Sermon: Trinity 8 – 2023

30 July 2023

Text: Matt 7:15-23 (Jer 23:16-29, Acts 20:27-38)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Jeremiah, St. Paul, and our Lord Jesus are all warning us today about “false prophets.”  They have been around since the very beginning.  They are liars who claim to speak for God.  And the danger is that we believe them and act on bad information to our harm.

So, how do we recognize a false prophet?  How do we know that we are being lied to?  Jesus teaches us, first of all, that they are “ravenous wolves” that come to us “in sheep’s clothing” – and that we “will recognize them by their fruits.”  In other words, look for something that doesn’t seem right.  Is the person claiming to be teaching us the truth only trying to appear as one of us?  Is he trying to fool you? 

Is the man from the US Health Service trying to look like a woman?  Is that military chaplain claiming to be a Christian and wearing a cross actually a Mormon – a religious body that does not use the cross as a symbol?  Does the politician speak one way but vote a different way?  Does the church claim to be Lutheran but has turned their worship services into non-liturgical entertainment?  Real prophets, real teachers of the truth, do not engage in bait-and-switch tactics.  As our Lord bids us, they let their yes be yes, and their no, no. 

Jesus also uses the image of trees and fruit: “Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”  Our Lord is appealing to your sense of reason and logic, dear friends.  If you were going to buy a tree to plant in your yard, and you can see that it has little oranges on it, why would you believe anyone – even the store manager, even someone who has a PhD in botany, if he tells you that it’s really an apple tree?  As we say in the Small Catechism, the Lord Himself has given us: “eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them.” 

We are constantly being lied to by “false prophets” who claim to be experts.  And we are told to follow them like sheep – even when we can plainly see that the fruit on the tree doesn’t match the claim.  And young people are particularly vulnerable to this.  Young people who want free healthcare and free college are now openly embracing Communism, and they are in full denial of the concentration camps and poverty that happen in every single socialist country.  And part of the reason for this, dear friends, is their socialist professors in college.  They are false prophets.  This is why our Christian colleges must especially insist that our professors be genuine sheep and not wolves, and that everybody involved in our schools – from preschool to seminary – be “good trees” that bear “good fruit.”

But it’s not just young people.  How many people followed along when the talking heads on TV, and politicians, and people claiming to speak for science closed our churches but allowed thousands of BLM protestors to gather in public?  How many politicians and celebrities hectored normal people to isolate themselves while they had parties and got their hair and nails done?  How many times did you have to see them put on their masks for the group picture only to see them take them off right afterwards?  Why did so many people fall for this lie? 

A big source of such false prophecy are screens: massive ones in your living room, at the sports bar, in the airport, and the little ones in your pocket.  False prophecy comes to us by means of movies and shows and TikTok and YouTube and video games – where we are barraged with false prophecy and lies – even in the commercials.  We are always being “messaged” to, and young people are especially vulnerable.  You don’t think you are, but you are.  So when your parents limit your TV-watching or your video-game playing, they are being good parents.  Young people, all you have to do is to look around you to people in their twenties and thirties who have disfigured their faces, who don’t know the difference between a boy and a girl, and who have messed up their lives with drugs and alcohol and bad relationships – and remember that they were kids like you who were led astray by TV, movies, and bad friends – “false prophets.”  But older people are also vulnerable – leaving the TV on in the background just for the illusion of not being alone, programming you with deceptive words.  If you don’t think the TV influences you, why do companies spend billions of dollars making commercials?  And “the news” is also fake, dear friends.  These newscasters are reading scripts.  They are entertainers looking for ratings like everyone else.

The prophet Jeremiah points out that false prophets are even found in the church.  There are Christian people today who claim to be prophets.  They’re not prophets.  They claim to have dreams and visions.  They are lying.  We have the Word of God in the Scriptures today, dear friends.  And in the Old Testament, a prophet who made a prediction that didn’t come true was put to death.  Today’s person who claims to be a prophet never pays for his or her false prophecies.  We had such people in this church decades ago, and they split our church with their lies.  Don’t believe them.  Don’t become one of them.  Don’t fall for the lust for power and attention. 

We see this in the recent resurgence of witchcraft and the occult.  This is not innocent.  This is not compatible with Christianity.  Avoid tarot cards, fortune tellers, astrology, and people who turn crystals and little statues into some kind of spiritual practice.  They are false prophets.  Your eyes and ears and reason – along with your Bible – teach you that this is wrong and evil.  Flee from it. 

We usually think of the false prophet as the wealthy TV preacher who flaunts his money while pressuring you to send him or her more money.  And yes, that false prophet is more obvious.  But many people still read their books because they sound so nice.  They may even teach some truths.  But it is the lie mixed in that is the real danger, dear friends.  There is a popular book called Jesus Calling in which the author claims Jesus spoke to her while she was in a trance, and she engaged in the occult practice of “auto-writing.”  This means that she claims this book of hers is literally the Word of God.  It doesn’t matter that it is filled with nice-sounding Jesusy words and phrases, dear friends.  God spoke to us through the real prophet Jeremiah, “I have heard what the prophets what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’  How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart?”  No good ever comes from such lies.  These false prophets are not innocent.

So where do we find truth, dear friends?  In God’s Word.  Don’t follow shepherds who are not themselves guided strictly by the Word of God.  Look at their fruits.  If you see what seems to be grapes growing on a fig tree, run away.  If you hear authority figures telling you a man is a woman, don’t believe anything they say.  They are liars.  Denounce them.  Mock them, even.  That’s what Elijah the prophet did to the false prophets of Baal.  Help other people discern the truth from the lie.  You have to know the Word of God to know when you are being lied to by false teachers in the church.  You have to be able to think logically to know when you are being lied to by professors and politicians and so-called experts on TV.  You need to stop trusting every person who has a degree or who won an election or who pretends to be someone else in a TV show.  They are nearly all false prophets. 

St. Paul teaches us how to recognize a true prophet: “For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.”  He warns of false prophets who would try to undo his work.  “Therefore, be alert… and now I commend you to God and to the Word of His grace.”

Dear friends, the truth is found in the Word of God, in God’s grace – not in Hollywood movies, the TV news, or your Sociology class.  The truth is this: God sent prophets among us to point us to Jesus.  Jesus came as “the way, the truth, and the life.”  Jesus came to undo the devil’s lies and teach us the truth: our world is fallen, but it has been redeemed by Christ’s blood.  We are created in God’s image and every human being is created male and female and has dignity by virtue of God’s creation and by the redeeming power of Jesus on the cross.  The truth is that you are baptized and saved from the lies of this world and from false prophets within the church.  The truth is that you can trust what is in the Holy Scriptures, and you can be wise when Scripture enlightens your senses and your reason.  You do not have to rely on people who claim to be prophets and experts, whether they are on TV or even if they are found in our sanctuaries and pulpits.  Listen to the whole counsel of God: Law and Gospel, and follow only those shepherds whose preaching comes from the Scriptures, and only listen to those who tell the truth backed up by evidence and reason.

Here is the truth: Jesus has come to rescue you.  He is the Good Shepherd.  He always tells us the truth.  We have His Word that the Holy Spirit caused to be written.  He forgives your sins and redeems you from all the lies of the devil.  And the true prophet Jeremiah promises us: “In the latter days you will understand it clearly.”  Thanks be to God for His Word, His cross, His grace,  and His glorious truth!

Amen.

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

Sermon: Trinity 7 - 2023

23 July 2023

Text: Mark 8:1-9 (Gen 2:7-17, Rom 6:19-23)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

“The Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,” our God reveals to us.  “And the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden.”  The garden was a place of life.  It was our home.  And this garden home was oriented to the east – where the sun rises.  And there were trees – good for food.  There were two named trees: “the tree of life… and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”  The garden home was laden with rich gems and minerals – and lush with water.  “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”  There were some things missing from the garden: want and death.  God also gave the man a woman to help him care for the garden.  For he was to “work and keep it.”  But the work was not like our work today.  This work was not laborious.

Of course, we know what happened.  The serpent convinced the woman to disregard God’s Word, and her husband agreed.  Both sinned by eating, and they both were ashamed.  They were cast out from the garden, and now there would be deserts.  There would be want.  There would be famines.  People would eat scraps and not be satisfied.  There would be draughts.  And there would be death. 

Delightful work was replaced by grueling toil.  The harmony in the family became strife.  Life became a struggle for food that ends in suffering and death.  And all of this because of eating something that was not ours to eat.  As the Russian thinker Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, commenting on the evil in our world, said: “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.”

And this, dear friends, explains what happened when Jesus fed people in the desert.  For the people knew they needed the Word of God.  They risked life and limb to hear the Word in a “desolate place,” a desert, not knowing where the food would come from.  But they knew that they needed the kind of food that was lost in Eden.  They needed the food that would sustain them forever.  They needed living water, so that they would never thirst again.  And this, dear friends, is why Jesus came to this desolate place called earth, a place of scarcity and suffering and death, a place of sin, in which men and women feel the effects of want, and they hunger and thirst for righteousness.  And Jesus had “compassion on the crowd, because they have been with [Him] now three days and have nothing to eat.”  And taking this world’s meager scraps, our Lord was fruitful and multiplied food for these people who heard His Word.  “And they ate and were satisfied.”  This desolate place, this desert, became a garden on that day, dear friends, with miraculous food, with the lush Word of God forgiving sins and visiting vengeance upon, and taking revenge against, the serpent.  “Did God actually say?”  Yes, He did, dear friends.  Yes He did!  And He does.

This miracle was so much more than a demonstration of our Lord’s divinity.  It was also a visitation of His divine compassion, a vindication of the divine image in which we were created.  And it is a picture of the kingdom of God, this garden of the Holy Sanctuary that stands in the midst of the desert, this Most Holy Place of life that stands defiant against sin, death, and the serpent.  For this is a place where the devil’s taunt, “Did God actually say?” is answered both with “This is the Word of the Lord, thanks be to God” from our lips, and the deathblow of the Seed of the woman upon the serpent’s head.  For God didn’t just say, but “the Word became flesh,” dwelt among us, and kept the promise that the Lord God made to the serpent: “The Seed of the woman will crush your head.”

It was by eating in defiance against the Word of God that we sinned and brought death.  And Jesus, the Word made flesh, invites us, by His gracious Word, to “take, eat… take drink… for the forgiveness of sins.”  Jesus promises us: “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.”

For our Lord took up our curse: “You shall surely die,” by dying for us, in our place, crushing the hateful head of the beast by the love of the “Lamb of God that takest away the sin of the World” – who has compassionate mercy upon us.  And His body was laid in a garden tomb, dear friends.  A garden in the midst of death.  And he emerged on the third day, the Son rising in this garden in the east.

And we who eat His flesh and drink His blood have eternal life.  He will raise us on the last day – calling us out of the midst of our tombs, to bring us to the Most Holy Place of a new garden, a place where hunger and want are abolished, where draughts are no more, where suffering and death will be eternally undone, and the devil and his lies thrown into the lake of fire.

St. Paul reflects upon this Good News of Jesus Christ, reminding us that the fall made us “slaves of sin.”  And the holy apostle asks: “What fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.”  Yes, indeed, that was the fall.  That was what threatened the crowds who came to hear Jesus.  It is the serpent seeking to sever us from the compassion and mercy and the beautiful creation of God.  But listen to how beautiful this is, dear friends!  Listen to what Jesus has done for you: “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.”

Indeed, Adam and Eve served God with joy in the garden, and we have been freed from our service to the serpent Satan in order to enjoy the eternal freedom of the service of the Lord God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – into whose name we have been baptized.  The lush waters of the garden of Eden: the Pishon, the Gihon, the Tigris, and the Euphrates, looked forward to the lush waters of Holy Baptism: the water of life of which Jesus spoke, which is promised in the Book of Revelation (where we also learn that it is offered, “without price.”  You can’t buy it because it is superabundant).  It is ours by grace, by the tender compassion of our God, for Jesus says, “I have compassion on the crowd.”  That is why He feeds us with the bread of life.  And we eat, and are satisfied – even unto eternity.

Jesus has done it, dear friends.  He has crushed the serpent’s head at the cross, and He continues to do so in compassion for us.  Jesus fed the crowd, and He feeds this crowd.  And if people really knew the treasure of the feast that we are about to join here in this Holy Place, there would be thousands risking life and limb to hear the Word, and to eat and drink the blood of the Lamb.  So let’s tell them, dear friends.  Let’s tell them the good news.  Let’s tell them that “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Let’s bring them from the desert to the garden.  Let’s bring them to the cross and the empty garden tomb.  Let’s bring them to this Holy Place where the Word visits us and fulfills His promise, where Jesus multiplies Himself as the bread of life.  Let’s bring them home again, to this garden in which the Son rises, shining the radiance of His face upon this altar that figuratively faces east.  Let’s defiantly throw the waters of our baptism in the serpent’s face, joyfully singing the Word that makes it a baptism, believing the promise, and crushing the devil’s head with our confession: “This is the Word of the Lord, thanks be to God.

Amen.

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

Sermon: Trinity 6 – 2023

16 July 2023

Text: Matt 5:17-26 (Ex 20:1-17, Rom 6:1-11)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

God created mankind to be perfect.  In our original creation, we didn’t need to even know about good and evil.  But when we disobeyed God, we learned about good and evil, and we were corrupted.  We chose evil.  This is bad news.

As St. Paul says, all people have the law “written on their hearts.”  They are all “without excuse” for their sins.  And that leaves all of us condemned and without hope. 

The Ten Commandments may not seem like it, but they are a way to restore hope.  For God was calling His people, His beloved Israel, from slavery to freedom.  He was establishing them to bring the Savior to the world.  And the Word of God was engraved into stone.  The Ten Commandments is part of the covenant that rescues us.

They are like a mirror that shows us that we need a Savior.  For if we read the commandments honestly, we are guilty.  We are condemned.  Nobody keeps them – and “God is a jealous God,” and our punishment runs generation after generation.

But as we so often do, we missed the point.  And we still do.  For the purpose of the Ten Commandments is to show us that we need a Savior.  But when our sinful flesh hears the commandments being read, we convince ourselves that we keep them.  “You shall not murder” is a good example.  Most people have never killed anyone, so we pat ourselves on the back and expect God to be impressed.  And of course, we don’t worship false gods.  We all believe in the true God, so we keep the First Commandment.  Right?  And even when we break the commandments we have good reasons.  We can argue the law like lawyers with God, making a case for our own righteousness, and we have a million excuses for why we break the commandments – including, “We’re only human.”

The people Jesus had the most trouble with were not the admitted murderers and adulterers and thieves – the ones who were guilty, who knew it, and whom society never let them forget it.  No, these people sought forgiveness, and Jesus gave it to them.  The real enemies of Jesus were the ones like the scribes and Pharisees: the devoutly religious people who had a whole system of workarounds and loopholes.  They relaxed the law so that it seemed doable – and they taught others this religious system.  They could say a single word, and they thought it released them from their obligation to their parents.  They used a whole bunch of tricks to keep the Sabbath. 

One time, a rich young man – who had made an idol out of his possessions – came to Jesus and asked about salvation.  Jesus asked him about keeping the Ten Commandments.  This young man had been fooled into thinking that he kept them.  When Jesus asked him if he would sell off his stuff and follow Jesus, he refused.  He had been bragging that he kept all of the commandments, but in reality, he couldn’t even keep the first one.  And we are all a little like this young man.  We have idols, but we prefer not to acknowledge them.  We make excuses.  We deny our guilt.  We look for loopholes.

Jesus came to close the loopholes.  Jesus came to remind us of the commandments.  For until we come to grips with our sin, we cannot have forgiveness.  And that is what He comes to offer us, dear friends: forgiveness.  He doesn’t tell us that we can sin, but we get a free pass.  Not at all.  He tells us that sin leads to death – and then He dies in our place, so that we might live.  Jesus doesn’t abolish the law, but rather fulfills it. 

So we still teach the Ten Commandments.  We make our young people memorize them.  And we use them to honestly examine ourselves before we take Holy Communion.  They remind us that we don’t save ourselves, that we are not worthy, and that we need a Savior.

Jesus teaches us that we are all murderers.  “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’  But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”

Or, to put it in the words of our catechism, “We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need.”  When we fail to do this, dear friends, we are guilty of murder.  The commandment isn’t just for dictators and mass shooters.  We are all guilty.

And as Jesus points out, if you are guilty, it’s better to settle out of court, “lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.  Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.”

So how do we settle out of court, dear friends?  How do we come to terms quickly with our accuser, with our conscience that teaches us that we are without excuse, and with the Word of God as spoken by Jesus that leaves us without a loophole? 

We turn to the cross.  We plead the blood of Christ that atones for us and wins us pardon.  The Ten Commandments point us to our sin, and then point us to the cross.  They point us to Jesus: the only way that we can keep the Law and avoid punishment.  We confess and we plead guilty to settle out of court.  No excuses and no loopholes.  We cannot say, “We’re only human,” for Jesus is too.  But He keeps the Law, and He fulfills it.  He gives us His righteousness – that “exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees,” so that we are promised that we will “enter the kingdom of heaven.”

We are set free from the Law’s punishments and condemnation.  So, the apostle Paul asks, “What shall we say then?”  Since we have God’s grace, should we just sin even more so that we get even more grace?  “By no means.  How can we who died to sin still live in it?”

St. Paul points us to our baptism.  In baptism, we “were baptized into His death,” that is Jesus’ death on the cross.  Baptism connects us to the cross, dear friends.  “We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

So what does this mean?  It means that you, though you are guilty of breaking all the commandments, you confess them, and you are baptized.  Your sinful flesh has been crucified with Jesus.  And so what happens next?  St. Paul says, “If we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His…. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.”

What a different way to live than like the Pharisees, who lied to themselves that they kept the Law.  In fact, they believed that they were not murderers, even though they murdered Jesus.  We too murdered Jesus, dear friends.  Our sins put Him on the cross.  The Ten Commandments teach us that we are guilty.  But we plead guilty and settle out of court. 

Your baptism connects you to the cross, and your debt is paid.  Instead of being like the rich young man, we are like the murderers and adulterers and thieves that Jesus forgave: the people that the Pharisees looked down upon.

Yes, that’s us.  The world hates us and calls us judgmental because we believe the Word of God.  Yes, we are judgmental.  For the Ten Commandments judge us and all people.  We are all guilty.  But thanks be to God that we have a Savior, one who came for all men precisely because they do have the Law written on their hearts and are without excuse. 

Jesus did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.  You have been baptized, cleansed, forgiven, and pardoned.  And so, dear friends, “consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”  This is good news!

Amen.

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

Sermon: Trinity 5 – 2023

9 July 2023

Text: Luke 5:1-11 (1 Kings 19:11-21, 1 Pet 3:8-15)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

St. Peter didn’t choose to be an apostle.  He didn’t even choose to be a disciple.  Jesus chose him.  And his career change was to go from catching fish to catching men.  Jesus called Peter by means of the miracle of the great catch of fish.  Our Lord used Peter’s boat – after an unsuccessful night of fishing – as a makeshift pulpit.  And that morning as Simon Peter and his colleagues were washing their nets and finishing their shift – probably very tired and annoyed to have worked all night and having caught not even one fish – this preacher tells them to go out into the water and try again.

“Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!  But at your word I will let down the nets.”  “But at your word.”

This reluctant, but ultimately faithful, obedience to Jesus would be a pattern in the life and ministry of St. Peter, the leader of the disciples, the bishop of Rome, the martyr, and the unlikely church planter and preacher – along with St. Paul – who would be a pillar among the apostles.  “But at your word…”

For we are all a little like Simon Peter working on his boat.  We were all minding our business when one day, Jesus came and disrupted our lives, said, “Follow me,” and made us members of the church: the once-little fishers-of-men organization started at Lake Gennesaret by a Jewish rabbi – who also happened to be God in the flesh.  Jesus chose each one of us – even if we think we chose Him.  Jesus calls each one of us into service in the church – whether as a pastor, an elder, a member of a board or committee, or as a faithful member who attends Divine Service and blends his or her voice in praise of God and receiving the Lord’s gifts week after week, even if by reluctant, but faithful obedience: “But at your word.”

Not everyone is called to be an apostle, or a church planter, or a bishop, or a preacher, or a member of a board or committee.  St. Paul teaches us that the church is the body of Christ comprised of different members who work together for the good of the body.  The Latin word for “body” is “corpus” – where we get the word “corps,” as in the Marine Corps. The church is a corps, a body of people working in unison, in war and in peace, under the command of an Admiral-King: our Lord Jesus Christ.

The church is a kind of Royal Coast Guard.  For though we are the church militant, and we make war against the sin, death, and the devil, we are in the business of throwing out our nets into the deep and catching men.  St. Peter, the fisherman, cast his nets to catch fish – so as to feed men.  But Jesus called Simon Peter to feed men with a different kind of food, and to catch them in a different kind of net: the Gospel.

And so we, the Christian Church, continue to catch men.  We are the divine Coast Guard, trolling for people in the water who need to be saved.  We cast our nets, and we fish them out of the water.  By our toil, the Lord saves them.  They join our crew – just like St. Peter – at our King’s word and by His orders. 

We don’t do it for a paycheck.  We don’t do it for medals and ribbons.  We don’t do it to boss people around.  We don’t do it because we are looking to expand our business.  We do it because the Lord has called us to this service.  We do it because the Lord works through us to save men and women in the nets, one at a time.  And we don’t catch the survivors in our nets to enslave them – but to free them.  We do it because it is both our duty and our joy.

This divine corps, this Royal Coast Guard, this massive ship known as the Holy Christian Church, has many jobs, but one purpose.  We have many chains of command, but one who is in charge.  We have many tasks, but one mission.  Everything we do, from cleaning, repairing, leading, following, strategizing, purchasing, planning, budgeting, maintenance, recruiting, marching, serving meals, singing, worshiping, teaching, learning, evangelizing, receiving forgiveness, showing love to the other sailors, submitting to those in authority, taking charge of our own areas of churchly responsibility – these are all part of the church’s mission to fish for men, to save the souls of those who would otherwise perish on the turbulent seas of our fallen world.

And like any crew, any corps, any enterprise comprised of sinful men – we have to remember our mission, to look to the big picture of why we are in the service of the Lord.  We have to remember that our tasks and teams are serving King and kingdom – no matter what we are doing on the ship.  All of us are important, but at the same time, none of us is irreplaceable.  We need to keep the mission in mind as we sail.

The fisher of men himself, Simon Peter, gives us advice as to how we accomplish our work as the Lord’s church, as fishers of men, as the divine Coast Guard who serves, as says St. Peter: “but at Jesus’ word,” which is the Word of God.  “All of you,” he says, speaking to the crew of the ship: “All of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.”  For this is teamwork.  This is how we not only win the war, but also win the peace.  This is how the ship stays afloat, and how the sailors look out for one another, and continue to patrol for people in need of rescue.  We cannot save others until we are working effectively together.  And we do this by adopting the mindset of the servant.

Jesus Himself, our Admiral-King, shocked St. Peter and the other apostles-to-be at the Last Supper, by washing the feet of his fishers of men.  Of course, it was Simon Peter who protested, and told Jesus not to wash his feet.  But it was also Simon Peter who, though reluctant, obeyed faithfully, submitting to the Lord’s washing and service.  St. Peter would eventually submit to a cross of his own, after his own service as a fisher of men.

Jesus said that we must wash the feet of others – and that begins with your fellow sailors, dear friends.  Jesus said that this is how the world would recognize us: that we love one another.  He is talking about our love for others on the ship. 

And so we must be attentive to our mission and to our orders.  Elijah – a fisher of men from the Old Testament, was discouraged.  He was being persecuted by a wicked king and queen.  He did not seem to be saving anyone.  He cried out to God: “The people of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, thrown down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”  But God showed Elijah that looks are deceiving.  For there were thousands in Israel who had not abandoned the ship.  Elijah was called to continue his prophetic service.  The Lord was not found in winds and earthquakes and in dramatic, loud voices – but rather in “the sound of a low whisper” – the Word of God. 

“But at your word…”

And yes, dear friends, we, like Simon Peter, recognize that we are sinful men.  We may even pray that Jesus would depart from us.  But that is one prayer that Jesus will not answer – at least not according to our request that he depart from us.  Rather, He will abide with us, remain with us in the ship, and bless our every task, whatever He has called us to do, for the mission of fishing for men.  That’s what He does for Peter – and us.

And yes, we are sinful, and yes we do bicker with the other sailors, and yes we are at times reluctant or lazy or even belligerent.  We get on one another’s nerves, and sometimes we wonder if the ship has any competent officers on board at all.  But it is then that we hear the “low whisper” of the Word of God, we call to mind who is in charge, we submit to His call, and we remember that we have left everything to follow Him.

“From now on,” says Jesus, “you will be catching men.”

Amen.

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

Sermon: Funeral of Doris Terrebonne – 2023

8 July 2023

Text: John 10:27-29 (Isa 43:1-3a, 1 Cor 12:31b-13:13)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Dear William, Michael, and Laurie, family, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and honored guests, Peace be with you.

In her 87 years on this side of the glory, Doris knew what it was to love and to be loved.  Her many acts of service to her children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren over the course of her long life is a testimony to that love.  Her life of service over the course of 61 years of marriage to William, Sr. is also a legacy of love that has been passed on to all of you.

Doris wanted this Scripture from Chapter 13 of St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians to be read.  It’s a famous passage about love that is beautiful and profound.  St. Paul speaks of perfect love: patient, kind, not envious or boastful, not arrogant or rude, not insisting on its own way, not rejoicing at wrongdoing – but rejoicing in the truth.  “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things,” says the apostle. 

Sometimes this passage is read at weddings.  For it does describe the ideal married life, as well as love in a family.  Of course, we all know that none of us is perfect.  We have regrets.  We have said and done things that are not loving.  St. Paul’s passage suggests that we say and do foolish things as children, but then we mature and grow and change.  This goes for all of us imperfect human beings in this fallen world: all of us here in this room, and also Doris.  For over the course of 87 years, there is a lot of life: some of it beautiful, some of it not so much.

The Greek word Paul uses for “love” in this passage is the kind of perfect, self-sacrificing love that God has for us.  And that is the important part.  We see God’s love at the cross, where Jesus sacrifices Himself for our sake, paying the penalty for all of us when we come up short.  That was the whole point of Christ’s coming to our broken world: to fix it.  He died to destroy death.  And He did this out of love.

St. Paul says: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”  God’s love is perfect, even though none of us are.  But the kind of love that God has for us is reflected in the kind of love we see in our parents and grandparents.  They aren’t perfect, but they really do give of themselves – in many cases, sacrificing for their beloved children and grandchildren in ways that may not ever even be known.  We see in God’s love “in a mirror dimly.”  Our love is imperfect, but it is a reflection of His perfect love for us.

When Doris showed all of you love, she was giving you an image of the cross of Jesus, in a reflection, like that of a mirror.  For real love is sacrifice for the sake of the beloved.

We see this promise of God’s love for His people in the Old Testament reading from Isaiah, who said, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”  This is God’s promise to Doris that He made to her at her baptism.  “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned.”  Even in death, Doris’s life has been preserved by the God who loves her.

We hear of the love of our Good Shepherd in our reading from John’s Gospel: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand.  My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

Jesus said these words, and His love for us is not only words, but deeds.  Jesus died on the cross to give Doris the gift of eternal life.  She is one of His sheep.  And every Easter, we celebrate our Good Shepherd Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, in which He destroys death, and leads the way to everlasting life.

Sometimes people misunderstand Christianity, and believe that it is about being good, and then when you die, your body goes away and your soul lives forever in heaven.  But that would be horrible, dear friends.  We were created to have bodies.  We are both bodies and spirits.  When Doris smiled at you, she did so in the body.  When she hugged and kissed you, she did so in the body.  When you all ate together, you did so in the body.  When Doris made things and shared them with you –she made these offerings of love with her hands.  And when our loved ones die, we miss their presence in the body.  We want to hear their voices, look in their eyes, and embrace them.  But we can’t do it right now.  And it is painful, though it is temporary.

The talk of spirits and heaven and memories in our hearts isn’t good enough.  We want our loved ones back in the flesh.  We want to see Doris again in her body.  And that, dear friends, is why Jesus came in the flesh, and rose from the dead in His body.  He promises to raise those who are baptized and who believe in His promises “on the last day.”  And this is why we Christians confess in the Creed that we “believe in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”  That is God’s promise to Doris and to you.  “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,” says Jesus.  Baptism happens in the body.  Jesus walked out of His own grave, in the body, and so will Doris.  And you will see her again in the flesh in a newly created heaven and earth.  You will eat and drink and laugh and embrace.  “My sheep hear My voice,” says our Good Shepherd Jesus.  “Fear not, for I have redeemed you,” says God the Father. 

“Love never ends,” says God the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul in His letter.  “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love.”

The perfect love of God conquers all things, even death.  Now we see this perfect love in the mirror, but only dimly, and imperfectly.  But it is there.  And Doris is in glory, and she sees God in His perfect love, face to face.  By God’s grace and through faith, you will see her again in the flesh, when all of our love will be made perfect.  “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.”  That is God’s promise.

Dear friends, peace be with you.

Amen

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

Sermon: Feast of the Visitation – 2023

2 July 2023

Text: Luke 1:39-56

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

While the world gets itself twisted into knots trying to define what it means to be human, and while our increasingly aggressive antichristian culture pits one group against another – including the born against those in the womb – we see a beautiful biblical illustration of not only what it means to be human, but how beautiful God’s created order is.

And what’s more, it is not only God’s creation of humanity that is on display in this Visitation, but also His redemption of us, motivated by love, in His saving us from our ugliness and sin and our violation of His created order. 

God hatched a plan to rescue us from the Serpent right under his nose.  And we see what happens when God takes flesh, when the Word invades the world.  And what we see is pure divine goodness and mercy, pure holy love that the world can only hate.  But in spite of the devil’s rage and the world’s mockery – the rescue goes from the womb of Mary to the tomb of the garden – and Jesus will emerge alive from both as the Savior: completely God and completely man.

The Visitation begins with family.  For Mary and Elizabeth are cousins.  And both are pregnant.  Mary is in unchartered territory, bearing a Son that is hers, but is not her husband’s – but at the same time, a child not conceived in sin, and in fact, not conceived by a man.  He is truly “the Seed of the Woman” that God promised to send to smash the Serpent’s head – a promise made right after the fall in the Garden of Eden.

This prophecy has been repeated again and again, and was handed over generation by generation for thousands of years: given from the patriarchs to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, taken into Egyptian slavery, brought out in freedom by Moses, and held in trust by kings Saul, David, and Solomon, and the others.  This promise survived the destruction of Israel, the deportation of Judah, and was proclaimed by prophets all along, throughout every age, “from generation to generation.”

And while many lived their lives unaware that this promise was indeed coming to fruition, it is being fulfilled in the fruit of Mary’s womb in the person of Jesus, whose name means “God saves.” 

At this glorious Visitation, Mary greets Elizabeth, and the son in Elizabeth’s own womb, a boy whose name will be John, leaps for joy at the coming of his divine cousin.  These two boys, cousins to one another, will bring the promise into reality.  For John will be the final prophet to announce the Savior’s coming, and will baptize Him.  And Jesus will reclaim the world by saving humanity.  And He will do so by dying on the cross, by offering His very blood as a ransom, and then by rising from the grave, conquering death and Satan, once and for all.

There is no force on earth that can stop this divine plan from going forward.  The attempts to murder the child Jesus will fail.  The arrest and execution of John the Baptist will not stop the preaching of the Word.  And the passion and death of Jesus will play right into the plan itself.  The resurrection of Jesus cannot be prevented by the representative of Caesar himself, nor by armed guards, nor by the priests and council and Pharisees and scribes and all the domestic enemies of Jesus.

These two babies in the womb are more powerful than the Roman Empire itself, and even today, the Gospel is more mighty than all the world’s sophisticated weaponry.  The Word of God is still a threat to the powers that be, and we see them still trying in vain to silence it. 

But the Holy Spirit has been sent by the Father and the Son.  The Spirit caused Elizabeth to confess: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”  And she continued in the Spirit: “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

We see a confession of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s faith, and that her faith is in God’s promise.  For the all of God’s promises are fulfilled and brought to fruition in Mary’s womb.  And the Holy Spirit makes John leap for joy and Elizabeth confess.  The Holy Spirit also causes St. Mary to respond, with her soul magnifying the Lord.

We continue to sing Mary’s Song, the Magnificat, for it is a confession of Jesus and of the fulfillment of God’s promise in Jesus, and it is both Mary’s words and the Holy Spirit’s words. 

Blessed Mary confesses her Son as her “God and Savior.”  For the very name “Jesus” – which Mary was told to name this miraculous Child – means “God Saves.”  For God Himself, having taken on flesh, has dropped behind enemy lines, beginning this operation so small as not to be visible to the naked eye.  The Savior comes in humility, encased in the body of an impoverished girl who will be shamed and chased out of her own country by death threats.  But the boy Jesus will grow – both in stature, and as an unstoppable threat to the malicious devil, the hateful world, and our own sinful nature.

For “His mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation.”  The promise of the destruction of the devil is also a promise of mercy to us – and this promise was carried “from generation to generation,” and now, dear friends, so has the proclamation of His victory: “from generation to generation,” right down to this very moment.

But let us not forget that it isn’t only a “message” that we hear today, dear friends.  For the Gospel is not merely Good News “about” Jesus.  For Jesus is here: visiting us physically, in the flesh.  He is present – though unseen – just as He was when John leaped in his mother’s womb.  Jesus is veiled behind bread and wine, but just as He was present with Mary and Elizabeth and John on that day of Visitation, He is present here on this Lord’s Day of Visitation.  Our souls also magnify the Lord, and we too rejoice in God our Savior!

We who hunger and thirst for righteousness are “filled… with good things.”  Mary’s little Lamb feeds us with His very sacrificial flesh, and has satisfied our thirst by giving us His saving blood as the gift of wine to drink.  He is veiled, but present.  He is unseen, but His work is manifest.  He sends the unbelievers – rich in worldly wealth, but poor in what really matters – “empty away.”

Dear friends, Jesus “has helped His servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy.”  You are Israel, and God does not forget you.  He remembers His promise.  And Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise.  The Holy Spirit makes your heart leap for joy, and causes you to magnify the Lord and rejoice in your Savior – who is none other than God Himself – though the world thinks very little of children in the womb, and gives no thought to bread and wine that we confess to be divine: a Visitation of God invading our world to save us.

Let us join St. John’s joy and rejoice in God’s Visitation.  Let us sing with Sts. Mary and Elizabeth.  And let us remember the Lord’s mercy shown to us in our God and Savior.  Let us celebrate their Visitation, and ours.

Amen.

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