Homily for Lent 5 Evening Prayer

"Battle Cry of Faith--The Lord's Prayer"
Small Catechism, The Lord's Prayer
(sixth in a catechetical series)

When a father has to travel for his work, it’s quite common that he will bring home gifts for his children. It might be a pin from a town or country. It could be a toy or stuffed animal, or even some special chocolate or candy. Over time the children come to expect such gifts from daddy. When daddy comes home from a trip and enters the door, the children come running to him, hug him, welcome him home, and then ask, “What did you bring us?” I know it’s happened in my home; perhaps it’s happened in your home.

It’s not so bad that children ask, “What did you bring us?”, is it? It’s not purely out of selfishness or entitlement, I think. You see, we fathers actually teach our children to expect something when we bring gifts home from our trips. They learn that this is what dad does. And dad does this because he loves his children.

That’s how it is with our heavenly Father. It’s what our spiritual father, Martin Luther, has pointed out out in the Catechism, especially in the Creed. God has withheld nothing from us. He has given us Himself and His entire creation. He then gave us His only-begotten Son. Then He gave us His Holy Spirit and the age to come. So no wonder He exhorts us to run to Him and ask for His blessings “with all boldness and confidence” as “dear children ask their dear father.” God has tenderly invited us to do so!

What does it mean to pray? Quite simply, to pray is to ask. This is the heart and core of prayer. Now this may sound a bit odd to our ears. In fact, it may sound like “gimme, gimme, gimme.” And isn’t that rather self-centered and selfish? Well, in our human relationships, it can certainly reveal a sense of entitlement. “We deserve it! We ought to have it!” But when it comes to our relationship with God, it actually reveals something of our standing before God. We never don’t need everything from God; we are never independent from Him.

We’ve seen this in previous weeks. Everything we are and have comes from God Himself. As St. Paul asked, “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Cor. 4:7). You and I did not deserve to be born. We did not earn or merit it. We did not deserve this life. God did not owe it to us. Instead, we receive all of life as a gift. We, you and I, exist solely as gifts of God. And so our life and our lives are completely dependent upon God. We live from the gifts of God. That’s what it means to be creatures and not the Creator. You and I will never not need food and drink, family and friends, good weather, health for our bodies. And so God tenderly invites us to ask, and to receive all these gifts, and many more, with thanksgiving.

But at the same time, we are fallen creatures, sinful creatures. You and I stand before God always needing to be cleansed from sin, constantly restored to God’s favor and grace. It may seem anything but natural to go before God and ask for forgiveness and a new lease on life. Some may call that the height of chutzpah. And yet, right here, right at this point, is where God approaches us and tenderly invites us to call Him “Father.” He does this so that He might not frighten us or chase us off. Instead, He extends His hand so that we may take it. And because of Jesus, we have been adopted as His children. Because of the Holy Spirit of His Son who comes into our hearts, we can cry out, “Abba, Father.” As long as we live in this current age, there’s not a moment when we do not need to ask for God’s forgiveness and favor. And we are bold to do so because of Jesus Christ.

So what does Jesus give us in the prayer that He has taught us? Seven petitions. Seven requests. Our Lord wants us to open our arms wide—much like a child on Halloween opening a pillowcase wide to receive as much candy as possible.

Yet prayer is no easy task…at least not in this life. And that’s not just because we may have our doubts or questions. It’s because when we pray, we actually place ourselves on the front line in the battle between God and Satan. You see, the moment the Spirit enters our hearts and kindles faith in God, at that very moment we then turn to God crying, “Abba, Father.” At that moment, we also turn our back on Satan. And Satan considers that a declaration of war. Nothing infuriates him more than to have someone liberated from his prison and returned home as a child and heir of God. So Satan, with every fiber of his being, sets out to deprive us of faith, to destroy our faith, and to turn us against our Lord who has created and redeemed us. So it’s in prayer that we especially encounter the struggles of faith. After all, the struggle of the Christian faith does not happen before faith. The struggle begins with the birth of faith!

C. S. Lewis captured this beautifully in his book The Screwtape Letters. In this book, an apprentice devil named Wormwood seeks the advice of his uncle Screwtape, a senior devil and tempter. Wormwood has been assigned the task of overseeing a young man who is not a Christian. Wormwood’s task is to make sure the man does not become a Christian. As long as the man is not a Christian, Wormwood’s job is pretty easy. But one day, the man meets a young Christian woman. Their relationship develops, and the young man becomes intrigued by Christianity. Now Wormwood has to kick it into high gear and find ways to prevent the man from becoming Christian. When the man does become a Christian, Wormwood’s challenge is to bring him back into the clutches of “Our Father Below,” who is Satan. So senior devil Screwtape has to write some letters to Wormwood and advise him in this battle, especially on how to destroy the man’s faith once it is kindled.

So it is with us. In each of the seven petitions, we pray above all for the most precious gift that God can give us—the gift of faith. The gift of faith is the very relationship God wants us to have with Him. So we pray against unbelief. We pray against all of Satan’s attempts to undermine our faith and to tear us from the gifts of God and His love. Satan knows his time is short. So he pulls out all the stops. He holds nothing back. He begins by trying to undermine the name and Word of God. He continues undermining faith in that Word. He even seeks to keep us from receiving our daily bread, the necessities of daily life, in peace and with thanksgiving.

As Peter reminds us, our “adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). But rarely does he make a frontal attack that we can prepare for as we defend ourselves. Instead, temptation most commonly sneaks up and attacks us from behind. To say it another way, temptation ambushes us in ways that we never see coming.

Consider this analogy. Sometimes a husband and wife decide to divorce because their love has simply gone cold. They never intended it to happen. They never wanted it to happen. Instead, it happened without them even realizing it. They got married and things were great. But then life got busy, they pursued their careers, they raised their children, they found less and less time for each other, and they eventually found themselves little more than roommates. They didn’t just wake up one day and decide to stop loving each other. No, it happened without them realizing that it was happening.

That’s often how it happens with Christians who fall away from Christ. They never intend it to happen. They never want it to happen. It just happens. Perhaps they move to a new city for a new job. They find a new doctor, a new dentist, new stores, new friends, and a new church. They attend church a few weeks, then miss a few weeks. They attend one week, then miss five weeks. Before they realize, they are no longer attending at all. God has become distant and drifted off their radar screen. In other words, a Christian doesn’t just wake up one morning and decide to renounce the faith. Instead, they drift away without realizing it. Preserve us from this, dear heavenly Father! This is why St. Paul exhorts us, “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12).

Through this Lenten season, though, we’ve seen that we do not stand alone in this battle. We do have Someone who goes into the battle ahead of us and fights for us:

“But for us fights the valiant One,
Whom God Himself elected.
Ask ye, Who is this?
Jesus Christ it is,
Of Sabaoth Lord,
And there’s none other God;
He holds the field forever” (LSB 656:2).

He is the One we follow through Lent and soon to Good Friday and Easter. He is the One who fights for us. So His victory is our victory. He has given us His Word that we tightly hold onto. And no one can snatch us out of His hands. He is the same One who has given us the privilege to run to our heavenly Father, the same One who created and rules over every galaxy, every star, every planet, and every living creature. This is why Martin Luther can describe our prayer life as our greatest weapon in the fight against Satan. After all, in our prayers, we enlist the aid, the support, and the power of our heavenly Father. Amen.

Homily for Lent 4 Evening Prayer

"Re-creation--Third Article"
Apostles' Creed, Third Article
(fifth in a catechetical series)

The art of living by faith starts to see a certain modus operandi—way of operating—on God’s part. God’s way of operating opens our eyes to see Him at work in our world and within our lives. This art of living by faith then leads us to receive and embrace God’s gifts as our very own.

We’ve seen this over the past couple of weeks. We’ve seen how our God and Creator remains present and active in His creation. Despite our ongoing misuse and abuse of it, He keeps His creation going. We’ve also seen how God comes into the world to be active and present in a very unique way—as an embodied human being. He does this in order to rid His creation of the sin and evil that Satan and we humans brought into it. Now, God comes to be present and active in another way. Now, He brings His creation to fulfillment as the result of Jesus’ saving work. This time, God sends His Holy Spirit into us, into our bodies. He does this to renew and remake us for the new age and the new world to come. It’s the re-creation taught the Third Article.

This week we come to the divine breath that breathes the life of God into His creation. As we saw with our Lord Jesus, this is not the first time that the Spirit has been present and active in the world. The Holy Spirit was there in the beginning, hovering over the waters of creation like the wings of a mother bird spread out over her chicks and gathering them to herself. The Spirit was there piling up the waters of the Red Sea so that the Israelites might pass through. The Spirit was there appointing, guiding, and equipping Israel’s prophets, priests, and kings as God’s plan of redemption unfolded. The Spirit was there at Jesus’ baptism anointing, appointing, and identifying Jesus as God’s prophet, priest, and king for all time—all wrapped up in one person. And now the Spirit of God’s Son (Gal. 4:6) brings God’s gifts to us and gives us life. “For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation” (SC, Sac. of Altar).

The Old Testament word for Spirit is ruach, which means breath, wind, or spirit. The New Testament word for Spirit is pneuma, which also means breath, wind, or spirit. This Greek word gives us English words such as “pneumatic gun,” which simply means “air gun.” And in Latin the term is spiritus. When medical people say that someone has “expired”—that is, they have died—it simply means that the breath has left them. So, it’s not surprising, then, that God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is identified in the Nicene Creed as “the Lord of Life.”

That’s what breath does. It enlivens. It animates. It creates movement. When God breathed into Adam, he “became a living creature” (Gen. 2:7), a living, moving being. In the Bible, to be living means to be moving. If you are not moving, you are dead. One time, an x-ray technician x-rayed a woman in her nineties who was vibrant and alive. The technician asked, “What is your secret to life?” The woman answered, “Keep moving!” Think about it. If you stop moving, you’re dead. And nothing animates us like our breath.

So how does the Spirit give us new and eternal life? By speaking words carried on the breath of others. When we speak, we breathe, and we utter words within the breath. God is present and active by speaking with us. This is not new; God has been speaking from the beginning. Dr. Robert Kolb even describes the God of the Bible as a “chatterbox.” God begins talking and does not stop talking. And His speaking does what it says. Think about it. God speaks and a blue planet appears. God speaks and trees and flowers appear. God speaks and fish, birds, and animals appear. God speaks and His creation bursts forth with abundant life. God speaks and His Son enters the world as the Word of God made flesh.

And now God speaks yet again—as the Holy Spirit. He speaks life-giving, re-creating words to us. What are these words? They are words that say, “You are forgiven. God has justified you. God has welcomed you home. You are a new creation of God!” These words are promises of God for us now and into eternity. God speaks them. God stands behind them.

These promises seek to engender and strengthen faith. They seek to arouse faith that embraces God’s gifts and does a happy dance for them. Consider this: why do we make promises to other people? What do we hope to accomplish by making a promise or giving our word? I suspect that we are trying to give other people confidence and faith that we will do as we say. Think of the best known example: promises made at the wedding altar. The bride and groom speak their vows, their promises, to each other. They promise to be there for each other “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.” The purpose of the promise is to give the spouse confidence and joy. So it is with God. He promises to engender faith. Promise and faith go hand in hand. This is the relationship God establishes with us—speaking and hearing, promising and believing.

What does this mean for the art of living by faith? It means we get to live by those words of promise that God makes to us. We cling to those words. We cherish them in our hearts. Our faith is not directed inward, toward our feelings or emotions. No, our faith is directed outward, outside of ourselves. It clings to a word that is spoken from outside of us, a word that breaks into our lives. Do you remember the first time a high school or college sweetheart uttered the words, “I love you”? Did you repeat them over and over to yourself? Did it give you a new outlook or new lease on the future? That and so much more is what happens as faith receives and clings to the promises of God. Faith is the new life, the re-creation, that the Spirit breathes into our bodies and into our cold, lifeless hearts.

Where do we find these life-giving words and promises of God? We find them on the lips and tongues of fellow Christians—our parents, our spouses, our pastors, our teachers. Just as God works through His creatures to bestow the gifts of food and water upon us, and just as God worked through the human body of Jesus to accomplish salvation for us, so the Spirit does His speaking through human creatures. Yes, they are the very creatures who once rejected God’s words, but they now become His mouthpieces. We are the people who have heard God’s promises. We have been gathered by those promises. Now we speak those promises to others. Pastors do so as their full-time calling. Others do it as part of their vocation in the world as parents, citizens, employers, or employees. It’s why Luther can speak of the church as both a creature of the Word, gathered by the Word, and as a “mouth-house” where the Word of God is spoken.

But aren’t these plain, ordinary people? How can ordinary people do the extra-ordinary thing of bringing the life-bestowing Word of God to others? This is how God works. Plants are ordinary, but by God’s blessing they convert the sun’s energy through photosynthesis into food that we can eat—an extraordinary process and gift. So also with people.

The art of living by faith sees the pastor speaking words of forgiveness and hope. It perceives the parent speaking words of forgiveness and hope. It hears the Christian friend speaking a word of forgiveness and comfort. All of this as God Himself speaking to us. As Jesus said, “The one who hears you hears Me” (Luke 10:16). In these words faith perceives the voice of the Holy Spirit. Faith perceives the Word of God making the water of Baptism into a life-giving water rich in God’s grace. Faith perceives Jesus’ words bestowing His Body and Blood in, with, and under the bread and wine.

God’s commitment and faithfulness to us, His rebellious people, is truly remarkable. Just as the Spirit hovered over the waters of creation (Genesis 1), He now hovers over the waters of Baptism, creating and gathering a new people to Himself. God breathed the creating breath of life into us when He first created us, making us living creatures (Genesis 2). Now the Holy Spirit has breathed and continues breathing into us not just the breath of life, but also the breath of eternal life. Amen.

Homily for Lent 3 Evening Prayer

"Redemption--Second Article"
Apostles' Creed, Second Article
(fourth in a catechetical series)

Here we are. The Second Article of the Creed. The heart of the Christian faith. Jesus’ work of redemption for us. Why must Jesus redeem us? Our human sin. Here we deal with human sinners and God the justifier. But notice this: the problem is not that we are creatures. The problem is not that this world is a material world. As we heard last week, these are God’s good works and gifts. In addition, animals did not sin; the physical world did not sin. In a way, they are “innocent” even as they have suffered because of human sin.

No, the problem is us. The problem is that we, God’s prized human creatures, have misused and abused His world. Martin Luther made a very insightful statement in his theses for debate at the town of Heidelberg. He said that “we use the best things in the worst way.” We don’t use bad things in the worst way; we use the best things in the worst way. What do we mean by best things? God’s great gifts to us: our bodies, our lives, our family, our work, our income, and so on. What does it mean to use these things in the worst way? It means we idolize them. We force them to do things for us that they were not created to do. We try to get our security and happiness from them. And when we do that, we further misuse them by keeping them for ourselves rather than for serving our neighbor.

So we become enslaved to and trapped by these best things. Or, better, our desires for them entrap us. Then we become disappointed. You see, these best things cannot give us what we seek from them. Satan has lured us, God’s beloved human creatures, into captivity. We have become POWs behind enemy lines.

But here’s the wonderful and remarkable thing about this Second Article. Since God has created this world, He refuses to let go of His creation. He made it good. He loves it. The world is not the problem. So God does not scrap His creation and start over. No, He sets out to reclaim and restore His creation—beginning with us, because the problem began with us. Just as God made room in His creation for us creatures, now He makes room for us sinful creatures who rebelled against Him. He who created us is He who redeems us—true God and true Man.

How does God redeem us? First, God dives down into the depths of His creation, to take up residence in it and fix it for good. But He does this in a completely unexpected way. Ponder this: God has always been present and active in His creation. The universe cannot contain Him, but, as Luther noted, God is still present and active in the smallest flower petal. It’s how He keeps His creation going. Also ponder this: God revealed Himself in many ways in the Old Testament—the angel to Abraham, the burning bush to Moses, the pillar of cloud and fire to the Israelites.

But now in Jesus Christ, God reveals Himself and intervenes in His creation in a most personal and intimate way. He takes a created body into Himself and He lives a creaturely life. He makes room in His life to take on a human body and all that entails—a human mind, a human history, and human DNA that goes all the way back to Adam and Eve. He is “true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary”; Creator of the universe and a creature within that creation, all at the same time. Who would have imagined this?

Jesus’ incarnation affirms the goodness of creation like nothing else. God is saying His creation is good and important to Him. And Jesus does more than just take on a human body to live in the midst of sin and evil. He becomes human in order to do away with, to destroy, and to overcome sin and evil and everything that pollutes and disfigures His beautiful world.

What does this mean for the art of living by faith? First, it means that we cannot and should not look for God anywhere else than in this Man, Jesus Christ. Faith does not look to some spiritual, ethereal realm. It does not look to some impersonal “force” on the outer fringes of the galaxy. No, faith looks to this one Man, our brother, as God Himself. Where Jesus is, there is God. This Man is God; God is this Man. As Jesus said, “Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father” (Jn. 14:9). So, whoever rejects Jesus also rejects their Creator God. It’s personal—a personal rejection.

Second, Jesus’ incarnation also means that God’s work of redemption does not devalue the physical creation nor our physical bodies. They are just as important as our souls. They are so important that God Himself has embraced them by becoming part of His own creation. He comes to redeem both body and soul.

Not only does God redeem us by taking on a physical, creaturely, human body, but He also works through that creaturely body to accomplish our redemption. You see, our sin and rebellion were deeply personal. They offended God because they showed our rejection of Him and His good purposes for us. They showed our betrayal of God. And yet God in the most personal way enters His creation, personally takes our sin and rebellion upon Himself, personally does away with it, and personally conquers it.

Our loving God works through His creation—His human body—to accomplish the redemption of all human bodies and all of creation itself. How so? As Luther wrote, “not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.” The Creed itself hammers it home. In His very body Jesus “suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.” And He rose again in that same body.

C. S. Lewis spoke of Jesus as a pearl diver who strips himself, then dives into the murky depths in order to reclaim a priceless pearl, and then bursts back up through the surface with that pearl firmly in his grasp. The entire Christian story turns on this point. As Lewis said: “God really has dived down into the bottom of creation, and has come up bringing the whole redeemed nature on His shoulders [emphasis added]. The miracles that have already happened are, of course…the first fruits of that cosmic summer which is presently coming on. Christ has risen, and so we shall rise.”

In the First Article, we cannot deal with God apart from His creation. Now in the Second Article, we cannot deal with God’s graciousness in redeeming us from sin apart from the creaturely human body of Jesus. Through this physical human body of a Jewish man we encounter our Redeemer and Lord!

What does this mean for the art of living by faith? It means that we seek God’s gifts only in Jesus Christ, only because of Jesus Christ. Only in the body of Christ does God reveal His attitude and His intentions toward us. Like a devoted parent, God will stop at nothing to reclaim and restore His creation. That includes taking upon Himself a frail human body—a body that He keeps into all eternity. It also includes suffering and dying in that human body at the hands of His rebellious, lost human creatures. All this He does for us—creatures made in His image, creatures made to manage all creation, creatures who rejected Him and tried to usurp His glory. All this He does to restore us and adopt us as His children and heirs of His kingdom.

This changes everything for us. It means that when things happen—things we cannot understand, tragic things that defy explanation, things we cannot make sense of—faith turns to the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

This is what Luther gets at when he speaks of the “hidden God” and the “proclaimed God.” When we look for answers in places other than Jesus, we often get lost, frustrated, and angry. When we look elsewhere, we encounter the silence of God. He doesn’t always give us the answers we want, because, after all, He is not answerable or accountable to us. But in the flesh and blood of Jesus, in His life, and especially in His death and resurrection, we encounter God speaking to us. And what does He say? He speaks His word of love. As Paul said in Romans 5[:8], “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” So, when I cannot answer a question, when I have no explanations, I can say, “I don’t know why this happened. I don’t know what this means. But I do know this: nothing can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus my Lord.”

C. S. Lewis once said that Jesus is the missing chapter to our lives, the missing chapter that makes sense of our lives. In Jesus, our stories now make sense. You see, in Jesus, we see our true story, the entire story of our lives. We see in Him our past and our present—He created us and He preserves us. We see in Him our present and our future—He redeems  us and will raise us from the dead. Since He is our Creator and Redeemer, our past, present, and future are all found and united in Him. Amen.

Homily for Lent 2 Evening Prayer

"Creation--First Article"
Apostles' Creed, First Article
(third in a catechetical series)

We Christians are all about Jesus, right? After all, when we call ourselves “Christians,” we do bear the name of Christ. And every Sunday school child knows that the answer to every question is “Jesus.” There’s a lot of truth there. But sometimes how we speak about Christ and His redemption can also give the impression that this world really does not matter much. After all, we’re all about getting our souls off this earth and into an immaterial heaven where we walk on clouds, right? Isn’t that what salvation is all about?

But what perception does that create? Someone once said that the difference between atheists and Christians is that atheists are concerned about this world, but Christians are only concerned with the world to come. This may be a common perception in the general public, perhaps even among Christians as well. Atheists may have a myopic view that this life is all there is; Christians may have a myopic view that the spiritual, or immaterial, life is all there is. When this is the case, we end up diminishing Jesus’ redemption for us, and we deprive ourselves of the richness of that redemption.

So tonight, let's explore the very foundation of our faith and life, a foundation that shapes the whole story of Christ and His redeeming work. That foundation is the First Article of the Creed: “I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” Or, as Luther said, “I believe that God has made me and all creatures.” Two things stand out in this First Article foundation. First, God made everything in the distant past and now it all simply unfolds. But that does not exhaust God’s creative work. Second, it also means that God is active in our world today, active in my life today. God gave me life and continues to give me life every day.

Let’s ponder the first point. God—the maker of heaven and earth—has created everything that exists. He did this ex nihilo, “out of nothing.” God created because He chose to create. He created as an act of love. From eternity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit lived in mutual love with each other. At some point they made the mutual decision to share that love. So they created a universe. And God makes room in His life for that creation and all of its creatures—a beautiful world of sun and moon, planets and stars, mountains and oceans, hummingbirds and whales. This is the foundation of everything we believe, teach, and confess. Without creation, we would not be here talking and hearing about Jesus; there would be no sin; there would be no redemption; there would be no us.

What does it mean, then, to live by faith? It means that God has given us eyes to see. It means learning to see the world as God sees it—through His works of creation and redemption.

It means we must learn to distinguish between God’s good work and sin’s corruption of that work. This physical world, our bodies, and all other creatures come out of God’s outpouring love. Creation is very good—just as God designed it to be. It was beautiful. Everything functioned just as God intended. Everything functioned harmoniously.

But this is hard to see. Sadly, we no longer see this perfect creation. When we look out in the world, it looks more like the world is going down the drain into the sewer. It seems easier to say that the world out there is bad. Doesn’t the Bible talk that way? Absolutely! Creation groans. We are in the world but not of it. And Luther warns us against the dangers of the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh.

Let’s remember, though: we’re not talking about the physical world—the stars or trees or animals or mountains or oceans. We’re talking about the human misuse of creation. We’re talking about human sin, human evil. It’s also how we treat people. We look at people and attach labels—they’re Democrats, they’re Republicans, they’re acceptable, they’re deplorable, and so on. But they are also God’s creatures. Even though we are sinners, we are still God’s creatures, God’s handiwork—creatures whom God loves and redeems.

Why is it important to distinguish between God’s good creation and the corruption of it? Not only because God created it, but also because this creation becomes the stuff of God’s redemption. God created it all, and He called it “very good.” It’s valuable to Him, so He chooses to redeem it, cleanse it, and restore it. Even more, Jesus took on a human body—without sin. When Jesus becomes a man—a human creature—He affirms the goodness of creation. God did not destroy His material creation. Instead, He took it upon Himself.

And this leads us to the second point for living by faith: Jesus’ resurrection points the way. Ponder this: We marvel at this beautiful, wondrous creation—a gorgeous golden sunset or magnificent mountain vista. But we marvel at a creation marred by human sin. So what will it be like when Jesus makes all things new again (Rev. 21:5)? After all, He is the One through whom all things were made. Now He takes on the task of renewing and re-creating His world! The beauty of what we see in creation is but a sneak preview, a small glimpse, dim reflection of the world to come.

Again, this is hard to see. Sin and corruption are so intertwined with our world that we cannot imagine escaping one without escaping the other. My physical body is aging. It may be sick and frail. We think it’s the physical that causes our pain and suffering. “Free me from this body!” we cry. “Free me from this physical world! Take me to a spiritual, pain-free world!” However, our prayer should not be “Deliver me from this body.” Instead, it should be, “Deliver my body from the sin that ravages and destroys it.”

The resurrection of Jesus opens the door to thinking and believing this way. What we see happen in Jesus’ body, we will see happen with our bodies and with all of creation. Did Jesus rise with the same body He had before? Yes—but now glorified. Will we rise on the Last Day with these same bodies? Yes. But they will be transformed, glorified, renewed, made better. What happened with Jesus will happen with us, and with all of creation. The Bible speaks not only of the “new heavens,” but also of a “new earth” (2 Pet. 3:13).

This is why prophets like Isaiah describe the coming age in terms that remind us of the Garden of Eden. When you wonder what eternal life will be like, look around! The beauty that you see? It will be even better! The problems you see? The sadnesses? The conflicts? They will all be gone. Here’s Isaiah:

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea (Is. 11:6-9).

In the meantime, we live between God’s first creation and His new creation. And God does not stop creating. He did not stop creating after the sixth day. God keeps on creating to this very day. Living by faith begins by grasping God’s ongoing work in, with, and under His creation. No, let’s not identify God with creation or creation with God! And let’s not view God as some aloof absentee landlord. He does not leave His creation to a management company. No, God is a “hands-on” God, deeply involved in His creation.

What does this mean? Now He no longer creates out of nothing; now He creates through His creatures. Not only has God made room in His life for us and His creation, but He also makes room in His creation for our activity and contributions to His creation. So as we deal with God in, with, and under His creation, we also deal with His creatures. And He gives His creatures some freedom. And with that freedom comes risk—the risk that God’s creatures might not carry out His will. They might not be good instruments in His hand.

Ever since Genesis 1, God invites His creatures to be His partners and helpers. He tells the earth to sprout forth vegetation—even as dandelion seeds are blown this way and that in the summer breeze. He blesses the animals to be fruitful and multiply. And He gives us humans the special task of looking after His creation so that all of life can flourish. Luther called all of these “God’s masks.” We can also call them gloves on God’s hands. Let the earth sprout forth…Be fruitful and multiply—this is more than mere preservation; this is God continuing to create.

And God does all of this—partnering with His creation, working through His creatures—in spite of all the sin and death around us. Yes, death reigns, but we see life come forth every day. Babies are born. Plants sprout in the spring. The sun continues to shine and give light and energy. Why? For what purpose does God continue to create every day? For the sake of redemption. Even now that Jesus has accomplished our redemption, God keeps the world going for the sake of the Gospel and the restoration of all things.

In the 1530s, Luther recommended a way to cultivate the eyes of faith. He said that when you see a cow in the field, imagine that cow saying, “Rejoice and be glad. I bring you milk and butter from God.” And when you see chickens in the henhouse, imagine them saying, “Rejoice and be glad, we bring you eggs from God.” And when you see pigs in the pigsty, imagine them saying, “Rejoice, we bring you brats and bacon from God!”

So what do we owe God for all this? Thanks and praise. No, not to feed God’s ego, but to acknowledge our dependence on Him. When we go about without thanksgiving, we end up boasting as though we have all these things by our own hands, smarts, or abilities. But when we give thanks and praise to God, we remind ourselves how we live on the receiving end of His gifts. Amen.

Homily for Lent 1 Evening Prayer - 2017

"Our Need for Faith--First Commandment"
First Commandment & Close of the Commandments
(second in a catechetical series)

It was a curious thing to observe the reactions to our recent presidential election. On the one hand, many were ecstatic as if Donald Trump’s victory meant that all was going to be right now. On the other hand, many became despondent, grief stricken, and frightened, and some even threatened to leave the country. I wonder: have we turned politics and elections into matters of primary, or ultimate, concern, rather than matters of secondary, or penultimate, concern? In other words, do our well-being and our happiness in life depend that much on who becomes president? And if it does, aren’t we going to be sorely disappointed in the end?

Such reactions to elections go to the heart of what it means to be human beings, that is, we are dependent beings. We are not autonomous, self-sustaining, and self-determining persons. I know, this goes against the grain of our Western civilization and our American ethos. After all, we Americans highly prize being free, being self-sufficient, being independent. The last thing many of us want is to accept charity or to be a burden on others (especially on our children).

But the reality of real life says that we need other people. We need the earth. We need the sun. We need food. We are unable to live by ourselves or from our own resources. We cannot live without looking to someone for our well-being, our security, and our identity. So why do we need to rely on other people—parents, family, friends, and community—for guidance or help? This question goes to the heart of who and what we are.

When we begin with the Bible and a Biblical worldview—that is, how we make sense of the world and how we live our lives in the world—we begin by admitting what we are not. We are not God. This may seem obvious. After all, we at least have an inkling that we are not all-powerful or all-knowing. But there’s more. It means that we are not the Creator. Instead, we are creatures of the Creator. Yes, we are made in the image of God, but that’s not the same as being God. We’re still His creatures. This key fact establishes our relationship with God and with the world.

Let me try a little exercise to illustrate. Consider these eight items: God, frogs, angels, rocks, humans, heaven, earth, and soul. Now in your mind’s eye, organize these eight items into two different circles, or categories. How would you organize them?

Most people would put God, angels, heaven, and soul into one circle, or category, and they would put frogs, rocks, humans, and earth, into the other circle. And what is their organizing principle? They’re thinking of the difference between spiritual and material. And most people would say the spiritual things are more important than the physical. My soul is more important than my body, right? That seems to make sense. Unfortunately, this way of viewing the world—organizing the things in the world—comes from the Greek philosopher Plato, not from God’s Word. Other religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, also value the distinction between immaterial and material. They even elevate the immaterial, or spiritual, above the material, or physical. And for some, the material world is the problem and the cause of suffering.

But the Bible works much differently; it teaches a much different view of the world. Here’s how the Bible would organize these eight things: Into one circle, you put God. Then into the second circle, you put everything else! You see, I have more in common angels, frogs and rocks than I have in common with God. What do I have in common with angels, frogs and rocks? We were all created! We are all creatures of God. There was a time when we did not exist. So, in this view of the world, my soul is not more important than my body. Both were created by God. Both were redeemed by Christ. I exist as body and soul together.

So in the Biblical worldview—the way the Bible organizes and makes sense of the world—we distinguish between the Creator and His creatures. God creates; we are created. God gives life to us; we receive life from God. In other words, we are dependent. We are dependent upon God creating us, giving us life, and sustaining our life in this world. We are dependent upon Him for our very identity, security, and meaning in life. This applies to everyone—atheist or believer, non-Christian or Christian. We all need to look somewhere for life.

We can put it another way; we can express it in terms of the First Commandment. No person can live without a god. Everyone has a god, because everyone has to look somewhere for his/her source of life, purpose, security, and meaning. As Martin Luther expressed it, a god is someone or something to whom we look for all good things. A god is someone or something from whom we expect nothing but good things.

Now our gods may be of two sorts. Either we can look outside ourselves, or we can look inside ourselves. First, we may look outside ourselves. We may seek our well-being in the quest for money, fame, or family. Even Luther, in his day, complained that money (mammon) was the most common idol. Nothing new under the sun, right? In our day, though, we might also add politics or even science. In our culture, we see science as the solution to many or most of our problems—everything from extending our lives to taming the climate. Some scientists are even suggesting that someday we’ll be able to download our very consciousness into some kind of computer or machine.

Second, we may put our faith in ourselves. Hasn’t this been our problem since the Garden of Eden? In fact, we can describe all of human history as the quest of human beings to live their lives as anything but creatures who are dependent upon their Creator. That sure explains book titles such as The God Species or The World in Human Hands.

So the question is not whether or not you will have a god. The real question is: What is god? The question is not whether or not you have faith. The real question is this: Is your faith in the one true God or not? If we put our faith in creatures or anything in creation, we will soon be disappointed. You see, creatures—created things—cannot bear the burden of their god-hood. Sooner or later they crumble under the pressure. Stock markets go down as well as up. Spouses can abandon us as well as remain faithful. Children can reject their parents as well as love them. Politicians can falter as well as succeed.

When we expect all good things from anyone or anything other that the Creator, we engage in idolatry. Idolatry confuses them. It thinks that creation or a creature is in fact the Creator. The First Commandment calls us to distinguish between the Creator and His creation.

So the story of Jesus that we follow this Lententide offers something remarkable and unexpected. Human creatures try to become like God; they try to escape the creation or take charge of the creation. And yet the Son of God—the very Son of God “through whom are all things and through whom we exist” (1 Cor. 8:6)—became a creature. He became a human creature with a creaturely body in order to restore us creatures to be fully human once again. And He does even more. He restores us to be human creatures who are now adopted as children of God, human creatures who can run to their Creator, not as a frightful stranger, but as a beloved Father. This is the gift given to us and received by faith. What is faith? It is being restored to that Creator-creature relationship—that relationship in which God gives and we receive, that relationship in which we rest in the boundless, inexhaustible love of God.

This faith is the basis of all the other Commandments—two through ten. One Christian philosopher/theologian (Norman Wirzba, From Nature to Creation) put it this way: To be a creature is to live by receiving and giving. Consider this illustration—our breathing, by inhaling and exhaling. When I inhale, I receive the life-giving oxygen produced by plants and trees. When I exhale, I breathe out carbon dioxide which plants and trees need in order to live. This is our life as God’s creatures and as God’s children in the Body of Christ. We are interdependent. We need the plants and trees. The same applies to our relationships with others. I receive my life and support for my life from God through my parents. As a parent, I also give that same life and support to my children. I need brothers and sisters in Christ for comfort, for strength, for encouragement, for confession.

By contrast, death is taking and keeping. When I take and keep for myself, I isolate myself from others. I cut myself off from them. Thus I cannot receive their help, and I also harm them by depriving them of my giving. When I put my faith in anything or anyone other than Christ the Creator, I must cling to the creature and keep it for myself.

In our Lenten journey, we encounter a Creator who has not given up on His creation. Rather, He has come to restore us as His creatures. Thus we say that we are saved by faith alone. That means we trust God. It means we have confidence that He will keep us close to Himself both now and into eternity. It means that we rest upon Him whose love is boundless, Him whose life is inexhaustible—the very life He now gives each of us and all of us. It’s good to be a creature. It’s good to need God. It’s good to rest in His hands, the very hands that bear the nail imprints. Amen.

Homily for Ash Wednesday - 2017

"Living by Faith"
 (first in a catechetical series)
with Ash Wednesday texts: Jonah 3:1-10; 2 Peter 1:2-11; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

We all love a good story. Stories make us cry or laugh. Stories can inspire or move us to action. Stories can embody our values and help us make sense of things. As we begin our Lenten journey, we focus on the one story that truly helps us make sense of all of life. This story tells us who and whose we truly are.

It’s the story of Jesus as He fixes His face to go to Jerusalem in order to suffer, die and rise again. It’s interesting what we include in the story and what gets less attention. The gospel writers do not spend much time at all on Jesus as a child, or a teenager, or a young man. Instead, they focus mostly on the last three years of His life. Not only that, but they devote most of their story-telling-space to the last week of Jesus’ life—one-third of Matthew, Mark, and Luke; and one-half of John’s Gospel.

Why so much of the story of Jesus focused on the last week of His life? Because this is the key to understanding Jesus and His life and work for us. In His last three years—and especially His last week—Jesus carries out His mission of restoring His creation. The Father sent Him to reclaim all creation from Satan and those who would destroy it. The Father sent Jesus to restore the creation to  be what they—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—intended it to be. So we follow Jesus in His footsteps as He makes His way to the cross and the empty tomb.

This year the story of Jesus takes on another historical dimension. Here in 2017, we make that journey as we also celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. In 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses for academic debate on some major problems in the Church. Now in our culture people are more familiar with Martin Luther King, Jr. than they are with Martin Luther. But Martin Luther’s story is important for Christians everywhere, whether Roman Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, or Lutheran.

You see, Martin Luther posted his statements for debate because he was convinced that the story of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem had become dimmed, distorted and diluted. No longer was it a gospel story of good news for you and me. Instead, it had been twisted into a moralistic tale—a story in which you had to imitate Jesus if you wanted any hope of being saved. The focus had shifted from what Jesus has done for you to what you must do for yourself. Instead of Jesus being your Savior, He was seen as some kind of “spiritual vitamin” or “spiritual steroid” to help you live a good life now so that you could attain God’s favor in heaven. Jesus’ story was viewed as a story to motivate and inspire you to pursue perfection. What a burden!

Through his reading and study of the Scriptures, Luther discovered that Jesus’ story is much different. It’s a story of “gospel,” a story of good news. So how does His story pertain to you and me?

Jesus’ story is more than just a true story about an historical figure, such as Martin Luther, Abraham Lincoln, or Mother Theresa. Jesus’ story is more than just a great epic tale, such as the Iliad, the Odyssey or Beowulf. Jesus’ story is gospel—good news—because His story is your story. His story is “your life”—a bit like that popular TV show from years ago, This is Your Life. In that show, the host would surprise guests by reviewing important people and events in their lives. The host would have an important person hide back stage. That person would start telling some part of the guest’s story. The guest, with surprise and tears, would recognize the voice. Then the two would be reunited on stage.

In a very real way, the Gospel—Jesus’ story—surprises us by declaring: “This is your life!” Everything Jesus did in life and death, He did for you and me. Everything He did in life and death benefits you and me. Everything Jesus did in life and death opens up our future with God. His story is your story. His life, death and resurrection are your life, death and resurrection.

This is why Martin Luther began his 95 Theses with these words: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said ‘Repent,’ He willed that the whole life of believers should be one of repentance.” Indeed, Jesus’ story begins with the call to “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2). It’s the same story we hear from the prophet Jonah. God sent him to proclaim repentance—another way of saying “Jesus’ story”—to the city of Nineveh. Nineveh had strayed from the true God, and the true God sought to bring them back. As the king of Nineveh said, “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” That’s Jesus’ story in action, bringing repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As another prophet, Joel, said, “Return to the LORD, your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love” (Joel 2:13).

Repentance is nothing other than acknowledging that we have strayed from our Creator God. Repentance means ‘fessing up to our own brokenness, our own waywardness, our own self-centeredness. You and I have indeed lived as if God did not matter and as if we mattered most. We have not honored God’s name as we should, and our worship and prayers have faltered. We have not let His love for us have its way with us, and so our love for others has failed. We have hurt some people; we have failed to help others. Our thoughts and desires have been soiled with sin. That’s our story. And so are the ashes: “for you are dust and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19).

This is precisely why Jesus’ story is your story. Everything Jesus does, He does for you and me—to make us right with God, to restore to us our humanity as God intended. When Jesus is conceived and born, He takes on flesh and blood for you. When He is baptized, He cleanses you. When He is tempted, when He teaches, when He is transfigured, He does it all for you. When He institutes this Meal we call the Lord’s Supper, He does it for you. When Jesus sweats blood in Gethsemane, when He suffers false accusations and fists to the face, He does it for you. When He dies on the cross, He’s doing it all for you. And when He rises victoriously from the grave, He does it for you.

So Jesus’ story is not just a story. It’s a story with a promise—the promise of new life. That’s why we call it “good news.” In some ways, the word “promise” may be better than the term “good news.” You see, “news” can be impersonal and abstract, or even “fake news.” We can read it in our most trusted papers or news sites, or even on social media. But “news” is aimed at audiences of faceless people. Also, when we think of “news,” we think of stories that happened yesterday—whom to vote for, the recent storm, or how the stock market performed.

God’s promise in Jesus’ story, however, is different than typical news. In His promise, our Lord speaks to us personally, one-on-one. In Baptism, God says, “I claim you—yes, you—as My very own.” In Absolution, He promises that your past will not prevent your future life with Him. In the Supper, He puts into your mouth the very promises of forgiveness, life, and salvation through the Body and Blood of Jesus. It’s very personal!

In addition, the gospel promise of Jesus is not just about the past or even just the present. It’s also about your future. In this promise—this story of Jesus—God gives you a preview of your future life. He declares to you what will happen on the Last Day when Jesus returns. He will say, “Welcome into My kingdom!” You will pass through Judgment Day unscathed.

Why does God make such wonderful promises to us? Because He wants us to live by faith. He created us to live with confidence and trust in Him. Now in Jesus Christ He promises us life eternal so that we may once again live in trust and joy. This was our original relationship with Him—our original story. God gives us life; we receive that life as His gift. That’s the art of living by faith—learning to receive all of life as God’s gift, learning to receive God’s gifts in all of life, learning to depend upon God, His love, and His gifts, learning to give thanks for them and use them as God intends. God gives and we receive.

This living by faith encompasses every nook and cranny of our lives. What does this mean? First, it means that we learn to see all of life and the world we live in as the gift of God. We can expect nothing but good things from God. We can ask Him for all we need and thank Him for all we have received. Second, living by faith means that we seek to have our faith in God’s promises renewed and strengthened by Jesus Himself. We seek that renewal and strength in spoken sermons, Baptism, Absolution, and Lord’s Supper. Our life in the Church is life where faith is born, nourished, and strengthened. Third, living by faith also involves our life in God’s created world. We learn to pray and turn our minds toward God throughout the day—when we get up, when we eat, and when we go to bed. We get to live out and exercise that faith in love toward others in the various walks of life where God has placed us. That includes our workplaces, our community, and especially our homes.

The art of living by faith is an incredible adventure and incredibly freeing. When we live by faith—that is, repentance for forgiveness from Jesus—we live in confidence that God holds us and the whole world in His hands. Sometimes His hands may seem less comfortable than we would like, especially in our various struggles and difficulties. But they remain the hands that bear the imprints of nails. And so they remain the hands of Him who loves you with an everlasting love. Your life is secure, now and into eternity. Amen.

God's Design for Life--Life with Gifts

The final installment of this year's Lenten catechetical series, "God's Design for Life." Here we focus on Commandments 7-10 under the theme "Life with Gifts."

God’s design for life begins with perfect fear, love and trust in Him. That’s the foundation for the building. Then comes properly using God’s name. Then comes gladly hearing and learning God’s Word. The Second and Third Commandments serve as the structure of the building, what gives the building its shape and character. Then the building needs walls, windows, doors, and interior decorating. This is where the other commandments come in. Last week, we looked at honoring parents and other authorities, helping and supporting physical life, and respecting the estate of marriage. Tonight we look at the rest of the commandments. These show us some of God’s most precious gifts.

7th Commandment - God’s Gift of Possessions
Let’s say you want to find out how well a child knows the Commandments. You ask the young boy or girl to tell you the Ten Commandments. They pause and think. Then they proudly say, “You shall not steal.” Funny how the first commandment they think of is #7—as if the Ten Commandments didn’t begin until #7! Yet somewhere, somehow they learned that particular commandment.

I would guess that we always need to learn and relearn this commandment. You see, this commandment has to do with taking advantage of your neighbor in any way that makes him lose something. Yes, once again, God is protecting your neighbor from you. You are tempted to look at your neighbor’s possessions and take them. Perhaps you wouldn’t do so outright, as a burglar or pickpocket. This commandment also catches you red-handed permitting damage to your neighbor’s possessions or property, wasting things, or neglecting your neighbor’s goods. It applies to being careless or lazy on the job or at school. It applies to stealing the boss’s or the teacher’s time or materials. It certainly applies to any kind of business transaction that overcharges or is underhanded or passes off bad merchandise as top-shelf stuff. And, yes, it even applies to stealing from God by withholding tithes and offerings. We have to agree with what the Large Catechism says about thievery: “this is the most common trade and the largest union on earth” (LC I:228).

Instead of stealing and conniving, God’s design for you is to help your neighbor to improve and protect his possessions and income. (Yes, this does fly in the face of “Occupy Wall Street” movements and making “the rich” pay “their fair share”!) Love looks out for your neighbor’s benefit, not your own. God is gracious enough to give every person the possessions he or she needs—the possessions and wealth He wants them to manage. Whether the possessions are many or few, God gives each of you exactly what you need and what He wants you to manage. This, then, frees you up to help and serve your neighbor as you are able. God always gives you the money and possessions you need. So you don’t have to worry about seizing and taking from your neighbor. In fact, the money and possessions that God gives you are a rich supply for you to use, not only for your own needs, but also to help and share with those in need. On top of all this, you have a precious promise. Proverbs 19:17 says, “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.” You have a very rich Lord Jesus. He is certainly sufficient for your needs, and He will not let you lack anything you need.

8th Commandment - God’s Gift of a Good Reputation
This commandment deals with how you use your tongue regarding your neighbor. No one can live peacefully without a good reputation. So God wants you to preserve your neighbor’s good reputation. But that’s also precisely where you and I fail and fall. Often your neighbor’s reputation is the last thing you think about. The tongue gets going a mile a minute, and, before you know it, you’ve injured your neighbor—either to his face or behind his back—and often without realizing it. Something about your neighbor disagrees with you, and the tongue goes to work gossiping and slandering. You do it at home, at work, at church, at school, over the phone, even—and especially!—on social media. St. James knew what he was talking about: “no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so” (James 3:8-10).

Protecting someone else’s reputation is one of the smallest yet most important good works. And it’s God’s design for life. As St. Paul says, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor” (Rom. 13:10). Here are some tips, from Luther in his Large Catechism, for protecting God’s gift of a good reputation. First, if a neighbor sins against you, don’t talk to others. Instead, go talk to your neighbor. God wants you to win your brother back from his sin. Second, when you hear gossip, no matter how true it may be, defend your neighbor, no matter what his faults are. Third, if you cannot make official charges before the proper authorities, then make your ears a tomb and bury your neighbor’s sin. Now, you and I are going to stumble in keeping this commandment. And when you do, run to Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. He is your Neighbor who  was spoken against and slandered. He was the victim of false testimony. And because of that, He won your forgiveness. And His forgiveness for you means that God does not speak against you, but for you. In fact, because of Jesus crucified and risen, God your Father puts the best construction on you and your life—and on your neighbor.

9th & 10th Commandments - God’s Gift of Contentment
Now we come to the real snare. These two commandments on coveting will catch you every time. You see, these commandments are directed against the most upright, good, religious people—you and me. Just when you think you’ve kept the other commandments, along comes this command: “Don’t covet!” In the other commandments, God deals with our actions. Now, in these last two commandments, He zeroes in on our hearts and desires. And again, God is protecting your neighbor from you. Coveting is looking to get what God did not give you. Several years ago, the title of one Lutheran Witness article described coveting in a very picturesque way. It said, “Thou shalt not suffer thine eyes to sprout hands.” An odd picture if you’re a literalist! Hands growing out of your eye sockets? But that’s what you do when you covet. You are not content with what God gives you, so you look to your neighbor’s things, or status, or reputation. “If only I could get my hands on that,” our heart and mind tell us.

Not only does this happen for you personally; it’s also common in the church and in society. In the church, we might hear, think and say things such as: “If only we could get more money” or “If only we could be more like that church over there.” In society, we might hear, think and say things such as: “No one should have that much wealth, or that much stuff” or “The rich really need to pay their ‘fair share’.” No matter where it happens or when it happens or who says it, the sin is still the same. You and I have a problem being content with what God gives us—whether it’s house or spouse, goods or kids, members or monies. These two commandments shine the light of truth on us good, religious people. They show us for the discontents we really are under the religious exterior. And it all goes back to the First Commandment: we really don’t trust God and how He chooses to take care of us.

So, the only way out of the coveting trap is by God’s giving and forgiving. Because of Jesus crucified and risen, you have a gracious God. Because of Jesus’ dying and rising, you have God’s good favor. God is content with you because of His Son. That’s God’s forgiving. And God’s giving also helps you. You have God’s promise that He knows what you need. You have God’s promise that He will always see to your needs. So you have what you need, and your neighbor has what he or she needs. God recreates your heart so that you do not need to covet anything that belongs to your neighbor. So why covet? You have a gracious God in Christ Jesus.

Conclusion to the Ten Commandments
We’ve spent these past five weeks rehearsing and relearning God’s design for life in His Ten Commandments. It may not have been flashy or entertaining; it wasn’t supposed to be. It’s been something like planting a garden. Every year it’s the same old thing—break up the soil, pull the weeds, plant the seeds, and water the ground. No flash—just dirt and seeds. No quick fix—just patient, steady growth. You are the garden plot. God is the gardner. And His Word in the Commandments is the seed. In the Commandments, you have the most precious teaching. Since it comes from God Himself, no one can improve upon it. We’ll also have our hands quite full just trying to keep these commandments. No, they’re not glamorous or showy. In fact, they keep us rooted in very simple, common, everyday actions of faith in God and love toward neighbor. But they are the very things God considers good works and good lives.

When we look at the Ten Commandments as God’s design for life, we also discover how we fail and mess up His design. Too often we even despise God for His design for life. That’s why we need our crucified and risen Lord Jesus. Only one Person has ever kept the Commandments perfectly. And they nailed Him to a cross for it. But that cross is also God’s design for life. There the design was completed and fulfilled for you. All of your commandment-breaking is laid on broken, bloody Jesus. And all of His commandment-keeping is now given to you through faith. Now you no longer live, but Christ lives in you. That’s God’s design for life, now and forever. Amen.

God's Design for Life--Life with Protection

In this week's installment of our Lenten catechetical series, we focus on the Fourth through Sixth Commandments under the theme, "Life with Protection." 

The first week we heard God’s most important design for life: You shall have no other gods. The second week we heard how faith in the heart also means confessing with the lips: You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. And last week we heard that God’s design for life is life with His Word: Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. God’s design for life begins with Him and focuses first and foremost on Him.

God’s design for life also includes the neighbor—the person or persons God puts in our path in daily life. This week and next we look at God’s design for life with our neighbor. And, since we have seven commandments to cover in only two weeks, we can only briefly touch on each one. So we group them together by a common thread, or theme. Tonight, we see how God wants us to live life with protection.

Fourth Commandment—God’s Protecting Representatives
In the Fourth Commandment God gives us a very unique word. He says, “Honor your father and your mother.” Now, “honor” is greater than “love.” God wants you to love all other people—brothers, sisters, next door neighbors, classmates in school, people at work. But when it comes to parents and other authorities, God wants you to honor them. He wants you to give them great respect, address them with humility, and give them the highest place next to God. Why? Because God gives parents and other authorities a certain majesty, a hidden majesty. You see, parents and other authorities are God’s representatives on earth, God’s representatives for your protection.

So, children—and, yes, this includes us “adult children”— God wants you to prize your parents as the most precious treasure on earth. Even if parents seem “odd” or “old-fashioned” or so stuck in last century. God commands you to honor your parents. God also wants you to honor teachers, police officers, and any other authorities—yes, even bumbling or brash politicians. For children, God gives a great, good, and holy work. Honoring your parents and other authorities means more to God than any other good work. That’s why it comes first in this second table of God’s Law.

Yes, all of us can learn this commandment better. Even as adults, we despise and anger our parents and other authorities. When I tell you to honor the mayor or the county executive, chances are good that you scoff and say, “Ha! Those buffoons?” God says, “Yes, honor them.” You see, when you despise any authority that God has given you, you are also despising God Himself. Not only did God give you the authorities you have, but every authority stands as God’s representative. This applies for parents. This applies for civil authorities. This applies for bosses and supervisors. And this also applies for spiritual fathers, those who govern and guide you by God’s Word.

One area where this commandment deserves special attention is the parent-child relationship. Not only are children to honor and treasure their parents, but parents are to take responsibility for their children. Being a parent is an office given by God. And God also wants you parents faithfully to carry out the duties of that office. That means providing for your children, putting your children’s physical needs before your own desires. It also means training your children in God’s Word, to the praise and honor of God. We see it a lot these days: too often in churches, parents don’t want to take responsibility for their own children. They want to pass off instruction in the Scriptures and the Catechism onto someone else. And when children are disobedient or rude, parents want to blame someone else. Actually, parents, all you have to do is look in the mirror, and then you’ll see the greatest influence on your children. And, on the Last Day, God will not ask about how fun the school dance was, or how busy you were shuttling your children to different events. He will ask every parent: “How did you bring up your own children to fear, love, and trust in Me?”

Just so you don’t despair, God also gives a gracious promise. He promises happiness and good days to all who keep this commandment. When you honor parents and other authorities, you are living under God’s protection. And when you break the commandment, when you do despise any authorities, when you do fail in your tasks as parents, run to Jesus crucified and risen. His suffering and death honored His heavenly Father. Because of His Son hanging on the cross and risen on the third day, God promises to honor you with forgiveness. His forgiveness really is the only way to learn and keep this commandment.

Fifth Commandment—Protecting Life.
In the Fifth Commandment God is protecting life. It is a most precious gift from God, one that our culture values less and less as time marches on. God wants life protected in every way possible. That’s God’s design for life.

The first way to talk about this is protection for your neighbor. Remember, the commandments of the Second Table teach you how to live for your neighbor. “You shall not murder” your neighbor, whoever that person is. Yes, your neighbor needs protection from you. For out of your “heart come evil thoughts, murder, etc.” (Matt. 15:19). God is putting a protective fence around your neighbor’s body and life. You see, God knows how you can and do get angry and upset at other people. Jesus Himself talked about this commandment. He put on the pressure when He said, “I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment” (Matt. 5:22). God not only forbids harming your neighbor in his body; He also forbids the thoughts and passions and angry words that would lead you to murder. And remember, it’s all God’s design to protect your neighbor.

God’s design is that you help and support your neighbor in every physical need. Yes, this sounds simple, and it is. When we face big, ethical, hotly-debated dilemmas such as abortion, or embryonic stem cell research, or euthanasia, God cuts through all the tangled webs of our human rationalizations. God’s simplicity is great help and comfort. He says, “You simply worry about helping your neighbor in his body. I will worry about the decisions of life and death.”

Now, there’s also protection for you. God also gives you the gift of life. He wants you to be protected from the anger and revenge of other people. God’s design is that we allow no one to suffer harm. So let this encourage you to gentleness and patience yourself. Remember, in the First Commandment, God says, “I am your God.” God wants to help and protect you and your neighbor. So, when you get angry, Jesus says, “I will protect you.” When you are harmed by another person, Jesus says, “I will take care of you; trust Me. You don’t need to get even or get revenge.” What a precious promise! It’s a promise made by the same Lord who was Himself counted a murderer. Your forgiveness and protection come from the crucified Christ, who was killed in your place and gives you His life.

Sixth Commandment—Protecting Marriage
In the Sixth Commandment, God protects marriage. Marriage is a precious gift from God. Each person’s spouse is a great gift from God. So God’s design for life is that you live chastely—that is, purely, with discipline, and with restraint. God’s design for life is that you also help your neighbor live chastely. Again, the first point of this commandment is protection for your neighbor. Yes, again, God is protecting your neighbor from you. For out of your “heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality,” etc. (Matt. 15:19). Jesus also addressed adultery. He said, “I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:28). Talk about “if looks could kill”! Even your lustful looks can kill you. Here God is putting up a protective fence around your neighbor’s spouse. God is also putting up a protective fence around anyone who is simply an object of your sexual desire outside of marriage. Here God says, “Hands off…until you’re married.”

From this Sixth Commandment we can see how highly God honors marriage. And we can see how much we fallen creatures despise it. Pre-marital sex and divorce may be very widespread, but that does not make them God-pleasing or right. This commandment hits us between the eyes even if we have never participated in such things. God wants husband and wife to love and honor each other. Yet it’s often the person you love most who receives your harshest words. The person you are most committed to has to put up with your disrespect. Adds new meaning to Jesus’ words about loving your enemy!

This commandment is so vital and crucial in our culture where adultery is assumed, same-sex so-called “marriage” is viewed as a “right,” and matters of gender confusion and gender identity are welling up like a giant tidal wave. In the face of the deadly rot called “sex education” and the feverish infection of the “sexual revolution,” we Christians actually have something to say. God has a design for life different from recreational sex that leaves souls hurting in its wake. We can actually help our neighbor—either face-to-face with hurting individuals or as a community voice in the culture. We do not speak against sex outside of marriage, or against so-called “same-sex marriage,” or against the many other sexual sins because we are mean or being “kill joys.” No, we know, from God’s design for life, that the many and varied sexual sins actually do harm to our neighbor. Based on God’s design, we have something better. It’s called marriage, between a man and a woman—a loving, committed, trusting relationship that reflects His relationship with us.

God’s commandment about adultery is also protection for you. God Himself highly honors marriage. He gives you marriage to protect you from your own sinful desires. The proper place for passions and sex is in the trusting bond of marriage. When husband and wife love and honor each other, it is the best holy work that spouses can do. And when you fail in such love and honor, when you let your desires and lusts control you, again run to Jesus crucified and risen. He welcomes the adulterers to receive His forgiveness. And His forgiveness heals and changes the lives of all of us adulterers. Remember what He told one woman caught in adultery: “Neither do I condemn you” (John 8:11). And when one forgiven adulteress anointed Jesus’ feet, Jesus actually rejoiced in it (Luke 7:47-48).

Whether it’s God’s gift of parents and other authorities, or God’s gift of physical life, or God’s gift of marriage, God gives these blessings for our good. His design for life is that we also protect these precious and bountiful gifts. Amen.

God's Design for Life--Life with His Word

The third installment of this year's catechetical Lent Evening Prayer series, "God's Design for Life." This time we focus on the Third Commandment and "Life with His Word."

God’s design for life begins with perfect fear, love, and trust in Him. Then God’s design for life moves from the heart to the lips. Fear, love, and trust in God leads quite naturally to using God’s name properly and reverently. Tonight we move from the lips to the ears. God’s design for life means listening to Him, or hearing His Word, as we just confessed from the Small Catechism.

Very often this Third Commandment is misunderstood. We trip ourselves up when we think it is chiefly about a certain day of the week or about not doing any physical work. Now, each of us certainly needs physical rest one day a week. The body certainly needs to be refreshed and restored. But the main focus of God’s Third Commandment is on God’s Word. Now, every day is for God’s Word, and God’s Word makes every day holy. Yet we also set aside certain days—primarily Sundays—for the hearing of God’s Word. Sundays are set aside to give people the time and opportunity to come to public worship. And the Third Commandment teaches us what worship is all about: hearing and learning God’s Word.

And do we need to hear this in our day and age! Too often these days, what passes for “worship” is little more than low-budget entertainment. Much so-called “worship” in our day and our culture only seeks to alter moods or get people fired up for some kind of religious cause or agenda. And this mindset is not just “out there”; it’s also “in here,” in our own heads and hearts. You and I also have these thoughts and desires. We watch and listen to all sorts of entertaining and mood altering things through the week, and so we often want the same worldly things on Sunday mornings. We also put the focus on what we feel instead of what God says. We also want to minimize what God does for us and, instead, spotlight what we can do for God.

In this way, the Third Commandment is most certainly about stopping work. It’s about stopping your work and listening to God’s Word and works. How does Luther teach us to sing the meaning of this Commandment:

“You shall observe the worship day
That peace may fill your home, and pray,
And put aside the work you do,
So that God may work in you.”
Have mercy, Lord! (LSB 581:4, emphasis added)

Worship and preaching are the times for you to stop thinking of your works as most important in the universe. Rather, they are times to focus on God’s works in Jesus. You keep the Sabbath Day holy by ceasing your efforts and by receiving God’s efforts as He works on you. The Sabbath Day and God’s Word are not about what you and I can do for Jesus; they’re all about what Jesus has done and still does for you and in you.

This is why God’s wants you to hold preaching and His Word sacred. This is why you gladly hear and learn it. It’s very burdensome just to live life where God has placed you in your vocations. It’s even more burdensome to go around in life thinking, “What must I do for Jesus?” But do you know what? There’s nothing sweeter than hearing what Jesus does for you. There’s nothing more liberating than hearing how, despite your worst sins or your best efforts, Jesus gives you His rest in the forgiveness of sins.

Something else very vital comes from the Third Commandment. God’s design for life is that you hear and listen to His Word. God’s Word is first and foremost a “heard Word.” When God speaks, things happen—and they happen as you listen to what God says.

When you were a child, you learned by listening to Mom and Dad. You learned to talk by first hearing Mom and Dad talk. You learned right from wrong by hearing Mom and Dad praise you or tell you, “No.” God works the same way. His design is for us to listen to Him. And just as you would be polite when first joining a conversation with some friends, it pays to listen before you speak. It’s always good to know what the conversation is about.

So, what is God’s conversation all about? First, God says, “You are dead in your trespasses and sins.” You hear that Word, and then you confess, “You’re right, God. I am a poor, miserable sinner.” Then God says, “Because of My Son Jesus and His death on the cross, I make you alive; I forgive you all your sins and trespasses.” Then you get to say, in child-like simplicity: “Thank you, Lord! Amen!” The conversation really is that simple, even though it takes all of our lifetimes to learn it and live by it. This is the Word, the message, that God loves to keep telling you. It is the message, the Word, that He wants you to keep hearing and telling too.

St. Paul says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). Notice that faith does not come by what you do or how busy you can be. Faith does not come by how-to sermons on religious living. Faith comes only one way: by hearing the preaching of Christ and Him crucified and risen for our forgiveness. Jesus in the flesh is God’s complete and total message for you. Jesus on the cross is God’s complete and total message for you. Jesus risen from the dead is God’s complete and total message for you. The message is this: God Himself comes to you, to rescue you from sin and death, and to make you His own precious people.

So when you hear the message of Jesus working for you—to forgive you, to build you up in His mercy, to give you His life, to heal you in body and soul—not only are you keeping the Third Commandment, but you are also keeping the First Commandment. God wants you to love and trust in Him above all else—even above yourself. And you learn to trust Jesus crucified and risen by listening to Him and His works.

Now, listening to God’s Word is one of the greatest works—a great privilege—for any Christian. I know, there’s not a lot of glitz or flash to it. It may not excite you some of the time. There are no impressive PowerPoint slides or YouTube videos to spruce up the sermon. But it does please God when you simply listen to Him and retain what He says. In fact, that simple act—listening—is your greatest involvement in worship. You get to assemble to hear Jesus Himself speak to you through His Word. What a marvelous, life-changing privilege! You get to hear the Lord of the universe come and speak to you here on earth. And this is for all ages. Let’s not be sucked in by the voices that cry out: “There’s nothing for the kids or the youth.” Jesus crucified and risen speaks to all ages—whether 3, 13, or 30, whether 8, 18, or 80. Jesus aims His Word at everyone present in the service. Listening is a great privilege when you are in the very presence of God Himself.

God’s design for life is a life with His Word. It is a life of listening to Him and what He does in Christ crucified and risen. When we hear His Word, when we seriously ponder it, when we cling to it, and when we use it to soothe our troubled souls, it always bears fruit. Savior Jesus has promised that His Word will not return to Him empty. It will accomplish what He desires. It will achieve the purpose for which He sends it—that is, your forgiveness, your life, your salvation, your comfort, and your edification, that is, building you up as His precious people. Amen.

God's Design for Life--Life with a Name

Our 2016 Lent Evening Prayer catechetical series--"God's Design for Life"--continues with "Life with a Name," a sermon on the Second Commandment.

Tonight we continue looking at God’s Design for Life. Last week we heard how God’s design for life begins with perfect fear, love and trust in Him. God wants us to fear, love, and trust in Him above all things—perfectly, absolutely, 100%. The is the bedrock foundation of God’s design for all of life—trust in the heart, trusting Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The First Commandment is about the foundation of the heart. Now we move to the lips and the mouth—the Second Commandment. How does your mouth show what’s in your heart? How do your lips confess the trust of your heart? God’s design for life is that we properly and reverently use the name He has given us.

How does your mouth show what’s in your heart? How do your lips confess the trust of your heart? In Romans 10(:9-10), St. Paul says: “…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” See how heart and lips are tied together? What you trust in your heart comes out in what you say with your mouth. And what you say with your mouth reveals what you trust in your heart.

God’s design for life tells us what not to do and what to do. What does God tell us not to do in this Second Commandment? He says, “Do not misuse the Name which I give to you. Do not take My Name in vain. Do not us My Name in empty or frivolous ways. Do not use My Name to support or cover up lies.” In fact, God takes this commandment so seriously that He adds a threat to it: “…for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain” (Ex. 20:7). When you curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie or deceive by God’s Name, you are using God’s Name in an empty or frivolous way. You are not guiltless!

And just how might you do this? How might your mouth show the emptiness of your heart? Let’s ponder two ways. First, you might use God’s name to cover up and gloss over your sin and wrongdoing. It’s bad enough that each of us likes to cover up our wrongdoing. We are just like Adam and Eve—we sin, then we cover up with skimpy, little fig leaves called excuses. Then we play hide and seek among the trees when God comes looking for us. But we make our wrongdoing even worse when we use God’s Name as the fig leaves. “Well, God doesn’t mind.” Oh yeah? Who says? We often use God’s Name to cover up our wrongdoing when we say something like this: “Well, I know God forgives me.” Oh yeah? When did He tell you He forgives you for that particular wrongdoing? Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with trusting God’s forgiveness. The problem comes when we use God’s Name and God’s forgiveness to cover up and hide our wrongdoing. How often we say, “God forgives me,” not of repentance, but only to cover up our sin. Don’t admit the sin; just cover it up. Don’t confess the sin—say, to your pastor or a fellow Christian—just gloss over it and try to forget about it. But that’s like concocting a home remedy for cancer and then saying that your doctor prescribed it for you. It’s just not the truth.

Here’s a second way that your mouth might show the emptiness of your heart: when you use your mouth to speak about God in empty or frivolous ways. How might you talk to God or about Him in empty ways? How might you sing in frivolous ways? Several years ago I came across a most unusual song. It was called “Milk.” Part of it read: “Milk, milk, milk / Drink the milk, milk, milk / Read the Word, Word, Word / And grow strong / Shoo-be-do-bop, shoo-be-do-bop.” Sure, it might not sound like false teaching. It might even seem a bit fun for some. But how does it enable you to use your mouth to glorify God? It doesn’t—not much; there’s no substance to it. This song even went on to call God “Mr. Milkman.” Hardly reverent! There are so many better things to put in our mouths and hearts. That’s just one absurd example to show the point. What we say or sing with our mouths does matter. Many songs may be old favorites, or they may be new and catchy. But when you look at the message, they put us creatures in the spotlight and leave God out in the cold. They talk more about us and our emotions that shift like sand, but not so much about God and His rock-solid deeds of salvation. What matters, in the end, is how we use our mouths to glorify God and not ourselves—“for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain”

But the promise is greater than the threat. Where God’s Law has just cut you with the scalpel, the Gospel brings healing. Not only does God tell us what not to do with His name, but He also tells us what to do. And this is a wonderful, gracious, and merciful invitation. God gives you His Name for you to use. God wants you to call upon Him in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks. That’s His grace. Your Lord invites you: “call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Ps. 50:15). This is how to use God’s Name reverently and properly. Listen to what God is saying to you: “Here is My Name. I want you to have it and use it well. Call upon Me, because I want to deliver you and help you.” You see, when you are in trouble—whether it’s doubt, despair, sickness, terrorist attacks, war, or even persecution—God promises to deliver you. And when He delivers you, He does so for His honor and glory.

This is marvelous help and comfort! It cures and heals your double-sided, empty-heart syndrome. First, God gives you His Name so that you may freely admit that you are a sinner. You don’t need to cover up your sin. Sin is your true trouble. And when you call upon God for rescue from sin, He always delivers you from your trouble of sin. No, God does not do this because you called to Him. He does it because of Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That’s why God sent His only Son to the cross. Jesus Himself bore and honored God’s Name for you. Jesus was cursed to remove the curse from you. Jesus Himself called upon His Father to deliver you from eternal trouble: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Lk. 23:34). Because of Jesus, God does forgive you and help you.

The gift of God’s Name also cures and heals you from talking about God in empty and frivolous ways. God gives you His very own, life-giving Word. Why settle for pablum songs on milk when you can have God’s mighty Psalms and hymns that teach you what God has done and still does for you in Jesus? In the Church’s liturgy God graciously teaches you how to call upon Him. After all, the Church’s liturgy is simply God’s Word in song and prayer. You know these strong words: “O Lord, open my lips. And my mouth will declare your praise.” Or these: “O come, let us sing to the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.” Or how about these mighty words: “Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world; have mercy on us.” Now, this is keeping the Second Commandment! You see, we don’t need to live under the tyranny of pop-creativity or the latest fads or even the “shoo-be-do-bops.” God is so gracious that He gives us the very words that glorify Him and honor His name. In this way God tenderly invites you to pray, praise, and give thanks.

God’s design for life is life with His Name. So, we can urge and encourage each other to honor God’s Name and to keep it constantly on our lips. True honor to God and His name is that we use our mouths to call upon Him. After all, our mouths declare and confess our trust in our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.