"The God of the Baptized"

Third-Last Sunday of the Church Year
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Luke 20:27-40

The Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead. You may know someone like that. When you die, that’s it. You cease to exist. The Sadducees tried to trap Jesus: So if what you’re saying is really true, that there’s life after death, then how will this woman be the wife of all seven men since she was married to each of them?

We believe in the resurrection. We believe in heaven. But we have questions, too, don’t we? Why would God give us marriage for this lifetime only to take it away in the age to come? Why do we love and cherish our spouse only to have that end at death? What will our relationships with each other be in heaven?

God established marriage so that humanity could reflect the communion of God—He is a relational God. Marriage was also given to multiply and fill the earth. Because of the fall, God also established marriage so that we may receive the promise of a Savior in the seed of the woman. Specifically for Christians, marriage reflects that spiritual union of Christ and His bride, the Church, who now waits for His return in glory.

Even though we don’t deny the resurrection and heaven, we can’t comprehend its glory. Even if we were to think of the most spectacular thing we could imagine, that wouldn’t come close to describing the perfection of heaven. Spouses who are sad that they won’t be married in heaven are sad because of their love for each other, even as they are not realizing that in heaven their love for each other will be even better than it is now because it will be perfect. God hasn’t made it this way to take away our joy and love for each other but to increase it.

Similar to marriage, we rejoice that God gives us parents. We certainly aren’t aware of the care they give us when we’re infants. But when we grow up, especially if we have our own children, we are grateful for all the energy our parents spent in caring for us. Tatum and Noah don’t know anything that’s going on today or since they’ve been born, but they sure are being loved and cared for by their parents.

Yet, when they’re in heaven, their immediate relationship with their parents will not be as daughter and son but as brother and sister in Christ. What would we do in this life without our parents? Who would take care of us, especially in those first years where we’re unable to take care of ourselves? Not only does God provide for us by giving us parents, as Christians He also gives us a picture of the love our Heavenly Father has for us. How He provides for us spiritually and eternally. We are sons and daughters of the eternal God.

You see, the resurrection from death changes everything. We weren’t created to die. Sin brought about our death. Sadly, we live in that spiritual death by continuing to sin. We need to be delivered from that. That’s why God will raise us from our grave on the Last Day. That’s why Jesus conquered the grave in His resurrection.

Though we may not like to admit it, we too often are like the Sadducees when our thoughts are more on the things of this world rather than the life of glory to come. When we’re born, we’re born into sin. That’s why God gives us new birth. That’s why rejoice today with Tatum and Noah. They’ve been given new birth in Baptism. The way Jesus says it in the Gospel reading is this: “those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead.” Baptism is how we are considered to be worthy by God and how we attain to the resurrection from the dead.

What Jesus said is true: God is not the God of the dead but of the living. We could say it this way: He is not the God of the dead but of the Baptized. You once were dead—dead in your sins. Now you are alive! Alive in Christ. Alive forever. Because God is eternal and has given you life that is eternal. You will see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob face to face. You will see your Christian parents face to face. You will see all your loved ones in Christ face to face because death cannot hold you. Your sin cannot hold you. Christ put it all to death. And death could not hold Him. He is alive forever and that’s why true life is in Him.

There’s quite a contrast to these two babies here today and those Christians who have lived a long life on this earth. Growing comes with trials and struggles against sin. In other words, we Christians are facing death every day until we get to heaven. The struggle against our sinful flesh is a struggle against spiritual death.

Part of the problem is that it may not seem like such a serious matter. Today in our country we observe Veterans Day. Talk to a veteran who has come face to face with death. When you’ve come face to face with death the rest of your life takes on a whole new meaning. When we begin to see that our struggle with sin is coming face to face with death our Baptism takes on a whole new meaning.

That’s what we need to see in our Baptism. God is not the God of the dead but of the living. Since we have new life—eternal life—in Baptism, He is the God of the Baptized. When you wonder what is to come beyond this life, look to your Baptism—God is the God of the Baptized. When you struggle with the things of this life—sin, trials, doubts—remember your Baptism, God is the God of the Baptized.

Once you were dead in sin. Baptized into Christ you have life and are His child forever. He is not the God of the dead but of the living. You are Baptized. He is your God forever. Amen.

SDG

A Good Place to Be

All Saints’ Day [Observed]
Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Matthew 5:1-12

Are you hurting? Has someone you love spoken words to you that still ring in your ears and sting as if you were hearing it for the first time?

Are you feeling low? Are things so far out of your control that you wonder if God is in control?

Are you struggling with a particular sin? One that is on your mind a lot? One that racks you with guilt when you do it but that finds its way back into your desire?

Do you feel like your growth as a Christian is more like taking three steps forward and two steps back? Do you read the Bible and the words seem to fall flat?

Do you just go through the motions in life? In your faith? Are you so caught up in the day to day things that have to get done that you wonder where the meaning is to all of it?

If any of these things resonate with you then you might realize that you have an even more serious problem than these things that are disconcerting to you:

Why is it that you’re a Christian if you’re having these struggles? Isn’t being a Christian supposed to be better than not being a Christian? Doesn’t God promise to bless His people?

And yet, here we are with all kinds of struggles; with sins we continue to commit; with envy of some of those who aren’t Christians and yet who seem to not have all the problems or cares that we do.

So where is our answer? If we compare our ourselves and our situation to those in the world who don’t have a care for God then we’ll find ourselves wondering if they might really be better off.

Or, we could do what God’s people have always done: listen to the Word of God. It’s true, God’s people haven’t always done this well. At times they’ve neglected the Word of God or disobeyed the Word of God. But the Word of God has always been there.

Certainly before you and I were around. In fact, before anything that exists came into being, the Word of God was in existence. But not only is the Word of God words that are spoken or written, but Jesus Himself is the Word made flesh. He is the eternal Word and in today’s Gospel reading He speaks in one of the more famous parts of the Bible, the Sermon on the Mount.

When Jesus speaks, He brings about what He says. He is not just imparting information. The Beatitudes are not just beautiful sayings. It’s telling that you could go into a gift shop, or even the house of worship of a religion other than Christianity, and see the Beatitudes shown as inspirational material.

These words are not just telling us what we need to be like so that we may be blessed. They are telling us who Christ is and how we are blessed in Him. We are blessed because He brings it about. He blesses us through His speaking the blessing to us and placing it upon us.

How He does this is by showing us Who He is, not how we are to be. We already know how we are—we fail miserably at trying to be who Jesus calls us to be. Rather, when we see the Beatitudes, we see Christ.

And when that very Christ speaks His words to us He speaks into existence His righteousness in us. By His speaking His blessings to us we are blessed. God did not become human flesh just to tell us what to do. He did it to give us Himself.

When He speaks of the poor in spirit He speaks of who we are in Himself. It’s one thing to be poor. It’s another to be poor in spirit. Those of us who struggle as we do as Christians struggle because our sinful nature is powerful. It’s constantly trying to get the upper hand in our lives.

But we also struggle because because it’s tough to be a Christian. Christ didn’t save us to take away all our problems, He saved us to deliver us from our sin. And just as He saved us because we needed to be saved He likewise helps us because we need help!

We have no claim on God of ourselves, as shown by our struggle with sin and our struggles in general. He alone can provide all we need.

Jesus said, “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.” If you look at all the Beatitudes you will see the common theme of being poor in spirit. Of being humble and lowly.

Jesus is showing us that though He is God He has become poor for our sakes. Paul says in 2 Corinthians: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich.”

This really puts a different perspective on our struggles! While we find ourselves wishing to be free of them our Lord embraced them! He became as we are yet without sin. And even more, He died for our sin!

Isaiah points us to our Savior: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor; He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted.” We are blessed because Jesus has come to us in our need.

We truly are poor. We are truly in need. Christ comes to us with His blessing. Namely, He comes to us with Himself. In our Baptism. In His Holy Supper.

Are we at times down and out? Do we struggle with sin? Are we at times not happy where we’re at as Christians? Christ comes to us where we’re at.

That’s a good place to be. Amen.

SDG

Seeing Yourself As Others See You

We see ourselves differently than others see us. If we saw ourselves as others see us we might be embarrassed. We might not even like what we see. A popular talk show host suggested setting up a video recorder by the dinner table and letting it roll for several days. He said that if you watched it you’d be amazed and would probably make an effort to change some of your habits.

It’s important for us to realize that what people see is not necessarily what we think they’re seeing. It would be enormously helpful if we were to have an awareness of how we come across to others.

Not that we should be full of ourselves. In fact, I think one of the reasons we’re so unaware of how we come across is that we are so absorbed in ourselves. This is a dangerous way to live. Jesus shows us that the danger is not only real but also eternal—He says in John 8:34, “everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.”

You know how we see in others unkindness or simply immaturity? Odds are, people are seeing the same things in us. Do we really see ourselves for what we are? As slaves to sin?

Jesus shows us who we really are. But then He does something important—He shows us Himself. He shows us His sacrifice for our sin. He shows us His mercy in dying for our guilt, our selfishness, our actions that are much worse than we at times see them for.

He shows us this especially so that we can see ourselves as He sees us. And how is that? Jesus also said: “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Yes, we’re slaves to sin, but He has set us free! We are sons in the household of God! We are part of His family forever.

As children in the household of God we are going to be living with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And you know how siblings get along! They’re not always acting in the way they should toward each other.

But we have been set free from acting in accord with our sinful flesh. We have forgiveness. Not only from Christ but forgiveness that we can give to each other.

Then we will not only see each other as fellow human beings but as brothers and sisters in Christ. Then others will actually see Christ in us.

Where Is Help from God?

Reformation Day [Observed]
Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost
Simon and Jude, Apostles
Sunday, October 28, 2007
John 8:31-36

Things bigger than us tend to put things into perspective. When we find ourselves powerless against such a destructive force as a natural disaster or other tragedy we’re humbled a bit. Each time it happens we’re struck by how little we can do. In the seven short years of this millennium we’ve had our share of catastrophe in our nation, with 9/11, Katrina, and in our part of the country our second round of devastating wildfires. The assault on homes, businesses, and, sadly, even several lives was relentless. When you can lose everything in an instant you re-evaluate what is important to you.

Severe strain such as we’ve endured in San Diego and all of Southern California also brings out the best in people. It’s hard to overstate the heroism of the firefighters who have endured extreme conditions to save lives and homes. It’s gratifying to see the thousands of people who have given of their time and gifts to help out those who suddenly found themselves without a home or possessions. We’re thankful that in times of crisis government leaders band together for the common good.

But there’s the other side, too, isn’t there? Twisted people who start fires. Self-indulgent people who loot at others’ expense. Low-lifes who take advantage of people’s desire to give by ripping them off with false charity schemes. It’s a tragedy on top of an already tragic situation.

It’s at times like these we’re looking for ways we can get help. Whether it’s a home if we’ve lost ours. Or some peace of mind in knowing that our loved ones who are in harm’s way are okay and will be able to recover from their losses. Oftentimes, in these situations we look at our immediate needs, and there’s something to that. It’s kind of a natural reflex to make sure we’re taking care of our needs. But there’s also an important need for us to reflect on how we can learn from these kinds of situations.

What I mean is this. The firefighters are showing the model of what is best in humans. But do they act that way in their day to day lives? Are they always ready to sacrifice for others, even in little things? Those who have volunteered and helped out those in need, are they ready and willing to do that when people are not faced with a severe disaster? We say we trust in God, but have we throughout this crisis? Do we in our day to day lives in even small challenges?

This week our state has been facing a crisis. We’re all trying to deal with it and pick up the pieces. We’re being comforted by loved ones and being a comfort to loved ones. We know we’ll get beyond it, like we did four years ago. But we also know it won’t be easy. We do wish, don’t we, that it could be easier? We wish even more that things like this never have to happen. It’s at times like these that we are granted a gift, however.

It’s hard to see in the midst of it. But it’s here and we’d do better to recognize it. It’s the hand of God in the tragedy we experience. It’s in little things that don’t seem so little, with God’s protection given through the lives and actions of brave men and women who fight the fires. It’s in the opportunity God gives us to help those who are in need or are suffering. And those things are wonderful, because they help people where they’re at in their need.

But there’s even something larger that God is doing in all of this. It’s something that we need to know for beyond this time that we’re experiencing. Because life will continue beyond this tragedy. We will go back to living our normal lives with a look toward the Day our Lord returns to deliver us from this at times dismal existence. And how will we live it? Will we go on as we so often do, not recognizing who we are in Christ as we ought?

God gives us a blessing in a way we might not expect. It’s in the sameness of being here. It’s in this place, the House of God, that we receive His blessing. It’s in the things that are done here that we find stability. Our homes may be here today and gone tomorrow. Many have experienced this firsthand or are grieving with those who have. But there is something that cannot be taken away. And that is what we receive here.

What is it? In a word, it is Christ. There’s a reason we come here to God’s House and follow a calendar that does not go by months or years. It is the calendar of the Church Year. And if we don’t see how that applies to us, especially in the midst of our suffering in this moment, then we need to sit back and hear how this gift of God is for us in our time of need. Because this calendar is not like the one you have next to your fridge where you mark down what everyone in the family is doing and when. This is one that marks what Christ has done for you and the world.

There is no more relevant and timely calendar than the one we go by in the Church. Because what Christ has done for the world meets us where we’re at—no matter what is happening to us. The Scripture readings for each Sunday of the Church Year were designated long before we were ever hit with this disaster. And yet, they are more timely than ever.

What does the Church Calendar say to us today? The festival of the Reformation is a celebration of the Gospel. To some it might seem odd to celebrate the Reformation, something that grew out of the actions of Martin Luther in the sixteenth century in Germany. It might even seem out of place when it seems there is the the more pressing matter of coping with the devastation and recovery. But the need is still the same. The Church is always in need of reformation. Why? Because the Church is made up of sinners. God didn’t pick out the people who are free from sin to make up His Holy Church, but sinners. That’s because there are only sinners in this world. We may experience different degrees of tragedy but we’re all in the same boat in our sinfulness.

This might not seem all that earth-shattering. It might seem like a dull theological point that’s better thought about when we’re not facing such dark days as we are now with all the devastation. But it couldn’t be more pertinent! God takes us where we’re at! Even while we were sinners Christ died for us! Even though the inferno that blazes around us is seemingly unstoppable, God looks down on us in mercy and lifts us up. Christ suffered the fire of eternal torment on our behalf. We are sinners who stand before God forgiven.

One of the problems we have as human beings, and as Christians, is that we tend to be shortsighted. Right now we’re caught up in the emotion and exhaustion of what we’ve all gone through and are still experiencing. And that’s understandable, and even good. We need that. But we also need to look ahead. Jesus was talking in the Gospel reading to those who believed in Him. And yet, they didn’t like what they heard from Him. That’s troubling.

What they were questioning Him about doesn’t relate to what we’re going through, but isn’t the intent the same? To question God? Haven’t we had moments where we’ve wondered why God is allowing us to suffer in such a way as we have this past week? And don’t we so often want to look at the good that is within us that shines through in moments like these so that we can feel good that there’s still hope in this world? Isn’t the last thing we want to hear today the message that we are sinners? Isn’t what we want to hear comfort and good things about ourselves in the midst of all the bad that we’ve experienced?

We don’t want to hear Jesus’ judgment upon us as sinners because we don’t want to admit that we’re no better than those who have gone before us, but Jesus’ message to us is the same: “everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” If we think we’ve had it rough with what we’ve gone through this past week and simply want relief from that, we are terribly shortsighted. Jesus wants to give you relief from so much more!

We will recover from the fires. But how will we be delivered from our slavery to sin? Jesus said: “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Just as we pray God to deliver us from the fires we especially pray Him to deliver us from our sin. What He does is send a flood. It doesn’t look like a flood, but it drowns us just the same. In Baptism we are dead to sin and raised to new life in Christ, free and in the House of God forever.

Those who were spared the loss of their homes helped out those who were forced from their homes or even lost their homes. They offered comfort, food, a place to sleep. That’s what Jesus does to us. He offers us Himself. He gave Himself not just to save us from a natural disaster but eternal damnation. He endured the fire of God’s eternal judgment on sinners. He suffered on the cross to become sin so that we may be free, a member of God’s Household. He feeds us with His very body and blood given and shed for us for our forgiveness.

Where is help from God? Here at His Table. Here you receive His forgiveness. Here He sets you free. And if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed. Amen.

SDG

How to Pray

Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Luke 18:1-8

I’ve always admired those people who say straight out that they don’t know how to pray. There’s good Biblical precedent for this. What request did the disciples come to Jesus with? “Lord, teach us to pray.” And what does Paul say? “We don’t know how to pray as we ought.” I suppose it’s kind of depressing that we don’t even know how to pray. But it’s also a very freeing experience. It’s a relief to know that even as we are unable to do it of our own ability, the Triune God is the one who makes it possible for us to pray.

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray He gave them the Lord’s Prayer. When the apostle Paul said that we don’t even know how to pray as we ought he didn’t leave us without comfort but told us that the Spirit intercedes for us with groans which words cannot express. In today’s Gospel reading Jesus tells a parable where He teaches us that we should be persistent. We shouldn’t give up.

His parable is striking—He compares God with a pagan. Jesus shows us that no matter what, God is going to hear our prayer. The judge in Jesus’ parable heard the widow every time even though he didn’t do anything about it. So God hears us every time even though it may seem like He doesn’t do anything about it. And just as the judge finally got tired of the widow’s pleas and granted her request God will give us what we need when we persist in our plea.

This sounds great, doesn’t it? If we’re persistent enough God will grant us our heart’s desire! If we don’t give up, God will give us whatever we ask for! So does this mean that we haven’t been persistent enough? Is this why God hasn’t answered all our prayers in the way we have asked for? That could be part of it. But the Bible makes clear that He doesn’t give us everything we ask for or always in the way we want it. Our desires are tainted by our sinful flesh and He’s not going to give us something we ask for that’s actually damaging to us.

Jesus isn’t just teaching us to be persistent. He wants us to be persistent in God’s Word. His closing words are chilling: “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?” Isn’t it easy to get lackadaisical? If there is the possibility of losing faith we’re more inclined to be vigilant and not take lightly the Word of God.

So to the Word of God we go. This is where He teaches us to pray. The words of the Lord’s Prayer that we pray—they are His Words. The Psalms are words He inspired to be written. Don’t rely on your own words when you pray. You can pray using your own words, of course. But don’t rely on them. Especially when you have the very words of God at your disposal. He knows a lot better what you need to pray for than you do. Go to the Scriptures themselves.

When you pray the Lord’s Prayer you don’t just have to pray it straight through. You can meditate on each petition. Think on each one. Pray to God to help you understand each one. Read and meditate on each portion of the Lord’s Prayer with the meanings in the Catechism.

The great portion of the Scriptures for prayer is the Psalms. Pray the Psalms. You can do one a day or some other pattern. You can read a Psalm and have that be your prayer, or read it verse by verse and meditate on each verse.

The key in all this is that we want to pray according to God’s will and in going to the Scriptures we are being guided by Him as to His will. The Word of God itself is where we find God’s will. So we need to read the Scriptures. The more we get into the Word of God the more He will form our prayers and our minds will be conformed to His will.

We too often take the Word of God for granted. He has given us His very Word. Do we read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest it? One of the reasons we don’t get into the Word as much as we ought is that it’s a daunting prospect. It’s long and some of it is tough to understand. But there is a way to help us navigate the Word of God as well as take it to heart. The Christian Church in its wisdom drew up the Catechism over the years. We Lutherans tend to think of the Catechism as the writing of Martin Luther. But Luther just took the Catechism that had already existed for about 1500 years and wrote meanings to each portion. When Luther came along the Catechism consisted of the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer. These three teachings are the essence of the Christian faith.

But the Christian Church didn’t have the Catechism just to learn and memorize, but to pray. Luther talked about praying the Catechism. In our daily prayers we don’t have to limit ourselves just to the Lord’s Prayer. In praying the Ten Commandments we learn repentance. In praying the Apostles’ Creed we learn faith. And in praying the Lord’s Prayer we learn holy living. The reason this is the case is that each part is not the writing of Luther, or any other man. It is the Word of God. The Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer are directly out of the Bible. The Apostles’ Creed is also Scriptural, with each phrase taken from or based directly on the Bible. When we pray the Catechism we’re praying the Word of God!

Or we can put it another way. When Jesus is talking about prayer He’s doing nothing other than laying out the life of the Christian. The life of the Christian is a life of prayer. Prayer is us saying back to God what He has said to us. We go to His Word to be formed by Him in what we say.

The life of prayer begins when He Baptizes us. Anna is only a few days old and the sounds that come out of her mouth are not intelligible speech. That’s because she’s unable to to use reason. But she is living the life of prayer even as we are. Because prayer is all about hearing and receiving the Word of God and responding back to God with that very same Word. When the apostle Paul exhorted us Christians to pray constantly, he wasn’t just talking to adult Christians, but to Baptized Christians. We should have no more incomprehension at how Anna can pray constantly than we should about ourselves praying constantly.

Prayer can become ritualistic. We sometimes go through the motions. That’s why we need the Word of God. His Words are living, breathing expressions of His will. Baptism isn’t just a ritual either. It’s not a magic wand over a person in which now they’re good to go. It’s a one time event but a life-long growth in the Christian faith. It’s very much like our physical birth. When you’re born you have life. But that life left alone will quickly be snuffed out. A baby needs to be fed and nurtured. That’s how the baby grows and is sustained in its new life. Baptism is new life that has no end. That’s why we take it so seriously with the vows that Alan and Kristen took this morning in the Baptism of little Anna. They promised to instill in their daughter the Scriptures. They promised to continue to bring her here to the place where she has been Baptized, the place where the Word that was connected to the water of her Baptism continues to forgive her and sustain her.

In Jesus’ little parable this morning we see what a remarkable God we have. If Jesus has the guts to compare God with a man who cares nothing for God or men we know that there’s more to this God than meets the eye. He’s a God who’s not afraid to step out over the edge to draw us in. When Anna was Baptized this morning it was as if God was reaching down to her right where she is. And now, not only are all her sins washed away, she is raising up prayers to her gracious God!

Right now, from what we can hear, Anna is busy making cute sounds; and even some that are not so cute! As she grows, she’ll find as we all do that it’s tough living in this world. And that it’s tough being a Christian. And on top of all that, we don’t even know how to pray as we ought. But we can take heart. Not only in the Word of God, the Bible, but in the Word made flesh—Jesus Christ. He knows what we’re going through. He Himself suffered. And His prayers ascended to His Heavenly Father. He prayed that His Heavenly Father’s will would be done.

The Good News for us is that it was! Jesus Christ did suffer and die on the cross for the sin of the world. He has given us His eternal salvation in Baptism. He delivers us from all evil and into His eternal Kingdom. Amen.

SDG

A Very Practical Question

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Luke 17:11-19

For those who pay attention to sermon titles, you’re probably wondering what the “very practical question” is that we’re met with in today’s Gospel reading. It is this:

What do we do?

There are Christians who ask this all the time. For some, it’s the main thing they’re concerned with. Some want to know what we need to do in order to be saved. Others emphasize this aspect: now that God has saved us, what do we do? Lutherans get uncomfortable with talk of what we do. Isn’t it about what Christ has done for us? Aren’t we to focus on the works of Christ and not on what we do?

But are we Lutherans playing fast and loose with the Words of God in the Holy Bible? Doesn’t today’s Gospel reading show us that we play a part in our salvation? The lepers cried out to Jesus. Can we deny that that was an action on their part? They also did what Jesus told them to do, go to the priests. Isn’t this something they were doing? And then of course we have the one leper who praised and thanked Jesus. Those were actions on his part, were they not? And Jesus commends him for them, does He not? Conversely, He questions why the others didn’t. Shouldn’t that tell us that we ought to do those things? And then there’s the clincher: Jesus statement to the man, “Rise and go your way; your faith has saved you.” This is pretty clear, isn’t it, that it’s the man’s faith that saved him? And Paul himself says that we are justified by faith.

Well let’s take a look at exactly what those lepers did so that we can find the answer to our question, “What do we do?” Let’s look at what Jesus shows us as the way so that we may know what it is we are to do.

It may seem like it’s just a detail, a part of the account of Jesus and the ten lepers, but it’s telling that the episode begins with Jesus Himself. Luke inspired by the Holy Spirit is telling us straight off that this account, and what we are to gain from it, is about Jesus. It’s not just an account about the lepers. It’s first and foremost about Christ. He was the one who entered the village. He sought out those lepers. They didn’t do anything to meet Him. He entered into their wretched lives.

One thing we can’t know is what was going through their minds or what was in their hearts. But that’s the way it is with everybody. We shouldn’t read into the words they spoke to Jesus, but we can see them for what they are as recorded in the Word of God. They are words the Holy Spirit inspired to Luke to set down on paper. And for what reason? To show us that they wanted help? Could be. Very possible, even. But could it also mean that their words as Luke has recorded them point us to something greater than deliverance from leprosy? After all, was Jesus entering that village only for the sake of those ten lepers? Or also for you and me? And even for everyone? After all, did they not have a greater need than their leprosy? Did they not have the same need that we all have, which is deliverance from sin? Is their cry for mercy really just a request for deliverance from their leprosy?

We wouldn’t be able to empathize with those poor men. The condition they lived in was horrible. But whether they knew it or not, it was the condition of their soul that gave them their greatest need. Here were men that weren’t able to carry out an ordinary life. How do you think they felt? Ostracized? Left for dead? Do you think they wanted more than anything to be delivered from their miserable condition? Not only did they endure pain and suffering from their skin condition, they experienced loss of community and friendship because they weren’t allowed in the everyday life of society.

None of us here suffers from the horrible disease of leprosy as those men did. But we can look around and see the effects of sin, can’t we? There are plenty of people in the world suffering from some ugly diseases; some in our own neighborhoods. Some of us ourselves are facing severe illnesses or medical conditions. Is there anything we long for more than relief from that pain and emotional turmoil? I’m sure the lepers would scoff at the notion that we share the same condition they did, but we can in fact identify with those men. That’s because we are diseased not on our skin but in our heart. Our sinful flesh is rotting ourselves away. We are just as much in need of crying out for mercy to Christ as they were.

Here we learn a very important thing about what we do, since that’s our question of the day. What does Jesus direct them to do? Go show themselves to the priests. And what do they do? Exactly what Jesus tells them to do. It’s not what saved them from their leprosy, of course, it’s the Word of Christ that He spoke. But nevertheless, they obey His Word and go. All, that is, but the one. He came back. He had something else he needed to do, even though Jesus was clear in His command. The Samaritan came back to praise God and give thanks to Jesus.

It is in this that we see there is nothing we can do. It appears the lepers are doing all this doing. But whereas the nine go to the priests to get that work done Jesus had talked about the one can’t see anything but the mercy that has been poured out upon him. Whereas the nine are busy with the question, “What do we do?” the one is filled up with relief, gratitude, and thanksgiving. The priests will have to wait, because Jesus is the source of salvation, of life, of healing, of mercy. This one man realized there was indeed nothing He could do—Christ had done it all! That there is indeed no sense anymore in trying to figure what can or should be done when the one who is crying out for mercy is crying out for mercy because he is unable to do anything to save himself!

I wonder why Jesus made a big deal about the nine? Was it because He wanted everyone to know they blew it and others should learn from their ungratefulness? Or was it because they had asked for mercy and really missed the point of it—to bask in it! To stand and be awash in the renewing flood of His compassion, grace, and salvation! To not be caught up in what it is they felt they were constrained to do!

That’s what Jesus is getting at when He tells the man that He may go in peace, that his faith has saved him. Jesus here shows us what faith is all about. That our answer to our question “What do we do?” is not about what we do but completely about what Christ has done for us. Here we come to the crux of the matter. The word “crux” comes from the word “cross”, and that my friends is the crux of the matter—the cross. Where does Jesus meet us? The cross. Where is our cry for mercy met? The cross. Where does our faith save us? The cross. The cross saves us. Christ saves us.

What do we do? Receive His forgiveness. It is given to us. We are met by Him. Here we are in life when Jesus comes to our village. We stand afar off. Dare we come to Him? Can we? But what does He do? He cleanses us. He Baptizes us, removing the sin that clings to our flesh as the leprosy clung to the lepers’ flesh. Our cry for mercy reaches His ears and ours are met with His Word, “Take, eat, this is My body, given for you. Take, drink, this is My blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.”

What do we do? Thank God He has done it all in His Son Jesus Christ! Amen.

SDG

Raising the Bar

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Luke 17:1-10

Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel reading have something for everyone. If you’re a lazy bum and think being a Christian is a cakewalk, then Jesus’ message for you is: Get of your duff and act like a servant of the Most High God. For those of you who are enterprising, up to a challenge, and don’t want to sit around on your duff all day, Jesus’ message to you is: You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. If you think it’s hard being a Christian then you’re right.

He starts off innocuously enough, stating something we all know to be true: unfortunately, temptations will come. We’re all tempted. But His point here is not in how to stand up under those temptations. He’s here giving a warning. They’re going to come—but you’d better not be the source of them!

I don’t know about you, but it’s easy for me to look at others and see where they fall short. It’s easy to judge them. But each of us needs to watch ourselves. Yes, we should be concerned if others are causing people to sin. But we dare not think that we don’t fall into this category. And even more so, that we shouldn’t think it’s not a big deal. Jesus doesn’t say here, It’s better if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were cast into the sea than that you should cause one of these little ones to lose their faith. That would indeed be tragic and you should rightly see the severity of it with a severe judgment upon yourself. His statement is even more severe than that! If you even cause one of them to sin!

There’s no room here for error! Jesus doesn’t deal in, well, what you did wasn’t that bad, so don’t sweat it. Do you so blithely go on with how you act and what you say when others may fall into sin because of your actions or your words? How often do you interpret others’ actions in the worst possible light rather than the best? How often do you assume selfish motives in others rather than innocent ones? Be fearful—because if you’re not now, you will be when it will be too late. There’s a reason Jesus is telling us these words after His parable of the rich man who found himself in hell for eternity. Jesus will not stand idly by while we cause children or the young in faith to sin. We ought not to either. We must be much more aware of how we act and what we say and how it affects others. There are eternal consequences at stake. We must not think that others must not be so sensitive or easily offended. We must be circumspect in how we act and what we say.

Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves. Even when we’re cut to the heart we look for things within us that we can take comfort in. We are convinced we’re not all that bad. So the next words of Jesus come as sweet music to our sore ears: “If your brother sins, rebuke him.” Blessed Jesus doesn’t even say, if he sins against you. He just says, if he sins. Now this is a role we can see ourselves in. We see a lot of sinners out there. A lot of people doing a lot of things they shouldn’t do, living in ways they shouldn’t live. They need to be rebuked, and we’re the ones to do it! Jesus here is right on the mark. We are the ones to go to those wretched sinners and rebuke the daylights out of them. Get them to see their sin. How utterly in the wrong they are in living in ways that Christians ought not to live.

But Jesus here is not talking about those other people. He’s talking about you. He’s raising the bar. He’s not giving you a way to get your kicks. Paul tells us in the letter to the Galatians that when we call others to repentance we must take heed to ourselves so that we don’t fall into sin. It’s the easiest thing in the world to become a Pharisee. To see the sin in others but not in yourself. To appoint yourself as the one to remove the speck in another’s eye while not seeing the log that is in your own.

Are you to rebuke? Yes, Jesus makes that clear. But we shouldn’t get all excited, because the purpose is not to bring shame upon the person. It’s to bring the person to repentance. That’s why we must do this in humility. Who needs to repent but us? Who are we to rebuke when we, ourselves, are in need of rebuke? Jesus’ next words show us just how much in need of that we are. What do we do when the person repents? We are to forgive him. We’re not supposed to psychoanalyze him. Give him advice. Remind him of how damaging what he did was. Forgive. See him as one who has not committed the sin.

Is this easy to do? Not when what they did is still lingering in our memory. Not when we still deal with the effects of what they did. Not when the Pharisee in us still holds on to the notion that what they did really was far worse than what we ourselves do. Not when we want to hold a grudge against them. Why does Jesus tell us to forgive? Because it’s not what we would first want to do. How did Jesus teach us to pray? “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” If you’re like me, you love the first part and kind of gloss over the second part. But especially those two words, “as we”. Our prayer is for God to forgive us. But does Jesus’ prayer stop there? Nope. Forgive us as we forgive others. Forgive us in the same way we forgive others. Do we want God to hold a grudge against us? Then why are we holding a grudge against others? Do we want God to remind us of exactly how wrong we were in what we did? Then why do we do that to others?

Okay, so we ought to be more forgiving. I can forgive someone once. After all, God is merciful to me. But some of these people don’t know when to quit. We forgive and they sin against us again. When is enough enough? Two times? Three? Four? Nope, again and again. Even seven times in one day. It would probably seem ridiculous to keep forgiving a person for sinning against you that many times in one day. But isn’t that what we do against God? Have you ever gone a day and sinned against Him fewer times than that?

There’s no way for us to attain to the level Jesus has raised for us. We can’t measure up to the standard He has set for us. What can we do? The disciples seemed to see their helplessness in what their Lord was calling them to. They cried out, “Increase our faith!” That’s really all we can hope for. It’s really our only hope. But what does Jesus say, what kind of hope does He give us? “Hey, look what you’ll be able to do—you can say to a tree, ‘Be uprooted.’” And then, even more spectacularly, “Be planted in the sea.” There’s no possible way you could do that without faith. So Jesus says all you need is just a little; say, like a mustard seed.

But wait a minute, we have faith don’t we? And we still can’t do what He said we could do if we had the faith of a simple seed. So that means we have even less than that? Yes, we’re really that pathetic. And yet our cry continues to go out to our Lord, “Increase our faith!” And you know what? It’s enough. It’s enough because God never gives in short supply. What seems little to us is abundant in the measure of God. We don’t need faith that fills the whole world. We just need faith. When God gives us faith, it’s what we need. It’s how much we need. He sustains us.

What does the master do after the servants have had a long day of work? “Here, take your shoes off. Sit up at my table so you can rest and be fed. In fact, let’s switch! I’ll feed you!” Of course not. If he did, the servants might think their master is out of his mind. They might think it’s too good to be true. They would most certainly think that they could never expect such a grand gift from their master. In an amazing reversal, this is exactly what Jesus does. He is the Master. We are His servants. We are to do what He has called us to do. We should not expect for Him to serve us. And yet, He does. He wraps the towel around His waist. He washes our feet. He the Master becomes the servant. We the servants are served by the Master.

Jesus has not only raised the bar for us, He Himself was raised up on the bar of the cross. The Judgment Seat where the sins of the world were dealt with. The great reversal. The Lord Himself receiving the punishment all deserve for every one of their sins. For every word and action that falls short of the bar Jesus has set. He became as the one who is guilty, though He Himself is innocent.

Jesus didn’t come to tell you to get your act together. He came to suffer and die in your place. He came not to be served but to serve. He prepares for you His rich banquet of love, mercy, and grace. The waters of Your Baptism overflow into every hour of your life to sustain you in the forgiveness He first brought upon you in that Baptism. His body given and blood shed on the cross are given to you once again each time you come to this altar. What He says here is indeed for you. And what He gives you—Himself—is indeed in abundance, for He cannot give less than Himself fully and freely. Amen.

SDG

What Has God Said?

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Luke 16:19-31

How did the serpent put doubt in Eve’s mind? “Did God really say?” God has this funny way of communicating with us. He speaks. He gives words. He makes known His message through spoken and written words. So what does the devil try to do? Get us to question those words. Place doubt in our minds; to wonder if God is holding out on us. Has He given us all we need?

The rich man apparently had all that he needed. But then again, Adam and Eve actually did have all they needed. God withheld nothing from them except one tree. Satan capitalized on that. Was the problem with the rich man that he was rich? Was it even that he didn’t help poor old Lazarus out? No, those weren’t the real problems with this guy; there are plenty of rich people going to heaven even as there are plenty of poor people going to hell. And there’s lots of nice people who are going to hell even though they help others profusely. And you’d even be surprised that some of those people you think aren’t so nice will be in heaven.

The problem is shown in how he lived his life. Look at how he clothed himself. Look at how feasted. With the very best of attire. Celebrations are normally reserved for truly special events. But this man’s daily eating habits were spectacular feasts. The man’s life was filled up with himself. Not God.

On the other side of the fence was Lazarus. His life is devoid of anything good. He is clothed with sores and not even faring on any food, wishing only that he could get some scraps from the rich man’s feast. At least there were some beings around that showed some compassion on him, even if they were only dogs that licked his sores.

When he dies a figure well-known to us comes into the picture. And this is where we see that though Lazarus’ life was bleak in this life, he was filled with something that makes the rich man’s wealth look like pennies. Nearly every time Abraham is mentioned in the New Testament it is in connection with the promise God gave to him. What is that promise? It is the promise of the Savior. It is the promise God gave to Abraham and fulfilled in Christ.

So while Jesus here in His story didn’t spell it out—that is, how Lazarus got in to heaven—by showing us that the angels carried him to Abraham’s side, Jesus actually is spelling it out for us. That it is in Him that Lazarus received eternal life. But we even see it in the name of Lazarus. Lazarus is the Greek name of the Hebrew Old Testament name Eliezer, which means something like “God is my help.” We even see a real life example of that in the Scriptures with Jesus raising His friend Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus, even in the grave, was helped by his God.

After the Lazarus of our story died, the rich man also died. It’s interesting, isn’t it, that he knows who Abraham is? It truly is a dangerous thing to live in this life ignoring the Word of God. In hell, those who didn’t believe in Christ in this life will know without a doubt who He is. James even says that the demons even believe—but they shudder. It’s also fascinating that the rich man calls him “father”. You can almost feel the longing in his soul to be part of the intimate relationship with this father figure. Do you think maybe Lazarus had sought that as well in his lifetime with the rich man?

In his short life on earth the rich man feasted as if there were no end to it. Now he is in constant and eternal torment. What is it he asks for from Abraham? Mercy. The very thing Lazarus had sought and the very thing the rich man denied him. When Lazarus had been at his gate even the smallest of crumbs would have given him some relief. Now in torment the rich man asks for a drop of water that he may have the slightest bit of relief. But we see that God’s desire for Lazarus was not simply to grant him relief from his hunger. He filled him completely, bringing him to Abraham’s bosom and eternal rest in heaven. Whereas in hell there is not the slightest bit of relief granted but the torment is complete and unending.

The rich man strangely enough had called to Abraham as “father”. Abraham now addresses him as “child”. Even though the man had had no regard for anyone else, and most notably Lazarus, Abraham regards the rich man’s plight as if to remind him that he had placed himself above others, including God, and never humbled himself to acknowledge that he is merely a child, as we all are. Abraham then uses brutal logic on the man, as if to say, “In your lifetime you got exactly what you wanted. You wanted to have nothing to do with God and now He has given you exactly that—you are separated from Him eternally.” On other side, Lazarus in the midst of his suffering realized that God truly was his help, the suffering he endured in this life could not compare to the glory that would be revealed to him.

But even if Abraham had wanted to help the rich man he couldn’t. It is appointed for man once to die and then the judgment. When you die, you die either in faith and are welcomed into heaven or in unbelief and are cast into hell in torment. There’s no chance after you die. And if you’re in heaven there’s no chance of ending up in hell.

It’s funny, in an ironic way, how the rich man had no regard for Lazarus while he was alive. Now in hell he’s requesting of Abraham for Lazarus to do all sorts of things. Help him in his torment, warn his brothers… When you’re in hell everything becomes clear. The demons do indeed believe, but shudder. There is no time after you die. But Jesus tells this story to us while we’re alive so that we may end up where Lazarus ended up and not where the rich man ended up.

The rich man’s second request of Abraham introduces to us what is at the root of our problem. We have already seen that the purpose for Abraham being in this story is to show us that salvation is in Christ alone; in the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham. We surmise from this that the rich man rejected that promise. In other words, he rejected Christ as his Lord and Savior. Now he’s grasping at straws, trying to figure out a way to prevent his brothers from doing the same thing and ending up in the same place. The same disregard the rich man had toward God in life he continues to have in hell—his thoughts are not of glorifying God, but of being relieved of suffering and in his brothers not ending up suffering.

Abraham’s answer is profound. If we took his answer to heart we would see how much like the rich man we really are. We have Moses and Prophets. In other words, we have the Word of God. The Bible. We have readily available to us the message of God in written form for us to see and read and hear. But do we? Do we see that we are like Lazarus in that we have nothing of our own in the sight of God? That He alone is our help? That it is only through the promise that is fulfilled in Christ that we have hope of being with Abraham and the whole company of heaven rather than in torment with the devil and all unbelievers? Or do we seek comfort in our possessions and the things of this life? Abraham’s response is simple: Let them hear the Word of the Lord.

The rich man’s response is eerily similar to the serpent’s temptation of Eve: Did God really say? The rich man does not listen to what Abraham says. He questions it. It can’t be. The Word of God alone can’t be enough. If someone rises from the grave, that will convince them. And that’s the way it will always be until Christ comes again. We will always be questioning the Word of God. What has God said? It can’t be enough. We need some other sign that’s powerful enough to show us that, yes, this is really true that there is salvation in no one else than Jesus Christ.

But Abraham knows about these things. He, too, had doubted God’s Word at times. He, too, asked for things from God on his own terms. But God’s Word is always sure. It is always true. And Abraham speaks the truth that if they don’t listen to the Word of God then they won’t believe even if someone rises from the dead. That is shown, in fact, in the real life Lazarus, who was raised from the dead, providing an opportunity for many people who didn’t believe to now believe. But just the opposite happened. Some were convinced even more so that Jesus was of the devil.

But the best example is Jesus Himself. He rose from the dead. He gave the greatest evidence of all, not just in being raised from the dead, as Lazarus was, but in rising from the dead Himself. If you don’t believe the Word of God not even Jesus’ own resurrection will convince you. So that’s why we must go back to our question: What has God said? But not as a way of questioning God, as the serpent and the rich man did. But asking “What has God said?” in the way of going back to what He said. In His Word, the Bible, we see what He has said. And we abide by it. We listen to it. We Mark it. Learn it. Meditate on it and memorize it and take it to heart.

What has God said? He has said that He is our Help. He is our salvation. Jesus Himself was covered with the sores of our sins and clothed in our guilt in His suffering and death on the cross. He traded His kingly robes for blood-stained garments. He has marked for us in His Word His promise to us: that when we die His angels will carry us to the place of everlasting peace and feasting. Amen.

SDG

Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing

Have you ever noticed how when you’re talking to someone else about what they believe on a particular doctrine and when the two of you believe differently that you both appeal to the Bible as the reason for why you’re right and they’re wrong?

So how do you tell? Do you just assume that they’re still wrong because they’re being blinded by their denominational preconceived notions? Do you begin to think that maybe you have denominational blinders on? Or do you begin to think that maybe both of you are making more of this than you should?

Sometimes we can lose sight of the main thing. We can’t see the forest clearly because the particular trees we’re disagreeing on are clouding our understanding of what is true and right.

There’s a lot in the Bible. There’s a lot in there that makes a lot of sense. Some things are tough to understand. Some things really stand out; some may not seem that important to us. And so on.

But there’s always that stuff in there we disagree on—and we both sincerely believe we’re right. How do we go about determining who is right? (And by the way, the purpose of determining who’s right and who’s wrong is not so we can win an argument—it’s so that we can be faithful to the Word of God.)

Someone has said that all theology is Christology. There’s one thing in the Bible that shines through clearly. One tree in the forest of the Bible that rises above the rest. The one thing that is the main thing. The one thing that if we do not keep as the main thing then we will not be interpreting the Bible correctly or understanding individual doctrines correctly.

Christ is the center of the Scriptures. He is the main thing. And if we do not keep the main thing the main thing then the other things will end up getting skewed. It’s true that we don’t get into heaven for perfect doctrine. But we must seek to be faithful to the Word of God.

The lens through which we view the Scriptures is Christ. He is the source of the Scriptures and the one to whom the Scriptures point. God Almighty has revealed Himself in the Scriptures and preeminently in Jesus. The Triune God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and the Son is always at the center.

Any doctrine we hold to that does not hold up Christ in giving Him all glory is one that is not Biblical and therefore not true. The Bible points us to Christ and Christ Himself points us to Himself. His life, suffering, death, and resurrection are the hub from which the spokes of all the Biblical doctrines emerge. Our key to believing all doctrines correctly is to ensure that we are not believing anything that detracts from the main thing—Christ and who He is and what He has done for the sins of the world.

The Cost of Discipleship

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Luke 14:25-35

See, today your Lord sets before you life and death. And what will you choose? Will you immediately say you will choose the good that your Lord offers? See, your Lord sets before you today a blessing and a curse, good and evil. Will you know in confidence that you desire nothing from your Lord but His gracious blessing? That there is nothing evil you would seek from Him but only good? Do you seek nothing else than to obey His voice and hold fast to Him? Is your Lord the one you do in fact love with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind?

See, this is what your Lord sets before you today—Himself or eternity apart from Him. It is all or nothing. Your Lord is the Lord alone and He calls you to place Him as such in your life. In all your thoughts. In everything you do. When others see you. When you’re alone and there is no one else to know what you do or don’t do. In your good, bad, and ugly moments. In your life. In the waning moments of your life as you prepare to die.

See, your Lord is your Lord in your ordinary moments and your moments of glory. He is your Lord when you honor Him as such and when you forget about Him. He sets before you today a call. It is the call to discipleship. It is a matter of life or death. Of blessing or curse. Of good or evil.

See, your Lord brings before you all His glory, honor, majesty, and immortality and sets Himself before you as a man. He is the Lord, there’s no question. But He’s a man. He’s one who comes unassumingly. First in a womb of your common Jewish girl. Then in a feeding trough among your common barn animals. Then as a guy who’s walking toward the crowd in such a way that no one would have known who He was had not John the Baptist announced “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

Then as one who speaks to some people on a particular occasion. See, this is your Lord, standing there in front of some people. Luke tells us they were crowds accompanying Him. They weren’t following Him. Jesus is going to talk to them about that. They were merely accompanying Him. Much like we often do when we think we’re such faithful followers of our Lord and Savior. After all, we’re here week in and week out. We help those who ask of us and we’re pretty decent people, which is a fantastic witness to that world of people out there who don’t always act so decent.

So we’ll see ourselves today for who we are—as those among the great crowds that accompanied Jesus on that day when He turned and called them to discipleship. What does the life of discipleship consist of? The life that has been set before us is this: life or death, blessing or curse, good or evil. Does it consist of being here week in and week out? Of being those good people we think of ourselves as being?

Or does it consist of something more than just accompanying our Lord? Putting Him above all. Everything. Everyone. Ourselves. Does it, perhaps, consist of something we wouldn’t expect to hear from our Lord—of hatred? Not just of sin and evil and the devil and all those things that are no-brainers for a well-trained Christian. But of hating those we care most about. Who, in fact, are gifts to us from our Lord Himself. Our father and mother. Our wife and children. Our brothers and sisters. Our own selves.

See, our Lord is not just here saying, I have come that you may have life—so come along for the ride. It’ll be fun! Just kick back and watch Me go. I’ll do all the work. You just so show up every week, make sure you do some good things during the week and make some time where you think about Me in the midst of your busy schedule. Your Lord is talking here about a brutal choice. It’s Him, or nothing. His way or the highway. But really we shouldn’t trivialize it in such a way. It’s His way or damnation. He truly is talking about life or death, blessing or curse, good or evil.

Which will you choose? Will you forsake all, even death, for your Lord? Your father and mother, your spouse and children, those you love the most, for your Lord? Accompanying Jesus sounds pretty good right now. Just being along for the ride. Why would our Lord call us to such a demanding choice? What is our Lord who is the author of the Ten Commandments and specifically the Fourth Commandment that we are to honor our father and mother getting at in calling us to the kind of discipleship that has at its base the hatred of those we are to esteem and love?

Perhaps we could translate the word Jesus used and remind ourselves that that’s not what He really meant. That when He said “hate” He meant something much softer. That would fit in much better with what we know of our Lord who is loving and kind and has given us our loved ones as people we are to love and cherish, not hate. But that won’t do much for those who seek to be disciples of our Lord. Because then we run into the problem of taking the words of our Lord and turning them into something other than His Words.

See, He says to you today: Hate. He didn’t say that they might have to take the back seat once in a while. He calls you today to bear your cross and come after Him. Don’t just come along for the ride, where you can have your cake and eat it to. Where your family can be every bit as important to you as your Lord is. Where your very own life can be at the forefront of your thoughts when it comes time for you to die.

Should we think that we should not have to bear a cross? Should we think that we should have things better than our Lord Jesus Christ? And why should we think that if we were to refuse our Lord’s will of hating our father and mother and those most precious to us that we would actually be following His will? Do we really think we can love them in the most loving and best way? Do we think that we really know better than our Lord? If bearing our cross is what our Lord is calling us to why would we think it would be easy? And why should we think that His words would be easy to digest?

See, our Lord is calling us to something that He knows will be hard for us to swallow. That is why He is doing it. So that we may see that we really do fall short in our love and devotion to Him. We think that we should love our father and mother and those dearest to us? Then why do we not love them as we should? Why do we sin against them? Why do we treat them shamefully at times? Why do we place our own desires ahead of theirs at times? We should talk about how strange it is that our Lord is calling us to hate them! We do a pretty good job of that without any coaxing on His part!

But no, He is not calling us to hate them in such a way that would break the Fourth Commandment. He is calling us to love Him above all things. If we place anything above our devotion to our Lord, even the people most dear to us, then we are not really loving them at all. How could we truly be loving others if our Lord is not first in our lives? We can be kind to others without being a disciple of our Lord. But are we showing them kindness for their soul? Are we sharing with them the greatest love of all—the love of Christ? No, Jesus knows very well what He is calling us to. He knows very well that our love falls short. That’s why He calls us to forsake all and cling to Him alone.

In that discipleship then is a new world in which we see with new eyes. A new vision opens up before us in which we see our loved ones not just as those we love and that are precious to us—but as very souls for whom Christ died.

See, we don't even know what hatred is that our Lord is talking about. He knows. He understands. He talks about things He knows about. We’re content to watch on the sidelines. He willingly chose to be the recipient of hatred. He Himself was forsaken by His precious Heavenly Father. He Himself was at the receiving end of the hatred of God’s wrath against those who sin against Him. This is righteous anger, just hatred against those who spite Him by refusing to acknowledge Him as Lord over all. Our Lord wasn’t the recipient of ill will against God Almighty but of damnation. He was turned away by His dear Father. He wasn’t just left for dead, He was damned by the eternal God.

Our Lord knows something about bearing the cross. He counted the cost beforehand—and chose it anyway. He knew what was set before Him: life or death, blessing or curse, good or evil. Not life, not blessing, not good was poured out upon Him but death. The curse of sin was laid upon Him. Evil was His lot. He suffered as no one could imagine and we see in Him that there is no cross that can be borne that is beyond what Christ Himself has borne.

We see that there was no standing idly by by Him. When one does not count the cost and determine whether or not he can complete his task he is ridiculed if he can’t complete it. Yet our Lord was ridiculed because He went through with His task. Because He completed it. When a king must fight against an army that is greater he asks for terms of peace rather than face a battle he can’t win. Our Lord went into the battle, however, as one against the devil and the host of hell. He laid down His life, appearing to have been defeated by His enemy. But in that act was our peace, our Lord laying down His life so that we may not die.

See, your Lord is calling you to discipleship. To renounce all that you have. Because without your Lord there is nothing that will be of lasting value. If you cling to those things you will simply be accompanying your Lord. But if you see that your Lord has set before you life in His suffering and death; if you see that He has set before you a blessing in your Lord Himself becoming the curse for you; if you see that He has set before you good in your Lord breaking under the weight of your evil—then you will see that the cost is great, but never beyond what you can bear. For, you see, your Lord has borne it all. He is your Lord and Savior. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Come unto Him all ye who are weary and heavy-laden and He will give you rest. Do not think He has called you to misery or despair, for your Lord disciples you into life.

You do not merely accompany Him. You are His disciple. You are His beloved. You are one with Him. There is weeping for a time but joy comes in the morning. You bear your cross but the resurrection follows the suffering. You are united with Christ, you have new and eternal life!

Our Lord has given you ears. Use them! Hear what He says to you, that He has given His life to you that your life may be in Him. Amen.

SDG

The Heart of God: Jesus

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Rally Day
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Luke 14:1-14

It’s a humbling experience to come to the realization that you’re selfish. It’s easy to see in others, isn’t it? But there’s so much we need to do simply to take care of ourselves, so many things we do simply to enjoy life, that we don’t see as we should that we very much are absorbed in ourselves. Don’t do it now, but some time take a hard look at yourself and ask yourself if you really can come to the conclusion that you’re not selfish. If you can come to that conclusion, well, there might not be much of a chance of you really listening to the Word of God and taking it to heart. Of hearing it as a message God intends directly to you, not all those other people here today. Or all those people out there who aren’t here. If you can see yourself as you really are, a selfish person, then humble yourself to realize that even this is something that God helps you to see and as something that only He can help you overcome.

Jesus is good at doing this. He’s God, after all. He’s good at whatever He does. And in this particular case—helping us realize that we’re selfish and in need of an overhaul in the humility department—what He does so well is not just lecture people on how they should behave in social situations. No, what He’s really good at—and what He’s really doing here, and, really, in everything He does—is bringing Himself into the center of our lives. The focus. The very core. The purpose for who we are and what we do. Jesus has better things to do than playing the part of Miss Manners, which He would do better than she does any way, even though she’s really good.

Jesus cuts to the chase. And He does that by cutting us to the heart. What is it really about? If we’re honest, our lives as we live them are really about us. What Jesus does is enter that life and show us that, no, it’s really about Him. That may sound kind of goofy, being that Jesus is putting all the focus on Himself. But He’s God, remember? The focus must be about Him.

But how does He do it? I don’t know about you, but if I were a powerful person, I would use it to my advantage. But Jesus doesn’t do that! He’s God, and does things that are for our benefit! Yes, the focus is all on Him, but He brings it about by being humble.

Take just the whole scenario itself of the Gospel reading. The Lord of all creation is taking time to be in an undistinguished house where a Pharisee lives. Okay, you might argue that Pharisees were not just ordinary people because they were spiritual leaders. But do you really think if Jesus had a head trip He’d be sitting there for a meal in a common Pharisee’s home? There are kings and Caesars and far more prominent people Jesus could have mingled with. But in all of creation and all of history He confined Himself for a few moments to this common abode where He witnessed several pathetic religious leaders try to show up one another. Their focus was most certainly not on Jesus but on themselves.

The humility and serving attitude Jesus is exhorting us to here is more than just sitting at the back rather than going to the front where we’ll be noticed. It’s more than just helping those who can’t pay you back. It’s a focus on Jesus. It’s seeing that He Himself has placed Himself at the back of the room. He Himself has invited all those who can’t repay Him to His banquet. So what if we sit in the back? What does it matter if we help those less fortunate than ourselves? Are these things going to get us into heaven? Will they win points with God? Will He take notice of us and give us a higher standing in eternity?

These are the kind of things we turn Jesus’ exhortations into because we’re selfish. What’s going to break us out of this kind of attitude? Jesus. That’s why He came. That’s why He healed the man with dropsy. It was not too small a thing for Him to help the man out. That’s why He took the time with those self-indulgent Pharisees. That’s why He didn’t cavort with kings and important people. He came for the ordinary person. The one who is caught up in all the things needed to do to live. The one who may not even realize that in so doing is very selfish and focused in on him or herself.

Jesus didn’t come to earth and say: “Hey folks! God here! Please bow before Me. Furnish for Me the finest of things. Luxury, a winter home, the very best food.” He came Himself almost indistinguishably. He looked very much like every ordinary person. Why did He do this? Because even though it’s all about Him, He is passionate about us. He created us, after all. We are the crown of His creation. He loves the human beings He created so much that He wants us in the eternal glory of the new Eden—heaven. So for Him it’s actually all about us. He comes not to say, “I’m the Almighty Lord of all creation so humble yourselves before Me.” He comes to say, “Be healed. Be forgiven. Take your place here at the front. Receive glory and honor. Your sins are washed away. There is only abundance of grace and eternal blessings.”

That’s why He has Baptized us. Because He wants to wash in a flood of grace all our sins away. That’s why He prepares a banquet for us today—His very Supper. So that we may feast on the richest of all food: our very Lord Himself, His body and His blood. In the Psalms God described His people this way: “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” God has shown us His ways. While our heart goes astray God has shown us His heart. His heart is Jesus. If we want to see His ways we look to Jesus.

We’re not just talking about humility, even the humility of Jesus. We’re talking about the heart of God and the heart of God is Jesus. Jesus here in the Gospel reading is not telling us how to live, although if we lived in the way described things would be much better and we’d glorify God. Jesus is really showing us the heart of God and that’s why He came. That’s why He humbled Himself. That’s why we see Him doing the very things He exhorts us to do.

That’s why we see Him going to the back of the room and alone taking the sins of the world upon Him on the cross. That’s why we see Him inviting us into His eternal mansion when He knows we can never repay Him. I sometimes wonder if someone was making a joke when they created Labor Day and then gave everyone the day off. Well, this is kind of like the way it is with us and salvation. Payment must be made for our selfish and sinful nature. Work must be accomplished for us to gain salvation. But God tells us to take the day off. He says that we are to rest while His Son alone bears the burden of the work.

That’s why we have all the Bible Studies we have at our church. That’s why we have Sunday school for all the children. So we can grow in Him whose heart is for us and for our salvation. That’s why He continues to serve us through His Word and Sacraments, inviting us to come forward to the front so that we may feast with Him, our very Lord and Savior. So that we may know that the God of all creation has shown us His heart and it is in Jesus alone that we may know everlasting grace and mercy. Amen.

SDG

Are You Left Out in the Cold?

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Luke 13:22-30

All you baseball fans know what an achievement a perfect game is. Maybe some of you have seen a perfect game and know that you have seen something that not many see. For those of you who think baseball is about the most boring thing around and you’d sooner watch grass grow, you might actually wonder if the game will ever end and what exactly the point of the game is if you were witnessing a perfect game. A perfect game is when the pitcher gets every batter out. Three up, three down, for nine straight innings. It’s been done only fifteen times.

Imagine if you are watching a perfect game in progress. Each inning toward the end is more intense. Finally, the pitcher has two strikes on the final batter. All he has to do is get one more strike, but throws three balls instead. George Will in his column this past week talked about the umpire who was behind the plate at just such a moment. History is about to be made, and yet, the umpire called the pitches for what they were—balls, not strikes. And the last pitch? Also a ball, spoiling a chance for history. But George Will points out that though one kind of glory was lost that day, another one was achieved: the integrity of rules. The pitcher could very well have been feeling that the umpire took away his glory and spectacular of achievement of that day.

It’s a sinking feeling when the authority tells you that you’ve come up short. Kind of like when you get to the door of an event you were really looking forward to like a show or a sporting event and you realize you lost your tickets. The people at the gate can be the nicest people in the world, but they’re not going to let you in without a ticket. Or if you’ve maintained a 4.0 grade average but in one of your classes you make enough mistakes to bring you below that. Your teacher may feel for you in giving you a lower grade, but gives it nonetheless.

A good friend of mine was a model of health. He took care of himself, was in good shape, and was very healthy. But he died instantly from a heart defect from birth. It had never affected him. He didn’t even know it was there. He didn’t even know he died when he did. It was a small tear that eventually broke wide open and killed him instantly.

What’s it going to be like on Judgment Day? Do we think about that much? Or do we tend to ignore it with the thought that it doesn’t really affect us here and now? There are times, though, aren’t there, where we wonder about it all? How many will be saved? Will God go ahead and just save everybody? Or just most people, leaving only the vilest of people to rot in hell? Or do most people have no chance? Will there only be a few who are saved? And we might even wonder at times if anybody has a chance. These questions are back there somewhere in our mind, if not troubling to us more often than just occasionally. Because at the heart of it is the question, will I be saved? And how can I know?

The non-Christian, the one who doesn’t believe in Jesus, might not think twice about these things. The Christian might just as easily think that he’s in, no worries. But the pitcher was sure he was one pitch away from a perfect game. And the people going to their concert were excited about getting in to see it. And the student was convinced he had the 4.0 in hand. And my friend was expecting to live a good long life.

We’re sure we’re going to be saved, aren’t we? That if it’s only a few who are saved that the many are certainly a lot of people “out there”. But ought we to be so sure? What’s all this talk from Jesus about struggling to get in through the narrow door? Is He warning us that we shouldn’t be so confident of our salvation after all? The people He describes at the big feast are shocked that He won’t let them in. Is He trying to tell us that this is us? That’s not a very comforting prospect.

Jesus makes clear that He doesn’t come to save only some. The door is open. It’s open for all. But it’s narrow. Not all will want to go through the narrow door. The wide door is also always open. But being wide it will appeal to many. So Jesus doesn’t just usher some through the right door. It’s just that He offers His salvation in only one way, and that’s why it’s narrow. The wide door is the one that appeals to many because it doesn’t exclude them if they don’t believe in Jesus, or no matter what they believe, for that matter.

The narrow door is exclusive, however. Like that umpire who didn’t just give the perfect game to the pitcher, or the ticket taker who doesn’t just let people in without a ticket, or the teacher who gives a lower grade even though it means the student is out of the 4.0. The authority is rigid and unwavering. My friend looked like he had a long life ahead of him, but he had no chance against a little defect.

That question—will I be saved?—is a disconcerting one. Because we have doubts. On the other hand, we might have no doubt at all. What’s even more disconcerting is Jesus’ answer. He seems to put those of us who see ourselves as among the few who are saved among the many who are left out in the cold. But Jesus isn’t assigning us to hell. He’s not saying we have no hope. Otherwise, why would He bother telling us all that He says here? If we had no hope He would just say so and leave it at that.

But there is hope. That’s why He keeps saying “you”. You struggle to enter through the narrow door. You will be standing outside and not let in. He will say, “I do not know where you come from.” You will say, “But we ate and drank with You and You taught in our streets.” And He will say, “I don’t know you,” and “Depart from Me, all you workers of evil.”

I know. It’s scary stuff. It’s as if He’s saying, “You think you’re saved? Think again. You’re going to hell.” But that’s not what He’s saying. He’s warning us. And that is the greatest kind of love and grace. He’s making us aware of what could be before it happens. So that it won’t happen to us. He doesn’t want it to happen to us. Otherwise, why would He go through such pains to warn us? Why would He come at all?

And most of all, He makes known to us that it will be a struggle. We don’t want to hear this, of course. You mean it’s going to be hard? You mean there’s difficulty to this? It’s not just an easy ride?

If it were, why would Jesus leave the eternal throne of glory and become a man? Talk about difficulty—He’s living proof! But this is really where He’s going with this. It always is. He never points us to ourselves when it comes to salvation. He does point out, yes, that we of ourselves are on the outside looking in if we’re content with our own righteousness. That’s what all the “you’s” were about. But the reason He uses all those “you’s” is so that when we look to Him—where our only hope is to be found—we can hear the “you’s” He speaks to us in our Baptism and His Holy Supper.

I forgive you of all your sins. He says to you, “Welcome into My eternal feast of glory.” Take and eat, this is My body, given for you. Take and drink, this is My blood, shed for you. The reason it’s a struggle is because our sinful flesh is always wanting to focus back on itself rather than on Christ. But Christ focuses our attention to Him. Where He has endured the supreme struggle, taking the sins of the world upon Himself in His suffering and death. He died for you. He rose from the grave so that you may live forever. Amen.

SDG

When It All Falls Apart

Okay, before I get to what I’m going to say, let me say that if you want to know what the actual lyrics of a song are you really have to read them. When you hear the singer sing them some of the words sound different than what they really are.

The next thing I want to say is that, in my humble opinion, the best thing about the “Bourne” movies (The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum) is the music. Especially the song they play at the end (which is called “Extreme Ways” by Moby). What a fun song!

Anyway, as I was listening to the song I first thought the refrain sounded like “Oh babe, then it all fell apart.” But then I thought, it must be saying (fitting in with the theme of the movies), “Obey, then it all fell apart.” And it really sounded like that to me.

Well… I looked up the lyrics, and it’s “Oh baby, then it all fell apart.” (I think the singer must be singing “babe” rather than “baby”.)

The point of all of this is that I would like to go with the idea of “obey, then it all fell apart.” After all, doesn’t our Lord command us to obey Him? And doesn’t our life have times where things fall apart? It’s very tempting to not obey since it doesn’t always seem to make things better for us. I mean, look where it got Jason Bourne? He obeyed his government and it all fell apart. (He ends up being hunted down by that very government.)

But I would like to suggest that this is the very reason we ought to obey our Lord and Savior. He doesn’t say, after all, “Follow Me and all will be well.” What He says is, “Take up your cross and follow Me.” I guess we could kind of paraphrase this to say, “Obey Me even though it means it will all fall apart.”

Because who do we need if everything is going along just fine and dandy? Oh yeah, we’ll know we need Jesus. We’ll say it, we’ll be believe it, we’ll even think about it now and then.

But will we act like it? Will we really live like it? The fact is, we need Jesus and nowhere is that more apparent than when it all falls apart. And it’s tough to obey Him when that happens, right? You bet it’s tough, that’s why He said so—take up your cross and follow Me.

But you know what happens when it all falls apart? When you wonder if the same Jesus who said “I am with you always” really is with you at those times? You don’t say, Well I guess I’m just not obeying enough.

You look at the one who was obedient unto death. You look to the one who obeyed His Heavenly Father only to see it all fall apart. Every disciple splitting the scene. Every religious leader and soldier mocking Him. Every sin placed upon His shoulder. Every drip of the cup of God’s wrath poured out upon the obedient Lamb.

He knows what it means to have it all fall apart. And He knows what He’s talking about when He tells you to take up your cross. Because He knows a little something about that kind of stuff. When it all falls apart you may not trust fully in Him, but He will always remember His promise to you—He will never leave you nor forsake you. He is with you always. Even when it all falls apart.

The Sending of Fire

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Luke 12:49-56

"I came to cast fire on the earth…"

Do you know what a fire camp is? I didn’t until I saw one. On our vacation one of the roads we needed to go on was closed because of bad fires in northern Montana. Thankfully, the road was reopened and we were able to go on it. As we were driving we saw a sign that said “Slow, Fire Camp Ahead”. We wondered what that was until we got to it and saw that they had set up a temporary camp for all the firefighters and other people helping fight the fires.

We never saw the fire but we saw plenty of smoke. We also saw the tremendous amount of people and resources poured into stamping the fire out. Fires are a mighty force. If you’re in the way of a wildfire you have no chance, you will lose. It’s a sad fact that there are fire fighters, people who are trained to be safe and skillfully attack fires, who lose their lives in action. Wild fires are destructive and powerful. That there are people willing to put their lives on the line to put them out, to save homes and lives, shows how wild fires can be very bad.

So why would Jesus come to earth to cast fire upon it? Fire will destroy most of what’s in its path. Why would Jesus come in order to bring something that destroys?

Well, it sounds kind of strange, but Jesus is delivering something to us that we need. To understand this, think for a moment about life. You don’t have to think long to acknowledge that things are not always clean in life. Life is messy at times. It’s difficult at times; more often than not, seemingly. The fact is, circumstances in life are not always what we’d like or what seem best.

Why does God allow things to not go smoothly in our lives when that time could be better used to serve Him? Why does He allow us to suffer illness when we could be using that time to witness to other people? We tend to look at our circumstances and think of them as negative if they’re not ideal for us. We know it’s true, that things won’t always go the way we want them to. And yet, when they don’t go well for us we struggle not only with that, but with why they don’t always go well.

The way Jesus answers this problem is not by taking our problems away but by stating straight out that as Christians things will be difficult for us. And not only that, He will be the source of some of those difficulties. That doesn’t make sense to us, but He’s not coming to us with the intent to have things meet with our understanding. Part of the mess we’re in is because we want to have things go according to how we’d like them to be. Jesus says, Nope, it’s gotta be the way I will show you how it is.

So the real question we should be asking is not, why is it so difficult to live as a Christian, but what is Christ doing in my life for my benefit? We know a lot about how we think things should be but come up short when it comes to discerning God’s will for our lives.

How we know what God’s will is for us is by looking to Jesus. I know that sounds pretty straightforward, but really it’s not. When we look to Jesus we need to see Him for who He really is and what He came to do. In the case of what He says here He says that He has come to bring fire on the earth. And He has come to bring not peace but division. Okay, so now instead of scratching our heads and wondering why He would say something so strange or complain that that’s not very Jesus-like for Him to do this, we should be looking to Him for the answer. The answer is not in what is happening to us in this life. The answer is in who Christ is and what He has done.

What that is is undergoing a baptism. This is something more than the Baptism He received at the Jordan River from John. This is a baptism of fire. This is something no one would want to go through. No one, that is, but Jesus. And even He according to His human nature sought from His Heavenly Father a way to avoid it. What Jesus really did was choose it willingly.

When we hear that He’s bringing fire on the earth we react negatively toward that. Whereas He willingly chooses the suffering. Do we complain because we’re suffering? Look at what Jesus said about the time until He would suffer His baptism by fire: “how great is My distress until it is accomplished.” What Jesus brings upon the earth—fire, division—does not compare to what Jesus Himself underwent. The fire and division Jesus brings upon the earth must be seen and understood in light of who Jesus is and what He came to do. That’s why He alerts us to His baptism of fire He underwent for the world.

Jesus willingly stood in the path of the fire to be destroyed so that we could escape the ravages of the fire of God’s wrath for our sin. There’s no question Jesus has brought upon the earth a destructive force to destroy it. That’s because we need to be destroyed—more specifically, our sinful flesh. Our life will not last forever on this earth. What comes at our death is either heaven or hell. He does not want to see us suffer in hell forever, that’s why He came to save us.

That’s fantastic, obviously. But why does He want us to suffer now? Why bring the fire and division upon us in this life when His ultimate desire and work is to bring us to heaven where we’re free from all the hardship and division of this world? Again, we must look to Him for the answer. Who He is and what He has done. The answer is found in His baptism at the cross.

If we lament that we suffer here; that it’s hard being a Christian; that God doesn’t seem to be helping us out—we’re not looking to the cross. We’re not looking to the trial and division Jesus endured for us. We’re not looking to that one place where He answers all of our questions and meets all of our fears and confusion. We’re looking rather to our current circumstances and how we’re fed up with them.

Jesus didn’t just come to bring fire and division upon the earth. He came to bring Himself to the earth. He brought salvation with Him, undergoing a blessed event of being anointed in Baptism by His Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit at the Jordan and a stunning and terrible event in His baptism by fire on the cross. He bowed down before the blaze of God’s wrath. He was cut off from the presence of His Heavenly Father. He was a man of sorrows, but with only one thought foremost in His mind and heart: you, me, and the world. Christ suffered in such a way so that we may live forever.

When wildfires start on their own they not only destroy the trees and vegetation, but also a lot of built up dead leaves, vegetation, and wood, that is a burden on the forest. A wildfire clears that away making way for new growth to come. New trees pop up. New vegetation springs up. The forest in a sense is reborn.

So are we in Baptism, where Christ casts His holy fire upon our sinful flesh, melting it away. What emerges from this amazing event is new life. We spring forth into new life because the fire of God’s love has not only destroyed our sinful flesh but has purified us as His very own people. Amen.

SDG

More than Food and Clothing

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Luke 12:22-40

There are some people who truly are anxious about basic necessities of life, such as food and clothing. If you don’t have enough to eat and have only rags to wear it’s hard not to worry about how you’ll survive. For many of us, though, we take these basic things for granted. We have enough to eat. We have clothing. So we’re usually not worrying about these things.

Now if we’re prone to worrying about things in our lives then Jesus’ words strike home because food and clothing are used by Jesus for all those necessities of life we have. How easy is it to get good health care? And affordable health care, at that? How much money do you keep pouring into your car that’s breaking down more and more before you bite the bullet and buy a new car?

Jesus’ answer isn’t necessarily satisfying: don’t worry. The birds and flowers don’t spend their time worrying and yet God takes care of them. Life is more than food and clothing. And this is where we really see that no matter who we are we so often miss the point of what God really wants to give us.

We spend our time worrying about how we’re going to get by another month when things are tight. Or we simply take so many things we have for granted, rarely thinking about what tremendous blessings they are.

Life is more than food and clothing. If we really thought about that and took it to heart we’d spend less time worrying about the things of this life and being more humble and grateful for the many ways God takes care of us and provides for us. What does Jesus say? Seek the Kingdom of God.

How much of our lives do we spend seeking the things of this world and not the world of the next? The things of this life which is temporary instead of the things of eternal life which is, well, eternal. God knows we need food and clothing. That’s why He provides those things for us. When we’re in need it’s tempting to worry. But what we need to do is trust in God.

How does the twenty-third Psalm say it? “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” When we have the Lord as our Shepherd we have everything we need. We know He will take care of us. What does He lead us into? “He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” Our Good Shepherd is mostly concerned with giving us the things we need for eternity, not this short life. Look at how He is described when things are dark in our lives: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Our Lord is described as one who invites us to sit down and feast at a banquet in the midst of the dark times of life. That’s why it’s remarkable that when Jesus tells us in the Gospel reading for today that those await on their master will receive not a master but a servant—one who girds up before them to serve them.

You see, life truly is more than food and clothing. In fact, what God wants to give to you is the very robe of righteousness and the very heavenly food only He Himself can give you. If we’re constantly worried about the things of this life, how will we see that God is giving us so much more than we think we need? If we simply take the things of this life for granted, how much more might we take the spiritual blessings of God for granted?

Our loving Lord has given us life and provides for us in life. But there is much more to it than food and clothing. He clothes us spiritually and feeds us spiritually. Listen to the picture God gave to Zechariah in chapter 3 of his book:

Then He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.”

This is how God clothes us. In Baptism our Lord puts on us the robe of Christ’s righteousness. Filthy and stained by our sin we are clothed in the clean garments of Christ’s righteousness.

Dressed in the forgiving love of God we are ready to enjoy the banquet He provides for us. He feeds us with forgiveness also. Just as we are clothed with Christ we are fed with Christ. His very Body and Blood are given us to eat and drink. Life is more than food and clothing. The life Jesus gives to us in Baptism and His Holy Supper is much more than we often think we need.

The forgiveness God gives us, His spiritual blessings He provides for us, are not something that happens out there some place. They are delivered to us where He has promised to give them to us: in Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. What do we do in our need? We pray. We ask God to help us. Jesus Himself in the Lord’s Prayer said pray for our daily bread. But our prayer doesn’t feed us. We don’t pray and then feel satisfied because our stomachs are now full. What God does is answer our prayer at the table, with real food that we eat and fill our stomachs with.

It’s the same with our prayer for forgiveness. We aren’t forgiven because we pray. He answers our prayer at the Supper Table—specifically, the Lord’s Supper. Having clothed us with the righteousness of Christ who served us by giving His body into death and shedding His blood for our sins he now serves us with that same Body and Blood for our forgiveness. He always gives more than we seek. Amen.

SDG