, he had not consented to their decision and action. Luke also tells us that he was looking for the kingdom of God. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Well, He was looking in the right place. Jesus hanging on the cross, His life having left Him, didn’t look very powerful. He didn’t seem glorious. His Kingdom appeared to have come to an end.

But Joseph went to the only place where the kingdom, power, and glory of God is manifest—Jesus. Even dead. Even buried in a tomb. Joseph may have sought the Kingdom of God as coming in this one, in Jesus who was condemned and brought to death by his very own religious colleagues. Now as he approached Pilate he was simply giving Jesus the honor and respect He deserved. Jesus would at least have an honorable burial.

What Joseph didn’t realize is that in looking for the kingdom of God and then in going to take care of the body of Jesus he had actually come in to the Kingdom of God. Jesus’ resurrection in three days would make that clear to him.

While Jesus had hung on the cross He cried out “It is finished.” To everyone there it was a sad way to end the whole affair. But not to Christ. What He was crying out was a cry of victory. It is finished. Salvation has been accomplished. His suffering was now over, His sacrifice completed. Now came the Kingdom, the power, and the glory.

Joseph of Arimathea had looked in the right place after all. On this night, in the time between the observance of our Lord’s crucifixion and our celebration of His Resurrection, let us look to the same place. Our Lord. God in the flesh, born, suffering, dying, buried, and risen. There we see the Kingdom, the power, and the glory. Our praying of the Lord’s Prayer ends with this. In other words, with Christ. When He comes into His Kingdom on the Last Day we will realize it in the fullness of glory. Amen.

SDG

Deliverance from Evil and the Cross of Christ

Good Friday
April 2, 2010
Luke 22:1—23:56

During Lent we have gathered here to meditate on what our Lord has done for us. God can do anything. What we are most grateful for, though, is that what He has done for us is because of His mercy. We know God has acted toward us in mercy because of the cross. If He acts toward us apart from that then He acts toward us in His eternal and holy wrath. If we seek Him apart from the cross we find only eternal damnation.

During Lent as we have meditated on the Lord’s Prayer we have done so in relation to the cross. We lift up our prayers because of the cross. Jesus gave us His Holy Prayer because He knew He would be going to the cross.

Now as Lent has come to its culmination in Good Friday we are met with that singular event. The cross. Jesus suffering in the place of the world. Offering up the prayer “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me” so that we may offer the prayer “Our Father, who art in heaven.” The entire prayer of the Lord’s Prayer is a prayer for salvation. It is a prayer that God would act toward us in mercy. That He would save us and preserve us because of the cross.

Oftentimes when I hear a sermon or read a devotion or attend a Bible Study or listen to someone give a presentation on theology my mind is thinking about all the points that were left out. All the things that could also have been said but weren’t.

I can’t do that with the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus has put it all in there. Everything we need from God, it’s in there. He has given us the prayer we need that covers everything our Lord would give us in His mercy.

And if we’re not quite sure, if after we’ve prayed the Lord’s Prayer and think that perhaps something was left out—perhaps Jesus didn’t think of the exact situation we’re in—He has closed His Holy Prayer out with this petition: deliver us from evil. The reason He has done this is because everything we need, everything we think we need, even everything we want, is met in this petition.

Let’s be honest, we don’t know how to pray as we should. The very fact that the Lord’s Prayer might seem to be lacking, not addressing our every situation or need, shows us that we aren’t always so concerned that God act toward us in mercy as we are for Him to give us what we want.

We’re more than ready to pray to Him to deliver us from poverty. We are consumed with our prayers that He deliver us from struggles and trials and annoyances. We are intent on asking Him for those things which will make our lives more comfortable and better.

But what we truly need, and what Christ truly understands, is that we need to be delivered from evil. He understands this because He endured retribution for our evil on the cross. On the cross He delivered us from evil. Why would we concern ourselves with the petty things we so often pray for?

But no, we shouldn’t have the impression that some things are out of bounds to pray for. We are invited by God to pray for those things we need, and yes even the things we want. He has taught that we pray for those things according to His eternal holy gracious merciful will. So pray away! Pray for those things you need. Pray for those things you want.

But as you pray, pray that His will would be done. And what is His will? That you be delivered from evil. Because, you see, the thing we get tripped up on is this desire that God’s will would be in line with ours, rather than praying that He would conform our will to His. Our will is too often what we want. His will is that we be delivered from evil. That’s why He went to the cross. That’s what he endured, evil. Our sins, our guilt, our punishment, were all laid on Him. That’s God’s will. That’s how He delivered us from evil.

That’s why we pray the Lord’s Prayer. That’s how we pray the Lord’s Prayer. Because of the cross. When we pray, Deliver us from evil, we also give thanks that He has. In His mercy, on the cross. Amen.

SDG

Daily Bread and the Cross of Christ

Maundy Thursday
April 1, 2010
Luke 22:7-20

One of the things you learn as a Christian is how to pray. Our sinful nature is quite content asking for things we need in this life. Our sinful nature has no need for the spiritual and eternal things. Our sinful nature would just as soon have us be concerned with the things we need to live in this life at the cost of losing eternal life.

So it’s no surprise that when our Lord has given us ‘His Prayer’ it’s a deeply spiritual prayer. It’s a prayer that combats the readiness with which we pray for our peace of mind, a steady job, a well-paying job, our team to win, our neighbors to keep the noise down, and our family members to stop annoying us so much. When we pray we pray for the things that are staring us in the face. Our feelings, our wants, our dreams, our frustrations, our pain. God wants us to pray to Him in our need and we do.

It’s just that our prayers tend to be so very unspiritual. So Jesus teaches us to pray for things like hallowing His name, His Kingdom to come, His will to be done, our sins to be forgiven, and for us to forgive others, for us not to be led into temptation, and the catch-all spiritual petition: that we be delivered from evil. Jesus is God and knows that our spiritual problems and needs are far greater than our physical ones and the prayer He taught us reflects that.

But there is that one little petition in the middle of it all. You know, that one non-spiritual one. The one that concerns our physical needs, if you will. Give us this day our daily bread. Throughout Lent we have meditated on the petitions, all very spiritual. Tonight we consider the one that’s much more to our liking—God give us what we need to live in this world.

In the middle of our Lord teaching us that our greatest needs are our spiritual and eternal ones He invites us also to pray for our daily bread. For those things we need in order to stay alive. But even more, to enjoy life and reap the benefits of His creation. While filling His Prayer for us to pray with the theology that man does not live by bread alone but by the very Word of God He places smack in the middle of it an invitation to pray for bread. The key I suppose is that we’re not praying for bread alone. But we are praying for daily bread. He knows we need much more than our physical needs to be taken care but at the same time He knows that we need those physical needs to be taken care of as well.

Perhaps He surrounds this petition for our earthly needs to be met with the others which are wholly spiritual to remind us that without our spiritual needs being met we have life for this world only resulting in eternal damnation. As we pray for daily bread we must be mindful that this too is just another gift from God. As He blesses us eternally with His spiritual gifts so He blesses us temporally with His physical gifts. He gives us those things we need in order to live our lives on this earth.

Obviously there are some who don’t have as much as others. And there are some who don’t even have enough to survive. But this is one more reminder to us that the prayer for our physical needs is only one petition among seven that are for our more important spiritual and eternal needs. You may have more than enough to eat and live in luxury but if you die in your sins you die without the glory of heaven for eternity. On the other hand, you may be barely scraping by but if you die in faith of Jesus as your Lord you are with Him and have surpassing wealth in heaven for eternity.

We have come to the heart of Holy Week. Maundy Thursday and Good Friday hone in on the suffering our Lord endured so that eternal blessings are secured. Have you ever thought about all that Jesus went through in His suffering? You know much of the physical torture He endured. But think about another thing He endured beginning from His Last Supper with His disciples. He ate that meal with them and then nothing. From the evening of Maundy Thursday through 3:00 on Good Friday He had nothing to eat. Part of His physical suffering was that He was dreadfully weak. He went through the night with no sleep and with no food. He was expected to carry His cross to the crucifixion site and in one of the few merciful, or perhaps merely practical, acts toward Jesus, they gave the task of carrying His cross to some guy who was on the side of the road. Jesus was too weak to carry His own cross. If it were happening today someone might have given Him one of those power gels long distance athletes use to give themselves energy and stamina.

But for Jesus there was nothing. No food. No drink. He truly was not living by bread alone, and even at all, but by the very Word of God. His life was entrusted to His Heavenly Father. He was brought to the cross.

When we pray the petition that seems to be the only physical one on the list in His Holy Prayer we really should treat it and pray it as we do all the others which are so very spiritual—in light of His cross. Yes, it’s true that we need our daily bread, and obviously true that our Lord invites us to pray for it. But isn’t it even more true that we cannot pray for our daily bread without also realizing that our Lord gives us so much more? He is, after all, the Bread of Life. In His Suffering and Death we have eternal life. There is food which gets us by day to day, and thank God for that! But there is also food which sustains us for eternity.

At this altar He gives it to you. Living Bread. Life-Giving Blood. The Body delivered on the cross, the Blood shed on the cross, given for you, in your mouth, for you to eat and drink, for you to be forgiven, strengthened, sustained.

So we may pray in boldness, Give us this day our daily bread. And we may also pray, Give us this Life-Giving Bread now and forever. Amen.

SDG

What Do You See?

Palm Sunday
Sunday of the Passion
March 28, 2010
Luke 19:28-40

The whole multitude of His disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen.

On Palm Sunday the people were rejoicing and praising God because of the mighty works of God that they had seen.

If you saw mighty works of God wouldn’t you rejoice also? There are some who don’t believe in God and even if they saw the mighty works of God they wouldn’t rejoice and give Him praise. They’d harden their hearts. Or they’d explain away the mighty works. But they most certainly would not rejoice. Under no circumstance would they give praise to God.

There are some who would come to see that the God of the Bible, the God who has revealed Himself in Jesus, is the true God. And they would rejoice. They would praise Him as the only true God.

Why do we rejoice? Why do we give Him praise? Are we like the people in the Gospel reading in that we have seen the mighty works of God? Or are we unlike them in that we haven’t seen His mighty works? We rejoice as they did, so in that we are like them. As they did we give praise to God. But do we do so despite not having witnessed the mighty works of God? Is it along the lines of what Jesus said to Thomas, because you have seen, you believe—blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe?

Well, yes, it’s along those lines. But there’s something else going on here. We’re not just similar to those people on the first Palm Sunday in that we rejoice in God and give Him praise. It’s not just that we can’t say, Well, we haven’t witnessed the mighty works of God in the Person of Jesus as He walked the roads of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, so we haven’t seen the mighty works of God in the way they did. What do we see? We know what they saw, the mighty works of God. How about us?

Isn’t one of the problems people have is that there are no mighty works of God to be seen today? There are natural disasters, predators who do heinous things to teenagers, an economy that limps along, wars and rumors of wars. If God is so great why doesn’t He do some of those mighty works so that we can rejoice in Him?

Yes, that’s a problem people have with God. And let me say that I can identify with them. I’d love to see God do some spectacular things in my life so that I’d have no doubt He’s the true God and I’m completely in His care forever. I’d love for Him to step in and remove the struggles from my life.

But is this problem people have, including us at times, a problem with God? Or is it rather a problem with us? It’s a problem we have because we know what we want to see from God and usually that’s not what He shows us. The problem really is with us, not God.

It’s safe to say that the mighty works of God that those people on Palm Sunday saw were not these details Luke recounts in the Gospel reading: He went up to Jerusalem —He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany — He sent two of His disciples — He told them to “go into the village where you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat” — they were to untie it and bring it Jesus — if anyone asked them why they were untying it they were to say that “the Lord has need of it” — they found it just as He had told them — and it all happened just as He told them — they brought it to Jesus — they threw their cloaks on the colt — and they set Jesus on it.

These aren’t mighty works. They’re simple things. The mighty works Jesus had been doing were the miracles, the healings, the raising people from the dead, the powerful preaching. But what would happen in only a few days? He would be delivered over. He would be beaten and crucified. There would be no rejoicing in or praising of God.

But could it be that the people were looking for the wrong thing? Or, maybe the right thing for the wrong reason. Perhaps the things Luke tells us about in the Gospel reading, that Jesus did on Palm Sunday, were the mighty works of God. It’s easy to miss them because they don’t seem mighty. They seem simple, almost ordinary. Jesus very well could have set it all up beforehand with the owner of the colt, so that there was nothing really spectacular in the owner saying what Jesus said He would say. And Him riding in on a donkey isn’t the most grand way to enter into a city.

The thing they really needed to see in order that they might rejoice and give praise to God was the thing they despaired of: Jesus being tormented and hanging on a cross. Jesus in weakness and saturated with the sin of the world.

What about you? What do you see? Do you see the mighty works of God in your life? Let me suggest that you do. Jesus’ words to Thomas—blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe—apply to you, but even though you haven’t stood before Him as Thomas did, and put your fingers in His hands and side as he did, you do see the mighty works of God. The reason you rejoice and praise God is because of what you see, not simply that you go through life holding out hope that in heaven you’ll finally be vindicated that it was all true after all.

The mighty works God does in your life are just like those He did when Jesus walked the roads of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. They’re just like them because they’re not always spectacular. In fact, most of the things were far from eye-catching. Most of them were mundane. Ordinary. Simple.

Just like today. He takes water, something you and I make use of every day, and does the mighty work of saving you and forgiving you all of your sins. He takes bread and wine, things you can get at any store, and brings about the mighty work of giving you in that bread and wine His body and blood.

What do you see? Do you see these things? Well, no, in that you can’t see your sins being forgiven. You can’t see yourself being united with Christ in Baptism. You can’t actually see the body and blood of Christ in His Holy Supper. But when you witness a Baptism, you see the mighty works of God, it just looks like an ordinary thing, much like Jesus sending His disciples to get a colt. When you witness and participate in Holy Communion you see the mighty works of God, it just looks like a very simple meal, much like Jesus having a colt brought to Him and His disciples putting their cloaks on it.

What do you see? As you enter into this Holy Week, do you see God as far removed, or do you see the God who comes to you in this place, at this altar, from this pulpit, at this font? Do you see the God who does mighty works through ordinary things like words and water and bread and wine? Do you see what those people back then saw? Yes, you do, because that’s what God shows you. That’s how He does His mighty works.

Jesus Himself is the preeminent mighty work of God. Jesus in the flesh, walking those roads of ancient provinces and cities. Jesus, sitting on a donkey entering one of those cities. Jesus, turning His cheek to be struck one more time. Offering up prayers of forgiveness for His persecutors. Jesus humbly and in weakness enduring the scorn of sinners and suffering for their guilt and sin. This is the Mighty Work of God, Jesus in the flesh, suffering for the sin of the world on the cross.

This is what you see. The world will not see it. Your sinful flesh will try to blind the eyes of your faith so that you can’t see it. You will constantly be tempted to look elsewhere so that you can see something more spectacular. Something God would really do! But you will never see it. You will look in vain.

It is only in Christ that you will see the mighty works of God. Only in Him you will rejoice and give praise to God. This Holy Week, look nowhere else. Look no further than this altar where He gives you His Body and Blood. Look no further than this pulpit where He forgives your sins in the proclamation of His Gospel. Look no further than the font where you were brought into the eternal Kingdom of the God who does mighty works. It is only in these things you will see who the God is who does mighty works. Who takes simple things and does mighty things. Eternal things. Forgiving you, loving you, saving you.

What do you see? Christ. Now as in a mirror dimly, then face to face. Amen.

SDG

The Only God I Know

Fifth Sunday in Lent
March 21, 2010
Luke 20:9-20

The only God I know is surrounded by the smell and noise and droppings of animals in a dank cave. Held in the arms of a loving mother and father in a humble setting just outside a little town known as Bethlehem. The only God I know is surrounded by wealthy men who bow before Him. Even though He’s a baby and makes only cooing and gurgling sounds, not knowing who is giving Him gifts and honor.

The only God I know is the one hanging out with the religious leaders in the temple asking them questions. The only God I know is the one who went to school and went down to the creek with His friends and ate dinner with His family.

The only God I know is the one who should have been Baptizing sinners left and right but instead commanded that He Himself should be Baptized. The only God I know is the God who is one and yet revealed in three Persons. Standing in the Jordan with water flowing down His face and God the Holy Spirit alighting on Him as a dove. Eyes lifted to heaven where His Heavenly Father speaks the words that He is the One.

The only God. He’s the only God I know. I know because God the Father has told me so. Because the Holy Spirit descended upon Him and no one else. The one who healed many and also took the time to heal just one. The only God I know is the one who didn’t gather an army but some fishermen and a few other guys, including one who didn’t turn out the way you’d expect him to when God is calling the shots.

But this is the only God I know. The one who is willing even to call Judas. The one who took time out, who needed time, to pray to His Heavenly Father. This is the God I know. The one who was, who needed to be, ministered to by angels. God. Needing angels. Needing help, needing strength.

This is the God I know. He’s the only God I know because He’s the only God who hasn’t remained ‘up there’, or wherever else a god might be, but has come down to me.

No, I haven’t seen Him. I didn’t see Him as the apostles and many others did while He walked the earth. But He’s the God I know. He’s the only one I know. And I know just as they did. I know Him as the God who is a man and became a man in order to come to us, human beings who need a God, who need a Savior.

The only God I know is the God who is that God, is that Savior. Because though He didn’t come to me the other day where I was working, He has come to me in my life and still does. The only God I know is the God who came to me in my Baptism. He knows all about Baptism, He Himself was Baptized. He knows all about what we need because He needed it too.

The only God I know is the God who needed what we do because He chose not just to come to us but to take our place. That’s how I know He’s the only God. What other God can you point to and say, I know He’s God because He actually saved me? He actually did what was needed in order to save me?

There is no other God. Ask anyone who has any other god what their god does to save them. They will show you in their response that their god cannot be truly God because he doesn’t do everything needed to save sinners.

The only God I know does. The only God I know is the one hanging on the cross. Bloodied and beaten. Stricken and smitten. Flesh ripped open, head dug into by piercing thorns. The only God I know was bleeding from torture, from punishment designed for criminals. But the only God I know suffered not as a gesture of enduring harsh pain and agony. The only God I know was stricken by God Himself. Forsaken by the Father. His righteous wrath poured out on Him.

The only God I know is the one who has done it all. Other gods will show you the way. They will teach and affirm and exhort and help and encourage and many many good worthwhile things. But none of those things are what the only God there is would really do. The true God would never just show the way. The only God there is must be the way.

The only God I know is the Way. He is the Truth and the Life. The only God I know points the way and then shows that He is indeed, Himself, the Way. The only God is compassion and help and guidance and all those wonderful things we need. But the only God I know doesn’t just point or help. He does. He is. He is the only God. He Himself saves us.

The only God I know doesn’t play games. He doesn’t tell us He loves us just so we’ll feel better. He slams us into the wall of the Ten Commandments. Think you need help? No, you need salvation. Think you need to improve? You need perfection.

These are things you can’t do. He can. He’s the only God. He’s the only one who does them. He’s the only God I know and the only God I need.

He’s not the only God I know because I was raised in a Christian home and have been in His House for worship most every Sunday of my life. He’s the only God I know because He’s the only one who has called me into eternal life, actually bringing me into it. Not just inviting me or showing me the way. Saving me. Doing what is needed to save me.

Some of you here are like me, you’ve always known Him because you were raised knowing Him. Some of you came to know Him later on in life. But no matter who you are or how long you’ve known Him, you can know Him as the only God you know. He’s the only God and when He is your God He’s the only God you know.

Because He’s the only God He’s a stumbling block. When I’m at my wit’s end, how does the God lying in a manger in a stable help me out? When I’m caught in the cross fire of my warring relatives, how does a little boy shooting the theological breeze help me restore the peace with my loved ones?

How, really, does an All-Powerful, eternal, omniscient God help me when He’s hanging helplessly on a cross? How is it comforting and strengthening that the only God is weak and dying and finally ends up dying on the cross?

When you want tangible evidence that He’s with you, that He’s your God, that He is powerful and loving to save you, to help you, to comfort and strengthen you, what kind of God is it who says that He’s the one who was a baby, who called a bunch of guys that even He had a hard time getting through to, who meekly stood before His oppressors, who even now stands in glory with scars on His hands, His feet, and His side?

Read the Gospel reading again. His people will keep questioning Him. They’ll keep throwing everything they have at Him. They’ll abuse Him, use Him, and throw Him under the bus. But He’s the only God we know. He’s the only God and is therefore true to Himself. He will never give up on us. He’ll keep coming back at us with love and compassion and mercy. He’ll keep coming to us in His only-begotten Son in the flesh—in our Baptism, in the pronouncement of His Holy Absolution, in His Holy Supper.

The only God we know is the one who is found in a piece of bread and a sip of wine. The only God we need is the one who happily is speaking when His servant pronounces to us that in His stead and by His command all our sins are forgiven in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The only God who can help us and save us is the one who has when He came to us, forgave us, joined us to Himself in our Baptism.

The only God we know is the one we won’t simply know when we are face to face with Him in His glory in heaven. The only God we know is the one we know now. Out of the humble context of a stable and long journeys on dusty roads and sticking with dense apostles and walking the path to the cross the only God we know comes into the humble circumstances of our lives, using ordinary water and words and bread and wine to give us the only thing we truly need: Himself. The only God we know. The God who is not simply the only true God but the only God we know. Amen.

SDG

More Than Enough

Fourth Sunday in Lent
March 14, 2010
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough…

With God it’s never just enough. There’s always more than enough. He doesn’t give to us only so that we can just get by. He doesn’t invite us to pick and choose from His blessings but to receive all the vaults of His glory and gifts.

Maybe it’s only when we come to our senses that we begin to see that more than enough is better than what we have. Maybe it’s only when we’ve hit rock bottom that we come to realize that a little from God is manifold wealth compared to what we have on our own.

The son who wanted more than he could ever dream of lost it all. The funny thing is he had already had more than he could ever imagine, he just didn’t realize it. On his own he lost it all and now saw that he had nothing.

With nothing he also saw that his father’s servants had more than enough. They in fact had it made compared to him. They in fact had it better than he had ever realized they had when he was living in the palatial estate of his father.

He no longer deserved to live as a son but he’d have it made as a servant. It’s amazing how differently you understand things when you see them from a different perspective. Maybe God knows what He’s talking about when He tells us we have nothing without Him. We just don’t see it until we see it from a different perspective.

So let’s try seeing it from a different perspective. Let’s look at our lives through the eyes of that young brat, um, I mean the young son of the fabulously wealthy father.

He decided that enough was enough and needed to strike out on his own. If anything, his pop was holding him back. He needed adventure. Thrills. Freedom.

He didn’t need his dad. He needed his money though, so Dad, just give me my inheritance and I’ll be on my way. I want what’s mine, so just give it to me early and I’ll be out of your hair.

What this young punk walked away with was a lot of money that you and I would say, that guy’s got it made. He has more than he’ll ever need. He’s set for the rest of his life. People may wonder, how much was it? It doesn’t matter. It was more than this young punk knew what to do with. How many times have we heard of fabulously wealthy people who ended up losing it all because they couldn’t control their money and their desires?

So when this young dude lost it all he realized not only how much he had had when he was living with pop, but how much his father’s servants had living with pop. Now this young man had perspective. Now he had wisdom. Now he had come to his senses. He realized what his father had realized all along: that he was nothing without his father. That doesn’t mean that his father was going to keep him holed up in his mansion his whole life. It meant that his father would provide for him for all that he needed. He would raise him, care for him, love him.

But this also meant he would let him go if his son wanted to be let go. It’s only when the boy was out on his own that he realized he needed his father. Even if his father would now be his master, and he his father’s servant. He’d still have it made. He’d be living in the lap of luxury because he would be benefitting from his father’s generous portions to all who were part of the estate, family and servants alike.

There’s another perspective we should see also, and that is the father’s perspective in the first place. He knew what his young son didn’t know. He knew that his son had more than he could ever hope for or imagine but took it for granted. But he didn’t force it upon his son. He simply gave it to him and let him go if that was his desire.

The father’s love is so great that it never forces itself upon someone else. Even someone he loves so deeply as his own son. This is the true and abiding love the father has for his son. It doesn’t keep tabs. It is not only fabulously wealthy but manifestly generous. The father is merciful to his son, welcoming him back in a heartbeat. He won’t have any of his son’s talk of being a servant. He’s his son. All that he has he gives to his son.

It’s at this point that one lesson has been learned. It was learned the hard way, but it was learned. But it’s at this very point that the very same lesson is not learned by another person. He’s also a son. The older son of the father can’t get his head around what just happened. He’s having a hard time subduing his bitterness.

I’ve been here all along. I’ve toiled and slaved. I’ve been faithful to you and have given you my best, and this pathetic excuse for a brother runs off to throw away all your hard-earned money. And what does he get for it? A huge party! He gets off scot-free. He’s back in the household as if he’d never left. He’s back as if he were the one who gave you the best years of his young life when in fact he hardly did any work around here at all. It’s me who should be getting the glory.

Sadly, it’s the older brother who doesn’t see at all who is father is, what he, as his father’s son, has. He does not see things from the perspective of his younger brother because he hasn’t seen the other side. He sees only himself and what he brings to the table rather than the love and wealth his father lavishes on him. What does his father say to him? “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.” The younger brother finally realized that his father’s servants had more than enough and now their father was trying to exhort his older son to see that, Son, all that is mine is yours.

But what did the older brother want? A goat. He wanted a party. He wanted his father to treat him to some nice gestures of reward for the hard work and labor he had provided for his father. But nope, nothing. The younger brother gets it all. And for what? For blowing all his dad’s money on fun and adventure. The younger brother realized that even the servants had more than enough whereas the older brother can’t even see that he already has more than he could ever imagine or hope for. He doesn’t see that a little party for him and his friends doesn’t compare to all that His father has provided him.

He doesn’t see that his father is not content to give just enough. Or not even just more than enough. It has to be everything. He gives it all. All that is mine is yours.

And if you and I haven’t yet seen the way God sees us from His perspective then take one more look. We haven’t talked about Him yet, but He’s there in the Gospel reading. He’s the one telling the parable. Jesus embodies the words the father speaks in the parable: “all that is Mine is yours.” What is God the Father’s is His own Son. And He gives Him to us. The Father gives His own Son so that we may have more than just enough. More than even just more than enough. More than we could ever imagine. More than we could ever hope for. More than we could ask for and certainly more than we deserve.

The incomparable love God has for His Son is love that shines through even when He gives His own Son over; Jesus becoming destitute; wallowing in the slop of our sin and guilt; hitting rock bottom, weighted down with the punishment we deserve; suffering on the cross so that we may enjoy the palatial estates of heaven for eternity.

You are with God the Father forever. You are His sons and daughters. All that He has is yours. What He gives you is never just enough. It’s always more than enough. All that is His is yours. Now you know what Jesus means when He says, “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Amen.

SDG

Face Suffering with Humility

Third Sunday in Lent
Perpetua and Felicitas, Martyrs
March 7, 2010
Luke 13:1-9

When is a bad thing a good thing? The answer is when God gets involved. We should give thanks that He does. Because that’s the complaint, isn’t it? That’s the question we all have, isn’t it? Where is God? Why doesn’t He get involved when the horrifying earthquake hits Haiti or Chile? Why does He allow me to suffer when I do? Why is He not preventing the cancer from spreading in my body? Why has He allowed my child to be taken away from me rather than to be able to live a long and fulfilling life?

We often stand speechless before terrifying natural disasters that claim life and a peaceful comfortable life. We often wonder what God is telling us or where He is at all when we endure suffering in our personal lives.

We look at suffering, whether it is that of others or what we ourselves endure, as a bad thing. And that’s not entirely wrong. When God created the universe there was no suffering. There was no sin, no evil. But the Fall into sin changed all that. From the Fall proceeded more sin, death, and suffering. Suffering isn’t supposed to be part of this world and we know it. But neither is our sin. And yet we continue to sin.

This is the point Jesus wishes to make. We come to the question of suffering from an arrogant standpoint. Why should we have to suffer? But Jesus takes an entirely different approach. His approach to suffering is humility. We should not question why we suffer so much as we should marvel that though we deserve worse God spares us from it. We should not question God in the midst of suffering so much as we should humble ourselves before Him and thank Him for His mercy to us.

Because Jesus doesn’t do the kind of thing where if you suffer it’s because, frankly, you deserve it. No, that’s what we do. If that person we don’t like goes through the mill, well, he got what was coming to him. Or we pity the person who is a good person because no one deserves to suffer in the way they have.

All of this is arrogance. Nowhere in here is humility and a realization that we don’t even deserve to be here being able to talk about this stuff. We simply deserve hell. By rights we should be eternally separated from God Almighty.

Our Lord, however, has abiding humility. He steps aside from His glory to make known to us our plight. He calls us to repentance. He warns us so that we do not in fact end up in hell forever.

Hell doesn’t seem as real to us as people who are murdered in their place of worship and their blood mixed with their sacrifices. Eternal damnation doesn’t appear as relevant as a tower falling on people who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Being separated from God doesn’t seem as pressing a matter as a powerful earthquake that strikes a third world country and causes untold devastation and agony. Never being in the eternal glory of heaven seems a distant concern when we’re facing the news that the cancer is progressing rapidly and that nothing can be done but wait.

The problem isn’t really that we’re arrogant. We don’t stroll into this discussion, and into our facing of suffering, with an arrogant mindset. No, the problem is that we are simply turned in on ourselves. The problem is that our sinful nature is so tightly wrapped around our lives that we can’t see things any other way than the way we do; which is that we have to know why this is happening to us. Why it has to happen to all those poor innocent people in those third world countries. This is arrogance even though we don’t intend it to be so. It is arrogance simply because it is not humility.

Our first reaction is not to repent. Who are we kidding, our second reaction isn’t even to repent. Do we even ever come to the point where in our suffering or in observing that of others that we simply repent? That we see that there is far worse for us to be concerned about than anything we endure in this life? That there is a far greater concern we have than anything we face here on earth?

Repentance puts a whole new perspective on suffering. It allows us to face suffering with humility. Repentance and humility in no way make enduring suffering easier. They certainly don’t minimize suffering.

What they do is help us see suffering the way God does. What they do is help us face suffering the way God does.

And what is that way? It is the way of seeing Christ in the midst of suffering. It is the way of looking to Jesus and His suffering on the cross. It is the way in which we see that humility is the only way to truly endure suffering because then you are not consumed with yourself but rather what God would have for you. Rather than questioning and wondering and agonizing, to be at peace knowing that God can do much more for you and through you through suffering than if you breezed through life with no thought of Him or the glory He has prepared for you eternally.

In humility we see suffering through new eyes. Instead of wondering where God is we see Him more clearly than ever. Instead of questioning His love and care we know more powerfully than ever that His love and care are never greater than when we are suffering. Your physical eyes will never see this. They will only see pain and turmoil and plainly a God who is not powerful or loving enough to keep you from suffering. Your sinful flesh will never see this because it will only see itself and how you deserve better from God than the suffering you endure.

But that is why Jesus faces suffering with humility and calls upon us to do so. It is only in humility that we can see Him in suffering. He is who we need to see. He is our only hope in suffering. It is only in looking to the cross that we can see our need for repentance when we are at our weakest. When we are most in pain and despondent. Why do we think we are going through anything we don’t deserve? Why are we so arrogant as to think that God does not care or doesn’t understand? Jesus endured suffering on the cross beyond what we can imagine or even describe.

It wasn’t simply physical pain and torture He endured. He suffered what we deserve. Our sins were laid on Him. He was inflicted with our guilt. He was hit with the holy wrath against sinners. He suffered in our place. Nothing compares with that. No suffering. No love. No thing can come between that kind of love and us. Not suffering. Not our sin. Not our guilt. Not even our arrogance at continuing to question God when we face suffering.

So face it with humility. Tell Him what you feel, there’s nothing that says you have to hold it all in. But be humble. Accept that He’s God and you’re not. Thank Him that He’s God and you’re not. Thank Him that when it comes to suffering He knows quite a bit more about it than you do because He endured quite a bit more of it than you could ever imagine.

Then ask Him to get you through. You know you can’t. He knows you can’t either. That’s why He sent His Son. That’s why Christ went to the cross. That’s why you are Baptized. You may suffer, but you are forever Baptized. Forever God’s own child and heir. Forever His son or daughter. Forever in His care. It’s why you partake of the Body of Christ that was delivered up on the cross. Why you drink of the Blood of Christ that was shed on the cross for the forgiveness of all of your sins. Why in true joy you can daily repent and receive the eternal Absolution of all of your sins. Why even in suffering you can give thanks that God would love you in such a way as not to let you breeze through life where you would be content with yourself and your easy life and your sinful flesh. Why in suffering you have the opportunity to see what He sees: yourself, a sinner who needs to repent and yet emerges stronger through the trials.

Just think about what tremendous help you can be to others who are facing suffering only with their own arrogance and sin and guilt and questioning of God. Just think about what opportunities you have to rejoice when you see that God has blessings that are so far beyond comparison to any suffering you endure. Just think of what you see in suffering that you otherwise would not have seen: that Christ has gone before you to endure what you can never imagine, that He goes with you as you face the trials and struggles of life, and goes beyond what you can see to have prepared a place for you in the eternal peace and joy of heaven. Amen.

SDG