Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Dec 10, 2024

10 Dec 2024

Text: 1 John 4:1-21

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

St. John writes, “Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.  This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”  The apostle clarified what it means to “confess Jesus” – and that is to confess “that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.”  In other words, the spirit of antichrist denies the Incarnation of Jesus, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, refusing to believe, as John wrote in his Gospel, that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” 

Already in the first century, the spirit of antichrist was in the world and was claiming to be part of the church.  Satan is never too far away from Christians and their churches.  And this time of year is repulsive to the devil and to antichrist.  For the entire world is covered with images of the baby Jesus.  And if unbelievers ask too many questions about the meaning of Christmas, they will be led to our confession that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt 16:16).  Jesus is not just a great teacher, not just a prophet, but is “very God of very God” in the flesh.

John is urgent, dear brothers and sisters, because antichrist is already here, and so we must not “believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God.”  He warns us about “false prophets.”  Too often, Christians are quick to listen to preachers who deny the Real Presence in the Lord’s Supper.  Too often, Christians are quick to take instruction from those who may not believe that Jesus is divine.  Too often, Christians themselves reduce Jesus to a teacher whose message is “be nice” and “accept everybody.”  This is the Jesus of the world, the Jesus of antichrist.  For when we confess Jesus as the Christ, as God the Son in the flesh – we are anti-antichrist – just as we should be.

John stresses that we Christians are to “love one another, for love is from God.”  But again, Satan and the world’s spirit of antichrist distort the word “love” to mean perversion, and then bully Christians away from their confession of the Word of God and of the Word Made Flesh into the world’s confession that any kind of perversion is a kind of “love” – and that we must accept it, tolerate it, and even celebrate it.  But this is not love, dear friends.  The apostle himself defines what love is: “In this is love… that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”  And “we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His son to be the Savior of the world.  Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.”

So, dear friends, let us Christians love one another – confessing together that “God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16).  For this is what it means to love: to confess God’s love for us in Christ, and to tell the world about this love – even when the world hates us in return, even when antichrist tells the world that Jesus is not the Son and not the Christ, that love is something other than what the Word of God teaches us that it is.

“Whoever loves God,” says the apostle John, “must also love his brother.”  Dear brothers and sisters, we love one another when we hold to our confession of Jesus, when we reject the spirit of antichrist, when we believe, teach, and confess the Trinity and the two natures of Jesus Christ, who is the propitiation for our sins.  Let us love one another fervently by strengthening one another in our confession of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: for this is to “know God,” and indeed, “God is love.”

Amen.

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

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Dec 3, 2024

3 Dec 2024

Text: 1 Pet 5:1-14

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

St. Peter closes his first epistle by appealing to the “elders,” that is, the men who hold the pastoral office.  And Peter claims the authority to “exhort the elders” among his readers not only because Peter is himself a “fellow elder,” but also a “witness of the sufferings of Christ.”  Peter has apostolic authority, and is not shy in reminding us of it.  The elders are to “shepherd the flock of God.”  The word “pastor” is Latin for “shepherd,” and emphasizes the way that the elder leads.  He has authority, “exercising oversight,” and yet is not to be “domineering.”  He is to carry out his responsibility in the way of the “Chief Shepherd,” that is, our Lord Jesus Christ, as “examples to the flock.”  The elder shepherds rather than coerces, making use of both Law and Gospel according to circumstance. 

The elder may not be old in terms of physical age.  But he is an elder by virtue of his office.  Therefore, those under his care must be “subject to the elders,” as if they were chronologically younger.  For there is a temptation for older people to look down on a younger pastor (Paul raises this issue with Timothy (1 Tim 4:12).  The church’s description of him as “elder” – regardless of his age – indicates how we are to regard our pastors.  The word “senator” is the Latin version of the Greek word translated as “elder.”  A Roman senator could be as young as thirty, but he was to be seen as a father of the family that is the nation.  The elder of the church, the pastor, holds a similar office, one that is a supernatural blessing to the congregation – assuming that both pastor and people are looking to Christ and not to their own interests.

“Humble yourselves, therefore,” says the apostle.  This applies to all Christians regardless of their vocations in church and society, because God “cares for you.”  And because of this, dear friends, St. Peter closes his letter with a stern dose of reality – which is especially fitting during this time of Advent as we wait and watch for our Lord’s coming: “Be sober-minded,” says the apostle, “be watchful.  Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

And while it is easy for churches to refuse to subject themselves to pastors, and for pastors to become domineering, for the focus to drift from Christ and the kingdom toward ourselves and our little fiefdoms of the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh – it is Satan who benefits from such division.  We must constantly remind ourselves of St. Peter’s words, even memorizing them:  “Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.”  And in resisting the devil, in serving the Chief Shepherd, in living in the kingdom of grace – we will suffer.  But “after you have suffered a little while,” says Peter, “the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” 

This prophetic word was penned by Peter, but it is, and remains, an ironclad promise inspired by the Holy Spirit.  It is a trustworthy pledge from the Triune God Himself.  And St. Peter – the fisherman who became a fisher of men, the chief apostle, and one who will himself die upon a cross for the sake and confession of the Crucified One – closes this part of his letter that is really more sermon than epistle with a doxology – even as all of our prayers should acknowledge the glory of God: “To Him be the dominion forever and ever.”

Amen.

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

Sermon: Thanksgiving Eve – 2024

27 November 2024

Text: Luke 17:11-19

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Ten men were suffering from a horrible disease called “leprosy.”  There was no cure, and it was eventually fatal.  It is a cruel disease in which your body dies bit by bit.  It is disfiguring, and also highly contagious.  And in Jewish law, it made a person unclean.  Therefore, someone suffering from leprosy – a leper – had to survive on his own or as part of a colony of others with leprosy.

Even though there was no cure for leprosy, the Law provided a way to be declared clean if some kind of miracle were to happen and someone were to be cured of leprosy.  It is as though those parts of the Old Testament were written just for Jesus, because He did cure lepers as part of His ministry of proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom.

Leprosy – like all diseases, like everything that leads to death – exists because of sin, because of Adam and Eve’s fall in the garden.  And leprosy is a terrible reminder of how ugly sin is, how it causes such pain, and leads ultimately to death.  By declaring lepers to be ceremonially unclean, Jewish law recognized the connection between physical sickness and spiritual decay. 

But on this one day, as Jesus entered a village “between Samaria and Galilee,” our Lord was “met by ten lepers.”  As the Law required, they stood at a distance and make their condition known.  But they also did something else: they prayed to Jesus for help.  In fact, we still pray their prayer in our liturgy: “Lord, have mercy upon us!” 

Jesus heard their prayer.  He had mercy.  He cured those ten lepers.  He restored them to life.  And so that they could leave the leper colony, so that they could comply with the law of clean and unclean, so that they could return home to their families – Jesus told them: “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”  And as soon as they obeyed His Word in faith, “as they went, they were cleansed.”

But one of the ten did not go immediately to the priests.  For “when he saw that he was healed,” he first “turned back.”  He returned to where Jesus was to be found.  He praised God.  He worshiped Jesus.  He gave Him thanks.

Interestingly, this man was a Samaritan – a member of an ethnic group that was at odds with the Jews.  Their relationship was not unlike the Palestinians today.  And he was the only one out of the ten who came back to thank Jesus, to praise and worship God by his presence.  Jesus was amazed, and not in a good way.  “Were not ten cleansed?  Where are the nine?  Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”

In a sense, we are all these lepers, dear friends.  We have all been infected and disfigured by sin.  There is nothing that doctors can do.  There is no pill to cure us.  But there is a cure for the leprosy of sin, and it is just what Jesus told the Samaritan: “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

Notice the connection between being grateful and having faith.  If we really believe that Jesus saves us from sin, death, and the devil, if we really believe that Jesus has redeemed us from the fires of hell – how could we not be grateful?  And how do we express this gratitude other than doing what the Samaritan did, dear friends: by turning back again and again to where Jesus is to be found, by praising and worshiping God.  That is a demonstration of the faith that saves you. 

For you are here in this place today because you believe Jesus has saved you, and you believe Jesus is here: in His Word, and in His body and blood.  We have all turned back and have fallen on our faces at Jesus’ feet.  We are all crying out: “Lord, have mercy upon us.  Christ, have mercy upon us.  Lord, have mercy upon us.”  For that is the only cure for sin: the sin that leads to death.  Christ’s mercy that we access by faith is how we are cured and made whole.  And you can only get it here: where Jesus is.

Maybe the nine were so excited about being cured that they forgot about Jesus.  Maybe they took His blessing for granted.  Maybe they were just ungrateful: taking what Jesus offered them without a thought toward being thankful.  We don’t know what happened to the nine, but Jesus points out that they were nowhere to be found.

This is a little but like coming to churches that are largely empty, where we know there are many other baptized people who could have turned back to worship God out of gratitude for what He has done for them.  But for whatever reason, they are not here.  And sometimes we are of the nine, being more into the things of this world, taking the Lord’s grace for granted, and distancing ourselves from Him and from His church.  It’s important that when we do come to grips with God’s goodness and mercy and grace, when we do realize what He has done for us, we need to turn back.  We need to drop whatever else we are doing and run to where Jesus is.  He has saved us by His grace, and we receive this grace by faith: by believing that it is truly a cure.  And what we believe is shown by what we choose to do with our time.

Giving thanks at this time of year is a very old tradition.  It is because this is the time of year when farmers harvest their crops.  For there’s no guarantee that there will be a harvest.  Sometimes diseases wipe out whole crops.  Sometimes enemies come and burn down our fields and storehouses.  Sometimes the weather itself ruins the yield.  And then we will have to struggle until the next season.  But when the crops mature, when they bear fruit, when they grow large and await the harvest, we have much to be thankful for.  It is fitting for us to have a fall feast, celebrating with the first-fruits of the harvest, gathering our families together to celebrate and thank God for His mercy.  There is no better way to do this than by means of a meal.

And we Christians likewise have a very old tradition.  It was begun by Jesus and passed along to the apostles – who passed it down to us.  It is also a meal, and it is also a giving of thanks to God for His mercy.  In Greek, it’s called the “Eucharist,” that is, “the Thanksgiving.”  We also call it the Lord’s Supper.  For when Jesus took the bread and wine that are His body and blood, He blessed them and gave thanks.  How much more, dear friends, should we give thanks when we eat this bread and drink this cup, proclaiming the Lord’s death until He comes?

For as an ordinary meal sustains our lives and strengthens our bodies, this Holy Supper sustains us unto eternal life and strengthens our souls.  And by going to where Jesus is, and by receiving Jesus as Jesus taught us to do – we are not only demonstrating faith in His words, we are receiving faith in His Word as a gift, as a means of grace.  And we are grateful.

This Holy Supper, this Thanksgiving, is our “turning back.”  For we come to the Lord’s Supper praising God with voices of prayer, praise, and giving thanks.  We fall on our knees at Jesus’ feet, and we drop everything else that we could be doing right now to be here. 

As for the nine, dear friends, let’s not become one of them.  And equally important, let us pray for them, that they too may turn back and give thanks for what Jesus has done for them on the cross and in the empty tomb, and for what He does for us as the altar, the font, and the pulpit.

“Rise and go your way.  Your faith has made you well.”

Amen.

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

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy - Nov 12, 2024

12 Nov 2024

Text: Matt 26:1-19

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

As we approach the end of Matthew’s account of the life of our Lord, we are rapidly moving to the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  Things are coming together quickly, and in two days time, the world will be changed forever.  At this point, the only one who knows this is our Lord: “After two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”  And as our Lord is saying this, “the chief priests and the elders… plotted together” along with Caiaphas, the corrupt high priest, “in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill Him.”  But they had to be politically sensitive, for, as Jesus said, “The Passover is coming.”

Indeed, the Passover is coming: the one final Passover to end all Passovers.  This is the one actual Passover for which the fifteen hundred or so previous Passovers were nothing more than previews or rehearsals.  “The Passover is coming,” says Jesus.  The Passover is the cross, dear friends, when the body of the sacrificial Lamb will be slain, and the people will be delivered from death by means of the protective blood poured out by God’s grace and mercy.

Some Christians want to go back to the rehearsals by having so-called “seder meals.”  It is almost pretending that Jesus hasn’t yet come.  But Jesus changed everything – and for the better.  There is no going back.  Jesus said, “The Passover is coming.”  And the Passover is the Eucharist.  Jesus is the Lamb.  The blood on the doorway leading to heaven is the blood of Jesus being poured out on the beams of the altar and doorway of the cross.  And this holy, sacrificial blood is poured from the chalice into your very body as the “medicine of immortality” as it was described by St. Ignatius of Antioch, who was a disciple of the apostle John.

Two days before the Passover came, we see the alignment of the conspirators.  We see Jesus anointed at Bethany, and we see the treasurer (and thief) Judas complaining about the expense.  And it was at this moment that he “went to the chief priests and said, ‘What will you give me if I deliver Him over to you?’”  The price of the Lamb was thirty pieces of silver, paid by the priests of Satan to the traitor.  Never before or after has the monetary cost of a King’s ransom been the price of a slave.

Jesus makes arrangements to eat the final Passover meal with His disciples to prepare for this final Passover: the moment for which all of human history has led.  Jesus will forever change the meal from mere symbolic seder ceremony to the miracle of the Mass: His ongoing Real Presence with us in the Divine Service, the Sacrament of the Altar.  For His Word – the same Word that created the entire universe – the Word Made Flesh and Blood will forever fulfill the Passover by establishing the Lord’s Supper of His flesh and blood.  And the ransomed people of God will eat the flesh of the Lamb and drink His blood – and the Lamb’s blood will cry out to heaven for redemption.  God will use the wicked conspirators even as he used hard-hearted Pharaoh to lead His beloved people away from the bondage of sin, death, and the devil into the promised land of forgiveness, life, and salvation.  

Indeed, the Passover is coming.

Amen.

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

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Nov 5, 2024

5 Nov 2024

Text: Matt 23:1-12

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

The scribes and the Pharisees were the social elites of the day.  They were not the rulers of the government (though they were represented in the Jewish council).  They were not the priests of the temple (though they were considered to be the religious experts).  Their real power was in the way ordinary people looked up to them, and trusted them.  Their opinions became public opinions, as they held sway over all those who admired them – much like our celebrity class today.

But their motivation wasn’t the truth.  Their motivation wasn’t to submit to God’s Word.  Their motivation was to maintain their status and the status quo, “to be seen by others,” as our Lord observes.  They did so by interpreting the Scriptures in such a way as to affirm themselves.  They made themselves immune from any criticism, and instead, applied the Law to everyone except themselves.  Their manmade religious system was based on laws and regulations of their own making, “heavy burdens, hard to bear,” as our Lord said, and they would “lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves [were] not willing to move them with their finger.”

They routinely distorted Scripture.  One ridiculous example is how they treat Moses telling the people to figuratively place the Word of God “as frontlets between your eyes” (Deut 6:8).  Instead of interpreting this to be a matter of the primacy of God’s Word in the heart and mind, they insisted, as a matter of law, on wearing literal little boxes, called “phylacteries,” tied to their heads with little scrolls inside as proof of their righteousness.  They had similar rules and regulations with “fringes” on their garments.  And, of course, they had all the best seats at banquets reserved for themselves.  They lived for being called by various titles and being bowed and scraped to. 

They lived for the respect of others – respect that was not returned.  Their religion became a distorted and legalistic parody of what God called them to be, and to do, as children of Israel, as the people of the Covenant, as the custodians of the Word of God.  And this self-obsession led them to be blinded to the reality that the God they claimed to worship was standing right in front of them, speaking to them even more intimately than He spoke to Moses, and was the fulfillment of all the Scriptures they claimed were guiding their lives.

Once people saw how phony the Pharisees were, they could not unsee it.

Their problem, according to Jesus, is their lack of humility – in other words, their pride.  Jesus corrects them, largely to no avail – although two of the Pharisees, who secretly followed Jesus, will act courageously and publicly at His crucifixion (John 19:38-39).  But in spite of the hardness of heart of the scribes and Pharisees, our Lord continues to proclaim the Law to them, to show how they misinterpret Scripture, and to use them as warning to all of us of how not to be.  For “the greatest among you shall be your servant.  Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Amen.

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

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Oct 22, 2024

22 Oct 2024

Text: Matt 16:1-12

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

The Pharisees and the Sadducees had the Word of God, the Old Testament: the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms that spoke of the Christ to come.  And they also had the Christ right in front of them: the Word of God made flesh (John 1:14).  His life and His preaching conformed to the pattern of prophecy, and confirmed His Messiahship.  And just to make sure there was no ambiguity, Jesus did perform signs by the thousands.  His miracles were public and unexplainable by ordinary means.  They were impossible to work by trickery.  But the Pharisees and Sadducees had the most to lose by confessing Jesus as the Christ.  So they always demanded just one more sign.

Jesus told them that they have signs all around them.  We can all look at the signs in the sky and figure out when it’s going to rain.  “You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky,” says our Lord, “but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.”  For the fullness of time had finally come.  It was all around them like water in the sea.  They don’t believe because they don’t want to believe, so they always demand one more sign.  This is why Jesus says: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.”  So they left.  They got what they wanted.  They could now tell their allies that they asked for a sign, and it was refused to them.  And so they thought life would return to normal.

People today also want signs.  They pray that God would give them a sign.  They think cardinals and pennies are signs of their dead loved ones sending them messages.  Some people – even Christians – seek out signs from fortune tellers and mediums and tarot cards and other such forbidden things.  But Jesus has already given us many signs.  We already have His Word – both the Old Testament prophecies and the New Testament fulfillments.  And best of all, we have the sign of Jonah, that is, the sign of Jesus as the New and Greater Jonah, who re-emerged from death on the third day, and then evangelized the Gentiles. 

And that is our sign, dear friends.  The resurrection of Jesus, “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep,” (1 Cor 15:20)  is a greater sign to us regarding our beloved dead than coins and birds and yammerings from some card reader.  In Eastertide, we joyfully confess: “Christ is risen, He is risen indeed!”  And we also say this when a Christian dies.  For “we were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death” (Rom 6:3), and “if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His” (Rom 6:5).  Baptism is a miracle of Jesus – a sign – one that is given by our Lord, since it is also the sign of Jonah: death, burial, and resurrection.

This lusting after signs is an indication of weak faith.  “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees,” warns our Lord.  For they place their trust not in the Word but in their works.  They seek not Christ as the fulfillment of prophecy, but signs of their own making to confirm their own manmade religion.  Their faith is weak because it is in themselves rather than in the Word.  “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ” (Rom 10:17). 

So let us throw off the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees and stop demanding signs.  Let us be content with the Word of Christ, with the sign of Jonah in Holy Baptism and its connection to our Lord’s death and resurrection.  And let us boldly make the sign of the cross as we give our hearty “Amen” – for this is a confession of faith: “Yes, yes, it shall be so” as we confess in the Small Catechism.  Let us interpret the signs of the times and be prepared for our Lord’s return in glory.

Amen.

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

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Oct 8, 2024

8 Oct 2024

Text: Matt 10:1-23

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Our Lord has been indefatigably healing and casting out demons – even raising the dead.  He pointed out, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”  So like the vineyard owner in so many of our Lord’s stories, Jesus goes out looking for laborers.  He is recruiting a few men, twelve, in fact, like the tribes of Israel.  He is beckoning laborers to help build His kingdom, to give them “authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and affliction.”  He doesn’t recruit from among the scribes and Pharisees, the Council, the rabbis, the priests, and the leading men of the Holy City.  He doesn’t give tests and psychological self-studies.  He mocks the devil by choosing the most unlikely laborers, even those most unlikely called in the last hour, to engage in the most unlikely labor.

The Twelve include fishermen, workers, some disciples of John the Baptist, and even a tax collector and a militant revolutionary.  This band of misfit disciples will also include a traitor – whose treachery cannot stop the kingdom, but actually hastens it by his wickedness: playing a key role in the conspiracy to crucify our Lord and to destroy the devil by his own cunning.  These disciples, that is, these students of their Rabbi, will enter three years of training under the Master.  At the end of their period of study, which will be like nothing ever experienced by anyone in the history of the world, they will become those laborers charged with reaping a harvest after sowing the seeds of the Word of God, and bringing in other laborers to likewise sow, to cultivate, to weed, to nurture, and also to harvest the fruit of the kingdom.

At this point, the disciples are to engage in a kind of trial run, going into cities to announce the coming of Jesus before His arrival.  But our Lord warns them about what it will mean when they really labor in the fields: being “sheep in the midst of wolves,” falsely accused of crime, flogged, persecuted by both synagogue and state.  But this is an opportunity for labor in the kingdom, “to bear witness to them and to the Gentiles.”  Jesus tells them not to worry about it, for the Spirit will do the talking when the time comes.  Jesus gives them advice that all would do well to heed: “Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

The kingdom continues to this day, dear friends, as our Lord’s disciples believe and live out their lives, serve and worship, teach and learn.  Some of those disciples are laborers who are still preaching and absolving sins, still casting out demons and giving life by means of the Gospel.  Christians of every calling are still “hated by all for [His] name’s sake.”  Jesus is still building His kingdom and gathering in a harvest.  This labor will continue until the final trumpet sounds, and when our labors will cease.  Our labor, dear friends, is to simply do our jobs – whatever we are called to do.  God created each one of us for some specific labor in the kingdom, whether we are preachers or confessors of Jesus and the Gospel.  All of our labor is holy and sanctified, no matter what purpose we serve.  And like the original disciples who came from various backgrounds, we remain students of the Word, we continue to be a band of Christ’s misfits, and we are scoffed at by the Important People. 

But hear this, dear friends, hear this and take it to heart, for it comes from our Lord Himself: “The one who endures to the end will be saved.”  Just hold on, dear brothers and sisters.  Just hold on one more day.  For our Lord may return today.  Just one more day.

Amen.

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

Brunch Church

Divine Service 6 in the Next Hymnal?  From Gottesblog.

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy - Sept 17, 2024

17 Sept 2024

Text: Col 4:1-18

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

St. Paul closes his letter to the Christians at Colossae with some last-minute advice about how we should treat slaves (because we are all slaves of Christ), about being steadfast in prayer, watchful, grateful, and praying for the leaders and missionaries of the church.  The apostle implores us to speak with wisdom, especially to outsiders, and to manage our time well. 

But the bulk of his conclusion reads like a litany of the saints.  For while we focus on St. Paul as the author of this epistle, and indeed, as the writer of most of the books of the New Testament – the apostle Paul is not alone in his ministry, nor is he alone in being persecuted for the sake of his proclamation.  This is a reminder that the church is indeed a “great cloud of witnesses” (Heb 12:1).  There are far more saints involved in the work of the ministry than Paul himself. 

He mentions Tychicus, Onesimus, Aristarchus (who is also a prisoner), Mark, Barnabus, “Jesus who is called Justus,” Epaphras, and Luke the Evangelist.  He also greets members of the church at Colossae by name: Nympha (who allows the church to meet at her home) and Archippus (a local minister).  And beyond these people mentioned by name are the many unnamed saints whose work makes Paul’s ministry possible: servants of local churches (both the laity, as well as the clergy: bishops, presbyters, and deacons), those who financially support Paul as well as their fellow Christians in poorer regions, those who volunteer to carry manuscripts of the letters to the various churches (epistles which have become books in our Bibles).  And then there are those who provide countless meals and other hospitality, making the ministry of the church possible. 

We have had centuries of heroes of the faith: saints whose names are set apart for commemoration on specific days of the calendar.  Christians all over the world and in every jurisdiction or denomination will soon honor Sts. Matthew, Michael, Luke, James, Simon, and Jude – some of whom in churches named for them. 

And then there are saints who will never have a church named for them: our mothers who read the Bible to us, our fathers who took us to Divine Service, our teachers who taught us the Gospel, our pastors who preached to us, baptized us, and gave us the body and blood of Jesus, and our brothers and sisters who worked tireless behind the scenes.  Let us honor our faithful grandparents who spent years praying for us.  Let us thank God for the faithful homebound members whose prayers ascend to heaven for our churches and members.  And let us not forget the generations of those whose labors are ended and are at rest.  Let us offer our thanks to God for all of these unnamed heroes:

For these passed on before us,
We offer praises due
And, walking in their footsteps
Would live our lives for You (LSB 517:4).

Amen.

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

Sermon: Trinity 16 – 2024

15 September 2024

Text: Luke 7:11-17 (1 Kings 17:17-24)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

When Jesus raised the son of the widow at Nain, “fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has arisen among us!’ and ‘God has visited His people!’”

Of course, raising the dead is a far greater miracle than turning water into wine, feeding thousands with a few loaves of bread, and even greater than curing leprosy, making the deaf hear, and giving sight to the blind.  Scripture has recorded Jesus raising the dead three times.  And in this case, the mother of the deceased son was a widow.  She was left with nobody to take care of her.  Jesus didn’t see her and say, “Here’s a real ministry opportunity to make a name for myself and grow the church.”  Rather, “He had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’”

Our Lord’s motivation here is to show compassion to a mourning widow.  And that He did!  Jesus delivered joy to a woman who was in the very worst of sadness.  If anyone had the right to be without hope and angry at God, it would be this widow on her way to bury her son. 

The result of our Lord’s Word – the same Word that created the universe from nothing, that Word commanding, “Young man, I say to you, arise,” – was that “the dead man sat up and began to speak” and “Jesus gave him to His mother.”  Jesus fixed what was broken, and what seemed to be permanently destroyed.  Jesus restored hope to the most hopeless situation of all.  Jesus made one mourning woman happy again.

But the result of this miracle did teach us about Jesus. 

When a man appears in history, works miracles, raises the dead, is executed as a criminal, but rises from the dead Himself, sends eleven men out into the world, and from this small group, believers in Jesus are soon in every country in the world – there’s going to be a discussion about who Jesus is.

Jews can point to Jesus being called “Rabbi,” and they can say that this is what Jesus is: a teacher and a preacher.  They’re not wrong.  Muslims can point to this confession of who Jesus is, “A great prophet has arisen among us,” and say that this is what Jesus is: a prophet.  They’re also not wrong.  But where they are both wrong is in saying that Jesus is only a teacher, only a preacher, or only a prophet.  For there is certainly more to Jesus.  It is also not wrong to say that Jesus is a man, or that the Bible is comprised of humanly-authored books, or that the Eucharist is bread and wine.  But it is wrong to stop there, dear friends.  For there is indeed certainly more.

For our God is compassionate.  Our God has come to raise the dead.  Our God has come to destroy death, to reverse its effects, and to restore what we broke at the fall in the Garden of Eden.  Jesus is a prophet, but He is also God who has “visited His people.”  Jesus is a prophet, and a priest, and a king.  But there is certainly more to Jesus.  He is the Prophet, the Priest, and the King.  He doesn’t merely serve God in these offices.  He is the God who created these offices.  Jesus takes on these offices Himself in order to show compassion upon us and raise the dead.

And just as Jesus takes on all of these offices Himself, as a man, and as God, Jesus will also die Himself, becoming also the sacrificial Lamb – the “Lamb of God that takest away the sin of the world.”  And like the widow of Nain, He indeed has “mercy upon us.”  And not only does He give us God’s mercy, He answers our prayer and confession granting us His peace.”

When people saw Jesus raise the widow’s son, they immediately thought of the great prophet Elijah.  This was no accident.  Almost nine hundred years before Jesus was born, Elijah raised the dead son of a widow.  For “a great prophet had arisen” among the people. But Elijah was not God.  The great prophet Elijah prayed that God would raise the widow’s son.  And God had compassion upon that widow in that day, and through the great prophet’s prayer, God raised this young man from the dead.  Elijah “delivered him to his mother” and said, “See, your son lives.”  The joyful mother said, “Now I know that you are a man of God.”

When Jesus raised another widow’s son more than nine hundred years later, we do not hear a confession that Jesus is a man of God (which would not be untrue).  For there is certainly more to Jesus.  He is the man who is God.  He is the God who has compassion.  And He is the one true God who has visited His people in the form of a man.

And this confession of Jesus, that a “great prophet has arisen among us” takes on a different meaning for us after our Lord’s own resurrection.  For this word “arisen” is the very same Greek word that the angel spoke to the Marys at the tomb.  St. Luke, who recorded our Gospel for today, wrote that the angel said, “He is not here, but has risen.”  Upon hearing this, “they remembered His Words.”

We too remember His Words, dear friends.  Jesus’ words are not simply little nuggets of wisdom from a nice man who has compassion (as the unbelieving world says).  For there is certainly more to Jesus.  Jesus is not simply a teacher of one of many spiritual truths which are all pathways to God (as the pope has recently said).  Jesus is not simply a rabbi (as the Jews say, at best).  Jesus is not simply a preacher proclaiming God (as many who call themselves Christians seem to believe).  Jesus is not simply a prophet (as the Muslims proclaim).  For there is certainly more to Jesus.

Jesus has compassion upon those who have suffered the effects of death, for death is the final crushing result of sin and the ongoing destructive work of the devil.  God has compassion upon all of us who have suffered death.  We are all the widow of Nain, and God has visited us, dear friends.  God has arisen among us.  For God in the flesh was crucified as the sacrifice that we could never pay.  He died, and rose again for our justification.

And God is still visiting His people. 

He visits us when He baptizes us, with His own words, making us His disciples “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  He visits us when and where His Word is proclaimed.  He visits us when His forgiveness is given by virtue of the office that He has established to speak in His name.  He visits us when He offers us His true body and blood, given and shed for you, “for the forgiveness of sins.”  And He will visit us again in the future, when He returns in glory.  It will be at a time when it will look to all the world that there is no hope.  He will have compassion upon us, and He will come again, establishing His kingdom among us in fulfillment of all of the words and deeds of the great prophets. 

For there is certainly more to Jesus that what the devil, the world, the Jews, the Muslims, and even the pope want us to believe.  No, not all religions are equal.  If they were, God would have no compassion upon us, for that would mean that He is a God of confusion and contradiction, that He is a God who leaves us wondering what the truth is, or if there even is a truth at all.  But God has visited us, and He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  And Jesus added, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.  From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.”

This Jesus who is the Prophet and God who has both “arisen among us” and “visited His people,” who has come to have compassion upon us by raising the dead and restoring the world to its created glory, this Priest who is also the Sacrifice, this God who is also man, is coming again in glory.  He is the way, the truth, and the life.  And this confession is, in the words of the Athanasian Creed, both “the Christian truth” and “the catholic religion.”  It is all about Jesus, dear friends.  Nobody else.

The reality that God has visited His people is good news for the world.  Our job is to confess it, proclaim it, preach it, and not compromise it.  For Jesus has compassion.  “A great prophet has arisen among us!’ and ‘God has visited His people!”

Amen.

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

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy - Sept 10, 2024

10 Sept 2024

Text: Phil 2:12-30

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

In the Creed, we confess Jesus as “God of God, light of light, very God of very God.”  And this is confession of the Holy Trinity being of one substance, but with distinction of person.  But it is also a confession of what St. John the apostle taught us: “In Him [that is, in Jesus] was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4-5).  Jesus is the “uncreated light,” and the first thing He created “in the beginning” was light that reflects Him (Gen 1:1-3).  But when we fell into sin, it was as if the flame of this created light was extinguished, the glory obscured, and all the world was thrown into the confusion and chaos of darkness.  Jesus said, “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God” (John 3:19-21).

Our Lord Himself came into this darkness, saying, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12).  And indeed He is, dear friends.  And He has given His church the joyful responsibility and privilege to take Him, as a Lamp, and cast away the darkness of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature.  “You are the light of the world,” says our Lord to us.  “Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house” (Matt 5:14-15).

St. Paul reminds us of our Lord’s words, building on them when he says, “you shine as lights in the world.”  Though we are poor reflectors of our Lord, though our flame is often weak, though we may be at times little more than a spark or an ember – the church remains the contrast, and the hope, of a “crooked and twisted generation.”  The tongues of fire that graced the apostles on Pentecost demonstrate the gift of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus has given to His church.  And the church’s job is to set the world on fire with the Gospel.

Indeed, we have the Gospel, dear friends.  We have the Good News that those who “sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,” need and crave.  And this is why St. Paul urges us to “work out [our] salvation with fear and trembling,” to “do all things without grumbling or questioning,” and that we strive to be “blameless and innocent” as “children of God.”  And we do this, by “holding fast to the Word of life.”

Our motivation to lead lives that are different than the dark world around us isn’t to earn God’s favor, or to somehow save ourselves by our works.  Rather, we offer our meager good works as a thank-offering to God out of love for our neighbor, as our Lord Jesus says: “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Lord Jesus Christ, with us abide,
For round us falls the eventide.
O let Your Word, that saving light,
Shine forth undimmed into the night (LSB 585).

Amen.

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

Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – St. Gregory the Great, 2024

3 Sept 2024 

Text: Eph 3:1-21

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

In the previous chapter of Ephesians, St. Paul summed up the Good News that Christians have for the world: “For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” And “for this reason,” Paul is a prisoner, and has been called to proclaim this mystery to the Gentiles.  For the faith is a “mystery” made known to Paul by “revelation.”  And of this “gospel,” this good news, Paul was “made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace.”  This Gospel is what Paul calls “the unsearchable riches of Christ.”

This proclamation doesn’t stop with the apostles.  In fact, it just begins with them.  Our Lord told the apostles to preach this good news to every nation, making disciples by baptizing and teaching.  It started very small, but grew according to God’s will.  More than five hundred years after Paul was put to death in Rome, a bishop of Rome, in a Europe that had converted to Christianity, carried forward this order of Jesus to spread the wealth to every nation.  St. Gregory the Great, the former mayor of Rome, was called into the office of the holy ministry.  He gave away his worldly wealth and evangelized new Gentiles: people in the north who lacked these “unsearchable riches of Christ.” 

St. Gregory understood how important the liturgy was for missions.  We still speak of his Gregorian chant today, and many of the collects we still use in the liturgy were standardized by St. Gregory.  He gave us the church calendar, and launched missionaries into northern Europe – parts of which took centuries for the Gospel to be established, including the ancestors of most Americans.  Today is the feast day of St. Gregory the Great.  And what made him “great” was that he was saved by grace, and received this gift through faith.  His redemption in Christ was not because of his works, and thus when we boast on this feast of Gregory, we are not boasting in him, but rejoicing in what God did through him.  For even as Paul explained that we are saved by grace, through faith, not by works, the apostle pointed out that good works are a result of our salvation: “We are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

We look to the saints to teach us what this looks like in a fallen world.  What does it mean to be a saint still embodied in fallen flesh – but flesh that has been redeemed by the God who took flesh?  For here we are today still proclaiming this same Good News to all nations.  Some of us in our Wittenberg Academy community live on the other side of the world, engaged in foreign missions, like St. Paul, and like St. Gregory’s missionaries.  Most of us are carrying out domestic missions, since the nations have come to us, and there are many among us who lack the “unsearchable riches of Christ.”  For we “bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages.”  This “manifold wisdom of God” is proclaimed, as Paul says, “through the church.”

Dear friends, we are the church.  Our confession is our mission.  Like Paul and Gregory, we live by faith, and we do what we are called to do, whether studying, teaching, honoring our parents, sacrificing for our children’s education, carrying out administrative tasks for our school, planning, donating time, talent, or treasure to its mission.  For its mission – our mission – is the Gospel.  We are called to make it known and to live it out.  Let us keep this desire of St. Paul central in our mission, dear friends: “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith – that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

That is our confession.  That is our Gospel.  Thank be to God!  Amen.

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