Lent 5

John 8:46-59 - Judica Sunday - March 13, 2016
(Upon the Baptism of a new baby and the sudden death of a dear member.)
From Death to Life

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“Amen, amen, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death” (John 8:51).   Let us pray:

Thou hast died for my transgression,
All my sins on Thee were laid;
Thou hast won for me salvation,
On the cross my debt was paid.
From the grave I shall arise
And shall meet Thee in the skies.
Death itself is transitory;
I shall lift my head in glory. Amen. 

Dear Christians,

What have we just witnessed?  We have witnessed a transition — a transition from death to life.  We have.  Christ’s death and resurrection have made death transitory.  But this transition from death to life does not wait until we die.  It occurs in Baptism.  As St. Paul writes,

[W]e were buried with Him through Baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  (Romans 6:4)

This newness of life certainly embraces the new life of good works in which we walk as we follow Jesus – works that honor God and serve the neighbor as Jesus did – works that follow us into eternal life.  But because our good works are not the source of our new life (God’s grace is!), we do not find this new life in the things we do.  (Our works follow us; we don’t follow them!)  Rather, we find this new life in the things that God teaches us – in the things we receive.  This is what it means to keep his words.  It doesn’t mean merely to obey his words.  It doesn’t mean merely to hear them and give our nod of approval.  It means to treasure them.  That’s what the word means.  God teaches us how to treasure his word by teaching us first about ourselves (that is, how much we need his word!), and second by teaching us about himself (that is, how Christ has obeyed and fulfilled his word).  God’s word of grace teaches us to know him as our gracious Father who does not look at our sin, but to Christ his Son.  He is our High Priest who cleanses us with his own blood.  This is what God looks at when scrutinizing us sinful mortals.  He looks to Christ our Mediator who stands between us and God’s justice.  This is what a priest does.  But while a priest usually appealed to God’s mercy as signified by the many animal sacrifices on the altar, Christ our High Priest appeals to his own sacrifice on the cross whereby he made atonement for all our sin.  So, just as this is what God looks at, he also teaches us to look to what Christ has done — for by doing so, we see what God sees.  We see the holy life that God reckons to us by faith.  It is ours.  This is peace.  This is a good conscience.  This is beautiful.  

We are not born with this holy life.  Scripture teaches us quite plainly that we were born spiritually corrupt, with no powers of our own to choose God or obey him.  Indeed, we were born dead.  We need life.  We need life that is born from God.  And that is what God gives us.  As St. Paul writes so beautifully – and because it is so abundantly clear and simple and comforting, I’d like to quote it now at length from Ephesians 2 – with just a few of my own interjections: 

Lent 4

John 6:1-15 - Laetare Sunday - March 6, 2016
Receiving Our Bread with Thanksgiving

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They saw signs and miracles.  God was with them.  He did good things.  They followed Him.  He did fearful things.  They witnessed ten plagues on Egypt by which they were set free.  They themselves crossed the Red Sea on dry ground and saw Pharaoh’s army drown.  They had seen marvel after marvel, and so they followed Moses the prophet of God deep into the desert.  There God assured them that they would be safe from their enemies.  The Almighty God was clearly on their side.  Yet despite every possible encouragement to just take things as they came, they still they complained.  All they saw was that God had brought them into the wilderness where there was no food.  Despite their ingratitude, God kept them alive by means of manna.  He did this certainly out of kindness, but also in order to test them.  He bypassed all the usual means by which mankind is fed in order that they might recognize more clearly that God has always been the source of their daily bread.  God removed all the middlemen so-to-speak – no field, no farmer, no market, no bakery – and He fed them straight from heaven – literally.  How much clearer could God have made it that their daily bread always came from Him?  God tested them to see if they would thereby learn to receive it with thanksgiving.  

And how did they do?  Did they pass the test?  No.  They grumbled.  “What is it?” they whined.   Despite all they had seen … they utterly failed.  

 The reason we fall into the sin of idolatry and devote ourselves more to our stuff than to God who gives it is not because it is somehow less than obvious where our stuff comes from.  No, it is perfectly obvious for anyone who can follow a dotted line that everything we have is from God.  It is God who waters the earth, giving seed to the sower and bread to the one who eats.  He gives strength to the worker, cleverness to the inventor, endurance to the mother, health to the child.  The reason our hearts are nonetheless so drawn to our mammon is not because God has failed to make these things more obvious, but because we are sinners.  We do not trust God.  There is a deep corruption in our hearts – a corruption not simply of our intellect as though it’s too hard to figure this all out, but of our will.  We would rather hold onto the stuff that makes life comfortable than hold onto the almighty and gracious God who gives it to us — no matter how obvious he makes it that it all comes from Him.  We therefore do well to consider those words which we sang a couple Sundays ago from Psalm 100:

Know that the Lord, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. 

Lent 3

Exodus 8:16-24 & Luke 11:14-28
Oculi Sunday - February 28, 2016
The Finger of God

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God sent Moses to free his children from slavery in Egypt.  He promised to do miraculous signs to show Pharaoh that he was God and that there was none like him.  The first demonstration was to cast his staff onto the ground before Pharaoh.  It immediately turned to a snake.  But Pharaoh commanded his own magicians and sorcerers to do the same thing.  And with their witchcraft and trickery they did.  Moses’ snake, though, swallowed the others.  This showed that God’s word overcomes the devil’s lies.  This hardened Pharaoh’s heart.  So God sent plagues.  

Lent 2

Matthew 15:21-28 - Lent Two – Reminiscere - Feb. 21, 2016         
The Command and Promise of Prayer

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God commands us to pray.  This is reason enough to pray.  Certainly this is enough reason to do anything.  When God tells you to do something, you should do it.   Jesus commands all nations to be baptized.  So what should all nations do?  Do what he says: repent, and be baptized.  Jesus commands his disciples to take and to eat – to take and to drink.  So what should his disciples do?  They should take what he gives them and do what he says.  Jesus commands sinners to come to him.  What should sinners do?  They should stop following their own ideas and false teachers who tickle their fancy, and go to him who commands them to come.  Jesus tells us to take up our cross and follow.  God’s commands are clear.  By them we are compelled to obey.  But the command alone, although clear and earnest enough, is not enough to prompt us to do these things in true faith.  I mean, one can go through the motions, certainly!  But if one is to do these things while trusting in God for a blessed outcome – if one is to gain any benefit – more than a command is needed.  That is why he attaches his promise. 

Sexagesima

Luke 8:4-15 - Sexagesima Sunday - January 31, 2016         
The Sower and the Seed

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This morning, our appointed Scripture lessons for Sexagesima Sunday invite us to consider the power of words.  Words have immense power.  We know this as a matter of Christian conviction for at least three reasons: First, because we know that by speaking his word almighty God created heaven and earth.  Second, because we know that the divine Word became human flesh and dwelt among us in order to atone for all human sin on the cross.  And third, because we know that whoever abides in the words of Jesus has life abiding in him, and that it is through his holy word that the Holy Spirit persuades us of God’s love for us in Christ and makes us temples of the triune God.  Words have immense power.  To deny this is to deny the power of God and naturally also the Christian faith.  But we affirm that words are immensely powerful as a matter of Christian conviction.  That is why we are gathered this morning to hear God’s word. 

Epiphany

Matthew 2:1-12 - Epiphany - January 6, 2016         
Christ Is the Light of the World

                                                                                 

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Today is Epiphany.  Epiphany comes from the Greek word for “manifestation,” or “bringing to light.”  And so we celebrate today how Jesus made Himself known, not only to His chosen nation Israel, but also to the Gentiles.   

What are Gentiles?  Well, it’s a word that is simply translated straight from the Greek word for nations. That’s all the word means.  It’s someone who’s not a Jew – who’s not from the chosen nation of Israel.  It was God Himself who made this distinction when He called Abraham out from among the nations to be His own special people.  He did this when He said to him, “In your Seed, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.”  Think of that!  God gave Abraham a promise – a promise that concerned and benefited all nations.  But it was given to one nation.  In fact it was this promise itself that created him as a nation.  After all, Abraham was childless when this promise of Christ was made.  This goes to show how much cooperation is required of sinners in order for God to set them apart as His own.  None. 

Christmas Eve

Isaiah 7:10-14 & Luke 2:8-16 - Christmas Eve - December 24, 2015
This Shall Be A Sign Unto You

Moreover the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!”

Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:10-14)

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What is the purpose of a sign?  Why does God give so many signs in the Bible?   It is because God wants you to be sure of what he has promised.  He wants you not to doubt his mercy and grace, and his goodwill and favor toward you in Christ your Savior.  He wants you to be certain of it and to regard him as your loving Father in heaven who does not condemn you, but blesses you and keeps you, since it was to this end that he sent his only begotten Son to be born for you, to live for you, and to die for you.  He wants this confidence for you because he loves you very much.  He wants you to be firm in your faith for at least these two reasons: