Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Nov 28, 2023

 

28 Nov 2023

Text: 1 Pet 1:13-25

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

St. Peter tells us what the Gospel is, quoting Isaiah (40:8) and then explaining it: “‘The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the Word of the Lord remains forever.’ And this Word is the Good News that was preached to you.”  The Good News, the Gospel, dear friends, is the Word of God.  For the Word is not only the proclamation of Good News, the Word is Jesus: the Word Made Flesh.  Grass and flowers and all flesh, all that is material in this fallen world, are subject to dying and fading away, corrupting and perishing and ceasing to be.  But the Word is eternal: the Word that speaks the unchanging truth, the truth that the Creator is also the Redeemer.  “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14), the Word whose withered and dead flesh re-emerged alive from the tomb, remains forever!

As we approach the season of Advent, our minds are drawn to the coming of Jesus, the miraculous Incarnation, the eternal Word of God, the Word, by which and by whom, all things were made, the Word that spoke the universe into being, this Creator Word becoming one with His created world as a miraculously fertilized egg in the virginal womb of Blessed Mary.  This Word is the Gospel, dear friends.

And another theme of our rapidly approaching season of Advent is that the Word Made Flesh is returning in a second Advent, coming not in humility, not meek and mild, not as a baby lying a manger, but as the conquering King of kings and Lord of lords, the Almighty, the Holy One, the Alpha and the Omega.  St. Peter bids us to be prepared.

“Therefore,” proclaims the apostle, “preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  Now is the time to prepare, dear friends.  Because of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, because of His blood that has ransomed us (rather than “perishable things such as silver and gold”), the “precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot,” we can indeed purify our souls by our “obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love.”

Without this grace, without this ransom, without this blood, without this Word Made Flesh, without this Lamb sacrificed, without this Word that remains forever, having walked out of His own tomb, we cannot be holy.  But thanks to the Word, His holiness is transferred to us, and we can indeed respond to His mighty power, His grace, His mercy, and His proclamation of Good News. 

By virtue of this justification by the Word, we can be sanctified in the Word.  As the apostle proclaims to us by the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, we overcome the fate of the dying grass and flowers that pass away and corrupt, and we overcome by the incorruptible flesh of the incorruptible Word.  And in Him, we can have a pure heart, and we can “love one another earnestly” – since we have been “born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable.”  For, as our Lord Himself said in the Word proclaimed by the apostle John, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish,” unlike the grass and the flowers, “should not perish, but have eternal life.”  For “the Word of the Lord remains forever.”

Indeed, “this Word is the Good News that was preached to you.”  This is the Gospel 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: Last Sunday – 2023

26 Nov 2023

Text: Matt 25:1-13 (Isa 65:17-25, 1 Thess 5:1-11)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

The great Christian writer J.R.R. Tolkien once said, “The birth, death and resurrection of Jesus means that one day everything sad will come untrue.”  Maybe he thought of this when he read our Old Testament passage from Isaiah.  “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.”

Isaiah refers back to the tragic things of our current, fallen world, things like weeping and distress, infants who only live a few days, men cut down in the prime of life, invasions and the loss of property, women going into labor in vain, children who bring about calamity for their parents, and all of the other consequences of this world’s sin and brokenness.

The prophet gives us a glimpse of the new heaven and new earth: “‘The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food.  They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,’ says the Lord.”

This promise of a new and restored Eden has been around since the collapse of the first Eden, since God promised a Savior who would come and crush the serpent’s head.  Of course, Jesus came and did just that, suffering the bite of the serpent in the process of mortally wounding the serpent with the wood of the cross. 

So indeed, the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus has happened, dear friends.  And now we await the “one day” that comes as a result, the “one day” of the new heavens and the new earth.  The kingdom is both here “now,” and it is also “not yet.”  Now is the time to be alert and to labor in the vineyard, for the time is coming when time itself will stop.  One day, we continue to struggle with this old and fallen world, and then one day, we will enjoy the new and eternal.

So how does the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus matter to us as we live out our lives day to day?  Do we look around us at the sadness and suffering of this world and see it as permanent?  Do we believe in this new heaven and earth that are coming?  Do we pray for those who do not place their hope in the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus?  Do we ourselves forget about the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus and get caught up in this fallen world where wolves still eat lambs, where lions prowl around looking for someone to devour, and where the serpent seems to rule the world?  Do we participate in the world’s evil?  Or do we see a more excellent way?  Do we see that this world is passing away?  Do we cling to our baptism knowing that we have been signed, sealed, and delivered with the cross?

St. Paul warns us against becoming too cozy in this doomed world, looking around at the wreckage and saying, “There is peace and security” even as “sudden destruction” comes upon us.  St. Paul reminds us of the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and teaches us to be “fully aware” of what is coming on that “one day.”  For we are “not in darkness,” dear brothers and sisters.  We have the Word of God teaching us and reminding us of what is to come because of the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus. 

For this is not the end of our Lord’s mission.  He was born in order to die.  He died in order to be victorious over death.  And He was raised from the dead because He is returning.  St. Paul reminds us that He comes “like a thief in the night.”  Jesus Himself describes His return in that kind of language.  Thieves are part of this fallen world, just like lions and wolves and serpents.  Like other predators, they invade when we are not paying attention.  For if we knew when they were coming, we would be ready.  And so in this fallen world, we must always be ready.

Jesus compares His return to the coming of a thief.  To the unprepared, to those whose lives are unaffected by the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, they will be surprised.  Let us not be surprised, dear friends.  For we are not in darkness.  We have been warned.  We have God’s Word.  I just read it to you.  Go home and read it again.  Jesus is coming, and we don’t know exactly when.  So when He does return, let Him find us ready and watchful, aware, and working in the kingdom.  Let Him find us praying for more to join us in this new heaven and new earth.  Let Him find us surrounded by His Word, receiving His sacraments, and living lives that remind everyone of the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, as well as that “one day” that is coming.

Our Lord told a story to remind us to be ready.  It is the Parable of the Ten Virgins.  It is really the story of two kinds of people: the ready and the unready.  We can think of all kinds of similar illustrations.  Those who are ready hear about the hurricane that is coming, and they have their generators ready to go, gasoline purchased, and their homes made secure.  The unready are running around at the last minute: the generator won’t start, the lines are long at the gas station, and they procrastinate to where there is no more time.  But the hurricane will not wait.  It’s coming.  And those who did not prepare may find themselves at the mercy of those who are prepared. 

Dear friends, the time to prepare is now.  If you are concerned about thieves breaking in to your home, the time to prepare is during the day.  When an armed invader breaks into your home at three in the morning, it’s too late to go buy a gun and ammunition and learn how to use them.  It’s too late to repair the broken gate, or put a stronger lock on the windows.  Now is the time to prepare.

This new heaven and new earth are coming.  Those who are prepared will be ready to enter the banquet with the Bridegroom.  So be ready.  The good news, dear friends, is that to be ready in this spiritual sense doesn’t require that you join a monastery or give away all of your money to a church.  It doesn’t mean you have to earn a state of readiness.  For it is a gift.

To have your lamps full of oil and trimmed for the journey means that you have faith in Jesus, whose birth, death, and resurrection mean something.  It means you believe that He has come and He is coming again – and that His birth, death, and resurrection are for you.  His blood atones for your sins.  His resurrection means that He has overcome sin, death, and the devil – and all the things of this world that the Prophet Isaiah points to that will no longer “be remembered or come into mind.” 

A big part of our readiness for His return is to go to where the oil for our lamps is to be found.  And we don’t have to go to merchants to buy it at the last minute.  In fact, the oil for our lamps has already been bought and paid for.  It is there for the taking.  It is as simple as opening up our ears to hear, and our mouths to receive.  It is as simple as rejoicing in what is to come.  “For God,” says St. Paul, “has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with Him.”  So then, says the apostle, “let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.” 

The ten virgins were invited to the banquet.  The wise were ready, awake, and watchful, and they attended the celebration when the Bridegroom came.  Dear friends, the banquet is still yet to come, but we are getting a preview of it here.  The Bridegroom is here with us in His Word and in His body and blood.  We have already begun to eat and drink with the Bridegroom, and to celebrate His coming.  It is fitting that the one who presides over the Divine Service is called the celebrant.  For Jesus invites us to celebrate – even here among the lions and wolves and serpents.  For we know what is coming.  More importantly, we know who is coming.  He comes like a thief in the night, but so long as we are ready, it doesn’t matter when.  For we hear and believe the promise: “I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people; no more shall be heard the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.”

Indeed, dear friends, what matters more than anything is the birth, death, resurrection – and return – of Jesus.  For on that “one day,” the day of the new heavens and the new earth, everything sad will come untrue.

Amen.

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

Meditation: Thanksgiving Eve – 2023

22 Nov 2023

Text: Luke 17:11-19

Note: This meditation was by the Deacon 

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

In our Gospel reading, our Lord reminds us of the virtue of gratitude.  But it is really much more than a virtue.  It is an expression of faith.  It is to acknowledge a gift.  And when the gift comes from God, it is to confess Him as the source of the gift.  It is a confession of God’s mercy.

We see God’s mercy in the form of Jesus answering the prayers of these ten lepers: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us,” they cry out from a distance.  For the Law requires them to be far away to protect others from infection.  They cannot live with their families.  They are outcasts from their communities.  And there is no cure for their painful and deadly disease.  It will only get worse.

But these men have hope, because they have faith in Jesus.  They pray to Him for help.

When all ten are healed, nine of them are so focused on themselves that they do not come back to thank Jesus for healing them.  But one of them does just that.  He “turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks.”  And, as St. Luke notes, “He was a Samaritan.”  So this man was a double outcast: a foreigner hated by the Jews, and a leper shunned by everyone.  In one encounter with Jesus, his life is saved, and everything changed from that point on.  His shame and separation are ended.  And he is grateful.

He worships Jesus physically, and he praises God with his voice.  Jesus is amazed.  Our Lord asks, “Were not ten cleansed?  Where are the nine?  Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”

And sometimes it takes our being shunned as a foreigner before we appreciate being included as God’s chosen people, the Church.  Sometimes we have to bear the cross of sickness or suffering before we appreciate the suffering of Jesus on the cross for us, as well as looking forward to that day, promised by Jesus, when sorrow and death will be no more. 

Sometimes we behave like the nine, being so consumed with ourselves, that we forget to thank God for His blessings to us.  But this passage from Holy Scripture – as well as this day set aside in our country as a day of gratitude – will hopefully remind us to stop, to turn back, to worship Jesus, to praise God, and to say: “Thank you, O Lord, for all of your blessings to me, though I am unworthy.  It is only by Your grace that I am healed of my sins and brought into your church as one of your baptized people.”

And by being mindful of our blessings – especially the blessing of our Lord’s Gospel, His saving Word, His reception of us in the new birth of Holy Baptism, and His body and blood which He shares with us in the greatest Thanksgiving meal of all – we can thank Him today and every day, hearing His blessing to the Tenth Leper spoken also to us by His Word: “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.

Amen.

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

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Nov 21, 2023

21 Nov 2023 

Text: Rev 18:1-24

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

As world history moves forward in time, our rapid advances in technology fool us into thinking that we are getting better, that the current generation is the culmination of mankind.  The reality is the opposite.  Instead, evil has become normalized and goodness has been redefined.  Reality itself is called to question and considered to be in the realm of the subjective.  Goodness, truth, and beauty are malleable.  St. John’s apocalyptic Revelation, revealed by none other than our Lord Himself (Rev 1:1) demonstrates not a progressive world, but one that is regressive – even as it glories in its downfall.

In a process that began in the Garden, we see that which is good, even “very good” (Gen 1:31) being corrupted and turned into something hideous.  Cities are places where people live together in community.  God reveals eternity to us with references to “the city of God” (Ps 46:4-5).  Living together in peace and harmony is the ideal city.  The name “Jerusalem” means “City of Peace.”  But sin has created another city: Babylon.  Babylon became the heart of a wicked empire, the capital of a nation and people who rejected God.  God used ancient Babylon to chastise His own people, those whose capital was indeed Jerusalem, punishing them on account of their sins of idolatry and rejection of the prophets.

Trade and commerce are likewise good things: using one’s gifts and talents to the best of one’s ability, and then trading the excess of what one produces to benefit mutually.  Markets increase the wealth and prosperity of all, but only when done in a godly way, with honest scales and money (Prov 11:1).  When money becomes an object of love, every manner of evil is unleashed on the world (1 Tim 6:10).

And so it goes that toward the end of the age, we see sin and corruption taking over the lives of nearly everyone in the world, as all but a remnant have rejected God’s visitation, spurning the Lord’s Christ, and no longer giving heed to the Word of God.  Babylon has reemerged in some form or other, a “great” city that “has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit.”  Her influence has spread to “all nations” who “have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.”  And “the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.”  

As the end approaches, God’s people, citizens of the kingdom, denizens of the City of God, are called out by a “voice from heaven” that says to us: “Come out of her, My people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”

Like Sodom, this Babylon is doomed (Gen 19:1-29).  Like Lot, we are being called out of this evil city before it is destroyed (Gen 19:15).  We must leave Babylon and not look back (Gen 19:17).  The “kings of the earth” will say, “Alas!  Alas!  You great city, you mighty city, Babylon!  For in a single hour your judgment has come.”  The merchants will lament: “Alas, alas, for the great city that was clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls.  For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.”  The millstone of which Jesus spoke (Matt 18:6) reemerges, thrown “into the sea,” and Babylon will “be thrown down with violence.”  For “in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and all who have been slain on earth.”  

Let us not wait to heed the angelic voice to “Come out of her, My people.”

Amen.

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

Sermon: Trinity 24 – 2023

19 Nov 2023

Text: Matt 9:18-26

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

By this time in Jesus’ ministry, He is busy working miracles.  And on this day, He is on His way to perform one miracle, and is interrupted by the need to perform another miracle. 

A synagogue ruler’s young daughter has died.  Her father comes to Jesus seeking a miracle.  “Come and lay your hand on her,” he prays, “and she will live.”  This man believes beyond hope in the resurrection of his child – and Jesus “followed him with His disciples.” 

But as they started off, “a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His garment.”  For she believed that Jesus could heal her without even touching her.  “If I only touch His garment, I will be made well.” 

Both of these people who are praying and seeking a miracle – life from death, health from sickness – are asking for the clock to be turned back.  They are asking that nature itself, as we accept it to be, to be undone.  They are asking for a reversal of the suffering and death caused by our sins and the sins of our ancestors in the Garden.  They are asking Jesus to take them back to a world before sin, back to paradise, back to innocence.

And, dear friends, they believe that Jesus can do it.  This is faith.  And we see Jesus, as God in the flesh, with the power to restore the world as it was before sin, and we see people with faith coming to Him because they believe He can, and He will, answer their prayers.  In fact, Jesus tells the woman whose bleeding was cured, “your faith has made you well.”  Jesus says this often to people who have been healed.  And in the Greek language of the New Testament, the word “healed” is the same word as “saved.”  When Christians speak of being saved, of salvation, they are speaking of being healed.  It’s the same thing.  For if you are dying, and you are, you need to be rescued.  You need a doctor to intervene in your situation to save you from death.  Only in this life, doctors can only save us temporarily.  But Jesus saves eternally.  Doctors can, at best, save us from dying right now.  But Jesus saves us from eternal death.  And if we believe it, if we go to Jesus seeking life, He will give it to us.  How sad that so many simply don’t believe, and they accept sickness and death as normal and unfixable.  Their lack of belief keeps them from asking, from praying.

Unbelievers even laugh in the face of our Lord’s miracles.  They still do today.  Jesus finally makes it to the home of the synagogue ruler to find the professional mourners and the crowds “making a commotion” – which is what they did at funerals in those days. Jesus has come to shut it down, to take charge of life and death, and to demonstrate that the world we consider normal is actually broken, and that He has come to fix it.  “Go away,” He says, “for the girl is not dead, but sleeping.  And they laughed at Him.”

Can you imagine?  Laughing at a little girl’s funeral?  Laughing at Jesus?  Well, they won’t be laughing in a few minutes.  At least not in mockery.  The girl’s parents and the girl herself will be laughing with joy.  For Jesus “went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.”  And indeed, the news of this miracle spread “through all the district.”

There are a couple of interesting things that we can learn from these two miracles that the Holy Spirit caused to be recorded by not just by Matthew, but also by Mark and Luke.  We learn more details from St. Luke’s account.  According to Luke, the ruler, whose name was Jairus, did not know that his daughter was dead.  For if he knew this, he might not have made the journey in faith seeking Jesus.  But he does, dear friends.  He believes that Jesus can take his daughter by the hand and heal her.  And that is just what Jesus does.

The woman who was bleeding, as we learn from Luke (who was a medical doctor), had spent her life savings on doctors who could not help her.  It would be easy to imagine her losing hope and simply giving up on anyone being able to heal her, maybe even being angry at God for not hearing her prayers.  But look at her faith, dear friends!  She doesn’t even believe that Jesus has to know about her at all, but because of His mighty power, simply touching the edge of His robe can make her well.  And that is just what Jesus does.

The faith of this praying father and this praying woman are both met with healing, with salvation. 

And look at how powerful faith is.  The woman who has been dying for twelve years is instantly made well.  The spiritual uncleanness that she had (being unable to attend worship or to be around other people) has been taken away.  And Jesus Himself does not become unclean as a result – which is how things normally work.  And again, the little girl, whose entire span of life had been twelve years (as we learn from St. Luke), had died.  But the faith of her father brought Jesus and salvation to her.  And even though the law stipulated that touching a dead body made one unclean, that isn’t the case with Jesus.  Instead of making Him ritually unclean, Jesus makes the dead and the dying clean.  Jesus makes the sinner pure.  Jesus takes our uncleanness upon Himself, where it is swallowed up by His righteousness. 

The Law doesn’t apply to Jesus, because Jesus keeps the Law.  Sin and death do not overcome Him, but He overcomes sin and death.  And the healing that this woman and this girl experience are previews of the cross and of the empty tomb, of the end of the world, the resurrection of the dead, and the creation of a new heaven and a new earth, just as they were before the fall in the Garden.  Jesus has come to turn back the clock to a time before we started dying.  And our faith makes us well.

And here we see the same faith happening in different ways.  The woman believes in Jesus, comes to Him, and Jesus makes her well through her faith.  But what about the little girl?  She cannot believe for herself, as she is dead.  It is her father who brings Jesus to her.  Her father’s faith brings about a saving encounter with Jesus that results in her resurrection.

Some people come to faith as adults.  They may have been in a state of uncleanness and dying spiritually for years.  We don’t know how faith works, it is a mystery.  But people do indeed hear about Jesus, believe that He can and will save them, and they put their trust in Him.  And Jesus brings them from dying to living.  Others come to faith as children.  They are often tiny infants, unable to ask for salvation themselves.  But their parents come to Jesus in faith, and they ask Him to lay His hand on their children, who need of a second birth, so that they might live.  Whenever Jesus comes and heals, that is, saves, there is faith.  And while we are so overwhelmed by the mighty power and compassion of Jesus in this passage, we should not overlook the fact that Jesus hears the prayers of those who come to Him and who ask in faith – knowing that He has the power and the compassion to replace sickness with health, uncleanness with purity, and even death with life.

And Jesus is not bothered by your prayers.  Jesus is not made unclean in His contact with us.  Jesus is not too busy for us.  Jesus makes Himself available to us today, even though it is in a way that depends perhaps even more on faith.  We cannot touch His garment, but we can eat His body and drink His blood.  He doesn’t walk to our house and lay His hand on our children in the same way that He does at the home of Jairus, but He does lay the hand of a pastor upon our children with cleansing water, making them disciples “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  We cannot hear Jesus preaching with His own mouth, but we hear His Word as the Holy Spirit has caused it to be written for us, and we hear that Word proclaimed.

Faith is still what connects us to Jesus to make us well.  We believe in Him even when doctors cannot help us.  Even when our children have died.  We believe and we pray.  And Jesus has the power to turn back the clock to paradise.  For when He returns, He will raise all who have been saved by grace, through faith, from the sleep of death.  And on that day, nobody will laugh at Jesus.  But we will laugh with Him in joy.  In the meantime, let us pray, let us have faith, let us go to where He is found. 

Amen.

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

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – St. Justinian

 

14 Nov 2023

Text: Matt 26:36-56

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Our Lord’s passion begins with prayer.  And this time, He prays to His Father alone.  Having just shared the cup of His blood with His disciples, Jesus must now drink a different cup alone: the cup of His Father’s wrath, the cup of pain, the cup of abandonment by all, even by the Father who art in heaven.  And showing us the meaning of the third petition of the Lord’s Prayer (“Thy will be done”), our Lord prays, “Not as I will, but as You will.” 

And Jesus is alone, as His three drowsy disciples, Peter, James, and John, could not watch and pray with Him for a single hour.  Our Lord gives them another petition to pray, the sixth petition from the Lord’s Prayer: “that you may not enter into temptation” for “the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  Jesus prays “Thy will be done” three times.  And then afterwards, “the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.”

Judas the betrayer has led the detachment “from the chief priests and elders of the people,” a “great crowd with swords and clubs.”  And our Lord is betrayed by the betrayer with a kiss.  Judas had just shared in the communion of the cup of the Lord’s blood, and now he is exchanging the cup of forgiveness for the cup of God’s wrath, a cup that he will drink.  For Judas wishes to spill, rather than partake in, the Lord’s blood.

The other disciples who drank the cup of our Lord’s blood in the intimate communion with Him, are now fleeing from Him who saves them, leaving Him alone to drink the cup of wrath.  Peter makes a desperate attempt to impose his own will over the will of God, to take the cup away from Jesus by means of a sword.  But Jesus tells him to put it away.  Rather than live and perish by the sword, St. Peter is to live by the Word and blood of the Lord, sharing the cup of salvation with others, and eventually drinking the cup of martyrdom.  But on this day, Peter joins the rest, for “all of the disciples left Him and fled.”

The cup of the Lord’s blood that Peter and the rest drank at the Last Supper, the same cup that they would continue to drink, and would share with others after the Resurrection is the same cup that we drink.  It is the “cup of salvation” (Ps 116:13) that Jesus drinks with us anew “in [His] Father’s kingdom” (Matt 26:29) “for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt 26:28).  The disciples who fled will all share in the cup of suffering for the sake of the blood of Christ in one way or another, nearly all by the cup of martyrdom. 

For when we have drunk from the cup of salvation, the blood of Christ, when we pray time after time the petition: “Thy will be done,” we live and die not by the sword, but we live by the Word, by the blood, by the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus, by the cross.  For though “all the disciples left Him and fled,” He does not flee us.  He is the Good Shepherd.  He does not flee His Father’s will to save us.  He does not flee the cup that He must drink.  He does not flee His cross to redeem us.  He does not flee Satan and Judas and the crowd of sinners that arrested Him, even though legions of angels stood at the ready to take the cup of God’s wrath from Him and pour it out upon us poor miserable sinners who betray Him, deny Him, and flee from Him.  Jesus drinks that cup on our behalf, and then shares the cup of salvation with us in its place.

Let us pray with Jesus, “Thy will be done.”  Let us pray as our Lord has taught us to pray: “Lead us not into temptation.”  Let us pray time after time to “Our Father who art in heaven.”  Let us partake of the cup of our Lord’s blood.  Let us join in the communion of His body.  Let us live by the Word and the cup of His blood, the cup of salvation that we share with the world.  Let us flee neither Jesus, nor the cross, nor whatever cup our Lord wills that we drink for the sake of the “kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.”

Amen.

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

Sermon: Trinity 23 – 2023

12 Nov 2023

Text: Matt 22:15-22 (Prov 8:11-22, Phil 3:17-21)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Today’s Gospel includes one of the most quoted sayings of Jesus: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Entire careers and endless books have been devoted to trying to apply our Lord’s words to the morality of either more government or less government, of a justification of taxes, or a condemnation of taxes.  

But it’s important not to forget what this question was really all about.  It wasn’t about taxes or Caesar or government or citizenship.  The Pharisees are asking this question after Jesus has entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  The Pharisees have already been plotting with several other groups, such as the Herodians (the devotees of King Herod, who was Caesar’s sock-puppet), to have Jesus arrested and killed on false charges that He was seeking to overthrow the Roman government.  And when Jesus (in only three or four days) will be questioned by Caesar’s governor, acting as prosecutor of His case, our Lord will answer that His kingdom is “not of this world.” The governor will seek to release the innocent Jesus.  In response, the various factions of the Jews will pressure Pilate with the taunt, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend.”  In three or four days, Jesus will have been executed by these conspirators that are now asking Him fake questions about taxes.

So, no, this isn’t about a Christian approach to taxation or government.  It’s not really about how to live when we are ruled over by a Pagan Imperial government – although we Christians can live under any kind of worldly government, Christian or not, legitimate or not, ruled by a dictator, or voted into office by the people.  In the final analysis, all of that is not really that important.  Today, there are no more Caesars, only a few marble statues and columns standing in ruins.  The Roman Empire persecuted Christians, then became Christian, then fell apart.  Now it’s a chapter in a largely unread history textbook.  Caesars and emperors and dictators rise and fall.  States and countries and republics come and go.  Taxes go up and down.  But the Lord’s kingdom remains.  The Word of the Lord endures forever.

These conniving Pharisees and Herodians hated Caesar, but were happy to turn their servitude to him into their own personal advantage.  And along comes Jesus to threaten the good life that they had – even ruled over by a Pagan emperor whom they hated.  They knew how to play the game.  And this is what they are doing with Jesus: playing a game in order to kill Him. 

But Jesus knows their treachery.  He has not come to play games with these conniving people.  Rather He has come to die for them, to call them – and us – to repentance, so that we might be saved and “live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.”  For “this is most certainly true.”

Of course, we are called to be citizens, and we may indeed be aware of, or even involved in, our worldly governance.  But it is important to understand where the real action is: not in the Empire, not with Caesar, but in the kingdom, with Christ.  For one day, the White House and Capitol will be a museum of ruins, while the Holy Christian Church will continue until the return of Jesus and the end of the world, and even then will exist forever in eternity.  Caesars and kings and Pharisees and Herodians and Pagans and all those who plot to kill Jesus and persecute Christians will join the Christians in confessing Jesus as Lord.  For it will be they who are “entangled” by His words. 

For the image on the coin in that day was Caesar Augustus.  And within a few years, he was dead, and a new Caesar took his place, and a new guy’s picture appeared on the coins.  And so it goes.  The American dollar is the new currency of the new Caesar, being accepted around the world.  But these things change, and they change quickly, even as the “likeness and inscription” on our own coins and paper bills change, and every four or eight years, a new Caesar gets elected by half of the people, and he is hated by the other half.  The Roman Circus continues with different titles and names.  And they rise and fall just the same.

But the real teaching of Jesus is about the kingdom: “[Render] to God the things that are God’s.”  So, dear friends, what is God’s?  Or better yet, what isn’t God’s?  God was looking the Pharisees and the Herodians in the face, speaking to them, unlike a little silver idol of Caesar that you can hold in your hand, through which you become powerful in this world.  God was not only teaching them, but coming to die for them.  And the Pharisees and the Herodians, the Sadducees and the chief priests, and the Romans – were all too consumed with this life, their coins, and their taxes,  that they missed what was truly important: that Jesus is God, that He has come to save them, and that He is doing so by His upcoming sacrificial death on the cross.  He will be betrayed by thirty of these coins with Caesar’s image, condemned by Caesar’s court after being found innocent of the charge of plotting against Caesar (when it was actually Caesar conspiring with the Jews to kill Him).  But it isn’t coins with the image of Caesar that are important, but the new and eternal currency.  For we have been bought not by a coin with the icon of Caesar, but with a cross upon which hung the icon of God the Father: that is, God the Son in the flesh, and Him crucified.  For Jesus has “redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.”

So if you owe money to Caesar, dear friends, then pay Caesar.  Figure it out.  Jesus is not a tax attorney.  He hasn’t come to set tax brackets and marginal rates.  He hasn’t even come to give you your best life now so that you can have lots of coins and toys.  He has come so that you will have something far more valuable: forgiveness, life, and salvation.  He has come so that when you die, you will rise again on the last day, and live forever – something that in the kingdoms and empires of the world, nobody can buy: not Caesars, not kings, not presidents, not Pharisees, not Herodians, not Roman governors, not centurions, and not citizens of the greatest empire on earth.  It’s not for sale.

So render to Caesar the gold and silver that you owe.  Caesar is probably asking for more than you owe.  Caesars and kings and presidents always lust for more than we actually owe them.  And we all know how to figure out if you do owe money to someone.  But the real question is “What do we owe to God?”  What is God’s?  What does God own?  What does God share with us?  And what do we owe back to Him?  As the Psalmist asks, and answers: “What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits to me?  I will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and call on the name of the Lord.  I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the Lord’s house, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem.”

Dear friends, let us render to God our worship, our time, our talent, our treasure, our love, and our devotion, and let us stop worshiping the little idols with the likeness and inscription of Caesars and presidents on them.  Let us focus our lives on God’s kingdom, on Christ’s cross, on His Word, His body, His blood, His baptism: His kingdom. 

Lord of glory, You have bought us
With your lifeblood as the price.
Never grudging for the lost ones
That tremendous sacrifice.
Give us faith to trust you boldly,
Hope to stay our souls on You;
But, oh best of all Your graces,
With Your love our love renew.

Amen.

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

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Nov 7, 2023

7 Nov 2023

Text: Matt 24:1-28

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

The destruction of the temple was both a divine judgment and an act of mercy.  It was punishment against those who rejected our Lord – especially among those in leadership positions who really knew better – as it was destruction on an Old Testament level.  And like all similar judgments in the history of the children of Israel, it was preceded by prophecy and calls to repentance that went unheeded.  In fact, Jesus gave them forty years to change their hearts and minds – the same amount of time as the children of Israel wandered in the desert – with the same result that almost none of them made it to the promised land.

But the destruction of the temple was also an act of mercy, like the destruction of the bronze serpent which had become an idol (2 Kings 18:4). For the temple was no longer needed, and its continued existence – along with the priests and Levites and sacrifices – would have simply been the false worship of a false god.  The true God made it clear at the cross that the physical temple had been fulfilled by the physical Jesus.  His blood fulfills the blood of the animal sacrifices, which were a “shadow of the good things to come” (Heb 10:1).  Jesus is now our priest (Heb 5:1-10).

For even believers continued to gather in the temple.  It took an act of God to sever those ties completely, and to avoid the temptation to continue engaging in useless sacrifices.  The sacrament of the altar is a sharing, a communion in the one all-atoning sacrifice, “once for all” (Heb 7:27). 

As St. Peter teaches us, the church is the new temple, “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5).

And so, instead of one temple where God is present, requiring the mediator of a hereditary priesthood, we now build Christian altars upon which Christ Himself comes to us, our High Priest in the flesh of His body and blood.  The priests of this New Covenant are not mediators between God and men, but are rather preachers of the Good News, servants who wash the feet of the saints – saints who are themselves the priesthood of the baptized, the cleansed, the ones who are fed the body and who drink the blood. 

This abiding presence of our Lord in His Word and in His sacraments will hold us in the faith, even through the “tribulation” to come and the hatred “by all nations for [His] name’s sake.”  For this is the unbelieving world’s reaction to our Lord’s commission to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name” (Matt 28:19).  “God so loved the world,” (John 3:16), and “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him” (John 1:10).  And as John also reports our Lord’s words: “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you” (John 15:18). 

And our Lord’s promises still stand, come what may, even the “abomination of desolation” which we will understand when the time comes.  For hear this good news: “The one who endures to the end will be saved,” and “this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”  And for us, dear friends, the end of this world will be like the end of the temple: both a divine judgment, and an act of mercy.

And we pray with St. John and with Christians around the world, from the very end of revealed Scripture itself, “Amen, come Lord Jesus” (Rev 22:20).

Amen.

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

Sermon: All Saints Day (observed) – 2023

5 Nov 2023

Text: 1 John 3:1-2 (Matt 5:1-12, Rev 7:2-17)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

When we honor the saints, we are really honoring Jesus.  For He is the one who turns us poor, miserable sinners into saints.  And this is the entire point of the Christian faith.  And here we are nearly two thousand years after our Lord’s death on the cross to save us, after His resurrection that points us to our own resurrections and to those of our loved ones who have died in the faith.  And still, most people miss the entire point.

It’s one thing when we think of great saints whom we remember by name, like St. Augustine the great theologian and doctor of the church, or St. Teresa, the nun who served the poor in India, or St. Paul, the apostle who spread Christianity all over the known world and wrote half of the New Testament.  But how quickly we forget that Augustine had been a member of a cult who had a son out of wedlock, that Teresa’s diary reveals a woman plagued by doubts, or that Paul was once Saul, the inquisitor of Christians who took part in the lynching of St. Stephen, the first martyr.

What makes a saint a saint (a word that means holy) is that every one of them had a saving encounter with Jesus – whether in Holy Baptism as an infant, or in a conversion later on, maybe even on one’s deathbed. 

But today, on this great feast, we don’t call to mind the great saints whose names we know for the great deeds that they did, inspiring us to imitate their great works.  Rather, we remember all saints, those whose names we know, and those unknown to history.  We remember the saints whom Christian churches have declared to be saints, and we remember our loved ones for whom Christ died, for whom Christ’s blood atones, those who will never have a marble statue or a church named after them.

Their saintly works may have been those of godly parents: fathers working multiple jobs, mothers nursing us as babies and taking care of us when we were sick.  They taught us to pray and took us to church.  They had us baptized.  Our saints may also have suffered for their faith, maybe not by being fed to lions, but maybe by being passed over for a new job, or denying themselves worldly pleasure for the sake of doing what is right.

The Book of Revelation gives us a glimpse into eternity, as St. John was permitted to see beyond the veil, describing the saints as “servants of God” who have been “sealed” on their foreheads.  It is the ancient custom among Christians to trace the sign of the cross in oil on the forehead of the newly baptized, and for the pastor to bless the baptized by tracing the cross over them as a reminder, by reminding us of the cross when they visit us when we are sick and dying, and even crossing our foreheads when our bodies lie in the casket awaiting the resurrection.

The sign of the cross is the sign of the saint.  For it is at the cross, by the Lamb’s blood, that we sinner-saints are “sealed.”  And in heaven, those who have been sealed sing the great heavenly liturgy of praise to Jesus, the Lamb.  And for our sake, one of the elders in heaven asks John, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?”  And the elder answers his own question: “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.  They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”  These saints, dear friends, have not heroically earned a spot in heaven by being a doctor of the church, a nun serving the poor, or an apostle, missionary, and church planter.  The saints are saints because their sins have been washed away by the blood of the Lamb.  We are saints because of the cross.  We are saints because of Jesus. 

And this is our hope and our joy, dear friends, knowing that we will see them again, in glory, with no more suffering, no more death, no more great tribulation of this fallen world.  “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.”  Their lives of sacrifice and labor and suffering are over.  And now, the saints surround the throne of the Lamb, singing the liturgy of praise: “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever.”  And so we join them in this same liturgy.  We surround this same throne of the same Lamb, the same King, the same crucified God whose blood cleanses and saves us.  The same body and blood in which we partake.

How sad when we forget this reality, as we forget that our loved ones are here with Jesus, even as we are here with Jesus, in the liturgy that brings us into contact with the body of our Savior, the blood of the Lamb, given and shed for you.  Every Divine Service is a great feast of All Saints as we commune with Jesus, and with them, separated by a thin veil.  Why would anyone want to be anywhere else, dear friends?

Our departed saints, whether we know their names or not, whether churches are named after them or not, lived lives of love, because the love of God was first given to them.  As the same St. John who was given the revelation of those sealed in heaven wrote, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.”  Think, dear friends, what a great privilege it is to pray to God as our Father, to “ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.”  It is easy to take this privilege for granted, just as it is easy to get so wrapped up in our lives that we forget about the saints in heaven, and the fact that we, and they, are waiting for the resurrection and our reunion with them in the flesh!

So why do the saints suffer tribulation?  Why doesn’t the world join us in honoring the saints, and in honoring the Lamb whose blood turns lynch mobs into churches?  “The reason why the world does not know us,” says St. John, “is that it did not know Him.”  The world and its prince, the devil, do not know Him as their God, as the one who came out of love.  We see a Savior, but they see a threat to their sinful way of life, to being able to lord over and abuse others, to bending others to their will.  The world does not know Jesus, because it doesn’t want to know Him, and so they don’t know us either.

But we know the saints, dear friends.  Because we know Jesus.  We know the Lamb.  We know the Good News.  We know our Good Shepherd.  We know His voice when He calls us.  We know His Word.  We know the truth, the same truth that sets us free, seals us, and makes us saints.  We are a holy people in spite of ourselves.  And “we know that when He appears we shall be like Him” and “everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure.”

Indeed, to be a saint is to be baptized, wearing the robe made white by the blood of the Lamb.  It is to be sealed by the sign of the cross.  It is to confess the name of Jesus, to praise Him in the liturgy, to receive the body and blood of Jesus, and to come right up to the thin veil at this altar that separates us from our loved ones “who from their labors rest.”  To be a saint is to be a sinner who has been redeemed, whose life is offered to the God who has saved us by His blood.

Indeed, to be a saint is not to be perfect.  To be a saint almost never involves being remembered in history, not even the history of the church.  To be a saint is to be loved by God and washed in the blood.  To be a saint is to be blessed by God in our incompleteness, but to hear and believe the promises that we “shall be” brought to completion in eternity, owning the kingdom of heaven, comforted, inheriting the earth, satisfied, receiving mercy, seeing God, being called sons of God, owning heaven itself, being rewarded greatly in heaven.

Saints are not necessarily those who do great things, but rather those who receive great gifts from the great Giver of the greatest of gifts.  “For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” 

And so on this great feast, let us honor the saints.  For when we honor the saints, we are really honoring Jesus.

Amen.

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