Sermon: Trinity 12 - 2020

30 August 2020

Text: Mark 7:31-37 (Isa 29:17-24, 2 Cor 3:4-11)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Although the New Testament was written in Greek, sometimes the original Hebrew or Aramaic word is so important that it comes out in its original language.

The word “Ephphatha” is one of these extraordinary words.  St. Mark even provides us with the translation: “Be opened.”  Our Lord Jesus uses this command to open the ears of a deaf man, and to release his tongue.  And our Lord doesn’t tell the man’s ears to “open,” but rather “be opened.”  For they cannot open themselves, but are rather acted on by the Word of God: “Be opened.”

So why is this so important?  Why is this word said in the original language, like the words “Alleluia” and “Amen”?  

Dear friends, the man’s ears needed to be opened because they were closed.  His impediment prevented him from hearing the Word of God.  St. Paul teaches us that “faith comes by hearing… the Word of Christ.”  And this is what makes deafness so terrible.  His ears needed opened because they were closed.  The gateway to faith was slammed shut for this poor man.  And like every sickness, the culprit is sin: probably not his own sin, but the sin of the world, the sin of our ancestors, the sin that surrounds us and dominates our world.  The deaf man is a victim of sin, and thus a victim of Satan.  Apart from God’s grace, he is headed to a certain death, an eternal death, which is the rightful penalty for sin.

But Jesus has come into our broken world to fix it, to fling open the gates of heaven that have been closed to us.  He comes so that “the deaf shall hear the words of a book,” as the prophet Isaiah preaches.  For the words of the book of the Scriptures are life-giving – if you hear them.

Most people are not physically deaf, but spiritually deaf.  They do not hear God’s Word because their ears are filled with the clutter and noise of this world.  One cannot hear the Word, the live-giving Word, the faith-giving Word, the words of eternal life – if one is not present to hear them.  To those who do not follow Jesus, who do not gather where He gathers us: at the font, at the altar, and at the pulpit – they are deaf to the Word.  And they slowly close in on themselves, and their faith shrivels and shrinks, eventually to nothing.

Dear friends, Jesus comes to open our ears and our eyes.  The miracles of healing the deaf and the blind point to a greater reality: to cure us of our spiritual deafness and blindness, and to blast open that which was closed, namely, the gate to eternal life.  For even the closed graves will be opened, and the dead in Christ will rise.  

And so our Lord has compassion on this victim of sin and the devil.  He “sighed” with compassion at the state of this poor man.  He used His fingers and His spittle and His Word to restore this man to wholeness, to open His ears, and open the door to eternal life.

“Ephphatha… Be opened.”

And not only were his ears opened, and He could hear the Word of God, but so too was his tongue “released, and he spoke plainly.”  He could not only hear the Word, but also repeat it.  He could not only listen, but confess it.  The word “released” is very important.  It means that his tongue was previously enslaved or held hostage.  And it is only the Word that can release anything from this kind of bondage, even the tongue of a man suffering the kind of infirmity that even makes faith difficult.

But this is not difficult for Jesus, dear friends.  “One little Word” can fell the “old evil foe,” as we sing in the great hymn.

This idea of opening our ears and our mouths has been understood by the church as pointing us to Holy Baptism.  In St. Mark’s very short account of our Lord’s baptism, he speaks of the heavens being opened, and the Holy Spirit descending.  There is so much meaning packed into this word “opened.”  

For when a baby is baptized, his ears are opened to hear the Word of God.  And when an adult – who has already been converted by hearing the Word – is baptized, his ears have already been opened.  In some baptismal liturgies, there is actually a prayer called the Ephphatha, that goes like this: “The Lord has made the deaf hear and the dumb speak. May He soon touch your ears to receive His word, and your mouth to proclaim His faith, to the praise and glory of God the Father. Amen.”

And this prayer would come before the baptism of an adult, and after the baptism of a child.  Holy Baptism opens the ears of a child to hear and believe the Word, and releases the tongue of the child to soon confess the faith and sing praise to God.  And if a person has heard the proclamation of the Word prior to Holy Baptism, his ears have already been opened, his tongue has already been released, and his baptism opens the portal to eternity by giving him the gift of the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life, with certitude and clarity, even as a baptized adult has heard this Word with his ears and believes it, and confesses this Word with his tongue and proclaims it.

The whole life of the Christian is an “Ephphatha” – constantly being opened to the Word of God by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He commands that our ears “Be opened” when our sins are forgiven, and when we hear the proclamation of the Gospel.  And by His grace, at His Word, we gather with others whose ears have also been opened, and our tongues, having been released by God’s Word, speak the creed, give thanks to God, sing praise to His name, and confess the good news in the hearing of others, “more zealously proclaiming it.”  

For we are baptized, our ears have been opened, our tongues have been released, the heavens have been opened to us, and the Holy Spirit has descended upon us.  And even as the “letter” of the law “kills,” even so, “the Spirit gives life.”  By faith, our hearts are opened by the Word, and the Spirit comes to us, our ears remain open and attentive to the Word, and our tongues are released to speak the good news.

Let us pray that we may never allow our ears to be closed by the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, but that the Word of God may continually open to us the way to eternal life!  Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Stupid TV

I quit watching TV a long time ago.  But a lot of people have told me that "The Big Bang Theory" is funny - especially in matters of religion.  So I watched some excerpts on YouTube.  What I watched was actually a sort-of prequel showing the formation of the show's character "Sheldon" as a child.

What I saw was comedically pathetic, and pathetically preachy.  It is nothing more than very bad Atheist Apologetics that depends on the ignorance of the viewer to be effective.  I watched excepts from this episode in which an 8-year old Sheldon takes on Christianity and dismantles it single-handedly, because he believes in "science."  The arguments were not just simplistic, but stereotypical and cartoonish.

The writers don't even know the basics, such as the fact that Baptists don't adorn their churches in colored paraments corresponding with the church year.  I know that there are exceptions to this rule, but so few as to be statistically insignificant - a concept that the writers should seemingly understand and embrace: math and science and all that.  Also, pastors typically do not field questions while preaching in the pulpit.  It makes one wonder if the writers have ever been to an actual church service.  There was also a scene in which the Baptist Sunday school children were reciting and praying the Lord's Prayer together.  This is also not how Baptists teach the Bible to children.  And they don't use the translation of the Lord's Prayer that uses the word "trespasses."  I mean, this stuff is so basic, that it shows that they have no consultant.  And why would they?  They clearly think they know everything.  They have this smug, cocksure attitude that corresponds to a writer insisting on not using a proofreader.  It indicates the haughty ego of the insufferable know-it-all.

After the discussion of the Lord's Prayer (which is in Matthew's Gospel), Sheldon cites "Chapter One Verse One" - while not naming the book (which is incidentally John's Gospel) to show what an idiot the pastor is, based on the translation of the word "Word" ("In the beginning was the Word").  He points out that this is actually the Greek word "Logos" - which "means knowledge."  The reality is that the word Λόγος - like many foreign words - can be translated into English in several different ways depending upon context.  The world's greatest scholars have been translating the Greek of the New Testament into the world's languages for nearly 2,000 years.  

The Latin is rendered Verbum, German: das Wort, French: la Parole, Spanish: la Parabla, Italian: il Verbo, and even Esperanto: la Vorto.  See the pattern?  

When the kid says that "Logos" means "knowledge" - it seems to befuddle the pastor.  In reality, this idea of the Logos - in all of its fullness - is part of Christian christology.  Christ is the Logos - the intelligence behind the universe, behind creation, the Word "by whom all things were made" as we have been confessing in the Nicene Creed for just shy of 1,700 years.  The word "Logos" is part of the etymology of the word "Theology" and all other "-ology" words.  This is a confession of Christian truth, not a refutation of it.  This is not a startling revelation.  

Moreover, the first day that many of us set foot in seminary, we were learning Greek.  And even if Christian pastors don't have to study the New Testament in Greek, they certainly know the main Greek words used in Christian theology.  They don't have to be told this by a smart-aleck eight-year old unbeliever.

Sheldon also uses logic (also based on the Greek word "Logos," by the way) to "refute" the apologetic claims of the pastor.  Of course, this is all "funny" and "lighthearted," but if you were to remove the laugh-track, it would come across for what it is: cheesy, hamfisted, and manipulative Apologetics wielded against a straw man.  

One example is the pastor pointing out that many of the world's greatest scientists actually believed in God - including Charles Darwin.  Sheldon retorts by saying, "So Darwin was wrong about evolution and right about God?"  "Hahaha" screams the laugh-track as the doltish pastor looks bewildered at being checkmated.  But how is this an argument?  Couldn't one equally point out that Atheists also argue that Darwin was wrong about God, but right about evolution?  

In another scene regarding creation according to Genesis, Sheldon "trumps" the pastor by pointing out that light was created on Day One while the sun wasn't created until Day Four.  My gosh, how did we miss that?  We have been reading, thinking about, and commenting upon the Genesis text for some three and a half millennia - but it took a Hollywood screenwriter to refute the whole thing to a laugh-track.  "Hahaha!" and on to the next scene.

And of course, Sheldon's Christian parents speak with a Southern accent, while he speaks like he comes from the North.  Subtle, isn't it?  I would be willing to bet that many Americans get their view of Christianity and Christian Apologetics from the likes of this sloppy and intellectually dishonest TV show and their ignorant writers.

Finally, isn't it interesting that the writers target Christianity as their representative of "irrational religion" in opposition to "science" - while adopting a hands-off view of Judaism and Islam?  

So I've seen enough.  This confirms my premise that nearly all TV is junk food for the mind and rat poison for the soul.  Television seems to retard the intelligence of the viewer, who typically laughs on cue like a drooling Pavlovian dog (but convinced that he is now the smarter for it) and moves along to the next scene without asking too many questions.  

Sermon: Trinity 11 - 2020

23 August 2020

Text: Luke 18:9-14 (Gen 4:1-15, 1 Cor 15:1-10)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Most of the greatest teachers in history were storytellers.  For that is naturally how we learn.  And so when Jesus, the greatest Teacher in history, wants to teach us about the kingdom of God, He tells stories.  

And most stories have a “good guy” and a “bad guy.”  A famous western added an “ugly guy” too.  But most morality tales include two types of characters: those that we would consider ethical, and those that we would consider immoral.  Our Lord’s parables often have this “good guy” and “bad guy” dichotomy.  And today’s Gospel certainly reflects this theme. 

But our Lord throws in a twist to really make us think about the kingdom of God in a different way.

He creates two characters in this story: a Pharisee and a tax collector.  Now it’s important to hear the story as His original hearers did.  When we say “Pharisee” today, we usually think “bad guy.”  That’s because we have been listening to Jesus.  But to really grasp how controversial this story was as our Lord told it, you need to clear your mind of what you think about the Pharisees.

Here is how our Lord’s listeners thought of the Pharisees: these were the really good people.  They were religious.  They took their faith seriously.  They attended synagogue and temple services all of the time.  They prayed even more than was required.  They were also the big donors.  When something needed to be done, they did it.  They sacrificed.  They worked.  They encouraged others to be hard working for the kingdom of God.  They strove to be good people.  They were the ones who helped out the poor.  They knew the Scriptures.  They were never ashamed of who they were.  They wore symbols of their religion.  They were no slackers.  They avoided worldly and scandalous behavior.  They were always careful to be pious in everything they did.

These were the ultimate “good guys.”

The tax collector is the only other character in this story of Jesus.  Now, nobody likes to pay taxes.  But in the days of the Jews being ruled by Rome, the tax collectors – especially if they were Jewish – were hated.  They were shunned.  They were shamed.  They were seen as traitors.  For they collaborated with Rome and their filthy money with the image of the false god Caesar on it.  They typically were permitted to take extra and keep it – so the more cruel they were with the people, the richer they became.

These were the ultimate "bad guys."

And so, you could not find two more opposite characters.  The Pharisee was not just good, but extremely good.  The tax collector was not just bad, but downright ugly.  

And in our Lord’s story, “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.”  If you are listening to this story with first century Jewish ears, your mind has already put together a picture.  You would be thinking that the Pharisee deserves to be in the temple.  He is a person who does many good works.  He certainly must love God, and God loves him in turn.  You would also be thinking about the tax collector.  Why that hypocrite ought to be afraid that lightening would strike him: the filthy traitor and cheat!  He isn’t even worthy to stand in the shadow of the good, religious Pharisee man.

And so let us listen in on the prayers that our Lord puts in their mouths.  “The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: “God, I thank you….”  You see, the Pharisee must be very humble.  He first gives thanks to God.  And he reflects on goodness: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.”  Our Pharisee then calls to mind his own good works: “I fast twice a week.”  Wow, dear friends, once a week is what is required.  The Good Pharisee works twice as hard!  “I give tithes of all that I get.”  Wow, this means he faithfully gives ten percent of his entire income to the temple.  He gives to the poor on top of that!

What’s there not to love?

Well, let’s check in on our tax collector.  It seems that he, “standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven.”  Well, that’s good.  He’s a cheat and a thief.  At least he has the common decency to grovel before God and not to offend the Pharisee by getting too close.  He knows that he is a gross sinner.  He “beat his breast, saying, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.”  And so he admits it!  

So the Pharisee focuses on his good works, and the tax collector focuses on his sins.  The Pharisee puffs himself up by thanking God for making him so much better than the tax collector, while the tax collector shows a contrite heart in confessing his sin and actually asking for God’s mercy.

Do you see what has just happened, dear friends?  The Pharisee is exposed as a shallow braggart who seems to think God should bow down to him.  The tax collector is humble, confesses his sin, and seeks forgiveness.  The Pharisee never asks for mercy because he thinks that he doesn’t need it.  The tax collector pleads for mercy because he knows that he does need it.  

And so the guy we thought was good is the phony; the guy we thought was bad is the one who is righteous – not because of his own works, but by God’s grace.  For Jesus, God in the flesh, says that the tax collector “went down to his house justified, rather than the other.”  And here is the point, dear friends: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

In the world, what makes you “good” is how you appear to others.  But in the kingdom of God, there is no-one who is good but God alone.  We are all poor miserable sinners.  We are all bad.  In fact, we are all ugly.  We just pretend to be good, and we expect the world – and God – to praise us.  But in fact, we are all like the tax collector deep down inside.  For we daily sin much in thought, word, and deed.  Not a single one of us is that person we like others to believe that we are.  What makes the tax collector actually “good” is his honesty.  He confesses.  He seeks mercy.  And because of his prayer, Jesus says that he is “justified,” that is, made righteous by God’s decree.  And having been justified, he is empowered to live a life of repentence, to turn from his sins, to be changed from the inside out.  For the ultimate mercy of God is found in the storyteller, Jesus, who is more importantly, the Savior.  He is the Rescuer.  His blood shed on the cross cries out to the Father, not unlike Abel’s blood from the first time a man killed another man.  For Jesus was killed by men, crucified, sacrificed, “died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,” so that we, who confess our sins, who seek His mercy, who receive Him in faith, “should not perish, but have everlasting life,” should not die an everlasting death, but will be raised, like Jesus, “in accordance with the Scriptures.”  The tax collectors who turn to Him will be raised to eternal life because of their heartfelt plea for God’s mercy.

In His earthly ministry as the Great Teacher, most of the Pharisees rejected Jesus.  Most of them felt that they had no sins to confess.  Most of them “trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt,” and how wrong they were, dear friends!  It was the tax collectors (like St. Matthew, who wrote the first Gospel) who were drawn to our Lord’s call to repent and His promise of mercy.  It was the thieves and scoundrels, the prostitutes and drunkards – even the hated Samaritans and other Gentiles – who heard the Word of God and were transformed by His mercy.

For although our Lord tells stories to teach, His life is a true story that does even more than teach: His life, death, and resurrection forgives us, saves us, justifies us, and will raise us in the body on the Last Day – because He indeed hears our confession and our prayers for mercy.  That is the Christian life.  That is the kingdom of God.  Let us go to our houses justified, dear friends, knowing that we are saved by grace through faith – not by works of the law, not by personal religiosity, and not by appearances and the praise of men.  We are saved by humbly submitting to our Teacher and Savior.  

“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”  Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon: St. Bernard of Clairvaux - 2020

19 August 2020

Text: John 15:7-11 (Ecclus 39:1-10, Rev 3:7-11)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux is a complicated historical figure.  In some ways, it’s odd that we Lutherans should honor him with a feast day.  As a man of his times, he had a held to a superstitious view of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  And having become a powerful figure in the Church of his own day, he became entangled in internal political disputes involving church politics.  

And yet, our Lutheran confessions mention him eight times, and refer to him as a “holy father.”  

For in spite of his imperfections and foibles, St. Bernard understood the central doctrine of the faith: justification.  He said, “You must believe, first of all, that you cannot have the forgiveness of sins except by the forbearance of God; but add further that you also believe that through Him your sins are forgiven.  This is the witness that the Holy Spirit brings in your heart, saying, ‘Your sins are forgiven you.’  For thus the apostle concludes, that a man is justified freely by faith.’”

St. Bernard also confessed that good works flow from the free gift that is the forgiveness of sins.  As the abbot of many monasteries, St. Bernard understood that good works and self-sacrifice cannot earn salvation, but rather that Christian good works flow from being justified by grace through faith.  

And where does this faith come from, dear friends?  Why do we believe in this doctrine of justification?  How are we justified, dear brothers and sisters?  It all gets back to Christ, to His work on the cross, to His victory over Satan, to His sacrificial atonement.  And what is the source of all of this?  Why does Jesus die for the sins of the world?  What motivates God to save us?

Love.

St. Bernard’s hymns – two of which we are singing tonight – confess this love of Christ and our devotion to Him.  For Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples.”

Our Lord speaks of good works as “bearing fruit.”  Our good works flow from our “abiding” in Him, and His words abiding in us.  Even if you were to renounce all worldly wealth, live in a tiny cell, and pray all day.  Even if you were to cut yourself off from every worldly pleasure, if you sacrifice all joys and pleasures of this life, if you gave up spouse and children and home and family in the pursuit of righteousness, it won’t mean anything at all without the love of Christ, without His Word, without faith, and without being declared righteous by God for the sake of Jesus.

Our Lord says, “As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you.  Abide in My love.”  To “abide” means to persevere.  The love of Christ will carry us through all times of trouble and struggle in this life – and even unto eternity.  He abides in us, which means that we can abide in Him.  It is a week by week thing, a day by day thing, a minute by minute thing.  We Christians focus our lives on the life and love of Christ, remembering our baptism multiple times a day and praying, imbibing the Holy Scriptures, and abiding in His love through the miracle of receiving His body and blood in the Holy Eucharist.  And it is only in this context of abiding in Christ, in His love, that we can live out the Christian life according to our callings.  

Jesus says, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”  And while we fail to keep the commandments perfectly (which is why we need the love and mercy of God and the salvation of the Son), we Christians rightfully resist temptation and turn to the Lord in such times, receiving Holy Absolution when we fail as a means to abide in the love of Christ.  And the only way to even begin to keep the commandments is to know them, for they too are God’s Word.  

Our Lord does not speak of the Christian life as the fruitless struggle to become perfect through works – which is the sad fate of the followers of every other religion in the world.  Rather, our Lord offers a radical alternative: grace and faith as gifts flowing from His own pierced side and from His own “sacred head now wounded.”  This justification by grace through faith is the Good News, it is how we abide in Christ and how Christ abides in us, it is that which fuels our faith, and dear friends, instead of life on a treadmill of failure, our Christian life is one of joy.

Don’t take my word for it.  And don’t even take Bernard of Clairvaux’s word for it.  Listen to our Lord Jesus Christ sum up his discourse on abiding in His love: “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

Our first reading today comes from the Apocrypha, and it speaks of a person abides in the Word of God: he “devotes himself to the study of the law of the Most High” and “will seek out the wisdom of all the ancients.”  He will “reveal instruction in his teaching, and will glory in the law of the Lord’s covenant.”  And all of his good works in pursuit of the Lord will bear fruit “if the Lord is willing.”  And, dear friends, this is why we honor the saints, such as the holy father Bernard.  For “many will praise his understanding, and it will never be blotted out; his memory will not disappear, and his name will live through all generations.  Nations will declare his wisdom, and the congregation will proclaim his praise.”  We honor St. Bernard because the Word abided in him, and through his preaching and teaching, the word abided in the many who heard his preach and teach and administer the sacraments.

The Church has honored St. Bernard for nearly eight hundred years because He was a preacher of the Gospel.  His sermons, hymns, and teaching point us to Christ and what He has done for us, the love of God, the forgiveness of sins, and how it is that we Christians live out our life of grace.  And ultimately, what makes Bernard of Clairvaux a “holy father” in the words of our Lutheran confessions is not his founding of monasteries, his work in trying to reform the church, his involvement in the crusades, or even his preaching and teaching, but rather the love of God in Jesus Christ, the gifts of grace and faith, and the Word that abided with him in all of his endeavors, and abides with him in eternity – the same Word that abides in you, dear friends.

Abiding in the love and Word of God in Christ Jesus is even more urgent in these dark and latter days than it was in the days of St. Barnard.  For as Jesus speaks to the Church in the last days: “I know that you have but little power, and yet have kept My Word and have not denied My name….  Because you have kept My Word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.  I am coming soon.  Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.”

Let us abide in the Word, in the Gospel, in the Holy Sacraments, in God’s love, in prayer, and in joy – in other words, let us abide in Christ Jesus our Lord.  

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon: Trinity 10 - 2020

16 August 2020

Text: Luke 19:41-48

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Our popular culture is filled with the word “peace.”  Young people greet one another with the word “peace” complete with their own take on their hippy grandfathers’ and grandmother’s greeting of “peace” with the two-fingered peace sign that became popular during the very unpopular Vietnam War.

The greeting “peace” is found all throughout St. Paul’s epistles in the New Testament, reflecting the Hebrew greeting of “Shalom” of the Old Testament.  Our congregation’s name “Salem” is a variation of the word “Shalom.”  Arabs use a similar word, “Salaam” as a greeting, and of course, it also means “peace.”

 “Peace” is one of those things that everybody talks about, but is elusive in our world.  Jews say: “Shalom” and Arabs say: “Salaam” when all the while they are at war with one another.

 Pop stars routinely say “peace” while advocating violence in the name of so-called social justice.”  

 But this is nothing new.  The prophet Jeremiah, who lived in the seventh century BC, preached the Word of God that criticizes those who say, “‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.”  The name “Jerusalem” means “City of Peace” (you can hear the “Salem” in the name), and yet her history is anything but peaceful.

And as important as people think saying “peace” is as a pop-culture phenomenon, our English translation of the Bible employs the word “peace” three hundred and forty-eight times.  “Peace” was the first word with which our risen Lord greeted the disciples that first Easter.  You will hear the word “peace” several times in the liturgy.

And in our Gospel on this day, our Lord Jesus Christ is distressed that the City of Peace does not know peace, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace!  But now they are hidden from your eyes.”  Our Lord then reveals news that makes Him weep.  He prophesies the destruction of the city by means of a siege and the flattening of the beautiful temple.  This prophecy was fulfilled forty years after He said it would happen, as the City of Peace was routed by the Romans in a ruthless invasion that left the temple as a pile of rubble.

And why this judgment?  Our Lord comes out and says so: “Because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

God has visited His people, but His people refused to believe.  But the remnant who did became the Church, the New Israel, and they were joined by Gentile believers who know the “peace of God which surpasses all understanding,” the peace of the Prince of Peace Himself.

But what does this mean, dear friends?  What is this peace that pop stars and hippies talk about, Jeremiah yearned for, Jerusalem did not know, and our Lord delivered from the empty tomb?  What is this peace of the prophets and our Lord? 

In this fallen world, we think peace means a lack of combat.  We think North Korea and South Korea are at peace because there are enemy troops arrayed against each other in an ironically-named “Demilitarized zone.”  The Cold War was described as “peace through mutual assured destruction,” and the fact that the world wasn’t incinerated in a nuclear holocaust was considered “peace.”  That’s how low the bar is.  United Nations soldiers are called “peacekeepers,” in a reminder of George Orwell’s book “1984” in which the government told people that “war is peace.”

Jesus greets the disciples with the word “peace” that first Easter because they were getting a little glimpse of how things were before the fall into sin in the Garden of Eden.  They saw the New Adam: sinless, perfect, victorious, and immortal.  They saw sin and its effects defeated and removed.  They saw the beginning of the Last Days, as the world awaits the consummation of the re-creation of heaven and earth, as God and man are reconciled, as sin is forgiven, as death is delivered a mortal blow, and as Satan is defeated at the cross: his lies exposed, his damage undone, and his false peace shown for what it is: a perversion and inversion of actual peace.

So what does “peace” look like, dear friends?  Look to the Garden of Eden.  We see a husband and wife content with who they are: men and women as they were created, the man as the head of the wife without lording over her, the wife as the helpmeet of the husband without being a doormat.  We see God and man conversing in the cool of the day, mankind unashamed and unafraid of God, God without wrath or judgment to visit upon mankind.  We see harmony and concord between men, and between all creatures: no predation, no fear, and no need to kill in order to live.  And we see eternal life, we see a universe without rebellion and without Satan and his lies.  We see planets waiting to be explored, technology waiting to be discovered, we see human beings cooperating perfectly with no scarcity or poverty, and we see humanity content to serve and give praise to the Most Holy Trinity without a lust to dominate his brothers or to claim dominion over God.

All of this, dear friends, is packed into this beautiful word, “Shalom.”  Our forebears understood this when they chose the name “Salem” for our congregation.  And it was the Lord’s intent for Jerusalem: the city that was to be Mt. Zion for eternity.

And so we see why Jeremiah and our Lord weep.  For in our Godless world, there is no peace, even though Christ Himself hand-delivers this peace that everybody claims to want, offering it as a free gift, wrought from His own shed blood, and it belongs to any who will receive it by faith.  It is a tragedy when anyone rejects this peace in favor of a counterfeit peace of the kind decried by Jeremiah.

True peace, dear friends, is found only in Christ.  For only He could restore peace to our fallen world through the forgiveness of sins, dying on the cross, and rising victorious over sin, death, and the devil.  Jesus has won the war and has thus won the peace.  And we await His glorious return and the completion of the world’s restoration to follow even as His work on the cross was completed with His cry of: “It is finished.”

And so, dear brothers and sisters, the true peace sign is the sign of the cross.  Real peace isn’t a wishful and wistful greeting among the rich and beautiful, but is rather a reality among the rejected and hated of this world: the peace that Jesus gives to those who are baptized and who believe: the Church.

And dear friends, we have this peace not by works but by faith.  “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”

May you know the time of your visitation, dear friends, and may the Lord’s peace be upon you by grace, through faith.  

Peace be with you.  Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Confederate Ceremony at Greenwood

On Saturday, August 8, 2020, the Lt. J.Y. Sanders Camp 2092 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans held a memorial for some of our Confederate heroes buried at the historic Greenwood Cemetery in New Orleans.

The assembly gathered at the grave of Brig. Gen. Thomas Moore Scott (1829-1876) of the 12th Louisiana Infantry.  Cmdr. Steve Alvarez opened the ceremony and called upon me to open with prayer.  My first prayer was offered in thanks for the service of Gen. Scott and also Brig. Young Marshall Moody, whose grave we would also visit nearby:

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  Lord God, Heavenly Father, You raise up great leaders to guide Your people in times of peace and in times of war.  We give you thanks for the lives of Your servants Thomas and Young, and all officers who risked and laid down their lives in the struggle for Southern Independence.  We pray that we would always remember the great men who led our military forces in defense of their country and their states, that we would honor their service and emulate their virtues, that we too might pass along to posterity a legacy of servant leadership, of assuming responsibility, and caring for those whom we serve, through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, for you live and reign with Him and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

 

Cmdr. Alvarez then read a brief biography of Gen. Scott, a native of Athens, Georgia who moved to Louisiana and took up sugar farming - whose gravesite had been restored through a labor of love by members of the Sanders Camp.  

Gen Scott's entry at Wikipedia summarizes his service:

Scott was appointed colonel of the 12th Louisiana Infantry Regiment on August 13, 1861.  He served at the Battle of Belmont, although not actively engaged, and at the battles of Island Number Ten, New Madrid, Fort Pillow, the Siege of Vicksburg, including the Battle of Baker's Creek and the operations of General Joseph E. Johnston in Mississippi in which he tried to relieve the forces besieged at Vicksburg, and during the Atlanta Campaign, initially under the command of Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk.

Scott was promoted to the grade of brigadier general on May 10, 1864 after distinguished service at the beginning of the Atlanta campaign.  He was severely wounded in the back from concussion of a shell on November 30, 1864 at the Battle of Franklin and apparently saw no further action.  No record of his parole has been found.

Gen. Scott survived the war, returned to sugar farming, and died in 1876 at the Sample Coffee House in New Orleans. 

A two-man honor guard fired volleys, and Taps was played.  Pictures were taken at the gravesite, followed by a toast to the General with shots of Southern Comfort.  A small bottle was buried at the gravesite.

The assembly walked in the blistering heat to the gravesite of Brig. Gen. Young Marshall Moody (1822-1866), who is buried in a mausoleum.  Cmdr. Alvarez shared highlights in the life and service of Gen. Moody, a native of Virginia who moved to Alabama.  

Gen. Moody's wartime service is summarized at Wikipedia:

Young Marshall Moody entered Confederate States Army service as captain of Company A of the 11th Alabama Infantry Regiment on June 11, 1861. Archibald Gracie III was major of the regiment. Gracie and Moody served with the 11th Alabama Infantry in northern Virginia but returned to Mobile in order to recruit the 43rd Alabama Infantry Regiment in April 1862. Gracie became colonel and Moody became lieutenant colonel of the regiment. In November 1862, Gracie was promoted to brigadier general and Moody was appointed colonel of the regiment on November 4, 1862.

Moody fought in the Kentucky Campaign, including the Battle of Perryville, and at the Battle of Chickamauga, the Siege of Chattanooga, the Siege of Knoxville and the Battle of Bean's Station. While Gracie was recovering from a wound, Moody supervised the transfer of the brigade to the Petersburg, Virginia area where they served under the command of General P.G.T. Beauregard.

On May 16, 1864, Moody was wounded in the right ankle at Drewry's Bluff during the Battle of Proctor's Creek, part of the Bermuda Hundred Campaign. Moody's regiment served with Gracie's brigade during the Siege of Petersburg until Gracie was killed by an exploding artillery shell on December 2, 1864. Moody then took command of the brigade but he was not promoted to brigadier general until March 4, 1865. Moody led the brigade until he was captured at Appomattox Court House, Virginia on April 8, 1865, the day before the surrender by General Robert E. Lee of the Army of Northern Virginia to Union Army forces led by Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant.

Moody was paroled at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. He was pardoned on July 20, 1866, two months before his death.

Gen. Moody relocated to Mobile, Alabama and went into business after the war's end.  He died in New Orleans of yellow fever while on a business trip.

Next, we made our way to the grave of Mary Sophia Hill (1819-1902), a loyal Confederate nurse who was neither military, nor American - and yet she was afforded military honors at the end of her long life.  A wreath was laid at her tombstone.  Green beads honoring her Irish birth and service to the Confederate Irish Brigade were placed on her marker (which had only been placed in 2005 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy).  

I was called upon to pray:

Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, our Redeemer, and our Good Physician of body and soul, You raise up those who serve in the medical arts, curing the sick, comforting the ailing, and ministering to those in physical need.  We thank you for the life and work of Your servant Mary and all military and civilian members of the medical corps of the Confederate States of America.  We pray that we would always honor their legacy and reflect their compassion and devotion to those in need, especially those who defend our liberties.  We pray in Your most holy name, for You live and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Cmdr. Alvarez read a synopsis of Miss Hill's life and service to her adopted country.  This intriguing article not only details her remarkable life, but also cites a 1902 newspaper account of her equally remarkable funeral, as well as the successful effort more than a hundred years later to mark this remarkable woman's grave.

The assembly made its way to its final place of remembrance for the day: a remarkable mound of 600 Confederate soldiers, sailors, and marines.  An imposing monument soars into the sky to mark the mass grave.  The four sides of the pillar upon which a Confederate infantryman is depicted, includes striking busts of Generals Lee, Jackson, Polk, and Johnston.  The remains of Confederate hero William B. Mumford - who was executed by Maj. Gen. Benjamin "Beast" Butler for taking down the US flag from the New Orleans Mint during the occupation - were moved to this burial site as well.

I offered the following prayer:

O Holy Spirit, who calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies Your people on earth, we thank and praise You for leading Your servants to do their duty to protect hearth and home according to their divine calling.  We especially give thanks for these 600 men who served in defense of family and honor.  We pray that You may guide us today to humbly and courageously honor them and likewise answer the call to service in the many and various ways that You provide us.  We pray for the grace to leave behind an honorable legacy as well, defending liberty in these perilous times, maintaining our independence and right to self-government, and our ability to freely believe and to worship You, for You live and reign with the Father and the Son, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Once final time for the day, the honor guard fired volleys in honor of these brave soldiers.

Here is a link to my album of pictures.

 

Sermon: Trinity 9 - 2020

9 August 2020

Text: Luke 16:1-13

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

There is an old expression: “Honor among thieves.”  It’s ironic, of course, because by definition, thieves are not honorable.  But in their world, there is still a code of conduct – especially among gangs and organized crime.  Some prison gangs actually have written constitutions and bylaws.  Breaking them results in, shall we say, consequences.  

Thieves themselves have rules and expectations – though they are not motivated by love and helping others, but rather enriching themselves even if by dishonestly and even violence.

And even though we should never emulate the sociopathic values of the thieves and thugs – we can certainly learn from their stories.  Sometimes, they even ironically outdo Christians in their wisdom (or “shrewdness” as Jesus says), their loyalty to one another (even if it is self-serving), their dedication to their cause, their growth in their craft, and their grit and determination.  When I worked as a corrections officer, it always amazed me how hard criminals were willing to work to get out of work.  If they channeled their brilliance and their energies into making an honest living, they would be living on easy street instead of in a cage.

Our Lord certainly understands the foibles of fallen man, our sinful human nature, and He is bold to use a criminal as an object lesson, and in the process, shaming Christians as a matter of the Law, and yet teaching them about His own scheme of “debt forgiveness” which is the Gospel.

The dishonest manager in our Lord’s story has been shirking.  He “was wasting” [the boss’s] “possessions.”  The dishonest manager is told to hand in his final report, for he is being fired.  The “manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me?  I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.’”  

Motivated by losing his job, the dishonest manager – who had probably been lazy – now works like a dog, negotiating, making bargains, and closing deals.  He spends a long day in meetings with “his master’s debtors one by one.”  He rewrites their contracts without the boss’s permission.  He essentially slashes the prices that the various clients have to pay.  He figures that he is being fired anyway, so he might as well make friends in high places, so that when he does get fired, he can call in favors with his new friends.

And while this is completely crooked, you have to stand in awe of this crook that Jesus created as a character in a short story.  People who love O. Henry stories, or “The Twilight Zone” or novels by Kurt Vonnegut don’t know what they’re missing by not reading the collection of short stories by our Lord Jesus Christ.  Maybe they are put off by the term “parables,” but our Lord’s storytelling is sheer genius.  He is God after all.

We look at the complex character of the dishonest manager through the lens of his boss.  “The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.”  Even as this crook was ripping him off, the boss cannot help but be, pardon the expression, gobsmacked by the conduct of his dishonest employee.  The boldness of this plan, the strategy, the hard work that it took to make it happen, the mastery of human psychology – all of these are things to behold.  Even as the boss doesn’t approve of being scammed, how can he not applaud?

Our Lord tells all of us who aspire to live the Christian life: “The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.”  Indeed, the honor among thieves – as defective as it is – sometimes puts us Christians to shame.  For we have the greatest news to share with the world, but we squander opportunities to do so.  We have the promise of eternal life, but we live as if we fear death.  We have the Word of God, which casts out demons, which is infallible, which is a supernatural life-giving Word that saves people from death and hell – but we barely bother reading it and studying it.  We have the Divine Service in which our Lord comes to us in the preached Word, in Holy Absolution, and in the Holy Sacrament – but our minds wander, and we often just go through the motions without reflecting on the miracle.

While not being crooks, we should look to this fictional dishonest manager and emulate his shrewdness for the kingdom. Jesus says, “make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into eternal dwellings.”  We should treat worldly wealth as a tool to advance the kingdom, while avoiding the love of money and becoming a slave to mammon.  

But Jesus isn’t merely preaching the Law to us Christians as encouragement to do better in our faith and life, for believe it or not, there is something of Himself in the dishonest manager.  Not that Jesus is dishonest, but our Lord does take our debts and cross them out.  Though by our sins, we owe our Heavenly Father a debt of blood to be settled in death and hell, our Lord Jesus, who is shrewd and yet honest, renegotiates the contract, signs it in His own blood, and pays our “wages of sin” (which is death) out of His own account.  He is the Lamb of God who is sacrificed for the sins of the world. 

The devil may claim that this is dishonest, for justice requires that we all die and that we all suffer eternal condemnation for our sins.  The Word of God says so.  And the Word is infallible.  God is just.  We sons of Adam and daughters of Eve “shall surely die,” as our Lord Himself says.  But there is a scheme.  There is a shrewd plan to both satisfy justice and to show us, His beloved ones, mercy.  There is a pardon for us, but one that requires payment in full by a Substitute.

Our shrewd Savior cheats the devil, pays the cost we owe, liberates us from our debt, and restores us to “be His own and live under Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.”  The Father commends the Son for His shrewdness: His love for us and His obedience to the Father.  For this was God’s plan for you, dear brother, dear sister, from before the foundation of the world.  “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write zero.”  This is the Good News.  This is the Gospel.  This is what the Christian faith is all about.

In the Lord’s Prayer, when we say, “Forgive us our trespasses,” we are using the word “trespass” in an old way, one that means “debts.”  By our sins, we are indebted by a cost that we could never pay.  We are in a state of spiritual ruin, where even the interest is more than we could ever earn in a thousand lifetimes.  But debt forgiveness reduces our bill to zero.  This is why Jesus said, “It is finished” on the cross.  Yes, you did nothing to deserve debt forgiveness, and that is what God’s grace means.  It is given to you by Holy Baptism.  It is, as St. Paul calls it, a “free gift.”  So take it, and receive Jesus into your houses, especially when your attempts at self-righteousness fail.  Your good works and your money are no good here.  There is no Purgatory to buy your way out of.  Your debt is forgiven.  Now live your life as free Christians, with gratitude for the One who renegotiated your contract, not to save His own skin, but because He sacrifices His own flesh and blood to save yours.

He even gives you His flesh to eat and His blood to drink, in His own words, “for the forgiveness of sins.”  It is finished!

And let the honor of the Church exceed that which is found among thieves.  Let our diligence in the kingdom put the example of the dishonest manager to shame.  Let us rejoice and be grateful that by the shrewdness of Him who was crucified for us, our debt is forgiven.  Let us not serve two masters, but rather let us shrewdly serve our Lord who serves us.

Amen. 

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon: Trinity 8 - 2020

2 August 2020

Text: Matt 7:15-23 (Jer 23:16-29, Rom 8:12-17)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

The prophet Jeremiah warns us not to believe so-called prophets who are “filling you with vain hopes.”  For “they speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.”  He goes on to point out that false prophets tell us what we want to hear, that everything is great, that nothing bad will happen to us.  Meanwhile, Jeremiah warns us of “the storm of the Lord,” of His wrath and judgment.

Needless to say, Jeremiah was not a popular prophet.  He made people angry.  He didn’t just tell people what they wanted to hear.  But he told them what the Lord wanted them to hear.

The prophet is often like John the Baptist, a “voice crying in the wilderness.”  And Jeremiah points out that had the false prophets actually proclaimed the Word of God to His people, “they would have turned them from their evil way and the evil of their deeds." 

For this is the calling of the prophet and the preacher of the prophetic Word – to call people to repent, to renounce evil, to turn from their wicked ways, to leave what the early church fathers called the way that leads to death, and instead follow the path that leads to life.

We have more false prophets today than in Jeremiah’s day.  We have false prophets in the church, in politics, in sports, in entertainment, in science, in medicine, in schools and universities, in the media – all repeating the same lies, all repudiating the Word of God.  When things are fine, they tell us they are not.  When things are bad, they tell us “No disaster will come upon you.”  Our false prophets of today lead us away from the design of God’s creation for men and women, for families and children, for the proper role of authority, they drag us into ugly fights over identity politics, they lie about what Scripture teaches about right and wrong, they lead us to follow our feelings instead of the prophetic Word, and worst of all, they lie about our Lord Jesus Christ, trying to create Him in their own image.

“I did not send the prophets,” says the Lord, “yet they ran.  I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.”

Our Lord Jesus Himself also warns us: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”

A false prophet is not just misleading.  A false prophet is a wolf who seeks your destruction.  He is a liar, and Satan is the father of lies.  Be very careful, dear friends, whom you listen to, whom you believe, whom you entrust your body and your soul to.  Be wise and discerning.  But most of all, know what the Word of God is, so that you can spot and expose the false prophets instead of falling for them.  There is no substitute for knowing the Scriptures inside and out.  For this is the infallible revelation of the Word of God that will enable you, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to see through the wolf’s sheep-clothing.  For liars and conmen talk a good talk.  They quote Scripture. They make a lot of sense.  And most of all, they tell us what we want to hear.

Jesus says that if you want to know if a tree is good or bad, examine the fruit.  The fruit doesn’t lie.  The fruit exposes the condition of the tree, be it good or diseased.  And the diseased tree “is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

Our Lord is very clear that false prophets are so clever that their works can deceive us into thinking they are bearing good fruit, “Did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?” they ask Jesus on the final day.  And our Lord replies, “I never knew you; depart from me you workers of lawlessness.”

Lawlessness.  That sounds a lot like what we are seeing all around us.  Lawlessness.  For the prophet proclaims the Law, calling people to repent of their sins, but they want to be affirmed and celebrated.  They are lawless.  They do not see the blessings of the prophet who proclaims the Law before declaring the Gospel.  We live in a day and age where people see no need to repent.  Everyone has an excuse.  People are protesting in the streets to abolish law and order, to legitimize violence, to destroy freedom of speech and the right to worship God.  

Workers of lawlessness are not prophets.  Jesus does not know them – even if they invoke His name and claim to work miracles.  If a so-called miracle-worker, in the words of our catechism, “teaches or lives contrary to God’s Word profanes the name of God among us.”  And we pray, “Protect us from this, heavenly Father!”

We are called to both teach and live according to the Word.  We are called to teach rightly concerning our sinfulness, our need to repent, our Lord’s mercy, His atoning death on the cross, His glorious resurrection, and the promise of eternal life to those who are baptized and who believe.  We are called to confess this truth of God’s Word, and we are also called to live our lives as we would expect if we actually believe that this is indeed most certainly true. 

If we truly believe that Jesus is physically and miraculously present in His Holy Supper, then our lives should be centered around the weekly Divine Service.  If we truly believe that the Scriptures are life-giving, supernatural words, then our lives should likewise be centered around the Word of God in daily reflection.  If we truly believe that God hears our prayers, then our lives should be ordered by praying as a matter of course during the day and during the week.

But what if it isn’t?  What if “the cares and riches and pleasures of life” choke out the seed of God’s Word and your “fruit does not mature,” as our Lord teaches in the parable of the sower?  Then the prophets call us to repentance.  They tell us what we don’t want to hear.  They warn us like watchmen along the wall, telling us that our days are short, and the kingdom of God is at hand.  The true prophet loves us enough not to whisper comfort in our ears, but rather jolt us out of our comfortable reality in order to save us from the path of destruction that the false prophets have placed us on: the way that leads to death.

The prophets point us to the Word of God – the Word that is the Scripture and the Word that is Christ.  The prophets tell us that not all is well, that our world is fallen, that our flesh is sinful, and that we need to repent.  St. Paul says, “If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”  Our flesh is not evil, but it is corrupted.  Our thoughts and desires are not necessarily God’s will.  But we do have the Scriptures to guide us, and the love of Christ who has redeemed us, and the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment calling us to heed the word of the prophets “to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

So do not follow false prophets, dear friends, whether they claim to speak for church or society.  Test everything according to the Word of God, which is always true.  Your emotions can deceive you.  Visions can be misleading.  Your own desires can masquerade as prophecy.  The claims that “I have dreamed, I have dreamed” are often “lies” as Jeremiah warns us.  Let us rather look to the Word of God, praying with the poet:

Thy strong Word did cleave the darkness;

At Thy speaking it was done.

For created light we thank Thee,

While Thine ordered seasons run.

Give us lips to sing Thy glory.

Tongues Thy mercy to proclaim,

Throats that shout the hope that fills us,

Mouths to speak Thy holy name.  

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.