Sunday, May 30, 2021

Sermon: Holy Trinity - 2021

30 May 2021

Text: John 3:1-17

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Jesus revealed the Holy Trinity to Nicodemus, who had come looking for answers.  The teacher of Israel needed to be taught by the rabbi who is God in the flesh.  Nicodemus was also a Pharisee and a member of the ruling council.  Although these groups hated Jesus, Nicodemus confessed that Jesus had “come from God” and God was “with Him.”  But He had come at night, because believing such things could have gotten him in a lot of trouble with the authorities.

Jesus, the Son, speaks of God, the Father, and He teaches about the Spirit – and He wraps the entire lesson up in Holy Baptism.  He tells Nicodemus that in order to be part of the kingdom of God, he must be “born again.”

Nicodemus is baffled by the expression.  What does it mean to be “born again.”  Obviously, Jesus is using a figure of speech, because one cannot “enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born.”  Some people today think that “born again” means you’re some kind of special, super-charged Christian, like you actually believe and live this stuff.  Then you’re a “born again” Christian as opposed to a normal, lukewarm Christian.  Or maybe you have to have some kind of emotional conversion that allows you to wear the “born again” badge.

But where does Jesus say any of this?

He explains that one must be “born of water and the Spirit.”  This is a mysterious saying at the time, because Jesus had not yet established baptism – but He will.  But for now, it’s a missing puzzle piece, a mystery for the teacher of Israel to chew on. 

But being born is not something that you can choose to do.  It just happens to you.  Somehow, you became you because your parents brought you into the world.  God created you through them – just as He told Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply.”  When we were all born into this world, there was no decision on our part.  There was no emotional conversion from non-existence to existence.  It just happened by God’s will.

And being “born again” is a similar experience.  It is something that happens to us by “water and the Spirit.”  The word “Spirit” has a double meaning.  It also means “breath” or “wind.”  Jesus explains the work of the Holy Spirit to Nicodemus this way: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.  So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”  When Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to the apostles just before He ascended into heaven, He “breathed on them” and “said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”

When we are baptized, there are two things that happen: first, water is used, and second there are words: words that bear the breath of the one conducting the baptism.  There is water and breath – and in the case of Holy Baptism, the breath is the Spirit.  The one being born again may or may not be aware of it.  It is something that is being done to him, rather than something that he does. 

And about the same time that Jesus breathed on the disciples and gave them the Holy Spirit, authorizing them to forgive sins, Jesus established Holy Baptism: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” 

It would be then – when Jesus ordained the apostles into the ministry, when our Lord instituted baptism, and after Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came and guided the disciples into all truth  – that it all became clear.  And that is why at Pentecost, after Peter’s sermon, “those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”  Souls are added to the kingdom of God by baptism, by being born again of water and the Spirit.

In His teaching of the teacher of Israel, Jesus makes it clear that He is not merely a rabbi or a prophet, but rather the “Son”, who was sent by God the Father, into the world.  And Jesus, the Son, was not sent by the Father to condemn the world, but to save it.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

And this new life is given to us, dear friends, just like our old life; through birth.  We are born first of flesh and blood, and then we are born again of water and the Spirit.  We are baptized in the name of the Trinity, according to the instructions of Jesus, washed with water, as St. Paul wrote to Titus: “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

This is the second birth that mystified Nicodemus. 

Jesus gave Nicodemus a clue about Himself from the Old Testament, something for Nicodemus to look out for that would help him to understand.   He reminded him that “Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,” back when the people were dying of snakebites.  God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and raise it up on a pole, and everyone who looked at it would be saved.  Jesus told Nicodemus: “So must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.” 

Nicodemus would see the Son of Man lifted up on the cross.  And even though this put him at odds with the authorities, Nicodemus defended Jesus’ right to be heard before being condemned.  He was at our Lord’s crucifixion, and he provided embalming spices for our Lord after His death, and he worked with Joseph of Arimathea to give Jesus a proper burial. 

And it would be in light of the cross that these mysteries would become clear – especially when Jesus rose again, when He breathed the Holy Spirit into the apostles, and when He sent them into the world to make disciples by baptism.  Only by sticking with Jesus to the end would the night-time lesson about the saving work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit make sense.

Scripture doesn’t say what happened to Nicodemus after the crucifixion of Jesus.  Church tradition also has nothing to tell us other than that Nicodemus was a believer, that he was born again, and that he became known to the church as St. Nicodemus. 

And of all his fame and learning and accomplishments – none of these things amount to anything compared to being born again by water and the Spirit…

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

Friday, May 28, 2021

On 'Good Uses' for the Confederate Battle Flag

One of my colleagues in the ministry of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS) recently wrote that among "good uses" for the Confederate battle flag are "diaper, shop rag, kindling, stuffing for a pillow, burping cloth," and "toilet paper."  In the ensuing discussion - which I was not a part of - he added, "It's a treason/slavocracy flag.  Plain and simple.  It's the revisionists that have a complete lack of understanding of history."

Fortunately, this kind of churlish and disrespectful rhetoric is not common among my brethren in the ministerium.  

But it is a helpful window into how much our education system and culture have degraded.  There was indeed a time when the movie Idiocracy was a farcical comedy and not a documentary.

His assertion is that anyone who disagrees with him is a "revisionist" with a "complete lack of understanding of history."  My colleague is quick to point out that he is a Ph.D. student.  I wonder if his Declaration of Historical Ignorance applies to scholars like Clyde N. Wilson, M.E. Bradford, Richard M. Weaver, Jr., or the twelve scholars known as the Southern Agrarians - among many others in the Southern intellectual tradition. 

Maybe these men, unlike my enlightened and brilliant colleague, were all just stupid.

My colleague's hubris is the inevitable result of history being taught in our schools as "social studies," as political activism, where intelligent discussion is replaced by an iron-fisted intolerance of dissent, where history is not permitted to be a dialogue between different schools of thought, but rather a Pharisaical, virtue-signaling, one-size-fits-all interpretation to be determined by the state and its interests.  And in such a Soviet-style 1619 Project-based "education" paradigm, there is no room for historiography or the examination of original source material from differing sides of a conflict.

In the current paradigm, there are not many perspectives and voices in the study of history, only the right view (which is politically-correct) and the wrong view (which is deemed "white supremacist").  The arrogance and ignorance in my colleague's rhetoric takes the tack that he has read deeply on the subject, and has considered various perspectives.  And having done so, anyone who disagrees with him is a "revisionist."  

But just what has been revised?

In any conflict, there are different assumptions and interpretations.  That's why there are conflicts.  This is why there are debates and disputes, and this is why there are wars.  Johnny says the toy is his.  Mary says the toy is hers.  Each child sees his claim as valid.  If the children cannot agree, an adult will have to step in and resolve the dispute.  And lacking such a judge, the larger and stronger child will simply prevail.  And the smaller child's perspective may or may not be remembered.  The result of the bigger child winning may well simply be accepted by all as the outcome.  But the point is that there is a dispute because there are two different claims of ownership.

In the war of American secession from Great Britain, there were two rival claimants as the legitimate overarching government of the colonies/states.  And in international disputes, there is no authority, no adult to decide to which child the toy belongs.  And so there is sometimes war to "settle" the matter.  In the case of the First American War of Independence, the secessionists won, and American government schools generally teach the school of history friendly to the rebels, while the loyalist point of view, if taught at all, is downplayed.

And yet, regardless of who wins or loses, there are differences of opinion.  To really understand what happened, it is important to consider all points of view - even if, and especially if, one's opinion is biased toward one side or the other.

Our Confederate ancestors - be they the politicians who led, the military personnel who fought, or the civilians on the home-front who supported the war effort and suffered depredation - had a point of view.  It was based on the Jeffersonian understanding of the Union, the compact theory of the Constitution.  Their opponents held to the Hamiltonian perspective of the Union, the nationalist interpretation of the Constitution.  This dispute predates the Constitution itself, as manifest in the debate between the so-called Federalists and the Anti-Federalists.  To this day, both views are held by different camps of Americans.  Without understanding this nuance, it is impossible to make sense of the conflict.  Nor is it possible to go beyond the churlish historiography of "the toy is mine and anyone who disagrees with me is a poopy-head."

Unfortunately, the "poopy-head" theory of history is precisely what is being taught in our schools and on our ubiquitous TV screens.  It is pushed in popular culture and shrieked by activists.  It is how most of our politicians operate.  And it is, of course, based on the victors' perspective and the Big-Government Hamiltonian school.  It ignores the Jeffersonian model that has, of course, been around since the beginning of the Republic.  It ignores the fact that there has been no "revision" - as the Southern perspective on the War for Southern Independence has been consistently taught for a century and a half.  The idea that there was a consensus and a united historiography until now - when all of the sudden, people invented a new history, a revised history - is simply objectively untrue.

The radical changes in our culture and worldview: the resurgence of socialism, the new interpretation of all American history as "racist," the plummeting test scores for Americans in literacy and math, the politicization of every educational subject, and even the normalization of the Frankfurt School's Critical Theory in matters of race and sex are all evidence that we are not dealing with historical revisionism, but rather a social and cultural revolution.  And the teaching of history has been coopted by this movement.  The 1619 Project agenda - with its demonstrable falsehoods - has been mainstreamed.  Sadly, my colleague has fallen for it.  But it is also part of a psychological agenda to be on the Hegelian "right side of history."  People want to be part of the "winning team."  And from where we stand right now, the malleable and political "right side of history" is with the iconoclasts who are toppling monuments - not only memorials to Confederate history, but to American history as a whole.  My colleague will either one day scratch his head when statues to Washington, Jefferson, and even Lincoln and Grant come down (which has already begun), or he will be so invested by that point that he will be part of the mob, self-righteously calling for their eradication.

But perhaps more disturbing than his shocking ignorance of history and historiography is his hatred toward people who hold the Confederate battle flag with reverence.

Symbols are, by nature, subjective.  Most Americans hold the Stars and Stripes dear.  And this can be for many reasons.  It may be as simple as a love for one's home.  It may be that one's family members fought in past wars for the nation.  It may be that one sees in the flag the principles of liberty.  Or it may be a combination of all three.

But there are also other opinions. 

Perhaps someone is a recent immigrant without any particular sense that the flag represents his home.  It may be that one's ancestors - like perhaps the American Indians - fought against the United States, and may have even been oppressed by the United States or by individual Americans.  It may be that one believes that the premise of liberty is a lie, as one's family may have been transported as slaves on boats flagged with Old Glory, or one's recent family were interned in camps for Asians during World War II with the Stars and Stripes on the flagpole, or maybe one has been railroaded by a crooked prosecutor representing the federal government.

How might a victim of the My Lai massacre see the US flag?  How about those whose families were incinerated by bombs dropped on civilian targets by the United States?  What if one's entire family, innocent of any wrongdoing, were wiped out in a drone strike?  Do such events in history mitigate against a family in Peoria putting out Old Glory on the house for the 4th of July?  Would it be within the grounds of propriety to suggest that the flag of the United States should be used as toilet paper?  

After all, as the 1619 Project will gladly point out, just as Robert E. Lee was an aristocratic Virginia rebel who fought for a county that had black slaves, so too was Washington.  In fact, Washington's image appears on the great seal of the CSA.  Every stripe on the current US flag stands for a slave state in 1776.  Nearly every signer of the Declaration of Independence was a slaveholder.  And on that 4th of July, the slaveholding United States seceded from a nation that had abolished slavery.  The 1619 Project holds that the entire reason for being for the United States was the preservation of slavery, and thus slavery must be the single interpretive lens for reading American history.

The narrative sounds vaguely familiar, doesn't it?

Another similar disagreement over history and symbols is seen in the intertwined history of England and Scotland.  For centuries, Scottish rebels fought in wars of independence against their English overlords.  In the 13th and 14th centuries, Sir William Wallace led the Scottish bid for independence, until he was captured.  He was tried for treason, tortured, and executed as an enemy of the state.  His head was put on a pike to discourage any further rebellions.  Centuries later, following another Scottish rebellion in 1745 - one that members of my own namesake ancestors participated in - the defeated Scots, who had already been banned from speaking their native language, were proscribed from wearing their traditional tartan symbols of their tribal allegiances.  

And yet today, a monument and statue of William Wallace stands at the site of one of his greatest victories over England.  Today, members of the English royal family wear kilts bearing the tartans of their own Scottish ancestors.  The flags of Scotland and England are both part of the flag representing the political Union between the two.  And in spite of both waving the Union Jack, both singing God Save the Queen, they are separate countries.  When there is a soccer game between England and Scotland, the English sing their national anthem Jerusalem, while the Scots sing their anthem of rebellion Flower of Scotland.  Both sides have a perspective, a narrative, a historiography, but as a people coexisting in a Union, there is mutual respect.  And while the flags of England and Scotland are waved by the rivals in the stadium, and while both sides see their own view as correct, neither side considers it to be its duty to crush a different perspective, or use the other side's symbols for toilet paper.

Southerners are like their British cousins, being inclined to remember their ancestors and nations, while the denizens of other regions of America scoff at such nostalgia.

I have no particular affection for the national symbols that are not my own nor of my heritage.  But I certainly understand that other people do hold these symbols with reverence.  I could not imagine telling my Russian, Kenyan, or Brazilian friends that I would like to use their flags for toilet paper.  I may not respect their symbols as they do, but I respect the people who do respect them, and I understand that which they hold dear may not be that which I view with reverence.  

The Confederate battle flag as we know it today became a unifying symbol for the defeated South, and has since also become a symbol of many things: rock and roll rebellion, motorcycle culture, Southern music, food, and folkways, as well as a symbol of political liberty - as it was waved in East Germany and other Iron Curtain countries as Communism fell and nations held captive were permitted to secede and establish home rule apart from colonial oversight.  It continues to be treasured the world over.  It is a symbol that we continue to place at the graves of our ancestors - a characteristic of Southern culture that often mystifies people from other regions who perhaps could not even tell you the names of their own grandparents, have no particular attachment to familial land, and who care little for their heritage.

How many bumper stickers or tee shirts have you seen that say, "American by birth, Midwestern by the grace of God"?

I have been a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans for nearly 30 years.  It is in one sense a genealogical society, but it is really much more than that.  When the Confederate veterans returned to civilian life, they received no federal pensions, and in many cases, their destroyed states were too poor to provide for their needs.  And so, they created a veterans' organization, the United Confederate Veterans (UCV) in 1889.  And their daughters stepped up, establishing the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) in 1894 to establish homes for the aging veterans and to erect monuments and grave markers.  Their sons established the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) in 1896 to be the legal successor organization to the UCV.

There has been a continuum from the veterans themselves, to their sons and daughters, to their grandchildren who continue to honor their memories today.  We are the guardians of their history, their stories, and their artifacts.  We have their diaries and their writings. We have their uniforms and their flags.  We meet each and every year, as we have without fail since 1896.  We are the inconvenient speedbumps to the 1619 Project and its Orwellian scheme to rewrite history and crush dissent.  And we are also living monuments, whose very existence is repugnant to the keepers of the Marxist oppression narrative.

Perhaps the most repugnant aspect of my colleague's words is the obliviousness to the fact that other people, those who have a different historiography than he, those with family ties to the South, hold the Confederate battle flag with affection, see it as a symbol of their own families - ancestors and descendants alike - and use it as a funerary device.  Of course, we continue to mark and visit the graves of our veteran ancestors - some of whom lived full lives after the war and were buried in family plots, and some of whom fell in battle and were thrown into unmarked trenches and mass graves.  The monuments across the South serve as grave-markers for those who were never found.  

Today, not only are these statues, many more than a century old, being toppled by mobs (often while police watch passively) and removed by legislatures, mayors, and governors - even grave markers and tombstones are being vandalized and destroyed, all with self-righteous justification.  And of course, this cancer of the vandalism of graves has metastasized and spread even to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the American Revolution.

When nothing is sacred, even funerary symbols are treated with contempt.

And the Confederate battle flag is not only used to mark the graves of Confederate veterans.  For it is a symbol of our heritage, and our families are a continuation of that heritage.  For example, when my fifteen year old son died suddenly and tragically last year, he was buried with certain symbols.  First, of course, was the cross that he wore to serve with me at the altar for seven years.  The cross is the symbol of his redemption and of his impending resurrection.  Second, he was buried in the dress blue uniform of the US Air Force Auxiliary: the Civil Air Patrol.  He loved serving his community, state, and nation, and held the rank of Cadet First Lieutenant.  He saluted the US flag and was even called on a live mission for the Air Force on one occasion.  Like many Confederate descendants, he was an American patriot and served his country insofar as he was able to do so at his young age.  

I do regret that I didn't also bury him with a piece of the MacBean family tartan, as he was proud of that aspect of his heritage as well, and the DNA in his bones reflect our brave ancestors who fought for their country and clan, as well as for political liberty and independence.  That too is part of who we are as a family - past, present, and future.

But I did bury my boy, a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, with two Confederate battle flags (a generic one, and the flag of a Virginia military unit) - the symbols of which my colleague thinks should be used as toilet paper.  By contrast, that symbol meant a great deal to my son.  He knew his heritage.  And just as he saluted Old Glory, he also saluted the flags of the Confederacy.  He stood for Dixie.  Along with his favorite pop music, he listened to the old songs of our ancestors: Dixie, The Bonnie Blue Flag, I'm a Good Old Rebel, and many others.  He understood that God created him incarnationally as part of a family, bearing flesh that was given to him from his ancestors: including men who fought for Scottish independence, American independence, and Southern independence.

Tolerance is the hallmark of a civilized and intelligent people.  Only barbarians and savages cannot understand that there are many different sides to a conflict, and that it is natural and laudable to honor one's fathers and mothers and respect one's heritage while being respectful of the heritage of others.  Our country and our culture have descended to a dark and sinister place, one where there are masters on the top of the pyramid, who dictate history and historiography to the rest of us, who sit in judgment of our heritage and of our ancestors, who tell us what we are permitted to believe and hold dear, a place where we who dissent are being increasingly marginalized, proscribed, and even subjected to violence.

And no matter how crass, vile, hateful, and churlish people like my colleague are, and will continue to be, I am honored that my son awaits the resurrection with symbols of who God created him to be in this life: a Christian, an American, and a Southerner - as well as a dissident against an increasingly intolerant and totalitarian culture and state.  

May he rest in peace until I see him again.  Deo vindice.



Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Sermon: Wednesday of Pentecost - 2021


26 May 2021

Text: John 14:23-31 (Gen 11:1-9, Acts 2:1-21)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

We Lutherans bear a name not of our own choosing.  Martin Luther hated it.  It was put upon us by our opponents.  Our own confessions never use label “Lutheran.”  But we do refer to ourselves and our faith as Evangelical, Catholic, and Orthodox.  Ironically, we have allowed other Christians to steal these descriptors from us, and we act like they no longer apply to us.

When we think of Evangelicals, we usually think of Baptists or Non-Denominational Christians, when in fact, this is what the early Lutherans called themselves.  When we think of Catholics, we usually think of the papal church, even though our confessions use the word Catholic to describe our faith and church seventeen times – in one place referring to ourselves as the “true and genuine catholic church.”  When we think of Orthodoxy we think of Greek or Eastern Christians with a mysterious liturgy, foreign languages, and big beards.  However, our Book of Concord includes the word “Orthodox” eleven times.

But we could actually add another description to our faith and life within the Lutheran tradition: Pentecostal.  The word doesn’t appear in the Book of Concord, but there is no reason that we can’t steal it fair and square. 

Pentecostals discount the Bible by confessing a belief in direct revelation to us today in the same way that God spoke to the prophets and apostles.  But today, the Lord has given us the Scriptures, the infallible oracles of God.  Pentecostals claim to “speak in tongues,” though they believe it to mean speaking in gibberish, not like what we heard in the Scriptures where the apostles preached in foreign languages that they never studied.  Gibberish is chaos, and it is the realm of Satan.  The Word of God, the Logos, is delivered by means of language.  The gift of tongues given that first Pentecost of the Church was a special manifestation to jump-start the missionary work of the church – through preaching, not through gibberish, not through jumping up and down, not through rolling around on the floor.

We Lutherans are Pentecostal Christians because we confess the work of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit ministers through our ministry.

Jesus ordained the apostles, breathing on them, giving them the Holy Spirit, authorizing them to forgive and to retain sins.  Modern-day Pentecostal Christians don’t believe in this authority, and don’t practice it.  Jesus gives individual Christians the Holy Spirit by means of baptism: “by water and the Spirit” as He told Nicodemus.  But modern-day Pentecostals don’t believe in this gift either, reducing it to a mere symbol. 

We Lutherans, as Evangelical, Catholic, Orthodox, and Pentecostal Christians who confess the Church to be apostolic, who believe the Scriptures, we send forth missionaries armed with the Holy Spirit: with baptism and preaching, with the Spirit-inspired Word of God, and by these holy means, disciples are made, lives are transformed, and the kingdom of God expanded.  We give out eternal life in the same way as the apostles: preaching and sacraments.

For these apostles chose their successors by laying on hands and ordaining them.  And as Scripture teaches us, the Holy Spirit is conferred by this laying on of hands.  We believe, teach, confess, and practice this Evangelical, Catholic, Orthodox, and Pentecostal rite of ordination – which along with the apostolic doctrine that we hold – makes us indeed “apostolic” as we confess in the creeds.

And we do preach in tongues today, dear friends.  You will find Lutheran Christians all over the globe, speaking dozens of languages, because of our missionary endeavors – just like the apostles in the Second Chapter of Acts.  We have translated the Word of God into nearly every language known to man.  We are establishing seminaries on every continent, and ordaining men to the office of the holy ministry the world over.  We hear confessions, absolve, preach, administer Baptism, and conduct the Eucharist in many tongues.  And it is through the Word – not through our own enthusiasm – that the Gospel takes root and bears fruit.

This plethora of tongues used in the Church rolls back the curse of Babel, where God used languages to separate people.  For God used the apostles on Pentecost to knit together the Church from disparate tribes and tongues, finding unity in our Lord Jesus Christ and the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins.  This gift is yours by grace regardless of your tribe or tongue.

And, dear friends, with the coming of the Holy Spirit, we are in the last days.  St. Peter preached about the “day of the Lord” that is coming, a time of “wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.”  And we also believe, teach, and confess what St. Peter proclaimed under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  This is our Pentecostal confession, that the cross atones for all of the sins of the world, and those who ask for forgiveness receive it without cost.  This is the Gospel, the Good News that the apostles preached to Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and which we continue to preach today to Europeans, Africans, Asians, Americans, Australians, and Oceanians. 

The Holy Spirit is indeed the Helper that Jesus promised the Father would send us in Jesus’ name, whom He did send us on Pentecost, by whom He gave the apostles authority to forgive sins, and whom was given to each one of us at our Holy Baptism.

The Spirit enables and empowers us to hear and understand the Word of God and its preaching.  If we pray for the Spirit’s enlightenment, He will not refuse us, dear friends.  He will come to you not in an emotional torrent of baby-talk, but rather in His mighty Word – the Good News that your sins are forgiven and that Jesus died for our redemption and rose for our justification.  The Spirit teaches us that we are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb and will rise again from death – all by grace, through faith, as taught by the apostles and inscribed in the Word of God, and confessed by the one holy catholic and apostolic church.

And so let us continue to confess the true and genuine Evangelical, Catholic, Orthodox, and Pentecostal faith, now and even unto eternity. Amen.

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

Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – May 25

May 25, 2021

Text: Luke 22:24-46

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

As Jesus draws near to His cross, we see just how unprepared the disciples were.  In spite of their three years of study with our Lord, witnessing His miracles, hearing His preaching, and even being hand-selected to take over the Church – they are acting like impertinent children who have never heard anything that He has said.

At this late stage, they get into a fight about which one of them is the greatest.  Our Lord has to remind them of what they just witnessed: their Lord serving them at the table of the Last Supper, wiping their feet like a common slave.  Then St. Peter, when the Lord prays for him, essentially tells Jesus that he doesn’t need his prayers.  Full of braggadocio, he asserts his willingness to go down in a blaze of glory with Jesus, even as our Lord prophesies about Peter’s cowardice to come when the rooster crows.

And then, Jesus tells them to be prepared to draw the sword.  For perhaps they are still deluded into thinking that Jesus is going to use His miraculous power to kill Romans and establish an independent Jewish state.  And so they bring two swords.  Jesus says, “It is enough.”  For indeed, the sword of Peter will be used at Jesus’ arrest to demonstrate that those who live by the sword will die by the sword.

But in spite of their ignorance, they will be filled with knowledge when the Lord is crucified, dies, rises again, and continues to instruct them.  In spite of their folly, they will be made wise when the Holy Spirit comes and empowers them to preach the Gospel.  In spite of their silly notions of what they are called to be, these men will have the vocation to become the first bishops of the Church.  They will transform the world, and even in time, overthrow the emperor with only the sword of the Word of God.  These men will die heroically in the service of their Lord, and they will rise again on the last day.

We confess that the Church is “apostolic.”  It bears the mark of these holy apostles whom Jesus called, taught, ordained, and sent to preach and to administer the holy sacraments.  And their successors are often just as brash, silly, foolish, and cowardly – but also transformed by the same Word that they preach and sacraments that they administer.  Lay Christians are likewise not the best examples of discipleship.  And this is why we need a Savior, why we need preachers, and why we need the Word of God to continue to do Jesus’ miraculous work the world over.  We need our Lord’s continuing instruction and presence with us.

And it is our Lord’s prayer for all of us that we remain faithful, that we not “enter into temptation.”  And when He finds us in a state of slumber, He continues to intercede for us, and urges us as His disciples to “rise and pray.” 

Amen.

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

Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday of Easter 7 - 2021


May 18, 2021

Text: Luke 19:11-28

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Jesus is headed to Jerusalem to be enthroned as king.  But Jesus is a different kind of king – the King of the Universe, not a mere petty politician.  And thus His kingdom involves giving us the gift of redemption by His blood, not placing us under His dominion in a worldly nation.  And so, when people misunderstand the nature of this kingdom, supposing “that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately,” He tells a parable to set the record straight.

In the story, a nobleman goes off to a “far country” and then will return.  And when he returns “having received the kingdom,” the king checks on how his servants have conducted themselves as stewards of the king’s property.  Three servants were each entrusted with a mina – a large sum of money.  The first invested his mina and earned ten more.  He is commended by the king.  The second invested his mina and earned five more.  He is also commended by the king.  The third was afraid, as the king was a “severe man,” and held onto the mina.  The king was angry, for the servant could have at least earned interest on the mina.  The king removed the mina from him and entrusted it to one who was a good steward.

Thus the coming of the kingdom is not an immediate political revolution, but rather a long-term re-creation of the universe by the mercy of Christ in His blood.  He has gone to the Father.  Meanwhile, until He returns, we are to work in the kingdom.  We are to invest the skills and talents and material wealth with which we have been entrusted, and we are to serve the kingdom and our King.

Jesus also speaks of certain rebels against His rule.  And at the end of the parable, the king says, “As for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.”  There will be severe punishment for those who reject the rule of Jesus in His kingdom.

This parable is a warning, dear friends, for us to not only submit to His reign over us, but to be good stewards.  While He is away, we are to work for the kingdom, manage what He has given us, and serve faithfully.  For our King is returning – the same King who was enthroned on the cross and crowned with thorns.  Jesus is coming again in glory, ruling with mercy for those who repent, but slaughtering those who oppose Him.

Let us lovingly manage the minas that He so graciously entrusts to us, and let us rejoice in His rule, for He is not a “severe man,” but rather a merciful King who is God.

Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

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

Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday of Easter 6 - 2021

May 11, 2021

Text: Luke 16:1-18

 In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

 Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

The Parable of the Dishonest Manager – like all of our Lord’s parables – is offensive.  “The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed Him. And He said to them, ‘You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.  For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.’”

The “hero” of the story is a crook.  He is the manager who is costing the owner money – whether through laziness or embezzlement, our Lord doesn’t say.  But the point is that, when he learns that he’s being fired, he acts with single-minded audacity to ‘make friends in high places’ – even by cheating the boss even more.  The boss can’t help but be amazed at his crooked employee’s behavior.  And Jesus criticizes his hearers – both his followers and the Pharisees – for lacking this audacity in matters of the kingdom of God.

The dishonest manager knows what he wants, and he boldly pursues it.  “For the sons of this world,” says Jesus, “are more shrewd in dealing with their own than the sons of light.”  Why?  Because our loyalties are divided.  The lover of money works with single-minded purpose to pursue wealth.  But we Christians often have  a divided sense of loyalty.  We too love money, and this detracts from our mission to store up treasure in heaven, and to pursue the kingdom of God first.  And in this divided loyalty, we can learn a thing or two from the crooked employee of our Lord’s tale. 

Of course, the Pharisees are offended – as are not a few Christians – because “lovers of money” will feel the sting of the Law in our Lord’s parable.  He is calling us to repent, to put our priorities right, and to impress money into service for the kingdom of God, rather than allow money to detract us from the kingdom, to create a competing god, to confuse our priorities.

 For we must keep the cross central to our lives.  In the cross, Jesus has won for us innumerable treasures.  This spiritual wealth cannot be measured monetarily.  This, dear friends, is the Gospel, the Good News that we have for a spiritually impoverished world.  We have a more excellent way to share with all people.  And so we need to put our money and resources of this world into the service of the Gospel.  And when we do this, the Lord reaps a harvest of people whose lives are changed by winning for them forgiveness, life, and salvation.  These are indeed the greatest of treasures – treasures that money cannot buy.

Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

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

Sunday, May 09, 2021

Meditation: Easter 6 - 2021

Note: This meditation was read by Deacon Richard Iverson in my absence

9 May 2021

Text: John 16:23-33 (Num 21:4-9, Jas 1:22-27)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

The devil twists that which is good and perverts it unto evil.  But God takes the evil plans of the devil, thwarts them, and uses Satan against himself – for even as our Lord said, a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.

Satan took the form of a serpent and deceived Eve into sin, bringing death into our world.  And in the time of the Exodus, the people sinfully complained against God, and God sent “fiery serpents” to harass them, little reminders of Satan, and like that of the devil, the attacks of these serpents led to death.

But when the people repented and asked for Moses to pray for them, the Lord had mercy upon them.  And using the image of the serpent, God destroyed the poison of the serpent.  “Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.”

This incident pointed forward to our Lord’s crucifixion, as Jesus was held up on a pole for all to see, and those who look to the cross are saved from sin and eternal death.  We look to Him and we live.  God took the cross, the symbol of death – and Jesus, by dying, destroyed death – and remade the cross into a symbol of life.

In our Gospel, Jesus began to speak plainly to the disciples, and they began to understand what He was telling them.  They began to finally look to Jesus like the serpent on the pole, knowing that in Him, life is to be found – life that overcomes death.  They began to see that Jesus conquers the devil – and they will soon see how He does it: by dying and rising again.

They still have much to experience, even as Jesus said, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Dear friends, since Jesus has overcome the world, since we look to Him like the Israelites looked to the bronze serpent, and lived, let us live as those redeemed by Christ: men and women who have been ransomed by God’s undoing of the damage of Satan, by forgiving sin, and by drawing life out of death itself.

And as James teaches us, let this reality revealed to us in the Word of God lead us from the hearing the Word (by which faith comes), to being doers of the Word (as faith leads us to good works).  May the Lord’s death upon the cross for our redemption lead us to rejoice in His grace, and to use our new life for the kingdom.  And may He use us to draw all men to the “bronze serpent” of our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who brings us out of the wilderness of sin and death, and brings us into the Promised Land of forgiveness, life, and salvation!

Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

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

Tuesday, May 04, 2021

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday of Easter 5 - 2021

May 4, 2021

Text: Luke 12:13-34

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

People often think that having more money would solve their problems.  But as often as not, it just adds to their level of anxiety.  And nothing creates more stress in a family than arguing over the inheritance when someone dies.  And this is what sets Jesus off on a parable – a fight between two brothers over inheritance.

Our Lord says: “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 

His parable is about a farmer who is rich.  And he had a great year, a bumper crop, for his land “produced plentifully.”  But instead of rejoicing, instead of thanking God, instead of thinking of ways to put his wealth to use in the kingdom – he was filled with anxiety.  He planned to tear down his barns and build bigger barns.  But in this story, his plans – and his worry – were for naught.  For he died, and his wealth meant nothing – except to create strife for his heirs.

Dear friends, Jesus isn’t saying that wealth is a bad thing, but there is a more excellent way than focusing on worldly wealth.  “Fear not, little flock,” our Lord says to us.  “For it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”  The kingdom is a gift, dear friends, a gift purchased by the blood of Christ.  And our Lord points us to the nature that God cares for by His providence, even things like ravens and lilies – lacking barns and equipment to make clothing – and yet our heavenly Father cares even for such things that are not created in His image.  So how much more does your heavenly Father care about you, for your Father knows that you need various things for this body and life.

So instead of focusing on your possessions, and worrying, focus on the Lord’s goodness, and rejoice!

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”  The real inheritance that makes us rich, dear friends, is our inheritance of the kingdom by virtue of the death of Jesus.  And there is nothing for us heirs to fight over.  This is our “treasure in the heavens that does not fail.”  Thanks be to God!

Amen.

 Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

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

Sunday, May 02, 2021

Sermon: Easter 5 - 2021

2 May 2021

Text: John 16:5-15 (Isa 12:1-6, Jas 1:16-21)

 In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

“Do not be deceived,” says James in our epistle.  “Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.”  For the Christian must have an internal lie-detector.  We need to be able to know what is true and what is false, for as our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us, Satan is the father of lies, even as our Lord says, “My Word is truth.”

When Jesus was on trial before Pontius Pilate, the governor asked our Lord, “What is truth?”  Interestingly, we have no record of our Lord’s answer, implying that He did not verbally reply to the question.  Philosophers and thinkers across time have debated this question, “What is truth?” – as well as how we can know it.

In our own day and age, people deny that there is truth at all, rather, there is your truth, my truth, men’s truth, women’s truth, black truth, white truth, and even mathematics where the truth can be what you want it to be – even making two plus two equal to five, if saying so serves some purpose or protects someone’s feelings.

Jesus tells the disciples how they will acquire a lie-detector, how they will know the truth and recognize it.  Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.”  Jesus is the Truth in the flesh.  He is the Word that is true.  But how do we develop this knowledge of the truth, dear friends?  How do we know when we are being deceived?

In our Gospel, our Lord has been explaining that he is “going to Him who sent [Him].”  And because He was revealing the truth of His soon-to-be departure from them – His passion and death followed by His resurrection and ascension – Jesus said, “Sorrow has filled your heart.  Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.”

Again, Jesus tells us the truth, my beloved brothers and sisters, “I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you.  But if I go, I will send Him to you.”

The disciples certainly did not want to see Jesus depart from their presence.  They did not seem to understand the divine plan, even though our Lord told them plainly many times.  They were in for the greatest sorrow of their lives, a great test of their faith, but also the greatest joy in seeing Him again in His resurrected glory.  But Jesus is not going to stay with them in the same way.  For forty days after Easter, He was to leave them bodily, even as fifty days after Easter, the Holy Spirit, the Helper, was to come and “guide [them and us] into all the truth.”  And here, our Lord refers to the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity as “the Spirit of Truth.”

This, dear friends, is how we have a lie-detector, how we discern what is true.  The Holy Spirit guides us to the Church, where we experience Christ in His Word and Sacraments, and where we are empowered to know the truth.  Jesus also said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, “do not be deceived.”  The world is filled with shiny things to distract you, flashing lights that tell a story grounded in untruth.  The devil, the father of lies tries to manipulate you into believing the lie because he lures you from God by means of grand promises that are nothing but deception.  He told Eve, “You can be like God.”  He told Eve, “You will not surely die.”  And from that moment when Adam and Eve were deceived and when they believed the lie of Satan over and against the truth of God, we have all suffered.

Our lives are not what God originally planned for us.  We took a trajectory, a path, that is not the perfect existence that He had planned for us.  Each one of us suffers because of their sin, our sin, and the sin of the entire world.  We must walk through life as if through a minefield, for Satan lurks about in our path to deceive us.  We need not only a lie-detector but a bomb-detector.  And that is why you need to come to the Divine Service, dear friends.  You need to be here, to listen, and to partake of the Sacrament. 

For just as Satan deceived by means of the lie, Jesus frees you by means of the Word of God, truly spoken – and you are filled with the Spirit of Truth.  And just as Satan deceived by means of the forbidden fruit, Jesus frees you by means of the fruits of the earth: the wheat and the grape, consecrated by His Word to truly be His body and blood – and you are filled with the Spirit of Truth, and the fruits of the Spirit.

Our Lord offers you not only a lie-detector and the gift of the Spirit of Truth, He also frees you from your sins by means of His cross, His shed blood, His grace and mercy and forgiveness, His reconciling you to the Father.  Jesus finished this promise of the coming of the Spirit of Truth by making another promise: “He [the Spirit of Truth] will declare to you the things that are to come…. He will take what is mine and declare it to you.  All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that He will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

And so Jesus tells us truly that we will receive what is His by means of the Holy Spirit.  What Jesus has, He has received from the Father.  And so by means of the Holy Spirit, my beloved brothers and sisters, you will receive the gift of Jesus’ righteousness, even as He has received the burden of your sins.

There is a transfer of ownership: your breaking of the law for His keeping of it, your punishment for His reward, your participation in the lie for His victory of the truth.

Governor Pilate asked, “What is truth?” to the very Truth Himself in the flesh.  Jesus actually did answer Pilate’s question not with a statement, but with an action: the cross.

The cross is the truth, dear friends.  It is the answer to the father of lies, for the cross was the instrument that smashed the serpent’s head.  The cross is where you receive forgiveness, life, and salvation.  The cross is the truth: the truth of the proclamation that Jesus is the King, the truth that He is the “suffering servant” of Old Testament prophecy, the truth that the crucified thief would enter Paradise, the truth that He prayed to the Father to “forgive them,” and the truth that “It is finished,” His work being completed when He gave up His life for His beloved brothers and sisters, and yes even for the offer of life of the entire world.

James says, “Of His own will He brought us forth by the Word of truth.”  For at the cross, Jesus brought to fullness the truth that we heard from Isaiah, speaking the truth seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus: “Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and will not be afraid.” 

And because Isaiah’s prophecy is true, because Jesus is the fulfillment of that truth, because our Lord truly went to the cross and freed us from the devil’s lies, because the Spirit of Truth has been sent to us by means of the Word and the Sacraments, dear friends, we can joyfully see beyond the lies of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, and rejoice in the truth of what He has done for us, continues to do for us, and will do for us even unto eternity:

“Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth.  Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

Amen.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

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