Get Out of the Way

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
Commemoration of Augustine of Hippo, Pastor and Theologian
August 28, 2011
Romans 12:9-21

If someone is in your way, you might want to try a polite approach, like: Excuse me, may I please get by? Telling them to get out of the way probably won’t endear them to you.

Having said that, I have some advice for you as a Christian: Get out of the way! I know it’s not exactly polite, but this is no time for manners. You are in the way and you need to get out of the way.

Jesus told Peter as much when he was in the way. In fact, me telling you to get out of the way is very polite compared to Jesus telling Peter to get behind Him, and topping it off with calling him Satan.

If you’re in someone’s way in the grocery store you expect politeness from the person requesting that you move. But God isn’t going to waste time with politeness when it comes to you being in His way.

You can know that the reason He does this is because He loves you. When you are polite to someone it’s not so much out of love for them as it is common decency and respect. But love is a whole other matter. Love at times calls for compelling action toward another person. Love always calls for you doing what is very best for them.

They may not see it that way. They may think you have no respect for them or you’re not a caring person. In fact, when you truly love someone you are doing for them what they most need being done.

So Jesus calls Peter Satan. He tells him to get out of the way.

It was the same with the apostle Paul. He too was told by our Lord the very same thing. Saul, Why are you persecuting Me? Get out of the way. You’re going against Me. When Peter repented, he saw the truth of Jesus’ words and was grateful that Jesus didn’t tip-toe around trying to be nice. He was grateful that Jesus loved him, straight out telling him to get out of the way. When Paul repented he realized that Jesus was right, he had been going against Jesus, not serving God as he thought he had been. Get out of the way, Paul, you do not have your mind on the things of God but on the things of men.

That’s why Paul says what he does in the Epistle reading. What he’s saying is, Get out of the way. Don’t be who you naturally are, be who you are in Christ. Don’t insert yourself into the equation. Get out of the way.

Another way of saying this is, Don’t take the easy way out. A challenge is set before you. Take it. Don’t take the easy road, walk the hard road. It was easy for Peter to react—Jesus, you’re Lord and Savior! There’s no way you’re going to suffer and die! Jesus said, No, you’re taking the way of man, not the way of God. It was easy for Paul to persecute Christians. Jesus said, what you’re really doing is going against Me.

So in the Epistle reading Paul spells it out. What you do as a Christian is hard. Don’t just react. Don’t let your emotions control you.

Go instead on what God tells you. In the case of Peter it was Jesus standing right before him. In the case of Paul it was Jesus speaking directly to him while he made his way to Damascus. In our case there’s a lot poured into these short verses in Romans 12 in our Epistle reading.

We must be active about this. It’s hard. We can’t take the easy way out and just do whatever feels right to us. Love must be genuine. When you love others, love them in humility. Do what is best for them. Do for them as Christ has done for you.

In our society we’re frequently exhorted to be tolerant of those with opposing views. Fortunately, you can still find in society and popular culture the ideal that evil is actually evil. It’s bad, it’s wrong. In no way should we be tolerant of evil. We need to abhor it. We need to actively be against it. We can’t just sit by and let be what will be. This is the hard way of the Christian life.

At the same time we need to hold fast to what is good. In society you’ll find many who will say that tolerance is a virtue. We’re impressed upon to hold fast to being tolerant of others, because who are we to say that they’re wrong? The problem here is that we are so twisted in what we think is good that we are ready to stand up for what is in actuality evil.
Peter could not conceive of Jesus being Lord if it meant suffering and dying at the hands of wicked religious leaders. But in fact, Jesus couldn’t be Lord unless it meant that. Paul couldn’t stand to watch Christians overthrowing the true religion of the Old Testament. In fact, Jesus couldn’t continue the true religion of the Old Testament without fulfilling it in Himself.

The world and our own sinful flesh will show us the way of the world, which is actually the way of Satan. But in the written Word of God, we have the way of God. It is the way of the cross. It is the way of humility. In this way we hold fast to what is good. What is good is what comes out of suffering, death, and resurrection. What is good comes from the cross and the empty tomb. What we hold fast to is what Jesus accomplished for the world in order to put behind Him and us the way of Satan, which is the way we try to go that is apart from Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection.

This must be actively done, it is not easy. It’s not easy to love one another with brotherly affection. There are too many idiosyncrasies our brother and sister Christians have for us to love them in this way. There are too many things they say that get on our nerves, or offend us, or frustrate us. It’s much easier just to try to get along with them. The hard way, the way of the cross, the way of God, is to get out of the way and actually love them, to actually have brotherly affection for them.

It’s counterintuitive to go through the church directory and think about ways you can show honor to them where you actually place them above yourself. You know good and well that some of them listed in there are not as worthy as you are. But the hard road is to put yourself at the back of the list. To place everyone else in front of you. To consider how each and every one of them should be put to the top of the list. This is hard. It takes active and willful work on your part to think of them as Christ thinks of you.

The easy way out is to do this like most people do their New Year’s resolutions. They go strong the first couple of weeks in January and gradually they fade out. Don’t let your zeal for God’s way, the way of the cross, flag. Each day is a new day. Each day is a new challenge. Each day you are presented with the easy road and the hard road. Take the hard road. Take the road that goes the way of the cross, the road that Jesus walked, that led to suffering and death. The road that passed through resurrection and walking away from the grave. Hold fast to what is good, don’t get weary in it. Honor others as if you were deserving only of doing that, and don’t slip into thinking that you really know who is more worthy of honor.

Humility is the order of the day. It’s not just that you need to be humble. It’s that Christ, the Lord of all, is humble. The way of God is His way, the way of Christ. You must get out of the way. Be fervent in spirit. Peter rebuked Jesus. He was fervent all right. But he was fervent in the things of man. Be fervent in the things of God, the things the Holy Spirit gives you in the written Word.

Serving the Lord flows out of this. Not that that makes it easy. So many times in life the way our Lord calls us to serve is in ways in which we’re set to serve God in some spectacular way and He thrusts us into a setting where we quietly or humbly are called to serve. It’s hard. It’s the way of the cross. You must get out of the way.

Have you ever been going along, and things were actually going along pretty well, and then God threw you a curve? You’re now wondering what’s going on. What’s He doing to you? What is He trying to tell you? Well, He’s not throwing you a curve at all. It’s just that you have your mind on the things of man, not of God. You need to get out of the way and rejoice in hope. In hope you have what you really need. In hope you see what God sees. It’s the way of the cross, the way that is hard, the way that doesn’t seem very appealing when the world is going along enjoying things, giving no thought to the more important matters of salvation and forgiveness.

This is especially true in tribulation. Be patient. This is such a hard thing that it probably bears repeating; be patient in tribulation. This is one of those things that is so against our nature that it’s really what Paul says next that is our only hope for being patient in tribulation: be constant in prayer. Now you’re probably thinking: How does that help? That actually makes it worse! How are you possibly able to be constant in prayer?

This is actually an excellent way to show us that all of this is the work of God. What He calls us to He accomplishes. He doesn’t go around telling us what to do and send us on our way. He brings it about. Jesus walked the way of the cross, He continues to walk that way of the cross through us. It’s hard. It was for Him too. Suffering and dying on the cross for the sin of the world wasn’t easy. But it was the way of God and the way of love toward us.

Our lives are lives of prayer. When we are hammered by temptation, beaten by troubles, weary of the way of the cross, God is calling us to repentance, telling us to get out of the way. It’s much easier to give in to our feelings when we’re suffering and feel sorry for ourselves. In the same way that Peter said, This can’t happen to You Lord!, we say to the very same Lord, this can’t happen to me! It’s hard to get out of the way and walk the way of the cross, the way of God, the way of Christ; which so often is the way of trials, molding us into humble children of God who trust solely in Christ.

But it’s not just that we’re supposed to suffer. It’s not that God wants our walk in His way to be a drag. No sooner does Paul counsel us to endure suffering and continue in prayer than he exhorts us to contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. If you’re still stuck on yourself, not able to see beyond your own situation, take a look outside your own little world. Your fellow saints in Christ are in your same boat. They’re in need also. They struggle too. They may be treading water also. They’re walking the same path you are, the way of the cross. This life is hard for them too.

But they have you. You are there for them. There’s no excuse here for you. You can’t say that you have your own problems. One of the ways God helps you deal with your own struggles is by giving you the opportunity to serve others. To help them in their needs. By now you probably know how this works—it’s not easy. It’s hard. It’s tough to get your mind off yourself, get out of the way, and start serving others. Especially when you’re inundated with your own problems. But it’s the way of God, the way of Christ.

This way of looking at your life, your trials, your struggles with God calling you to this way of life, is embodied in Christ. There’s no other way to get out of the way than to fall before Him in repentance and see in Him alone the only way. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. This can only be done through Christ. It is what He did in going the way of the cross, suffering at the hands of His enemies. It is now our way, seeing now in those who persecute us, people who are in need of forgiveness just as we are.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. This is what Christ has done. God has become flesh. He has gone through what we go through. He knows. He knows what you’re going through. He’s been there. We can be there for others as well. So much of this comes about naturally when you look at others as if they’re Christ. In humility you see that in the same way that He humbled Himself for the world, you may humble yourself for others. This is especially important when you have been wronged. Those who have wronged you are most in need of your loving them in humility.

All of this takes active work. To succumb to your reactive feelings is the easy way and ultimately the way of Satan. Get out of the way. God is coming through and He’s intent on bringing you along on His way. It’s the way that proceeds from His having gone to the cross and stepping out of the tomb. It’s the way in which you now take up your cross and follow Him. It’s the way in which He never ceases to love you and help you and sustain you.

Get out of the way. Look not to what your circumstances tell you or your feelings or the world. Look to the font, the place where God tells you who you are: a sinner who was drowned and now lives in new and eternal life. Look to this altar where Jesus continues His journey, His way; where His body and blood that was given and shed on the cross is given and shed for you for your forgiveness. This is His way and He has made it your way. Amen.

SDG

Real?

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
Congregational Retreat, Big Bear, California
August 21, 2011
Romans 11:33—12:8

The person sitting next to you might wonder why you're doing it, but you could reach over and touch him or her. But you don’t have to do that to know that he or she is real. You can see them. You can hear them. And yes, you could touch them.

This weekend we have been exploring the real world magic of God. C.S. Lewis was blessed with a mind that exists on a higher plane probably than all of us combined. So if God enlists that in the effort of apologetics and getting the Gospel out to the world, we’ll gladly take it. You and I may not be as brilliant as he was but we are no less capable or ready to do what he has done.

Do you believe me? To see it all you have to do is look at little Lucy. In some ways she is the hero of the story. A little child, after all, shall lead them. She is the one who leads us into the world of Narnia through a wardrobe. It is through unlikely avenues that God shows us what we really need to know. We don’t need to discuss the reality of the world she had entered. When we read the book or see the movie we know we’re being told a story.

But stories are no less real. Stories are as real as anything. A story may be told of something that hasn’t actually occurred. But the truth communicated through that story is as real as your neighbor telling you that she went to the grocery store to buy milk. Why she would tell you that I don’t know, but we’ve all found ourselves being bored while others recount details of their lives while we patiently listen to them.

Part of the brilliance of C.S. Lewis is that he knew that the truth he was getting across was more real than the account of your neighbor going to the grocery store. There’s nothing compelling there. But in Narnia? In Narnia the ultimate truth of life is being told to us. Granted, it’s in the form of a children’s story. But does this make it any less real? Any less compelling? His depictions of the core events of salvation as well as the experiences we sinners have are powerful means by which we can look at our own lives and say, Wow, that’s what I see in my own life. We get wrapped up in the experiences of the characters and before we know it we’re identifying with them and gaining a deeper understanding of what’s going on in our own lives.

Who doesn’t start squirming when they see Edmund struggling with his conscience but rapidly dissolving under the enticing taste of Turkish Delight. Who has not at one point begun to doubt as Lucy did that maybe she’s wrong and everyone else is right. That’s the power of story.

God has a story to tell. It’s real. As with any good story, He brings you into it. He doesn’t lay it all out for you. He doesn’t explain every detail to you so that you can have a clearly delineated understanding of how it all is entirely rational. He simply tells you the story and invites you into it. Just as Lucy entered the wardrobe and found herself in a magical world, we are invited into the wardrobe through the Gospel and are shown the majesty and the mystery of God and His love for us in Jesus Christ. Nobody in Narnia explained to Lucy how it all could be true what she was seeing and experiencing. They simply showed her. She believed it even though it went against her normal experience.

The Word of God says that the spiritual and eternal things must be taken on faith. The things you see and touch can be taken on reason. But the thing of it is, these are the things that aren’t lasting. They were meant to be. But in our departing from God’s Word and consequent fall into sin, God’s good creation began to decay. He will restore His creation. But that will be in the future. That must be believed on faith. The things in store for us are actually more real than what we see and touch because they are eternal and will not decay.

But we can’t see them. It doesn’t appear that we experience them. But we ought to see them as real. We ought to believe that they are the most real things there are. In Narnia Aslan brought about his salvific work through means. He used the things of the world he created to bring about his salvific work. It wasn’t above him to use ordinary things. That’s what God does for us. He works through ordinary things, the things we normally think of as the things that are most real, to bring about for us things that are in actuality more real.

With simple water He brings about new life. With ordinary bread and wine He brings about forgiveness. With the proclamation of words He brings about the sustaining grace we so desperately need. None of this is magic. It’s perfectly real. It’s astonishingly simple. Even so, it’s never simplistic. God is too awesome to be reduced to simplistic understanding. But His ways are assuredly simple. Himself becoming a man. Himself giving us bread and wine so that we may partake of His body and blood. Himself drowning our sinful nature in the waters of Baptism. Not magical by any means but assuredly fantastic!

What all of this has to do with you is two things. One is what it has to do with you personally. Secondly is what it has to do with you in your interacting with others. For you, it’s what Lucy and her siblings experienced. They were given a gift by Aslan. God has given you a gift in His Son. What it means for you when you are in relationship with others and interact with them is that you are not just your own person. You are a child of God. You have the opportunity to tell others about Jesus.

All of this really comes down to what you think of Jesus. The people in the Gospel reading were clearly in a fantasy world. Was Jesus John the Baptist? Jeremiah? Some other prophet? But is there any difference today? Aren’t there still many people who believe that Jesus is someone other than who He says He is? What about us? With Peter we profess the He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. And with Peter we give thanks that this is not some fantasy world we live in. We don’t believe in fairy tales, we don’t hold to myths. Who we believe Jesus is has not been revealed to us by flesh and blood but by God the Father.

Here’s the way Paul says it in the Epistle reading: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to Him that he might be repaid?” For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.

Do you understand everything God has given you in His Word? No. But does that make it any less real? No, on the contrary it shows how real it truly is.

The one we cannot comprehend has come down to us. The one who is above us has become one of us. The one who is a Lion was led as a sheep to the slaughter. And by that very taking our place, by that conquering our sin in His suffering and death, by His victory over the grave, behold, the Lion has conquered.

Amen.

SDG

Jesus: God and Son of God

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
July 10, 2011
Romans 8:12-17

So here’s the deal. You are under obligation. You are a debtor to God. Paul says in the Epistle reading today that you are a debtor. But the thing is he kind of forgets to follow through with that point. He doesn’t really mean to. He just can’t help it. Because when it comes to obligation, to owing God, to being a debtor to Him, Paul can’t continue with the point without explaining that the debt has already been paid. The obligation has been fulfilled. You might even say that he is contradicting himself. Because no sooner does he say that you are debtor than he says that you are a son of God, meaning that you are in line to inherit all that God has. Paul cannot continue on with the notion that you are under obligation to God when God Himself is your Father and calls you His children.

But you would still miss the point if you were to think that he’s saying that you’re not a debtor. You would not be able to see what God really does for you if you heard Paul as saying that you’re not under obligation. That’s why he says you are. But when you’re listening to that and then you listen to what he then goes onto you see what it really means that you are under obligation to God. It’s not something like owing Him money. It’s not something like spending some time, even if it’s a long time, in purgatory. It’s a debt you cannot pay. You are under an obligation to God you cannot fulfill.

What you must do for God can only be done by God. You are not just under obligation, you are done for. The reason Paul doesn’t tell you how to get out of it is because you can’t. He doesn’t tell you to get it in gear and appease God because that won’t eliminate your debt. You will still be under obligation to Him and you will remain under it.

The reason Paul doesn’t tell you to pay off your debt is because he must tell you how it is that your debt is paid. Only God can do it and only He has. That’s why Paul does what he can’t help but doing, telling us about Christ. He tells us about the Son of God.

What does it mean that Jesus is the Son of God? Jesus is God. Jesus is the Son of God. God the Father is God and Jesus is the Son of God. Does this mean that Jesus is less of God than God the Father? No, Jesus is fully God. Jesus is also the Son of God. It’s vital that we understand that to say that Jesus is the Son of God is to say that He is God. But He is at the same time not God the Father and is in fact the Son of God.

The Epistle reading today doesn’t refer to Jesus as the Son of God. But it says that we are co-heirs with Christ. This is an amazing statement. Even though Jesus is God He is an heir of God the Father. This is how our debt has been paid. By God doing it. By God becoming flesh. By Jesus being forever God and the Son of God. He possesses all things and yet is the heir of all things of God the Father.

It goes without saying that you and I are not God. We’ve already established that we owe an insurmountable debt to God. But look what happens! We are co-heirs with Christ! Jesus is God—we are co-heirs with God! What really is happening is not us going up to God but Him coming down to us. It’s not that we are getting right with God but that He is paying the debt we owe Him so that we are right with Him. It’s not that we must obey Him as His children but that He has adopted us; He has made us His children so that we may call out to Him as our dear Father.

Children never realize fully how good they have it. They never understand completely all that their parents do for them. That’s probably why they complain when there’s work involved around the house or discipline handed down. When we hear the message that we are saved by grace and that we are the recipients of all of God’s blessings we may grudgingly hear the words that Paul says that “we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.” Has this replaced the debt? Has God taken care of our sin only to lay down for us a path of suffering?

Actually what Paul is saying is what he has been saying all along: that we are joined with Christ in order that we may be united with Him in His glory. Only a little before what he says here he reminds us that in Baptism we are united with Christ. But it’s specific. We are united with Him in His death, in Baptism. In the same way, we are united with Him in His resurrection, in Baptism. It’s amazing that this happens. Only Christ suffered for the sins of the world, but we are actually united with Him in that suffering. Christ alone rose from the grave sealing the salvation He accomplished in His suffering and death, but we are in fact united with Him in that resurrection.

That’s what Baptism has done for you. It’s not just that you look far off into the distance, and into the past for that matter, to the Son of God suffering and dying on that cross and see there that forgiveness has been won for you. It’s also that he unites you to Himself, and specifically His death and resurrection, in your Baptism. That’s how you are a child of God and an heir with Christ.

It’s why also you will have times where you wonder why being a child of God seems to entail more suffering than glory. But isn’t that why we cry out to our dear Father? Isn’t that why we hold tenaciously to His Word, which goes forth from His mouth and accomplishes the purpose for which He sent it? Isn’t that why we cling against all odds to that Word which He indiscriminately scatters about, and takes root despite many people rejecting it, and bears fruit and yields a crop beyond what we can imagine?

We’ll drive ourselves nuts if we try to figure out when and where and in whom the Holy Spirit has created faith. What we do is simply do what our Lord has called us to do. We are heirs with Christ. He is God and the Son of God. When we are the children of God then we are not on our own. As children of God we are not just kids who complain to Dad, eternal Father that He is, we are actually brought into His eternal glory. That it doesn’t always seem glorious on this side of heaven is part of the brilliance of it. We need God the Father, we need God the Son, we need God the Holy Spirit. With smooth sailing we would see no need for God, the one in whose name we were Baptized. With suffering, we see our need for Him and that He actually takes care of us, a fact we know because He has Baptized us and has made us co-heirs with Christ.

With suffering, we are drawn closer to Christ. We see our need and that draws us to look to Christ and His suffering. So often when we suffer we act like spoiled little children who think that everything should go their way. We have little time to consider the suffering of others. We have little care for the needs of others. Why should we think about them and help them when we are going through the suffering that we are enduring?

This isn’t the path of glory but of self-absorption. This isn’t the way of the children of God, of co-heirs with Christ, but of whining little children who want their way.

Suffering with Christ is the way of glory. Suffering with Him is the way of receiving the blessings of God because we can only be children of God, co-heirs with Christ, because of God—that is, Jesus: God Himself and the Son of God.

Consider who you are. A child of God. Consider why that is. It is because of Jesus. He is God and He is the Son of God. Consider that your life is bound up in His. You are Baptized into Christ Jesus. You are not your own. You are a child of the Most High. You are fed at the Table of Your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Consider what this means for you. That you are a child of God, a co-heir with Christ, means you live not for yourself but for your Lord. It means that it’s simply who you are that you serve others and reach out to them in their need. It means that it’s not a grudging stipulation laid upon you but a marvelous opportunity to be Christ to others. It means that it is a joy to live in the new and eternal life your Lord, the Son of God, has given you and in whom you are united. It most certainly means you will enter into the eternal joy and glory of the Heavenly Father even as it means that here and now and daily as you live, you, by the grace of God the Son are a child of God. Amen.

SDG

Is Your Life Not Going the Way You Wanted?

Third Sunday after Pentecost
July 3, 2011
Romans 7:14-25

Who are you? If I may be so bold, you are a body of death. Okay, so maybe you don’t want to hear me be so bold. I’ll let the Apostle Paul do the talking. He cries out in helplessness: “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” If you can picture various metaphors of a rotting corpse or being chained to a dying person, you’re getting there. Paul is saying he is a body of death.

Christianity is not a feel good religion. Some churches have people coming in in droves because they are being given a feel good message. People are flocking there because, well, they want to feel good.

Paul most certainly did not feel good. He was rotting away. His flesh was consumed with the filth of sin. He was a body of death.

Paul is agonizing over not being able to do the things he desires to do and instead doing the things he knows he shouldn’t do. His agony results in his exclamation that he is a body of death.

As Lutherans our usual question is, What does this mean? Was Paul literally rotting away? Was he slowly dying? Was his body a living corpse? When we see what he meant then we can see what he means by his question of who will deliver him from it.

Adam and Eve were warned of death if they were to eat of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. A funny thing happened after they ate of it, they kept on living. Okay, it wasn’t funny, but what are we to make of their remaining in a living state after having eaten of the tree when God had said, “In the day you eat of it you will die”? Did Adam and Eve look different in that instant after eating the fruit? Were blemishes suddenly visible on their skin? Did they look aged in contrast to the pristine look and feel of their skin before they had eaten of the tree?

Whatever the physical condition that was apparent, something happened. They were now living in a body of death. God in His mercy kept them living so that they wouldn’t be severed from Him forever. But consequences are consequences. They were now living a life in which they were bound in a body that was in its nature dead. Their life wasn’t exactly going the way they had wanted.

So how is your life going? What it means that each of us lives as a body of death should move us to realize this daily. Daily we wake up a body of death. We should remember this daily. But our condition of being a body of death shouldn’t be a morbid fascination. It shouldn’t drive us to despair or cause us to walk around in morose manner. People, especially non-Christians, don’t need to see us walking around with our shoulders slumped and receiving as an answer to their question, “How are you today?”, “Pretty good, for being a body of death”.

What we ought to ponder is a body of death all right, but the focus needs to be on deliverance. Paul’s exclamation of being a body of death is as a question: “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” [Hold up crucifix.] “Thanks be to God!” is his immediate response. But his response isn’t simply, Thanks be to God,” it is “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ.” What does this mean? The body of death God sees is the body of His own Son on the cross. Not just beaten. Not just bloodied. Not just dying. A body of death. A body upon which the sins of the world have been placed. A body in which the stench of death and sin has been infused.

It’s not just that God delivers us. God in His Son Jesus Christ delivers us. It’s not just that you’re a body of death walking around. You are a person who has been brought to life through the death and resurrection of Christ. It’s not just that you can’t bring yourself out of the deathly state you’re in, you can’t even see clearly to get your focus off yourself and your own body of death and onto the Christ who hung on the cross. [Hold up crucifix.] So God delivers you. He delivers you in His Son. He brings you out of the death you’re in through Baptism. You can then see clearly the Christ who was blood-stained on the cross and who Himself rose up from His death.

Jesus was not born this way. He was born in the way you and I were, in the womb of His mother for nine months and born. But He was not born as a body of death. He was not born in sin as you and I are. This is the great irony, that we are born in sin and yet Jesus says we must receive the Kingdom of God as little children. In today’s Gospel reading He says: “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was Your gracious will.” How is it that babies are in original sin and in need of salvation and yet Jesus is saying that we must be like them in terms of understanding and receiving the blessings of God?

These things cannot be taken in by us through understanding and comprehension. Those things are certainly part of it. But it’s really by simple faith. That’s why Paul doesn’t go into a long explanation of what it is that God in His Son Jesus Christ does to deliver him from this body of death. He simply exclaims his thanksgiving. “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” At this point Paul has spent seven chapters explaining, so to speak, exactly what it is that God does in His Son Jesus Christ to deliver us from sin and the body of death which weighs on us.

Today’s Old Testament reading gives us a little taste of Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday is all about the cross. It heads up Holy Week. The way it does is not just by starting Holy Week but by showing us that it’s all about the cross. Why was Jesus coming into Jerusalem? To go to the cross. He was coming in righteousness and bearing salvation. The only way to impart that to us was by going to the cross, to be a body of death.

When a child looks at this [the crucifix] he or she sees something very simple, Christ on the cross. That’s exactly it. There’s no amount of knowledge or information that can add to it. When Jesus says, “Come to Me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest,” we see it all here. We have it all here. When you look at Christ on the cross you see the body of death that delivers you from your body of death.

Is your life not going the way you wanted it to? Are you struggling as Paul did, with the desire to do right and the filthy thoughts that instead flood your mind? Are you heartsick over the intention to be patient and the vile actions that instead characterize your life? Do you find yourself time and time again wanting to do the good God calls you to do but instead doing the evil you know you shouldn’t do? Do you attempt more and more to try harder and harder to stop sinning, to work more and more to do what is right, and find yourself utterly failing? Does it seem as though you are not simply not getting better but that you’re actually getting worse? And the more you work at it the worse it becomes?

Jesus’ words are for you. They are spoken to you: “Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” You know the thing about this body of death of yours? The one you are bound up in and continues to weigh you down and bring you further and further into death? It is delivered. You are delivered. You find rest for your soul in the body of Christ. It not only hung on the cross. It not only died. It was raised. It not only was raised, it is given to you. Jesus Christ invites you to His Table: “Come to Me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” Here at His Table He gives you Himself, His body for you, His blood, for you. His words are spoken to you: Take, eat, this is My body, given for you, for the forgiveness of your sins.

Given to you to deliver you from this body of death. Given for you—for rest, for forgiveness, for life, for salvation. In body and soul. Amen.

SDG

Hard Words from God Are Good Words

Second Sunday after Pentecost
Commemoration of Jeremiah
June 26, 2011
Romans 7:1-13

We want to hear good things from God. We don’t want to hear bad things from Him. The good news is that what we hear from Him is good. He doesn’t tell us bad things.

But if you open the pages of the Bible and read for any length of time you will hear words that are hard. If you come to terms with what God says in the Bible you will see that He doesn’t give a message that can be reduced to “I love you.” He most definitely does love everyone. But for Him to say He loves us and leave it at that wouldn’t be real love.

If a person commits a crime and society decides it’s going to respond to him by saying, “We love you, continue on with your life as you were,” that would not really be loving that person. He would receive the message that what he did was okay, even good, and is free to do it again. It certainly would not be loving toward the victim of the crime. The victim would not be receiving justice, and that is not good.

Loving others not only means the words we love to hear, like “I love you,” but also the hard words. These are words such as to the criminal, “You are found guilty.” The criminal may not hear those words as good words. Society as a whole will recognize these words as good words. Society works well in a structured environment. Paul even uses the example in the Epistle reading of the woman who goes against the law if she commits adultery. In fact we see in our society how God’s good creation of marriage is rapidly eroding in our society. It is becoming acceptable to go against marriage as between one man and one woman with homosexuality, heterosexual adultery, living together apart from the bond of marriage, and a host of other perversions.

These are hard words that many people don’t want to hear. Not only in society do people want to hear that it’s wrong and not good to go against marriage of one man and one woman, but even many Christians don’t want to hear this. This is one example, there are many others we could address. To us good words are words that we want to hear. Hard words we hear as bad. If we recognize that God is good and He loves and that what He tells us is for our good and because of His love for us then we will see that even His hard words are good words. That may not make them easier to hear though.

Why is it so hard for us to hear God’s words that are hard words as good words? When things started out there were no hard words. There was simply, “Everything that is before you is for you and for your good. There is only one thing that is not for you and that is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” Now that sin and evil are in the world there are a lot of things that are kept from us. We don’t like that. What we often fail to realize is that God keeps those things away from us for our own good. It was for Adam and Eve’s good God kept the one tree away from them. It is for our good that He keeps, for example, adultery away from us. When we desire and take those things God keeps from us it harms us.

Here’s what God wants, He wants to say to us, “Everything I have created is yours, it’s for your benefit.” With sin and evil in the world, and with us being sinful ourselves, He brings in a new word. It’s the word of the Law. It’s a message of commandment. It deals in restrictions and judgment. It deals in words that are hard words. But these words are also good. They are also beneficial to us. They are not words that are words of hatred as opposed to words of love. It is out of His love for us that God speaks His word of Law to us. Without it we would be lost in our sinfulness and separated from Him forever. With His word of the Law we see how much He loves us, that He is calling us to repentance so that we may be restored to Him.

Does this mean we’re going to be excited about hearing it? No, usually not. More than likely, we’re going to recoil at hearing this from God. God’s people weren’t all giddy when Jeremiah told them that God’s message to them wasn’t peace but rather judgment. Since they refused to repent, Jeremiah had no choice but to give them God’s message of the Law. It’s even harder to hear when it’s coming from a fellow human being. Who was Jeremiah to think that he could talk to them that way? Did he think he was better than they were? We often don’t want hear hard words from others because it seems like they are putting themselves above us. But Jeremiah knew that he himself was under the same judgment he was proclaiming if he himself did not repent.

But let’s be honest, it’s not just that we don’t like hearing the hard words from God just because they are spoken by another human being. We don’t want to hear them from God Himself. Who listens to the words of Jesus, God in the flesh, in today’s Gospel reading and does not squirm? “I have not come to bring peace but a sword.” “I have come to set family members against one another.” “If you do not love Me more than your family you are not worthy of Me.” “If you do not take your cross and follow Me you are not worthy of Me.” “If you find your life you will lose it, if you lose your life for My sake you will find it.”

The words from Jeremiah are God’s words, simply spoken by a man. The words of Jesus are God’s words as well, spoken by God in the flesh. They’re all hard words. They are words intended to cause us to squirm. They are words to bring us to repentance. Do you seek what you want or what God gives to you? Do you desire things that God keeps from you or what God freely bestows on you? Do you hear His hard words as bad words or as the good words they are? Do you see that if you seek what you think is important and it takes you away from fearing, loving, and trusting in God above all things then you have made something else your god?

This is the hard work of God. He doesn’t want to do it but He does it because He loves us. He doesn’t want to judge us and condemn us but He does it in order to restore us. If we think God’s hard words to us are hard for us then we should think about how hard they are for God. Parents only want to love and hug and care for their children. They don’t want to discipline and punish and lay down the law. But out of love they do. If the kids think it’s hard, it’s even harder for the parents. This is the way it is with God’s hard words to us.

Paul talks in the Epistle reading about the role of the Law in the life of the Christian. We don’t live by the Law. We are freed from God’s Law. The Law brings us death. But Paul is adamant in pointing out that it’s not the fault of the Law. This is important because to say it is the fault of the Law is to say it is the fault of God. That’s why Paul makes it clear that the Law is good. God’s words are good, they are good in and of themselves and they are good for us. Sin is the problem. We are the problem. We don’t like to hear God’s words to us in the way He gives them to us because we want to hear what is pleasing to us rather than what is actually beneficial to us.

How is it this way? Because the problem is ours. The problem is so much our problem that we can’t get ourselves free from the problem. Only God can and He does it by hammering us with His Law. The Law is good but it brings to light our utter sinfulness. We can say that it’s okay to have homosexuality or heterosexual adultery or living together apart from marriage, but not only are we harming ourselves, we are killing ourselves eternally. We can hold on to our grudges and our hatred toward others but we are removing ourselves from God’s love and grace for us. We can go right down the Law and see how God shows us what is good and how going against His Law is harmful. If we look at the Ten Commandments and think that we’re doing okay with any of them then we are ignoring the hard words of God to our eternal peril.

But there’s another thing about the hard words of God that are hard for us to come to terms with and that is what He Himself does with them. God doesn’t just dish out His words of Law and judgment and condemnation. Parents aren’t just going to discipline and punishment their children and leave them in that state of guilt and sorrow. Afterward there are soothing words and hugging. The hard words of God are seen most clearly at the cross. If we hear the hard words of God and we can’t bear them then we are not hearing them in the way He has given them. He says them to us in light of His action at the cross. His word of Law was spoken to His only-begotten Son on the cross. His judgment and condemnation was handed down on His beloved Son at the cross. God draws us to repentance so that we may see His love for us and the way we see His love for us is by seeing how He loves us in His Son suffering and dying for the sin of the world.

That’s really why we don’t understand the hard words of God. We want to see them in some unattached sense. Rather, our Lord draws us into His Scriptures by showing us His Son. He speaks to us His Scriptures in light of and on account of what He has accomplished at the cross and the empty tomb. We can only understand God’s words to us through that lens. His words to us at the cross and in the empty tomb can be summed up in two words: For you. All He has done has been done for you. He gives His Son for you. He Baptizes you for you and your eternal salvation. He gives in the Holy Supper of His Son His Son’s very body and blood for you for the forgiveness of sins. These are not hard words but flow easily and naturally from His mouth to you. By His grace He gives you ears to hear. Amen.

SDG

Creation. Re-Creation.

The Holy Trinity
First Sunday after Pentecost
June 19, 2011
Acts 2:14, 22-36

We should never underestimate the importance of Creation. The Bible doesn’t begin with the beginning just because it makes sense to begin with the beginning. What happens at the beginning of the Bible, namely, the beginning, the Creation account, sets forth what God does in His most important work: re-Creation. The Bible begins with creation because that is the story of salvation. The creation account is inseparably linked with the account of salvation.

Today we celebrate the festival of the Holy Trinity. Some people don’t deal with the Trinity. They don’t want to concern themselves with doctrine and things they don’t understand. Especially when they hear something like the Athanasian Creed. The name of the creed alone is enough to make people wonder what it is we are saying. But then when you get into the words themselves you can easily get lost in what is being confessed. If you ask your average person, even your average Christian, to read the Athanasian Creed their eyes may very well glaze over. It is heavy on theological jargon. Some may get the impression that theology is dry and boring or doesn’t pertain to everyday life. Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s true that as fallible human beings we can make theology sound dull or impractical. It’s true that as sinful people we are not as enamored with theology as we should be.

If we dig into God’s Word we will find that theology is anything but dry and what God has to say to us is in every way practical. The Athanasian Creed says that this is catholic faith, the word ‘catholic’ meaning the universal Christian faith: “that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.” The holy universal Christian faith is that God is the Triune God, one God in three Persons, three Persons in one God. There is one God, not three. God is not divided up but is in unity. The three Persons of the Trinity are distinct, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

As we saw moments ago when we confessed the Athanasian Creed, the creed goes to great pains to stress the nature of God as the One in Three and the Three in One. But it would be all for naught if it did not get to the main point of it all, which is what the Apostles’ and the Nicene Creeds also confess, that God is not just God, He’s not even just the Triune God, and He’s not even just the One True God—He is the God of salvation. He is the God of Creation and of re-Creation. His work of salvation is His work of re-creation.

God creates. He brings into being things from nothing. This is not theological dogma or jargon, this is the very essence of life. Or, if you want to hear it in even more practical terms, this is the basis for who you are and how you live day to day. You are who you are because God is who He is. In other words, God is the Triune God, He is the Creator, He is the one who brings you into being and gives you life. Not only that, He is at work re-Creating you. He not only gives you life He gives you new life. He has created you and He re-creates you.

How He does this is by giving you Himself. Now what does this mean? It means He is not only the one who creates and gives new life, He is the one who does it by doing it in Himself. Today’s Old Testament reading is the Creation account of Genesis. God created the world in six days. In six days He brought into being what is. That was His work of Creation. Then the Bible says that God finished all the work He had done. He completed it, it was now in a state of having been created and was now existing. What happened next? God rested. The Bible says that on the seventh day He rested.

Have you ever wondered why God did this? Was He tired? Was all that work of creating the universe in six days so much that He was just plain exhausted? So He created the universe and then He needed a rest. Actually, yes, He needed a rest, but not in the way we are thinking of. God was not exhausted, He didn’t need to put His feet up and have a nice cold drink. He needed to rest not because of His work of Creation but because of His work of re-Creation. What God accomplished in His work of Creation is in direct correlation to His work of re-Creation.

In six days He completed His work. God finished all that He had done. If we can borrow a phrase from elsewhere in the Bible, when God completed His work of Creation He said, “It is finished.” That place in the Bible you might recall was on another sixth day, the day we refer to as Good Friday. On the cross Jesus was moments before death and He cried out: “It is finished.” The first six days of Holy Week were leading up to this, His work of re-Creation. On the sixth day God finished all the work He had done in creating the world and on the sixth day God finished the work He had done of re-Creating the very people He had created on the sixth day of Creation; the very people who had fallen into sin, fallen from the pure creation God had brought about. He had now restored it.

On the seventh day, the day after creating the universe, God rested. He didn’t need to. He wasn’t tired. But He did need to, because He needed to show that even though His precious people He created would fall away He would do His more marvelous work of re-Creation, His work of salvation. So on the seventh day He rested. When Jesus cried out on the cross “It is finished” He then bowed His head and died. He was placed in a tomb and on the seventh day, the day after His work of re-Creation, He rested in that tomb. In the creation account God says that God made that seventh day holy. Now we know why, Christ made it holy by His rest in the tomb.

God declaring the seventh day holy is the end of the creation account. It moves on from there to the account of the fall into sin. Jesus’ rest in the tomb on the seventh day, however, is not the end of the story as far as God’s work of re-Creation goes. There is a new day after that. We would normally think of it as the first day, that is, the first day of the new week, Sunday. But another way to think of it is as the Eighth Day. The day of the New Creation, or God’s re-Creation. That is the day Christ rose from the tomb.

The second reading today gives the continued account of Pentecost. Last Sunday on the Day of Pentecost, we heard the account of the Coming of the Holy Spirit. Today we hear the sermon that Peter proclaimed. The festival of Pentecost may very well be the festival of the Holy Spirit, but Christ is the one who is proclaimed. Peter makes a special point to show that it is the work of the Triune God to make known to us how the Triune God goes about His work of re-Creation, His work of salvation. Peter says that Jesus “being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.” The reason God sent the Holy Spirit was in order to make known Jesus Christ. Peter emphasizes Jesus’ work of salvation, that even though He died, even though He was buried, He was raised up. The Jesus who was crucified is the one who is Lord and Christ. The Triune God, as we confess in the Creed and as the Bible makes known to us, is the God who specifically reveals Himself to us in the second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ. Not only that, He specifically reveals Himself to us in His work of re-Creation in His suffering, death, and resurrection.

What this means for you and me is that our lives have meaning. If you think in terms of who you are and the life you live and the things you do, God’s work of re-Creation makes a difference. Consider just one thing, which happens to be a very big thing. Today is Father’s Day. Now Father’s Day is a day that has huge significance for all of us because we all have a father. It’s true that some have never known their father, some have been abused by their father, some are at odds with their father, and we could add to the list of how Father’s Day for some is a sad day, including some who would like to be a father but are unable to. But the fact that each of us has a father means something important. It means that what God accomplished in the Garden of Eden in creating us, bringing us into being, is a continued work. We are brought into existence not in the way Adam was, from the dirt, or in the way Eve was, from a rib, but from God’s creative and creating work, from a source, namely, a father.

Whether people believe in the Triune God or not, the fact is, God has continued His work of creation through the temporal means of fathers. This is a testimony to the fact that God is Himself the Father of us all. The Triune God is the God who Himself is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and from whom the Holy Spirit proceeds. We shouldn’t think of God in terms of our earthly father but rather our earthly father in terms of God our Father. Someone who has been abused by their father may not be able to see in God a loving Father. But what we ought to see in God is the perfection of a Loving Father and in comparison how our earthly fathers in many ways fall short. When you consider your father, you should be moved to consider the Heavenly Father who has given you His Son by the Holy Spirit. If you have issues with your father you should look to the Heavenly Father who loves you in this way: He gave His only-begotten Son to die on the cross for the sin of the world and in the work of His Holy Spirit has given you new life in your Baptism.

This is what Jesus was getting at when He gave his Great Commission as we have it recorded in today’s Gospel reading. The way disciples are made is not through our efforts but through the work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The way God’s Church is continually renewed and re-Created is not by our own work but by the work of the Triune God in Baptism and teaching.

The reason why this is so important for you in your daily life is because your life is filled with things you do. That’s great, of course, but the things you do ultimately bring about your failure. As Adam and Eve fell into sin so do you on a daily basis. God is the God who creates and re-Creates. We can never look to ourselves or others for what we need in order to live as God calls us to live. Even a man like David was unable to bring about what is necessary for God’s people to live as God’s people. Bluntly, Peter said that David was in the grave and the grave was still there to that day. It is only Christ who can bring it about. Because the Triune God reveals Himself in the Person of Jesus. The Triune God creates and re-Creates in the work of Jesus.

God the Father Almighty, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, is the Father who gave His only-begotten Son to create us anew by His Holy Spirit in Baptism. Amen.

SDG

What Does This Mean?

The Day of Pentecost
Ecumenical Council of Nicea, 325
Confirmation Day
June 12, 2011
Acts 2:1-21

Anya and Cory, don’t ever let anyone tell you you shouldn’t ask questions. You are a Christian. You are a disciple of Christ, a child of God. Children ask their parents questions. Students ask their teachers questions. You may have a lot of questions and throughout your life you will have a lot of them, so ask them. Don’t ever let anyone tell you you shouldn’t.

But now let me take the liberty to tell you how you should ask them. Fire away with your questions, but ask them in humility. Don’t go to the Scriptures thinking you are right in what you feel or think and that you can make the Bible say what you feel or think. Don’t ask God your questions in a demanding way. Seek the answers to your questions in humility, ready to hear what God has to say to you.

While you should always feel free to ask questions, you should be aware that some questions are not really questions. They are veiled attempts at attacking God’s Word. When you ask in skepticism, you are not really asking. When you ask in doubt you are not really seeking. When you ask in humility you are truly asking and that is exactly what God wants of you. He doesn’t expect you to know all the answers. He knows you don’t. But as a loving Father and a faithful Teacher He is ready and willing to listen to your questions and answer them.

It’s good to ask questions. You need to do it in humility. Now I will tell you how you will be able to ask questions in the right away. Hearing. You will be able to ask your questions in humility by hearing the Word of God. Hearing is a receptive action. You are doing something, but you are the one receiving. True enough, real hearing means listening. You have to pay attention to what you’re hearing. If you’re daydreaming then you aren’t really listening, and so are you hearing? Notice the true miracle that happened on Pentecost Day. It was hearing. Yes, the apostles were speaking in all different kinds of languages, the Holy Spirit giving them that ability at that moment. But why was that? It was so people could hear. It was so that they could receive the blessings of God, the promise of His salvation.

What happened at the Tower of Babel? Nobody could understand what anyone else was saying. They heard words but couldn’t understand what was being said. God had confused their speech. Why did He do this? Because they decided they didn’t want to hear God. They wanted to listen to themselves. They were asking questions, but only questions that suited themselves, to bring about means for their own good. What is to prevent us to build a tower that will reach the heavens?

Now, Cory and Anya, you may not lately have planned on building any towers to heaven. But how have you attempted to go beyond God? You’ve gone through two years of Confirmation instruction. Will you seek to continue to be instructed in the faith your whole life through? Will you make the effort to hear the Word of God to better understand it and grow in it?

God likes to use language to communicate with us. You and I speak English and that’s how we communicate with each other with the Word of God. There are thousands of languages in the world, it doesn’t really matter which one you speak. The Word of God is made known in all of them. When the people at Pentecost heard the Word of God being spoken they heard it in their own language. They kept asking, How is it that we hear the Word of God being spoken in our own languages? And as good Lutheran catechumens who learned from the Small Catechism, you’ll appreciate their next question: What does this mean?

People were asking this question long before Martin Luther came on the scene and put that question down in response to the things of the faith. It’s a good question. You should be asking it your whole life. Some of the people at Pentecost were skeptical. They assumed that the apostles were drunk. Some were genuinely seeking what God had to say to them. Did you catch how Peter responded to all of these people? Whether they were genuinely wanting to know more about God or whether they were mocking Him, Peter said to them: “give ear to my words.” Don’t just hear the words, pay attention to what is being said.

Anya and Cory, when you ask your questions, because you will throughout your life, do it with the intention of giving ear to the Word of God. Pay attention to it. Listen carefully to what it says. God doesn’t just say things. As the question “What does this mean?” suggests, the things God says have meaning. When God speaks, the words have meaning. It’s not just that when God says something it’s important. It is very important, of course, but it also brings about what it says. You may not be able to remember most of what I’m saying in this sermon, but if you are hearing it and giving attention to what is being spoken then you are hearing it in the sense that you are receiving what it says.

When you go up to the altar today for the first time to receive the Lord’s Supper you will be hearing the words that you already know, because you have learned them: Take, eat, this is My body, and Take, drink, this is My blood. These words have meaning. They bring about what they say. When you hear these words and you ask “What does this mean?” give ear to them. Pay attention to them. Jesus is speaking to you. He is bringing about what He says to you. He is giving you His very body and blood for your forgiveness.

The entire liturgy is filled with this kind of stuff. If you just go through the motions you’ll miss most of it. But if you listen, if you pay attention, you will hear stuff that you can’t get anywhere else. After you receive the body and blood of Christ today listen for the words that come next. You’ll probably recognize them because you’ve heard them many times before. But today and every time you receive the Lord’s Supper you will be hearing them spoken to you. After giving you the body and blood of Jesus I will say, “The body and blood of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ strengthen and preserve you steadfast in the true faith, now and to life eternal.” Now there’s a lot there—and you should probably be asking, What does this mean?—but for now, I want you to pay attention to one particular word in there, ‘strengthen’.

Do you know what this means? It means that the body and blood of Christ are confirming you. Today you are going to stand before this altar and confess the Creed. You are going to promise to be faithful to the Creed and to your Lord Jesus Christ even to death. You will be confirming what has already been given you in your Baptism. And you should do that. But what I really want you to hear today is the other confirmation that is going on. What I want you to go away with today is the word ‘strengthen’ ringing in your ears. I want you to go from here this day knowing not just that you promised to God that you would be faithful to Him but especially that He is faithful to you. He proves this by strengthening you, confirming you in His Body and Blood. I want you to hear these words and hold fast to them, because they are going to be what gets you through, not your own promise you made. You will falter at times, you will be weak at times. You will wonder at times what it all means.

In those times, go back to the Word of God. Go back to the words of your Lord in which He has said to you, Take and eat, this is My body, for you. Take and drink, this is My blood, for you. In going back to those words then you will know that that is exactly what you have received, His body, His blood, for you. The very body that hung on the cross for the sins of the world, which includes yours. This is given you to eat for the forgiveness of your sins. The very blood that was shed on the cross for the forgiveness of the world, which includes you. This is given you to drink for the forgiveness of your sins. These words mean something. These words bring something about. They mean you are forgiven. They bring about your very forgiveness. The body and blood of Jesus strengthen you. They confirm you.

There’s one more thing. When I say to do this in humility I don’t mean that you need to approach this altar in fear and trembling. As I’ve taught you in how to be an acolyte, we do approach the things of God in reverence and awe and even in a certain respect, fear. But when you approach the altar of God and hear His Words in humility that means another thing as well. It means you hear Him in joy and gratitude. When your parents give you a gift that you never saw coming and it’s something better than you ever expected, are you somber? No, you are grateful and joyful and humbled that they would love you in such a way! That’s the way it is here. That’s what it means. Amen.

SDG

The Art of Interruption

Third Sunday in Advent
December 12, 2010
James 5:7-11

Recently Steve Martin was interviewed at a place in New York called the 92nd Street Y. It’s known for its focus on the arts and the tickets aren’t cheap. Steve is an avid art collector and he recently wrote a novel called Object of Beauty. He and the interviewer were having a grand time talking about his book, his art collection, and his love of art and the art world. Apparently many in the audience weren’t as thrilled with all this talk of art. They wanted to hear about Steve. They wanted one of the most famous and funniest comedians to talk about his career. Halfway through the show, the people in charge of this event took matters into their own hands, as they apparently felt the same way. They handed notes to the interviewer with such things as, “Talk about Steve’s career.” This threw both of them off and the evening kind of fizzled, with some forcing of letting audience members ask questions themselves.

Afterward, the Y sent out a letter of apology as well as a full refund. They wanted people to know that they would see to it in the future that they could count on the quality they had come to expect in events at the Y. Needless to say, Steve Martin wasn’t happy about how it all transpired, including the way the Y handled things afterward. He wrote an editorial in the New York Times called “The Art of Interruption.” In it he expressed his frustration at being interrupted, but because you never know how things are going to unfold. He stated his case that here you had a consummate entertainer being interviewed by a seasoned interviewer and that given time something memorable could happen. When people are antsy they don’t want that time given, they feel like their time is being wasted.

When we’re impatient we interrupt. We attempt to stop whatever it is we’re bored with in its tracks. But there is an art to interruption. I’m not sure if any of us are very good at it. I’m as impatient as anyone. Every day for about a month and a half I have been thinking about what is under the tree in my home. If I could interrupt things and open up my presents now, I would. So during this time of Advent when I have an opportunity to focus on the Gift God has given, wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger, I am thinking about how great it will be to get home from church Christmas Eve and open up those presents! I can only imagine what kids are going through right now.

But it’s not that there shouldn’t be interruption. That’s why I like the title to Steve Martin’s editorial. There is an art to interruption. Finding that art, achieving that art, that is the challenge. In fact, I think that may actually be the brilliance of the season of Advent. It is itself an art of interruption. What happens during this time of year? Wherever you go, people are wishing you a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. They are talking about the Christmas season. You drive around and see lights on people’s homes and on buildings. Offices are decorated, Christmas music is played, some people actually are in a better mood, just because it’s the time of the year for peace and goodwill toward men.

I don’t want in any way to imply that these things are wrong. Or even that they shouldn’t be done. In the Willweber household we got up the tree and the decorations right around the same time the neighbors did. And if people wish me a Merry Christmas I don’t correct them by telling them that it’s Advent. But when we come here we see it’s different. When we come here we’re not saying Merry Christmas yet. When we come here we’re doing a thing called Advent.

The reason I love Advent is not so much because I love it. It’s because it forces me to focus. It forces me to see Christmas for what it really is. Just as we don’t celebrate Easter without Lent and Good Friday, we don’t celebrate Christmas without Advent. It is, in a very practical sense, an exercise in patience, just like what Steve Martin was talking about. Instead of interrupting the Church Year and going right to celebrating Christmas, we patiently go through Advent. And yes, that might even mean that we’re bored. Or we’re just going through the motions, waiting for our celebration of Christmas on the 24th and the 25th. It might mean that others look at us as if we’ve forgotten what this time of year is about, when everybody is celebrating Christmas and we’re still talking about things like repentance and the Second Coming of Christ. But there is an art to this. Patience is hard. Sometimes we need help to be patient. Do we even dare to say that sometimes we need to be forced into it? That’s one of the things Advent can help us with.

It’s tough for us Lutherans to slosh through the Book of James. So much Law. So much focus on what we are to do. And here is another example, our Epistle reading today. Be patient. Establish your hearts because the Coming of the Lord is at hand. Don’t grumble against one another. And the scare tactic: the Judge is standing at the door. Try laying those sentiments on people when they wish you a Merry Christmas. Don’t you know the Judge is standing at the door? Be patient. Prepare your hearts. Don’t grumble.

This is what Advent does. It forces us into a mode where we see we need to be patient. When we want to talk about peace on earth the Bible is telling us not to grumble against one another. When we just can’t wait to tear open those presents under the tree the Word of God impresses upon us the need to establish our hearts, preparing for that Day when our Lord will return in glory. I know whatever gifts I get under the tree won’t compare to the Day when Christ Returns to take me to the eternal glory of heaven. So why is it I think more about what presents I’ll get than about Christ coming again? It’s so easy for us to think about the baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and not have to think about what that means for us in our daily lives. That the notion of Peace on Earth means things like repenting of our own grumbling against one another, our impatience with one another, let alone God bringing about His last and ultimate promise: Returning in Glory on the Last Day.

This isn’t about us being in some private club where we know we’re observing in a better way this time of year. Advent isn’t about thinking higher of yourself, but rather cutting you down to size. Patience requires humility. It requires repentance. It requires your focus to be outside of yourself, not within yourself.

This is why James goes on to give examples. As much as we Lutherans would love to put the Book of James into a box of Law and exhortation to right living, we can’t do that, because he himself doesn’t do that. He gives his exhortations in light of the Gospel, not the Law. What are his examples? The prophets. Job. If we think patience is hard, we’re in good company. If we’re not hot on repentance, join the club. These things are never easy. They are hard by their very nature. Why would there need to be exhortation of things that are easy? It is the hard things we need to forced into.

His example of the prophets, he says, is of suffering and patience. He then says we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. When you walk into this church on Good Friday you expect to hear of suffering. If you can remember a whole year from now, you should expect to hear it also on the Third Sunday in Advent. Suffering. Patience. Remaining steadfast. These are things we so often need to be forced into because we want to jump right to, well, what we want. What do you think the prophets thought when they were being persecuted? God, it would be really nice if we could get beyond this. It would be great if this could go a lot more smoothly. I’d really appreciate it if this weren’t so hard. And that’s saying it in polite ways. The prophets weren’t always so circumspect in praying to God.

But here’s what James is getting at: God got them through. Here’s how he tells us this: you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. God was patient with those prophets. He remained steadfast to them. They weren’t strong enough on their own to make it. They needed God. James gives another example that has become the quintessential example of suffering: Job. How did Job make it through? God. God got Job through the intense suffering he endured. This is one of the greatest gifts our Lord gives to us: faith. When He gives faith we can endure. The prophets were patient because God granted them the faith to endure. Job was steadfast because God imparted to him faith that relies on God alone, as the one who is more powerful than hardships and the one who delivers us from hardships. And we could add the one from today’s Gospel reading of John the Baptist.

There is an art to interruption. At its simplest, it’s knowing when not to interrupt. It is having the patience to let God carry out His plan and will. God’s people in the Old Testament constantly tried to interrupt the plan and will of God. If God had not had the patience to endure His people’s obstinance, He never would have sent His Son. If Advent shows us anything it’s that we try to interrupt His plan and will. Thank God He is patient with us. Just as He sent His Son to take on human flesh in His birth and carried out His eternal plan to send Him to the cross, He has promised to send Him again. Don’t interrupt that Plan, it’s a good one. Contemplate it. Meditate on your sins but even more your Savior. Don’t think so much of peace on earth as you do your patiently enduring others’ faults and even their sins against you. Don’t grumble against them, love them as Christ has loved you!

When you look to the examples James gave, you see the purpose of the Lord carried out. He knows what He’s doing. That’s why He went to the cross. That’s why He was willing to endure the insults, the pain, and patiently suffer your sins and mine, humbly submitting to the punishment you and I deserve. That’s why He stepped forth from His grave. If He has done that, we know He will make good on His promise yet to be: to come again in glory on the Last Day. On that Day will be the glorious interruption. Our Lord bringing to a screeching halt the affairs of this world, the sin, the evil. He will raise all, some to eternal death, some to eternal life.

What you know now is the end. Do you have to wait for it? Yeah. But you know. You know God’s promise—you know His love for you in His Son, you know He steadfastly keeps you in His care. It’s because of that we interrupt our daily lives to hear His Gospel proclaimed. To take into our mouths the body and blood of Christ. To daily meditate on His Word and repent of our sins. This is the art. Don’t interrupt Him. But when He interrupts you, that’s a good thing. Amen.

SDG

Veni Emmanuel

Midweek in Advent 2
December 8, 2010
Matthew 1:23

A nno
D omini In the Year of Our Lord—Luke 4:18-19
V eni
E mmanuel O Come, Emmanuel—Matthew 1:23
N ovum
T estatmentum New Testament—Luke 22:20

Of course, we don’t need to know Latin to know that our Savior has come. Most of us don’t even need to know Hebrew and Greek—the original languages of the Bible—to know that God has come to us for our salvation. But even if most of us don’t know these languages, we know, even if we don’t think about it often, the value and importance of language. Language is the way we communicate. God has communicated to us through language. The way we know God has come to us and is our Savior is that He has told us in His Word. Those who know both Hebrew and Greek as well as English have translated the Word of God into English. And it has been translated into many other languages.

Part of communication is the process of explaining meaning. We don’t even have to go from one language to another to see this. Sometimes we use a phrase or a word and the other person doesn’t understand what we mean. So we explain what we mean so that they understand. Communication is a constant back and forth—saying, responding, explaining, understanding. We all know what happens when communication breaks down. It makes things worse. Good communication clarifies things. It makes things better. Communication that is meant to muddy things makes things worse. Communication that is just not very clear does the same thing, even if it’s well-intentioned.

Communication not only is vital to our lives, clear communication is. We all probably learned somewhere along the line that you communicate not only with words but also actions. Non-verbal communication can communicate just as much, and even more, than our words do.

So what do we learn from the phrase “Veni Emmanuel,” the prayer, “O Come, Emmanuel”? We see that it is answered by God in a way where He doesn’t just tell us He loves us. His Word tells us, no doubt, but His Word also becomes flesh. He is Himself His very Word. Jesus is the Word made flesh, He is God in the flesh. Matthew brings this out with a little bit of communicatory translating when he quotes Isaiah, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel” and then he says, “which means, ‘God with us’.”

He doesn’t want there to be any confusion. He makes it clear that the boy born of the virgin Mary is God, specifically, God with us. God having come to us. God among us. God for us. God in the flesh.

When you pray, O Come, Emmanuel, you look to Jesus where God has answered your prayer. Look to God, but specifically to God where He has most wonderfully made Himself known, in the flesh, in the baby born of Mary. In the first reading we heard this evening God said that He Himself would give a sign: the virgin would conceive and bear a son, and His name would be called Immanuel. The sign pointed to what it said. What it said is what happened. We look back on that as the actual event that happened. How we know who God is is that He came in the flesh. He became “God with us.” Before the fall into sin God was with Adam and Eve. Since the Fall we are separated from Him. His way of restoring us to a relationship with Him is by coming to us. He has done that in Jesus, God in the flesh, Emmanuel, God with us.

We’re accustomed on Sunday morning to hearing the Benediction known as the Aaronic Benediction. It is a Trinitarian blessing, “The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace,” the Lord placing His name on us three times. There are times when the apostles end their New Testament letters with some form of a Trinitarian blessing. It’s easy to pass right over the last words of these New Testament letters. It’s a simple sentence, but it’s amazing what Paul says to the Corinthians at the end of his Epistle to them: “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.” This is after he has taken them to task for a number of serious issues. How is God with us? Because Jesus is with us. He has come in the flesh.

How is this a Trinitarian blessing? It doesn’t mention the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or repeat the Lord’s name three times as in the Aaronic Benediction. It is Trinitarian in that it is a blessing of the Lord, of God. That is, it is a blessing of the Triune God. How is the Triune God our God? In Jesus. God is with us in Jesus. Jesus is God with us. Jesus is how we are blessed by God. So the apostles are freely able to bless the people of God with a Trinitarian blessing, as in Father, Son, Holy Spirit, or a Trinitarian blessing with just Christ named, as we have it in our second reading: “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.” Notice what Paul is saying. He is saying nothing else than, “God be with you.” Nothing else than what God commanded Aaron to bless the people with and the same blessing that is so familiar to us. When the grace of the Lord Jesus is with us God is with us. That’s because the grace of the Lord Jesus is with us when Jesus is with us. And when Jesus is with us God is with us. That’s what He would be called, after all, Emmanuel, God with us. That was the promise in Isaiah and that was the fulfillment in Matthew.

But Matthew doesn’t say, Jesus was born and that was God with us, so have a great day! He goes on. This is only the twenty-third verse of his Gospel account. What Matthew goes on to tell us about is what it means that God is with us in Jesus Christ. Just this: that Christ was born in order to suffer on the cross and die for the sin of the world and rise from the grave so that we might have eternal life. In other words, life with Him forever.

It makes sense, and sounds wonderful, for Matthew to say that when Jesus was born that is God with us. And it’s true. But Matthew also shows us in his Gospel account that when Jesus is on the cross procuring salvation for the world that that is most truly and wonderfully God with us. That’s what God’s sign in Isaiah ultimately was pointing to. It’s what Matthew ultimately was showing us when telling the birth of Christ. When we look at the cross we see Emmanuel, God with us. We know God is with us because of the cross. Our prayer, Veni Emmanuel—O come, Emmanuel—is answered in and because of the cross. Just as He came at Bethlehem and went to Calvary, so He will come again in glory so that we may be with Him forever. Amen.

SDG

Where Do You Look for God?

Second Sunday in Advent
December 5, 2010
Romans 15:4-13

If you know where to look you will be able to find it. If you know what you’re looking for you’ll be able to see it. Otherwise you would go right on by never knowing it’s there. Never seeing it.

One day my family and I were on a hike in Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada, just above Glacier National Park in Montana. A ranger was taking us on a nature hike. Through one portion of the hike, all I saw was old, dead, dried up, burnt bark. Nothing to see there. I would have walked right on by. But the ranger knew where to look. She knew what to look for. Let’s take a look here. I would just have soon continued on by but she wanted us to see the new growth. Before I could think too long about how I wondered if she was really qualified to be a ranger, she pointed out to us the new growth that was coming out from underneath all of that dead stuff, all of those trees that had been destroyed in the fire. It was very pretty. Green shoots coming from underneath a brown blanket of what used to be tall beautiful trees. But there they had lain, providing a warm moist blanket for the ground beneath it, a fertile sphere for new life, new growth to shoot forth.

When I am in nature I am drawn to the grandeur, the magnificent scenery, those things that are easy to see because they stand out with their obvious beauty and glory. What I learned on that day is that there is a lot more beauty than what at first meets the eye. I learned that to see some of the most amazing things you need to know where to look. You need to know what to look for. And you need to know that it’s sometimes in the places you wouldn’t expect.

Maybe that’s the problem with us. We don’t know where to look. We don’t know what to look for. We rely on what we see at first glance. We’re looking for the grandeur, the glory, the powerful. We’re wanting the God who will swoop into our lives just when we need help and magically, powerfully take care of our situation, and then give a wave and a wink as He goes back to sitting on His throne and keeping everything under control. God is the God of glory, is He not? So where’s the glory? We look for it, but it isn’t always apparent. Most of the people in Allied Gardens aren’t waking up every Sunday morning to join us here as if to ignore the obvious: that here is where there is the glory and grandeur of the Almighty God and His abundant blessings. If anything, they look at our little church and wonder what the big deal is. Many people look at the trials and tribulations of Christians and wonder why we would believe in a God who would allow us to go through such things. Where’s the glory? Where’s the grandeur?

Have you ever chopped down a tree and just left the stump there? You got that problem taken care of, the tree had gotten too big, it was in the way, you needed the space for something else. Months went by. One day you looked at that stump just sitting there, useless now. But from it you see something not dead, not useless, but something green. A little shoot. Coming from that stump. The tree came from the ground for life and even chopping it down to a stump wasn’t going to prevent it from fulfilling its purpose.

Paul says in the Epistle reading that the Root of Jesse will come. He will be the one who arises to rule the Gentiles; in Him will the Gentiles hope. What kind of God, what kind of Savior, do you think the people of God in the Old Testament were looking for? What kind of God do you think would catch the attention of non-believers, Gentiles? Wasn’t a mighty, powerful, glorious God, one that the Israelites should have been expecting? Isn’t a God who erases all the things that make life tough for us the kind of god non-believers would think to look for?

But the Old Testament makes a promise of the God who will come as Savior, and one that doesn’t necessarily fit the description of what we might look for. We heard it in this morning’s Old Testament reading: “There shall come forth a Shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a Branch from his roots shall bear fruit.” The promise is of the Almighty, Glorious, Lord of All coming as a little sprout. A sprout that comes from an old stump. Some glory. Some grandeur. Some power. God’s people might have wondered about their God. The Gentiles might have thought those Israelites, and now the Christians who were believing in that same God, were a little crazy, or at least people they should feel sorry for.

Isaiah was a great prophet. Many times He speaks of the greatness of God. Why here in the portion we heard in today’s Old Testament reading does he then refer to God the Savior as the Root of Jesse? Jesus was descended from the line of King David. That’s King David, the powerful king, the one who was glorious and a great leader for the people of God. But Isaiah tells us of the promise of the Savior as coming from David’s father. That’s Jesse, the simple man from the country. The man who raised sons to help out on the family farm, to serve King Saul in the army against the Philistines, to be simple men who would serve God in ordinary ways as most of God’s people do. These are the humble beginnings of the Savior. From King David, yes, but also from Jesse, a man who never thought his youngest son who tended sheep would be considered to be the king of God’s people.

From this prophecy in Isaiah we see the pattern. God likes to come in ways where you wouldn’t think to look unless He showed you. Would you have thought the Savior would be born in a stable? Would you have looked for the woman to give Him birth in a simple peasant girl? Would you have walked all the way out to the country as Samuel did to Jesse’s house to find the next king? Samuel did because God directed him there. I don’t think he would have thought of Jesse on his own, let alone know who he was.

If Isaiah used such a humble description of the Savior to come, Paul had the opportunity to paint a portrait of the glorious, powerful, Almighty God who had come in his appeal to Gentiles. But he picked up on the theme of Isaiah. The Root of Jesse. The one who came from a stump. The one who thought it was a grand plan to come in as Savior as a sprout rather than a Sequoia.

John the Baptist had quite a time trying to get people to see that his cousin from the backwater town of Nazareth was the Savior of the world. There are some who would never believe. Some who would mock. Some who would simply feel sorry for those of us who believe in such things. Yes, there are those of us who look to things like a dead stump for a glimmer of growth. For a sign of life in a little sprout coming forth. Who look to a stable and among smelly animals for a Savior. And not just a Savior, God Himself. We would never have thought to look for God and our Savior in one who was so beaten that He couldn’t carry His cross to the hill where He would be crucified. We would never have thought to look to one who would die in such a way, among common criminals. That’s just not the way we think. When we think of God we look for glory. He says for us to look among the weak and ordinary things of this world.

When there’s so much in this world that paints a picture that God obviously cannot be in control, obviously does not have the means or the power to bring us out of the mess we’re in, God says, Be still, and know that I am God. Be still and look into that very mess and you will find Me. Be still and believe that My glory and salvation come through the cross, through the weak and ordinary things of this world.

The world can offer plenty of glory and power and enticement. Only God can offer salvation and the true glory. If you know where to look and you know what you’re looking for you’ll see it. If you look to the font you will see that there is where you were brought into the eternal care of the Almighty God. Whatever you face, whatever doubts you have, whatever knocks you down, God has you in His care. He won’t let you go. He will carry you through the trials to the eternal glory.

If you’re looking in the wrong place or for the wrong thing you might pass right by it. If your Lord thought it was a great idea to come from a backwater town, to be born in humble circumstances, to come from a line that started off in the simplest of circumstances, He will in the same way come to you in ordinary bread and a sip of wine. There’s life in that bread and that wine because your Lord is present where you wouldn’t expect Him. His Body and Blood are in and with that bread and wine to give you growth in faith. And if a shoot from the stump of Jesse can bring life eternal then our Lord’s Body and Blood in and with the bread and wine can do the same.

The really great thing about all this is that you don’t have to look for God at all. That’s a human-centered way of looking at it. He comes to us. He finds us. He meets us where we’re at and rescues us in our lost state. You don’t need to search for glory, you don’t need to look for great things to come your way. Rest in your Baptism. Rejoice in hearing that your sins are absolved. Know that bread and wine are humble means of delivering to you the glory that compares with nothing else: Your Lord in all His fullness and glory. When He comes He brings with Him forgiveness and the true glory of life forever with Him. Amen.

SDG

Anno Domini

Midweek in Advent 1
December 1, 2010
Luke 4:18-19

A nno
D omini In the Year of Our Lord—Luke 4:18-19
V eni
E mmanuel O Come, Emmanuel—Matthew 1:23
N ovum
T estatmentum New Testament—Luke 22:20

I have just what you need this Advent, a little Latin for you. I’ve taken the word ‘Advent’ and divided it up three ways, for our three midweek Advent worship services. Each pair of letters stands for a Latin phrase that helps us focus on the work of our Lord coming to us with His gifts.

The three Latin phrases we’ll be drawing from are fairly familiar to us, at least the idea behind them if not the exact translation. The last one, Novum Testamentum is so similar to its English equivalent we could easily guess that it’s New Testament. The second, Veni Emmanuel, may not be as easy but we could probably make a good guess, if only for the fact that we’re pretty familiar with the hymn O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. And that’s what it means, O Come, Emmanuel. And the first one, Anno Domini, even though a lot of people may not know the actual translation, will probably know that it stands for the time we’re in now and have been in since the first Advent of Jesus. We’re in the year 2010 A.D. It means “In the year of our Lord,” so the proper way to say it would be: In the year of our Lord, 2010.

The word ‘advent’ itself comes from Latin. It means ‘coming’. The season of Advent has a dual focus, one a preparation for our celebration of Christ’s coming in humility at Bethlehem and one of our continual preparation for His return in glory on the Last Day. It’s quite remarkable that our whole calendar system is based on the entrance of Christ as a man into this world—the time before Christ and the time since Christ was born. There’s nothing in the Bible about it, but whatever year we are referring to in this era is ‘in the year of our Lord’. In other words, in the year of the era of the time when our Lord came to earth. We Christians know why He came to earth. It is the basis not only of a calendar system but our belief system. It is far more important than the basis for how we mark time, it is the very basis of our salvation.

The way the Bible talks about time is as a means by which our Lord brings about His salvation. Our second reading we heard this evening described it this way: when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman. God had it all planned out. Paul goes on to say the reason God sent His Son: He was born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. He brought His salvation into the time of our existence. In that sense, every year in history is the year of our Lord in that history revolves around God and His salvation in His Son Jesus Christ, whether that be in the era God’s people were looking ahead to the time when He would be born of the Virgin, or the time we are in now when we look back on that historical event.

In Advent we look back to the Old Testament and see how what was promised there was fulfilled in Christ. In the first reading we heard this evening from Isaiah we hear of the promise of the Anointed One. The one who was sent to bring salvation. The one who came to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. In the third reading we hear from the lips of Jesus Himself that that Scripture from Isaiah 61 was fulfilled in the hearing of the people who heard Jesus read that Scripture. They had waited for the Lord’s coming and now they were face to face with Him. They were living in the year of the Lord’s favor because Jesus had come. Jesus was bringing salvation, proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor.

Because we live in time we talk and think in terms of time. But think about it from the perspective of God. When He promises in Isaiah and when Jesus says in Luke that He was sent to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, is He talking about a unit of time? Namely, a year? No, He’s talking about eternity. That’s what Christ came to bring to us who are in time and who are mortal. Jesus came into this place of time and space, He who is eternal and spiritual. Jesus came to this place as one who had to get around as we do, by walking or taking some sort transportation. He did this to bring us from this place into the place that isn’t a place as we can understand it. Because it’s heaven, it’s eternal. It’s not a place of time and space. We will rise bodily on the Last Day and live in heaven there but it won’t be a place like we understand being in a place while we’re living in this life.

As Christians we live in this world as everyone else does but at the same time in a different way from everyone else. Like everyone, we are mortal and subject to the laws of time and space. We are born and at some point we die. Perhaps more aware than everyone else, we are sinful and can’t escape the selfish desires that infect our heart.

But we are also people who, as the Bible describes us, are not of this world. We are in the world but not of it. We live here but at the very same time heaven is our home. Even as we have been born here and live out our lives here we are strangers and pilgrims on this earth. While non-Christians are very much at home in this life, we Christians are in one sense out of place. Have you ever heard someone say to you that they feel like they should have been born in another time in history? That they don’t quite fit in in the world of today? Maybe you feel that way yourself. In one sense that’s the way it is for us Christians. We’re here, when and where God wants us to be, but we feel a little out of place. On the one hand, we have been called by God to live out godly lives here on earth, in this time and place, and bring the Gospel to those in our lives, where we’re at in our daily lives. On the other hand, we should never get too comfortable with this world because God has also called us to our ultimate home.

He has called us to this here in time so that we may be with Him in eternity. Jesus, when the fullness of time had come, was born of a woman to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. How He proclaimed the year of the Lord’s favor was by coming as He did, in the flesh. How He did it was by going to the cross as He did, in the flesh to suffer on behalf of the world. How He did it was by stepping forth from His grave as He did, in the flesh, never again to be bound by space or time or death or the grave.

He lives and reigns eternally, but not just to reign. To continue to serve. To continue to grant His gifts, shower down on us His favor, His grace, His mercy, His peace. The year of our Lord’s favor is here and now, eternally present for us in His Word and His Sacraments. The very Body and Blood that walked the earth, that suffered on the cross, that emerged from the grave, given to us in His Holy Supper. Himself preached into us when we hear His Word read and proclaimed. Faith imparted to us in those gifts. Strengthened in us by those very means. In the year of our Lord eternity is the measurement of time. In other words, there is no time. There is nothing finite about it. Nothing that comes to an end. Nothing that can be measured. Nothing that can be defined or described of as time. There is only Christ and our being united with Him forever. Amen.

SDG