Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday of Lent 4

29 March 2022

Text: Mark 12:13-27

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

“You are quite wrong.”  Jesus does not fit in with our postmodern age, where all opinions are equal, where truth is subjective and flexible, and where we don’t tell people they are wrong, because that is apparently an example of systemic racism and white privilege, or heteronormativity or some other such woke nonsense.  And we all know that Jesus was nice, at least when He was alive, and we should never be sarcastic, because Jesus was never sarcastic.

Of course, I’m being completely sarcastic.  There are times when sarcasm is called for, when the devil is to be mocked, and when people who try to confuse and bamboozle us are to be laughed out of court, so to speak.  Our Lord dealt with this kind of dishonest intellectual discourse without regard to trying to live up to other people’s expectations of niceness.  There is nothing wrong with being nice, but when we are being manipulated into either confessing a lie or being silenced from telling the truth, we are called to push back, hard and without being “swayed by appearances.”  And no amount of crocodile tears and gaslighting can silence Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life.  And, dear friends, we are called to confess the truth.  Jesus is the truth.

The Pharisees and Sadducees both tried to play semantic games with Jesus to try to either get Him in trouble, or to trap Him into confessing a lie. 

The Pharisees try to butter up our Lord with flattery and insincere praise: “Teacher, we know that You are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion.  For You are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God.”  You can practically hear the venom dripping from their serpentine, split tongues as they hiss this out at Him – and it is all true, of course.  They play a game of gotcha with Jesus, but He traps them in their own trap, “knowing their hypocrisy.”

And the Sadducees likewise play their own game to try to get Jesus, the first-fruits of the resurrection, the one who raises the dead with the ease of rousing someone from slumber – to join them in their denial of the resurrection.  Our Lord has no compunction about telling them they are ignorant and wrong.  Had our Lord spared their feelings, others might have been led astray.

Dear friends, let us know both the Scriptures and the power of God.  Let us confess Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life; Christ, who is the resurrection and the Word made flesh; Christ, who is Lord over both Caesar and the Church; Christ, who is living and who is the “God of the living.”  Even in Lent, we confess that “Christ is risen, He is risen indeed.”  Let us not be intimidated by those who seek to impose doubt by stealth and by appeals to weasel-words and loose logic, no matter how much they swagger and bluster.  They are quite wrong.  Let us double-down like our Lord and confess Christ: our Teacher who indeed is “true” and “does not care about anyone’s opinion.”

Amen.

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

Sermon: Laetare (Lent 4) – 2022

27 March 2022

Text: John 6:1-15 (Ex 16:2-21)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

In a typical mystery novel, the beginning of the book involves a crime, the middle is a series of clues, and the last page reveals who did it.  The Bible is not a mystery book, but it is a book of mysteries, some that have been revealed, and some that have not.

The crime indeed happens near the beginning of the narrative.  But we know right away who the criminals are: Adam, Eve, and all of us who join them in their sin.  We are all guilty.  As a result of this rebellion, the superabundance of the Garden of Eden was transformed into a world of scarcity, and of even more crime, as human beings fight over scarce resources.  But instead of the introduction of a detective who tries to bring the guilty to justice, our Creator comes to the scene of the crime to work out forgiveness for the man and the woman, who were created in God’s image, and to destroy the one who deceived them.

God made a promise to the serpent that a future Savior would be born, a “Seed of the woman.”  And though the devil would bruise His heel, He would bruise the devil’s head, mortally wounding him.  The mystery in the Bible, for a couple thousand years, was “Who would this Seed of the woman be, and what will He do?”

We had clues throughout the Old Testament, like the Angel of the Lord who visited Abraham, and the mysterious stranger who wrestled with Jacob and changed Jacob’s name to Israel (“the one who wrestled God”).  There was Melchizedek, the mysterious king and priest to whom Abraham tithed and gave gifts of bread and wine.  There was this mysterious sacrifice of Abraham’s son Isaac, that ended up not happening, replaced by a sacrifice of a substitute, a ram whose head was tangled in thorns.  There is the suffering servant prophecy of Isaiah, and many previews in the Psalms about this coming Christ.

The mystery is not revealed on the last page of the book, dear friends, but in the beginning of the New Testament, in the Gospels: our Lord Jesus Christ.  He connects the Old and New Testaments by fulfilling the Old and by drawing us into the New Testament in His blood. 

Moses taught us about Jesus when he recorded God’s provision of the Israelites by feeding them manna in the wilderness. This was miraculous bread from heaven that gave the people life even in the desert, the place of scarcity.  And, of course, the people grumbled about it.  But God preserved them anyway.

In our Gospel reading from John Chapter Six, we notice that “the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand.”  The Passover featured a meal of bread and wine, and a slaughtered lamb, whose blood brought salvation to the people of Israel.  Jesus is the “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”  And He is about to give us a continuation of the Passover, with bread and wine – and a feasting upon the slaughtered Lamb unto our salvation.

The mystery of the Passover is revealed in Jesus, and He is about to show us what He is up to in this miracle, a preview of the Last Supper.  He has the crowds sit, and “when He had given thanks,” He has his servants, that is, His ministers, distribute this new manna, this miraculous bread from heaven. And not only had everyone “eaten their fill,” but twelve baskets were left over.  The scarcity of our fallen world was rolled back to the abundance of Eden before the Fall.  Jesus is demonstrating that His coming is intended to undo the effects of sin and death, and to restore Paradise.  Of course, the people do not understand, and they only seek to make Him their political leader.  Jesus wants no part of that. 

Later, these same people demand yet another sign from Jesus, saying, “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”  Jesus responds that it was not Moses who gave them bread, but rather: “My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.  For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”  For, dear friends, Jesus is this bread.  He fulfills the mystery of the manna.  “I am the bread of life,” He says.  By saying “I am,” Jesus is claiming to be God.  For that is God’s name that He revealed to Moses. 

In an interesting repeat of history, “The Jews grumbled about Him because He said, ‘I am the bread that comes from heaven.’”  But here, once again, Jesus doubles down.  He reminds them that their ancestors ate manna, but died.  But we who eat the bread of His flesh “will live forever.”  This results in more grumbling, and Jesus again doubles down.  He says something terribly shocking and offensive: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in Him.” 

This caused some of His disciples to be offended and leave.  Jesus asks the twelve if they too are going to abandon him.  And although they do not yet understand this mystery of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the bread of life, of the Lamb of God, Peter speaks for them in response: “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”

Dear friends, we don’t know how all of this works.  We don’t know how the manna got there or what it was made of.  We don’t know how Jesus multiplied the bread and the fish.  We don’t understand how we eat bread and drink wine and also eat His flesh and drink His blood – but we trust His Word: for He has the words of eternal life! 

Part of the mystery was revealed “on the night when He was betrayed.”  He “took bread.”  And just as He did when He multiplied the loaves, “when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it” to His disciples.  And interrupting the Old Testament Passover ritual, just before His passion and death, our Lord establishes the New Covenant: “Take, eat, this is My body,” He says.  “This cup is the New Testament in My blood.”  And on that day, the mystery was revealed to the twelve, that is, what He meant by eating His flesh and drinking His blood, “for the forgiveness of sins.”

Our Lord returns us to Paradise, dear friends.  Just as He rolled back scarcity and gave us abundance when He fed the five thousand, He now multiplies His true body and blood, the bread of life come down from heaven, the blood that covers the sins of the people and protects us from the angel of death.  And just as Adam and Eve sinned by eating from the forbidden tree, their sin is undone by the tree of the cross, and we eat this manna, that is, His flesh, and we drink this cup: the blood of the New Testament, “shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.”  Instead of the fruit that leads to death, we now partake of the fruit that leads to life.  Instead of the cross as a tree of death, it is now the tree of life – and we are invited to partake and live forever!

There are many mysteries in the Scriptures, dear friends, and God does not answer every question.  But the mystery of God’s response to our sin is revealed to us.  He sends His Son to die for us, to destroy death, to rise again, to feed us with His body and blood, and proclaim the Good News of forgiveness, life, and salvation to us in His Word. 

The end of the book does not reveal the criminal, but rather reveals the never-ending end of our narrative: living in a paradise restored in perfect harmony with God, with one another, and with all creation – just as was always meant to be.  The serpent’s head is crushed, and he is destroyed.  We no longer have to eke out a living of bread by the sweat of the brow, but rather we enjoy the feast of the banquet that never ends: the richest food, the sweetest wine, and eternal table fellowship with Him who has forgiven our sins, restored abundance, and called us out of darkness into paradise. 

The last page of this revealed mystery does indeed tell us who does it, dear friends.  Jesus does it.  “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely, I am coming soon.’  Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus!  The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all.”

Amen.

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

Sermon: Funeral of Merlin Schexnayder – 2022

24 March 2022

Text: John 11:20-27 (Isa 49:13-16a, 1 Cor 15:51-57)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Dear Kelli, Kris, Rachel, dear Helen, family, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and honored guests: “Peace be with you.” 

 It was a privilege to visit Merlin a good bit during his last few weeks on this side of glory.  He was at home and surrounded by his loved ones and friends.  He was, of course, tired, but smiled and retained his sense of humor to the end.  It was a blessing to be with him in the presence of Kelli, Kris, Rachel, and Helen as we together confessed our sins and heard the words of absolution, as we heard the testimony and promises of God’s Word, and as Merlin was able to receive the body and blood of Christ in faith.

It is a lot of work to take care of family members at home, but it is truly a labor of love, just as Merlin loved and served you on this side of the grave. 

We Christians mourn the losses of our loved ones, and we mourn the loss of Merlin.  And so how strange it must sound to unbelievers to hear a reading that begins: “Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing.”  But the cause of this joy, dear friends, is because “the Lord has comforted His people and will have compassion on His afflicted.”  The heavens and earth sing out in joy because of the Lord’s promise of compassion, even in such times of sadness and mourning.  For God says, “Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands.”  Isaiah wrote these words in 700 BC, long before God’s hands were impaled by nails at the cross, showing compassion to Merlin by rescuing him, promising him a resurrection like the resurrection of Jesus.  For Jesus died for Merlin, and Jesus promises you, dear brothers and sisters, fellow believers in this promise, that you will see Merlin again!

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” says St. Paul.  It will happen very quickly.  “The last trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable.”  And when our Lord returns, “this mortal body must put on immortality.”  This mortal body, dear friends.  St. Paul is talking about Merlin.  For Merlin received the promise that Jesus Himself gave: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.”  St. Paul continues, and we join him, with boldness in mocking death: “Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?”  We feel death’s sting, but it is temporary.  We feel this sting because St. Paul identifies it as sin, whose power is the law.  But St. Paul continues: “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

And just like the prophet Isaiah, the apostle Paul points us to the cross, to the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shares that victory with His beloved and redeemed people.

We also heard John’s Gospel teaching us about a famous funeral.  Martha is mourning the death of her brother Lazarus.  She laments that Jesus was not there to prevent him from dying.  But in spite of this sad reality, Martha has faith that Jesus will fix things even now.  “Your brother will rise again,” says Jesus.  And Martha confesses, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 

Our Lord speaks to her words that Christian people cherish – especially when we face death; “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die.”  This is our Lord’s promise given not just to Martha, but to all of us: including Merlin, for whom our Lord died.  And when Jesus asks Martha if she believes this, she speaks for all Christians: “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

Jesus ruined that funeral a few moments in the future when he called Lazarus out of the tomb.  Like all things in creation, his body obeyed the voice of his Creator.  Lazarus was raised from the dead.  And Jesus performed this miracle not only out of compassion for Martha and her sister Mary, and for all the family and friends of Lazarus who gathered together to bury him and to mourn, but Jesus did this for all of you, gathered together here, even as we place Merlin into the tomb.

We await the “last trumpet” when Merlin will be called by name and restored to life.  And at some point in the future Jesus is going to ruin this funeral as well.  And the heavens and earth will sing, and we will mock death, for Jesus is the resurrection and the life.  Having faith in Him and His Word is how we receive the promise and receive it to ourselves – just as Merlin did.

Just as you brought him home and cared for him as the Lord enabled you, so too we will bring Merlin home to the tomb, where his body will dwell temporarily, awaiting being called to a permanent home, living in a new heaven and a new earth, one without aging and disease and suffering and death.  A promised world without separation, ever again.  And we look to this glorious resurrection, dear friends, holding fast to the promise and knowing that it will be a reality. 

What a great joy to know that we will be reunited in our bodies, where we will eat and drink and laugh and embrace, and will do so eternally.  This is not a mere figure of speech or empty words.  This is rather a promise made, and a promise fulfilled, by Jesus: at the cross and at the empty tomb.

In a few weeks, we will celebrate Easter: the celebration of our Lord’s resurrection.  On this Easter, let us especially remember and celebrate Merlin, knowing that the resurrection of Jesus points us to Merlin’s resurrection, and to our own resurrections, when we will pick up where we left off, and where we will join the heavens and the earth in singing for joy!  Where we will mock death, and where we will forever sing the praises of Him who promised: “I am the resurrection and the life.”

Amen.

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

Sermon: Wednesday of Oculi (Lent 3) – 2022

23 March 2022

Text: Luke 11:14-28 (Ex 8:16-24, Eph 5:1-9)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Our Lord encounters a “demon that was mute.”  It might be better to express this in English by saying that He encountered a man who was made mute by a demon.  And this was one of those really extraordinary manifestations of the devil in which a person is taken over in the body, or possessed, by a demon.  Though this certainly does happen even today, it is rare.  The devil is typically more sneaky, and acts in ways that are harder to detect his works and his ways.

For example, a demon may tempt us to be voluntarily mute when we should speak, or to voluntarily speak when we should be silent.  In this case, Satan doesn’t take away our ability to speak, nor does he force us, by possessing our bodies, to act apart from our will.  Rather, simply by the devil deceiving us, we sometimes remain silent when we should speak, and we sometimes speak when we should remain silent.

And this tactic of the devil is quite common today, dear friends.  For we are called to confess Christ.  Jesus says, “Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”  Jesus also says: “What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.”  But confessing Christ today carries risks.

If you believe and confess the words of Jesus, say, regarding human sexuality and marriage, you might find yourself being ridiculed, losing friends, being punished at work, passed over for promotions, or even interrogated by the police and threatened with fines or jail time.  And so, we are sometimes silent when God calls us to speak.  The demonic world, by imposing fear and intimidation upon us, gags the church and her proclamation of Christ Jesus. 

And make no mistake, dear friends.  Any time you feel the need to be silent about what you believe, Satan is putting the heat on you.  As the old saying goes, “The flak gets heavy when you’re over the target.”  The military metaphor is apt, for we are at war against the devil.  To put it in the words of one of America’s greatest cavalry generals, “Ride to the sound of the guns.”  Of course, this is all very easy to say when our jobs are not being threatened, and when there is no danger of being arrested and put in a cell.  But, dear friends, the time to think about these things is now.  We need to consider what is important, and we must confess Christ.  As Dr. Luther said at his trial: “Here I stand.  I can do no other.  God help me.”

Satan will also tempt us to say things when we should not speak.  Remember, the devil is the “father of lies.”  We see this happening when people saw Jesus cast out this demon that rendered its victim mute.  For when “the mute man spoke,” the “people marveled.”  But some also were motivated to speak untruths about Jesus, false confessions about who He is and what He is doing in our fallen world: “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons.”  Others felt motivated to speak, not confessing Jesus as the Christ, but rather to express doubt by “seeking from Him a sign from heaven.”

Jesus points out their lies by a simple appeal to logic, a statement of wisdom found in the Word of God itself: “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls.”  So, concludes our Lord, “If Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?”  He also points out: “If I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out?”  These are rhetorical questions that have no answers other than to repent and confess Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God. 

Jesus points out that He is the enemy of Beelzebul, and that He casts out demons “by the finger of God.”  For Jesus is the Word who was in the beginning with God, and who was God.  All things were made by Him.  When Jesus speaks, reality happens.  When Jesus remains silent, nothing happens.  When Jesus points with the finger of God, God’s will is done.  In the Old Testament lesson, it was God’s wrath that was done upon Pharaoh and his house, but in this instance, it was His mercy being performed upon a man who was held captive by the devil.

The finger of God creates and upholds the universe.  The finger of God casts out demons and gives the mute the ability and reason to speak.  The finger of God silences our Lord’s critics by pointing to both reason and the Word of God.  The finger of God points to us, convicting us of sin, but also pointing out to Beelzebul just who our Lord’s chosen baptized and redeemed people are.  The finger of God is attached to the hand that was nailed to the cross, bringing forth the sacrifice that saves us from sin, from death, and from the power of the devil.  The finger of God points to the bread and the wine on our altar, as the Lord Himself says; “This is My body” and “This cup is the New Testament in My blood.”  The finger of God points to you, dear brother, dear sister, and Jesus prays: “Dear Father, this Christian for whom I died acknowledges Me before men, for this person has spoken concerning the devil at his baptism when asked, ‘Do you renounce the devil’ and ‘all his works’ and ‘all his ways?’  And indeed, Father, this redeemed saint to whom I point with the finger of God, verbally renounced the devil three times, the devil himself, his works, and his ways.”

Dear brothers and sisters, we are confessors of Jesus.  We speak, and He points to us as those given forgiveness, life, and salvation.  Jesus points to us and confesses to our heavenly Father that we did not accuse Jesus of evil, nor did we acknowledge the devil’s lies.  But rather by faith, we renounce Satan and we acknowledge Jesus.  It is by the finger of God that Jesus casts away the demons that would possess us, tempt us, and lure us away from Him who died for us.

Because of our Lord pointing the finger of God to us, claiming us as His own beloved and redeemed sinners-become-saints by His grace and mercy, we are called, and freed, to renounce the devil and his darkness, and to “walk as children of light” and to do so “in love.”  For “Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”   The “kingdom of God has come upon us,” thanks be to God!

Amen.

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

Sermon: Funeral of Marion Boutian – 2022

16 March 2022

Text: Matt 11:28-30 (Isa 25:6-9, 1 Cor 15:51-57)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Dear Ronnie, Shirley, Louis, family, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and honored guests: “Peace be with you.” 

Bubby was not a member of my parish, but he heard the Word of the Lord week in and week out on Wednesday nights as he attended the Divine Service with his beloved wife, Shirley – who was, of course, a member of my congregation, for whom I served as pastor for many years.

I know that Bubby believed in our Lord Jesus Christ, for he asked to become a member of our parish.  I gave him the catechism and we planned on getting together to review it when he had his stroke.  Of course, this got in the way of any formal study of the Christian faith.

But once again, Bubby knew the Gospel because he heard it for many years as he attended Divine Service.  And you don’t ask to join a church if you hear something from the pulpit that you don’t agree with.  So Bubby had truly placed himself under my pastoral care.  I was with him, and with you when, our beloved Shirley was called to her heavenly home.

One of the passages in the catechism that Bubby heard over the years is Mark 16:16, in which Jesus says: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”  I know that Bubby was baptized, and I know that he believed in our Lord Jesus Christ and His promises.  Jesus died for Bubby and for all who confess Him. 

We confess that our Lord Jesus Christ died to destroy death, as Isaiah prophesied about Him: “He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of His people He will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.”  And death will be replaced by “a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine well refined.”  For even as Jesus was raised bodily from the dead, we all await the resurrection of the dead.  And in our flesh, we will eat and drink and embrace and laugh and will enjoy a great reunion with one another – not merely spirits in heaven, but as we say in the creed: “I believe in… the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”  We are destined to be reunited with our bodies, made perfect, made eternal, and made to enjoy the never-ending “feast of rich food” and “well-aged wine.”

This is how we Christians join St. Paul in confessing that moment that he calls “the last trumpet” when “the dead will be raised imperishable.”  And then we will see the fulfillment of his words: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”  This victory, dear friends, is Christ’s victory on the cross – a victory that He shares with Bubby, with Shirley, with you, with me, and with all people for whom He died and rose again.  And so even though we mourn, we join St. Paul in mocking death: “O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?”

Yes, we mourn.  We miss our loved ones.  This separation from them weighs on our hearts and causes us terrible grief.  But it is temporary, dear friends.  It ends when the Lord says it ends.  And even as we wait for Easter to come, we are also waiting for our Lord’s return and for the “last trumpet” – which gets closer with every passing day.

One of the things that happens to us when we age is that our bodies in this life begin to wear out.  We are burdened with aches and pains that are typical in this fallen world.  We become tired.  Because of the fall of Adam and Eve – and because of our own sinful nature – we do not live forever in these mortal bodies, what St. Paul calls our “perishable” bodies.  And so until we put on the “imperishable,” we grow weary.  And as we age, we lose our own loved ones to death.  And so we begin to yearn to be taken from this vale of tears to our Lord and to our loved ones who have already been called home.  And to all of us who move in this direction as we age, and as we mourn our own losses, Jesus has words of comfort and reassurance: “Come to Me,” He says, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”

Dear friends, Jesus has done the heavy lifting.  He paid for our sins by taking on our death at the cross.  He is the sacrificial Lamb whose blood cries out for Bubby and for all of us, an advocate with the Father, our redemption price transferred to us at our baptism and ratified when we believe – as Jesus Himself teaches us.

You do not earn this salvation by works.  It is a gift given in baptism that you grab hold of by faith, by believing this promise.  And by hearing the Word of God, you indeed “Learn from [Jesus]” and you learn to trust His Word and His promises. 

So rest assured that Bubby heard and believed this Word of God.  And if you also are baptized and believe, you will see him again in eternity, on the mountain of the Lord, feasting on rich food and well-aged wine.  You will see him again in the flesh, when the perishable puts on the imperishable at the last trumpet.  For Jesus has borne the burden, leaving us a yoke that is light.

So, dear friends, you will need faith to get through the difficult days, months, and years ahead.  You need Jesus.  You need the Word of God.  You need the Gospel, that is, the Good News of Jesus Christ.  You need to be immersed in God’s Word and you need to trust your baptism: for “whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.”  This is what Jesus told Bubby and Shirley, and what He tells you and me, right here, and right now. 

Let us grab hold of this promise and be comforted by it.  For we will see Bubby and Shirley again, in the flesh, and the Lord Jesus will indeed wipe away our tears on that great and glorious day, when the trumpet sounds, and we put on the immortal. 

 “Come to [Jesus], all who labor and are heavy laden, and [He] will give you rest.”

 Amen.

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

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Tuesday of Lent 2

15 March 2022

Text: Mark 6:35-56

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

“This is a desolate place,” the disciples point out to Jesus, “and the hour is late.”  They rather abruptly tell Jesus to “send [the crowds] away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”  But our Lord replies back to them equally abruptly: “You give them something to eat.”

This little exchange sums up our fallen world, and how we are sustained in the midst of it.  “This is a desolate place, and the hour is late,” dear friends.  We are in the fallen world and in the last days.  We are waiting for the consummation of eternity, and we are wandering around in the desert, in a world of want and starvation.  But Jesus has given the church food with which to feed the starving world.  And Jesus has ordered His ministers to hand out the Bread of Life.  This saying of our Lord: “You give them something to eat,” could be read at ordinations.  This is what our Lord told St. Peter: “Feed My sheep” (John 21:15-17).

Our Lord gives us food that doesn’t merely satisfy the body, but fills us, and even fulfills us – even unto eternity: His body and blood.  And we will leave this desolate place, led by our Joshua, into the land of milk and honey, the promised land, our eternal Zion, the New Jerusalem – where there will be no more hunger and no more thirst.  For “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away (Rev 21:4).

The Lord takes the scarcity that plagues our world, that causes poverty, that causes suffering, that causes death – and He removes it by means of His creative power: multiplying the loaves and fishes not merely to the point of satisfaction, but including baskets full of superabundance.  And indeed, we “give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, and His mercy endureth forever” (Ps 107:1).  For in the Lord’s Supper, He continues to multiply His grace by consecrating bread and wine in a multiplicitous blessing that has no end.  Indeed, our Lord promises, just after commissioning the church to “make disciples” by sending out pastors to baptize  and teach: “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt 28:20).

Jesus is with us here in this desolate place and at this late hour.  Our crucified Lord continues to multiply His flesh and His blood among us with the ease with which He fed thousands from five loaves and two fish.  He feeds all of humanity, starving for eternal life, thirsting for forgiveness, on the multiplied gifts of His very body, the Bread of Life, and His very blood, shed for the life of the world (John 6:51), for the forgiveness of sins (Matt 26:28). 

And we are not only satisfied, dear friends, but there is an abundance left over, as generations yet unborn join us in this desolate place, and in this late hour.  Jesus arranges us into groups of hundreds and fifties, Christian congregations of every time and place, gathered around His Word and His sacraments, looking to the shepherds, the ministers, who indeed, ordered by Jesus, give us something to eat.  And in the preaching of the Word and in the administration of, and participation in, the sacraments, dear friends, we are indeed satisfied.  Eternally satisfied! 

Thanks be to God!

Amen.

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

Sermon: Reminiscere (Lent 2) – 2022

13 March 2022

Text: Matt 15:21-28

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Of course, Jesus is our Lord and our Redeemer.  He is God in the flesh, the Son of God and the Son of Man, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the King of the Universe, and the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior.  He is all of these things.  But typically, people addressed Him as “Rabbi,” which means “Teacher.”

Our Lord did not come into the world to teach us Algebra or History or how to program the clock on your stove when the time changes.  He came to teach us about the kingdom of God.  He came to teach us how to understand the Scriptures.  He came to teach us how we poor miserable sinners become saints.  He teaches us that we are saved by grace alone, through faith, and He teaches us all of these things in many and various ways.  And He teaches us that He does it.

Jesus teaches us through the Scriptures – all of them, from Genesis to Revelation.  He teaches us by means of His called representatives: prophets and apostles and men whom He calls into the preaching office.  He teaches us by means of miracles, in which people who suffer the effects of sin, whether disease or deformity or even death – are made new.  He teaches by means of parables and sermons. He teaches by forcing His students to think and debate and defend their positions.  For once again, let us not forget that our Lord Jesus Christ is indeed a rabbi, a teacher, a professor. 

In fact, He is the teacher of teachers.  He is the Word, which in Greek is the Logos.  And this is the same word from where we get the word “Logic.”  Jesus is the very logic of God, which is why we poor miserable sinners in this fallen often don’t understand Him.

And so how beautiful it is when this Canaanite woman turns out to be one of His top students, who teaches us how to learn from Jesus.  What we heard in our Gospel reading was one of the greatest classroom exchanges of all time.

There is a similar scene in the new movie about the great Christian writer C.S. Lewis.  Lewis remembers an incident with his beloved teacher, William Kirkpatrick.  Mr. Kirkpatrick, known affectionately as “the Great Knock,” asks the young Lewis a question about one of the classical writers, but he has the citation wrong.  Lewis then corrects his tutor, who is beaming ear to ear.  For it was all a set-up.  It was the teacher’s trick.  The teacher was testing his pupil.  And so the teacher delights in being “corrected” by his student.

This is what we are seeing with Jesus and the Canaanite woman, dear friends.  How sad that feminist theologians, who claim to be Christians, regularly accuse our Lord of being a sexist and sinning against the Canaanite woman.  Can you imagine?  Accusing Jesus of sin?  They understand neither Jesus nor the kingdom.  But what’s also sad is that these theologians are so ignorant and lacking in intellectual training that they don’t even recognize our Lord’s classical classroom technique here.  It is known as the Socratic Method.  And this is what happens when theologians worship at the altar of wokeness instead of at the altar of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Rabbi and our Master.   Unlike the Canaanite woman, these so-called theologians do not know Him.

For like the Great Knock, our Lord tests His students.  He tests our faith.  For this woman prayed to Him for help.  And His first response was to ignore her.  Have you ever prayed and thought that Jesus is ignoring your prayer?  “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David” is her plea. She cries out to Jesus as God and King.  “My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon,” she says.  “But He did not answer her a word.” 

Often, when people pray, they expect some kind of sign.  They want Jesus to do a trick for them to show them that He hears their prayer.  C.S. Lewis spoke of taking this kind of approach to prayer when he was a young boy and his mother died.  He expected God to be a kind of magician, and when He did not raise his mother from the dead, he became an angry-at-God atheist.  Which, of course, makes no sense.

The disciples want Jesus to send the annoying Canaanite woman away.  But He doesn’t.  For He is teaching her, and them.  “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  This is not true, dear friends, but it is not a lie.  It is a test to see if His student knows her material.  And she does.  For she refused to accept this brush-off.  “She came and knelt before Him, saying, Lord, help me.”  Jesus challenges her to make an argument that He is the Savior of the world, and not merely a Jewish king.  For she truly believes this.  She believes Jesus is her Lord.  She understands the kingdom.  And Jesus essentially says, “Prove it!”  He challenges her: “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” 

And here the student triumphs, which means the teacher triumphs.  She retorts: “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”  Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith!  Be it done for you as you desire.”  And “her daughter was healed immediately.”

For she passed the test with flying colors.  Her faith in Jesus is not in vain.  He answered her prayer when it looks to all the world that He ignored her and insulted her. 

And in this epic exchange with Jesus, the student becomes a teacher to the disciples, and to all of us – to the delight of her professor.  For Jesus is the teacher, the Rabbi, who teaches us about the kingdom.  And this Canaanite woman understood the kingdom better on this day than did the Israelite disciples who begged Jesus to send her away. 

It is a lie for theologians to say that Jesus hates women, when in fact, He loves all of mankind universally: the Jew, the Greek, the man, the woman, the free person, and the slave.  It makes no difference, as St. Paul teaches us, for “are all one in Christ Jesus” and we are all “Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” 

And notice that the Canaanite women mentions the “Master’s table.”  If you want a sign to know that the Lord hears your prayers, dear friends, you will get it here, at the Master’s table, the altar, where the sign of His true body and His true blood are given to you to eat and to drink, and by receiving Jesus with the faith of the Canaanite woman, you are released from your demons, and you are healed, your prayers are answered, and our Lord commends you for your faith.

Jesus is no magician.  He is the Lord God Almighty.  He has come to free us from evil, to teach us about the kingdom, and to bring us to life eternal by His blood and through His Word and Sacraments.  He comes to bring us to the Master’s table, not merely to serve crumbs, but to give Himself to us unto forgiveness, life, and salvation.

Amen.

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

Sermon: Invocabit (Lent 1) – 2022

6 March 2022

Text: Matt 4:1-11 (Gen 3:1-21, 2 Cor 6:1-10)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Jesus is fully God, and He is fully man – so He endured all of the struggles of our human existence in the flesh, including being “tempted by the devil.”  This diabolical temptation of our Lord Jesus Christ is an act of desperation by the devil, who is the serpent. 

And in the aftermath of Adam and Eve’s fall into sin, when death entered the world, God explained to the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring (literally, “her Seed”); He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”  The expression: the “Seed of the woman” is significant, because it suggests that this promised male champion will be born of a virgin mother.  And while the devil will bruise His heel, the devil will suffer a mortal blow to the head.  And we will see this confrontation, the fulfillment of this prophecy, happen at the cross.

But three years before the cross, the cosmic enemies square off face to face in a sort of skirmish.  The Holy Spirit directed Jesus to go into the desert for this combat.  And our Lord prepared Himself by fasting for forty days.  In the wilderness, Satan tempted Him as he does all of us: by dangling something that we would like before our eyes.  He offered our hungry Lord food.  But our Lord quotes Scripture, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”  Satan tempts our Lord into testing God by throwing Himself from the temple, and as a bonus, the devil quotes himself Scripture out of context.  Jesus once again retorts by quoting the Word of God: “Again, it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 

Satan tempts the Lord one more time, this time with the offer of worldly wealth and power.  Our Lord replies, “Be gone, Satan!  For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.’”  And “the devil left Him.”  They will meet again three years hence at the cross, where indeed, our Lord’s heel was bruised, and Satan’s head was mortally crushed. 

Why did Jesus endure this temptation, dear friends?  For the same reason He did everything: love for us.  For Jesus came to redeem us, to recreate the world anew to its perfection and glory before the Fall, to take vengeance upon the malignant serpent.  He teaches us exactly how to resist the crafts and assaults of the devil in our fallen state and our fallen world: “It is written.” 

St. Paul describes the Christian in terms of a soldier bearing armor, to protect himself in the midst of spiritual warfare.  And the only offensive weapon this warrior of the sixth chapter of Ephesians bears is “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”  The Word, dear friends!  “It is written!”  This is how we beat back temptation.  This is how we fight.  This is how we train.  Holy Scripture!  We see our Lord skillfully use the sword to parry the attacks of the devil, dispatching him by means of the Holy Spirit.

This is why our Divine Service is lifted out of the Bible almost in its entirety.  This is why we have Bible classes.  This is why the Scriptures were translated into our own language.  This is why the Bible is the best selling book in history.  This is why Lutherans became pioneers of education back in the 16^th century: so people could read the Bible.  The point is not to know a few stories that you learned in Sunday School.  The point is not to give you “instructions for living.”  The point is not to show off because you know some Bible trivia.  The point, dear friends, the point is to use the point of the sword to fight back against Satan and his demonic forces.  Whether you like it or not, you are a soldier.  You have been drafted into the armed forces of the kingdom.  So you need to train, because Satan is ruthless, and you will be tempted to sin, to turn against God, to repudiate your baptism, to take your salvation for granted, to yield to the devil, to worship false gods of this world, and to allow your fallen flesh to have its way with you.  These temptations come every moment of every day to every fallen man and women in our fallen world.  The Word of God is your weapon, dear brothers and sisters.

Our Lord was able to defy Satan because He knows the Scriptures.  And we are also able to make use of God’s Word because the Word has been given to us as a gift!

Satan will tempt us into thinking we can take credit for our successes.  If we are rich, we think we deserve it.  If we are healthy, we think we deserve it.  If our church is growing, we think it’s because of us.  We must not be tempted to think this way, dear friends.  This is the theology of glory.  It is a trick of the devil.  For hard times come to everybody.  We will all get sick and die of something.  And we run the risk of being tempted into believing that God has abandoned us.  And think of the centuries when Christians suffered martyrdom, and their churches were destroyed.  Rather we are to be theologians of the cross: the cross, dear friends, where our Lord defeated the devil for us by suffering and dying for us.  The cross is where the serpent’s head was smashed.  And our Lord tells us to take up our own crosses in order to follow Him!  So take up your cross and your sword.

Satan tempts pastors and churches with the theology of glory.  We are easily tempted to believe that we can “grow the church” by using gimmicks.  But we are instead to faithfully sow the seed of the Word of God – the Word, dear friends!  The rest is up to the Spirit – the same Spirit that led Jesus into the wilderness.  One of the principles of the Reformation is that our preaching and teaching – and even our very lives – are normed by the Sacred Scriptures.  The Bible is our highest authority to which all must submit, including pastors and bishops and popes and councils and District Presidents and synods.  Luther reflected on the success of the Reformation, and he correctly credited the Word of God, saying: “I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing.  And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf… the Word did everything.”

What a great gift the Lord has given us in the Holy Scriptures, dear friends!  This unique book of books was written by some 40 authors over 1,500 years in three languages.  And yet it fits together seamlessly, revealing everything we need to know about God, and revealing both the shame of being a sinner, and the glory of being a saint: thanks to the forgiveness won for us by the Seed of the Woman on the cross.

As the old saying goes, let us “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest” the Holy Scriptures, these treasures that not only teach us who Jesus is, who we are, and what our eternal destiny is, but also empower us to beat back temptation and follow our Lord by taking up our crosses, allowing us to share in His victory over Satan.

Take up your sword, dear friends.  And taking to heart the warning of St. Paul, let us not “receive the grace of God in vain.”  Let us be active in our faith by God’s grace, thanking Him for providing us this bountiful blessing that is the revealed Word of God.  For even when we are sorely tempted, we can say with our Lord, “Be gone, Satan!  For it is written…”

Amen.

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