Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday of Lent 2

27 Feb 2024

Text: Mark 6:35-56

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Jesus has been teaching, and has amassed a crowd of five thousand men, plus their families.  They have been enthralled with His Word for hours.  “When it grew late,” the disciples propose that Jesus break up the meeting and “send them away into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”  Our Lord has a better idea: “You give them something to eat.”  This is so typical of our Lord.  It sounds like a joke.  But it isn’t. 

Jesus has been undoing all of the curses of Eden, one by one.  He casts out demons.  He drives out sicknesses and raises the dead.  And here, he attacks the curse of scarcity: the ground itself producing “thorns and thistles” and being stingy with its fruits, and Adam’s curse: “by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread.”  In the post-Eden world, demand outpaces supply.  Food is scarce.  We have to buy it.  It is a matter of labor and trade.  On this day, as thousands hear the Word of God, there are no trees bearing fruit effortlessly as in the garden.  The people must trade their labor for bread, and they must go away from hearing the Word of God in order to feed themselves. 

But Jesus came to return us to paradise.  And He gives us a glimpse into a post-scarcity world to come, one where there is no more need to trade one’s sweat for the stubborn fruits of the earth, mixing in even more labor to make a little bit of bread, just to stave off starvation and death for another day.  That is not how God made us to live.  Jesus has a better idea than sending them away to purchase bread: “You give them something to eat,” He says to His disciples.  For in a post-scarcity world, bread will be so common that it will not be a commodity of trade.  The disciples suggest that the people “buy.”  Jesus suggests that the disciples “give.” 

The disciples are dumbfounded.  There is so little for so many.  And, of course, our Lord miraculously multiplies the loaves and fishes, feeds the multitudes, and “they all ate and were satisfied.”  In the post-scarcity world, satisfaction replaces starvation.  And not only were their needs met, there were “twelve baskets” of leftovers – one for each of the Twelve.  For their ministry will be to likewise distribute the Bread of Life, including the Meal that began at the Last Supper: the body and blood of Jesus, that they and their successors will miraculously multiply for multitudes numbering in the billions across centuries of time.

For the bread that Jesus gives “for the life of the world is [His] flesh” (John 6:51).  The kingdom Jesus establishes has no starvation, only satisfaction, no “thorns and thistles” (Gen 3:18) but only God’s providence, no sickness and no death (Gen 3:19), but only everlasting life, and no serpent to deceive us with “Did God actually say?” (Gen 3:1), but only the Word Himself, delivering on His promises, rolling back the curses of Eden, and supplying us with superabundance, as His gifts to us never run out.  There are always twelve baskets of His grace left, no matter how much grace we have received. 

Multitudes today continue to need the Word of God.  For this is still a “desolate place,” and indeed, “the hour is late.”  People continue to struggle with sin, death, and the devil, with scarcity and sickness, and with their need to be fed.  Jesus continues to say to His church today, “You give them something to eat.”  This is indeed typical of our Lord.  It sounds like a joke.  But it isn’t.  Thanks be to God!

Amen.

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

 

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday of Lent 1

20 Feb 2024

Text: Mark 3:20-35

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

It’s easy to forget how much opposition our Lord had during His three-year ministry that changed the world.  The demons opposed Him.  The local government opposed Him.  The Imperial government opposed Him.  The Jewish religious authorities of every sect opposed Him.  One of His disciples betrayed Him.  The leader of His disciples denied Him.  At His trial, all of the to-be apostles fled from Him.  Upon hearing Him say that His followers must eat His flesh and drink His blood, many of His disciples abandoned Him.  On the cross, Jesus would pray Psalm 22: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  And at this early phase of our Lord’s ministry, even as the multitudes come to be healed, His own family said, “He is out of His mind.”

Our Lord’s miraculous works were so open and numerous that nobody could deny them.  Nobody could say that these were magic tricks or people acting like they have been healed – as we see with modern-day religious frauds and showmen who use tricks like hidden earphones with people feeding the so-called “faith healer” information, and putting healthy people in wheelchairs so as to order them to walk around.

Jesus did so many verifiable miracles that His enemies could only claim that He was a sorcerer, using the demons to effect miracles.  Jesus points out the obvious: “How can Satan cast out Satan?  If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.”  The works of Jesus are forgiving sins, liberating people from bondage to evil spirits, healing people of diseases, and even raising the dead.  These are acts of God, not of the devil.  And here, Jesus warns against such hardness of heart that would call God evil: “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” 

In spite of the opposition of the entire fallen world and of the fallen angels in the world unseen – Jesus doubles down and continues His ministry.  He is not concerned with majorities, with numbers, with worldly influence.  He casts the seeds of the Good News like the sower in His own parable: announcing the kingdom, exorcising demons, healing the sick, raising the dead, and most importantly of all, atoning for the sins of the world at the cross.  For many of those who rejected Him will come to Him.  Some members of the local government, the Jewish council, will emerge as His disciples.  In time, the Imperial government will become Christian.  Nearly all of the Jewish sects will disappear, while the church will be established the world over.  Eleven disciples will come back to Him, will be ordained, and sent to evangelize the world.  Judas will be replaced.  And St. Paul will be added to the number of the apostles.  Billions of people will eat His flesh and drink His blood.  And He, the crucified one, was vindicated by rising from the dead.  And “We preach Christ crucified” (1 Cor 1:23) to this day.

His own family would no longer claim that He had lost His mind.  His mother, who saw Him crucified, would be taken care of by John the apostle in Ephesus.  Our Lord’s kinsman James would become the first bishop of Jerusalem.  The demons will continue to oppose Him, but helpless in their desire to defeat Him.  And the family of Jesus has been expanded to include “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages,” redeemed by His blood, confessing Him as Lord, being rescued from not only soul-destroying unbelief, but also from the malice of demons and from the ravages of sin, including death.  We, the church, confessors of Jesus, are His family.  He has not lost His mind, but has rather won forgiveness, life, and salvation for us by His blood.  Thanks be to God!

Amen.

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

Sybil for the 21st Century?

Nearly fifty years ago, the popular culture was introduced to a rare and horrific mental illness that was, at the time, called Multiple Personality Disorder. The 1976 movie Sybil was apparently based on a true story of a young woman academician who suffered from this ailment, today called Disassociative Identity Disorder.  She had sixteen distinct personalities, and could not live an ordinary life until she was treated.

This award-winning made-for-TV movie (based on the book by the same name) starred Sally Fields, and made quite a splash in the culture of the time.  Debates rage over how much of the novel/movie is true, but the disorder is very real.  Since that time, we haven't heard much about this ailment. 

According to the Mayo Clinic:

Formerly known as multiple personality disorder, this disorder involves "switching" to other identities. You may feel as if you have two or more people talking or living inside your head. You may feel like you're possessed by other identities.

Each identity may have a unique name, personal history and features. These identities sometimes include differences in voice, gender, mannerisms and even such physical qualities as the need for eyeglasses. There also are differences in how familiar each identity is with the others. Dissociative identity disorder usually also includes bouts of amnesia and often includes times of confused wandering.

And this is a mental illness brought on by trauma:

Sometimes dissociative disorder symptoms occur in a crisis with severe or impulsive behavior. People with these symptoms need care more urgently and in an emergency department at a hospital when safety becomes a concern.

If you or a loved one has less urgent symptoms that may be a dissociative disorder, contact your doctor or other health care professional for help. 

Moreover, 

Dissociative disorders usually arise as a reaction to shocking, distressing or painful events and help push away difficult memories. Symptoms depend in part on the type of dissociative disorder and can range from memory loss to disconnected identities. 

Symptoms include "a blurred sense of your own identity" and "mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors," again, according to the Mayo Clinic.  Causes, again according to the Mayo clinic, include traumatic events in childhood, such as sexual abuse:

Dissociative disorders usually start as a way to cope with shocking, distressing or painful events. The disorders most often form in children who go through long-term physical, sexual or emotional abuse. Less often, the disorders form in children who've lived in a home where they went through frightening times or they never knew what to expect. The stress of war or natural disasters also can bring on dissociative disorders.  You're at greatest risk of having a dissociative disorder if you've had long-term physical, sexual or emotional abuse during childhood.

Other shocking, distressing or painful events also may cause dissociative disorders to arise. These may include war, natural disasters, kidnapping, torture, extensive early-life medical procedures or other events.

Per the Mayo Clinic, this disorder spawns other symptoms, including: "depression and anxiety," "problems with sexual function," "personality disorders," self-injury or high-risk behavior," and "suicidal thoughts and behavior."

Obviously, this is purely a clinical, psychological explanation for this disorder.  Christians who believe in the supernatural certainly see the possibility of an underlying spiritual cause in such cases.  Whether any individual is being tormented and victimized by demons is not something that secular mental health professionals are qualified to address.  For this article, my goal is to show how mainstream mental health professionals describe such things, and how mainstream journalists typically accommodate one person with multiple personae.

Moreover, the existence of this disorder highlights the importance of protecting children from predators, from being sexualized, and from exposure to people with sexual abnormalities and disorders.  Again, per the Mayo Clinic: 

Children who are physically, emotionally or sexually abused are at increased risk of developing mental health conditions, such as dissociative disorders. If stress or other personal issues are affecting the way you treat your child, seek help.

While we don't hear much about this rare disorder, we are seeing a surge in people presenting themselves in different personae, people who seem to have been traumatized and suffer sexual confusion, who are also plagued by suicidal ideation.  There is an increasing social reluctance to see this kind of sexual identity and personality confusion (and even multiplicity) as a malady to be treated, as it is, instead being normalized.  There is increasing mainstream pressure to give actual recognition to multiple personalities, even using multiple names and pronouns for the same person.

By way of example, a recent article in the free New Orleans newspaper The Gambit casually refers to a man by different personalities and genders.  In the February 12, 2024 piece called "A Moment Like This: The Big Gay Baby variety shows are a space to heal your inner child," author Kaylee Poche refers to the same man as both "Maxwell, who is trans" by the plural neuter pronoun "they," as well as "April May" by the singular feminine pronoun "she."

For example: 

• "Maxwell took to the stage as their drag persona April May at the next Big Gay Baby show to perform a mashup of emotional, nostalgic songs."  
• "Maxwell had long dreamed of performing in drag.  They loved singing in their bedroom as a child... and did musical theater in their youth, but they hadn't found the right outlet to get back on stage as an adult." Emphasis added.

The article is peppered with "they say," when quoting Maxwell.  It creates a sense of plurality.  One has to depend on context to determine whether the "they" is singular or plural.  And in fact, there is a plurality to Maxwell's personalities.

On stage, he is "April May."  And the author of this article, when speaking of Maxwell in that context, switches pronouns to "she" - as if Maxwell has multiple personalities instead of his simply acting on stage and playing a role.  The author describes the role as an actual personality.

For example: 

• "The crescendo synched with an epic costume change as she ripped off her black gown to reveal a pink tulle dress underneath."
• "As April May ended her performance, a trans flag with the words 'PROTECT TRANS KIDS' projected onto the screen behind her, and she put her fist into the air."  Emphasis added.

There is video footage of Maxwell speaking - in drag - before the Louisiana Legislature - along with some other activists opposing a bill to prevent certain sexual procedures being implemented on minor children.  One of these activists describes parents who refuse such procedures to their own children as "bigots" who should have no say in their children's mental and physical health, not to mention their education.  It is apparent that these activists do not have children of their own, and they feel entitled to have access to children who are not their own.  We would do well to vet teachers to make sure that they are mentally and sexually healthy, that they respect parental rights and the law, they keep proper boundaries with children, and are not simply acting out something on children that was acted out on them in their own youthful mental and sexual development.

The bill was vetoed by the (former) governor of Louisiana, a Democrat, and the veto was overridden.  

The current penchant for legitimizing - and even compelling - the use of pronouns (some made up, some of mixed gender and number) to accommodate personalities, even using plural pronouns and multiple names/identities, may be covering up genuine cases of Disassociative Personality Disorder.  And not only that, giving such traumatized people (perhaps even sexually traumatized people) access to children - even in their desire to have private access without parental oversight or even consent - should raise red flags.

Often those who are pushing for teachers talking about sexuality with even very young children in public schools - even against the wishes of the parents - try to diffuse the matter by pointing out that "drag" is a benign comedic entertainment genre of the type one sees in light Hollywood comedies and British humor.  But this is different.  This is not comedy.  This is not an actor performing on stage.  What we see with Maxwell is two distinct personalities with two distinct names and pronouns.  He doesn't dress up as a woman on stage for laughs.  He is serious, even to the point of appearing as he does, in a blonde wig and blue face paint - to testify before the Legislature.  We see a reporter writing about him using a bifurcated pronoun scheme based on which personality he is presenting at a given time.  We see a man doing all of these things testifying in favor of allowing professionals to permanently change the physical bodies of children's sexuality by means of surgery and hormones, and for teachers to speak to children about sexual matters - and to do so over the objections of the parents.  

Of course, I have no idea whether Maxwell and the other specific people testifying against this bill were sexually abused as children, or if they suffer with disassociative disorders, but it would certainly be consistent with what we read in the Mayo Clinic article.  It is not uncommon to hear people who identify as non-heterosexual to describe being sexually abused as children.

It is up to those who are healthy - mentally and sexually - to protect children from physical, psychological, and sexual abuse and trauma, and to find a way to generationally reduce the number of people impacted by childhood abuse.  All people within the healthy bell curve have the duty to protect the most vulnerable in our society.  And if people like Maxwell truly want to lead a life unencumbered by the desire to live with multiple personae, to be able to raise healthy and well-adjusted children of his own, there may be a path forward.  That is up to him.  

But neither he, nor any other activist who insists on being addressed in alternate personae, has the right to have access to children against the wishes of their parents.  And mental health professionals, doctors, counselors, and others should give serious consideration to the possibility that we are seeing pathological multiple personalities - and speaking to it - instead of just taking the politically-correct path that helps no-one.

Sermon: Ash Wednesday – 2024

14 February 2024

Text: Joel 2:12-19

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

We have turned a new page on the calendar.  We went from yesterday’s Mardi Gras to today’s Ash Wednesday.  We went from the lingering green of the Epiphany season to the black of today and the purple of the Lenten season.  And we begin this forty-day penitential season with a reminder of our own death.

All calendars include changing seasons: winter and summer, planting and harvesting, and the annual cycle of nature.  But our spiritual lives are also based on a cycle of time  As King Solomon reminds us, “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.”  And all peoples around the world have times of feasting and times of fasting, times of plenty, and times of want, times to celebrate, and times to reflect.

“Remember, O man.” 

God’s people of the Old Testament had a different calendar than we have today, dear friends, but they also had times of feasting and times of fasting.  The prophet Joel reminds us of this when he calls the people to repentance with the message from God: “Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people.  Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants.  Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.”

This is such a day among us, the people of God in the New Testament.  Instead of blowing trumpets, we ring bells.  But we “gather the people,” young and old.  We assemble, and we remember – “Remember, O man, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  And that is one of the reasons we have a calendar: to remember.  We remember history that is important to us: personal days, national days, church days.  And on this consecrated fast, at this solemn assembly, we remember the fall in Eden.  We remember the words God spoke to Adam.  We remember that we are mortal.  We remember that we are sinners.  And we remember why Jesus came into our world.

“Remember, O man.”

The ashes remind us of God’s Word spoken to Adam the man, the adam, that he would return to the dust, the adamah, from which he was made.  The ashes remind us of death.  The ashes are in the form of a cross: the ancient symbol of punishment: of the death penalty.  But this cross is not just any cross, dear friends.  It is a reminder of the cross of Jesus.  It is a reminder that Jesus also died.  But Jesus did not die for His own sins, for He has none.  Jesus died for our sins.  We are not only marked for death, we are marked for life.  We are marked for forgiveness.  We are marked for redemption by Jesus’ blood.

There will come a time to exchange the fast for the feast.  We will turn a page on our calendar after these six weeks of fasting to enjoy seven weeks of feasting.  We will exchange the cross for the crown. 

But not yet.

Joel speaks anew to us “priests, the ministers of the Lord,” when he calls us to “weep and say, ‘Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a byword among the nations.’”  We who are called to preach to you, to proclaim the Word of God, both Law and Gospel, to all with ears to hear, in season and out of season, we are called especially during this consecrated fast to pray for those under our care, to pray that God will spare them, redeem them, save them, and forgive them.  We pray that the people of our congregations will remember that they are dust, but also remember that they are redeemed.  We pray that our people will recommit to the Lord, to hear His Word, to receive Jesus’ body and blood, to confessing their sins and being absolved, to teaching their children the faith, to loving their neighbor, to live out the live of repentance and of forgiveness. 

And Joel reminds the people of God the message and the promise of our gracious Lord, “Behold, I am sending you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.”

“Remember, O man.”

In season and out of season, God still promises to take care of us, dear friends.  He sends us crops.  He sends us what we need to live.  He sends us the rain and the sunshine that continue to sustain life.  But the grain, wine, and oil also have a spiritual meaning as well.  The Lord sends us grain: grain that is used to make bread.  We live not by bread alone, but by God’s Word.  And we also live by the Bread of Life: Jesus Himself, who is given to us in the bread that is His body.  The Lord sends us wine, not only to gladden the heart of man, as the Psalmist says, but also the very blood of Christ shed for the forgiveness of sins given to us to drink in the cup.  The Lord sends us oil, dear friends, not only for our worldly sustenance, but oil that is used as a symbol of your being sealed by the Holy Spirit, traced in the sign of the cross at your baptism.

That same cross has been retraced on your forehead today, dear friends, bearing the ashes that you can see with your eyes, ashes mixed with the oil of your baptism that you cannot see, except by the eyes of faith.

And it is important to remember, O man, that God provides the grain, wine, and oil for us.  We can take no credit, even though God calls human beings to plant and reap, to cultivate and harvest, to pluck and to press, according to the seasons of planting and reaping, according to the calendar that he has established.  It is still by God’s grace that these things needed for our lives, physical and spiritual, are provided as a gift.

God also provides the Savior for us, so loving the world that He sent His only son, that we would not perish, but have eternal life.  God provides the cross, Jesus takes up His cross, and in this consecrated fast, it is our gift to bear our own cross and follow Jesus.  In these forty days, we follow our Lord into the wilderness, doing battle with the devil, fasting and meditating on the Word of God. 

The calendar helps us remember.  Fasting reminds us of the reality that we are sinners in need of redemption, mortals in need of life.  “Remember, O man.”  But after the consecrated fast will come the consecrated feast.  For after the crucifixion will come the resurrection.  The cross is also a reminder of God’s love and forgiveness, of His taking the burden that we remember upon Himself, because God also remembers His promises to us.  Yes, we are dust, and to dust we shall return.  But we are also dust that shall return to life.

“Remember, O man.”

Amen.

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

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – February 13, 2024

13 Feb 2024 – Sts. Aquila, Priscilla, and Apollos

Text: John 4:46-54

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

St. John built his argument that Jesus is the eternal Word made flesh (John 1:1, 14) around seven particular demonstrations of His divinity, which John calls “signs.”  Right after the “first of His signs” (John 2:11) – turning water into wine – an “official” in Capernaum approaches Jesus seeking his son’s healing.  From the other Gospel accounts, this man was a Roman military officer, and his son is also described as his servant.

The other accounts give more details of this miracle, which John has identified as the “second sign” of Jesus in his Gospel.  But John glosses over these details in his own account of this incident – which St. John considers to be one of the seven most important proofs of our Lord’s divinity. 

And there is an irony here.  For while John’s Gospel is a rhetorical argument for the divinity of Jesus, our Lord Himself is not a fan of such arguments and proofs – which is the very point that John himself makes in what he emphasizes in this miracle!  In other words, what is important about this sign is that signs are not supposed to be so important.  Nevertheless, we poor, miserable sinners do need convincing.  Jesus is merciful in giving us signs of His divinity – though the word of the Word should be enough.  For “faith comes from hearing… the word of Christ (Rom 10:17). 

John’s account of the healing of the official’s son hones in on our Lord’s frustration with the constant demand for signs: “Unless you [plural] see signs, you [plural] will not believe.”  But the official – who is a Gentile – is not part of that “you [plural].”  For he already has faith – which is why he comes to Jesus in the first place.  He believes in the power of Jesus to command even illness, and to banish it by means of His words alone.  We learn from Matthew (8:5-13) and Luke (7:1-10) that this centurion has such faith that he accepts the military-like order of Jesus as sufficient to heal his son.  He understands the delegation of authority as a “man set under authority” (Luke 7:8).

John emphasizes the fact that the official is not concerned with signs, but rather love for his son.  He doesn’t need convincing.  He already believes.  And so he prays, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”  Jesus commands the illness to leave from afar: “Go, your son will live.”

In this sign, we see faith – not in signs, but in Jesus Himself.  For signs have a way of taking over the landscape, becoming more important than the thing signified.  Sometimes signs become clutter that only detracts from the thing being pointed to by the sign.  If we understand John’s seven signs not as rational proofs, but rather as “oracles of God” (Rom 3:2, Heb 5:12, 1 Pet 4:11) that bear witness to Him who is the Oracle of God Made Flesh, then our faith is in Jesus and not merely in signs.

And the true signs of Jesus are not merely manifestations of His mighty power, but also of His “mercy and loving-kindness” (Ps 36:5 AMPC).  And in giving us this sign, Jesus is giving us a sign of His own resurrection, the ultimate sign of both God’s power and His mercy: “Go, your son will live.”

Amen.

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

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – February 6, 2024

6 Feb 2024

Text: John 1:35-51

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

St. John’s description of Jesus calling His first disciples is compelling reading.  And these men immediately leave behind their former lives to follow Jesus as if they had been compelled.  John the Baptist begins by calling Jesus “the Lamb of God.”  His own disciples hear this, and matriculate from John’s rabbiship to our Lord’s. 

St. Andrew was one such disciple of John, who became one of the first – if not the first – disciple of Jesus.  And in short order, Andrew is confessing Jesus as the Messiah, and evangelizing – telling his brother Simon (who would later be called ‘Peter’), “We have found the Messiah.” 

The account of Philip and Nathaniel joining what will become the apostolic band is also interesting.  Philip follows Jesus after Jesus invited him with two simple words: “Follow Me.”  Philip goes to Nathaniel and tells him “We have found Him” – “Him” being the Messiah.  Nathaniel replies with a bit of sarcasm that has the sound of some kind of common saying, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  It sounds a little like how Michiganders and Ohioans tease each other, or Texans and Oklahomans.  But the irony is that not only is “good” coming from Nazareth, God Himself is.  And Philip replies to him the same way that Jesus replied to Andrew: “Come and see.” 

And when he does “come and see” Jesus, Nathaniel’s skepticism is immediately turned into faith.  Our Lord says to Nathaniel: “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!”  Jesus is replying to Nathaniel’s sarcasm with a bit of His own.  Maybe this too is an old saying.  It is greatly ironic, however, because He is saying, “Look here!  An honest son of Jacob!”  Israelites are descendants of Jacob, whose very name means: “The Deceiver.”  The humor dripping between the lines is both palpable and quite humorous – in a dry sort of way. 

Something about coming and seeing Jesus, and in hearing this quip, struck Nathaniel.  Jesus has revealed something to Nathaniel that He could not have possibly known by natural means.  “How do you know me?” asks a bewildered Nathaniel.  “Before Philip called you,” replies Jesus, “when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”  Clearly, this was something supernatural, something that revealed our Lord’s divine nature.  For Nathaniel replies in a way that flesh and blood has not revealed (as Jesus would later describe Simon Peter’s confession of Him as the Christ).  Nathaniel says: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God!  You are the King of Israel!”  Our Lord replies, as we would say in modern, colloquial English: “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”

Jesus says: “You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”  This too is a significant biblical reference to Jacob.  For this is the vision that Jacob saw, prefiguring the cross.  Nathaniel is to be an apostolic fulfillment of Israel, as the twelve tribes are extended to the twelve apostles: Deceiving Jacob would wrestle with God in the flesh, and the chosen people of Israel will be extended to all nations: people who experience God in the flesh in the person of Jesus, the Son of God and King of Israel.

For this is the church, and the church starts with the calling of the Twelve.  The apostolic preaching and the church itself continue to this day, dear friends.  We are still inviting people to “Come and see.”  And our Lord Jesus Christ is still inviting and saying: “Follow Me.”

Amen.

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

Sermon: Septuagesima – 2024

28 January 2024

Text: Matt 20:1-16

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

The parables of Jesus are shocking, dear friends.  And they are supposed to be.  The only problem is that we are too familiar with them – unless we’re not familiar enough with them.  But imagine hearing this story of the Workers in the Vineyard for the first time.  Imagine yourself as the first one hired.

Imagine that you were a fast food worker, and you were hired for ten dollars an hour.  It’s hard work, but you were hired first among your co-workers who are all doing the same job.  Maybe you hope that by being hired first, and by working hard, you might get a promotion and a raise at some point.  But then you find out that your coworker – who does the same job right next to you – is making twelve times as much per hour as you do.  Instead of ten dollars an hour, that’s one hundred and twenty dollars an hour.

Would you feel cheated?  Would you feel angry?  What would you think about the franchise owner who just shrugs and says, “Well, you agreed for ten dollars an hour.  I can pay my workers whatever I want”? 

In our world, this would be on the news, all over social media, and Congress would be passing a law against income inequality.  It would probably be called the “Income Fairness Act” or some such.  Labor unions would come in and organize to prevent this horrible situation from ever happening again.  You might join the Socialist Party and rail against “the system.”  If your son or daughter were making a twelfth as much as his or her colleagues, would you side with the boss? 

Now imagine if you were a white collar worker making a hundred thousand dollars a year.  That’s pretty good money.  Most people would consider that a great job.  But how great would it be if you just learned that your co-workers doing the exact same job were making one point two million dollars a year?  You might have been really happy with your job just ten seconds ago, but now, you are probably thinking that you are being exploited, discriminated against, and that your boss is a jerk.  You might be calling your lawyer about now.

Now think about who the Boss is in Jesus’ story, you know, the jerk boss who is taking advantage of you.  That Boss is God.  That is why this parable is shocking.

But, let’s be honest: we do think that God is a jerk, and is unfair.  That’s what it means to be a poor, miserable sinner.  We need to not only rethink what we believe about God, but about ourselves.  For we poor, miserable sinners think we’re entitled to be treated better by God – and especially if we go to church.  How dare God let anything bad happen to me?  What an unfair Boss who allows other people to prosper while I struggle.  How can God allow people in my life to get sick or die?  How can God allow me to suffer from inequality or temptation or not enjoying the American Dream like my friends and colleagues and the people on TV with charmed lives who have the latest cars, take the best vacations, and live in dream homes? 

Why does it seem like it’s always the jerk boss, the lazy worker, the crooked politician, the liar, the cheater, the person born to wealth, the sinner, who gets away with it, and even gets ahead?

Sometimes when people think about God as the jerk Boss who allows such evils in the world, they become angry at God and become atheists.  Of course, that makes no sense, but it is a common argument of atheists: “God isn’t fair.”

Well, dear friends, God isn’t fair, and let us give Him thanks and praise that He isn’t.  And let us also accept the fact that we aren’t entitled.  He is God, and we are not.  He knows everything, and we do not.  He owns everything – including us – and we do not.  And it is what we call “faith” when we put our trust in Him, that He knows what He is doing.  It is also faith when we accept that what we consider “fair” is really just our own sense of self-centered greed and entitlement.

We are not entitled, dear friends.  Our culture and society and government and even our labor laws have conspired to stir us up like the angry worker in Jesus’ story.  Yes, we are the bad guy in the parable – as we always are.  We think we are entitled, but we aren’t.  We are something better: we are privileged.

For when it comes to our salvation and eternal life, we who put our trust in the “very God of very God” who is telling us this parable, who is showing us God’s mercy and generosity, we get the denarius.  We are paid the same whether we have been Christians for one second or one century.  We are given the same reward of eternal life whether we are educated theologians or infants struggling for life in the intensive care unit.  We are paid according to the work of Jesus on the cross whether we are wealthy or poor in this world, and no matter what we have done.  And when we examine ourselves honestly, and when we look in the mirror and see the truth of who we are, that we are not entitled, but we are rather poor, miserable sinners, we can take comfort in our Lord’s words: “So the last will be first, and the first last.”  And instead of being paid as “poor, miserable sinners,” according to our “sins and iniquities” with God’s “temporal and eternal punishment,” instead we hear that we are forgiven in the very same Triune name into which we were baptized, probably when we were too young to be valuable to anyone as a worker, let alone to God.

The inequality of God in how He treats us is seen in “the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of [God’s] beloved Son, Jesus Christ,” who is “gracious and merciful to me, a poor, miserable sinner.”

We don’t deserve a denarius, but we receive one anyway. 

The one who truly suffered for hours, who has “borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat,” is Jesus, dear friends.  He labored on the cross, suffering not only physical pain, but mental and spiritual anguish beyond what we can imagine, bearing the weight of the sins of the whole world on the cross, pouring out His blood as a sin offering upon all of us, so that we, the last, might be the first.  And though we deserve to be paid with eternal death and hell, we are instead paid the denarius of salvation that Jesus earned, even though our labor doesn’t deserve any such thing.  This is God’s mercy, dear friends.

This is the unfair God that we worship, and this is the unfair kingdom we live in that has no labor unions or wage laws, no lawyers to sue the boss, and no entitlement that we be treated the same as everyone else.  For we are not entitled, but privileged.  We are indeed paid what we don’t deserve.

In God’s kingdom, we are the fast-food worker making a hundred and twenty dollars an hour.  We are the office worker making one point two million dollars a year.  We do have a God who is merciful upon whom He has mercy, who does what He chooses with what belongs to Him.  He is generous beyond measure, and instead of begrudging His generosity, let us rejoice in it.  Let us rejoice in our Lord’s words: “Friend, I am doing you no wrong… Take what belongs to you and go.  I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you.” 

For we labor now, we suffer now, we struggle now – as we live in the world that we ourselves have corrupted.  But “at the end of the day, at the end of our life, at the end of the world,” as the ancient bedtime prayer goes – we are paid not for what we have done, but for what Christ has done.  And we will enjoy eternal rest from our labors.  That ancient prayer is in our hymnal, by the way, in a daily prayer office for the close of the day.  It is called “Compline,” and that prayer is found on page 257.  That prayer continues: “Abide with us with your grace and goodness, with Your holy Word and Sacrament, with Your strength and blessing.  Abide with us when the night of affliction and temptation comes upon us, the night of fear and despair, the night when death draws near.  Abide with us and with all the faithful, now and forever.”

Amen.

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

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Jan 23, 2023

23 Jan 2023

Text: Rom 11:25-12:13

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

St. Paul explains the “mystery” of the “partial hardening [that] has come upon Israel” as Gentiles are being grafted in.  “In this way,” says the apostle, “all Israel will be saved.”  The “this way” that Paul is referencing is found three verses earlier, when he said, “if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in.”

What Paul calls “election” is indeed a “mystery.”  It is beyond our understanding.  God saves us by grace and through faith (Eph 2:8-9), but exactly how He makes that happen is “above our paygrade,” as the old saying goes.  The tension between the universal nature of sin and of Christ’s sacrifice – combined with the individual necessity that we receive the gift by faith – creates vexation for Christians who want a perfect, rational, and systematic explanation for everything. Some things are simply beyond our human limitations.  Hence the “mystery.”

Indeed, St. Paul reminds us of the divine quality of omniscience: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways?”  Paul paraphrases God’s rhetorical questions to Job (chapters 35, 36, and 41): “Who has known the mind of the Lord?”  Who counsels God?  Who shows grace to God, and then says that God owes him something?  The reality is that God owes us nothing.  He will save whom He chooses to save (Matt 20:1-16), and yet, God is not arbitrary.  He calls us to receive the “Deliverer… from Zion” by faith.  And instead of trying to know the mind of God beyond what He reveals, we should simply pray, “To Him be glory forever.  Amen.”

And as a result of our salvation, and because we are not given to know His mind or His ways, we are called to “present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is [our] spiritual worship.”  We no more offer the blood of slain animals, but rather receiving the sacrifice of “Christ crucified” (1 Cor 1:23), we offer our flesh with our blood still in it: not death, but our lives to God as a thank-offering.  And this “living sacrifice” consists of our good works based upon our callings: teaching, exhortation, contributions, leadership, mercy.  And all Christians offer “love” to God and to their neighbor.  We are called to “brotherly affection,” honor, zeal, service, hope, patience, and hospitality.

Israel is no longer limited to a single nation, and Israel’s worship is no longer blood sacrifice in the temple.  Spiritual Israel transcends ethnic boundaries, as our spiritual worship is no longer found in the killing of animals.  Instead, we offer our lives in service to the God who saved us, by His offering of blood, and by the mystery of His unsearchable and inscrutable grace!

Amen.

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

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Jan 16, 2023

16 Jan 2023

Text: Rom 7:1-20

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

How is the Christian freed from the Law?  St. Paul compares our covenantal obligation to the Law to be like marriage.  And marriage is a legal arrangement that ends when one of the couple dies.  St. Paul had earlier explained that in baptism, we are united to the death of Christ (Rom 6:3-4).  “Likewise, my brothers,” the apostle now explains, “you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead.”

The Law accuses.  The Law kills.  The Law condemns.

But in His life, death, and resurrection, and in our baptism and faith (Mark 16:16), we are no longer “married” to the Law, but to our Lord Jesus Christ.  “But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.”  And though we have been freed from the Law’s tyranny, dear friends, the old Adam is stubborn. For as St. Paul points out, “[We] do not understand [our] own actions.  For [we] do not do what [we] want, but [we] do the very thing [we] hate.”  It is as though we have been released from a dungeon, but are afraid to walk through the open door of the cell to freedom, remaining prisoners of our own making.  And as St. Paul reasons: “Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.”

This is the great dilemma of the Christian life.  We know that Jesus died for us.  We believe that we have received His righteousness.  We even see glimpses of the new man come through in our sanctification. But we are far from perfect – and will not be perfected in this life.  So how do we live, dear friends?

We must neither be driven to despair, like Judas, and lose our salvation.  Nor must we be lured by pride, like the Pharisees, and falsely place our trust in ourselves, our works, and the Law, and thus not benefit from our Lord’s work on the cross.  We must be realists, like St. Paul: informed by the Law as an unbending reminder of God’s iron-clad expectations of us, as well as an unforgiving tape measure that shows us our sin in all its ugliness.  And like the apostle, we must allow the Law to drive us to Christ and to His cross, where we do indeed find freedom from the Law – not in permission to ignore it nor license to break it, but in forgiveness that comes only by means of the blood of our Savior.

So, instead of despair, we find hope.  Instead of hypocrisy, we find the truth.  Instead of looking toward ourselves and seeing sin, we look to Christ and see perfect obedience.  For in the atoning death of Jesus, we find life.  And in Christ, instead of seeing the Law as our bitter foe and accuser, we can look upon it as does the Psalmist, who sees the beauty of God’s Law in that it leads us to the Christ, and thus to life: “Oh how I love Your law!  It is my meditation all the day.”  Thanks be to God!

Amen.

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

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Jan 9, 2023

9 Jan 2023

Text: Rom 2:1-16

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Having established the existence of natural law in the first chapter of Romans, St. Paul explores the implications in chapter two.  In other words, Paul takes the objective reality of a moral absolute and brings it down to our subjective experience of it.  Or to simplify things even further: “Therefore you have no excuse, O man.” 

St. Paul writes to each one of us, to “everyman,” to every person who makes any kind of moral judgment.  And we all do, especially when we are wronged.  We complain about being wronged, because we know right from wrong.  And in spite of our sinful flesh trying to justify our own wrongs, in spite of our culture’s constant message that morality is an individual matter, deep down inside we all know better.  For even those who have never read the Scriptures – the Gentiles of the Old Testament, and the unbelievers in our own day – nevertheless cannot claim ignorance of right and wrong.  For even without being able to recite the Ten Commandments, “they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness.” 

There is no society, no matter how much people living in it may claim that morality is subjective, that denies objective morality.  Even the most hostile atheist on the left is convinced that racism, sexism, and homophobia are evil, and the most hostile identitarian neo-Pagan on the right is convinced that capitalism and race-mixing are evil.  Unbelievers across the spectrum hold some kind of objective morality, whether it is correct or not.  And they do judge others by an objective standard.

“Therefore you are without excuse, O man, every one of you who judges.”

And lest we forget, dear friends, we Christians are the main recipients of this letter from Paul, who is writing to those “who are loved by God and called to be saints.” So, we too are without excuse, we who judge others while overlooking our own sins.  We too deserve “wrath for [ourselves] on the day of wrath.”  God is indeed judging our works.  For “there will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek.” 

Like the unbelievers, we have no excuse.  In fact, as our Lord teaches us, “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more” (Luke 12:48).  So it follows that we who have the Ten Commandments and break them anyway, we who are clear, both about natural law and God’s revealed Word, have no excuse.  And indeed, we do not.

Jesus did not die merely for those who “know not what they do,” but He also died for those of us who do, and who sin anyway.  St. Paul teaches us that we are indeed “without excuse,” O men, all of us, “everyman.”  We are universally in need of a Savior, and not one of us can judge ourselves objectively by God’s Law and conclude that we are without sin.  St. Paul is clear: we are sinners in need of a Savior.  That Savior is our Lord Jesus Christ, the crucified one, who rescues us by His grace, by His atoning blood, by His sure promise.  We are without excuse, but we are not without hope, O men.  We plead the blood of Christ, for ourselves, and even for those who are hostile to us and to Jesus.  We are without excuse.  So pray earnestly for all, O man: “the Jew first, and also the Greek.”

Amen.

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

Sermon: Christmas Day – 2023

25 Dec 2023

Text: John 1:1-18

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

The four Gospels introduce us to Jesus.  But only two of them include Christmas: Matthew and Luke.  Mark makes no mention of Christmas, and begins his biography of Jesus at His baptism.  John makes no mention of Christmas and begins His biography with the creation.  It might seem odd that the church fathers decided that on Christmas Day, we would read the beginning of John’s Gospel, without the narrative of our Lord’s birth.

But St. John – who was part of our Lord’s inner circle in His earthly ministry, and appears to be His closest friend – wants you, dear friend, to know who Jesus is.  We all need to know who Jesus is.  The world needs to know who Jesus is. 

For even unbelievers want to claim Jesus as their own.  They want Jesus to approve of their politics and lifestyles.  They desperately want a Jesus who rejects Christians.  They want a safe Jesus, meaning a Jesus who has been dead for two thousand years.  They want a Jesus that they can put words into His mouth.  They want a Jesus that only reflects the parts of the Bible that that they like, but a Jesus whom they can reject when He says inconvenient and hard things that they don’t like.  They want a philosopher Jesus, a nice-guy Jesus, a hippy Jesus, an accepting Jesus.  They want a Jesus who is their sock puppet, and their weapon to use against the church (the same church that is Jesus’ beloved bride).

And this is nothing new, dear friends.  This is why we read John at Christmas, and the world reads “Rudolph” and “Frosty.”  This is why, at the end of the first century AD, John began His Gospel not with a pregnant Mary, but rather with a yet-to-be created universe.  John wants you to know that Jesus is more than a baby in a manger who grew up to be great; John wants you to know, right off the bat, in the beginning of his Gospel, that Jesus is God.

And that, dear friends, is the wonder and the miracle of Christmas: not a cartoon about a talking snowman, not a Santa on 34^th Street, but rather the historical reality of the birth of God in human form.  The first thing that John wants you to know about Jesus is that He was “in the beginning” at creation, and that He is the “Word.”  The Greek word used here for “Word” is the word “Logos.”  It means that before the universe was created, there was a Logos: an already-existing intelligence.  “Logos” is where we get the word “logic.”  The universe was already planned by Jesus before anything existed.  It didn’t happen by accident.

The very first thing that the apostle John wants you to know about His best friend Jesus is that the universe is not an accident – which means that you are not an accident.  The first thing that John wants you to know about Jesus is that Charles Darwin was wrong.  There are some Christians who insist that all of the rules of logic be followed, and so, for example, they reject our Lord’s presence in the Lord’s Supper – since, as they say, “the finite cannot contain the infinite.”  Or to put it more simply, God cannot be contained in a wafer.  That is normally true.  Just like it is normally true that God cannot be contained in the little town of Bethlehem (which means “House of Bread”).  It is normally true that God cannot be contained in a manger (which means “Food trough”).  It is normally true that God cannot be contained in the body of a newborn (whose name “Jesus” means “God Saves,” and whose nickname “Immanuel” means “God With Us.”).

But there is both nothing normal about Jesus, and there is everything normal about Jesus.  Mary and Joseph and the shepherds and the wise men saw a baby boy.  The prophets and John the Baptist saw a King.  Pontius Pilate saw an innocent  man rejected by His own people (who did not receive Him), a prisoner who would not cooperate with the judge who wanted to halt His execution.  The apostles, including John, saw a miracle-working God-man who died on a cross and rose again.  Through the lens of the Gospels and the rest of the books of the New Testament, we see the finite containing the infinite.  We see a God who is the Logos, who is not bound to the rules of logic that He Himself established.  We see God contained in the flesh of the man Jesus, and yes, contained in a wafer of bread and a sip of wine that He Himself declares to be His flesh and blood.  Jesus is the almighty Logos, and He is not limited to anything safe or reasonable or politically acceptable.  He is the King of everyone – including the unbelievers.  John wants you to know that this baby we celebrate at Christmas is God Almighty.

For John not only saw Jesus fishing and teaching and eating and weeping and hungry and thirsty and cold and tired, he also saw Jesus transfigured on the mountain in His full, frightening, divine glory, beaming with uncreated, radiant light.  That’s why John says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Every generation has its own darkness, dear friends.  Mary and Joseph lived in dark times of the political oppression of the unbelievers, and their own nation and religious leaders being corrupt hypocrites.  Adam and Eve lived in the darkness of being deceived by the devil and left in the darkness of the shadow of death.  Noah lived in a world so overcome by darkness that God destroyed it all except for eight people.  The prophets lived in such darkness that God had to speak through a handful of men who were usually abused and killed for speaking the Word.  And even after Jesus established His church, we see the church lapse into disbelief and error, again and again: corrupted by wealth and led around by the nose by the forces of this world’s darkness.  And yet, through it all, there is a Light that the darkness simply cannot overcome.  There is the Word.  There is His promise to be with us to the end of the world.  There is His body and blood and the preaching of the Word that delivers the Word.  There is His Word that you are baptized and forgiven by the power of the triune God Himself.

For as John teaches us – which is His only hint at Christmas: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”  This miracle, this most illogical happening that we call the Incarnation, is why the ministers kneel in the creed at the point where we confess: “And was made man.”  It is appropriate for you to kneel or bow as well, dear friends, when you say those words: “And was made man.” All of the heavens and the earth kneel before King Jesus at His Incarnation.  “And was made man.”  It is appropriate for all of creation to worship the man Jesus, for as John wants you to know, this man is unlike any other man who has ever lived.  For He is the Word who was there at the beginning.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

This baby in the manger is God almighty.  He is here on earth with us for a reason: to die as a man in order to bear the justice that we deserve for our sins.  Jesus has come on a mission of love to those who receive Him.  For “to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

But He is also here on a mission of wrath against His enemies, against those who hate us.  And all of humanity is one or the other, dear friends.  If Jesus is your King, if you believe that He is the Word Made Flesh who has come to redeem you, then He is your Savior: your King who rescues you.  So repent of your sins, and come to where your King is every chance you get.  Read about Him in His Word.  Listen to His Word read and preached in the church that He promises to be with.  Eat His body and drink His blood, and enjoy a mini Christmas every week of your life as you are able.  For “from His fullness, we have received grace upon grace.” 

Merry Christmas!  Christ is King!

Amen.

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