Sermon: Reformation - 2020

25 October 2020

Text: Matt 11:12-19

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

“From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” 

John preached the coming of the kingdom.  He preached Law and Gospel.  He preached repentance.  And in his preaching, he pointed everyone to our Lord Jesus Christ.  The religious and political authorities conspired to beheaded him.  As our Lord says: “The kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” 

Of course, our Lord Jesus Christ also suffered violence, as the same religious and political leaders conspired to crucify Him.  No matter what great deeds of love, forgiveness, healing, prophecy, miracles, and the casting out of demons that our Lord did, the religious and political leaders did not approve, like the children’s chant: “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.”  These same people accused John of having a demon because he did not eat and drink, but Jesus, who did, was called a “glutton and a drunkard,” and his friendship with “tax collectors and sinners” was treated as an indictment of Him.  “Yet wisdom,” says our Lord, “is justified by her deeds.”

The kingdom continued to suffer violence at the hand of religious and political leaders.  Stephen was stoned.  Peter was crucified.  Paul was beheaded.  Eleven of the twelve apostles were killed.  Under Jewish and Roman governance, Christians were persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, and executed.  “The kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” 

In time, the persecutions ended, and the church grew fat and rich and corrupt.  Her doctrines were increasingly the teachings of men, not of the Word of God.  There was a series of popes so wicked in the tenth century that the period became known as the Pornocracy.  Reformers emerged from time to time, but they were often threatened with violence or executed.  “The kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.”  And things just deteriorated from there.

What we commemorate on this day was a still small voice of a sixteenth century monk with a pen and a hammer.  Father Martin objected to the prostitution of the Gospel known as the sale of indulgences.  This obscure professor challenged the church’s corruption.  In time, he would be put on trial and threatened with death.  This was the church hierarchy’s answer to any challenge – valid or invalid – the threat of death in flames on a stake.  The Inquisition perfected the art of torture to cause would-be reformers to recant.  Dr. Luther was himself put on trial and ordered to recant, and his answer was: “Unless I am convinced by Scripture and by plain reason, and not by popes and councils who have so often contradicted themselves.  My conscience is captive to the Word of God. To go against conscience is neither right nor safe. I cannot and I will not recant.  Here I stand.  I can do no other.  God help me.  Amen.”

There were many students of the Bible: laypeople, princes, priests, and professors who agreed.  They joined Luther in his “Here I stand,” in his submission to the Word of God, in his proclamation of the Gospel of the Cross of Christ, and in his rejection of the violent who would take the kingdom by force.

For it cannot truly be taken by force, dear friends.  It can only be received by grace, through faith, according to Scripture.  This is the Good News, and the religious and political leaders conspired to stamp out this Evangelical Catholic movement, which they mocked with the epithet “Lutheran.”

And once again, the kingdom suffered violence.  Lutheran pastors and confessors were burned at the stake.  The emperor made war on Lutheran princes, and forced Lutherans at the point of the sword to swear allegiance to the pope and to deny their Evangelical Catholic confession.  “The kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” 

In 1550, nine Lutheran pastors and the city fathers of Magdeburg said, “Here we stand.”  They refused to obey the emperor’s edict, and they were attacked.  The faithful citizens of the city holed up behind the city walls.  For thirteen months, the imperial forces lay siege and attacked.  468 men of Magdeburg died, while 4,000 of their attackers perished, before the emperor’s forces retreated.  The emperor himself was forced to flee Germany.  “The kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” 

Today, we are free to confess our faith that the Bible is the Word of God, that no pastor, prince, or pope is above Scripture, that salvation is by grace, through faith, and that the kingdom cannot be taken by force.  We preach Christ crucified, and we receive His grace in the Mass, the Divine Service, by Word and Sacrament, and we believe that Jesus Christ is God and Man, that He alone is Lord and Savior, and that He will come again to rescue us poor, miserable - and yet forgiven - sinners, at the end of time, when one last time it will be said, “The kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” 

In this sanctuary, there is a banner above the baptismal font, dear friends.  The symbol displayed is the symbol of our so-called Lutheran confession.  The cross at the center is supposed to be black, and it is at the center of the blood-red heart symbolizing our salvation by the Crucified One in our hearts.  The heart is at the center of a pure, white rose – a Christmas rose, which reminds us of the Lord’s Incarnation.  The rose is in a field of blue, symbolizing hope and heavenly joy.  The gold ring symbolizes the never-ending treasure of heaven.  It is fitting that this banner is above our baptismal font, where God’s grace is poured out upon us, us not by violence, but yet as a result of the violence inflicted on our Lord at His crucifixion.  

Above the banner is the encouragement to “remain faithful.”  Here we stand, dear brothers and sisters.  We stand with John the Baptist, with our Lord, with the apostles, with the martyrs, with all confessors of the Gospel – those who confessed in peace, and those who were subjected to violence.  We pledge to remain faithful come what may, even in the face of those who violently oppose the kingdom, be they in the original words of our sermon hymn from the 1500s, “the murderous Pope and Turk,” be they religious and political leaders of our own day, be they academics, mobs, heretics, invaders, rioters, be they people who are offended by what we believe, be they people who call themselves Christians, and yet who are violent and who oppose the Gospel.

Through it all, may God grant us the grace to “remain faithful.”  Let us say, “Here we stand.”  Let us take up our cross and follow Jesus, who saves us by grace alone, through faith alone.  Let us take up the Scriptures, and read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them.  Let us treasure assembling together in the Divine Service.  Let us confess our sins and receive absolution.  Let us proclaim the Light of Christ to an increasingly dark world.  Let us live lives of prayer and good works.  Let us faithfully receive the body and blood of our Lord, living out our lives as baptized Christians, whether we are loved or hated by the religious and political leaders of our own day.  

The words of our blessed Lord remain true in this fallen world: “The kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.”  Whether we suffer violence or not, dear friends, we confess in unity with those who do.  We confess that the kingdom is not for sale, nor can it be had at the point of a sword.   

Lord, keep us steadfast in Your Word;

Curb those who by deceit or sword

Would wrest the kingdom from your Son

And bring to naught all He has done.

Here we stand.  We can do no other.  God help us.  Amen.

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

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Oct 20

20 October 2020

Text: Matt 15:1-20

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

The word “virtue-signaling” never appears in the Bible.  But the idea is there.  The Pharisees have a human tradition of a hand-washing ritual before meals.  And washing one’s hands is a good idea – especially before eating.  But the Pharisees created an elaborate ritual, and then ostracized those who didn’t know the steps, or those who just did not take part.  There was peer pressure, and the sense that doing the ritual made a person more righteous than his neighbor.  The Pharisees signaled their virtue by means of the ceremony.

And this may well be why our Lord and His disciples deliberately did not take part.  They ignored the tradition and the peer pressure to participate.  Our Lord called the virtue-signalers out by applying Isaiah’s prophecy against them: “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”

For cleanness isn’t ultimately about hand-washing or eating ceremonially clean foods.  What comes out of the mouth is the barometer of the cleanness of the heart.  For “out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.”

Our Lord’s rejection of their tradition and His refusal to play along caused the Pharisees to be “offended.”  How often we hear this word today!  When someone is offended, we are supposed to stop whatever we are doing and apologize.  Did our Lord do that?  In fact, this same Greek word is used by St. Paul when he says, “We preach Christ crucified” – as Jesus Himself is a cause of “offense” and “foolishness” to unbelievers.

Traditions are a good thing.  Ceremonies are a good thing.  Washing your hands is a good thing.  Eating healthy is a good thing.  But none of these things makes you righteous.  Christ crucified makes you righteous.  Our Lutheran confessions teach us that ceremonies exist to “teach the people what they need to know about Christ” – not to virtue-signal or to be self-righteous.  Ceremonies, traditions, customs, rituals, and social rules of conduct are good things when put into perspective, when they confess Christ crucified, when they point us to Jesus as the source of our righteousness, directing us to the cross as the authentic sign of true virtue.  May all of our traditions serve to worship our Lord not in vain, but in spirit and truth!

Amen.

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

Sermon: St. Luke the Evangelist - 2020

18 October 2020

Text: Luke 10:1-9

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Today we honor St. Luke the Evangelist.  Tradition says that he was martyred at the age of 84.  St. Luke was not an apostle, but he wrote more than a quarter of the New Testament (the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts).  He is also considered to be the first iconographer of the church, having painted the first icons of Jesus.  St. Luke was a doctor, and his historical writing rivals that of the great historians of antiquity.

St. Luke is also remembered as being one of the seventy-two men who were sent out in groups of two to preach and to prepare people in the towns where Jesus was planning to visit.  St. Luke was also a companion to St. Paul in his missionary journeys.

Even in these very early days of the Church, our Lord’s called ministers and preachers were a diverse group.  Most scholars believe that Luke was a Gentile, a Syrian Greek.  He was a man of letters, an intellectual, a skillful wordsmith with an eye for detail, a man who carefully researched before putting pen to paper.  And he was himself an eyewitness to many of the events about which he wrote.

How different from St. Paul, the Jewish Pharisee convert, who was a learned rabbi, a Hebrew scholar, and an expert in Greek philosophy.  And how different from St. Peter, the fisherman who as far as we can tell, had no classical education at all.  Our Lord’s apostles and evangelists were not a monolithic group of men, but yet, they were brothers in Christ united in their faith in the Holy Christian Church, serving in the same Office of the Holy Ministry, all called to preach the same Gospel, the same Christ.

And to this day, the words penned by St. Luke, inspired by the Holy Spirit, testify to our Lord Jesus Christ – his birth, ministry, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension, and the Acts of the Apostles – covering both the ministries of Peter and Paul.  In St. Luke’s words, Christ is present, and is proclaimed in our midst.  Because of His work as an evangelist, in a very real way, St. Luke continues to proclaim Christ to this very day.

In today’s Gospel from Luke’s Gospel, the Evangelist records his sending forth to preach of the coming Christ across the countryside.  When our Lord sent them, He said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

We continue to pray this prayer today.  For the Church still needs pastors.  We still need men to proclaim the Gospel, whether they are laborers with calloused hands like St. Peter, or doctors and writers and artists like St. Luke.  The Lord’s army of preachers remains a diverse crowd – men of every ethnicity and culture, men of differing interests and abilities – all called to preach Christ and Him crucified, for the forgiveness of sins.

Jesus is still calling preachers and telling them, “Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.”

And their calls are as diverse as they are: some are sent to large congregations in the suburbs, some to tiny struggling parishes in the city.  Some are sent to sparse rural areas, others to the mission field in foreign lands.  Some are called to military chaplaincy, others to serve the sick and dying, or those in prison.  But their call is still the same, being sent as lambs among wolves, being called to shepherd the sheep, and to protect them from the crafts and assaults of the devil.  They preach and teach, they baptize and consecrate the Lord’s Supper, they lead worship, they hear confessions, they absolve the penitent, and they speak truth to power by means of God’s Word.

St. Luke’s cohort was given specific instructions: “Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road.”  His ministry was truly an act of faith.  Jesus placed Luke at the tender mercies of those to whom he was called to bring the Word of God.  He was instructed to depend on their kindness and provision.  The life of the parish pastor today isn’t exactly the same, but there are indeed similarities.  To be part of a local parish is an act of faith for pastor and laity alike.  There is much that we don’t know.  We cannot predict what will happen in the future.  But this much we do know, dear friends, the Lord has placed us here in this place, preacher and hearers, all of us confessing together the Gospel and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ – who works through each one of us in our various callings.

Pastors are indeed to repeat our Lord’s Easter greeting of “Peace.”  Luke brought this greeting when he arrived to his own destination: “Peace be to this house!”  And the Lord said, “If a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him.  But if not, it will return to you.”

The preacher of Christ is a bringer of peace, for he brings the Prince of Peace in Word and Sacrament.  He brings the peace of God that passes all understanding.  He brings the peace between God and man that was restored at our Lord’s crucifixion, when the veil in the temple was torn, when the blood of our Lord became a sacrificial offering, pleading to the Father on our behalf.  He brings the peace that is the promise of the New Heaven and the New Earth, in which all creatures of God will coexist in harmony and love, without conflict, without contention, with no prey and no predator, without sin and without death.  This is indeed the peace won for us by our Lord, and delivered to us from Him, through His pastors of every place and every age – right to the present, and even unto the end of the age.

St. Luke was commanded to “Heal the sick,” yet not like he did as a doctor.  As a preacher, he is healing those sick with sin, healing them permanently, healing them in a way that transcends death itself.  And while we give thanks and praise to God for physicians who are called to heal us of our bodily ailments and relieve our pain, we give thanks to God even more for our Great Physician, our Lord Jesus Christ, who cures death itself by removing sin from us as far as the east is from the west.

Our Great Physician has charged St. Luke, even as He continues to commission men for service as proclaimers of the Gospel, to say, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”

What magnificent news this is, dear friends!  This is what the Greeks and Latins called the “Evangel” – the Good News.  We call it the Gospel.  And St. Luke is known to this day as Luke the Evangelist.  

“The kingdom of God has come near to you,” dear brothers and sisters, for the King has come to you.  He comes not to condemn, but to save.  He comes not to lord over you, but to serve you.  He comes not to tax you and send you off to war, but rather He comes to pay your debts and go into battle for you.  This is a different kind of kingdom that St. Luke has come to proclaim.  For this is a different kind of King that comes to you today – in Word and Sacrament.  

We thank God for the life and ministry of St. Luke, whose proclamation still reverberates in this church, and in churches all over the world – and will do so until the King returns in glory, bringing with Him the peace of God that will no longer be delivered by evangelists and pastors, but rather by the Great Physician and Good Shepherd Himself, even Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

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

Sermon: Funeral of Gretel Verret

16 October 2020

Text: John 14:1-6 (Job 19:23-27a, Rom 14:7-9)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Dear friends, peace be with you!

Gretel was an intense person.  And she was brutally honest.  Some might be shocked at her candor and directness, especially in this day and age of political correctness and syrupy niceness.  And when it came to her faith, Gretel was very blunt with me: she believed in Jesus, she knew that she was a sinner, she demanded absolution for her sins, and she insisted on receiving the body and blood of Christ as often as possible.  Not because she was worthy, but because Jesus is worthy!

She knew well the passage from Job that I read – which is also quoted in a hymn often sung at our church: “I know that my Redeemer lives.”  In this passage, Job confesses this very reality, that he needed a Redeemer, and his Redeemer lives.  And because of this Redeemer: our Lord Jesus Christ, Gretel confessed with Job that she would die, and her skin would be destroyed, but nevertheless, in her flesh, she would see God.  Just as we confessed in the creed that Gretel knew so well: “I believe in… the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”  Gretel received the body and blood of Christ, who rose from the dead, knowing that she too would rise from the dead.  And she believed and confessed this with the typical Gretel intensity.

Gretel had the perfect Christian attitude toward death.  She knew it was coming, but she wanted to live as long as God gave her breath.  She had a sense of purpose in caring for her dogs, but she also knew that God would call her home at some point.  And as her body became more and more frail, she became fine with living or dying – according to God’s will.  And indeed, she lived a long life of 90 years as a baptized Christian making her way in this fallen world.  As St. Paul said, “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord.  So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”  There is both a realism and a sense of joy in this sentiment.  For Gretel, like St. Paul, took life as it came, and was not afraid to die.  She didn’t care much for the aches and pains of age, but she took up her cross and lived out the life that her Creator gave her.

And in spite of her attitude that could come across as harsh –Gretel told me many, many times how much she loved and appreciated the many people in the neighborhood who looked after her when she was living alone on Romain Street.  And many times when I was visiting Gretel, Sarah from across the street would already be there, or would show up to check on her. 

Of course, Gretel read voraciously until her cataracts became too bad to read.  She had quite an eclectic taste in books: things about animals, British royalty, but she also read the Bible.  She knew it well, and she loved to hear me read the Word of God to her. 

She knew the Gospel, and she knew about Jesus – the fact that He died for her, He shed his blood on the cross for her, to forgive her sins, and to give her eternal life.  And when she had to leave her home and move to the nursing home, she was not happy.  She had a real love of her home.  But she also understood that her true home was with Jesus, who said, “In My Father’s house are many rooms… I go and prepare a place for you… and will take you to Myself.” 

Gretel is now at home with Jesus in eternity, in heaven.  And she, like us, awaits the Day of Resurrection, when her body will be restored, when we will be physically reunited, when we join Job in seeing God in the flesh, with our own eyes, with bodies that no longer ache or age or wear out.  This is the “resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”  This is indeed what St. Paul meant by saying that even in death, “we are the Lord’s” – for He is indeed our Redeemer who lives! 

And this is also what it means that Jesus speaks to us anew today, saying, “Let not your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God; believe also in Me.  In My Father’s house are many rooms.  If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?”

Gretel lived her life with intensity.  She was able to do so because of her Christian faith.  For she read, she heard, she believed, and she confessed what her Redeemer said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.”  Let us confess this Gospel with Gretel, looking forward to seeing her again in the flesh in eternity.

Amen.

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

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Oct 13

13 October 2020

Text: Matt 12:22-37

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Our Lord casts out a demon.  He shows His authority over the entire created universe, even over the demonic.  The people are witnessing His miracles and hearing His preaching.  “Can this be the Son of David?” they begin to ask.  This alarms the Pharisees, for they have made Jesus their enemy.  If He is the Messiah, they are in trouble.  So rather than repent, rather than change their minds, rather than honestly listen to the Lord and examine the Scriptures – they double down and call Him evil.  The demons must listen to Him because He must be their boss.  He must be in league with Beelzebul, the prince of demons, they say.  Beelzebul means “the Lord of the Flies.”

So they are blaspheming the Lord and Creator of the universe by casting Him as a low-level demon, a false Lord whose kingdom consists of maggots and dead things. 

The Pharisees must be careful, dear friends.  For they are calling good evil.  They are calling God a devil.  They are playing directly into the hands of Lucifer, who inverts and perverts everything, the same snake who tempted eve with, “Did God actually say…?” as he sewed rebellion, chaos, and death into our world.

Some of the Pharisees – like St. Paul – will repent of this blasphemy against the Son of Man.  The scales will fall from their eyes as Jesus casts out the demons that blinded them and beguiled them.  But Jesus warns of a worse blasphemy: that against the Holy Spirit.  For this blasphemy refuses to repent.  It is like a dying person who refuses to take the cure.  That person not only will not, but cannot, be saved. 

We live in a Luciferian culture, where up is down, good is evil, and the divine categories of creation are distorted and turned into a chaos that produces misery and confusion on top of the already existing suffering and death of this fallen world.  The devil casts Jesus as evil, as a fraud, as an infringement on the world’s freedom.  In reality, He is the only one who is good, He is the truth, and He offers the world freedom by dying on the cross.  He is no Lord of flies reveling in death, but rather the Lord of life who conquers death.

The Holy Spirit “calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth.”  He bids the unbeliever and the blasphemer to repent and join us in making war against Satan, Beelzebul, and the demonic realm that oppresses people, makes them blind to the truth and mute to confess the truth of what God has done to redeem us. 

Let us pray that God’s merciful, loving, and almighty Spirit might bring the Word of God to our world that is demon-oppressed, and may those trapped in blindness and muteness and the doctrine of demons be brought to salvation, health, truth, and everlasting life – through the forgiveness of the Son of Man.

Amen.

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

Sermon: Trinity 18 - 2020

11 October 2020

Text: Matt 22:34-46

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Once more, the Pharisees, hearing that Jesus had “silenced” their opponents “the Sadducees,” tried to entrap Jesus in the Law.  They have a lawyer in their midst ask Him: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law.”

Do you see the pattern here?

Law, law, and more law.  Let’s get a lawyer to ask Jesus about the Law.  The Pharisees loved the Law.  And indeed, we are told many times in the Scriptures that we should love the Law of the Lord, to meditate on it, and to teach it to our children.  We should love the Law because it is the Lord’s Word, and it is how He teaches us, how He leads us to realize our need for a Savior.

But, dear friends, this is not why the Pharisees love the Law.  They love it because they use it and abuse it, in order to give the impression that they are righteous.  They want everyone to believe that they keep the Law.  They even invent new laws to keep, they require everybody else keep their invented laws, and they create every manner of workaround to convince themselves that they keep the Ten Commandments.

But as our Lord points out, “On these two commandments” – namely: “You shall love the Lord your God” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” – depend all the Law and the Prophets.”  In other words, keeping the Law isn’t really about following rules.  It is about love: love for God and love for neighbor.  If you live a life of love, you don’t have to think about the commandments, for you will be keeping them.  Of course, that is easier said than done for us poor, miserable sinners.  And the Pharisees were about as loveless, about as self-centered, about as hypocritical as they could be.  The Law did not do its work with them, because they were too loveless and too proud to apply it to themselves.

The Law, rightly understood, condemns all of us.  It stings us.  It cuts us to the core.  It exposes our unrighteousness, our sinfulness, our failures, and our lovelessness.  The Law, rightly understood, calls us to repent, to confess our transgressions and to strive to replace our self-righteousness with God’s righteousness, to replace our shallow love of self with the richness of love of the Lord our God and of our neighbor.  The Law, rightly understood, points us to our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  The Law, rightly understood, leads us to the Gospel.

The Pharisees, seeking only to trip Jesus up, do not understand just who is speaking to them, nor what He is offering them.  They are blinded by the very Law that is sent to all of us to open our eyes to the truth that we need a Savior.

And so the Teacher teaches them about Himself: “Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, “What do you think about the Christ?”  Now it is our Lord’s turn to ask the questions.  He is giving them a chance to confess: not only their sins, but to confess Him as the Christ.  Jesus has already given them signs and wonders and has taught and preached to them from the Law and the Prophets just who He is.  And, dear friends, there is no more profound question in the universe than: “What do you think about the Christ?”

Jesus narrows the question for them, bringing the Old Testament Scriptures in the form of one of the Psalms that they routinely sang in their worship services.  He asks, concerning the Christ, concerning Himself: “Whose Son is He?”  They replied, “The Son of David.”  And they are correct.  The Christ, the Messiah, will be a descendant of King David, as the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms proclaim.  Our Lord asks them a difficult question.  Difficult, because they don’t really understand just who the Christ is.  Jesus asks: “How is it then that David in the Spirit calls Him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, until I put Your enemies under Your feet’?  If David calls Him Lord, how is He his Son?”

In other words, David’s own words teach that the Christ, the Messiah, will not only be one of David’s descendants, but He will also be the Lord, that is, God, in the flesh.  Jesus is pointing them to Himself, the man who is God, the Son of David who is also the Son of God.  

This, dear friends, is what we call the “elephant in the parlor.”  It is that thing that everybody is thinking, but nobody wants to come right out and say.  They have seen the miracles.  They know that Jesus fulfills the ancient prophecies.  They cannot trip Him up as a teacher.  He is clearly a prophet, and more.  He preaches with the authority of God Himself.  John the Baptist proclaimed Him to be the “Lamb of God,” and the One whom John is not worthy to untie His sandals.  

The Pharisees are terrified.  Jesus continues to outwit them and expose their entire religious system as a sham.  Like the Pharaoh’s magicians, they cannot replicate or even explain His miracles.  The people follow Him – the same people that used to fawn all over the Pharisees.  

And this last exchange is the last straw.  As St. Matthew records, “And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask Him any more questions.”  What else is there to do but kill Him?

Dear friends, “What do you think about the Christ?”

Is Jesus just a great teacher, a nice guy, an example of a good person?  Is Jesus your buddy that you talk to on Sunday if you come to church?  Is Jesus like a character in a movie or a story?  Is Jesus a new law-giver who scolds you for not keeping the commandments?  Is Jesus a far-off God that isn’t really part of your life?

“What do you think about the Christ?”

I’m not asking this question, Jesus is.  It was not my decision to lay this question before you today, it is the work of the Holy Spirit.  For God Himself asked the question, inspired the question to be written, and caused it to be posed to you again, right here and right now.  It is a question to be pondered. 

And if we do believe Jesus and if we do believe the Scriptures, the Christ is the Savior, He is Jesus of Nazareth who was born of the Virgin Mary, who was crucified as the one all availing sacrifice for the sins of the world – including your sins and my sins.  He is truly the “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”  He is our Savior, our Rescuer.  He is the one who overcame death by dying, into whose triune name – the name that is above every name – into which we have been baptized and sealed by the Holy Spirit according to the Father’s will.  

Jesus is not a genie in a bottle, but is Almighty God.  And yet, He is a fleshly man who loves you, who hears your prayers, and who governs all things in the universe according to the Father’s will.  Jesus is more important than anything else in this life.

Hopefully, this is how you answer His question: “What do you think of the Christ?” 

Indeed, he is David’s Son and David’s Lord.  He is God’s Son, and He is God the Son.  He is your Lord, your Savior, and your Teacher.  He is your only hope of salvation in this world of sin and death.  He is the one whose question: “What do you think about the Christ?” is the most important question you will ever be asked.  And unlike the stubborn Pharisees, let us be bold to answer Him, and let us rejoice in everlasting life according to His promise!

Amen.

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

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Oct 6

6 October 2020

Text: Deut 5:22-6:9

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Dr. Luther explains the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods.”  “What does this mean?  We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.”  In a way, Moses is here explaining Dr. Luther’s explanation: “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.”  What does this mean?  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  And these words that I command you shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

So is this what we see in ourselves, dear Christian friends?  Is the Word of God the number one thing that occupies our minds?  Or are other things more important?  Do we teach this to our children in all that we say and do?  Do we teach our children to pray, or is it more important for them to brush their teeth and do their homework?  Is the Bible more important than math and science?  Do we speak of the Lord and His Gospel at the table, or do other topics of conversation dominate? 

When we run errands, do we listen to the Word of God?  While we take our children here and there, or run to the store, are we being molded by Scripture?  Or by the world?  When we lie down and when we rise, do we pray?  Are our homes decorated with the promises of God, or our favorite sports teams or political signage?  When we converse with our peers, is our conversation the same as the unbelievers?  Are we watching the same movies and shows, are we listening to the same music, is our mind focused on the cross, or are we more comfortable with the enemies of the cross?

Of course, we can teach our children both the Bible and math and science.  We can enjoy secular music and the rich hymnody of the Church.  We can talk politics or sports or current events with friends and still have room for the Gospel.  If we believe Moses – and Luther – not to mention our Lord Himself in the very first commandment, we need to repent of breaking God’s Law in fearing, loving, and trusting in other gods before the Lord God, our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, who is three, and who is one.  To keep the first commandment is to reorient our minds – which is to say, to repent – and when we repent, we believe the Gospel.  And when we believe the Gospel, our hearts are changed and we yearn to speak of the Word with our children, our friends, and our colleagues, and to reflect upon the Gospel in our own thoughts and meditations. 

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord, is one.”

Amen.

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

Sermon: Trinity 17 - 2020

4 October 2020

Text: Luke 14:1-11 

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Once again, our Lord has a confrontation with the Pharisees.  Everybody looked up to the Pharisees.  They were the devout and religious people of their day.  They always went above and beyond the call of duty.  They fasted twice as much as everyone else, and gave more money in offerings than anyone.

And they were quick to point this out to everyone too.

In fact, the motivation for these good works was not to love and serve their neighbors, but to rack up points for themselves in heaven.  They were in the business of impressing God and their neighbors – and they expected to be praised by both.  

Imagine their shock when Jesus comes and tells them that they need to repent.  “Repent?  You mean like sinners?  Oh, Jesus, now you’ve gone too far!  We need to take you down a peg.  We’re going to keep our eyes on you, Rabbi!”

And over and over, they tried to trap our Lord in a gotcha moment.  And this is exactly what happened at the home of one of the rulers of the Pharisees, where a public dinner was taking place.  And “they were watching Him carefully.”  Not to learn, but to attempt to expose.  For Jesus was annoying – like that John the Baptist before Him, who called the Pharisees snakes.  Can you just imagine?  The Pharisees?  Calling them a ‘brood of vipers’?  Who do these guys think they are.  Don’t they know who we are?  We’re the Pharisees.” 

So, not wanting to disappoint the Pharisees, Jesus performs a miracle.  He heals a man with dropsy.  Today we call it edema.  It’s a symptom of congestive heart failure.  But before He healed the man, Jesus knew how the Pharisees were, and what they were trying to do.  So He put a question to them: “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?”  Our Pharisee and lawyer friends “remained silent.”  They knew the drill.  They had seen Jesus make fools of them before.  They knew what was coming.  And Jesus healed the dropsy victim right in front of them.

So think about this, dear friends.  They just witnessed a miracle.  A true miracle.  They did not ask Him about this ability or its source.  They did not seek to discern who He is.  They didn’t even rejoice with the man who was healed.  They remained silent.  They just stewed in their own juices, because Jesus made them look like fools once again.  

Our Lord doubles down and puts another question to them.  And lawyers know what these kinds of questions are.  They aren’t really questions.  Our Lord asks rhetorically: “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?”  “And they could not reply to these things.”

They are dumbfounded.  They want to accuse Jesus of breaking the Law, but He just demonstrated that God’s mercy and love overcome even the Law.  We don’t become righteous by externally keeping the letter of the Law, but rather, God shares His righteousness with us so that we can perform true acts of righteousness, not based on rule-keeping and racking up points, but rather based on love for our neighbor.  These exceptions to the Sabbath were well-known by rabbis, but they are so angry with Jesus, they repeatedly paint Him as a criminal for healing people on the Sabbath.  That is how debased these Pharisees and lawyers have become.

Why are they like this, dear friends?  Is it that they haven’t researched the legal opinions and the rulings of the rabbis enough?  Is it because they are simply ignorant of the Scriptures?  Do they just need more education?

The answer isn’t obvious to us, but it is obvious to our Lord.  Their problem is pride.

They believe that they are righteous because of their works: their obedience to the laws, rules, regulations, and even made-up traditions of men.  They are proud of their ability to keep the rules, by hook or by crook, even if they need the help of clever lawyers to go bobbing for loopholes.  They want God’s pat on the back.  They want the men to fawn over them, and the women to swoon.  They want applause and admiration, fame and fortune.  That, and not love, is the fuel that motivates them.  It’s all pride.

Jesus calls them out with a parable.

He uses an example of a wedding feast to show how pride ultimately results in shame, and humility, by contrast, leads to honor.  Banquets are socially-regulated affairs, with the most important people having the best seats.  So if you are prideful and full of yourself, of course, you’re going to take the best seat available.  

But what if you’re wrong?  What if you think more highly of yourself than you ought?  You’re going to be humiliated when you are told to vacate the seat of honor, and “you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.”

And so, given this story, the best thing for a banquet attendee to do is to actually “go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’”

Jesus says: “Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you.”  And here is the lesson.  Here is what the Pharisees really need to hear: “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The Pharisees were not made to look foolish by Jesus, but rather by their own delusion that their made-up loveless works and false obedience made them righteous.  In fact, what makes us righteous, dear friends, is confessing together that we are “poor miserable sinners” and when Jesus heals us – like the man with edema, who comes to where Jesus is on the Sabbath, to a banquet, and leaves behind the shame of sickness to be exalted to health.  It’s all grace.  It’s all Christ.

We are not healed by our own knowledge, or forgiven because of our own works.  We are made well and redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ.  And we forgiven sinners, humbled by the Law, join Him by grace at the heavenly banquet, eating and drinking with Him in eternity, with a foretaste here at our altar.  We humbly receive His mercy and His healing, and we are exalted, even unto eternity.  Amen.

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

Magdeburg and Liberty, Continued

As a postscript to my earlier post, I want to comment further on a modern application of Magdeburg - focusing for the time being on the political rather than the theological.

The confessors of Magdeburg were successfully able to assert their liberties over tyranny partly owing to the decentralized nature of the Holy Roman Empire.  We live in a very different world today.  Beginning with the aftermath of Napoleon in the 19th century, feudal Europe's patchwork of ministates and microstates have given way to a movement of unification and the nation state.  By the time of World War I, this nationalized political makeover of Europe was largely complete.  After the Great War, the advocates of unification saw an opportunity to create a transnational League of Nations - an experiment that failed spectacularly.

Post World War II, (specifically, in 1957), the nation states of Europe created a free-trade zone called the European Economic Community.  In 1993, two years after the fall of the Soviet Union, this centralization gave way to the European Union.  As Nigel Farage and other "Euroskeptics" pointed out, this Union quickly began to take on the character of a state - which undermines the sovereignty of the member nation-states themselves.  

The EU has a flag, an anthem, its own currency and bank, laws, taxes, a vast governmental bureaucracy, and power over even the local laws of the member states.  On January 31, 2020, the United Kingdom's vote to leave the Union ("Brexit") became effective, as the UK became the first (and still only) state to withdraw from the Union.  If and when such an exit becomes impossible - wither de jure by explicit prohibition, or de facto by threat of invasion - the transformation of the Union (which began as a simple free trade zone and common market) into a state will be complete.  And at that point, the member states will no longer be states, but provinces.  Brexit was a huge blow to this evolution.  The retention of the word "state" in a union in which a member cannot leave is a kind of nostalgic legal fiction that serves as propaganda to convince the people that nothing has changed - similar to the idea that Imperial Rome was still a republic.

The states of the United States are currently in this situation.  

In mutual defense of their effort to maintain their independence and resist invasion, the thirteen American states formed a confederation in 1777 (which was ratified in 1781).  They retained their sovereignty while operating under the Articles of Confederation - being a free trade zone and common market, as well as a transnational treaty organization devoted to mutual defense.  Beginning with the Treaty of Paris of 1783, the thirteen original states that banded together in common cause of independence were recognized internationally as individual sovereign states.  

Bucking the mission to tweak and revise the Articles of Confederation, the convention charged with this task wrote a new constitution in 1787.  In the debate about accepting the new constitution, two factions emerged.  The pro-ratification faction took the ironic name "Federalists."  Ironic because federalism means the retention of sovereignty at the lower level as opposed to creating a national state.  Many of the so-called Federalists were, in fact, nationalists who wanted to reduce the states to provinces.  And yet, they "sold" the Constitution - over the objections of the so-called Antifederalists (who were, in fact, the true Federalists) by arguing that the states retained their sovereignty in the new Constitution.  Their published, anonymously-authored newspaper articles urging the ratification of the Constitution were later published under one volume and called "The Federalist Papers."

Three states: New York, Virginia, and Rhode Island ratified the Constitution with the explicit reservation that member states could exit the Union, that they were not giving up their sovereignty.  There was no objection to this explicit reservation of powers - and the Antifederalists even had this reservation of powers at the state level written into the Bill of Rights (the 10th Amendment).

Of course, by virtue of war and conquest, we now think of the United States not as a Union but rather as a nation.  Our states cannot leave the way the UK voted itself out of the EU.  We are now what the EU aspired to: a single unitary state that trumps all claims of local sovereignty. Any state or local law can be voided by the federal government.  Our "states" are powerless even to regulate marriage according to natural law and the will of the people.  Our "states" may not implement murder laws for those who are still in the womb.  Our "states" may not leave the "Union."  De jure, they retain statehood; de facto, they are reduced to provinces.  De jure, the United States are a Union; de facto, the United States is a nation.

Ironically, the provinces (not states) of Canada have retained the right to put independence on the ballot - similar to the way the people of the UK offered its voters a referendum on Brexit.  Also ironic is the colony of Puerto Rico, euphemistically called a "commonwealth" - regularly has referenda on independence from the United States, a power that the full "states" no longer enjoy.

It is important to note that every tyrant in history seeks a grand unification and the diminution of local governance in favor of the higher level - often accompanied by expansionism and aggression.  This was done in modern times by imperialists like Napoleon, by nationalists like Garibaldi and Bismarck, by fascists like Mussolini and Hitler, by Communists like Lenin and Stalin, and by those seeking a transnational superstate like the founders of the EU and the bitter opponents of Brexit.  Those who seek to squash the liberties of the people realize that local autonomy and sovereignty, that decentralization and the right to interpose and nullify laws that come from above, are a speedbump on their grand plan of bigger and bigger government for the sake of control.  All attempts to wrest control from the higher magistrate and restore local authority is the spirit of the Magdeburg resistance of 1550.

Brexit should send Magdeburg a Father's Day card.