"You Are Safe Now; Rejoice in Eternity!" (Sermon on Luke 10:17-20) | September 29, 2024

Sermon Text: Luke 10:17-20
Date: September 29, 2024
Event: Festival of St. Michael and All Angels

Luke 10:17–20 (EHV)

The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name!”

18He told them, “I was watching Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19Look, I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. And nothing will ever harm you. 20Nevertheless, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names have been written in heaven.”

You Are Safe Now; Rejoice in Eternity!

The young child walks with his parents in a shopping center on a hectic day. The crowds are thick, and the adults are almost shoulder-to-shoulder, to say nothing of the young man whose head barely comes up to the adults’ hips. Suddenly, there’s panic. He looks up in the sea of people, and he’s no longer walking with Mom and Dad. Where did they go? How does he find them? And then he hears his name in a familiar voice and finds himself scooped up by one of his parents. Safe.

There are many minor festivals in the church year. We don’t celebrate all of them yearly; in a given year, we may only celebrate one or two in our congregation. These festivals center on most of the twelve disciples; the apostle Paul; John the Baptist; Mary, Jesus’ mother; Joseph, Jesus’ earthly caretaker; Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus’ close followers; and even celebrating the first reading of the Augsburg Confession, one of the standard Lutheran confessions of faith.

These minor festivals tend to focus on people and other earthly events, yet they are not praise of the person or event itself; they praise God for his work done through these people or at these events. This is also true today on the minor festival of St. Michael and All Angels, where our focus is mainly on the spiritual forces that God uses as messengers and for our protection. We are not here to worship angels this morning—we are here to worship God for his love for us and, in a special way, to remember his protection given to us by this heavenly host.

Our Gospel for this morning helps to give us that focus because Jesus is directing the disciples away from the awe of the spiritual realm (and the power he had granted over it). He wants us primarily focused on what is eternally meaningful: rejoice that your names have been written in heaven. As we focus on God’s temporal promises and his work for us through the angels, we want to keep that in mind. Our primary awe should not be in what the angels do, but our awe should be centered in God’s love for us, the forgiveness he won for us by Jesus, and the fact that our eternal safety in heaven is secure.

Our brief Gospel for this morning comes at the end of Jesus sending out seventy-two of his followers to spread his good news in the towns he would travel to next in his earthly ministry. While Jesus is God, he limited himself during his time on earth so he was not always present everywhere. So, as is true for us, more people working meant more people hearing the message Jesus sent them to proclaim simultaneously and in different places.

The seventy-two come back, awestruck and excited to share what had happened: “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name!” Jesus had often driven demons out of possessed people, and these men discovered, as they went and met people suffering from that very affliction, that in Jesus’ name, they, too, were able to drive them out. Jesus gave them authority to trample … over all the power of the enemy, at least for a time.

Where would these demons have come from? Originally, what we now call angels and demons were one unified group. While God never pinpoints for us exactly when, he created the angels at some point during those six, twenty-hour days of creation. And then, at a moment that is not narratively described in the Bible, a whole group of those angels staged a rebellion against God, and the lead architect of that rebellion was Satan. It seems that the chief issue Satan had was that of pride and conceit—he wanted to be recognized as greater than he was; he wanted to be recognized as God’s equal. So Satan stages a coup of sorts, which fails; so it goes when anyone wages war against the almighty God, the angels included.

Satan is jealous of God’s power and status. It seems possible that Satan is also envious of the standing that mankind has in God’s creation, so one of his first goals after he fell was to get the precious crown of this new world to fall as well. He brings to Eve and Adam the temptation that caused him to fall: The serpent said to the woman, “You certainly will not die. In fact, God knows that the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4-5). In other words, “God is holding out on you! You, too, can be like God, even have equal status with God. Just take the fruit and eat!”

After the fall, we can see the clear difference between angels and human beings in God’s heart and perhaps understand Satan’s envy a bit better. Peter describes the fall of the angels and God’s judgment on them this way: “God did not spare angels when they sinned but handed them over to chains of darkness by casting them into hell, to be kept under guard for judgment” (2 Peter 2:4). In fact, hell did not exist until the angels fell; it was not part of God’s perfect creation. Jesus describes hell as the eternal fire, which is prepared for the Devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). Do you see the difference between us and the angels? The angels sin? Boom. Hell. What happened when Adam and Eve sinned, though? God promised a Savior; God promised that he himself would rescue his people from their fallen state. That is an immeasurable difference.

Back to our Gospel, when Jesus says, “I was watching Satan fall like lightning from heaven,” the tense of that verb is very important. This is not a description of Satan’s rebellion and being cast out of God’s presence near the beginning of creation; Jesus is describing a current event, something he was just doing. As the seventy-two were going out, Jesus was then watching Satan fall. So, what caused this fall, this weakening of Satan’s power?

To answer that, we need to understand Satan’s true purpose. He wants us in hell. But as we noted above, he doesn’t want us in hell to rule over us; he wants us in hell to suffer like he will suffer. He wants us in hell because he knows it hurts God to have the precious crown of his creation separated from him forever. And so what undermines Satan’s power? What causes him to stumble and fall dramatically like lightning toppling out of the sky? God’s Word—specifically, the gospel message proclaiming the forgiveness of sins in Jesus.

As the seventy-two proclaimed that God’s forgiveness, which had long been promised, was now present among them, they were undermining Satan’s power. They were causing his plans to stumble and fall because, in sharing that message, the Holy Spirit was working faith in the hearts of those who heard. People who God brought from unbelief to faith were snatched out of that slavery to sin and death; people whose faith was strengthened were put even farther away from Satan’s eternally destructive goals. The weapon most effective against the old evil foe is the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.

So, we are safe from Satan’s attack because the Holy Spirit placed faith in us to trust Jesus’ forgiveness. When Satan or one of his cohorts would try to convince us that God doesn’t love us, that we are not forgiven, the words of Jesus’ promise and certainty of our status in his family is enough to send Satan toppling down the hill. Even if Satan were to appear in front of you in a gruesome, Hollywood version of demonic power, you could overcome him simply by stating who you are, “I am the baptized child of God.” Or, if even that seems too long, the name of your brother and Savior, “Jesus,” would be enough to send him scurrying away with his tail between his legs.

Not all of the angels rebelled against God; not all of this heavenly host followed Satan down his path of destruction. In fact, many angels are yet devoted to God and his will. We saw some of them with Elisha and his servant in our First Reading this morning. However, the primary role of the angels is more straightforward than even that narrative account might communicate.

When the term “angel” is used in the Bible, be it in Hebrew in the Old Testament (מַלְאָךְ, malak) or Greek in the New Testament (ἄγγελος, angelos), the primary meaning is the same: the angels are first and foremost messengers for God. We have many notable examples of this throughout Scripture. Angels were sent to bar the way to the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve fell to communicate that they were not allowed back into where the Tree of Life grew (Genesis 3:22-24). When God called Isaiah to be his prophet, Isaiah saw a vision of heaven when an angel announced that God had taken away the his sins (Isaiah 6:1-7). One of the few named angels in Scripture, Gabriel, is the messenger to Zechariah that he would be the father of John the Baptist (Luke 1:11-20) and to Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus (Luke 1:26-38).

But God attaches a special promise to these messengers. Not only will they communicate the messages that God sends them to deliver, but he also sends them on missions of protection, as we saw against the forces of Aram. As we sang earlier, God makes specific promises to his people in Psalm 91, “Yes, you, Lord, are my refuge! If you make the Most High your shelter, evil will not overtake you. Disaster will not come near your tent. Yes, he will give a command to his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. They will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone” (vv. 9-12).

Does that mean that the angels protect us from every possible harm? Well, if you’ve banged your head or skinned your knee recently, you know that, no, God doesn’t protect us from anything that could cause us pain. But in many ways that we cannot measure or even understand, God sends his angels to tend to, guard, and protect us. Were the angels involved in making it so the skinned knee wasn’t a broken leg? Were the angels engaged in ensuring that the incident on the road was just a fender-bender where no one was hurt rather than something tragic? We can’t say for sure, but we do have God’s promise that this is precisely the kind of work that he will send them out to do.

In our Second Reading, we heard about one of the visions from John’s Revelation. John looked up and saw a battle taking place in the sky. Michael (who seems to be a created angel in a leadership role among the angels) directs God’s forces against the ancient dragon, Satan, and his minions. This is not an account of the fall of Satan. Instead, this vividly depicts the battle waged at the cross, the battle won by God. It was the final battle in the war that Satan initiated both with his personal rebellion and especially at the tree in the Garden of Eden. God promised at that time that this serpent’s head would be crushed (Genesis 3:15), and here in this vision, we see that take place: The great dragon was thrown down—the ancient serpent, the one called the Devil and Satan, the one who leads the whole inhabited earth astray—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him (Revelation 12:9). As is the theme of all of the book of Revelation, so it is in this account: Jesus wins, therefore we win as well.

The declaration that follows the vision makes that understanding clear: Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser [a literal translation of the name “Satan”] of our brothers has been thrown down, the one who accuses them before our God day and night. They conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony (Revelation 12:10-11).

But if this is a depiction of the battle of the cross, if this war is between God and Satan, what role do the angels have in that? Undoubtedly, the angels didn’t suffer for our sins; the angels did not win forgiveness for us in their victory. Those blessings come entirely from Jesus; as was declared, mankind
conquered [Satan] because of the blood of the Lamb.

We have glimpses, little tastes in the Gospels, of the angels’ activity during this time. As Jesus was so distressed in the Garden of Gethsemane, pleading with his Father for another way to save us from our sins that his sweat was like drops of blood, we’re told that an angel came and tended to him before this confrontation began in earnest (Luke 22:43). As he rebuked Peter for using his sword to try to prevent his arrest, Jesus was clear that more than twelve legions of angels, more than 72,000 of them, stood ready to defend him if he wanted, but that was not the plan (Matthew 26:53).

But I believe the most prominent role that the angels played in this battle was like the seventy-two’s role in weakening Satan’s power in their preaching. What special role did some of the angels get assigned? On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women went to the tomb, carrying the spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb. When they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men stood by them in dazzling clothing. The women were terrified and bowed down with their faces to the ground. The men said to them, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has been raised! Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again?” Then they remembered his words (Luke 24:1-8). The angels’ power is seen most clearly here, not in a battle or protection or anything like that, but in their messenger role that day—Jesus is alive! He won!

So we can “ooh” and “ahh” over the power of the angels, the descriptions of their might, and their sometimes wild physical descriptions in the Bible. We can get shivers when we think of Satan and the other fallen angels, the demons, slinking around the world like prowling lions, looking to deceive, distort, and tempt us away from God. But all of that must be in service to the real story, the most important work God has done for you: your sins are forgiven. You are safe, not just now for a moment, but for eternity.

Let Jesus’ words to the seventy-two find a permanent home in your mind and heart, “Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names have been written in heaven.” At the end of Romans chapter 8, the apostle Paul gives what is essentially a commentary on Jesus’ words: We are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither things present nor things to come, nor powerful forces, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (vv. 37-39).

My brothers and sisters, God commends his angels concerning you to guard you now and will send them to bring you safely to his side on the last day because Jesus has paid for your every sin. Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names have been written in heaven. You are safe now! Rejoice for eternity! Amen.

"Be Great; Serve All" (Sermon on Mark 9:30-37) | September 22, 2024

Sermon Text: Mark 9:30–37
Date: September 22, 2024
Event: Proper 20, Year B

Mark 9:30–37 (EHV)

They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know this, 31because he was teaching his disciples. He told them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill him. But three days after he is killed, he will rise.”

32But they did not understand the statement and were afraid to ask him about it.

33They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” 34But they remained silent, because on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. 35Jesus sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he will be the last of all and the servant of all.” 36Then he took a little child and placed him in their midst. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, 37“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me, welcomes not just me but also him who sent me.”

Be Great; Serve All

We don’t live in a society that values service much. Sure, there was that window of time early in the pandemic where, as a society, we tried to be grateful for the people who served us, whether they were the first responders and medical professionals, folks making pizza and hamburgers, or those delivering orders from stores when we weren’t allowed to go in person. But it seems as if that has largely gone away in society, so we seem to be back to this unspoken (or spoken right out loud) hierarchy between those serving and those being served. There can be the impression that the person staying at the hotel outranks the one working the front desk or the one ordering the food is of greater importance than the one bringing it to the table.

Of course, that’s not what everyone thinks, and I hope that you’re not among the people who look down on those serving you. Yet, it wouldn’t surprise me. We all have a sinful nature that latches on to every opportunity to exalt self over everyone else. So, it would make sense if, at times, you might see yourself as “outranking” your fellow people. I know that line of thinking hides in me and can appear even if I hate it; maybe it’s familiar to you, too. As we saw in our Gospel this morning, it was occasionally present in the twelve disciples.

The theme of our worship this morning centers around this idea of service and its relationship to stature and importance, or even simply the view of self. If you serve should you consider yourself lowly? If you are served, should you consider yourself lofty? How should we view ourselves and our relationship to other people? What does it mean to be great? What does it mean to serve?

In our Gospel, we’re quickly approaching the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry; he’s making haste toward the cross. We’re only a chapter and a half away from Palm Sunday in Mark’s breezy narrative account. Jesus is clear and direct about what is coming, especially as his end draws ever closer: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill him. But three days after he is killed, he will rise. Despite being very upfront, this statement communicated ideas that the disciples didn’t understand and perhaps didn’t want to think about. Fear led them to keep silent rather than to ask for more clarification or detail. Perhaps no one wanted to admit out loud that they didn’t “get it,” so no one got it.

You might imagine the awkward silence around Jesus’ words as the group made their way through the region of Galilee to the town of Capernaum. But eventually, the uncomfortable silence is broken by some quiet squabbling. Jesus knew full well what was going on, but he wanted to create an environment to make this a teaching moment, so once they arrived at their destination, he asked them: “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they remained silent, because on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. They knew that their argument had not been the most pious and sanctified topic of discussion—in fact, just about as far from it as you can get!—so, in shame and guilt, they were quiet.

Jesus takes the lead, “If anyone wants to be first, he will be the last of all and the servant of all.” The one striving for the head spot, the most significant place, the most recognition, will find himself with none of it. If a person’s goal is to be “someone” in society, to be respected or adored, that will probably backfire tremendously. Consider a modern-day example—how many people long to be movie stars or famous singers and performers. And yet, how often don’t you hear of people who have had their lives ruined by that type of fame, that they despise it and hate it, that it might even lead to physical or mental illness, or even worse? If you have a moment this week, I recommend reading through the brief book of Esther in the Old Testament. The antagonist in that account, Haman, embodies Jesus’ warnings clearly; it is the downfall of someone who would stop at nothing to get recognition from others.

Now, if the president of the United States or the governor of California wanted to have dinner with you, you’d probably do some things to prepare. You’ll be hosting someone very important! Whether you agree with their political ideas or not, you will have an opportunity to have direct contact with them. Perhaps your ideas would stick in their mind! Maybe you could reinforce their resolve on some issue where you agreed, or get them to see your thought process in places where you don’t agree and enact some meaningful change!

But notice that hypothetical serving is at least a little bit self-serving. You’re serving, hoping to influence the political realm or at least to have a story to share with others. You’re serving, but you can get something out of it. But, Jesus says, that’s not service. What about serving someone who can’t pay you back, who offers little tangible things in return? Then he took a little child and placed him in their midst. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me, welcomes not just me but also him who sent me.”

Perhaps a parent taking care of a child now will mean the child can take care of the parent later, but what parent thinks that way? What parent would see their child’s needs and address them only because they hope to get something in return? Instead, the parent provides for the child because the parent loves the child. Does the parent “outrank” the child in the family? Sure. But even to think along those lines, the greater serves the lesser. And to welcome and serve the little child is as if we are welcoming and serving God himself.

Biblically speaking, “service” does not mean a lower status or position; “helper” does not signify someone lower than someone else. It’s not about position; it’s about attitude. How do I view others? How do I view myself? When God created our first parents, Adam and Eve, God described Eve as a “helper who is a suitable partner” (Genesis 2:18). But again, this helper and partner status is not about rank or importance. In fact, the Hebrew word God uses to describe Eve in Genesis, eyzer, is most often used in the Bible to describe God himself and his work for us; God is our helper.

Jesus’ sacrifice demonstrated this point perfectly. Jesus was the only one to have a claim of superiority. After all, he is God and man, perfect, without sin. Yet what does he do? He doesn’t go to a castle and have worldly and heavenly pomp bestowed on him. No, he goes to the cross to suffer the eternal punishment of hell because otherwise, you and I would have faced that for our sins.

Elsewhere, Jesus spells out this relationship between his people serving others and his serving the world, “You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It will not be that way among you. Instead whoever wants to become great among you will be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you will be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:25–28). His love for you prioritizes you even above his own life so that God himself bleeds and dies, not because he was powerless to stop it but because he wanted to do it because he wanted to save you and me.

Jesus served me. Do I outrank Jesus? Hardly! He is my Creator and Redeemer! He is my God! But his work is not linked to his status, his work is linked to his attitude to you and me, and that attitude is one driven by unilateral and selfless love for us.

So, that should be our approach to other people. We should seek out service rather than being served; we should reflect Jesus’ attitude in our lives, not the attitude of our selfish, sinful nature. But humility in our lives cannot and should not lead to self-loathing and self-hatred. To respect this direction from God, to not worry about myself as being the greatest, doesn’t mean that I have to think of myself as scum. God loves you and me and values you and me above everything that he created. Should we, in a misguided sense of humility, tell God that he is wrong for loving us or caring about us or even dying for us? May that never be!

Instead, let us seek the attitude that the apostle Paul spoke of, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility consider one another better than yourselves. Let each of you look carefully not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4). In our Second Reading, James urged us to be driven by heavenly wisdom—knowing that our sins are forgiven by a God who loves us—so that we can see selfish ambition as being what it really is: worldly, unspiritual, and demonic (James 3:15).

You, my brothers and sisters, are those who have been rescued by the selfless sacrifice of your Savior. You have forgiveness for every sin—even those sins of pride and selfish ambition—because Jesus lived perfectly for you and suffered hell in your place. You are free from the punishment of sin because Jesus took it on himself. You will be with him forever in heaven!

How can you reflect the love of God in how you love others? How can you find peace and satisfaction even if the world may not view you as the “most important” person in the room? How can you love yourself and others as the blood-bought souls that you are? Where has this been difficult for you? Where, my God’s grace, have you excelled in this?

These are all very personal, self-reflective questions. I cannot stand here and make a blanket proclamation to you all because we are all in different circumstances, positions, and situations. But you, this week, can take Jesus’ words and ponder them in your heart. You can look for ways to love and serve those around you in thanksgiving for the love and service God has given you. You can identify those haughty places of your heart that hate serving, bring them back to Jesus’ cross, and let him deal with them.

In Jesus’ death and resurrection, you see your actual status: you were worth the suffering and death of Jesus, the very blood of the Son of God. Take that status and let it empower and influence your decisions, attitudes, and actions this week until our Lord calls us home. Thanks be to God! Amen.

"Be Strong In the Lord" (Sermon on Ephesians 6:10-18) | September 15, 2024

Sermon Text: Ephesians 6:10-18
Date: September 15, 2024
Event: Proper 19, Year B

Ephesians 6:10-18 (EHV)

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God, so that you can stand against the schemes of the Devil. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13For this reason, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to take a stand on the evil day and, after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness fastened in place, 15and with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace tied to your feet like sandals. 16At all times hold up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the Evil One. 17Also take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18At every opportunity, pray in the Spirit with every kind of prayer and petition. Stay alert for the same reason, always persevering in your intercession for all the saints.

Be Strong in the Lord

Strength is a subjective concept. Maybe it’s objective on the bench press where the strongest person can lift the most. But what if that person who is physically strong cracks very quickly under pressure so that when they need that strength to help someone else, they can’t act? Are they still truly strong if that strength is never used? What if that person uses his strength at every opportunity rather than showing restraint? Are they truly strong if they can’t control their impulses?

How much of strength is optics? Can a leader who struggles in appearance and speech be strong even if they don’t appear that way in person or on camera? Can someone meek be considered strong when they are working tirelessly for the good of others? Is someone who replaces substance with emotion and passion to rile up people actually a strong leader, or just a manipulator?

Even the sentiment we might share with someone going through a tough time, “Be strong!” can be confusing. What do you mean by that? Don’t let things get you down? Maintain a positive attitude despite the circumstances around you? Identify where you need support and help, and go seek that out? Operate as if the bad things aren’t happening? Strength is subjective.

This morning, we have some examples of strength from God’s Word. We heard the classic (and narratively, one of my favorite) accounts from the Old Testament in the contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, where Elijah demonstrated unwavering faith and strength in God against the prophets of a false god. Jesus showed his power over even the demons his disciples lacked the strength to drive out. In our Second Reading, which is our focus for this morning’s meditation, we have Paul’s encouragement to put on the armor of God. So, what does it mean to truly be strong? And more to the point, what does it mean to be strong in the Lord?

We first need to establish that we are in a battle. But this battle is not against other people, our neighbors in the human race. We are not set against them; instead, we are at war with the forces of spiritual evil. Paul explained it this way: Put on the full armor of God, so that you can stand against the schemes of the Devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

This is important to remember in an increasingly polarized world. Never mind the upheaval that we find in politics, people pitting themselves or being pitted against each other. But think about things from a spiritual standpoint, of matters of faith and eternity. You don’t have to look very hard to find someone who doesn’t see eye to eye with you on who Jesus is and what he did, how important that is, or what it means to be a Christian. You don’t have to search very long to find someone who considers your faith foolish, your focus on eternal, spiritual things misguided, and your desire to share your faith with others manipulative. But, even as you find so many people set against you and your faith, your battle is not with them. Your battle is with those things that would lead them away from God’s truth and into these misguided beliefs.

However, the focus on other people is, in many ways, missing the true point. We want to be aware of where there is a threat to our own souls and faith in the attacks waged by these spiritual enemies. After all, we can’t help others if we are in need of help ourselves. And so as we walk through this life where spiritual battles rage around us and even inside of us, Paul has one clear direction: Put on the full armor of God.

Paul lists several pieces of this armor set, and this imagery likely originates in Isaiah chapter 59, where God’s intervention for his people is described this way: The truth is missing, and anyone who turns from evil makes himself prey. The Lord looked and saw something evil—there was no justice. He saw that there was no one. He was appalled that there was no one who could intervene. So his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness supported him. He clothed himself with righteousness like armor and wore a helmet of salvation on his head. He dressed in garments for vengeance, and he wrapped himself with zeal like a cloak. … Then a redeemer will come for Zion and for those in Jacob who turn from rebellion. This is the declaration of the Lord (Isaiah 59:15-17, 20). God himself puts on the helmet of salvation, cloaks himself with righteousness, and serves as a Redeemer for those who had turned away from him.

Jesus was that armor-bearing Redeemer, although he didn’t look well-equipped for his battle. Stripped of his garments rather than decked out in armor, nailed to a cross by his enemies, he looked like he had lost the battle before it started. But, as is true for us, so it was true for Jesus: his battle was not against flesh and blood. He didn’t lose the battle against the Jewish leaders or the Roman authorities because he was never actually in conflict with them. Instead, he was making the ultimate stand against the Devil. There at the cross, our Redeemer won despite the apparent loss. His death paid for all sin, and his victory would take just a few days to prove when his tomb was empty because he rose from the dead.

So now we take out stand not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness. The battle that rages around us is a battle for our souls. Satan is trying to pry us away from God, to get us distracted from him, his love, and his forgiveness so that we end up losing our souls the same way he lost the battle with God. So he cowardly launches his flaming arrows of temptation at us—both to sin against God’s will and to doubt God’s goodness to us. Everything that comes from our spiritual enemies is meant, one way or another, to undermine our confidence in God, to separate us from him so that we turn our back on his forgiveness.

This battle may not always feel like a battle. Perhaps we are being pried away from God by luxuries and joys in this life, so we start greatly valuing entertainment, leisure, work we love, or anything else that captures our imagination. These things that, at first blush, feel like blessings, not danger, may lead us to value them more than we value God, to seek them out rather than be concerned about what God says and has done.

Other times, this doesn’t feel like a battle because it feels like we’ve already lost, as our spiritual enemies use fear and desperation for things in this life to pry us away from the comfort of God’s love. Anxiety goes to the extreme, fears and worries sink us into deep depression, and we may approach this life as if the battle is already over and we lost because we’ve stopped considering what God has done and can only see where we have failed.

So whether we feel it or not, see it or not, acknowledge it or not, this battle rages around us; it is enflamed within us. And as a result, we might speak of the fighting as if the outcome is uncertain. Two enter, and one will leave. It’s us against Satan, us against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. But that gives our spiritual enemies far, far too much credit. It ignores what Jesus has already accomplished. Our confidence is not that Jesus will win; it’s that Jesus did win. As a result, our confidence is not that we will win, but because of Jesus’ victory in our place, we have won. This isn’t actually a contest anymore; Jesus won! We win!

How would knowing the outcome change the way you feel about entering a contest? If you knew your team would win the championship, would you sweat the ups and downs of the playoffs? If you knew your nation would win the war, would you despair in the ebb and flow of the battle? Knowing the outcome would make weathering the storms of conflict much easier. There might still be times of distress, especially if the inevitable end slipped your mind briefly, but you could always return to the certainty of the outcome you already know for comfort.

Such is the case with these spiritual battles. Jesus already won; the conflict just has to wind down. Satan and his cohorts will rage and scream and act like they have not lost; they will try to get you to think that they have not already been defeated, but they have been. They die defeated at the foot of your Redeemer.

And your Redeemer does not leave you alone. He gives you his armor to wear to weather the storms of Satan’s death throes. Stand, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness fastened in place, and with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace tied to your feet like sandals. At all times hold up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the Evil One. Also take the helmet of salvation. All of those pieces of armor serve as defense, not offense. You won’t attack anyone with a helmet or try to whip them with a belt. That’s not going to be effective at all. But that belt will hold your clothing together safely, the plate armor will protect your vital organs, the shield will render the enemy’s assaults worthless, and the helmet will protect your head.

This ultimate defense is what God provides. He doesn’t promise that we will not face trouble, hardship, or sorrow, but he does promise that they will not eternally and mortally wound us. Satan is not able to drag us away from God. Like a dog on a chain, he is limited, and like a violent criminal awaiting sentencing, he will be locked away. God is our sure and certain defense. To use a slightly different picture, we might call our God a mighty fortress.

But there is one piece of this armor set that is for offense. We are to take … the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. The one tool, the one weapon we have to ward off all the ill of this life, is the only one we need—God’s Word. God’s Word is the certainty of our salvation—it tells us of Jesus’ already-completed victory. God’s Word is the thing that Satan cannot stand against. James encourages us, “Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Jesus himself met Satan’s head-on temptations with the promises of God from his Word and stood his ground perfectly (see Matthew 4). So, too, you and I have that sword in hand, ready at all times, to ward off the attacks of our spiritual enemies. And if we look at the description of the other pieces of the defensive armor: truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation—all these, too, flow from God’s Word. God’s Word is for us both offense and defense, unbreakable and undefeatable in both uses.

Remember where we started? What is strength? How can we be strong in the Lord? His Word. Clinging to his promises, clinging to the work he’s done for us, allowing your weak self to find strength in God’s almighty power that forgives your sins and rescues you from all doubt—that is strength.

Personally, I feel like every day I understand the father speaking to Jesus in our Gospel a little bit better, not as a parent, but as a person, “I do believe. Help me with my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). This is how and where God tends to that unbelief and doubt in all of us: his Word. He wraps us in the armor of his protection and assures us of his promises to make our way through this spiritual battlefield. The end is certain; the end is victory in our Savior, Jesus Christ.

So, my brothers and sisters, today, this week, the rest of this year, and until the Lord calls you home, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. How? Put on God’s armor. Amen.

"God Will Come and Save You" (Sermon on Isaiah 35:4-7a) | September 8, 2024

Sermon Text: Isaiah 35:4-7a
Date: September 8, 2024
Event: Proper 18, Year B

Isaiah 35:4-7a (EHV)

Tell those who have a fearful heart:
Be strong.
Do not be afraid.
Look! Your God will come with vengeance.
With God’s own retribution, he will come and save you.

5Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,
and the ears of the deaf will be unplugged.
6The crippled will leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy.
Waters will flow in the wilderness,
and streams in the wasteland.
7The burning sand will become a pool,
and in the thirsty ground there will be springs of water.

God Will Come and Save You

“How are you doing?” We’ve all had that question asked of us, but depending on the context, the answer can be very, very different, even if asked by different people on the same day. If it’s small talk with the cashier at the grocery store, a simple “Good” or “Fine” might come out. But if you’re sitting with a trusted friend, a dear family member, a counselor, therapist, or pastor, the answer might be just a bit… more. It can be terrifying to be open and honest about how we’re really doing, what we’re really feeling, and only in the safest places might we feel secure enough to be vulnerable and honestly share our hearts.

Why are we hesitant to share our fears? Why are we fearful of letting people know what is really going on in our hearts and minds? Maybe it’s shame—we know that the way we’re thinking or the attitudes we’re holding on to are wrong, and we don’t want to be rebuked, even as we might desperately need support to help make some changes. Maybe it’s fear—how will people judge me, or what will they think of me if I let them know what’s happening inside me? Maybe it’s protection, either protection for self or protection for others—if I share what’s really going on between me and that other person, will I hurt the person’s reputation? Or what will the person I’m talking to think about me?

What does my fear or apprehension or anxiety or depression or whatever say about my trust in God? Can someone really be a believer and wrestle with any of those things? Don’t they all, in their own way, betray a lack of faith in God, or at least a faith that is frighteningly weak? Would any true believer, any true Christian, ever have thoughts or feelings like that?

This morning, we will spend some time with a few verses from the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah’s book is one of both judgment and peace, harm and restoration. We might know many of the rich gospel promises in his book: A champion is promised, born, astonishingly, of a virgin. He calls himself our Redeemer and reminds us that he is the one who formed us even in the womb. He promises that he will be pierced and crushed to save us from our sins.

But a significant portion of Isaiah’s words also speak God’s condemnation on the world's nations and even God’s own people. He rebukes their hardheartedness and their rebellion. We heard Jesus quote Isaiah last week, saying that his people paid him lip service but did not serve him with their hearts. Isaiah is an Old Testament book overflowing with both law and gospel, God’s anger with sin and his mercy in sending a Savior to rescue us.

Chapter 35, from which our First Reading is drawn, comes near the end of an extended section of law in Isaiah. In fact, while not entirely law, most of the book up to this point is heavy condemnation. Chapters 13 through 23 call out judgment against many different nations on the earth, and chapters 23-35 are primarily focused on a more general judgment upon the earth for sin. It’s necessary to hear but difficult. Consider just these verses from the chapter before our reading, “The Lord is angry with all the nations, and he is furious with all their armies. He has condemned them to destruction. He has handed them over for slaughter. Their fallen bodies will lie unburied, and the stench of their corpses will linger. The mountains will flow with their blood.” (Isaiah 34:2-3). That’s not exactly the pick-me-up we might hope for from God’s Word.

But then, chapter 35 begins with a different tone. It speaks of gladness on the earth where there had been so much destruction proclaimed. And there is a direct command from God in the verse just before our reading, “Strengthen the weak hands, and make the shaky knees steady” (Isaiah 35:3). If the wrath and judgment of God made you afraid, here is God coming to strengthen and uphold you.

And so then our reading begins with pure comfort, “Tell those who have a fearful heart: Be strong. Do not be afraid. Look! Your God will come with vengeance. With God’s own retribution, he will come and save you.” There are still some harsh, condemning words: vengeance, retribution. But these are in your favor, not against you: he will come and save you. This vengeance and retribution are against those who threaten you, against those who are your enemies, or perhaps even more directly, against those who are God’s enemies.

Why would our knees be weak? Why would we have a fearful heart when considering the judgment of God? Because we know who we are. We know that, by nature, we stand as those deserving of this vengeance and retribution. Our sin makes us God’s enemies. So when you hear about God’s wrath and anger over sin, your conscience loudly (and correctly) screams, “This is you! He’s mad at you! He’s coming for you!”

So you, by nature, are the enemy of the almighty God. We asked earlier if fear or apprehension or anxiety or depression would ever have any part in the Christian’s heart. And here we can say resoundingly, yes! When you know what you are by nature, when you know what you deserve, who wouldn’t have their knees buckle? Whose hands wouldn’t shake like leaves? You are held accountable for sin that you can do nothing about by a Judge who has no lack of power or resources to carry out his just punishment.

Then what, in all the world, would there be to strengthen these hands and bring stability to knocking knees? What could possibly make us confident, not fearful, in God’s presence? What could make such a change that we would go from fearful despair and hopeless depression to confidence and joy? What could ever change this fearful heart in us?

God illustrates this change in the latter verses of our reading. Here, the gospel images are a total reversal from bad to good: Blind eyes seeing, deaf ears hearing, the crippled dancing, the mute singing, and where there is just dryness and desolation, there will be life-giving water. What had been broken is fixed; what had been a disaster is now a blessing. This is the change God works when he works for us.

In our Gospel for this morning, we saw Jesus literally doing a bit of this as he opened the ears of the deaf man. “Ephphatha!” (Mark 7:34). Likewise, Jesus gave Peter the ability to help that man who was crippled from birth, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I will give you. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!” (Acts 3:6). Jesus’ mission was not to simply work healing miracles like this, and the promise in Isaiah was not for someone who would heal these physical ailments and provide physical water. As we heard Jesus speaking of himself as the Bread of Life for weeks in our previous Gospel readings, these promises also point to spiritual rather than physical concerns.

Because that sinful nature leaves us blind, deaf, mute, and crippled spiritually. More than that, sin causes spiritual death so that we are left not just in a bad spot or in a difficult situation but as helpless as a corpse. Our sin means eternal death in hell, unless God intervenes, unless God saves. And what is God’s promise to you? He will come and save you.

Jesus took up this reversal work in full at the cross. There, God suffered for the sins you and I committed against him. The punishment that brought us peace was whipped into his back and pierced through his hands and feet, pinning him to that cross. When God the Father abandoned God the Son, there was the truest punishment we deserved, which Jesus took in our place. There was the inevitable judgment of our sins, but God himself suffered it instead of us in the most baffling of reversals.

Everything changes because Jesus paid for every sin—even sins of doubt, fear, weakness, and lack of trust in him. Spiritual blindness to spiritual sight: look at your Savior crucified yet risen from the dead! Spiritual deafness to spiritual hearing of his gracious words, “I forgive you.” Spiritual lameness to spiritual strength, healed and empowered to move by God’s love and mercy. Spiritual muteness to spiritual shouting praises to the God who saves. Spiritual desolation to spiritual water, raised from spiritual death in our sins to eternal life by God’s gracious gift.

Do the thoughts of fearing God, depression over what is to come, and so forth make sense? Certainly. But, my dear sister, my dear brother, you need not be controlled by them because the one who died and was raised is greater than all—even greater than the thoughts and feelings of your mind and heart. When your heart is overwhelmed with guilt that doesn’t feel like even a loving God could forgive, call out your heart’s lies or at least its misunderstanding. When Satan whispers to your mind that God could never love or forgive someone like you, send him and his lies and deception packing. You, after all, are a baptized child of God; Satan knows nothing about God’s forgiveness.

We were in a desperate, helpless, and hopeless place, but the one who has done everything well (Mark 7:37) certainly accomplished your soul’s salvation well. It is finished, complete. There is nothing for you to pay. So my dear friends in Jesus, let your fearful hearts find rest in your Savior’s love and work for you. That work will not mean the end of sorrow and hardship in this life—sin will always be present with us on this side of heaven—but it does mean peace with God forever. It also means that God stands by you every moment of every day, no matter how trying and difficult the circumstances, to make even earthly things work out for your eternal good.

We don’t need to fear God or the future because our God is a God of love and forgiveness, and the future is as certain as Christ crucified and risen from the dead. Be strong. Do not be afraid. Look! Your God will come with vengeance. With God’s own retribution, he will come and save you. Amen.

"Joyful Service Comes from Within" (Sermon on Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23) | September 1, 2024

Sermon Text: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
Date: September 1, 2024
Event: Proper 17, Year B

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 (EHV)

The Pharisees and some of the experts in the law came from Jerusalem and gathered around Jesus. 2They saw some of his disciples eating bread with unclean (that is, unwashed) hands. 3In fact, the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they scrub their hands with a fist, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions they adhere to, such as the washing of cups, pitchers, kettles, and dining couches. 5The Pharisees and the experts in the law asked Jesus, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders? Instead they eat bread with unclean hands.”

6He answered them, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites. As it is written:

These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

7They worship me in vain, teaching human rules as if they were doctrines.

8“You abandon God’s commandment but hold to human tradition like the washing of pitchers and cups, and you do many other such things.”

14He called the crowd to him again and said, “Everyone, listen to me and understand. 15There is nothing outside of a man that can make him unclean by going into him. But the things that come out of a man are what make a man unclean.

21In fact, from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual sins, theft, murder, 22adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, unrestrained immorality, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness. 23All these evil things proceed from within and make a person unclean.”

Joyful Service Comes from Within

Cause and effect and correlation can be tricky to figure out. What is caused by something else and what happens along side it? For instance, since our family moved here in 2012, there have been zero Bengal tiger attacks in Belmont. Now, I don’t want to take credit for that, but it is interesting that our living here has coincided with zero tiger incidents, isn’t it?

Of course, that’s ridiculous. But some things are harder to tell. Did that new, experimental drug really help that person’s disease, or would they have gotten better on their own, and they just happened to be taking the medicine while their body did the work it would have done anyway? Did that questionable fast food burger make you sick, or did you pick up a stomach virus somewhere else along the way?

We can ask related and even more difficult questions about spiritual things. Did this thing happen to me because I did that other thing? Is God upset with me, so he’s letting trouble come my way? Are these positive things in my life because of my devotion to God? What is cause? What is effect? And what just is?

This morning, Jesus has an opportunity to address the Pharisees’ concerns and help them to see the true origin point not only of sin but also of proper, thankful, joyful service to God. Our problems come from the inside, not the outside, and once God has purified us from sin, our thankful life also comes from within us.

We’re in the second “half” of Jesus’ ministry, where his earthly popularity is waning, and more than ever before, everything is heading toward the cross. As a result, Jesus is increasingly more direct and blunt both with his disciples and those who are opposed to him. This morning, Jesus very directly confronted a sinful problem and misunderstanding that the Pharisees had.

A crew of religious leaders, some of the Pharisees and some of the scribes (who were experts in the law), came up from Jerusalem to where Jesus was teaching. They were continually looking for reasons to discredit Jesus in the eyes of the people so that either the people would stop following him and this nuisance would just disappear on its won, or they might concoct some “justifiable” way to get rid of him. And so on this opportunity, this group zeroes in on traditions, or in Jesus’ group’s case, lack thereof. The Pharisees and some of the experts in the law came from Jerusalem and gathered around Jesus. They saw some of his disciples eating bread with unclean (that is, unwashed) hands. … The Pharisees and the experts in the law asked Jesus, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders? Instead they eat bread with unclean hands.”

There was a tradition among the leaders and forefathers of the people that, before you eat, you gave your hands a ceremonial cleansing. This had little to do with hygiene in the modern sense of that term (although, we certainly see some hygienic benefit for this tradition) and it had more to do with being having cermonially clean hands so that the food you ate would also be ceremonially clean. Without that, you might pollute yourself spiritually by eating unclean food, which brought with it all sorts of other challenges and requirements in the ceremonial law and in the traditions of the people.

What’s the issue here? The leaders’ question to Jesus is, “Why do you let your disciples sin by allowing them to eat without doing this traditional ceremonial washing?” They were equating man’s traditions with God’s commands. And Jesus, using the words of the prophet Isaiah, condemns them for that: These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They worship me in vain, teaching human rules as if they were doctrines.

Jesus is really getting at the heart here. For the Pharisees and other religious leaders of the day, the widespread consensus was that it was enough to look good, but they would often ignore the heart. If the lips said the right thing, the heart's motivations didn’t matter. If you were pious and upright by all outward appearances, that must be what you were.

But this is a legalistic mindset that presumes we can be right with God through our conduct. Even if we could control our words and actions perfectly (which you and I both know well we cannot), there is still the problem of our sinful hearts. Even doing good things to make God happy with us betrays a total misunderstanding of our relationship with God and why we would do things God deems to be “good.”

Our natural state is as sinners at war with God. We are by nature not honoring God with our lips, but indeed, our hearts are from him. We bring God’s wrath down on ourselves in this hostile conflict with the Almighty. Because God is a just God, our sin needs to be punished; God would violate who he is if he just turned a blind eye to our disobedience. And so there is no escaping the punishment for sin, and no matter how good we might try to look on the outside, we will never be perfect on the inside.

And so, the principle issue we have is not so much the sinful actions we commit or sinful words we say, but the origin point, the cause of those sinful words and actions: our corrupted hearts. Jesus describes who we are by nature: “Everyone, listen to me and understand. There is nothing outside of a man that can make him unclean by going into him. But the things that come out of a man are what make a man unclean. In fact, from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual sins, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, unrestrained immorality, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and make a person unclean.”

What is Jesus’ point? Your traditions are worthless because a ceremonial splash in the water does not fix the true source of your uncleanness. Dirty hands didn’t make you unclean, nor even the things you eat, but the spring of spiritual corruption and poison is deep in your hearts. So, if our lives, actions, and words are being corrupted at the very source, if our very motivation is being poisoned by sin, there will be nothing we can do to change that status unless that corruption is removed, unless the spring of raw sewage that bubbles up from inside of us is purified.

Jesus wanted them to see this because until they could see the corruption of their hearts for what it was, they would never understand the purification he was bringing. They had to see themselves as God sees them—hopelessly lost sinners—rather than as the models of good living they thought they were.

The same is true for us. Jesus has very little value for us if we don’t recognize our own complete corruption by sin. Not realizing that is what produces ideas like, “I can be good enough to make God happy with me!” or “I’m not so bad! In fact, I’m mostly good!” This mindset that so easily creeps in is the exact one that Jesus is trying to purge from the hearts and minds of the religious leaders.

No matter how hard we try, we cannot make God happy by how we live our lives. Because God’s requirements are not “do your best” or “give it your all” or “be better than most other people.” God’s requirement is perfection. You and I have not been perfect, and the sinful hearts inside of us prevent us from even making it possible to be perfect from this moment forward—not that that would be what God was looking for anyway.

But Jesus is not trying to get the religious leaders of his day and us today to see this corruption and despair. He wants us to see how we can do nothing about this cause of sin so we can rely on him completely. Because this is the good news that Jesus came to bring and the work he came to do. Yes, God’s justice would never be satisfied if sin was not punished, but God’s love would also never be satisfied if we were condemned to hell with no hope. And so, from the fall into sin in the Garden of Eden onward, God’s plan and purpose was always a rescue mission—to save us from hell, to save us from ourselves.

And that’s what Jesus did. He put his face toward the cross, scorned the shame that would come from it, and endured what you and I deserved. In his mercy, Jesus took our place. The one who had no internal corruption and sinful nature suffered hell as if he were the only sinner that ever lived. Because he lived and died for us, our sins are forgiven. Despite this spring of poisonous sin inside of ourselves, we are healed and made whole again. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead proves that he paid for all our sins and that we will be with him forever in eternal life.

And now, we do what is right, not to try to make God happy with us but because he is happy with us. We live lives that honor God, not to try to make him love us but because he loves us. We seek what is good and avoid what is evil, not to try to prove our worth to God but because he values us so much. The cause of sin was internal, and the cause of joyful service to God is also from within because he has purified us. We obey God in joy, not fear; we follow God’s law in thanksgiving, not terror. As Paul said in our Second Reading, “To everyone who believes, Christ is the end of the law, resulting in righteousness” (Romans 10:4). The law’s purpose of making us right with God has long since become impossible. Its purpose now is to guide our thankful living to God.

So, my brothers and sisters, recognize that the source of your sin doesn’t come from things around you—the company you keep, the things you read, or even this wildly corrupt world in which we live. No, your sin stems from inside of you, from the sinful nature you were born with—conceived with! But see that your service to God also comes from within—from the joy that God instilled in you by forgiving all your sins and assuring you that you’ll be in heaven. Let us not go through the motions of looking like we’re living a Christian life; let us embrace and value the complete forgiveness Jesus gives and let that cause our lives to be ones of joyful service to him.

Lord, keep this motivation ever in our hearts and minds. Thank you for your patience, love, and forgiveness. Amen.

"Jesus, Jesus, Only Jesus!" (Sermon on John 6:51-69) | August 25, 2024

Sermon Text: John 6:51–69
Date: August 25, 2024
Event: Proper 16, Year B

John 6:51–69 (EHV)

“I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

52At that, the Jews argued among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

53So Jesus said to them, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. 54The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the Last Day. 55For my flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink. 56The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like your fathers ate and died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”

59He said these things while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. 60When they heard it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching! Who can listen to it?”

61But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, asked them, “Does this cause you to stumble in your faith? 62What if you would see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh does not help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 64But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning those who would not believe and the one who would betray him. 65He said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is given to him by my Father.”

66After this, many of his disciples turned back and were not walking with him anymore. 67So Jesus asked the Twelve, “You do not want to leave too, do you?”

68Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

Jesus, Jesus, Only Jesus!

What is your most valuable tool? Maybe it’s a trusty hammer you’ve had since forever. It’s well-made, solid, and will probably outlive you. Maybe it’s a set of cookware that is made to last generations—it cooks well, cleans well, and properly maintained, could probably be an heirloom in your family. Maybe it’s something a bit more ephemeral and temporary but very useful. Maybe it’s a cell phone that keeps you in touch with people near and far away. Maybe a computer allows you to do your necessary work and do things to unwind and relax.

But no matter how useful any given tool is, you would be hard-pressed to get rid of everything else and rely on that one thing. That hammer might be awesome, but it won't do much good when it comes time to cut something. And trying to drive that nail with your laptop? That’s not going to end well.

For the better part of the summer, we’ve been with the crowds around Jesus’ miracle of feeding more than 5,000 people. In our Gospel readings, we’ve seen the people’s helpless reality like sheep without a shepherd, Jesus’ overwhelming compassion for them, and then the crowd’s misguided hope, thinking that Jesus was providing what they wanted—physical food—not what they needed—eternal life.

This morning’s Gospel is the culmination of all of this. This conflict comes to a head as Jesus stresses why he had actually come and faces the fallout for that. This morning, we will ideally learn the lesson that the Twelve did and showed through Peter’s confession: that when it comes to any needs, there’s one tool, there’s one solution for us: Jesus, Jesus, only Jesus!

In our Gospel, we pick up exactly where we left off last week, repeating verse 51, where Jesus said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The people listening were really confused about what Jesus was talking about. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

Then, Jesus goes further and gets more graphic in his depiction. He says, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the Last Day. For my flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink.” Now, that sounds grotesque, and you might well sympathize with the people who reacted negatively to this.

Because what does that mean? Do we have to eat and drink Jesus' flesh and blood? This is the sort of thing that was forbidden by the law that God gave to his people when it came to animals for food. They weren't to eat raw meat but to cook it. They weren't to leave the blood in it, but to drain it out. And this is to say nothing of the raw horror of thinking about what it means to ingest parts of another human being.

Jesus here is not speaking about literal physical eating and drinking. He says, “My flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” This is a picturesque (albeit alarmingly graphic) way for Jesus to describe what it means to receive him, to believe in him. You're so connected to him for your spiritual needs that you might as well be gnawing on his flesh and drinking his blood that he would dwell in you wholly like food and drink dwell in you after you've swallowed it. Jesus is very clear about the results of this receiving, this eating and drinking: Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like your fathers ate and died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”

Physical food and drink come and go. That’s not what Jesus is offering. This is not physical food, something to chew with the teeth and swallow. This is only something that can be received by faith.

The people are not pleased with the direction of this conversation. When they heard it, many of Jesus's disciples said, “This is a hard teaching! Who can listen to it?” The people who were following Jesus wanted something easy. They wanted a solution that made sense to them, a solution that they had come up with. And their thought was, “Hey, if we just have an unending supply of physical food, things will be good.”

But Jesus knew that wasn't true. Even if one did have an unending supply of physical food, death would still come. And with death comes judgment. And judgment because of sin means that we stand condemned before God. No, we don't need a solution to the problem of physical hunger and thirst; we need a solution to the problem of spiritual hunger and thirst. And when meeting those needs, Jesus says, "The only thing you get is me." There's no alternative path. There's no way for anyone to do these things on his own. We need Jesus. Jesus is all we get. And Jesus is all we need.

Jesus says, Does this cause you to stumble in your faith? What if you would see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh does not help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. It becomes very clear to the crowd gathered around Jesus that he won't do what they want. No amount of arguing will lead Jesus to give them more to eat.

This is where Jesus' earthly popularity dropped off a cliff. Many of his disciples turned back and were not walking with him anymore.  Jesus lost followers when he presented himself as the sole thing they needed, and they needed to be more focused on the spiritual than the physical. He was the sole thing that they would get from him and the only thing that they truly needed, but it didn't meet their expectations, so off they went.

Not much has changed in the intervening 2,000 years because the message from Jesus is still the same. He's all you get. Truly, he's all you need. But what is it for you that pulls you to turn away from Jesus? What causes you to think, "Ah, this Jesus is not really worth it. This faith is not something I want to dedicate myself to. This is a hard teaching. This is harsh. Jesus is stubborn. He's not going to do what I want him to do. Who could stand to listen to him?”

This will vary wildly among each of us here this morning. Maybe it is some command from Jesus when he says that something that I want to be right is wrong or something that I want to be wrong is fine. Maybe it is dissatisfaction with my lot in life, the reality of where I am, the struggles I have to deal with, and the crosses I have to bear. Maybe you're not dealing with physical hunger like the crowds, but maybe you're really, really tempted to withdraw from Jesus because he's just not doing what you want him to do. He's not making this part of your life better. He's not bringing healing to that loved one. He's not bringing to fruition what I think should be done in my life. And if this is how it will be as a follower of Jesus, it's really, really easy for me to say, "You know what? Enough is enough. I can't do this anymore. I'm done." And to turn back and to not walk with Jesus anymore.

There may be some immediate gains by doing that from our human perspective. Maybe I’m happier ignoring Jesus and seeking my own will and joys. By turning away from Jesus, I might find some temporal joy, some earthly pleasure, some way to satisfy the longings of my heart. But if I do that, what have I just traded away?

Not only do I say thanks but no thanks to Jesus in terms of the day-to-day things of life, but I also say thanks but no thanks to Jesus when it comes to his forgiveness. Unless I eat that flesh and drink that blood, I have no part with him. Unless the Spirit-given conviction, trust, and faith in Jesus are alive here, in my heart, I don't benefit from what he did at all.

As the crowds were leaving, Jesus turned to the twelve and asked them, "You do not want to leave too, do you?" What is Jesus asking? “What are you looking for? Is it me, or is it something else?”

Peter knows that there’s no solution besides Jesus. That was clearly illustrated for Peter just hours before when he asked Jesus to call him out to walk on the surface of the Sea of Galilee. Everything went wonderfully when he was focused on Jesus, but when other things took Peter’s attention, he began to sink into the water. The disciples that were leaving were looking at the wind and the waves of this life and saying, "I don't think Jesus is going to do what I want him to do." They were taking their eyes off of him and found that they were content to fight their own way through the stormy sea.

But again, Peter knows that there's no help outside of Jesus. It is Jesus, Jesus, only Jesus. “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

This trade, giving up the eternal for the temporal, is not a wise move. We don't want to do this. Jesus, and Jesus alone, has the words of eternal life. Jesus is all that you get, my brothers and sisters. He's all you need, and by God's grace, he is all you want. Because here is your God, who, yes, provides for you physically (even if it might not always be precisely what you or I want). But more to the point, here is the one who provides for you for eternity.

God was not content to let us eat bread in this life for a time and then die and face the punishment for our sins in hell. And so Jesus took our place, becoming this bread of life, as he said, by offering and giving his flesh for the life of the world. And in that sacrifice, Jesus pays for your sins and mine, for every time that you and I have wanted to turn tail and go away.

Every time I have sought to serve another master, whether my own whims and desires, money, power, fame, accomplishments, peace, or security in this life. All of those times that for me, it has not been Jesus, Jesus, only Jesus, that those are sins for which Jesus died, sins that are gone.

And now the Spirit gives life to you and to me by connecting us to the bread of life. By his Word, and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Spirit creates and sustains our faith in Jesus so that you and I have what we need. And by God's grace, we have what we want because we have Jesus, Jesus, only Jesus!

Lord keep us ever focused on you and content that no matter what happens in this life, we are safe with you forever. Amen.

"Learn from God’s 'Culinary' Wisdom" (Sermon on John 6:35-51) | August 19, 2024

Sermon Text: John 6:35–51
Date: August 19, 2024
Event: Proper 15, Year B

John 6:35–51 (EHV)

“I am the Bread of Life,” Jesus told them. “The one who comes to me will never be hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36But I said to you that you have also seen me, and you do not believe. 37Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out. 38For I have come down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me, but raise them up on the Last Day. 40For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life. And I will raise him up on the Last Day.”

41So the Jews started grumbling about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42They asked, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? So how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

43Jesus answered them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves. 44No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the Last Day. 45It is written in the Prophets, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46I am not saying that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He is the one who has seen the Father. 47Amen, Amen, I tell you: The one who believes in me has eternal life.

48“I am the Bread of Life. 49Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone may eat it and not die. 51I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Learn from God’s “Culinary” Wisdom

“Empty calories.” Perhaps you’re familiar with that term. Whether you’ve heard it or not, you’ve undoubtedly experienced the concept. Some foods provide a significant source of energy—calories—but that energy is very short-lived. You can eat 100 calories of candy and 100 calories of carrots, but which will be more food and which will keep you full and energized for longer? As I typed this introduction in my office, I was munching on a couple of little chocolate candies, the very epitome of empty calories!

Not all fuel is the same. Things will go poorly if you put lighter fluid in your car’s gas tank—or coal. All are fuels, all burn, but only one will actually power an internal combustion engine in an automobile. If you have an electric car, what outlet you plug it into will make a huge difference, not in what type of electricity gets into it, but how much gets into it. Certain chargers may fill a car’s large battery in under an hour; others may take all night just to put a few percent back into the battery.

So whether it’s our bodies, our cars, our phones, or our grills, we want to use the right kind of fuel—fuel that will endure, get the job done, and get us where we need to go. And we know that using the wrong fuel, even if it’s close, can be disastrous. A goof at the gas pump to put diesel in an unleaded car will not go well.

So it is for our spiritual “fuel” that we put in us. Not everything claiming to be spiritual, or Christian, or even Lutheran is of the same quality and has the same benefit. In fact, some things in those spheres will be downright dangerous to your eternal well-being. So, how do we know what to do, what to trust, what food will be good for us? When it comes to nourishing our souls, how do we distinguish between a wholesome meal and junk, between safe food and poison? Jesus has direction for us, “Learn from God.”

Earlier this week, I came across an online video account posting supposed messages the person was receiving straight from God. The person used a lot of spiritual and even Christian language, stressing (at times) that we need to be connected to “the Christ,” but when you listened to what was being said, the message was just gobbledygook. It didn’t track with any internal logic. It just felt like a blast of words, almost in a random order, and notably (when the message was making sense), it was really focused on the here and now rather than the eternal. The messages would talk about hurts and harms that you’ve experienced now, a concept that the “One” would help you with them and that you were strong enough to endure.

What was notably missing from any of this was, well, Jesus. The word “Christ” that was thrown around a bunch didn’t seem to be talking about our Savior so much as an abstract concept of a force of nature or something. (It was really difficult to follow.) But it struck me that this is not so different from some of the crowds’ thoughts about Jesus after the feeding of the 5,000.

In our Gospel last week, we heard Jesus urging people to receive the true bread from heaven, to look not to just the here and now, not just to fill their bellies for a day, but to seek after “bread” that endures to eternal life. We closed that reading with the same words from Jesus that we began our Gospel for this morning: “I am the Bread of Life,” Jesus told them. “The one who comes to me will never be hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Jesus is clear that this is not some arbitrary, subjective thing. This is not an invitation to cram your spirit full of junk food or other garbage that may even hurt you. No, this is a call to come to him and to him alone, to eat the bread that he provides—that he is!—because he is the only solution to spiritual hunger and thirst.

But this is not so easy or so automatic. We know the crowds were not on board with everything Jesus said and taught. Jesus himself comments, “You have also seen me, and you do not believe.” They were not trusting in Jesus for forgiveness and eternal security; as we saw last week, they were only looking to Jesus to satisfy their physical hunger. And so Jesus continues, trying to get them to rework their thinking, seeing their need for what he provides and what God the Father does through him: Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me, but raise them up on the Last Day. For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life. And I will raise him up on the Last Day.”

There’s a tremendous amount of comfort and security in these words. The Father gives people to Jesus, and Jesus will not lose any of them. Jesus and the Father are united in this goal: “everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life. And I will raise him up on the Last Day.” Three times in this brief reading, Jesus says that he will raise up the believers on the Last Day. This is in keeping with Jesus’ focus, not on physical food and drink, but on that which prepares for eternal life—himself, the Bread of Life.

We are all too aware that physical death will come. Each ache, pain, sickness, and sorrow is a reminder of what lies ahead for all of us. That is what happens to all who live in this sin-corrupted world and have inherited sinful natures like ours—death comes as the wages of sin. But, when you are not just looking for the temporal and the physical but for the spiritual and the eternal, physical death is not the end. Jesus was blunt: Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. Despite eating miracle food, the Israelites all eventually died while wandering in the wilderness for 40 years or after they entered the Promised Land. Those who ate the miracle food that Jesus provided for the 5,000+ people would grow hungry again (clearly, because that’s why they sought Jesus out), and they, too, would eventually die. Proximity to and even ingesting a miracle does nothing to rescue from the results of sin. Death is coming to all because all sinned.

But the Bread of Life is different. The one who feasts on this meal will endure to eternal life, for Jesus himself will raise him up on the last day. We will spend more time with these illustrations next week, but for now, it will suffice to say that eating the bread of life is to do exactly what Jesus described as his Father’s will: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life.

How do we see and believe in Jesus? How do we feast on this eternal-life-giving Bread from heaven? Jesus describes this: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the Last Day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. See what agency you and I do not have! No one can come to Jesus unless God the Father draws him. That word translated as “draws” might even have a stronger hint of meaning—no one can come to Jesus unless the Father drags him. This is not our will cooperating with God; this is not us doing a little part to connect ourselves to God. It can only be God’s work—and his alone—to connect us to the Bread of Life.

God himself must teach us this “culinary” wisdom of eating the Bread of Life. On our own, this is foolishness. Paul said in our Second Reading this morning, “An unspiritual person does not accept the truths taught by God’s Spirit, because they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually evaluated” (1 Corinthians 2:14). God must drag us to his truth against our natural will, against our natural inclination. On our own, if we see any good in God at all, we can only see him as the giver of a free lunch. But with God's wisdom, we know Jesus as he is, the Bread of Life, the Savior of the world.

The Father gave people to Jesus to save them. His mission of rescue and grace was to save all people from all sin. And so, the Bread of Life was crucified; the one who came to save the world was rejected by the world he came to save. But in that rejection, God worked the greatest good. Because on that cross, Jesus took all of our failings on himself: every time we’ve misunderstood him, misappropriated him, felt confident in our own selves, or felt that we didn’t need him. All of those ignorant and willful sins were laid on Jesus; there on the cross, he suffered the eternal death—hell—that our sins truly deserved and made a full payment for them all. The Bread of Life died that we might feast—believe—and live.

We are rescued in Jesus’ body, in his flesh, nailed to the cross. He gave his life to rescue us from death, and by his death, we live forever. God’s wisdom allows us to see Jesus not as a pitiful, crucified victim but as a triumphant Savior. God’s wisdom allows us to see Jesus’ empty tomb and know what that means: he is victorious. And because he is victorious, my brother and sisters, so are we!

God teaches us to see Jesus as he is, not as a miracle worker or bread provider, but as the Sin-Destroyer. “I am the Bread of Life... This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone may eat it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Thank you, Lord Jesus! Amen.

"Jesus' Gifts Are Different; Jesus' Gifts Are Better" (Sermon on John 6:24-35) | August 11, 2024

Sermon Text: John 6:24-35

Date: August 11, 2024

Event: Proper 14, Year B

John 6:24-35 (EHV)

When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. 25When they found him on the other side of the sea, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

26Jesus answered them, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: You are not looking for me because you saw the miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. 27Do not continue to work for the food that spoils, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

28So they said to him, “What should we do to carry out the works of God?”

29Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God: that you believe in the one he sent.”

30Then they asked him, “So what miraculous sign are you going to do, that we may see it and believe you? What miraculous sign are you going to perform? 31Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”

32Jesus said to them, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the real bread from heaven. 33For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

34”Sir,” they said to him, “give us this bread all the time!”

35”I am the Bread of Life,” Jesus told them. “The one who comes to me will never be hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty.

 Jesus’ Gifts Are Different; Jesus’ Gifts Are Better

The child is opening presents for his birthday. One from a grandparent feels very promising because it feels like the highest priority on his birthday list—the brand-new video game that everyone was talking about. He opens it up to find a game he’s never heard of. Grandma smiles and says, “I know that’s not what you asked for, but they were all sold out. The clerk told me that this game was great too!” He smiles and thanks Grandma, but inside, he’s disappointed that he did not get what was on his list.

Later that evening, after the party was over, he pops the unknown game into the system and turns on the TV. To his surprise, this game he had never heard of before is great. In a tremendous surprise, the present that was different than he hoped for might actually be better than the one he had wanted. And time proves he’s not just coping with disappointment. In the coming days, friends come over and play with him, and they quickly are hooked on this new game that none of them had known about before.

Sometimes things work out that way. You have in mind one thing, something else happens, and in hindsight, you say, “That might actually have been better.” It doesn’t mean there’s no disappointment in the moment. It doesn’t mean that this conclusion comes quickly. But in the end, you might be able to see a benefit in how things worked out compared to how you had planned them.

In our Gospel for this morning, we have a group of people looking for one thing from Jesus while he’s trying to give them something far better. But can they see that? Can they understand that what Jesus has in mind is better for them? Or are they stuck in their own thoughts and priorities?

Our Gospel readings in recent weeks from Mark and now from John have all been dealing with the events before, during, and after Jesus fed the 5,000 men (plus women and children) with those few fish and loaves of bread. That miracle worked to feed the hungry bellies of those who had chased Jesus down when he and the disciples left them to try to find a solitary place. And then, after teaching them and the miracle meal, Jesus sent the disciples off ahead of him, and he later met them that windy night, walking on the water's surface, as we heard in our Gospel last week.

Now, after that windy trip and the miracle of Jesus walking on the rough sea, they have separation from the crowd. But, the crowd is not so willing to let them go. When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Those in the crowd rush off to Capernaum on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, which served as a type of home base for Jesus during his earthly ministry. They find him and are amazed that he’s there so far ahead of them—how did he get here without traveling in a boat?—but Jesus knows what they’re looking for, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: You are not looking for me because you saw the miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.”

Jesus says that this crowd has a problem. They’re not coming to him because they know his teaching is from God. And they’re not even coming to him to marvel at the miracles that he performed. Jesus says they’re coming to him for a much more crass and base reason, “because you ate the loaves and were filled.” In other words, all they care about in that moment was a full belly they didn’t have to work for or pay for. They wouldn’t care if Jesus had worked another miracle to feed them or if he had been sitting on a warehouse full of free food from which they could take what they wanted. Their goal with Jesus is that he will be able to feed them.

And so Jesus takes this wayward, misguided desire and tries to put them back on the path he wants. “Do not continue to work for the food that spoils, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” Jesus has something in store for them that is far better than the physical food he gave them. He wants to give them something that endures to eternal life.

The crowd senses Jesus’ hesitancy to address physical things, so they try to take the conversation spiritually. But even their spiritual turn is misguided. They think that to get something good from God, they have to do something for God. They’re looking for a way to earn what God will give: “What should we do to carry out the works of God?”

Jesus plays with their question a little bit. He says, “This is the work of God,” not necessarily the work that God commands us to do, but the work that God does. “You believe in the one he sent.” This is faith in Jesus as Savior. He’s trying to get the crowd to see that he’s not just concerned about their physical well-being (although he is); he’s much more concerned with their eternal well-being.

This shift from food to faith is not what the crowd is looking for. And it’s gross, actually, the way they attempt to manipulate Jesus. They say, “Well, okay, if we’re going to believe in you, what miraculous sign are you going to do?” And then, they reference the bread and quail that their forefathers ate after their exodus from Egypt. “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. Just as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

They are under the mistaken impression that the “he” in that verse was talking about Moses. They imply that people should have listened to Moses because he could give them food when there was none in the wilderness. But Jesus says that’s not at all what we’re talking about here.

The crowd quotes from Psalm 78, and if you read that psalm, it clearly talks about God’s work, not Moses’ work. The bread and quail in the wilderness was never about a guy earning the respect and admiration of a group of people by giving them something to eat. This was always about God providing for his people—and looking ahead to something far more important. So Jesus says, “‘Amen, amen, I tell you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the real bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ ‘Sir,’ they said to him, ‘give us this bread all the time.’”

And now, here’s the turn. Jesus explicitly states that he is not talking about flour, water, oil, and maybe yeast baked in an oven. He’s talking about himself. “I am the Bread of Life,” Jesus told them. “The one who comes to me will never be hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Does our prayer life reflect an attitude like the crowds or the goal that Jesus states? Are we treating God like some genie in a lamp that can grant us wishes? Would Jesus tell us, “You are not praying to me because you saw the miraculous signs. You are not praying to me because you know that I can grant you eternal life. You’re praying to me so that you can be comfortable here and now”? None of us want to treat God this way, but from my experience, this is an easy trap to fall into.

God has a purpose and a plan for our lives, and that purpose and plan may not always be what we want it to be. We may come to God with a request, and his answer might be, “No.” Frequently, his answer is, “I’ve got something better in store for you.” But that’s hard to deal with, especially from our perspective, especially when we don’t have God’s promise in the front of our mind that whatever he does for us will be for our good.

We have to take these things on faith. We must listen to what God says and say, “Yeah, I trust you, Lord. I trust you to provide what is best for me.” Some days, that might be something akin to the feeding of the 5,000. God might essentially say to you, “Here, this is what you need to get through the day or week or month. You didn’t see where this would come from, but here it is because I care about you, and I love you.”

Other times, Jesus’ purpose is to lift our eyes from this world, this life, and instead look forward to eternity because that’s what’s truly important. God is primarily focused on our eternal well-being, and he wants us to be primarily there as well.

This takes us back to the crowd’s question, “What should we do to carry out the works of God? How can we make sure that we are okay eternally?” Jesus’ whole point in this discourse in John chapter 6 will be, “You can’t.”

Nothing that you do or I do can ever satisfy God’s demand because God’s demand is flawless obedience to his law. And that is not what you have done nor what I have done. In our sin, we starve to death eternally. But Jesus is the Bread of Life. “The one who comes to me will never be hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Jesus did not come to this world to be a popular preacher, a miracle worker, or certainly to provide meals free of charge for everyone all the time. No, Jesus came with a much greater purpose. He came to be our Savior from sin.

This moment is going to be a turning point in Jesus’ popularity. In two weeks, as we continue this account in John’s Gospel, we’ll see the crowds turn away from Jesus en masse. He won’t have the outward, earthly popularity again that he has right here and right now. But that’s not why he came. He’s going to press on to the cross. There, he will do what he came to do, what we needed him to do.

In the moment, it’s tempting to think of Jesus as only providing for our earthly needs because that’s what we can see and feel. But what we really needed from him was forgiveness, to be food that endures to eternal life. And so Jesus will go to the cross without any popularity, being abandoned and denied by the people who were closest to him. And he will suffer the agony not just of crucifixion but of hell itself as he pays for your sin and my sin. There is where Jesus becomes our Bread of Life, food that endures to eternal life. There, we receive the spiritual nourishment we need, the spiritual medicine we require, and the spiritual resurrection that is necessary because we were dead in our sins. And now, through Jesus, we live.

Don’t walk away this morning thinking, “Any concern I have for any earthly thing is wrong.” That’s not the point. And in fact, God tells us to come to him with our concerns for day-to-day life. He wants us to pray to him about those things. But we always pray that God’s will be done in everything, knowing full well that God’s will might not be the same thing as our will and that his will is always focused on eternal life rather than the here and now.

God will give you that daily bread that he told you to pray for. But much more than that, he provides for your eternal well-being. He is your Savior, the one who forgives your sins and will bring you home to heaven. He does this because he loves you and forgives you, because he is the Bread of Life so that in him we will never be hungry or thirsty again. Thanks be to God! Amen.

"The Lord Will Rescue Me" (Sermon on 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18) | August 4, 2024

Sermon Text: 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
Date: August 4, 2024
Event: Proper 13, Year B

2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 (EHV)

You see, I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. 8From now on, there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness. The Lord, the righteous Judge, will give it to me on that day, and not only to me but also to everyone who loved his appearing.

16At my first hearing, no one came to my defense, but everyone deserted me. May it not be counted against them. 17But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message would be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles would hear it, and I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. 18The Lord will rescue me from every evil work and will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

The Lord Will Rescue Me

We refer to many of Paul’s letters in the New Testament as “prison letters,” but most were written in circumstances different from those we might think of as a prison. Instead, most of them were written while he was under house arrest in Rome while he waited to appeal charges from the leaders in Jerusalem to the emperor, to Caesar. It is in this state that the book of Acts concludes. Luke describes Paul’s conditions this way: When we entered Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself with a soldier who guarded him…. For two whole years Paul stayed in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to visit him. He was preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without anyone stopping him” (Acts 28:16, 30-31). Prison? Sort of. In chains? Probably metaphorically. But he was able to preach the gospel. If tradition is accurate, he would eventually be freed from this state and be able to continue his role as an apostle to the Gentiles for almost another decade.

While Paul was out presumably preaching around Europe, a devastating fire broke out in Rome in July of 64 ad. Rumors raged that then-emporer Nero had started the fire himself to gobble up land in Rome for his whims, to recreate the city in his design. True or not, Nero had to separate himself from that line of thinking, which meant someone else needed to take the fall. The contemporary historian Tacitus said that Nero pinned the blame “on a class hated for their abominations,” a group that had come to be known as “Christians,” This group had, for reasons that were utterly incomprehensible to the broader Roman public, attached themselves to a criminal who had been executed by “the extreme penalty” decades before. This man was known to the Romans by the name “Christus.” The religion these followers of Christus practiced was described as a “mischievous superstition”—a superstition that had started in the Roman province of Judea and was now thriving to a certain extent even in Rome (Annals, Book 15, Section 44).

A persecution of Christians on a massive scale oozed from Nero’s false accusations. This persecution was so brutal and, to most people, seemed so unfair and unjust that even criminals rightly on death row felt compassion and sorrow for them—perhaps not unlike the thief crucified next to Jesus thirty-some years earlier.

History and tradition tell us that this persecution swept up not only large amounts of Christians but also some very notable leaders in the church, not the least of which were the apostles Peter and Paul. This occurred years after the history recorded in the book of Acts concluded. Paul was again arrested, but there was no house arrest this time. Records indicate that Paul was held in Rome in the Mamertine Prison (as it would later be known).

This prison was as bleak of a setting as one could imagine. Here, Rome held those who were threats to the state as they awaited trial or sentencing. The unfortunate prisoners were thrown into the lower, older cell, twelve feet underground and nearly devoid of light. This place served not only as a temporary holding cell but also as a place to carry out executions. Here, a prisoner might be as likely to starve to death as they would be to survive until their trial. Writing about forty years before Jesus was born, the Roman historian Sallust described this cell this way, “Neglect, darkness, and stench make it hideous and fearsome to behold” (The War with Catiline, ch. 55).

You did not come here this morning for a history lecture, but understanding the context around God’s Word is vital for understanding what God was communicating through his inspired authors. Paul writes 2 Timothy from that horrendous hole of a prison as a result of the imperial persecution of Christians sparked by blame for that fire. So when he says, “You see, I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come,” he’s not being melodramatic. He can probably feel his life draining out of him in that dark, disgusting cell, and he knows, one way or another, his departure from this world has arrived. 2 Timothy is the last piece of writing from Paul we have preserved for us, and perhaps his last overall.

So it’s in this context that Paul pens these words to pastor Timothy. As Peter did in his second letter, Paul is very clearly passing the baton of the gospel to the next generation. But he knows that persecutions will continue and sticking to the faith he has preached will be difficult. After all, Paul saw Jesus on the road to Damascus; Timothy probably had not seen Jesus with his physical eyes. So, even one generation removed from the apostles, Christians were in a not-so-different situation as you and I are today, trusting in what God has said in his Word rather than trusting what we’ve seen with our eyes.

So, on the brink of death, imprisoned in this dank pit, likely physically chained, what is Paul’s perspective? What does he want our perspective to be?

Paul declares with all certainty: I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. From now on, there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness. The Lord, the righteous Judge, will give it to me on that day, and not only to me but also to everyone who loved his appearing.

Paul knows what is going to happen. Years earlier, he had written to the Christians in Philippi, “Yes, for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Now, staring death in the face, he has no change of heart or mind. He knows that he is unlikely to survive this situation and that still, to die is gain. He clings to Jesus as his Savior; thus, he knows he has a crown of righteousness waiting for him that God himself will give him, a crown signifying this right relationship with God that is not only for Paul because of his work as an apostle, but to all who cling to Jesus as the certainty of their forgiveness, to all “who loved his appearing.”

If we think back a bit further in history to our Gospel for this morning, we will remember that very windy night on the Sea of Galilee and Jesus strolling on the water's surface out to the disciples’ boat. They saw Jesus there and were terrified! Was this a ghost or some other apparition coming to get them? Jesus’ words put their hearts at rest, “Take courage! It is I. Do not be afraid” (Mark 6:50). “It is I” is literally just the two words, “I am.” It seems like here Jesus is referencing the name he provided to Moses at the burning bush almost 1500 years earlier, “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14). What’s the implication? The one walking on the water is not just a man but God himself.

Paul had that kind of certainty. Jesus was by his side, even in these horrendous circumstances. No matter how bad things got for Paul physically, he knew that he was safe eternally because the great I am was with him. Paul would not have to reckon with his sins before God because Jesus had already paid for them. All of his wrestling with being the “worst sinner” (1 Timothy 1:16) or hemming and hawing over not doing the good he wanted to do (Romans 7:15ff) does not dissuade him from the fact that Jesus had rescued him, that God was waiting to give Paul that crown of righteousness that was bought with Jesus’ blood.

Thanks be to God that you are not languishing in a wretched prison at this moment. Nor are you struggling to progress against a mighty wind storm in a boat. Nor are you feeling hopelessly outnumbered in a fight like Elisha’s servant was. But that doesn’t mean that you are not dealing with problems, and that does not mean that your concerns are insignificant. Nor are God’s promises to you any less certain or smaller than those God made to Paul. Your confidence can be the same as his: The Lord will rescue me from every evil work and will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.

But can you see it? Can you feel it? Or is so much in front of you blurred and dark? Does it feel like you’re sitting in that grimy pit of a prison in Rome? Do you feel helpless and afraid as the winds of problems batter you, or feel outnumbered by too many enemies to deal with?

How slow we are to believe God’s promises! How quick we are to think that, for some reason, we are the only person to experience a problem that is too big for God or that we are the one person in the history of humanity to whom God’s promises do not apply.

So, what evil work do you need to be rescued from? Do doubts about God rise in your hearts? God, who gave you your faith, is greater than your doubts. Do fears over an illness or a loved one’s illness grip you? God, the great physician of both body and soul, is greater than any sickness or pain. Do pains of heartache and disappointment claw at you day and night? God is greater than that heartache and has assured you that whatever he allows to happen to you, he will work for your good—now and forever. Whatever the evil work that is plaguing you is, God is greater than it. “The Lord will rescue me from every evil work and will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.”

My brothers and sisters, you have a crown of righteousness waiting for you. On the other side of this life’s problems, there will be perfection, eternally. This is the ultimate gift God has given you, the ultimate victory he has won for you. This is the basis of every confidence you have in this life: his love and power for you endure well past this life.

But until that day, God is still by your side, walking up to you on the rough waters, standing guard over you in all danger, and even sitting beside you in your greatest griefs. We don’t always know how the Lord will rescue us, but we do know that he will. His rescue may not look like we want it to look, feel how we want it to feel, or be when we want it to happen, but there is no doubt that it will happen. No matter the evil work that plagues you, your God holds you close and says, “My daughter, my son, do not fear. I am and always will be. I am your Redeemer, now and always. I am your Provider, now and always. I am your Protector, now and always.”

The Lord will rescue me from every evil work and will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

"God's Generosity Encourages Our Generosity" (Sermon on 2 Corinthians 9:8-11) | July 28, 2024

Sermon Text: 2 Corinthians 9:8-11
Date: July 28, 2024
Event: Proper 12, Year B

2 Corinthians 9:8–11 (EHV)

God is able to make all grace overflow to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will overflow in every good work. 9As it is written:

He scattered; he gave to the poor.

His righteousness remains forever.

10And he who provides seed to the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your seed for sowing, and will increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11You will be made rich in every way so that you may be generous in every way, which produces thanksgiving to God through us.

God’s Generosity Encourages Our Generosity

So there you sit at the presentation. It just wrapped up, and you thought it was really good, but others around you seemed even more into it or seemed to get more out of it than you did. The host for the day asks the crowd gathered to express their gratitude. Applause is almost immediate, but slowly, some people begin standing up to offer the presenter a standing ovation. This ovation slowly works through the crowd so that you find yourself standing up, even though perhaps you wouldn’t have done so on your own.

Some in the crowd can impact the rest of the crowd. Peer pressure is real—both for good and bad. From childhood, we follow models and seek to step in the footsteps of those we respect or who we think have their lives in order. You might read books or articles from successful people and start thinking that if you follow their advice and implement their habits, you might have the same kind of success they’ve had.

Modeling is powerful. Parents can sometimes instill habits in their children without even talking about them but just by being seen doing them. And, again, those can be both good and bad. The attitude of a boss is very often reflected in the attitudes of the department's employees. I will apologize for this in advance, but it is said that this effect can even take place in a congregation, where a group of Christians may be influenced in their drive and attitude by the pastor who tends to them, so much so that the very personality of the congregation can be a reflection of its shepherds.

It's evident that humans can influence others, especially through modeling behavior and attitude. But what about God? Is God’s relationship with people intimate enough to have a similar effect, or are we so distant from God that his influence is negligible?

Our Second Reading for this morning is taken from the latter part of Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians preserved in the New Testament. In this section of the letter, Paul addresses a few housekeeping items with the Christians in Corinth. And one of those housekeeping items is about an offering that had been set up to support the very poor and persecuted Christians in Jerusalem at that time. A collection was being gathered from the churches across modern-day Turkey and Greece. Each congregation was setting up the goal of sending support to their brothers and sisters in the faith through Paul as he would soon make his way to Jerusalem.

However, Paul is just as concerned about the motivation for these gifts as he is about the gifts themselves. In the verses just before our reading, Paul gave this encouragement and direction on giving motivation: The one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. The one who sows generously will also reap generously. Each one should give as he has determined in his heart, not reluctantly or under pressure, for God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:6-7). When gifts are given, be it to support the gospel ministry in a church, or to support an individual person or family in need, or to aid some other charitable group, God’s desire is that it be done in joy, with cheer, rather than as a burdensome obligation. In other words, unlike the standing ovation that perhaps you go along with because everyone else is doing it, God wants our generosity to be decided in our hearts, not just mimicking what others do or doing it out of a sense of compulsion.

For God, the motivation for generosity is just as important as the act itself. Paul lays out where we should look for our motivation: God’s grace. God is able to make all grace overflow to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will overflow in every good work. His grace guides, supports, and inspires us to be generous.

Our Gospel for this morning clearly shows God’s ability and desire to care for us. Jesus’ compassion on the crowds led him to work a miracle that saw a relatively small amount of food multiply into enough to feed thousands of people and even produce many baskets of leftovers. Jesus taught in the Lord’s Prayer that we should pray for daily bread, asking God for the things we need in this life, and then trusting that God will provide them because that is what he’s promised.

Paul specifically links God’s undeserved love for us, his grace, to our good works. Just as God’s grace overflows to us, good works will overflow from us. These good works don’t seek good things from God, but they are done in thanksgiving to God, who has already given them. God’s overflowing grace causes the overflowing good works, not the other way around.

Paul shows an Old Testament model of that when he quotes from Psalm 112 in the middle of our short reading. He scattered; he gave to the poor. His righteousness remains forever. Within our brief reading, it’s incredibly easy to think that Paul is talking about God with this quotation. But when you read Psalm 112, you see that the psalm writer isn’t talking about God’s actions but rather the believer’s response to God’s blessings. So the one scattering, giving to the poor, whose righteousness remains forever, describes the actions of a cheerfully generous believer seeking to thank God for all he has done for him.

It is impossible to count or quantify God’s generosity. That you could get to or connect online for worship this morning is part of God’s generosity. That your ears can physically hear his Word (although, maybe not always as well as we’d like…) is part of God’s generosity. That you have breath in your lungs, that your heart beats in your chest, that your brain is functioning are all parts of God’s generosity to you. In fact, everything we have that is good in our life comes from God: And he who provides seed to the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your seed for sowing, and will increase the harvest of your righteousness.

We might define righteousness as a “right relationship with God.” The writer of Psalm 112 said that the person who expresses their thankfulness to God has an enduring, proper relationship with God. Of course, we know that our natural state is not righteous because our sins have ruined our relationship with God. Adam and Eve’s original sin in the Garden of Eden was motivated by the dissatisfaction that Satan sowed in their hearts. Satan had convinced them that by denying them the fruit of that one tree in the garden, God was withholding good, even amazing, things from them! And so their discontent with God’s blessings led them to the disastrous actions of wanting, taking, and eating the forbidden fruit.

Their malcontent has trickled down to each of us. You and I all have a sinful nature in us that spurns God, that figures anything forbidden is just God being mean, and assumes that God clearly doesn’t care about us. We can easily lay anything we feel is lacking in our lives at God's feet and say that he is to blame. If we don’t think we have the right amount or kind of money, cars, relationships, fulfillment, peace, and happiness, we quickly assume lacking these things is God’s fault, that he is holding out on us, just like Satan convinced our first parents. Nothing is new under the sun. And this is hardly an increased harvest of your righteousness!

But spiritual maturity means looking at what you have with gratitude and joy. Is it the same that someone else has? Probably not. Is it everything you ever hoped for or dreamed of? Unlikely. But is it what you need, what God knows is good for you? Absolutely.

Of course, the chief of these blessings is the forgiveness of sins. Jesus’ life and death for us wipe out every sin, including those sins of discontent or even thinking that God is holding out on us and being mean to us. In Jesus’ blood, we are washed clean; in Jesus’ forgiveness, we can reevaluate our lives and see the glorious riches that God provides as they are.

What is the Christian, forgiven of every sin and with a fresh appreciation of her blessings, to do? You will be made rich in every way so that you may be generous in every way, which produces thanksgiving to God through us. Whether now or later today, take some inventory of the blessings of your life. We hear the word “rich” today and immediately jump to our net worth or the amount of money in our bank account. But that may or may not be a richness that God has given. So, how has God made you rich?

Has he given you a great capacity for empathy, for caring about others and their hardships and heartaches? Then be generous with that empathy, sharing it with those in great need of the unique blessing God has given you!

Has God given you a great deal of knowledge and understanding about spiritual things or even the things of this life? Then, be generous with that knowledge and share it with those who need it. Whether your insight is primarily in the realm of God’s promises and how to live in response to those riches, or how to repair the leaky faucet, your generosity with this knowledge and insight will be a blessing to others!

Has God given you a great capacity to encourage people, to lift them out of an emotional pit, or to maintain them so they continue to feel loved and appreciated? Share that encouragement generously! Let people know what you appreciate about them and what you’re thankful for, and help them to see the way out of their sorrows is not as impossible as it often feels.

Has God given you earthly wealth? Share it! Give generous offerings to your church to support the work of the gospel that we are carrying out, support those in more compromised positions than you are to help them through a rough spot, and seek out charities and other organizations who can help your generosity go farther than you could carry it on your own.

Remember your true wealth, no matter what skills or earthly blessings you may be able to list: you have your Savior, Jesus, and you can and should be generous in sharing him and his Word with others. Whether it's encouraging the guilt-stricken Christian with the reminder of God’s love and forgiveness for them or sharing the message of Jesus with someone who has never heard it or has long since forgotten about it. Your true wealth is the access to not just earthly, material support but eternal blessings, a treasure in heaven that will never perish, spoil, or fade, won for you and kept in heaven by your loving God.

My dear brothers and sisters, fight the temptation toward malcontent and see the blessings God bestows on you. Be generous to others as God has been generous to you. Look forward to that day when God’s generosity will not need to be carefully considered, but it will be before our eyes every moment, for we will see our God face to face forever, for Jesus’ sake. Thanks be to God! Amen.

"Jesus' Compassionate Heart Is a Constant" (Sermon on Mark 6:30-34) | July 21, 2024

Sermon Text: Mark 6:30-34
Date: July 21, 2024
Event: Proper 11, Year B

Mark 6:30-34 (EHV)

The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all that they had done and taught. 31He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” For there were so many people coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat. 32They went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33But many people saw them leave and knew where they were going. They ran there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34When Jesus stepped out of the boat, he saw a large crowd. His heart went out to them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. He began to teach them many things.

Jesus’ Compassionate Heart Is a Constant

How do you feel about a car that has been a reliable form of transportation? It's probably so good you don’t even think about trusting it. But, if the car had been untrustworthy, you might think twice before hopping in the vehicle and zipping off to the store or on to a destination farther away. Being stranded by that vehicle in the past may leave you not trusting it in the future.

In the last few weeks in worship, we’ve heard a few vignettes from Jesus’ earthly ministry from Mark’s Gospel. In these accounts, we find ourselves very close to the high point of his earthly popularity. Next week, we will hear the account of Jesus feeding more than 5,000 people with a small lunch, and that event will really be the top of the popularity mountain for Jesus. Of course, Jesus’ goal and calling wasn’t to become a popular earthly preacher, but we’ll take that up later.

For now, it’s enough for us to consider that Jesus was busy—really, really busy. We got a hint of that last week as Jesus sent out the twelve disciples two by two so that they could cover more ground. During his state of humiliation, when Jesus, though God, was only occupying one physical place at a time, having small teams of preachers traveling the countryside rather than just one person meant that the message could get out a lot faster.

In our Gospel for this morning, we meet Jesus and the Twelve just after they return from this teaching trip. We don’t know exactly how long this mission trip was, but we might assume it was enough time to have some significant things happen, but not so much that they were separated from Jesus for a long time. The disciples are excited to share what has happened and, we might assume, pretty tired from their work at the same time. Jesus himself was practically buried in people seeking him and his help, so Jesus directed the disciples, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.”

Jesus and the disciples go from a situation that is non-stop activity (so much so that they don’t even have the ability to take care of their basic needs like eating and resting) to a solitary boat ride, with the goal of finding a quiet place to just relax.

Put yourself in their shoes in our modern era. You have spent the entire day taking care of things. Maybe you endured a rough day at work and a frustrating commute, and now you’re ready to just sit down for a moment and relax. Perhaps you’ve been doing things to serve other people—likely your family—all day, and now you’re ready for some quiet time to do something you want to do, that would recharge your batteries. And then, the phone rings. Or the requests from others around you start rolling in. Then you are taken from your ideal relaxation into what is far from it. What is your response, even if it’s just internal in your heart and mind?

Perhaps it is grumbling and disappointment. Perhaps it’s tiredness that leads to a wrestling with the ideal—I know that I ought to serve others—and the reality of being too worn out to do so graciously or joyfully. Perhaps it is tempting to put off those seeking help, to leave the phone call unanswered, and to reason that those emails will be there later.

This is really the situation Jesus and the disciples found themselves in because as they approached what was supposed to be a secluded place, they saw a throng of people. Many people saw them leave and knew where they were going. They ran there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. When Jesus stepped out of the boat, he saw a large crowd.

And what is Jesus’ response? Does he roll his eyes? Does he tell the disciples to put the boat out to sea again to find a different place to go? No, he looks at the crowd and immediately has compassion for these poor people. Despite being exhausted and emotionally drained, he doesn’t shoo away the crowds and tell them to come back later. His heart goes out to them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

It wasn’t just that they had been desperately seeking after Jesus and were tired after hoofing it around the Sea of Galilee or were wandering and lost as they sought him out. No, they were sheep without a shepherd in the spiritual sense because the ones who were supposed to be shepherding them, their religious leaders, were, at best, leaving them to fend for themselves and, at worst, leading them down dangerous paths away from God’s truth. And so, how does he act as their shepherd? He began to teach them many things.

This Gospel is not meant to scold us for not being like Jesus, although we readily recognize that we aren’t and can’t be. No, this account and our theme this morning is for comfort. Jesus is not the unreliable car that you need to approach skeptically as if this isn’t going to work. You will not find a time when Jesus is unwilling to listen to you, to help, guide, and support you. 

On our own, we, too, are like sheep without a shepherd. We can’t navigate this life in a productive way. We can’t get ourselves out of our sins and failures. We can’t even find (much less walk) the path to eternal life. It is impossible for us. We are helpless, lost little sheep with no one to blame but ourselves.

But Jesus looks at you and treats you with the same heart-pouring love and compassion that he had on the crowds that day. We heard that promise from God in our First Reading from the prophet Jeremiah that even though the earthly guides and shepherds he had tasked to take care of his people had failed, God would not abandon his sheep. No, he would directly intervene to be their Shepherd: I will gather what is left of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their pastures. They will be fruitful and multiply. I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them. They will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing, declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 23:3-4).

Jesus’ ultimate, mind-blowing compassion on helpless sheep came at the cross. Because there, he took on your failures and mine, our sin and our rebellion against him, and he allowed himself to be punished for them. The Good Shepherd endured hell that we deserved; he laid down his life to save us. We almost can’t help but think of the prophecy God put into the pen of the prophet Isaiah, “We all have gone astray like sheep. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has charged all our guilt to him” (Isaiah 53:6).

Jesus not only forgives our sins but gives us his compassionate heart—not just in how it goes out to us, but his heart dwells within us. That means we can start to feel for others the way Jesus feels for us, not as burdens but as those needing direction and help. The more we dwell on what Jesus has done for us—how he has given us eternal life as a free gift—the more we see people who don’t know this message not as enemies or fools but as scared lost lambs who need help that they might not even realize they need. Even the most violent, boisterous enemy of God’s Word is a soul for whom Jesus died. Even the most brazen and outspoken critic of our faith is someone who needs the loving care of his Good Shepherd.

And most often, God brings that care to people through other people. That means that you experience Jesus’ care most noticeably in the love that God works through the hands of others. That means you are privileged to share this compassionate worldview as you seek to bring God’s message of comfort and peace to those around you.

Be it a pastor or teacher, a dear friend, a brother or sister in the faith, a loving parent, or even a concerned child, God reaches out to us in our moments of need to support us, and he uses us to support others. And this is not meant with the goal of some utopic existence in this life where we all care about and support one another (though that goal is truly noble!). No, God does all of this to point us ahead to the time when we won’t need others to share Jesus’ love with us, nor will we need to share that love with others because we all will see him face-to-face in the perfect courts of heaven.

Until that joyful and highly anticipated day, as you struggle with your frustrations and failures to avoid sin or do what is good, your Savior’s loving heart is a constant. While he may primarily show his love outwardly through other people, you need no intermediary between you and God. You have direct access to your Good Shepherd in prayer. And you know that you will never catch him too tired to help or upset to care. Jesus is for you the perfect Shepherd whose loving heart continues to reach out to you day in and day out.

Rest easy in his promises for you; rest easy that your Shepherd’s heart forever goes out to you. Amen.

"God Gives Us His Authority" (Sermon on Mark 6:7-13) | July 14, 2024

Sermon Text: Mark 6:7–13
Date: July 14, 2024
Event: Proper 10, Year B

Mark 6:7–13 (EHV)

Jesus called the Twelve and began to send them out two by two. He gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8He instructed them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their money belts. 9They were to put on sandals but not to wear two coats. 10He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that area. 11Any place that will not receive you or listen to you, as you leave there, shake off the dust that is under your feet as a testimony against them.”

12They went out and preached that people should repent. 13They also drove out many demons. They anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

God Gives Us His Authority

Have you ever been in a position to speak for someone else, someone whose authority level outranked your own? It’s a little surreal. If your boss gives directions for your team but sends you to share the directions, suddenly, you, who are on equal footing in the company with your peers, speak with the boss’s authority. An ambassador is not the leader of a nation. Still, if he interacts with another country, he does so with his homeland's authority and direct commission. The mail carrier doesn’t have the authority to take money from you, but she sure can drop those bills off in your mailbox, can’t she?

Jesus’ authority was something that regularly surprised the crowds. Whereas most religious teaching of the time would have been done through questioning, Jesus made declarative, authoritative statements. His frequent refrain of “Amen, amen!” or “I tell you the truth!” or “Very truly I say to you!” (depending on which English translation you are reading) would have been shocking for many people. Who is this who speaks with such authority?

And it wasn’t just the teaching that had authority. Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen Jesus’ words have power over nature as he scolded the sea and the storm to be quiet. His words even had power over death as he encouraged a dead, twelve-year-old girl to get up, and her life returned to her as easily as if he had just gotten her up from a nap. Jesus shows his authority over illnesses as he heals people and even over the spiritual realm as he casts unclean spirits out of possessed people.

This morning, we see a slight change in Jesus’ approach. Despite being God, in his state of humiliation, Jesus was only ever in one place at one time. So, logically, sending out several groups of people to teach and preach would reach many more ears much faster, so Jesus called the Twelve and began to send them out two by two. The disciples would go out and do a practice run in pairs to share the good news with the world. This is how it will work after Jesus has completed his work and ascended into heaven, so while Jesus is still with them, he gives them a taste of that work and practice being his messengers. They didn’t just go because they wanted to; Jesus sent them out.

And that is key. Jesus himself, as God, had authority innate to his being. The disciples did not have that. So, Jesus handed it over to them: He gave them authority over the unclean spirits. When the disciples spoke, it would be like Jesus speaking, up to and including giving orders to the demons. Jesus gave his authority to these six pairs of men as they went out.

How people received the disciples in these pairs would directly reflect how they received Jesus. He would make this more explicit when he sent out a broader group of disciples to share his message a little bit later. Then he told his messengers, “Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me” (Luke 10:16). The disciples were not just messengers, but they were Jesus’ chosen representatives and ambassadors, entrusted with the crucial task of spreading his message. Listening to them meant listening to him; rejecting them meant rejecting him.

It was indeed an amazing and humbling position for the disciples. Who were they to speak for God? On their own, they were nothing. But because Jesus gave them this authority, they had everything. They were not God, but God sent them out with a very specific purpose, and they humbly accepted this responsibility. They knew they were not speaking with their own authority but Jesus’ authority.

This was not new when Jesus sent out his disciples. This is how God had been working from the beginning. In the history of the world, precious few people have ever heard God speak directly to them or have had a back-and-forth conversation with God. But God has sent messengers, prophets, apostles, evangelists, teachers, and pastors to be his mouthpieces to spread his Word.

Consider our First Reading this morning. The prophet Amos was sent to the Northern Kingdom of Israel with proclamations of judgment—Assyria was coming, and that would be the end. Unsurprisingly, his message was unpopular, especially with Jeroboam, the king, and Amaziah, the false prophet. What was Amos’ response? He didn’t come by his own authority. He was a farmer, tending to the flocks and fig trees when God sent him. Their rejection of the message wasn’t rejecting Amos but God.

In our Second Reading, the apostle Paul gives Pastor Titus qualifications for the elders (a position most like our modern-day pastor). But those qualifications didn’t grant someone authority—these are higher levels of expectations to whom God had given his authoritative message. There, too, they were not reliant on their own abilities, actions, or life status, but as Paul said, God’s representative must cling to the trustworthy message as it has been taught (Titus 1:9).

This remains true in our day. You hear the refrain almost every Sunday morning. A fumbling jar of clay stands in front of you all. We all, together, confess our sins. And then what do I have the audacity to say? “I forgive you all of your sins…” Who am I to forgive the sins you’ve committed against other people and especially against God? The reminder is there in the words just before that declaration: “As a called servant of Christ, and by his authority.” It’s not my or any other human being’s authority that does these things, even as it’s not your own authority that forgives sins with people in your lives. It is Jesus’ authority that he grants to us; it is Jesus’ power that he has put on us; and it is Jesus’ forgiveness that he won for us.

This is what it means to be people called, sent out, and entrusted with the gospel of God’s forgiveness in Jesus. It means that when we speak to others and even as we live our lives, we have a duty, responsibility, and tremendous privilege to be messengers of God’s love for all people. Our lives—what we do, say, and even our attitude and tone—should reflect that we are the children of God, bought with Jesus’s own blood.

And what will be the result of that? Will everyone we share God’s Word with believe it? Will everyone who hears that Jesus loves them and died to forgive them instantly cling to Jesus as their Savior? Well, no, but that also has little to do with you and me and more to do with the sinful world’s response to God’s truth. Jesus did not promise total success to the disciple duos, and as we saw clearly last week in Nazareth, even Jesus himself did not have a flawless track record of people believing the message he taught—far from it, in fact.

So, Jesus gives the disciples (and us) some guidelines on what to do when this all-important message is rejected, “Any place that will not receive you or listen to you, as you leave there, shake off the dust that is under your feet as a testimony against them.” This was not a direction for the disciples to be petty and whiny, throwing a fit as they left a town. This was done in love for the people who rejected them and the message Jesus sent them to share. This was meant as a sign that what the people were doing was dangerous and had real consequences and that they really should reconsider their approach to this message.

You and I know all too well, not just as messengers but as ones being spoken to, how this goes. Have you always been excited to be corrected by God’s representatives? Have you always rejoiced in everything God has ever said in his Word? I know for myself I absolutely have not. I can struggle with this message as my sinful flesh chafes at God’s truth. And so sometimes I need gentle encouragement to realign my thinking; sometimes I need a spiritual 2x4 to smack me across the face to get me to see the error of my ways.

And sometimes, that whole process takes time. I might wrestle with something for hours or days or struggle for years or decades. We are all works in progress and will come to terms with what God has said, done, and expects at our own times and in our own ways. As those hearing the message, we do well to listen even when it feels like grit in our gears; as messengers, we share God’s truths in love, knowing that the message of Jesus crucified and risen is the only thing that can save people from an eternity of suffering in hell and assure them of an eternity of perfection with our Savior God.

You may not be the person God uses to bring that other one to faith. You may be a link in a chain that eventually leads to God creating faith in that person’s heart. Your shaking the dust off your feet may awaken that person to the realization of just how important this all is—not just for now but forever.

And so when you hear God's message, respect it as being sent from God through someone he has given his authority to share with you what you need. And when you are serving in that messenger role, go with the confidence that God has given you his authority by what he’s made known to you in his Word, and patiently, lovingly, gently share the good news about our Savior who has conquered our sin and freely gives the gift of eternal life through faith.

Dear Lord, bless the message of forgiveness wherever it is shared. Open our hearts to be willing to listen to your Word and embolden us to go with your truth—your authority—to share your love with a world that so desperately needs to hear it. Amen.

"Why Do People Reject Good News?" (Sermon on Mark 6:1-6) | July 7, 2024

Sermon Text: Mark 6:1-6
Date: July 7, 2024
Event: Proper 9, Year B

Mark 6:1-6 (EHV)

Jesus left there and went to his hometown. His disciples followed him. 2When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue. Many who heard him were amazed. They asked, “Where did this man learn these things? What is this wisdom that has been given to this man? How is it that miracles such as these are performed by his hands? 3Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.

4Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own house.” 5He could not do any miracles there except to lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6He was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went around the villages teaching.

Why Do People Reject Good News?

Have you ever felt nervous asking someone a question or having a necessary conversation with them? I’m going to guess that it was not because you thought they would be too happy to hear what you had to say or too excited to talk about the topic you needed to raise. No, if you delayed or even outright avoided having a conversation, it’s likely because you were nervous about how the other person would respond—and you likely assumed that their response would be negative in some way. Maybe you thought it would make them sad; maybe you thought it would make them angry; maybe you thought they would lash out at you; maybe you thought you wouldn’t find the right words to explain the situation or ask the question accurately.

Regardless, we all know that there are heavy conversations and topics that can be nerve-wracking to bring up. But it can really hurt when something that you think should be good news is interpreted negatively and when something positive is outright rejected.

If you’ve ever tried to share your faith, you might be familiar with this adverse reaction to good news. While we might understand why someone might react poorly to certain things that we think are good news—they don’t like the person you’re now engaged to, they don’t want you to attend that university you were accepted to so far away, they’re concerned what that new job will mean for the family—when it comes to the gospel, this is universally good news! The forgiveness of sins! Eternal life! What is there to be upset about? Why do people reject good news, especially the good news?

Rejection of God’s message is the central theme of our worship this morning. God was clear with the prophet Ezekiel that his message would not be well received. Paul sat in a Roman dungeon as he authored 2 Timothy, imprisoned for the message he shared, facing imminent execution. And Jesus, in our Gospel, went to Nazareth, his hometown, among the people he knew and knew him, and was rejected. These situations are sad and frustrating in their own ways, but we will focus our attention primarily on Jesus’ experience in Nazareth this morning.

Things seem to start well. Jesus takes his disciples back to where he grew up, to Nazareth. Saturday rolls around, and Jesus is in the local synagogue for worship, including teaching. In Luke’s Gospel, if this is the same event, we hear that Jesus read a messianic prophecy from the prophet Isaiah and then declared that this promise of a Savior was fulfilled among them that day. Mark tells us that many who heard him were amazed. Notably, though, amazement is not the same thing as faith.

In fact, Mark tells us that the people of Nazareth took offense at him as he taught and worked (or they at least heard accounts of) miracles. “Where did this man learn these things? What is this wisdom that has been given to this man? How is it that miracles such as these are performed by his hands? Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” And it doesn’t end there. Luke’s Gospel tells us that this contempt would bleed over into rage once Jesus confronted their offense at him with the assurance that this good news would be given to others, to people they might have viewed as lesser, the non-Jewish Gentiles. The people of Nazareth tried to throw him off a cliff.

Why? Why would Jesus’ own people, the people who saw him grow up, the people who perhaps knew him the best, the people who we might expect to be first in line to support this amazing “hometown boy,” why would they be so taken aback and even furious with Jesus? It is said that familiarity breeds contempt, a psychological principle that suggests the more we know someone or something, the more likely we are to find fault with them, which may be what is at play here. They were too familiar with Jesus (or at least who they thought Jesus was), and couldn’t see him as he actually was.

Maybe you’ve experienced this where someone is too familiar with Jesus to care what he says or thinks. Maybe it comes in the form of a child whom you raised at Jesus’ feet and then, as an adult, seems to care little for their Savior. Maybe it comes in the form of a friend who was dedicated to their church and God’s Word, and then something happened to sour them on the whole thing. Maybe it comes from a coworker who knows the pop culture points about Christianity and finds the whole thing so ridiculous (God becoming a man, dying, and then rising from the dead?!) that they reject it.

However, rejection of the gospel message is usually about more than simply familiarity. After all, many of you have known the truth of Jesus’ forgiveness for many decades, yet here you are, prioritizing time at Jesus’ feet and not rejecting what he has to say. What else plays a role in someone rejecting God’s message?

In large part, it’s about agency. We want agency; we want control. We want to be able to say we had a part in something. Maybe it’s in voting for or against that proposition, and the vote went how we wanted it. Maybe it’s in contributions to a group project in school or at work, even if those contributions are mainly in the background—perhaps no one else will know, but we do!

There is a part of everyone that wants to contribute to their eternal well-being and have a role, no matter how small, in the soul’s salvation. Maybe someone wants to think that they decided to believe in Jesus, that this was their choice. Perhaps someone wants to think that their good deeds are why God loves them. At an extreme, perhaps they don’t view their sins and failures as that big of a deal or that God should be happy that they compare pretty well with many other people in the world, their city, and maybe even their own household.

We know there’s no such thing as a free lunch, so when people hear about God’s forgiveness as a gift that we don’t have to and, in fact, cannot contribute to in any way, a large part of our natural selves burns against that. And that friction is present whether you’re hearing the good news for the first time or the millionth time. At the start of the service, we sang “Christ Be My Leader,” but how often isn’t our internal hymn more like, “I’ll take the lead, Lord, and you do as I say”? When we think about what Jesus said and did, perhaps our reaction is more, “Isn’t this the carpenter?” and less, “Thanks be to God!”

All of this forces us to engage in self-reflection. Rather than always thinking about other people’s rejection of God’s good news, we should focus more on how we receive God’s Word. You’re here this morning, yes, but why are you here? Is it because you want to hear what God has done for you or because it’s a habit or an obligation? Whether you’ve been coming to worship Jesus for your whole life or it’s relatively new to you, is there any amount of rejection, apathy, or offense to God’s message in you? Are you excited about everything in the Bible? Is there anything you might have said or done differently if God had consulted with you? Are there parts of God’s Word that you can’t understand, really wrestle with, or flat-out don’t agree with?

To a certain extent, that’s going to be true for everyone. None of us have a perfect understanding of what God has said and done. Because of sin, our wills are not in harmony with God’s, so there will be times when we will find ourselves in conflict with God in our thoughts and desires. How do we find a resolution to that?

The message that our natural selves burn against in the message we so desperately need. The message that the people of Nazareth didn’t want to hear was of the utmost importance for them. The message that so many in our world don’t have time for or think is ridiculous and reject, that message is the solution to the times that we grind against God’s will and Word. Because while we are inclined to think and speak for ourselves and what we want, Jesus never did that. He always obeyed the will of God, up to and including when it was his Father’s will that he suffer that horrible, torturous crucifixion.

He went to that death and faced those physical pains and even greater spiritual suffering, for you, for me, for all the times that we haven’t wanted to listen to him or thought his way was wrong. Jesus paid for every single sin on that cross, which means every time we’ve conflicted with God, those are forgiven; every time we’ve been in church for the wrong reasons, those are purified; and every time we’ve neglected his Word, and will in our lives, those are buried in the depths, never to be seen again.

We are forgiven for the times we have rejected the message that we are forgiven. It’s a bit recursive, but that is the total completeness of God’s forgiveness. He doesn’t take offense at us like the people of Nazareth took at him. He doesn’t treat our rejection or struggles as the “last straw,” so he draws back his love and forgiveness from us. No, even if he is amazed at our unbelief as he was that day in Nazareth, he still forgives us, as he did for those in his hometown. He went to the cross to bear the sin of rejection his neighbors in Nazareth committed, even as he went to bear the sin of rejection that you and I so often commit.

With encouragement and fire in our souls, what is your feeling about sharing your faith? Is there fear that sharing what you believe, inviting someone to church, or even just living your life in thanksgiving to God will mean rejection by those around you? It might. It often did for Jesus, so it should not be surprising when it happens to us. But that is not a reason not to do those things.

Rejection will come, but the message of Jesus being crucified and rising from the dead solves that rejection in ourselves and others. Bring them to Jesus; drag yourself to his cross and empty tomb. This is good news that we should not reject; this is good news of great joy that is for all people. We have peace with God, whether or not we’ve always wanted to acknowledge that. We are forgiven; our Savior will never reject us. Thanks be to God! Amen.

"Where Does Your Power Originate?" (Sermon on 2 Corinthians 4:7-15) | June 30, 2024

Sermon Text: 2 Corinthians 4:7-15
Date: June 30, 2024
Event: Proper 8, Year B

2 Corinthinthians 4:7-15 (EHV)

We hold this treasure in clay jars to show that its extraordinary power is from God and not from us. 8We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not despairing; 9persecuted, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed. 10We always carry around in our body the death of the Lord Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11To be sure, while we are living we are continually being handed over to death because of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal flesh. 12So then, death is working in us, but life is working in you.

13Since we have that same spirit of faith, which corresponds to what is written: “I believed; therefore, I have spoken,” we also believe, and therefore we speak. 14For we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and bring us (together with you) into his presence. 15In fact, all this is for your benefit, so that as grace increases, it will overflow to the glory of God, as more and more people give thanks. 

Where Does Your Power Originate?

If you’ve spent any time with books, movies, or video games in the genres of fantasy or science fiction (or even a blend of the two), you’re probably familiar with the idea of a character who had great, perhaps even untapped power. Maybe the antagonist seems to always have a trick up his sleeve, some hidden power reserve that the hero wasn’t aware of, some backup plan to his backup plan.

Depending on how these things are presented, they can either be suspenseful and intriguing plot developments, or they can be eye-rolling moments that feel like lazy writing to prolong a conflict that should have been resolved already. And it’s not just the antagonist, either. The hero of the story can pull out some power or plan seemingly out of nowhere, and if it wasn’t at least hinted at or foreshadowed in some way, it could feel like something that comes out of left field. Did that magician really have a secret stash of power he wasn’t using until the last possible moment? Did Batman really have even that tool tucked away in his utility belt? How did that warrior find the strength to overcome the forces of evil when he had been essentially left for dead?

The source of strength and power is important because it can determine how beneficial it is. Outside of the realm of fiction, if I put batteries in a flashlight to go out at night, it’s pretty important to know the quality of those batteries, their age, the amount they may have been used beforehand, etc. Going far from home at night with a flashlight with old or depleted batteries is not wise.

When we face challenges in life, we are often taught to look inward and to find our strength internally. Breathe right, eat right, exercise right, think right, and things will be better. And surely, there’s a lot of benefit in those things. But often, if we look inside ourselves for strength to face difficulties in life or to address a guilty conscience, we will be left really, really wanting.

Paul is very aware of that in our Second Reading this morning. Here, in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, he’s reflecting on the difference between the power of the gospel and the difficulties he and his companions have had in their ministries. They have faced opposition from the Jewish people who thought they were traitors to their people, from Gentiles who thought the message of Jesus was insane, from false teachers seeking to undermine the message of the gospel, from government leaders who didn’t care for him, from business owners who thought this message would impact their livelihood. The list goes on and on. Some said that he wasn’t impressive enough, that he wasn’t trustworthy. But still, Paul did not resort to “shameful, underhanded methods” (2 Corinthians 4:2) to spread the gospel. No, he sticks to the message entrusted to him.

In fact, he doesn’t really even defend himself or make an argument for why people should listen to him and not those who were set against him. He doesn’t lash out with a stern retelling of how Jesus specifically called him on that road to Damascus, plucked him out of his pharisaical persecution of Christians, and set him on the path to be his apostle. No, this hand-selected messenger for Jesus doesn’t boast about himself. In fact, how does he describe himself and his fellow gospel ministers? As clay jars.

That’s not complimentary. If you want something to endure and last, you make it out of stone, or metal, or even wood. But clay? Clay is almost temporary, almost disposable.

So why does Paul use such a self-deprecating picture to talk about himself and his coworkers? While his opponents boasted in themselves, in their own flashiness and ability to wow audiences, Paul says that their apparent weakness is actually a strength because it shows where the real power comes from: We hold this treasure in clay jars to show that its extraordinary power is from God and not from us.

Death is the ultimate moment of powerlessness. The dead person can do nothing to help himself, and often, there is precious little those around the person can do to try to intervene and help. I find it difficult to put myself in Jarius’ place in our Gospel without becoming overly anxious. A child at home, sick and near death. And what our Gospel for this morning skipped over is that Jesus was delayed by the crowds from getting to their home. And then, the ultimate heartbreak comes: before they even get to the house, messengers come to let Jairus know that the child has died. Why trouble Jesus anymore? There was nothing anyone could do now.

Or so it seemed. Jesus addressed that fear head-on: “Don’t be afraid. Only believe” (Mark 5:36). In what was the worst possible scenario, Jesus solves it with just a simple command, “Talitha, koum!” “Little girl, get up!” In my mind, Jesus says that with a smile and all the gentleness of a loving adult comforting a child, not so much a command but an invitation. Yet, in that gentle phrase is the power over death itself.

Of course, the power is not in the words, is it? No, I could go to morgues and funerals and cemeteries my entire life speaking those words—even in Aramaic!—and no one would return from death to life. The power is not the words themselves but the one who spoke them. Jesus, who created the universe, has power and command over his creation. We saw it last week as he rebuked the storm on the Sea of Galilee, and it stopped. Here, we see an even more impressive display of his power as he defeats death itself, not just calming some rowdy waters.

Last week, we journeyed with the writer of Psalm 42 through depression. We saw and learned from him how we might combat some of those misguided thoughts and feelings by focusing on God's promises. And here, the apostle Paul gives us a very specific example. Why might God allow trials and hardships in our lives? He has promised that one of the things he will do through those hardships is remind us where our strength truly lies, not in ourselves but in God.

You would expect clay jars that are assaulted and battered around to break. Try dropping a vase from just two feet in the air onto a tile floor; that won’t end well for the pottery. But what happens to the clay jars of Christians, and even gospel ministers, when they are besieged? We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not despairing; persecuted, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed.  We always carry around in our body the death of the Lord Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. To be sure, while we are living we are continually being handed over to death because of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal flesh.

Paul viewed his sufferings and weakness as a component of preaching Jesus. After all, Jesus didn’t look all that powerful on the cross, did he? And yet the one who calmed storms and raised the dead with a word showed his ultimate power at that cross. Because there, as he hung suspended between heaven and earth, he suffered hell for our sins; there, he defeated sin and Satan for us. And if Jesus’ time with Jairus’ daughter wasn’t enough to demonstrate his power over death, he himself rose from the dead on the third day, proving his victory over every one of our enemies.

And so, what does that mean for us? It means knowing where our power really comes from—not from inside us, but God’s power working in us. For we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and bring us (together with you) into his presence. We do not defeat death; we do not rid ourselves of sin. Jesus does that. He has completely rescued us, you and me, who were utterly helpless. Clay jars that we are, we see that we are completely and eternally protected by God’s love for us, which he promised.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that things will always be great in our lives. Things weren’t great for Paul and his companions, but still, he saw God working good through that. In fact, all this is for your benefit, so that as grace increases, it will overflow to the glory of God, as more and more people give thanks. Paul saw his sufferings and hardships as being to God’s glory and to the benefit of sharing the good news of Jesus’ forgiveness. The result is that God would work faith in more people, and then more people would be rejoicing in his forgiveness and eternal life, and they, in turn, would tell others, despite the hardships that might come their way.

Paul revisits this theme later in 2 Corinthians as he talks about his “thorn in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7), which was some ailment, likely physical, that he begged God to take away. But Jesus answered him that the difficulty would not be removed. Jesus explained that this hardship made clear his power and his grace, his love, for Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, because my power is made perfect in weakness,” to which Paul responded: Therefore I will be glad to boast all the more in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may shelter me. That is why I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For whenever I am weak, then am I strong. (2 Corinithnas 12:9-10).

My dear brothers and sisters, whenever God allows trials in your life that force you to acknowledge your inability to fix them and to see your weakness in stark relief, you have true power. Because that is when you stop relying on your strength, skill, and power and instead fall completely in God’s embracing, loving power for you. Martin Luther is recorded as having once observed, “God both loves and hates our afflictions. He loves them when they provoke us to prayer. He hates them when we are driven to despair by them.”

My dear fellow clay jars, do not let the trials of this life drive you to despair. Remember where your power comes from—from God, and from God alone. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not despairing; persecuted, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed.

We may have all sorts of trials here, but those will all end when Jesus brings us home to eternal life with him. And until that day, he stands by our side with his power. The one who raised the dead, and more than that, died and rose, can certainly guide any hardship in your life for your eternal good. That is what he has promised, so that is exactly what will happen. Thanks be to God! Amen.

"Why Are You So Depressed, O My Soul?" (Sermon on Psalm 42) | June 23, 2024

Sermon Text: Psalm 42
Date: June 23, 2024
Event: Proper 7, Year B

Psalm 42 (EHV)

For the choir director. A maskil by the Sons of Korah.

As a doe pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
2My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and appear before God?
3My tears have been food for me day and night,
while people are saying to me all day,
“Where is your God?”
4I am overcome by my emotions
whenever I remember these things:
how I used to arrive with the crowd,
as I led the procession to the house of God,
with loud shouts of thanksgiving,
with the crowd celebrating the festival.  

5Why are you so depressed, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for I will again praise him
for salvation from his presence.  

6My God, my soul is depressed within me.
Therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan,
from the heights of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
7Deep calls to deep in the roar of your rapids.
All your breakers and your waves have swept over me.
8By day the Lord commands his mercy,
and at night his song is with me—a prayer to the God of my life.
9I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go around mourning because of oppression by the enemy?”
10It is like breaking my bones when my foes taunt me.
All day long they say to me, “Where is your God?”  

11Why are you so depressed, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for I will again praise him
for my salvation from the face of my God.

Why Are You So Depressed, O My Soul?

You might not have been there or experienced anything like it, but we can probably work to empathize with the psalm writer this morning. He sits in a foreign land, Babylon, cut off from not only his home and the home of his ancestors but also the land that God had promised to give them. Jerusalem, the city where God had said he was going to place his name, had been conquered, and the temple, the great reminder of God’s presence with them in stone, wood, and precious materials, lies a ruin after the destruction of the Babylonian army.

So now, the inspired poet pours out his heart and soul to God. He’s not just homesick, he’s engulfed in a profound sense of hopelessness. There is no temple, tabernacle, or place to focus his worship. He cries out in despair, but it must feel like shouting into the void. Is anyone listening? Does anyone care? If God did care, why is he letting these things happen?

He knows the reasons for all of this. God had been clear through the prophets that the Israelites, his people, had been unfaithful to him for generations. There had been bright spots occasionally, yes, but on the whole, things had been bad. Many people in Israel, from the least to the most powerful, had dedicated themselves to worshiping false gods—the fertility gods of Baal and Asherah, but also, in extreme cases, horrendous gods like Molech, who demanded the sacrifice of children in fire.

The psalm writer repeatedly asks himself a question in this psalm: “Why are you so depressed, O my soul?” The answer seems pretty obvious. “Why? Because things are bad—really, really bad. They seem to be getting worse, and there seems to be no way out. So what is left but depression-fueled despair?”

We have the theme of storms running through our readings for this morning. Be it literal, natural storms on the Sea of Galilee for the disciples and on the Mediterranean for the apostle Paul, to what we might call the storms of life that Job and the psalm writer endure. Being trapped in a storm, literally or figuratively, is a totally helpless feeling. If you’ve never been on a boat amid a raging storm, perhaps you’ve been driving a car in rough weather, slipping on ice, or losing control hydroplaning on a rain-drenched road. Things go really badly quickly, and you feel utterly powerless to do anything. You can’t control the wind and the waves; once the tires have lost contact with the road surface, braking, steering, or acceleration will make little difference.

Is that what your life feels like? Do you feel like you're flying down the highway in a vehicle spinning wildly out of control? Do you crave help, care, direction, and stability but feel there is none? My dear Christian, you are not alone.

The psalm writer is reflecting on the past. The loss of what he thought he would always have is overwhelming. I am overcome by my emotions whenever I remember these things: how I used to arrive with the crowd, as I led the procession to the house of God. Over and over again, he replays what it was like to worship God in Solomon’s glorious temple. He was even a leader of that worship, and now that’s all gone. He sits in this foreign land, cut off from everything he held dear.

But as these thoughts fester and accumulate, the psalmist tries to correct course: Why are you so depressed, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I will again praise him for salvation from his presence. Things feel really bad, and everything is different than he hoped for. He can easily feel cut off from God, but he reminds himself that his relationship with God has not changed. God still loves and cares about him. This is a powerful reminder for us in our own times of despair and distress.

Consider something very similar in our Gospel for this morning. The disciples fight the storm, and an exhausted Jesus sleeps in the stern. Their cry comes to Jesus amid fear and panic: “Don’t you care that we are about to drown?” (Mark 4:38). Well, what’s the answer? Of course, Jesus cares! But it sure didn’t look or feel like it when the storm threatened to destroy the boat, and it seemed their lives were forfeit. After showing his ultimate control over nature, Jesus asks his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still lack faith?” (Mark 4:40).

In our Second Reading, Paul has bad and good news for his shipmates. There would be no calming of this storm. The ship would be torn to pieces, and the cargo would be lost. But God had assured Paul that the lives of everyone aboard were safe. Paul said to those on the ship with him: “But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because there will be no loss of life among you…. last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me… So keep up your courage, men, because I believe God that it will be exactly the way I have been told” (Acts 27:22-26). In other words, “Things are going to go from bad to worse, but I belong to God and know that he will do exactly as he promised.”

The psalm writer continues battling his thoughts and emotions in our psalm for this morning. He acknowledges to God what he is feeling; even for himself, he validates his emotions and acknowledges that they are real. But he also sees that his thoughts and feelings are not the be-all, end-all of reality. My God, my soul is depressed within me. Therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan… Depression grips him, but he turns his attention away from the inward, downward spiral and towards the promises of God, remembering what God has said and done.

The fears and concerns of this life sap our energy physically, emotionally, and spiritually. So where do we find rest? We thirst for God like a parched deer desperately seeking out a stream of water. We must look outside ourselves and find hope not in what things feel like or how we consider our present circumstances but in the God who made us.

The psalm writer’s work has a lot of similarities to modern therapeutic treatment. A therapist or counselor will encourage people to examine their thoughts and see what can be modified. For example, if I am overwhelmed by the thoughts that I am a failure to those depending on me or my work is an unproductive disaster, I can start challenging those thoughts. “Is that real or just what I’m thinking? Is it actually as bad as it feels, or is there some nuance there? What if I changed the way I’m thinking about this situation?” If I change my thoughts by acknowledging where there are distortions, often my emotions follow along.

But we Christians can take this even one massive step further. We don’t have to rely on the hope that probably things won’t be as bad as we think they might be. We have God's firm and certain promises. The one who gives these promises calmed a raging storm with just a word; he is trustworthy.

What has God promised you? And what would Satan want you to forget or doubt? To be clear, God has not promised a happy-go-lucky life. Jesus was clear that life in this world would mean bearing crosses. The thought that the life of a Christian should be easy and smooth is a vicious lie that seeks to undermine us and our faith in our weakest moments. No, God did not say there would be no distressful days in our lives, but he did promise, “Call on me in the day of distress. I will deliver you, and you will honor me” (Psalm 50:15).

There will always be deliverance from troubles, even if it “only” comes in eternal life. Sometimes, God has decided to let the trouble we’re experiencing remain. But it’s never because he’s angry at us, doesn’t like us, or has left us. In some way, God is working that trouble for good. I would dare not speculate this morning about what good God is working through your specific troubles, but that is perhaps a good question to ponder for yourself. Instead of weeping and wailing, “Why won’t you take this away, Lord? Why are you letting this happen to me?” perhaps we do better to focus on the question, “What good might the Lord work through this temporary or permanent hardship?” And perhaps even follow up those thoughts with a prayer, asking God to help you to see the good he’s working, if that is his will.

Satan would have you see trouble as God forgetting you, holding out on you, or even hating you. But my dear sisters and brothers, this is not the case, no matter how real it may feel or how intrusive the thoughts are. Let’s zero in on a few more promises of God that remain true no matter what we’re thinking or feeling:

God is with you and is powerful enough to control things for your good. God will not give up on you; you will make it through this, and it will end well.  He promises through the apostle Paul in Romans 8: We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose… If God is for us, who can be against us? Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also graciously give us all things along with him? (Romans 8:28, 31-32).

Sin has consequences, but whether it’s the result of my or others’ sin, the consequences do not indicate that God is done with me. In fact, God will never be “done” with me because Jesus bought me with his blood; he paid the whole price for my sins. God’s comfort rings out through the promise of a Savior in Isaiah: It was because of our rebellion that he was pierced. He was crushed for the guilt our sins deserved. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all have gone astray like sheep. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has charged all our guilt to him (Isaiah 53:5-6).

You are not a victim of your circumstances but a conqueror through your Savior, Jesus. Again, Romans 8: What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither things present nor things to come, nor powerful forces, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35, 37-39).

Why are you so depressed, O my soul? To one degree or another, we all ask this question regularly. Why are you so down? What is so grievous that things cannot be fixed? But on the really bad days, we might not even get that far. We might not feel able to challenge those thoughts and feelings. Everything can feel dark and hopeless.

Martin Luther struggled with depression regularly. At a particularly low time for him, his wife, Katie, came to where he was; she was dressed completely in black. Luther took notice of his wife’s attire and asked if she was going to a funeral. “Well,” Katie said, “you were so down that I figured the only possible explanation was that God had died, and we all should be in mourning.” That helped to snap Luther out of it and focus on the promises God had made and the things he had done.

The truth is, God did die, but that doesn’t produce despair; it brings joy and confident hope. The bloody cross means you have no eternal reason to be down. While God did die on that Good Friday, he did not stay dead. He conquered your sin on that cross and rose to prove that he is the victor and to show that nothing, no trouble or sadness or sin, could ever separate us from him. Drag yourself to Golgatha to see your Savior abandoned by his Father for you. Claw your way to the garden tomb, and even if tears cloud your eyes like they did for Mary, see the tomb where they laid him, empty; see your Savior alive and well in front of you.

And maybe this isn’t your struggle. Maybe it’s not something you deal with regularly. Or maybe you, at least, have times of respite and relief. Then, you can serve others by bringing them to Jesus yet again. You might not have answers or solutions, and you might not have any way to calm someone’s anxiety, bring peace to their panic, or uplift their downcast heart, but you can share Jesus and his love with them. You can remind them of the promises of God and lift up their eyes to the one who saved them from their sins and will bring them to eternal life.

In good days, but especially in troubling ones, hold on to the psalm writer’s question and direction: Why are you so depressed, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I will again praise him for my salvation from the face of my God. Things will work out for your good, and God will give you the strength to endure the sorrows of this life. God has promised, and so it will be. Amen.

"The Gospel Bears Fruit" (Sermon on Colossians 1:3-8) | June 16, 2024

Sermon Text: Colossians 1:3-8
Date: June 16, 2024
Event: Proper 6, Year B

Colossians 1:3-8 (EHV)

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints 5because of the hope that is stored up for you in heaven. You have already heard about this in the word of truth, the gospel 6that is present with you now. The gospel is bearing fruit and growing in the entire world, just as it also has been doing among you from the day you heard it and came to know the grace of God in truth. 7You learned this from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf. 8He is the one who told us about your love in the Spirit.

The Gospel Bears Fruit

Do you ever look around our little congregation on a Sunday morning and get a bit discouraged? Maybe it’s not even discouraged, but maybe it’s worry that comes across your heart. Almost 10 million people in the Bay Area, and our congregation’s membership normally hovers around 100 souls. Even when church is full, relatively speaking, we are tiny. What does that say about us? What does that say about God’s work in this world?

A few weeks ago, we celebrated the Day of Pentecost, and we saw the Holy Spirit’s arrival with power. But the main show of that power wasn’t in the sound of a rushing wind, tongues of fire, or sudden fluency in foreign languages for the disciples. The far greater miracle came later but also looked much more subtle. At the preaching of Peter and the others, three thousand people who had not believed in Jesus as their Savior left that day clinging to him by faith. That change of heart miracle, while perhaps not very flashy, was the most amazing thing to happen that day.

In our Gospel, Jesus compared the gospel's spread with seed being scattered on the ground. Seeds don’t look impressive. In fact, they seem to share more in common with pebbles than they do with anything powerful. Yet, what happens when you plant a seed in the ground with adequate water, sunlight, and nutrients in the soil? The seed sprouts, and a full-fledged plant grows up. Maybe it produces beautiful flowers or plants that are useful for nourishing the body. From this rather unremarkable start comes aesthetic beauty or, even more importantly, life-sustaining blessings from God.

This is the picture that Paul is working with when he speaks about the gospel with the Colossians. At the time Paul wrote to them, the Christians in the city of Colossae were besieged by false teachers. A popular false teaching distorted Jesus’ work and the comfort God wanted for his people. This teaching often focused people on the Old Testament ceremonial worship laws, saying that you had to follow them to benefit from Jesus’ death. These false teachers were adding works to God’s message of grace.

And from the outside, these false teachers may have appeared to have a point. This false teaching appealed to that part of every human being that wants to play some part, even if it’s very small, in our salvation. Also, Paul would not have looked very impressive. He was writing while under house arrest in Rome, so someone might mistakenly come to the conclusion that Paul’s incarceration was a sign of God’s displeasure with his teaching and God’s approval of these other teachers who were distorting the truth.

But Paul, even in these introductory verses of this brief letter, encourages the Colossians to look to God’s work for confidence and comfort: “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints 5because of the hope that is stored up for you in heaven. You have already heard about this in the word of truth, the gospel 6that is present with you now. The gospel is bearing fruit and growing in the entire world, just as it also has been doing among you from the day you heard it and came to know the grace of God in truth.” Paul doesn’t direct them to himself. He doesn’t point them to their own congregation for comfort. No, he wants the Colossians to take a holistic view of the work of God around them—around the world.

Let’s go back to our observations around us. We had our district convention earlier this week. These conventions serve a lot of purposes, but a huge focus is to give an update on the work of our church body as a whole. One of the statistics we heard in the reports was that in North America, membership in WELS churches is around 300,000 people. On the one hand, that’s a lot of people, but on the other hand, when I was growing up, that number always hovered around 400,000. That’s quite a drop-off. What does that make you think about God’s work or the health of the gospel? Do statistics like that leave you comforted or worried?

What is God doing? What is his plan? We might ask that about our work as a congregation or a church body. Paul might have asked that from the captivity he found himself in. The Colossians might have asked those questions as false teachers came trouncing all over the truth. Just what is God doing?

And, in a way, that question is starting to point in the right direction. What is God doing? Not, “What are we doing?” We do well to remember that the spread of the gospel is primarily God’s work, not ours. We are the ones scattering the seed while God makes it grow.

But we can take too much on ourselves. We can easily put ourselves in the place of God and say, “No, we need to do this work because we are on our own. Without us, God’s message will disappear!” A look at smaller congregations, shrinking church bodies, and nationally diminishing interest in Christianity can all lead to this line of thought, making us consider ourselves more important than we are. This line of thinking is often fueled by worry rather than trust.

Let’s take a moment to review some of the promises that God has made. He promised that his Word would never return to him empty but would do exactly what he sent it to do (Isaiah 55:10-11). He promised that his words would not disappear until he fulfilled every promise (Matthew 5:18). He promised that we don’t need large crowds to have his presence with us, that just two or three gathered together means he is present, and that he will not leave us even as individuals (Matthew 18:20; 28:20). Note who is doing the action in all of these promises: God, not us.

If we try to take on the responsibilities God has reserved for himself, we’re in trouble. And really, this is a summary of the entire gospel message, right? What is the message of the gospel? Jesus as Savior; not you, not me. My sacrifice and suffering don’t pay for my sins; only Jesus can and did do that. I can’t make myself believe or even choose to believe in Jesus as my Savior; only the Holy Spirit can and did do that. My entire spiritual health and eternal safety relies on God and on God alone.

And so it should be for our work as messengers of the gospel. We do well to see ourselves as mouthpieces sharing what God has done; we do well to see that God is the one doing the real work. And like a gardener watching the seeds sprout and plants begin to grow, we can look at the results of God’s actions. As Paul encouraged the Colossians, stop and notice that the gospel is bearing fruit and growing in the entire world, just as it also has been doing among you from the day you heard it and came to know the grace of God in truth.

While we don’t want to be focused on just the numbers, sometimes taking a step back and seeing the fruits of gospel ministry that God does let us see is worthwhile. Remember earlier when I said the North American membership in WELS churches is down to about 300,000? Well, the number of souls reached by our world mission work is at about 300,000—and growing! That means that sometime soon, the number of people reached with the gospel by our work outside of North America will be larger than that reached within our “home” borders. Praise God for the fruits of the gospel, that the message of Jesus as Savior is spreading far and wide!

What about our own work? We can take a peek at the statistics for our congregation’s webpage and see some interesting things. Do you know how many visits we’ve had from within California in the last month? About 350. Do you know how many people checked out our worship and education schedule? About 10-15.

But do you know how many visits we’ve had in total in the last month? Over 5500. Clearly, we don’t have 5500 people scrambling to attend worship with us in person each month. What is driving that traffic? Our archive of sermons and our clear confession of faith we have posted. And, in a way that almost seems to mirror our synod’s work as a whole, only a little over 40% of the traffic to our website came from North America. The rest came from across the world—the Philippines, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, and England, to name a few.

I can assure you that the sermons on our website are not popular because they are so masterfully written—because they are not. But they are a tool God uses to share his truths with people worldwide, even from our little outpost here in God’s mission fields.

Where God sends his gospel, there will be fruit. What will the fruit look like? It may be a Penetcost-like mass conversation of a whole group of people. More likely, it will be the simple sustaining of the faith that God has given to his people—a remnant in this world—and the slow, individual, one-by-one leading of the sheep who are outside into his sheep pen.

And what about those times that we’ve worried that this might all disappear, where we haven’t trusted God to do the work he promised to do? Well, for that there is forgiveness. The very message we proclaim—that Jesus paid for all the sins of the whole world—assures you and me that we are forgiven for this worry and lack of proper focus and perspective.

So, my brothers and sisters, see the fruits the gospel is producing. Look around you and see the other people who are here this morning and care about God’s Word and his message of forgiveness. That only happens because God makes it happen. Rejoice that we are not alone, but join many within our church body and within the holy Christian church at large rejoicing in God’s forgiveness and looking forward to eternal life with him. And let us go out with confidence, both as a congregation and as individuals, to share this glorious good news of sins forgiven in Jesus and see God bring about that fruit through us.

Thanks be to God! Amen.

"Jesus Is Greater than Satan’s Cunning" (Sermon on Genesis 3:8-15) | June 9, 2004

Sermon Text: Genesis 3:8-15
Date: June 9, 2024
Event: Proper 5, Year B

Genesis 3:8-15 (EHV)

They heard the voice of the Lord God, who was walking around in the garden during the cooler part of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

9The Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

10The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.”

11God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?”

12The man said, “The woman you gave to be with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

13The Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14The Lord God said to the serpent:

Because you have done this,
you are cursed more than all the livestock,
and more than every wild animal.
You shall crawl on your belly,
and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.
15I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your seed and her seed.
He will crush your head,
and you will crush his heel.  

Jesus Is Greater than Satan’s Cunning

If you’re in a conflict, you want to come from a position of strength, not weakness. For a court date, you want the facts and evidence to support your side of the case. If you’re the leader of an army fighting a battle, you want to ensure you have numbers or strategy in your favor. In any conflict, you want to ensure you’re on the side that is more likely to win.

On that day long ago in the Garden of Eden, it sure would have seemed like Adam and Eve were on the side more likely to win as a conflict with Satan arose. After all, they had been created by God in his own image. They had perfect harmony with him. Though they had free will, they knew and understood God’s commands and desires for them. How could they lose? They were God’s special creatures, the crown of his newly created, expansive universe. There was no better position to be in!

But then the questions started coming, “Did God really say…?” Eve was too willing to listen to Satan’s questions, and nearby, Adam was too willing to let them talk. The moment Satan started questioning what God had said and later God’s care and concern for them, Adam and Eve should have cut it off right there. But, Satan found a crack in the armor and turned up the pressure. He accused God of lying to them, of holding out on them, and that what God forbade was actually good for them. They should eat the fruit from the tree God told them not to eat. Only good things would come of it!

Except Satan is the father of lies. And this first lie recorded in Scripture was a doozy because it roped Adam and Eve into its trap. Before long, they ate some of the fruit, which was off-limits to them. And in that moment, as sin entered the world through our first parents, everything changed.

The change was instantaneous; Satan’s mission was wildly successful. Previously, Adam and Eve had enjoyed being together as they were created. After they sinned, the first thing they noticed was that they were naked and felt shame, so they hastily used leaves to make impromptu garments.

But the real tragedy came in the first verse of our First Reading for this morning. They heard the voice of the Lord God, who was walking around in the garden during the cooler part of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. They had been created in God’s image to have perfect harmony and fellowship with God. Sin destroyed that. So now, instead of joy at God making his presence known, they hide from him. Sin replaced the harmonious fellowship Adam and Eve had with God and replaced it with fear. And rightly so. They had disobeyed God’s clear, simple command and would now face the consequences for what happened.

But see God’s patience and his love. He seeks out Adam and Eve. “Where are you?” It’s not that God didn’t know, but he was giving our first parents the chance to repent, to come to him and express their sorrow over what they had done. But instead of repentance, there was blame. Adam blamed Eve and then even had the audacity to blame God for the sin; Eve, in turn, blamed the serpent, Satan.

God is not fooled by their blame game. It’s not as if the pointing fingers make him forget that he needs to deal with this sin in his people. He will get there. But he does draw his attention first to Satan with words that will have a tremendous impact on Adam and Eve and you and me.

The Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the livestock, and more than every wild animal. You shall crawl on your belly, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. I’m not sure what snakes looked like in God’s original creation, but here is where they get their form that we are familiar with. A whole order of animals faced the effects of Satan choosing their form to bring sin into God’s perfect creation.

But verse 15 is the real focus for this morning. It speaks not only to Satan but to all people as well, and if you permit me, we’ll spend a few moments with this amazing verse: I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel. 

Speaking directly to Satan, God promises hostility (or you might have the word “enmity” floating in your mind from other English translations) between Satan and Eve. But this hostility goes beyond just Satan and Eve, it will be between Satan’s seed and Eve’s seed. Satan’s and Eve’s descendants would be at each other’s throats. But who are their descendants? Angels, including fallen angels like Satan, do not reproduce.

The seed of Satan are all those who follow his path, who take his bait. In those first few moments between their sin and God’s intervention, Adam and Eve were both the seed of Satan. They were those who followed Satan and faced the same condemnation that he faced: hell. They were spiritually dead. To use more familiar language, they were unbelievers.

The seed of Eve would be believers, those clinging to God’s promises in faith. But there is no promise to cling to in this unique moment in the Garden of Eden. So God wastes no time in making the promise: He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.  The promise of seed shifts from plural to singular, from all seed to one particular seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel. God is speaking about one singular descendant from Eve. This is the first promise of a Savior.

There are two promises here. First, someone is coming to crush Satan’s head. Secondly, Satan will crush this person’s heel. If you’ve ever had a heel injury, you know it is wildly unpleasant. It hurts to walk; every step is a reminder of that injury, and there’s really no way to avoid the pain and reality of what has happened.

As painful and annoying as a heel injury is, though, we’d all much prefer a crushed heel over a crushed head. A crushed head isn’t painful and annoying; it’s the end of your life. A crushed head is complete defeat. If, in a battle, one person has their heel crushed and another has their head crushed, the one who suffered the crushed heel, while injured, is the victor.

This first promise of the Savior takes us right to Golgatha, to the cross. We don’t have the vivid details that would come in later promises through the prophets, but the outcome is certain, even in this foggy, somewhat vague first promise. The promised Savior is the victor. He will crush Satan’s head while suffering a real but not defeating injury.

Jesus foreshadowed what was coming throughout his ministry. Time and time again, he rebukes evil spirits, the fallen angels, the cohorts of Satan. When he speaks, they must obey. They scream in terror at facing the Son of God because they know his authority over them.

But the real crushing battle took place at the cross. Jesus’ “heel” is severely wounded as he suffers unimaginable physical torture before the Sanhedrin, Pontius Pilate, and the crucifixion. And that’s to say nothing of the even worse spiritual torment he endured, as all the world’s sins were placed on him, and he suffered the hell that Adam and Eve’s first sin and our many sins since deserve. God abandoned him. “Eli, lama sabachthani?” “My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:45).

That dark Good Friday looked like the roles were reversed. As Jesus hung lifelessly on the cross and then his body was placed in the tomb, it looked like Jesus had been doing the heel-crushing and Satan had accomplished the head-crushing.

But as the women went to the tomb that Sunday morning, the reality was made clear. The angel’s question implies it, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” The vacant tomb points at it. But Jesus’ appearances thereafter proved it. Jesus walked away from that horrible battle the victor. To use Jesus’ words from our Gospel, Jesus has walked into Satan’s home, tied him up, and then plundered him. Satan lost that battle with Jesus completely. Jesus crushed his head. There were no cunning, crafty questions to bring, no sweet-sounding lies to put forward. Satan lost; Jesus won—end of story.

What does that mean for us? The same thing it meant for Adam and Eve. We have sinned, yes; we deserve God’s punishment, yes; we will face difficulties, trials, and chastisements in this life because of our sins. But Jesus won the victory for us. He ensured that our sins were forgiven because he took them upon himself.

Satan’s whole goal in the Garden of Eden was to ruin what God made. His jealousy over mankind’s relationship with God and God’s power led him to the tree that day. But in the end, God was the victor.

There will come a day when we will no longer be in this world of sin and decay, when our sinful nature will no longer pull us to disobey God. No, there we will have the full restoration of the image of God within us; there, we will have perfect harmony and fellowship with God forever. It will be ours because Jesus gives it to us as a free gift.

We are in the midst of a very real battle in this life, but Jesus is greater than all the cunning tricks of Satan. My dear brothers and sisters, you do not need to be afraid. Jesus has rescued you. You are safe with him. He has crushed Satan’s head so that you can spend eternity with him. Thanks be to God! Amen.

"Rest Is God's Eternal Blessing" (Sermon on Deuteronomy 5:12-15) | June 2, 2024

Sermon Text: Deuteronomy 5:12–15
Date: June 2, 2024
Event: Proper 4, Year B

Deuteronomy 5:12–15 (EHV)

Observe the Sabbath day by setting it apart as holy, just as the Lord your God commanded you. Six days you are to serve and perform all of your regular work, but the seventh day is a sabbath rest to the Lord your God. You are not to do any regular work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock or the alien who resides inside your gates, in order that your male servant and your female servant may rest like you. Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the day of rest.

Rest Is God’s Eternal Blessing

This week I came across a brief video of a guy bragging about being awake, working at 2am because he was dedicated. The implication was that other people were weak for sleeping … or something? I’m not sure. I didn’t pay much attention to it because it seemed kind of bonkers. Because, after all, rest is important. Ask any parent of a newborn how important it is to get some rest whenever you can because the baby’s arrival means a complete upheaval to your sleep patterns.

Now, are there times when you need to buckle down and get things done, be it that essay for school, that report for work, or setting the house back in order after a long day? Sure. But perhaps with slightly better time management and flexible priorities, you can both get things done that need to be done when they need to be done and get the proper amount of rest. Taking care of your body’s physical needs is not a foolish weakness; it’s a wise strength.

And this is not just some modern worldly wisdom that people have come up with after years of study and observation. These are truths that God, in his infinite wisdom, built into creation and emphasized repeatedly in his Word. God designed the world so that day and night would divide each day into working time and resting time. When Elijah was falling into the pit of despair and depression, God didn’t try to reason with him. He tells him first to sleep and eat and then sleep some more. Even Jesus, as true man, grew tired and often withdrew from the crowds to rest. At one point, he was so exhausted that he was sleeping through a massive storm on the Sea of Galilee while in the stern of the boat!

So important was rest that God even built it into the Ten Commandments. It wasn't just about taking a nap or spending time with the family. God had a very specific, spiritual reason for this command. Through it, he worked great blessings for his people then, and he continues to work for us today.

Our First Reading this morning is taken from the book of Deuteronomy, the second giving of the law to the generation who would inherit the Promised Land after they wandered in the wilderness for forty years because of the previous generation’s lack of trust in God’s promises. But when God originally gave this command to his people right after their rescue from Egypt, he included this detail and explanation: For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. In this way the Lord blessed the seventh day and made it holy (Exodus 20:11).

So the origins of this rest command take us all the way back to the very beginning, to creation. In the book of Genesis, at the end of the initial account of the creation of the universe, God explains the seventh day this way: The heavens and the earth were finished, along with everything in them. On the seventh day God had finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had been doing. God blessed the seventh day and set it apart as holy, because on it he rested from all his work of creation that he had done (Genesis 2:1-3).

We get a better understanding of what God is commanding in this Sabbath day command when we know what he’s basing it on. God wasn't tired when he rested on the seventh day of that creation week. God is all-powerful; he doesn’t run out of energy or need to take a breather. No, when God rested, he stopped his creative work because it was perfectly done and he enjoyed the work that he had done.

Maybe you can appreciate that. I can remember in school finally getting that big paper done, printing it out, stapling it, and then just leafing through it to enjoy the fact that the project was complete. Even this past week, I cleaned the garage at home and used a leaf blower to do an incredibly basic floor cleaning. It’s not impressive at all, but how many times do you think I admired how the cleaner floor looked in the garage as I came and went this week? These small moments of rest and reflection can bring us joy and satisfaction, just as God enjoyed his creation on the seventh day.

God created the entire universe in service of a special relationship with the crown jewel of his creation—people. He created them his own image—in perfect harmony with him. And so that seventh day of rest was a day to be done creating and to start enjoying fellowship with Adam and Eve.

Israel’s Sabbath day commandment echoes this purpose. Though sin has completely ruined people's relationship with God, God promised to fix it. Right in the Garden of Eden, not long after the first day of rest, God promised a Champion who would crush the serpent’s head and rescue every human being from their sins. In many ways, the Sabbath day of rest was just a little glimmer of what God would do. And that promise was fulfilled in Jesus, who observed the Sabbath perfectly and became our eternal rest, providing us eternal rest in him.

Note that our First Reading does not mention what specific things you can or can’t do. As the centuries passed, different hedge laws were added around this Sabbath day law. These man-made traditions set limits on what type of actions were allowed on the Sabbath and even, at times, how many steps you were allowed to take. None of those restrictions are in God’s command. God’s command was to take a day off, a day of rest, trust that he would provide even if you didn’t work on that day, and spend that time focused on him and his promises. Perhaps that would mean worship at the Tabernacle or Temple. Perhaps that would be longer times of family discussions around what we might call home devotions. But the Sabbath’s design was one of blessing—as Jesus said, the Sabbath was for man, not the other way around—and it was much less about following rules and more focused on what God would do.

And so we jump ahead to our day. Paul was clear in our Second Reading that no one should be willing to be judged by a Sabbath day celebration. We are not obligated to observe a complete day of rest on Saturday because Jesus has fulfilled that law for us. He has brought the real rest from sin and death that the Sabbath day only pictured. Paul reminded us that you don’t continue to stare at someone’s shadow when you have the person standing in front of you, We are not required to stare at the shadow of the Sabbath day when Jesus is right before us.

That said, the spirit of the original Sabbath day still applies. We may not be required to observe a day completely off from our regular work, but fellowship with God, time surrounded by him and his promises, is vital. Martin Luther picked up on that spirit of the Third Commandment when he wrote his explanation of it in his Small Catechism: We should fear and love God that we do not despise preaching and his Word, but regard it as holy and gladly hear and learn it.

We don’t need to limit this to one day! There can be little sabbaths for you every day. Perhaps a time of devotion and prayer with your morning coffee, meditation on God’s promises and blessings, and prayer before bed. Here in worship on a Sunday morning, Bible Class with your fellow Christians, time in the Word after dinner. There are so many times to gather at our loving Savior’s feet and hear anew all that he has done and will do for us!

All of these sabbaths point ahead to the real rest that is coming. Not an hour in a pew or a day off of work, not a quick prayer before bed or a lengthy study of God’s Word. No, the real rest comes after this life. Jesus didn’t come to give us occasional rest from the rigors of our day-to-day existence; all of his promises point to the future, eternal rest that we will have with God forever in heaven.

This is good because even though we’re not required to observe a specific day of rest, your mind is likely racing with times when you haven’t kept the spirit of this Third Commandment. Have I avoided attending church because I felt I had better things to do with my time? Have I been in church but let things other than restful time with my God be my priority? Have I ignored personal time in God’s Word or just seen it as another task to get done rather than the blessing that it is? We can all give a hearty, yet shameful, “yes” to those questions.

And so we look at Jesus, the one who not only taught the truths about the Sabbath—it’s for doing good and receiving God’s blessings!—but also kept this commandment perfectly for us. Jesus was always dedicated to worship, regular in prayer with his heavenly Father, and sacrificed his time and energy to bring God’s Word to the people around him. Jesus was flawless in his obedience so that he could give that obedience to you.

The shameful “yes” to those questions of neglect is not the final answer because Jesus kept this command in our place. So when God examines us and how dedicated we have been, he doesn’t see my flaky attitude to his Word or your failures to prioritize it. No, he just sees Jesus’ perfection. And those times that we have failed to do what we should are washed away in his blood, shed for us on the cross.

And that’s when the purpose of the Sabbath rest comes into focus. This was not and is not a rule that had to be followed to show obedience; no, this rest is for our eternal good. It is a time to meditate on how Jesus saved us from our sins. It is a time to repeatedly prioritize hearing God’s amazing love story, how he cares so deeply about us that he would sacrifice his only Son to rescue us from our sins.

Like nearly everything God does, this direction of rest and time in his Word looks ahead to eternity, when God will provide real rest from everything that causes pain or sadness. In eternal life, we will have unending rest and fellowship with our Creator and Savior God.

So take your time with God, not as something you have to do but as a blessing you get to do. Sit at Jesus’ feet and hear again and again how he loves you. The message of our salvation is not always pleasant to hear because we’d much rather be told that we had nothing bad in us from which we needed to be saved. But the end of that story is always a perfect joy because it ends with a perfect rest won on Jesus’ bloodied cross, which is proved by his empty tomb.

Lord, hasten that day of eternal rest! And until that day, help us find our rest in you for all the days of our lives. Amen.

"The Triune God Is United in Mission" (Sermon on John 3:1-17) | May 26, 2024

Sermon Text: John 3:1-17
Date: May 26, 2024
Event: Holy Trinity Sunday (The First Sunday after Pentecost), Year B

John 3:1-17 (EHV)

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2He came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these miraculous signs you are doing unless God is with him.”

3Jesus replied, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless someone is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

4Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?”

5Jesus answered, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God! 6Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh. Whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be surprised when I tell you that you must be born from above. 8The wind blows where it pleases. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

9“How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.

10“You are the teacher of Israel,” Jesus answered, “and you do not know these things? 11Amen, Amen, I tell you: We speak what we know, and we testify about what we have seen. But you people do not accept our testimony. 12If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven, except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.

14“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15so that everyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

16“For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

The Triune God Is United in Mission

When a group is working on a singular project, ensuring everyone is going in the same direction is very important. For some people, their whole job is managing those projects to ensure each person or team has the necessary resources and adheres to a schedule to make the process move smoothly. If you have people out of sync, or going rogue, or deciding they have different priorities, the whole system will break down and fall apart.

This isn’t just true in groups of multiple people. I know all too well that I can have one priority for something to get done but then spend my time on other things. Then, I feel like I’ve more or less wasted my time because I didn’t do what I wanted to get done. If it was that important, I should have prioritized it and executed it!

This morning, on the First Sunday after Pentecost, we spend time especially on the Triune God. The Trinity is not something we’ll be able to explain logically. How can God be one yet three? How can there be different persons to God, yet each person is completely and wholly God, not simply one-third of God?

So, the hows of the Trinity will never really make sense—we must take God at his Word and trust that he knows better than us. But what is clear, and what does make sense, is that the Triune God—Father, Son, and Spirit—are all unified in their mission. Their purposes and goals are completely in sync. They have one main task in mind and work together to execute it. My dear brothers and sisters, you are the Triune God’s mission and priority.

This morning, we meet up with Jesus early in his earthly ministry. He’s meeting with one of the Pharisees, a man named Nicodemus. Now, in the Gospels, when we run across the Pharisees, and they’re talking with Jesus or asking him questions, they often try to trick or trap in his words. At a minimum, we usually see them test him to learn what he’s really up to. But that’s not the case here with Nicodemus. He recognizes that there’s something special about Jesus. He views Jesus not as a threat but perhaps as a true gift from God. But he has some questions. And so, under the cover of darkness for fear of his fellow Pharisees finding out, he goes to learn more about and from Jesus. “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these miraculous signs you are doing unless God is with him.”

It's not a question, is it? The implication is, “Jesus, please give me some insight from God, help me to understand what he’s done or is doing.” And so Jesus begins with what we might call the end: “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Unless someone is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” That’s where we end up once God has worked faith in our hearts. But Nicodemus is so baffled by this concept of a second birth that he can’t get past it.

So Jesus continues to tell him that the things of this life produce things that are useful only for this life, but the things that God works are useful for eternity—faith in God’s promises being first and foremost among them.

So then Jesus backtracks even more. As shocking as it seems to Jesus to need to break things down into the simplest of terms for one of Israel’s premier teachers, he does. He goes back to the Old Testament to help with that, to the days of God’s people wandering in the wilderness after they were freed from their slavery in Egypt. As they traveled, they grew impatient with Moses and God and grumbled and complained. So, as a chastisement for their malcontent, God sent venomous snakes among the people. We’re told that as a result of the snakes, “many people from Israel died” (Numbers 21:6). This was no minor inconvenience. God was serious about the people’s sins and ensured they knew!

Seeing what had befallen their countrymen, those left cried out in repentance and fear. They admitted their wrongdoing and pleaded with Moses to pray for them. And so Moses did, and God gave him specific directions: “‘Make a venomous snake and put it on a pole. If anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live.’ Moses made a bronze snake and put it on the pole. If a snake had bitten anyone, if that person looked at the bronze snake, he lived” (Numbers 21:8-9). A bronze snake was lifted up on a pole, and everyone who looked at it, trusting God’s promise that he attached to it, was spared from physical death at the bites of the real snakes.

Jesus uses this illustration to depict what will happen to him and the result. Jesus, like the metal snake, will be lifted up—not on a pole, but on the cross. He’ll be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Looking to Jesus, trusting his promises that he saves, brings the forgiveness of sins God promised.

But then Jesus takes us back even further. Why would Jesus come to rescue us from our sins? Why would the Holy Spirit work fresh, heavenly birth through faith in Jesus? There’s a fundamental core driving all of these actions: love. And that love stems from the Father, causing him to send his Son, and then the Father and Son, in turn, send the Holy Spirit with that heavenly rebirth of faith. Jesus described that foundational love in the famous verses at the end of our Gospel: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

The mission that the Triune God—Father, Son, and Spirit—is unified in is saving you from hell. Because that’s where we are naturally. As sinners who rebel against God’s will in our lives over and over again, we are nowhere near the perfection that God requires. On our own, we are lost to eternal damnation; we will perish eternally without God’s intervention and rescue.

And as God examined that state, his heart was twisted in knots. He loved you, me, and the world too much to let hell be our inevitable destination. He loved us too much to let his justice separate us from him forever. And so the Father, in that love, gives direction to the Son. We sang a poetic version of this commission two weeks ago in the hymn “Dear Christians, One and All Rejoice,” where we sang, “He spoke to his belovèd Son: ‘Tis time to have compassion. Then go, bright jewel of my crown, and bring to all salvation. From sin and sorrow set them free; slay bitter death for them that they may live with you forever.’” For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son…

And then, once Jesus does the work we needed him to do, once he suffers and dies on the cross to pay for every single sin ever committed by every person, there is still something left to be done. While the forgiveness of sins is an objective truth because the work is complete, if I, as an individual, do not know what Jesus has done, it does me no good. It’s like a Christmas present wrapped under the tree, completely prepared, yet never opened and enjoyed.

If we don’t look to our lifted-up Savior in faith, we don’t benefit from what he did for us. So, the Holy Spirit comes to us as individuals with that good news of the gospel to assure us that Jesus paid our debt. He creates and sustains faith in our hearts through his Word, Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper, where he brings us the confidence of our forgiveness and eternal life.

So, the Father sends the Son; the Son is lifted up on the cross to save us; the Father and the Son send us the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit works faith in the fact that the Son completed the Father’s mission of mercy. Each member of the triune Godhead has different roles but the same unified mission. God’s mission was to save you. And that mission is completed.

Dear Holy Spirit, keep us strong in our faith, which assures us that we are forgiven and will be in heaven because of your love for us! Amen.

"I Will Send Him to You" (Sermon on John 15:26-16:11) | May 19, 2024

Sermon Text: John 15:26-16:11
Date: May 19, 2024
Event: The Day of Pentecost, Year B

John 15:26-16:11 (EHV)

“When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me. 27And you also are going to testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.”

16:1“I have told you these things so that you will not fall away. 2They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who murders you will think he is offering a service to God. 3They will do these things because they have not known the Father or me. 4But I have told you these things so that when their time comes, you may remember that I told them to you. I did not tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you.

5“But now I am going away to him who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6Yet because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart. 7Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth: It is good for you that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment: 9about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; 11about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

“I Will Send Him to You”

Last week, we addressed some of the difficulties of being a Christian in this world: We believe, but we do not see. It is difficult to have that child-like faith to trust what we cannot see! Jesus said to Thomas the week after he rose from the dead that those who believed yet did not see were blessed! But how often aren’t we like Thomas, just longing for proof and evidence that God does love us? “Lord, please, just a moment… let me touch those nail marks in your hands…”

Jesus promised his disciples some proof that he had not left them: he would send the Holy Spirit, the Counselor, to them. Jesus said that the order of things was that he had to go, and then the Holy Spirit would come to them. Elsewhere, Jesus describes it as being clothed with power from on high. The Holy Spirit was going to do some remarkable things.

And we saw some of those things in our Second Reading this morning—the sound of the rushing wind, the flames of fire over the disciples’ heads, and the ability to speak in earthly languages they had never studied. It was a clear, public sending of the Spirit’s power. One could hardly miss it if you were there. That first Christian Pentecost Day was, in part, Jesus making good on his promise, “I will send him to you.” The Spirit’s power was the proof that Jesus was faithful to his promises and continued to be with them even if they couldn’t see him.

However, the Pentecost arrival of the Holy Spirit is only one small sliver of the Spirit’s work. And even if we have never experienced the outward gifts that the disciples did on that first Christian Pentecost Day, the promise of the Holy Spirit still applies to us because Jesus was not speaking only of this one day when he promised the Spirit to his disciples: he promised a lifetime of blessings as the Spirit did his convicting and convincing work through the disciples’ message. And this is a promise that spans generations, even to us today.

Unlike on that first Christian Pentecost, though, sometimes the work of the Spirit is about as difficult to see as Jesus himself. The Holy Spirit works quietly in the background, generally through unimpressive means. And so, we can feel a bit alone, as if God is not with us, as if Jesus’ promises perhaps do not apply to us. This morning, let’s take a few moments to unpack what Jesus said the work of the Holy Spirit is and see if we can see that work being done among us today.

Jesus centers and grounds the Holy Spirit’s work in testifying and witnessing, “When the Counselor comes… he will testify about me…. When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment.” The Holy Spirit’s primary work is not in flashy signs or miracles, though he can certainly do that. The Spirit’s primary work is testifying and witnessing about Jesus, bringing both God’s law and gospel to the world.

So, the Holy Spirit’s arrival on Pentecost wasn’t the first time the disciples experienced the Spirit’s work within them. The Spirit was at work in their hearts before they ever met Jesus, as they were faithful Jewish believers looking forward to God fulfilling his promises. The Holy Spirit was responsible for that forward-looking, “Old Testament” faith. On that first Christian Pentecost Day, the Spirit’s work was most importantly demonstrated not in tounges of fire or language gifts but in the boldness he gave to the disciples to speak and in the faith he brought to life in the hearts of 3,000 people who listened to Peter and the others proclaim the wonders of God.

By nature, without God’s Word, you knew some things about God. You looked around and could reason that this world did not come out of nowhere. Some strong power and organizational force must have put it together. You knew the difference between right and wrong, not as a social construct, but as an inward and innate knowledge. The guilt that could grip you testifies to the fact that you have not kept right and wrong in your life as you should and that there would undoubtedly be bad ramifications for those failures, probably at the hand of whoever or whatever put this world together. And so, by nature, we are at war with God. We are as spiritually dead as those dusty bones Ezekiel saw in the desert.

But that’s not all there is to know about God. Nature and your conscience testify in part, but the Holy Spirit testifies in whole. Yes, God reinforces the concepts of objective, universal morality through his Word. But much more than that, the Holy Spirit testifies to what we could not know on our own: God's love and forgiveness.

In his Word, the Holy Spirit takes us back to the cross and points to Jesus crucified there for the world's sins. The Spirit declares what we could not see or understand even if we had been there that day. “This,” the Spirit says, “is for you. You are forgiven because Jesus paid the price, your debt, and suffered your hell.” You believe that Jesus is your Savior, not because you decided to believe or put so much effort into it, but because the Holy Spirit created that faith in your heart. You and I, who were spiritually dead, are raised to life in the faith God gives.

The message of the gospel doesn’t really make any sense. Why would God, whom we sinned against, take on human flesh to suffer and die for those sins that we committed against him? This is not something that we could have come up with on our own, and even if someone had, it would be viewed as laughable fiction. But it is not fiction! When we had no one to save us, Jesus died for us and paid for every sin!

That means we are forgiven for all we’ve ever done wrong. Jesus took that load of guilt and the punishment of hell on himself. He promised his disciples a gift in the Holy Spirit, but the gift of his life was just as important. When he died, he defeated sin for us. When we rose from the dead, he proved that sin has been put away forever.

That means that you and I stand forgiven. For every doubt, for every time we’ve not made God our priority, for every sin against his holy law, those sins are all gone. And the Holy Spirit brings this comfort in ways that don’t seem particularly impressive. A splash of water and God’s name being spoken over a person. The promises of God spoken aloud or read off a page. A fleck of bread and a sip of wine that carries with it Jesus’ actual body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins. None of these things would make anyone ooh and aah. But they are the simple ways that God does his extraordinary work.

So simple are these means that Jesus is clear that the disciples would be the ones to bring them to others. Jesus would not be with them permanently—he was going away just as planned. Angels would not come to preach to the masses. And even the Holy Spirit would not clearly, directly intervene in the lives of the people of the world. No, the Spirit will work quietly, content to bring his perfect message through flawed messengers. Flawed messengers like Peter and the other disciples, like you and me.

So, the real work of bringing people to faith is God’s alone. But just because God works through his messengers and the Holy Spirit works through his gospel message, it does not mean that this work will be easy or pleasant for us who share his Word. I have told you these things so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who murders you will think he is offering a service to God. That sounds… very bad. Very troubling. Very difficult.

Despite the gospel's message being immensely good news, it will not be universally well received. People will ignore it, make fun of it, and even violently fight against it. But despite all those hardships and troubles, the Holy Spirit is still working. Maybe he doesn’t bring 3,000 to faith as he did on that first Christian Pentecost Day. Maybe it’s just one; maybe at a given time, it’s actually none. But where God’s Word is, where the gospel is proclaimed, there is the Holy Spirit. And wherever we Christians go, the Holy Spirit is also there with us. Why? Because Jesus promised he would send him. And so he has.

Take heart, my fellow temples of the Holy Spirit. Jesus has been faithful, bringing you from spiritual death to spiritual life. He sent us the Holy Spirit as he promised. Let us go and be the Spirit’s mouthpieces in the world! Amen.