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:

Advent Jacob

Genesis 27:41–28:22 - Advent 3 Midweek - December 16, 2015
Jacob – Access to God

Jacob fulfilled his name and supplanted his older brother Esau.  [Jacob fulfilled his name.  We learned about this last week.  His name means supplanter, which is one who gets what belongs to another by taking that person’s place.  Ordinarily, this is a sin.  The ninth commandment teaches us that we should fear and love God so that we do not scheme to get our neighbor’s inheritance, or get it in a way that only appears right, but help and be of service to him in keeping it.  Well, Jacob schemed.  And so he got what his older brother thought was his.  But this was no ordinary circumstance.  God had already promised it to Jacob.  Jacob feared and loved God.  He was not scheming to get his brother’s inheritance.  He was scheming to get his own inheritance.  And he didn’t get it in a way that only appeared right.  Actually, it appeared quite wrong.  And yet Jacob was justified in claiming what God had already said was his.  God said it was his.  It was Esau who did not help and be of service to him in keeping it.]

He got the blessing from their father Isaac that Esau had wanted for himself.  Esau was furious.  He consoled himself by planning to kill his brother once their father was dead.  So Jacob fled.  By his determination to gain the blessing that by God’s promise was already his, Jacob became a stranger to the very land that God promised him.  By his eagerness to receive the promise of God, he became a fugitive from his own brother who had become his bitter enemy.  

Claiming God’s blessing by believing the gospel has a way of doing this.  The world, which has at least some sense of fairness and justice, like Esau, knows you don’t deserve the blessing you claim to have and enjoy.  You’re a sinner.  You know it.  They don’t know the half of it.  God knows all of it.  And yet you claim what before the world makes you look like a crook, like your father Jacob.  You claim what you don’t deserve – a blessing you were not born with.  What makes you better than they?  For presuming to have God’s favor despite your many faults, you’ll be called a hypocrite. 

But you don’t claim your own merit or righteousness, do you?  You claim the merit and righteousness of Christ, the Seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  His righteousness stands against all accusation.  It is your birthright, because when you were baptized, you received a new birth – not a birth holding onto the heal of your elder brother, but a birth that unites you forever to the eternal Son of God made flesh for you.  You have been buried and raised with him.  His inheritance is yours.  His innocence is yours.  You have his permission and command to lay hold of it and claim it and not let anyone take it from you.  Esau hated his brother because he couldn’t understand any of this.  So also you will be hated by those who don’t believe the gospel. 

Advent 3

Matthew 11:2-10 - Advent 3 - December 13, 2015
Decreasing & Increasing

St. John was more than a prophet.  He was sent by God to prepare the way for his Son, Jesus Christ.  He prepared for the Lord in two very basic ways. First he taught repentance.  He exposed the sin of those to whom the Lord was coming, that is, the people of Israel.  He exposed their love of money, their arrogance, their drunkenness and debauchery, their disobedience to parents and others in authority, their disdain for the poor, and their shameful ignorance of God’s holy word, which was their heritage.  He exposed their self-righteousness – especially that of their leaders and teachers who no longer directed God’s people to the promised Christ, but directed them instead to their own good works of obedience.  They pointed people to themselves as examples of righteousness to imitate rather than to the mercy long promised in the coming Savior. 

And this brings us to the other way in which John the Baptist prepared the way of the Lord.  After he showed people their sin through the law with its curse, he directed them to Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  He said, there is your blessing; there is the one who bears your curse.  Repent of your sin and look at what I am pointing to.  He is the very Lamb that Abraham told Isaac God would prepare for a sacrifice in his place.  He is the Lamb that was typified by the spotless lamb whose blood marked their doors when the angel of death passed over in Egypt.  He is the Lamb that all sacrifices that the priests ever offered in the temple always pointed to.