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.

Homily for Lent 5 - Judica

"Before Abraham Was, I AM"
John 8:42-59

Listen here.

The time of Jesus’ Passion and Death draws closer. Today is traditionally called “Passion Sunday.” On this day we hear of the people’s rejection of Jesus as the only Messiah and how they sought to kill Him. Some churches drape their crosses as a reminder that the price for our Lord’s passion is great. When they remove the veil, they view the cross with new eyes. We happen to mark this time of "Passion-tide" with the scarlet paraments and vestments--the color of blood.

Jesus tells the Jews that, if they truly were from God, they would love Him. After all, He comes from the Father and goes back to the Father. He then proclaims that they, the people, are of their father—the devil, the father of lies. He and his lies are at the root of all sin and evil in the world.

This is how our Lutheran Confessions explain this text about the devil. The Apology of the Augsburg Confession says: “the cause of sin is the will of the devil and people turning away from God, according to the saying of Christ about the devil, 'When he lies, he speaks out of his own character' (John 8:44)” (Apology XIX:77).

In times of great evil and distress in the world, it’s quite common to ask the question, “Why?” Why is there so much evil in the world? Why is there so much hatred and violence and war? Why are innocent people slain and Christians hunted down and persecuted? And, if you dig even deeper, you may even ask this question of yourself. Why do I do these sins? Why am I so torn and possessed and infected by sin?

St. Paul himself struggled with this very question. In Romans 7(:18-20), he says, “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.”

This is our slavery to sin. Each of us is bound under it and infected by it. Each of us struggles with it each and every day. And if you do not struggle with and fight against sins, that’s not a sign that you have no sin and do not sin. It’s just a sign that you are blind and numb to your sin. You don’t realize its stranglehold on you. You don’t feel its infecting grip on you.

This is the message that so incensed and infuriated the Jews in Jesus’ day. He had the audacity—the sheer, unmitigated gall—to suggest that they were not going to be saved automatically merely because they were descendants of Abraham. But even more, Jesus knows and understands the connection between sin and the devil. The two always go together.

In our Gospel reading, Jesus is not talking only about the Jews of His day; He’s also talking about us, you and me. He’s talking about our desire to cling to our pet sins. He’s talking about how we too always want to hold back on God. You know what I mean. “I’ll go to church and be a Christian and all, but there are just some things that are too much a part of me to give up. There are certain sins which are mine. I’m not going to let anything or anyone get in the way of what I want to do. I’ll go to church, but I won’t let the message I hear at church change or shape the way I live or the way I think.” We may not say it so boldly, but we do live it.

This is the trial that Abraham faced in the almost-sacrifice of his son. God had given him a son in his old age. Now God was asking him to go and sacrifice his son, his only son whom he loved. Why? To prove his great love for the Lord. It did not make any sense. I imagine Abraham was sorely tempted simply to refuse. After all, this was his son; no one would take him away. And yet it’s precisely that love for his son that God was testing. “What are you willing to give up for Me,” the Lord was asking. “Your livelihood, your friends, your life, even your son’s life?”

Yet we see that Abraham walked by faith, not by sight. He passed the test, but only because God gave him the faith to pass the test. And Abraham is not the only one God ever tested.

Every day your faith and life are tried and tested in the furnace of the cross. There are constant temptations for you to overcome, trials to face, and crosses to bear. And you know the dilemma: you fail at these every day. Like the Jews of Jesus’ day, you just cannot see past your own selfish nature. You cannot overcome your own self-righteous judgment on the rest of the world.

So, where’s the Gospel—the sweet, comforting, healing good news of Jesus? Where does your hope lie? Your hope and healing lie in these great words of Jesus: “Before Abraham was, I AM.” Such easy words to say, and they are words of sweet, soothing comfort for you, the hurting sinner. These words draw you outside of yourself, outside of your own failures and shortcomings. They draw you into Jesus’ loving embrace and His everlasting comfort.

You see, as long as you look at sin as something you can conquer—as if sin were merely a bad habit—you will fail. We have a hard enough time conquering bad habits. But sin goes much, much deeper. Being a Christian is not like a diet program to get rid of sin. Nor is like going to the gym to work out and get stronger. Ever since Adam and Eve fell from God’s good graces, sin infects your very nature as a human being. You cannot simply reform your way of life. That’s like putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound. Instead, you must be healed. You must be reborn. You must be made anew. No set of laws or regulations or steps for living will cure this disease. The cure must come from outside of you. Being a Christian means you get to come to the hospital of Jesus’ Church to receive the healing medicine of His cross-won forgiveness.

“Before Abraham was, I AM,” Jesus said. What God asked Abraham to do, He did Himself--sacrificing His only Son, the Son whom He loves. What does this mean? This Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has had your salvation planned from before the foundation of the world. Yes, God knew you would falter and fail. Yet His love for you is so great, so strong, so powerful, that He ordained His only-begotten Son to come into your flesh, live your kind of life, walk in your shoes, and die your death. That way the price of your failure would be paid in full.

Hebrews says it this way: “He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:12). Jesus entered that most holy place and paid the price—the ultimate price—of His very life for you. And that, dear saints, is the very Body and Blood that you get to eat and drink here today. Jesus’ own true Body and Blood cleanses you, heals you, and remakes you once again into the image of God.

Now, this message is offensive, to be sure. It compels you to put aside all of your silly and pathetic self-made notions about yourself, your worth, and your status. It strips away all the layers of sin and death that infect each and every one of us. And in their place Jesus the Christ gives you the very image of God, the image put upon you with water and His Word.

So it’s in this message of life through death, and salvation through suffering, that you have hope and healing and peace this day. Abraham rejoiced to see this day. “He saw it and was glad.” As Jesus said, all of heaven rejoices when one sinner comes to realize his or her own sinfulness and turns in faith to the only One who can save (Luke 15). And that one Savior is Jesus Christ, our Lord.

As we turn our attention to our Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection once again, may this be your constant song:

The cross! It takes our guilt away;
It holds the fainting spirit up;
It cheers with hope the gloomy day
And sweetens ev’ry bitter cup.

The balm of life, the cure of woe,
The measure and the pledge of love,
The sinner’s refuge here below,
The angels’ theme in heav’n above.

To Christ, who won for sinners grace
By bitter grief and anguish sore,
Be praise from all the ransomed race
Forever and forevermore. (Lutheran Service Book, 429:3, 5, 6)

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.

Homily for Lent 4 - Laetare

"He Multiplies and Provides"
Exodus 16:2-21; Acts 2:42-47; John 6:1-15

Listen here.

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Devoted themselves is pretty strong language. To devote yourself means that you make a firm commitment to something—not out of some sense of dreary duty that has to be done, but rather out of love. Think of a man who is a “devoted husband and father,” or a woman who is a “devoted wife and mother,” for example. So those first Christians first received Baptism on that joyous day of Pentecost. Then they devoted themselves—they made a firm joyous commitment—to the things of the Church. What are those things? The Apostles’ teaching, sharing in the Communion, that is, the breaking of the bread, and joining together in the prayers, the liturgy, the worship life. They committed themselves to living at the receiving end of God’s good gifts. Their lives began to shine with the love of Christ Himself. As a result they provided for the poor in need, and they did so out of new hearts that were both glad and generous. To put it simply: if they had Jesus in His Divine Service, they had enough; they had more than enough.

But then we might notice how they gave away all their stuff. We might shake our heads, and sigh, and think to ourselves: “Live like that? Sell our possessions and belongings? Give it all away? Just try it and see what happens to you!” Such is our American consumer mentality. Such is our unbelief! You see, those first Christians knew WHO they were living with. They knew WHO came to meet them in the Apostles’ words, in the Communion, and in the Prayers. They knew it was none other than Jesus. They knew that He knows how to multiply small loaves and little fishies. They knew that He knows how to provide His people with all that they need, and even more than they dream possible.

So in our Gospel reading our Lord tossed a hot potato to Philip to see if he’s learned anything yet. But instead of tossing it right back as he should have, he tried to hold on to it and handle it himself. And it burned his hands. Jesus asked Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” Philip began looking at the crowd, turned on the calculator in his brain, did the mental math, and came up with the answer: “Two hundred [days’ wages] would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” Then Andrew joined the game, as if he wanted to take the hot potato from Philip’s hands and ease his discomfort: “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?”

Picture the three of them: Our Lord looking at the two disciples; Philip staring into the huge crowd, mouth gaping open; Andrew shaking his head over pitiful amount of food. Neither disciple passed the test.

You see, our Lord does not send us tests to find out how bright and ingenious we are. He does not give us pop quizzes to test our willpower. No, He sends us tests so that we will toss them right back at Him, so that we will look to Him and expect from Him what is impossible for us.

Hard to believe? Look at what Jesus does next with the disciples. “Have the people sit down,” He said. Then HE took the meager portions of food, He gave big thanks over it, and then He handed the food to the Apostles to dish out.

Can’t you just see Andrew looking dumbfounded as he stares at the small piece of bread in his hand? And then Jesus says, “Go, give it away”? Can’t you just see Philip looking at the vast crowd and shaking his head? I wonder: how long was it before they realized what was happening? How long before they discovered that no matter how much they gave away, the Lord kept multiplying the food in their hands? I’m pretty sure they saw and felt only that little bit that the Lord first gave them. But by His blessing, they somehow found that little bit to be an inexhaustible supply. Even twelve baskets of leftovers! One for each Apostle. Twelve basketfuls out of the little amount they held in their hands.

Ah, but what if they had held on to it? What if they had not given it away? What then? They would not have had a basket full for each of them, but only a little piece in their grubby hands.

Do you see what’s happening? They saw. And that’s why those who devoted themselves to the Divine Service, in our second reading, took their stuff and handed it over to those in need. They learned that they were not impoverishing themselves. They learned from the Apostles’ teaching that you cannot “out-give” the Lord Jesus. He gives, and you simply pass it on to others. He multiplies and provides.

This miraculous feeding of the 5000 is a replay of sorts of how God fed His people in the wilderness, in our first reading. Each day He provided the fine, flake-like bread called “manna.” A mere two-quart jar full would feed the whole family for the whole day. And God promised to multiply their food for all 40 years of their wilderness wandering. One problem came when some thought that they had to hold back a portion of their daily manna for the next day. They just weren’t sure that God would provide for the next day without their own savings plan. But somehow their planning and saving bred only worms and the smell of rot. Another problem came when they chose not to trust God to provide for the Sabbath Day. Instead of gathering a double portion on Friday, they stayed away from the Divine Service on the Sabbath Day. They thought they had to work harder to get ahead with God’s things. But still God kept multiplying and providing. You cannot “out-give” the Lord!

The Prophet Isaiah also talks about the Lord multiplying and providing. Isaiah’s words certainly look forward in time to the miraculous feeding of the 5000: “They shall feed along the ways; on all bare heights shall be their pasture; they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for He who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them” (Is. 49:9-10).

In the eyes of the world, it makes no sense that you have more than enough even as you give it away. But remember WHO teaches this. It’s not an Edward Jones agent or a certified public accountant. It’s the Lord of Life. And He’s not giving some proven method to better financial stability. No, He is providing LIFE itself. Remember how He gave Himself away, not in portions and percentages, but in whole. He poured Himself out for you and for me and for all people. He emptied His life on the Cross so that He might forgive you and fill you with life. His blood blots out your sins; His death destroys your death. He gave Himself entirely and completely. And now you might think, “But if I do that, then there’s nothing left. I’d better hold on to what I’ve got.”

But Jesus’ resurrection shows that such thinking is a huge mistake. Jesus says, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Mt. 16:25) … that is, for eternal life. The One who did give His all is the One who lives forevermore. His resurrected, incorruptible body is now your very fountain of salvation. And He goes on giving Himself away, feeding you, His people, in the wilderness of this world—not with earthly food alone, but with Himself. He is the very Word of God made flesh to be your Bread of Life. Here at this table He dishes out a food that gives you more than you’ll ever need. So He frees you not to clutch tightly and hold to yourself, but to open your hand and give away. It’s not just what He did when He multiplied the loaves; it’s what He did when He went to Calvary’s tree; it’s what He did when He showed Himself alive to His disciples on the first day of the week; it’s what He calls you and me to join Him in doing now.

Then we will know first hand the joyful hearts of those first Christians on Pentecost. When we are devoted as they were to the Lord’s words, to the Lord’s Meal, and to the Lord’s Prayers, we find that our hearts are set free to give ourselves away entirely. We also find ourselves among that company to which the Lord adds day by day, the company of “those who are being saved.” 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.

Homily for Lent 3 - Oculi

"Divine Invasion"
Luke 11:14-28; Exodus 8:16-24; Ephesians 5:1-9

Listen here.

Pharaoh’s magicians knew they had met their match. They could not imitate the miracle of the gnats. You see, they did not serve the God who gives life and who creates things out of nothing. They told their master: “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh would not listen to them. His heart was hardened. He would persist in resisting the will of the God of Israel, even to his own harm and the near destruction of his land. In our Old Testament reading, God works a miracle that brings some to faith while others persist in their unbelief and refuse to heed the words of God.

The same thing happens in our Gospel reading. Our Lord Jesus performs a great miracle. He releases a man who had been kept mute by a demon. He drives the demon out and sets the poor man free. When this formerly mute man begins to speak, some marvel. No doubt they remember the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah had foretold that when God would come to save His people, “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy” (Is. 35:5). “Surely,” they said to each other, “we are living in the days foretold by the prophet. Listen to the mute man now. He’s singing for joy to the Lord, his Healer!”

Others, however, see the miracle and do not smile; they do not rejoice. No, they frown and they scowl. “Do you know how He’s able to cast out demons?” they ask. “I’ll tell you: He’s in league with them! He’s made a pact with Beelzebul, the Lord of the flies, the prince of the demons. He is Satan’s pawn.”

And still others are perplexed by the conflicting opinions. They beg Him to clear it all up by giving some sign from heaven, something to show that He really is on the side of God and not the demons.

Our Lord is absolutely amazed that people can even think such thoughts. “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?” It’s as though He says: “Open your eyes, people. Does it look to you like Satan is fighting a civil war? No way. He has you just where he wants you. He wants you miserable, afflicted, torn down and discouraged. He wants you fearful and doubting and fighting each other as though your neighbor were the enemy. Get real. His army is in lockstep formation; they’re not about to break ranks with him.”

In his book, Grace Upon Grace, Dr. John Kleinig writes that Satan makes his attacks on two fronts. He calls them the “front door attack” and the “back door attack.” “In the front door attack,” Dr. Kleinig writes, “[Satan] tries to break the conscience by attacking our faith in Christ; in the back door attack he attempts to gain a secret foothold by attacking our love for our fellow Christians, our brothers and sisters in Christ” (Grace Upon Grace, 234). Satan is certainly using the “back door attack” in our Gospel reading. He also uses that strategy with us on a daily basis.

So Jesus says, “And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.”

No, Jesus’ coming among us has not triggered a civil war in the demonic realm. You see, Satan is the strong man, fully armed with his lies—lies that he uses to shackle and imprison us. And he was guarding his palace. He was thinking that we were all safely his. Until one day Someone stronger than he showed up on his doorstep. That would be our Lord. 

And our “Stronger-Man Savior” proceeded to attack him, to overcome him, to take from him the weapons of his lies and expose them for what they really are, and then to divide his spoil. And how did He divide that spoil? By releasing those whom the devil had kept in prison—you, me, and the whole human race. So, no, it’s not a civil war among the demons. No, this is a full-out, head-on Divine invasion. Stronger Man Jesus invades demon-occupied territory. The Apostle John said it this way: “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

But the unclean spirits do not easily give up their prey, Jesus warns us. Rather, after they are driven out, they are in misery, and they seek a way to return to their human host. And if they come back and find their host like a house swept and put in order, but not filled with the Stronger Man, they bring a bunch of their buddies and move back in with…and with a vengeance. “The last state of that person is worse than the first,” Jesus says.

It’s not enough that Satan merely be driven out. Baptism certainly accomplishes that. The Word of God promises that, and the Baptism liturgy confesses it. Not only must Satan be driven out, but he must also be kept out. And there’s only way for that to happen. When the demon rings the doorbell, you must ask the Stronger Man to go answer the door for you. When the Stronger Man, the Lord Jesus, dwells in you, then you have nothing to fear from the demons.

You see, Jesus has already won the victory in His Divine invasion. His suffering and death on the cross and His glorious resurrection from the dead are the decisive battle. Stronger Man Jesus has attacked the devil and has overcome him!

Dr. Kleinig is very good and very helpful on this too. He writes:

“All people remain in the darkness until Christ comes and teaches them His Father’s Word with authority. That Word discloses and exposes the darkness. With that Word Christ dispels the darkness from human hearts. With that Word He sends Satan and his spirits packing. Everything, therefore, depends on Christ and His victory. Through His self-sacrificial death for our sins and His resurrection for our justification He has won the victory for us. All that remains to be done now in this period of history is to mop up the remaining outposts of darkness here on planet earth” (Grace Upon Grace, 239).

A woman in the crowd cries out: “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” She is thankful for the Lord and His teaching. But the Lord comes back with a surprise answer: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” Now Jesus is not putting down His mother, the Virgin Mary. Rather, the Lord is pointing the way to how HE may dwell within us: He comes and dwells with His words. And if there’s one thing St. Luke reveals about Mary it’s that she too loved, treasured and kept the words spoken to her.

Where the words of God find a home inside of you, the Lord Jesus finds a home in you—along with His Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus also says: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (Jn. 14:23). So on this Third Sunday in Lent, the Church reminds her children that, yes, the evil one can be kept at bay. He can be kept at bay only when the Stronger One lives within us.

And when the Stronger One—Jesus—dwells within us by means of His words, we will not be like those St. Paul mentions in our Second Reading. They lose the “inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God,” the inheritance won on the cross and given in the Gospel and the Sacraments. How so? They invite the demons back in through their sexual immorality, impurity, and covetousness. They open the door themselves through their filthiness, foolish talk, and crude joking. Instead, we who once were darkness get to be light in the Lord, walking “as children of light,” because Jesus, the Light of the world, makes His home in us.

So, come and receive the Lord’s holy Meal. Here He who loved you and gave Himself up for you as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God upon Calvary’s tree, comes to fill you with His own forgiveness and life. Here the finger of God touches you still. Here the Kingdom of God comes upon you. Here the Stronger Man, against whom Satan is no match, comes to dwell among sinners to set you free, to keep you free, and to keep you His forever. 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.

Homily for Lent 2 - Reminiscere

When the Lord Tests Your Faith
Matthew 15:21-28 

Listen here. 

Faith is often tested through trials and ordeals. That’s what the Canaanite woman discovered. This believing little lady comes to the Lord Jesus. She calls upon Him. She laments her need—a heartfelt plea disguised as a mere statement of fact: “My daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” Sounds dire! Her need is great. By faith she is asking for help. But she doesn’t get it, not right away at least. First, her faith undergoes a testing and trial. Yes, the Lord does test your faith!

Our Lord Jesus Christ still deals with His people—with us—the same way today. He does test and exercise our faith, at different times and in different ways for each of us. The words of 1 Peter 1(:6-7) ring, oh, so true: “Now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Just as gold is tested and purified by fire, so also faith is tested and purified through various trials and ordeals.

“But, Pastor, isn’t faith a spiritual light? Didn’t Jesus say, ‘Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven’ (Matt. 5:16)?” Yes, He did indeed. And yet a torch also burns more brightly when a wind blows on it. In the same way, faith shines much brighter if a bitter north wind blows various trials on it.

Let’s try another picture. When we receive God’s Word of forgiveness, life, and salvation in the farm land of our ears and hearts, God wants that Word to produce a crop of faith. But an unplowed field does not produce a good harvest. So our Lord cultivates His believers by means of cross and trial so that the seed of His Word may produce the fruit of faith, along with other fruits of the Spirit.

In our Gospel reading today, we see what happens when the Lord tests your faith. We see four tests, and we see how all four of these tests drive us again and again to our merciful Lord.

The first test is external tribulation. This is the easy one to see. This believing little lady was carrying a heavy burden: her daughter was severely demon-possessed. The devil directly assaulted the young girl, and both mother and daughter suffered. Yes, when God sends tribulations upon His people, even loved ones endure a severe cross.

But it all happens so that faith, patience, and hope can be tested and strengthened. Our Epistle reading says so. “We rejoice in our sufferings”—not because of them, but “in” them—”knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame.” God sends tribulations so that our faith may shine forth through perseverance and patience.

And notice what the little lady did—she’s our role model here. She went straight to Jesus. She begged Him for help. Let’s receive our times of trial and ordeals as times to drive us to Jesus in fervent prayer. You see, in the midst of our trials and ordeals we come to realize our poverty, our need, and our unworthiness. So, let’s turn to our perfect, overflowing Fountain of mercy and every blessing. There we’ll find plenty of help in time of need.

This believing little lady shows us how to craft our prayers. She prayed with true trust. She had no doubt that the Lord Jesus could help her. She simply lifted up her hands without anger or quarreling within herself (1 Tim. 2:8). Not only that, but as she prays she grounds herself on two rock-solid attributes of Christ—His omnipotence and His mercy. Yes, she trusted that He is true God, almighty Lord, and able to overcome the devil. And, yes, she trusted that as true Man, Son of David, He  has pity and shows mercy. She sought His mercy. And she did so with humble heart. She did not pray from any sense of worthiness in herself. So, let’s trust our Lord without doubt. Let’s ground our prayers on the rock-solid foundation of His omnipotence. Let’s plead only for His mercy, and with no sense of our worthiness or deserving anything from Him. As Psalm 27(:8) says, “You have said, ‘Seek My face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, LORD, do I seek.”

Then comes the second test: God is silent and postpones His help. Jesus gives no answer, no help right away. Job received the same kind of silence and postponing of help. He said, “I cry to You for help and You do not answer me; I stand, and You only look at me” (30:20). David endured the same thing. He cried out: “How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?” (Ps. 13:1). And David cried out more than once. Here’s another one: “O God, do not keep silence; do not hold Your peace or be still, O God!” (Ps. 83:1). And then there was Jeremiah’s lament: “Though I call and cry for help, He shuts out my prayer” (Lam. 3:8).

Job, David, and Jeremiah experienced it. So did this believing little lady from Canaan. Let’s learn from her. She did not give up. No, she held on with prayer. Let’s not receive God’s silence as refusal to help. Rather, let’s regard it as time to exercise faith. Remember, what Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matt. 7:7)? Let’s run those words through the filter of faith. Let’s hear those words as Jesus inviting us: “If you have a need, pray. If you don’t receive help right away, then keep seeking. If help and deliverance still don’t come, then keep knocking. Help is on its way. “For still the [prophecy] awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay” (Hab. 2:3).

Here’s the third test of faith: when we fall into thinking, “I don’t belong to Christ; He couldn’t possibly love me; His promises don’t apply to me.” Yes, it is what Jesus told the believing little lady: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” She was certainly a lost sheep, just not of the house of Israel. And, yes, Jesus did come to be “servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness” (Rom. 15:8); He is the Prophet greater than Moses, promised and sent primarily to the Israelites.

But don’t let such doubting, anxious thoughts invade and infect your hearts and minds when you are weighed down by trials and ordeals! The little Gentile lady from Canaan didn’t. She did not allow such thinking to drive her away from Jesus. No, she kept chasing after Him. She kept crying out after Him. She kept pleading and praying, “Lord, help me.” And it’s a good thing too. You see, this same Jesus, the Suffering Servant, the Prophet like Moses, the Christ headed for a Cross, also said things like this: “As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked man turn from his way and live” (Ezek. 33:11). And remember this promise, not just for Israelites, but also for you little Gentile children: “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). And He even inspired St. Paul to proclaim His heartfelt will for all people: He “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4).

So trust His promises more than the troubled thoughts or fleeting feelings that well up inside you. You see, His promises are divine, and they never fail. Let’s cling to the Word made flesh and to His universal promise like a baby clings to its mother. Then we can calmly say, with St. David, “I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me” (Ps. 131:2)

And here’s the fourth and final test of faith: anxiety about unworthiness. Jesus tells the little lady, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the [little puppy] dogs.” Sure sounds like Jesus calls the lady a dog! And unworthy of any help! And so such thoughts creep into our hearts and minds.

But listen to the little lady’s faith-filled come back: “Yes, Lord, yet even the [little puppy] dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Yes, she was unworthy. She freely and openly admitted it. But that was no reason to let her trust fall way! Same goes for us. Yes, we are unworthy. Yes, “we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment.” What do you expect from poor, miserable sinners, from dogs such as us? And why else do you think this Jesus ends up on a Cross, bearing your burdens, shouldering your sins, bleeding out to fill you with His life? But once again, let this believing little lady be your role model. Respond to your Lord as she did: “Yes, Lord, I am a poor little puppy dog. But I still desire only the crumbs of Your grace. Yes, Lord, I am a sinner—in thought, word, and deed. But I come crawling to You in repentance. Yes, Lord, I am absolutely unworthy of any help. But Your faithful promise is [so] precious that I believe it … and still cling to You.”

What happens when the Lord Himself tests your faith? You get to be like this little believing woman. You get to hear the Lord Himself say, “Great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And you get to be healed. … Oh, and by the way, you also get to come to His Table to receive more crumbs of His grace and mercy and help. Amen.

God's Design for Life--Life with Trust

In 2016, we're using our Lent Evening Prayer services for catechesis. Focusing on the theme "God's Design for Life," we're looking at the Ten Commandments, reciting the appropriate portions of Luther's Small Catechism and then giving catechetical sermons, in the pattern of Luther's Large Catechism.

This first installment focuses on the First Commandment.

God says, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Ex. 20:3).

Before you begin construction on a new house, you must have a design, a set of blue prints. The blue prints show how the designer, the architect, wants the building to look and function. Before you begin sewing on a new dress, you need a pattern for the dress. The pattern shows how the designer wants the pieces of material to be cut and stitched together. During these Lent Evening Prayer services, we’ll look at God’s Design for Life. What kind of blue prints or pattern does God, the Designer of all life, provide? We can see His design in the Ten Commandments.

Tonight we look at the bedrock foundation of God’s design for life: Life with Trust. We just read through the First Commandment and its Catechism meaning, and we reviewed the Close of the Commandments and its meaning. When God designs life, He begins with fear, love, and trust in Him. Life built without this foundation will never stand for long.

Should you really fear God? You better believe it! He’s bigger than you are. He can strike you down with hardly a flick of His little finger. Can you love and trust God? You better believe it! He is the only One who can help you in time of need. God’s design for life is centered on fearing, loving, and trusting Him and nothing or no-one else. But that’s precisely the problem, isn’t it? When you fear, love and trust God alone, you are keeping this commandment. But when you fear, love or trust anything else—anything, anyone, and in any way—more than God, you are breaking and trampling this precious commandment.

Whatever you fear and trust, that is your god. Adam and Eve were created with proper fear, love, and trust. Before they fell into sin, they feared, loved, and trusted in God first and foremost. He provided only good things and always good things for them. He was their true and only refuge, their true and only devotion. But then along came the tempter. He succeeded in diverting Adam’s and Eve’s eyes from God and His promises. No longer did Adam and Eve fear God. They looked down on Him. No longer did Adam and Eve love God. They actually despised Him, thinking that He had been holding out on them.  No longer did Adam and Eve trust God. They doubted Him. Instead, they feared Satan. Instead, they trusted the forbidden fruit. Instead, they loved themselves. So they fell from the palm of God’s hand. And we’ve been falling ever since.

What do you fear, love, and trust? That’s always the key question. What is your false god? You see, idolatry is not merely a matter of statues and shrines. As Luther said in his Large Catechism: “[Idolatry] happens not merely by erecting an image and worshiping it, but rather it happens in the heart. For the heart stands gaping at something else. It seeks help and consolation from creatures, saints, or devils. It neither cares for God, nor looks to Him for anything better than to believe that He is willing to help. The heart does not believe that whatever good it experiences comes from God” (LC I:21). That’s idolatry—breaking the First Commandment. And that’s what is in your heart and mine.

What do you fear, love, and trust? It could be almost anything—anything except God, that is. Ponder these examples. Perhaps you fear, love, and trust money and possessions above all things. If you have money or certain possessions, you think you need nothing else. You may get secure and fearless because you trust and boast in what you own. Or there’s the other side of the coin. When you don’t have money or certain possessions, you are full of doubts and despair. You fret. You worry. You complain as you try to get the money and possessions. Whatever you fear, love, and trust, that is truly your god.

How about this second example: pleasure. This is quite prevalent in our American culture. Pleasure is the chief false god of our age. Everything is geared toward our emotions, making us feel good, and having fun. You and I trust things only if they immediately make us feel good. If you have to work at something or wait for some reward or delay gratification, you throw it out. You and I also fear any adverse or negative experiences. If it’s uncomfortable, we just can’t have it. We value pleasure so highly that some people will do just about anything to prevent other people from getting upset. Or, when you do become upset, you want other people to change what they’re doing or saying to please you. Can you say “safe zones”? Whatever you fear, love, and trust, that is truly your god.

A third example, just as in Luther’s day, would be religious works. This is when your heart fears, loves, and trusts in your own religious service or activities more than it fears, loves, and trusts in God Himself. In his Large Catechism, Luther decried the practice of honoring St. Apollonia if anyone had a toothache. He also targeted the practice of making a vow to St. Sebastian or St. Rochio if someone dreaded the bubonic plague. As Luther said, “Everyone chose his own saint, worshiped him, and called to him for help in distress” (LC I:11). How might we fear, love, and trust in our own religious works today? Some people look to angels to help them, rather than the Triune God whom the angels themselves serve. Some believe more in “the power of prayer” more than they do in the power of God Himself. Sometimes we even get the notion that, somehow, we are doing God the favor of being in His house, and He is blessed to have us, rather than the other way around. Whatever you fear, love, and trust, that is truly your god.

God has harsh words for everyone who does not fear, love, and trust Him above all things, completely, absolutely, 100%. “He says, ‘I the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me….” (Ex. 20:5-6). Yes, we should fear His wrath. God does threaten to punish everyone who breaks this First Commandment. And that includes each and every person here tonight. You see, you and I do have our doubts, our fears, our worries. No matter how big or how small, these things get in the way of perfect fear, love, and trust in God. We simply cannot do it. Not perfectly, anyway.

Now, God does give a glorious and precious promise. He also says that He shows “love to a thousand generations of those who love [Him] and keep [His] commandments.” God does promise grace and every blessing to all who keep His commandments—His design for life. But who can do that? Who can keep God’s design for life? Only one Person. Only Jesus, the Savior.

Adam and Eve fell to temptation and fell into sin. Jesus replayed the scene with Satan. He was tempted by the same deceiver who tripped up Adam and Eve. But Jesus did not fall to Satan’s evil wiles. He did not sin. Instead, our Lord Jesus did fear, love, and trust in God above all things.

The Jews of Jesus’ day had a saying. They said, “If one Jew keeps the whole law for one day, the kingdom of God will come.” Well, one Jew did keep the whole Law, and with perfect fear, love, and trust. He kept it not just for one day, but for His whole life. He kept it not just for Himself, but for all of us too. And what happened? They crucified Him for it! But do you know what? The kingdom of God did come, and it’s still coming. God kept and still keeps His promise. God gives you grace and every blessing because of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

You see, Jesus knows that you cannot keep this First Commandment. That’s why He kept it and still keeps it for you. That’s why He endured God’s wrath for you, in your place. That’s why He gives you His perfect fear, love, and trust in God. Yes, we should fear, love and trust in God above all things. And when God looks at you through Christ, that’s exactly what He sees—a person who fears, loves, and trust in Him above all things. And that is your trust. Because of Jesus, God is your God and gives you every blessing and every protection in time of need.

What do you fear, love, and trust? The God who designed you to fear, love and trust. The God who knows that you are quite incapable of fearing and trusting Him, yet He still wants to be your God. The God who gives you His Son, crucified and risen, to be your shield against wrath, to be your grace and every blessing. That is God’s design for life, a new life with trust. Amen.

"The Lord’s Laborer for the Lord’s Harvest"

The following is my sermon delivered on 25 October 2015 at the ordination service of James Thomas, a son of Hope Ev. Lutheran Church, St. Louis, MO, and now ordained and installed to serve as Associate Pastor at Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church, Bridgeton, MO. The text is the selected Gospel reading for the service, Matthew 9:35-38.

Contrary to popular opinion—that’s all of us gathered here this afternoon—today is not about soon-to-be Pastor James Thomas. Oh, yes, it’s sheer joy when the Lord of the Church takes a man—by the scruff of the neck—plants the seeds of theological training in him at seminary, and then—again by the scruff of the neck—places him into this holy office. Oh, yes, it’s great joy when the Lord of the Church answers the prayers of His faithful congregation and places a fellow sinner in her midst to proclaim and live out the joys of forgiveness, life, and salvation in Jesus. But still, this day is not about James. Not primarily.

Today is about Jesus, the Lord of the Church. You see, the Lord Jesus Himself absolutely loves to go through cities and villages, teaching the Truth, proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing diseases and afflictions. The Lord Jesus absolutely loves to send out men to do exactly what He Himself does. He told His Twelve Apostles, “Proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons” (Matt. 10:7-8). Later, He also sent out 72 other men, saying, “Heal the sick…and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you” (Lk. 10:9). He even gave them this promise: “The one who hears you hears Me” (Lk. 10:16). Today is all about Jesus—and by extension His laborer and His harvest. You see, Jesus still absolutely loves to go through all the world—including here in Bridgeton—and proclaim the kingdom, and heal our diseases and afflictions. And He does it through the men, the laborers, whom He sends out.

Dear saints at Beautiful Savior, you have prayed to the Lord of the harvest for a laborer. And look at whom He has sent you! :-) I hate to break it to you, but he’s no spiritual Superman. He’s no church version of Captain America. No pastor is. He brings no magic elixir for fixing whatever ails you, either as individuals or as a congregation. He carries no silver bullets for filling pews or increasing giving. No, he’s very much like Isaiah, when the Lord called him. There was Isaiah, taking in the glorious vision of the Lord on His throne and the angels flying around, singing heaven’s song of “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts” (Is. 6:3). And what did Isaiah confess? “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Is. 6:5).

Brothers and sisters in Christ, whom are you getting here today? You’re getting a fellow sinner—a “man of unclean lips.” You’re getting a man who has the same kinds of faults and foibles, sins and stumblings, trials and temptations, as you. But you are also getting a man who has been redeemed, forgiven, covered and strengthened by the blood of Jesus. You are getting a man who has been washed clean in his Baptism. You are getting a man who must confess his sins and live only by the word of Jesus’ Absolution. You are getting a man whose faith is shored up and strengthened by the Body and Blood of Jesus in His Supper. And so, dear saints, your task—given by Jesus Himself here today—is to receive and love and listen to this man, this laborer of the Lord, in your midst.

And James, take a good look at where the Lord is placing you as He places you into His Office. :-) I hate to break it to you, but these are not perfect Christians; this is not a perfect congregation. There are no perfect congregations and there are no perfect Christians, this side of eternal life. Remember Isaiah’s words: “I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” There may be times when some—a few or many or an individual here and there—may “not endure sound teaching.” There may be times when some—a few or many or an individual now and then—may give in to their “itching ears” and want to “accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth” (2 Tim. 4:3-4).

But, James, they are still people of the Lord Jesus—still covered and forgiven by His blood, still baptized by Him, still absolved by Him, still fed and nourished on His Body and Blood. And so St. Paul’s words to young Pastor Timothy are perfect words for you too: “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Tim. 2:2). Your task, James—given by Jesus Himself, here today—is to receive them, love them, and give them Jesus in all of your preaching and teaching and visiting. Your task is to pray for them and with them. Your task is to shepherd them with the only tools that Jesus has given—His Word and His Sacraments.

It’s what our risen Lord Jesus also sent Peter to do. Remember how Peter had denied Jesus three times before Jesus went to the Cross. After Jesus had risen, He both absolved Peter and gave him a new mission in life, spoken three times: “Feed My lambs…Tend My sheep…Feed My sheep” (Jn. 21:15-17). Your task—given by Jesus Himself, right here, right now, today—is “to know nothing among [this flock] except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). 

Today really is all about Jesus, the Lord of the harvest. As He said, “Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” Saints of our Beautiful Savior, you have prayed. And the Lord has  graciously answered! Here’s another laborer—this one, just for you. Also pay attention to the Lord’s language. This man is the Lord’s laborer, and he works in the Lord’s harvest.

The Lord’s laborer does the Lord’s work. The pastor does not run a business that happens to have the word “church” on the sign out front. No, he does what the Lord wants Him to do: he teaches the Truth, proclaims the Gospel of the kingdom, and gives the healing of Jesus for diseases and afflictions of body and soul. That’s the compassion that Jesus had for the crowds. It’s the same compassion that the pastor—the Lord’s laborer—has for his flock. You see, James, when you labor the way the Lord gives you to labor, HE is actually the one doing the work through you.

The Lord’s laborer works for the Lord’s harvest. Did you notice how Jesus calls it “his harvest”? It’s not the pastor’s harvest. It’s not the Christian’s harvest. It’s not even the Church’s harvest. The harvest belongs to the Lord. Remember how St. Paul said it: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (1 Cor. 3:6-7). And the Lord Jesus gives the harvest.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer expressed this Biblical teaching quite well when he preached of Christ building His Church:

It is not we who build. [Christ] builds the church. No man builds the church but Christ alone. Whoever is minded to build the church is surely well on the way to destroying it; for he will build a temple to idols without wishing or knowing it. We must confess—He builds. We must proclaim—He builds. We must pray to Him—that He may build

We do not know His plan. We cannot see whether He is building or pulling down. It may be that the times which by human standards are times of collapse are for Him the great times of construction. It may be that the times which from a human point of view are great times for the church are times when it is pulled down.

It is a great comfort which Christ gives to His Church: you confess, preach, bear witness to Me and I alone will build where it pleases Me. Do not meddle in what is My province. Do what is given to you to do well and you have done enough. But do it well. Pay no heed to views and opinions. Don’t ask for judgments. Don’t always be calculating what will happen. Don’t always be on the lookout for another refuge! Church, stay a church! But church, confess, confess, confess! Christ alone is your Lord; from His grace alone can you live as you are. Christ builds. (No Rusty Swords, 216-17)

So, saints of our Beautiful Savior, you have prayed, the Lord has answered, and you now have a new laborer. James, the Lord has put you here to labor for His end-time harvest, doing the very things that He Himself did and still does. Amid all the joys of this day, amid all the celebrating and rejoicing and giving thanks, still remember this: Today is really all about Jesus—showing His compassion, shepherding His flock, and working His own harvest. Amen.