Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday of Easter 4 - 2021

April 27, 2021

Text: Luke 9:37-62

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Sometimes it seems as if our Lord’s disciples will never learn.  And this is especially ironic, because a “disciple” is a student – and Jesus is their “Rabbi,” their Teacher.  Jesus has been telling them plainly what is going to happen when they get to Jerusalem.  This time, He even hammers home the point: “Let these words sink into your ears,” before yet again predicting His own passion.  But they don’t get it.  “And they were afraid to ask Him about it.”

Being in denial about the nature of the Lord coming into His kingdom, the disciples begin to jockey for position in the kingdom they think Jesus is going to enter into – a political, worldly kingdom.  “An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest.”  And our Lord rains on their parade by referring them to a child, and by telling them, “He who is least among you is the one who is great.”

And once again, instead of playing to their delusions of worldly grandeur in following Him, He bursts their bubble about fame and accolades.  Our Lord reminds them that to be a disciple is to adopt an existence not of mansions and fancy transportation, but that of the “Son of Man” who “has nowhere to lay His head.” 

And in fact, to follow Jesus means everything else is secondary – even good things like the filial duty toward one’s parents, even attending funerals or squaring things with families first.  To this, our Lord says: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Even as Jesus leads them to Jerusalem to witness His passion, death, and resurrection, He is still teaching them – and they are clueless at times.  In fact, they will not figure out completely who Jesus is until He is crucified, dead, buried, raised, and ascended – and the Holy Spirit comes to them to complete their training as disciples.  It is then that they will learn about greatness in the kingdom as they preach the Gospel and suffer while they do so.

Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

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

Sunday, April 25, 2021

Sermon: Easter 4 - 2021

25 April 2021

Text: John 16:16-22 (Isa 40:25-31, 1 Pet 2:11-20)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Sorrow is temporary, dear friends.  We have sorrow now, as our Lord teaches us.  We have sorrow now because we live in a fallen world.  We are broken and sinful – just like every other human being that has been born into the world since the Fall in Eden.  We suffer disappointments, estranged relationships, health issues, and death.  Those we love die, and we too are mortal – even as God pronounced the sad curse upon Adam, that we ourselves placed on our own heads by our sin and rebellion.

Jesus taps into this sorrow as He tells His disciples that He will be going away, and they will suffer sorrow in His temporary absence.  But even in His absence, dear friends, He is present in an unseen way, as He is God.  Jesus is with us too, though we don’t experience Him the way the disciples did when he walked the earth with them.

And so we have sorrow in this world – especially as it crumbles seemingly day by day.  Not only do we suffer the way that all of humanity has suffered, we are living in a time of increased hostility and hatred for the Church, where Jesus is, yet again, lied about and attacked.  And we don’t know where this is leading in our lifetimes, or in the lifetimes of our children and grandchildren.  And so we have sorrow now.

And, dear friends, our Lord doesn’t sugar-coat things.  The world, the devil, and even our own sinful nature are opposed to Him.  This rebellion against His will assures that things will degrade.  As Jesus says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice.”  Even as the world exerts power over us, it gloats over us.  The world mocks us, ridicules us, and relishes its tyranny over us – thinking themselves righteous – for they are deceived by the devil, the prince of this world.  And didn’t they do the same to our dear Lord?

But like our sorrow, the devil’s dominion over this world, and over our flesh, is temporary.  And this is how Jesus encourages us: “You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.”  All of the sorrow and misery that we see is destined to scatter like storm clouds that blow away and are replaced by clear, blue skies and sunshine.  The things that vex us and seem permanent – even death itself – are really only temporary.  For that is why Jesus came into our world: not to condemn it, but to save it.  Not to judge it, but to redeem it. 

And He does not come to force you to partake of His great re-creation of the universe.  He does not force us to believe.  He offers us a more excellent way: a way of love and joy, of completeness and restoration, a way of life that will have no end.

It is yours by grace, as a free gift.  It costs you nothing, dear brothers and sisters, because it has already been bought and paid for by His blood shed at the cross, and by His body that suffered and died.  This body and blood are given to you as a free gift, as currency with which to pay the burden of the debt that causes all your sorrow.  Jesus extends Himself to you, reaching His hand into the pit where you find yourself, so that He can hoist you out.  For you are powerless to do so on your own.  And that, dear friends, is why we need a Savior!

Our Lord calls to mind Eden again, when He points out the curse that Eve brought upon herself and upon all her daughters: the anguish of her pain, and the sorrow she experiences in giving birth in our fallen world, in her own fallen flesh, birthing another person whose flesh is likewise tainted by sin and death. 

But nevertheless, there is still joy, dear friends.  For even in our sin, we are still multiplying, carrying out the Lord’s mandate by which He brings new life into the world.  There is sorrow in that temporary time of birthing and raising children, but there will be joy when the Lord returns, when the devil is no more, when resurrection replaces death, and when our flesh is cleansed of all unrighteousness.  And in eternity, we will no longer experience the curse of pain and death, of suffering and sorrow.  These memories will be wiped away, replaced by the eternal joy of the new birth.

“So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you,” says our Lord.  For in this fallen world, there are many who desire nothing more than to take our joy from us.  But “no one” will do so when the little while of our Lord’s time away from us ends.  We will see Him again.  He will come in great glory.  And our sorrow will end, never to return.

This is an ironclad promise of God, dear friends, even as we heard God’s messenger Isaiah yet again: “Have you not known?  Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.”

We find our strength in this promise, in the reality that our burdens will end, and our temporary sorrow will be replaced by permanent and everlasting joy.  For this prophecy is fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ, who has conquered sin, death, and the devil, and who is coming again.

And St. Peter reminds us to keep this sorrowful, fallen life in perspective.  This is not our house.  This is more like an inn.  We are travelers, just passing through.  We are, as he says, “sojourners and exiles.”  As broken as life on this side of the grave is, it is only temporary housing until our true home is built, and we are called to reside there.

And so, Peter teaches us how to endure suffering and sorrow, knowing that it is all temporary.  Let us not get so bogged down in the temporary nature of this life so as to forget our Lord’s words that put it all into perspective: “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy…. and no one will take your joy from you!”

Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

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

Friday, April 23, 2021

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy Family Retreat – Camp Okoboji, IA (Vespers) – Apr 23, 2021

23 April 2021

Text: Luke 24:13-35

 In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

 Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

 “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.”  At the time, this was understood by Cleopas and the other disciple as a polite invitation to a fellow weary traveler – one who had Good News to tell them in the midst of the confusing and disturbing news that was all that everybody was talking about.

 Of course, this fellow weary traveler was the risen Lord Jesus Christ, but “their eyes were kept from recognizing him.”  Nevertheless, this man’s teaching was intriguing, and they wanted to hear more of His profound Word.  For “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things” having to do with the recently crucified Jesus.

And so they asked Him to stay with them and continue the conversation.  They were hungry for more.

And of course as all travelers know, whether they are walking on foot to Emmaus, or driving or flying to Camp Okoboji, traveling makes one hungry.  And this mysterious traveler is not only about to eat with them, but He is going to share with them the best meal that they will ever eat, and the best news that they will ever hear.  For “when he was at table with them, He took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him.”  They recognized Him, dear friends, when He said, “This is My body.” The Sacrament brought the Word to life, even as the Word makes mere bread the Sacrament.  They recognized Him in the bread, in the Supper, in the Law, in the Prophets, in the Psalms, in all the Scriptures, in the Preaching, in the cross, in the resurrection, and in the Sacrament of the Altar!  They recognized Him in the Good News of forgiveness, life, and salvation.  Yes, indeed, “Lord Jesus Christ, with us abide!”

For this is the Christian life, dear friends, for we too recognize Him in the Supper.  We too hear the Good News of who He is and what He does.  We too recognize Him in all the Scriptures, and He invites us to His table as disciples on the road to eternity.    

And like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, we confess with our fellow believers and travelers, and we confess to the unbelieving world as well: “The Lord has risen indeed!”  And with these disciples and with Christians of every time and place, we pray:

Abide with us, Lord, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.  Abide with us and with Your whole Church.  Abide with us at the end of the day, at the end of our life, at the end of the world.  Abide with us in Your grace and goodness, with Your holy Word and Sacrament.

Stay with us, Lord, and keep us true:
Preserve our faith our whole life through –
Your Word alone, our heart’s defense,
The Church’s glorious confidence

Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

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

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday of Easter 3 - 2021



Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday of Easter 3 - 2021

April 20, 2021

Text: Luke 7:18-25

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

John the Baptist is looking for confirmation from His cousin Jesus that He is indeed the Christ.  Jesus points out to John’s disciples that He is performing the very signs prophesied in the Old Testament: “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.”

Jesus also points out that some are “offended” by Him.

Indeed, “the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves” – just as they rejected the Baptism of John.  In fact, our Lord calls out those who simultaneously rejected John because of his secluded lifestyle of fasting and abstaining from alcohol, while at the same time rejecting Jesus for eating and drinking with people.  Our Lord’s critics accused John of having “a demon,” while calling our Lord “a glutton and a drunkard.”

And yet Jesus – who began His public ministry with the miraculous baptism by John – is openly performing signs and wonders that everybody (especially the experts in the Law and the Pharisees) knew were signs of the coming of the Messiah.  Interestingly, it was not the biblical scholars and religious leaders who came to faith in Jesus, but rather “all the people… the tax collectors too” who were baptized by John, and who followed Jesus.

This is why Jesus says: “Blessed is the one who is not offended by Me.” 

For even today, our Lord is offensive, both to unbelievers who rage against God, and to those who worship a caricature of Jesus.  The only way to get to know the real Jesus is to encounter Him in His Word – especially in the Gospels.  There you will meet Jesus, the real Jesus, and you will not find a meek and mild guru spewing politically-correct fortune cookie blather.  Rather you will encounter the God who is willing to die to redeem the creation that rebelled against Him.  You will find one who demonstrates His mastery over the universe, His condemnation of those who reject Him, but most of all, His mercy for “all the people” who hear His Word and are transformed by it!

Blessed indeed, dear friends, are those who know the real Jesus from the Word, and are not offended by Him – but rather serve Him as our very God and Redeemer!  Go and tell what you have seen and heard!

Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

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

Sunday, April 18, 2021

Sermon: Easter 3 - 2021

21 April 2021

Text: John 10:11-16 (Ezek 34:11-16, 1 Pet 2:21-25)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

The thread that connects our readings – and even our hymns – is the relationship between shepherds and sheep.  For human beings and sheep mutually benefit.  Men use the products of the sheep for clothing and warmth, and sheep enjoy the protection and intelligence of a human caretaker to keep the herd intact, fed, watered, and out of harm’s way.

The domesticated sheep and their human caretakers are a little window into the Garden of Eden, when all creation lived harmoniously, without sin and violence – even though the representation is far from perfect.  The little window is broken and foggy and discolored – but we can still see the shadows of the former perfect world by squinting and imagining.

The readings on this third Sunday of Easter have been the same for centuries, so that it is not only named “Misericordias Domini” after the opening words of the Introit in Latin, it is also called “Good Shepherd Sunday” – because of the Gospel reading and the other readings as well.

Jesus takes up this theme of the shepherd-sheep relationship and uses it as a metaphor for Himself.  And in doing so, He is building on the Old Testament Scriptures, like the prophecy we heard in Ezekiel, where God says: “I Myself will search for My sheep and I will seek them out.  As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered.”  For sheep live in flocks, or communities.  If they become scattered for some reason, they are vulnerable to predators.  Ezekiel prophesies about God’s people being scattered.  For when we are living among unbelievers and cut off from meeting with one another, we are vulnerable to being attacked by the devil, the way that a wolf lurks about for scattered and lost sheep.

So God promises to come Himself and gather those who are scattered.

And He promises not only to “seek the lost” but also to “bring back the strayed” and “bind the injured” and “strengthen the weak” and to destroy the ones who have taken advantage of the others.  “I will feed them in justice,” says the Lord.

This is, of course, a reference to the coming of Jesus.  For God’s people have been scattered.  Because of their disobedience, they have strayed from the truth.  And so they are weak, and they have been vulnerable to being downtrodden by others – some of their own nation, others from occupiers.  And God promises to restore that which is broken.

This is why Jesus says, “I am the Good Shepherd.”  He is calling to mind passages like our reading from Ezekiel to reveal His mission.  He “lays down His life for the sheep.”  For that is also what a shepherd does: he interposes himself between predators and the sheep under his care.  And it is a risky business.  A shepherd can be hurt.  He can even die.  But, of course, a hired hand is not going to die for someone else’s sheep.  He will run away, and if the sheep get eaten or scattered, well, he would rather preserve his own skin.  But not the Good Shepherd, not Jesus, who fights to the death for His sheep.  In fact, He does something no other shepherd in history has ever done: He becomes a Lamb.  He is born as one whom He cares for.  And what’s more, because we don’t live in Eden, but rather in a world of sin and death, sheep serve another purpose for humanity: sacrifices.  The Lamb is sacrificed at the Passover, remembering the people of God being spared death.  Sheep are sacrificed to make atonement for the people.  The scapegoat had sins placed upon it and it was left to die. 

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, becomes the “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”  The Shepherd is also the sheep, the Priest is also the offering, God is also man, the Eternal One is also capable of death.

This is the extreme nature of the Lord’s plan to rescue His sheep.  This is what Ezekiel’s prophecy means that God promises to save His sheep Himself.  And when the Good Shepherd “lays down His life for the sheep,” He doesn’t merely risk His life fighting the wolf, He allows Himself to be killed by the wolf, being sacrificed by sin so as to conquer sin, being put to death to vanquish death, being bruised in the heel by the serpent in order to bruise the head of the serpent.

And this is how Jesus, the Good Shepherd, comes to restore the Garden of Eden.  And though the bloody work of the cross is done, and though He has risen from the dead, He continues to shepherd us until He returns to re-create the universe anew and to raise us from the dead in a new Garden of Eden.

This is what St. Peter means when he writes: “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.  By His wounds you have been healed.  For you were straying like sheep, but now have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

And it was Peter whom the risen Jesus restored to the office of the ministry when Jesus asked Peter to, “feed My lambs,” “tend My sheep” and “feed My sheep.” For Jesus continues to do the work of shepherding the flock through His called servants, who in a lesser way, lay down their lives for the sheep. 

The word “pastor” is Latin for “shepherd.”  And the Lord shepherds His flock using them as His servants, His ministers.  Pastors feed the little lambs by baptizing them.  They tend the sheep by preaching the Word to them.  They feed the sheep by administering the Holy Supper to them.  And the Good Shepherd says: “There are other sheep that are not of this fold.  I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice.”  This is the work of evangelism, of the other metaphor of St. Peter’s work as a “fisher of men.” 

The work of the shepherd is both violent and tender.  We see King David in his youth slinging rocks that are lethal even to the Philistine giant.  Shepherds must fight off lions and wolves by means of their own bodies and whatever weapons they have at hand.  But shepherds are also gentle toward the sheep, binding up their broken limbs, stopping their bleeding, keeping little lambs safe in the fold of their mothers, making sure the older sheep do not get left behind.  The sheep come to know and trust their shepherd, knowing his voice, and the shepherd’s entire existence revolves around keeping the flock together, bringing them to water, and finding good grazing fields for their sustenance and health.

Jesus is still shepherding the flock, dear friends, for He is still our “Bonus Pastor” – our Good Shepherd.  His promise to seek us out, rescue us from all places where we have been scattered “on a day of clouds and thick darkness,” and to bring us out from among the hostile peoples where we find ourselves – is still His ministry among us. 

Jesus still gathers us in the church, waters us with baptism, feeds us with His Supper, and protects us from the wolf. 

Let us “listen to [His] voice” and remember His promise: “I know My own and My own know Me.” 

“So there will be one flock, one Shepherd.” 

Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

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

Saturday, April 17, 2021

On Universal Conscription


 

 "I honestly think that every US citizen should serve in the military for at least two years."
~ Comment on Facebook

As we look at the degeneration of our culture, it becomes apparent that younger generations are lacking in things like discipline, self-confidence, and the idea of serving one's fellow man, but are instead increasingly dependent, self-centered, and narcissistic.  It isn't surprising that simplistic solutions are floated - like this common suggestion above, that young people be subject to universal military conscription.

The reasoning would be sound - if we were dealing with animals or machines.  If something doesn't work, you apply outside force to get a different result.  But most of us treat human beings differently than golden retrievers or Wankel rotary engines.  Especially, as members of Western civilization, as being within the Anglo-Saxon legal tradition, and as Americans, a solution grounded in empowering the State to solve social problems ought to raise a red flag (perhaps even literally so).

Applying the "military for all" option for human beings rests upon the fallacy of "post hoc ergo propter hoc" - that because previous generations (such as the generation that went through World War II) were better equipped for life than the current crop of young men and women, and because our grandfathers and grandmothers were shaped by the rigors of military life, both at the battlefront and on the homefront, it follows that widespread military service would inculcate values of discipline, service, thrift, and personal responsibility into the current profligate and rootless generation.  Of course, this presumes that military service and such positive traits are related by causation instead of mere correlation.  

There are indeed a lot of variables in the current cultural soup, too many to presume that adding one ingredient will assure a pleasant stew.

Another problem with the "make everybody serve two years in the military" solution is that it is merely a conservative appropriation of a progressive idea, namely that the military exists for the purpose of social engineering.  The Left believes the military is a means to promoting the agenda of ethnic diversity, pushing quotas and overt race-consciousness - if not outright racial hygiene - within the ranks to achieve its social goals.  The Left also uses the military to promote sexual diversity and the mainstreaming of identities and behaviors that are not within the normal range of the bell curve.  The Left is now also pursuing a political agenda that seeks to cull out soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines whose political ideas may be considered too "extreme" (read: "conservative").

To all of these, the Right rightly cries "foul!" - but the Right likewise sees the military as its own Petri dish to effect social ends, by means of the oft-floated idea of compulsory universal conscription.

The purpose of the military is not to make people more accepting of the woke ideology, nor is it to get your lazy twenty-somethings to learn how to wake up and go to work instead of sleeping in on mom's couch and playing video games all day.  The purpose of the military is to defend the country against invasion, and to provide a deterrent to such attacks.  This is not to say that the United States doesn't use their armed forces to twist foreign arms, to threaten invasion for its own global interests, and to essentially occupy other countries.  But in general, for a country - any country - the military's primary job is to protect the people of that country from invasion.

Turning the military into a social experiment, jobs program, path to college, or a way to instill responsibility in the minds of ne'er-do-wells does not serve the purpose of the military.  And it would likely weaken it.

The suggestion of vastly increasing the size and scope of the military by drafting every 18-year old man and woman presumes that the armed forces are understaffed.  To the contrary, the Unites States taxpayers pay more for "defense" than the next ten countries combined, including all military expenditures of China and Russia.  To add to the numbers of personnel by the millions would be to create jobs that are not needed, and to push an even larger tax burden for the military than we have now at roughly a three-quarter of a trillion dollars per annum.  This influx of recruits would need to be housed, equipped, fed, paid, and trained.  Conservatives used to understand the dictum that money does not grow on trees, though it is printed fraudulently by the Fed. 

And there is also the temptation that having a vastly larger military establishment will result in looking for ways to use it.  When one's only tool is a hammer, one tends to see nails everywhere.  Expanding the military could well result in increased bellicosity on the part of the military and civilian leadership of the country.  After all, what good is a massive standing army if you don't have someone to invade, some "monster to destroy"?

As any serious student of American history knows, the founders were greatly opposed to the idea of a standing federal army, and made no provision for it in the Constitution.  The founders considered standing armies to be a threat to liberty.  

At the time of the founding of the Republic, there was indeed a military obligation of sorts - but not to a standing army.  Able-bodied males of fighting age were considered members of the militia - citizen soldiers - who voluntarily trained with their own families and communities.  They were not taken away from home and perhaps even sent into foreign countries.  Instead, they drilled on the community green periodically with their neighbors. And this was part of genuinely defending the country - even against the federal government itself if need be - hence the Second Amendment.  The militia was not a character-building exercise or scheme to make citizens appreciate racial differences.  Its members  continued to hold their civilian jobs and lives.  

This scheme of artificially increasing the government labor supply in the now-professional standing federal armed forces is the equivalent of FDR's alphabet agencies to pay men to dig holes and fill them as a fallacious way to stimulate the economy - which resulted in prolonging the Great Depression for many years.  For conservatives to suggest such a massive Big Government "solution" demonstrates a lack of understanding of basic market economics.  Were we to suddenly give the military an influx of millions of teenagers - whose services aren't really needed - would create a vast supply with no demand - with the burden of paying for this discrepancy placed on the back of the taxpayer.  And given our progressive tax structure, this would amount to a massive Marxian redistribution of wealth.

And this is coming from the conservative side of things, not the progressive.

Moreover, today's military is not your grandfather's service.  No indeed.  Physical standards have been lowered, the sexes train and serve in close contact, the training received by soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines is today less rigorous than that of the men who prepared for combat in World War II - who would not have imagined the idea of maternity flight suits for female aviators and support crews.  In fact, in recent years, the leadership of the military has become, well, "woke."  Conservatives have been plucked out of the highest levels of leadership, and the military - like other institutions of our society - has become focused on leftist political ideology and goals.

So what conservative in his right mind would think of sending all young people to be brainwashed with the same Critical Theory and Intersectionalism that one finds in the debauched universities?

There is also a constitutional issue.  Were our judiciary honest in submitting the federal government to the strictures of the Constitution, the black-robes would have long ago forbad conscription based on the Thirteenth Amendment.  For under that provision, slavery (or "involuntary servitude") is only permitted for convicts.  In other words, we may enslave jailed criminals and force them into jobs against their will, but to do this to those who are innocent of any crime is not permitted.  That's why slavery is illegal in the United States.  Those who join the military currently do so voluntarily.  They willingly set aside some of their rights (such as criticizing the president) for the time of their enlistment, being told what do to and when to do it, being under the Uniform Code of Military Justice instead of the civil courts, and being subject to orders - even orders that may well assure their deaths.  To conscript people and put them into such situations is simply slavery by a different name.

It is common to refer to military "service," to refer to the military itself as "the service."  It is common for citizens to thank veterans for their "service."  The word "service" is based on the Latin "servus" - which means "slave."  And there are other forms of service in which one is under orders: such as the police and fire services.  But these too are voluntary vocations into which one enters by means of a voluntary contract.

It is curious that conservatives, of all people, should advocate a form of State slavery to achieve an elusive, if not Utopian, social goal.

There is also the practical consideration that armies made up of conscripts are just not as good as those comprised of volunteers.  This is not rocket science.  Whom would you rather have building an addition to your house, a professional contractor who does that kind of work voluntarily?  Or a team of 18-year -old convicts who have been ordered by the State to show up and labor under compulsion?  

Universal conscription is also a manifestation of bad economics.  

Most people are not familiar with the term "opportunity cost" or Frederic Bastiat's "broken window fallacy."  The idea is that any action taken is done at the cost of the action not taken.  If a family vacations at the beach, it does so at the expense of vacationing in the mountains - because one cannot do both.  If a young man or woman is serving in the military, he or she is doing so at the expense of some civilian calling.  This could mean that a young person who is brilliant in math or theology or medical research will instead be learning how to march, to field strip an M16, and passing time polishing boots instead of studying nuclear physics, going into labor and nursing a child, or starting one's own business.  The costs of such roads-not-taken are unseen, and thus are not typically factored into the equation.  But those costs are very real.

One might argue that one can be an engineer or chaplain or doctor, or one could be both a mom and a Green Beret, but the reality is that serving in the military, as is every other career option, is at the expense of serving elsewhere, where market forces communicate information about careers and opportunities to those entering the labor market.  The military does not operate based on the market, but rather by bureaucratic government planning.  Thus the Army will have to find something else for an aspiring poet to do, the Navy will be put into the unenviable position of employing the Latin scholar, the Air Force will have to figure out where to slot a dog trainer, and the Marines will be forced to put a nursery school teacher to work somewhere in the Corps.  

Again, the purpose of the military is narrower than the free civilian marketplace.  Conscription would result in "malinvestment" of human capital, and would socialize a good part of the job market, not to mention taking away a resource of human capital from the private sector.  And this central-planning government approach is a conservative idea?

Such a scheme also violates the Christian doctrine of vocation. 

God has created people with different gifts and talents.  Not everyone is called into service vocations, like pastors, teachers, police officers, nuns, those who work in orphanages, EMTs, and yes, soldiers.  Rightfully understood, the military is a godly calling.  We see this all throughout the Scriptures.  Joshua led a famous military campaign into Jericho and other cities in Canaan.  King David had his "mighty men."  St. Paul even famously compares the Christian life to a soldier wearing armor.  The Church on earth is often called the Church Militant.  Traditionally, military life is the place for big men who can fight hand to hand against other big men.  Technology has expanded opportunities for military service, for example, to support the big guys who are in the field with rifles and grenades and bayonets.  But the life of the warrior is just not for everyone.

Moreover, the suggestion that any and all people, even all 18-year-olds, are capable of being soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines is quite the insult to the military vocation.  It suggests that one who is obese, sociopathic, antisocial, of low IQ, a person with authority issues, the uncoordinated, the physically weak, those with demanding physical ailments, etc. can all become warriors is not only ludicrous, but takes a position that the job of soldiering is the lowest common denominator, that there is no reason to cull out anyone from military life.  

Why would a conservative strap the officers and NCOs of the military with millions of new recruits who may well be entirely unfit, and perhaps a detriment to the readiness of the country to defend against attack?  Again, this is the same as the Left insisting that sexual minorities be accommodated in the ranks at any cost - whether it strengthens or weakens the military forces.

No, the solution to our malaise does not lie in State compulsion.  That is the easy and lazy way out, and it won't work.  There are always unintended consequences.  What we need is not conscription, but parenting.  We don't need every man and women to put on fatigues and tactical boots, but rather to put on the Armor of God, procreate, and raise boys and girls of honor.  We need mentors, not drill sergeants.  We need volunteers who will lead for the sake of love, not more taxpayer supported authoritarianism with an end goal that has nothing to to with doing battle.  We need to restore our lost institutions: morality, community, a commitment to liberty, etc. and that is hard work - far harder than just having the president sign a piece of paper and ordering all teenagers to Fort Benning or Parris Island.

Both progressives and conservatives have the propensity to turn to the State to solve social problems.  This is natural to progressives, but is a contradiction to conservatives.  Those who identity with the political and social Right should abandon seeing Big Government as a Savior, and should instead roll up their own sleeves and get to work improving society by means of liberty, sweat, and the power of human cooperation by means of the market.

Rothbard's "Anatomy of the State"


Anatomy of the State by Murray N. Rothbard is a booklet/essay that traces the origins of the state and takes a hard look at what it is.  This is an important work that can be read in a short sitting.  You can download a free copy here.  You can buy a paperback copy from the Mises Institute here for five dollars.

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization devoted to human liberty and Austrian School free market economics.  They are funded by individual members and donors.  Please consider supporting them by becoming a member!  Browse their vast free library here.

Here is a reading of Anatomy on YouTube - one hour at normal speed:


And here is an outstanding discussion of Anatomy by Jeff Deist and Ryan McMaken:

Friday, April 16, 2021

Jesus Doubles Down

Concerning political correctness, Jesus provides a strategy as to how to respond.  Christians and non-Christians alike can look to such examples and learn from them, and Christians especially are on the hook to do as their Master does.

In the 1990s, some Evangelical Christians embraced the expression, “What Would Jesus Do?” and abbreviated it as WWJD, putting it on bracelets and other swag.  Of course, we don’t have to make such speculations, because we have the Scriptures as a written record of what Jesus does – especially the Gospels.  And in our current cultural malaise, it is typically the enemies of Christ that like to scold Christians with the WWJD theme, asserting that Jesus would behave like Marxists, and not like Christians do.  In other words, to be Christlike is to be leftist.  The answer to WWJD? is, to them, to simply defer to the enemies of Christ, those who denounce Him, and yet try to appropriate Him.

And it is clear that they have never actually read the Gospels.  For their mental picture more closely resembles Mister Rogers than the actual Jesus of Nazareth.  Their scolding of Christians and other non-conformists comes from a place of ignorance and perceived self-righteousness.

Jesus actually dealt with their type, and His shocking behavior toward them is repeatedly recorded in the Gospels.  The Pharisees were the cultural standard-bearers of that time.  They were the ultimate virtue-signalers, who would “[practice their] righteousness before other people to be seen by them,” even to the point of “[sounding] a trumpet… that they may be praised by others” (Matt 6:1-2).  This was the first-century technological equivalent of posting to social media and using a border around one’s profile pic to announce how much the person “cares” or with whom they “stand,” or what medical procedures they have had in tribute to their virtuous estate.

The Pharisees played a “heads I win, tails you lose” game to inflate their egos and build themselves up by tearing others down.  They created hundreds of rules, and then scolded others for not keeping those rules to which others never agreed to follow in the first place.  It kind of sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

The Pharisees’ self-made game became a replacement religion, in which the Law was not the Law of Moses, but the Pharisees’ own spin on it that established arbitrary regulations that were not spelled out in the Scriptures.  And Jesus came along and ignored them, broke them, and went on the offensive against their proponents.

In Luke 5:17-26, Jesus heals a paralytic, but before performing this miracle, He absolved the man of his sins (verse 20).  The Pharisees started grumbling that this was “blasphemy.”  Jesus “perceived their thoughts” and doubled down by miraculously healing the man.  Jesus defied the social rule-makers.  And the Pharisees had to acknowledge that they had seen “extraordinary things” (verses 21-26).

In Luke 6:1-5, we see a pattern that will be ongoing with the Pharisees.  Jesus and His disciples broke one of their Sabbath rules by snacking on some grain while taking a walk.  The Pharisees confront Jesus about breaking one of their own rules – a social contract that neither Jesus nor His disciples had agreed to.  Jesus confronts them: “Have you not read…” – emphasizing that they should follow the Biblical faith and not their own religion of made-up rules – “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry…?” – calling to mind an incident in which David ate forbidden bread in a pressing situation.

What the Pharisees refused to acknowledge was that Jesus is God, and He invented the Sabbath in the first place.  He knew its meaning far better than they did – they who made up rules in order to keep them and accuse others of breaking them.  Jesus doubled down and said, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath."

In Luke 6:6-11, the Sabbath becomes a real sticking point for the Pharisees, and Jesus goes out of His way to be offensive to them (WWJD, anyone?).  “On another Sabbath” He was preaching in the synagogue, and He was approached by a man “whose right hand was withered” (Luke 6:6).  And mirroring the media and people with their cellphones out hoping to catch someone using the wrong word (like saying “sexual preference” instead of “sexual orientation” when until five minutes ago, the former was considered politically-correct), the Pharisees “watched Him to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so they might find a reason to accuse Him” (verse 7).

This describes our own “cancel culture” situation to a tee.  And it is being carried out by leftists who make up arbitrary rules, signal their own virtue for keeping those rules, and try to destroy the lives of those who don’t follow them, who never agreed to them in the first place.

Jesus’ response is a lesson in how to deal with virtue-signaling “woke” types.  He “knew their thoughts,” but rather than conform or run away, He openly and publicly doubles down.  “He said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Come and stand here.’”  He then puts the question to the virtue-signalers: “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?”  Jesus then "[looks] around at them all.”  He did not apologize.  He did not back down.  He did not try to find common ground.  He did not seek unity.  He did not try to be polite.  He did not accept their premises.  Instead, he followed the advice of an old Virginia gentleman who once whispered to me: “Always look your enemy in the eye.”

Jesus then told the man to stretch out his hand, and He healed it in plain view of everyone.  Instead of marveling at the miracle, instead of rejoicing that a man who was crippled had been cured – they were angry that Jesus did not do what they said, but instead mocked their virtue-signaling by doing the very thing they disapproved of.  “But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus” (Luke 6:6-11).  Cancel culture, anyone?

So we know what Jesus does with virtue signalers who think they have authority to make up rules and enforce them on those who do not agree.  We know what Jesus does with those who turn legalism into a false God, who create arbitrary codes of behavior that serve like a loyalty oath to them, our putative masters and rule-makers.  Jesus deliberately violates their rules in front of them and in front of everyone.  He doubles down and does not apologize.  He does not retool His beliefs to accommodate those who claim the power to invent new laws and rules and mores.

Today’s Pharisees are those who would impose new rules of speech and behavior upon us, who would once again claim to educate Jesus about what He and His disciples ought to be doing.  We must do as our Lord did and double down, refuse to apologize, and look them right in the eyes as we defy them.

Today’s Pharisees push a worldview largely defined by politically-correct speech.  They create rules concerning acceptable terms for ethnicities and sexualities – and they demand that we use their ever-changing Orwellian Newspeak.  It becomes a loyalty oath, submission to a social contract and worldview of their making, and they are also “filled with fury” if someone doesn’t play along.

We Christians especially need to stop playing along.  

When they tell us what words to use, we must look them in the eye and refuse.  The examples are legion.  We are told to use new made-up pronouns for people outside of the sexual normal range of the bell curve.  And if we don’t participate in their Newspeak, their arbitrary new coded language that serves as a loyalty oath to them, they are filled with fury and try to destroy our lives.  This is exactly what they did to Jesus.  The Pharisees even cooperated with the hated Romans – the power of the State – to attempt to destroy Jesus by crucifying Him.  And even that was appropriated by Jesus and used as a weapon against them and their evil.  We should refuse to use their prattle and baby-talk, words such as “ze” and “zir.”  We should also speak proper English by using “their” and “them” as plurals, not as singulars.  And we should restore the ancient and universal practice of using “he” and “him” as gender-inclusive pronouns referring to a person of unspecified sex.  And we need to say “sex” instead of “gender.”  What does Jesus do?  He doubles down.

Ethnic terms are often part of the “euphemism treadmill” in which acceptable terms become unacceptable, and then a few years later, the process is repeated, leaving people confused and off-balance in terms of what is now considered appropriate.  The terms are arbitrary, and give language-Pharisees new rules to keep and impose on others – who never agreed to the contract in the first place.  Nobody placed themselves under the power of a cabal of academicians and leftist activists.  And so we should snack on our grain and ignore their rules.

I was amazed the first time I heard someone say “African-American” in normal conversation, as opposed to hearing it on language-policed TV or in a newspaper article.  The term is not synonymous with “black.”  If you see a black guy walk by your house, you can’t just call him an African-American.  He might be Canadian.  He might be Nigerian.  Archaeologists can dig up a skeleton and determine that the person was black.  Unless the bones can be specifically identified as a specific individual, one can’t say that the person was “American.”  I recall watching the great Walter Williams double down like Jesus and become deliberately offensive to his fellow panelist Claude Lewis, a leftist journalist activist, on a local news program in Philadelphia back in the 1990s.  Williams said that he was tired of the ever-changing labels: negro, colored, black, Afro-American, and African-American.  With a dismissive chuckle, he told the scowling Lewis that he was not an African-American as he had decided to stop the merry-go-round at “black.”

There is nothing wrong with the terms “black” and “white.”  And we should not cave in and capitalize “Black” and leave “white” in the lower case.  Who made up that rule, and when did I ever agree to it?  How can anyone not see that it is a sop to the ideology of black supremacy?

The same is true for words like “gender” (which is properly a grammatical term) and the prefix “cis-.”  The only time I use “cis-” is in the technical term “cislunar” describing space between earth and the moon.  A man who refers to himself as a man is simply, well, a man.  He is “normal.”  The powers-that-be demand that we refer to a man who calls himself a woman as “trans” or “transgender.”  Again, we should not yield to their prattle, submit to their power, and concede their premises.  Christians have a worldview established by the Word of God concerning male and female, and that premise is established early on (Gen 1:27) and was reiterated by Jesus (Matt 19:4ff).  We Christians who see the Scripture as authoritative do not recognize same-sex sexual relationships as “marriage,” nor do men have “husbands”, nor do women have “wives.”  Forcing us to use such language is to compel us to repudiate our faith and replace it with the worship of those who create new words and demand our fealty.  Jesus looks his enemies in the eye and doubles down.

We should not use terms like LGBT or LGBTQ or any of the other incarnations of The Acronym.  This too is pure power politics, new arbitrary rules that are imposed on those of us who never consented to them.  There is no such thing as an LBGT person.  This is a grouping of various types of people, a collectivized group of disparate traits designed to push a worldview.  The “Q” in the other variant of The Acronym represents a word that I was taught in my youth to be offensive.  And there are other politically-correct terms for sexual identities that include vulgarisms that no-one ought to be compelled to say.

There are other new made-up terms that similarly force disparate groups into a single Venn Diagram, such as BIPOC.  

Political correctness is indeed arbitrary, as the scripted outrage that ensues if someone uses the term “Oriental.”  It is apparently okay for rugs, but not for peopleSalads are a gray area.  Restaurants apparently may use the term if they choose to, creating a dilemma for a white or black person who would like to make lunch plans.  The word “Oriental” is simply based on the Latin word for “East” – or more literally “towards the rising sun” – the opposite of Occidental.  And has anyone noticed the flag of Japan, let alone asked what the Japanese call their country in their language?  Similarly, Frenchman, Englishman, and Irishman are, at least for the present, within the boundaries of political correctness, but Chinaman is not.  There is no reason for this.  You’re just supposed to know.  And if you are a professor who transgresses the arbitrary boundary and violates a contract you didn’t sign, count on your Pharisaical students to watch to see if you use a forbidden word so they might find a reason to accuse you – and destroy your life.

Of course, there will be hard decisions to be made.  One may be so overpowered and marginalized by the establishment speech police that one may have to decide to submit in order to keep one’s job.  People living under Communist/Socialist totalitarianism had, and have, to make such decisions all the time.  It becomes a strategy for survival.  But in free conversation that is truly voluntary, in private discourse, the healthy thing to do is to exercise one’s liberty and not willingly submit.  There may come a time when we might need to publicly defy the Pharisees and bear the cross that comes to us as a result.  But of course, Pharisees are cowards.  When a critical mass of people stand up to them, their power dissipates like a bad stench in a warm summer breeze.  

At any rate, what does Jesus do?  He doubles down.



Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Sermon: Wednesday of Easter 2 - 2021


14 April 2021

Text: John 20:19-31

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

On the evening of the first Easter Sunday, our risen Lord Jesus Christ walked miraculously into a locked room to appear to the disciples.  He said to them, “Peace be with you.”  For He won the war against Satan, and was now sharing the peace that He secured in His victory over the devil.

Some people might be tempted to believe that this was some kind of ghost that appeared to them.  But what does Jesus do, dear friends?  “He showed them His hands and His side.”  In other words, He showed them the wounds from which He bled in His body.  So when Jesus walked into the locked room, He did so in His physical being – not symbolically, and not spiritually.  This was His body.  This was His blood. 

“And the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.” 

Jesus did something else with His inner circle of disciples.  “As the Father has sent Me,” He said, “even so I am sending you.”  The Greek word for “I send” is “apostello.”  So Jesus is ordaining these men into the preaching office, being sent into the world to make disciples through the ministry of Word and Sacrament.  “He breathed on them and said to them, ,‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”  And He authorized them to forgive the sins of those who repent, and to retain the sins of those who refuse to repent.  So through this office of the ministry, Jesus absolves, and Jesus excommunicates.  He delegates this authority to the apostles.

Now there was one problem.  Thomas missed his own ordination, for “he was not with them when Jesus came.”  When he showed up, the apostles told him what had happened, that the risen Lord Jesus Christ appeared to them in the flesh, and showed them His wounds.  This was no illusion, no delusion, and no false vision.

But Thomas was having a hard time with this.  He refused to believe, and thus earned for himself the nickname “Doubting Thomas.”  “Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

Fortunately for St. Thomas, the Lord was patient with his doubts and hardness of heart.  The very next Sunday – the day of the week that we call the Lord’s Day, the day when we Christians gather in His name to hear His Word and partake of His flesh and blood – Jesus appeared again.  And “although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’” 

Here is Jesus establishing a regular greeting for Christians and a liturgical way of worshiping Him on the Lord’s Day.  And this time, Thomas was there.  Jesus invited him to do the very thing that Thomas said would have to happen for him to believe.  Thomas saw and touched the body of Christ, and laid hands upon the wounds from which He bled. 

“My Lord and my God!” exclaimed Thomas, no longer doubting, but believing and confessing.  “My Lord and my God!” is both a creed and a prayer of praise.  It acknowledges the risen Jesus as God who is still in the flesh, and in calling Him Lord, Thomas places himself under Jesus’ command, for he too will be sent out to preach the Gospel and make disciples through Holy Baptism.

There are ancient churches in India that claim to have been planted by St. Thomas, the once-doubting apostle.  Normally, when pastors are ordained, hands are laid on them.  In Thomas’s case, He laid His hands on the Lord – and He confessed Jesus as His Lord and God.

Our Lord said, “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed.”  We have not seen our Lord in His earthly ministry, dear friends, but we have encountered Jesus in His flesh and blood, as He promises to be with us physically, even as He shares Himself with us sacramentally.  The walls of our churches do not prevent His bodily presence any more than the walls of the upper room kept Him out that first Easter.

And Jesus continues to come each Lord’s Day, standing among us by means of His promise and His command: “This is My body…. This is My blood….  Do not disbelieve, but believe.”

These events were recorded for us by the evangelists – including St. John, whose Gospel spoke to us anew today.  John reports that these things were recorded in His book for the same reason Jesus allowed Thomas to put his hand into His wounds: “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” 

And so we join St. Thomas the Believer in his confession and prayer of praise: “My Lord and My God!”  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

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

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday of Easter 2 - 2021

April 13, 2021

Text: Luke 4:31-44

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

The Gospel is, of course, the forgiveness of sins.  But it doesn’t stop there.  The Good News of our Lord’s coming among us, His life, His passion, His death, and His resurrection indeed brings us absolution of our transgressions, but that’s just the beginning of the Good News. 

For the Gospel means a Great Reset – a real Great Reset, not just another broken and shallow political promise of Utopia on earth, but the real deal, the eradication of every cause of human suffering and chaos in the world and in the universe, as Jesus comes to restore the Garden of Eden.  The Gospel means the forgiveness of sins, but also the eradication of sin, the destruction of death, and the vanquishing of the devil. 

We see it as our Lord Jesus Christ teaches the Scriptures and preaches the coming of the kingdom in Capernaum.  For there, in that place, “was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon.”  The demon mockingly calls out to Jesus: “Ha!  What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us?  I know who you are – the Holy One of God.”  And yes, the demon is right.  He has come to destroy all of them, to release their victims from the clutches of evil, to restore us to Paradise.  And yes indeed, He is the Holy One of Israel. For all of its bluster, the vile demon is under the authority of Jesus: “Be silent and come out of him!”  And the demon has no choice but to obey.  For this is Good News indeed, dear friends, that demons are being cast out, and they will ultimately be cast into the Lake of Fire, never to harass us again.

Moreover, the Gospel deals with physical illness.  For why do we get sick?  Why do our bodies wear out?  Why are there viruses and cancers and auto-immune disorders?  Why are people paralyzed and why do they get dementia? It’s the same old story, dear brothers and sisters: the chaos of evil, the trajectory that leads us to death.  All of this was unleashed at the Fall, and all of this Bad News comes from the same demons that Jesus expels by His Word.

And as people bring the sick to Jesus to heal, the demons see it and they squawk.  Again, they confess the divinity of Jesus, and our Lord casts them out and shuts them up. 

And there is one more thing the demons hate that Jesus does: preaching.  For proclaiming the Good News is to preach the Bad News for them, the fact that God has come to earth, that He will die to pay the blood price for our redemption, that He has come to restore Eden by driving out all demons, including Satan himself.

Indeed, the Gospel is a Good News/Bad News proclamation: Good News for us who are being saved; Bad News for the demons who are being condemned.  And this is why the people marvel at Jesus and His Word, for “His Word possess[es] authority,” the authority over sin, death, and the devil, and the authority to restore Paradise by the coming of His kingdom – and that is the Gospel, the Good News, indeed!

Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

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

Sermon: Funeral of Joy Selby

13 April 2021

Text: John 10:10b-15, 27-30 (Job 19:23-27, Rom 6:3-11)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Dear Ron, Daniel, Ben, Mike, Mark, and Jon; family, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and honored guests: peace be with you.

Traditionally, one’s first name is called one’s “Christian name.”  This is because the first name is typically given to a child at Holy Baptism.  And one’s Christian name is traditionally that of a biblical figure or a saint.  In the case of our dear sister in Christ, Joy, her name is the quintessentially biblical name, for the word “joy” appears in the Bible some 180 times. 

Most people probably think that the word “joy” just means “happy.”  But it is so much more than that.  For happiness is just an emotion.  Sometimes we are happy, and sometimes we aren’t – but in our Christian faith, we are joyful because even though we live in the fallen world, even though we suffer pain and sickness and death, even though we mourn and experience sadness – our joy is undiminished.  For we Christians are joyful even when we are unhappy, for we have received the promise of God that we have been forgiven our sins, we have been given the promise of everlasting life, and we have the promise that we will rise again in the flesh.

This joyful promise was given to Joy at her Holy Baptism.  And that is why some Christian parents choose to name their beloved daughters “Joy.” 

For all parents know that life has its ups and downs, its happiness and sadness, its successes and its failures – and thanks to sin: both our own and that sinful nature that we have inherited from our ancestors all the way back to Adam and Eve – death itself is part of life in this fallen world.

But as Christians, dear friends, even though we mourn, even though we suffer, even though we experience grief – we still have our joy in the promises of God given to us at Baptism, that joy which we confess in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The ancient writer Job suffered unbelievable hardships – and in his suffering and mourning, even his wife and closest friends added to his misery.  But in spite of his seemingly never-ending pain, Job held on to the promise of God.  In that, he expressed joy even in intense suffering.  “For I know,” said Job, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.”

Job confessed, just as we did, that we “look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”  Job was sustained through his hardships by his faith, his belief in the promise of the resurrection to come.

Not long ago, dear friends, we went through yet another Good Friday and we celebrated Easter Sunday: calling to mind, and mourning, our Lord’s death, but also rejoicing in His victory over the grave.  And St. Paul explained to us yet again that “all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death,” and “if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.”

That is why we draped Joy’s casket with the white pall, dear brothers and sisters.  It is a symbol of the white robe of righteousness given to Joy that covers all her sin.  It is the gift and the promise that because our Lord Jesus Christ rose again from the dead, Joy too will rise again.

This ironclad promise and reality is the source of our joy even in the midst of death, dear friends.  We hold on to this promise of God, sealed upon us at Holy Baptism, knowing that God keeps His Word.  And though we mourn, we do not mourn without hope.  We are bold as to express defiant joy even in our sorrow.  For we hold God to His promises.

This is because Jesus “came that [we] may have life and have it abundantly.”  He came to conquer death and give us life.  He “lays down His life for the sheep,” for He is the Good Shepherd.  He doesn’t run away like a hired hand, but fights for us, even to the point of dying on the cross to save us.  And we “hear [His] voice,” for He knows us and we follow Him.  This was Joy’s confession as a baptized child of God, who took the Holy Sacrament year after year, who believed the promise, in good times and bad – even as she suffered with declining health.  Listen to the promise of Jesus, dear friends: “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand.”

Jesus is indeed the Good Shepherd who leads us to green pastures and still waters.  Though we walk through death’s valley, we fear no evil.  Even in the face of death, we have the joy of the comfort that the Lord is with us, and we will rise again, in the flesh, to be reunited with our loved ones, to live eternally in a restored body that will not suffer and will not die, and we will “dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Our Lord Himself said to His disciples: “So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”

Dear friends, it is fitting to for us to mourn, being separated for a time from our beloved ones.  It is painful, and nothing minimizes the hurt of this loss.  But in spite of it all, let us not forget that Joy’s parents gave her the Christian name “Joy,” which is a reminder that through it all, we confess the joy set before us in the promises of God, given to us as a free gift in Christ Jesus our Lord.  So let us mourn, but let us mourn as those who have hope, who know that our Redeemer lives, who confess that those who are baptized and who believe have salvation in Christ Jesus, our Good Shepherd from whose hand no one can snatch us.

Let us take to heart our Lord’s promise that even in the our sorrow, “No one will take your joy from you.”

Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

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

Tuesday, April 06, 2021

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday after Easter - 2021

April 6, 2021

Text: Hebrews 10:1-18

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

The Book of Hebrews makes it very clear who Jesus is and what He does. 

The author repeatedly refers to Jesus as our High Priest – but not a flawed sinful priest offering token animal sacrifices, but rather the High Priest who is God in the flesh, and who, as Priest, offers His own flesh as the sacrifice.  As we sing in the Eucharistic hymn: “Christ the Victim, Christ the Priest.  Alleluia!”

As the author of Hebrews teaches us: “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”  For these animal sacrifices were tokens of the “single offering” by which “He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”  That offering, dear friends, is His own body offered as an oblation upon the cross, and those whom he “has perfected” and “are being sanctified” are us, the beneficiaries of the sacrifice.

For unlike the priests of the Old Covenant, who offered, over and over again, the token sacrifices of beasts “which can never take away sins” in and of themselves, by contrast, the one all-availing sacrifice of Jesus is different.  For “when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet.”

Dear brothers and sisters, our High Priest fulfills the ancient yearning from our fall in Eden for the “Seed of the Woman” who was sent, in the fullness of time, to crush the serpent’s head; who would, by the Father’s will, avenge all of mankind; who would in love for us conquer death; and whose priesthood “perfects” us by grace, in the oblation of His blood. 

Our High Priest absolves us, using the priestly office of the holy ministry to declare the Good News to us, to speak the sublime and certain reality that by means of the cross, and in the blood of the Lamb, your sins are forgiven.  Our High Priest, resting from His labor, props up his blood-soaked feet upon the footstool of the devil that He has conquered, the world that he has sanctified, and our flesh that He has redeemed – all by means of His own flesh and blood, given and shed for us.

And listen to His ironclad declaration, the words of the eternal Word by whose Word the world was created, the unequivocal and undeniable pronouncement of our High Priest: “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” 

This, dear friends, is who He is and what He does – now and unto eternity!

Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

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