Homily for Trinity 15

"Liberated from Anxious Worry"

Matthew 6:24-34

A Swedish proverb says, “Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.” How true that is! This odd year called 2020 is conditioning us to make and live in lots of big shadows. Remember when the pandemic started and we endured the big shadow of toilet paper and paper towel shortages? I still have no idea what a run on paper goods rolled on cardboard tubes had to do with COVID, but there it was—that big shadow.

One anonymous source tried to calculate just what makes people anxious. According to that source,
40% of the average person’s anxieties focus on things that never happen;
30% of a person’s anxieties focus on things of the past, things that cannot be changed;
12% of one’s anxieties are over criticisms, which are mostly untrue;
10% of a person’s anxieties are over health issues, and those health issues only get worse with stress; and
only 8% of the average person’s anxieties are about real problems.   

We fallen creatures seem to relish giving small things a big shadow. Or, how about this picture for your worries and anxieties: Worry is like a rocking chair. It may give you something to do, but it gets you nowhere.

Our Lord knows this. He also knows how His disciples, both then and now, are so very prone to anxious worry. So He invites us to learn from the little birds and the tiny lily. He woos and invites us to be liberated from our anxious worry.

First, Jesus gives us an “either/or” lesson for looking at the world. Just before our text, He said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mt. 6:21). Then with His first words in our Gospel, He says: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” You cannot divide your loyalties. You cannot simultaneously serve God and money. You cannot simultaneously serve God and anxious worry. There is only room in your heart for one lord and master. Will it be God, or will it be your anxious worry? As Luther said, “The confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol…. [W]hatever you set your heart on and put your trust in is truly your god” (LC I:2-3).

Next, Jesus gives us His wonderfully simple object lessons of the little birds and the tiny lily.

What can we learn from the little birds? One time Martin Luther was overwhelmed by the vast variety of birds in God’s creation. He pondered how much it might cost God to feed them all with so many different kinds of seeds and berries. Wouldn’t a few standard types of birds be more economical?, Luther wondered. There are robins, ravens, jackdaws, crows, canaries, cardinals, wrens, finches, and so many more. Yet God knows each and every one of them. And no petite hummingbird falls to the ground dead without God knowing it. They neither grow nor harvest their own crops, nor store their food in barns. “Yet,” Jesus says, “your heavenly Father feeds them.”

So who among you, people of God—people more valuable than those little birds, people bought back with the blood of Christ—who among you can add a mere 18 inches to your long-distance marathon of life? After all, you live your lives under the Father’s care. You live your lives with the Son’s cross-won forgiveness. Why be anxious? Why worry about a new disease that we now know has a 99% survivability rate? Why worry about destructive riots and devastating wildfires? Oh, I know, many in the media and some of our leaders keep stoking the fires of fear and anxiety. But they cannot overrule your Father’s promises in Jesus.

As Proverbs reminds you: “Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad” (12:25). That good word is your Father’s love through Christ crucified for anxious sinners. The psalmist also reminds you: “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep” (Ps. 127:2). You may rest safe and secure in your Father’s care.

What can we learn from the tiny lily? Now this is not the splendid, fragrant Easter lily, tall and proud. No, this is the tiny little flower you see growing in bunches in the grass along the roadside. This tiny lily grows as a creature of God. This miniature flower does not make itself grow, but God makes this lily grow. It is entirely dependent upon His goodness and provision. So it waits on God for its growth and strength. And it accepts God’s good design. It knows it is not a mighty oak tree. The tiny lily is not impatient. It has no hurry or fluster. It has a deep quiet and a strong peace.

We might think also of Mary’s Baby—quiet, hidden in her womb for nine months, and growing as God provided. Then after He was born, He grew into a young boy, He would go to school, play, help around the house, and perhaps play with the tiny lilies, without a care in the world. Remember this when you get flustered, impatient, and overshadowed with anxious worry. Remember the tiny lily. Especially remember the lily of the valleys, your Lord Jesus, who came from Mary, the rose of Sharon (Songs 2:1).

Not only is this tiny lily in Jesus’ object lesson a creature of God; it also lives solely to God. It has no anxious toil for security and safety in life. It does not spin or store up in banks or retirement funds. It does not worry about where to get clothing, food, drink, or toilet paper. It simply finds its fulfillment in living with the design and purpose given by God. Even its appearance and beauty is a gift from God. That’s what makes it more splendid and beautiful than Solomon in his luxurious glory.

But notice what else Jesus says about the tiny lily: today it’s alive and tomorrow it’s thrown into the oven. The lily can die quietly and without complaint. In death as in life, the lily lives only by God’s design and only with God’s purpose.

So too, the lily of the valleys, our Lord Jesus. He came into this sin-cursed world, this creation that groans under the weight of sin and death, to live God’s purpose of rescue and healing. He was crushed by the curse and thrown into the oven of crucifixion. He died without complaint, as He died for you and your salvation. And you know the rest of the story. He also rose again! His resurrection means your resurrection. His life restored means your life restored and creation restored for all eternity.

When it’s your time to die, you may die quietly and without complaint. This is true whether you die from natural causes, from COVID, in the path of a riot, or a wildfire, or a hurricane, or from something else. No need to be anxious, because your Father cares for you.

Jesus is drawing and wooing and inviting you to be free from all anxious worry over all of your needs. How can you do this? “Seek first the [reign] of God and His righteousness.” Receive His blessing and His calling that come only through Jesus. Keep seeking Jesus where He promises to be found. Keep seeking His gracious rule in the forgiveness of sins. You seek His reign when you seek His Gospel in the Scriptures and the Sacraments. You seek His reign with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Together you are joined to Jesus in your Baptism. Together you gather to hear His Word of life that makes anxiety dissipate. Together you receive His Body and Blood for forgiveness, life, and salvation.

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:1-3). Amen.

Homily for Trinity 14

"Lepers Cleansed"

Luke 17:11-19

The ten lepers are us, and we are the ten lepers. They suffered from physical leprosy that ravaged their bodies. We and all people suffer from spiritual leprosy that ravages both body and soul. These ten lepers give us a picture of the human race infected with the leprosy of sin.

When we hear the term “leprosy,” we usually think of Hansen’s disease—a bacterial infection that can affect nerves, skin, and eyes and then lead to a loss of feeling and even paralysis. In the Bible, leprosy certainly included that, but it probably also included illnesses such as eczema—a skin rash—and dermatitis—scaly, flaking skin and itchiness.

Our sin is like leprosy in several respects:

• Leprosy affects and destroys the whole body. Sin totally infects, affects and destroys our strength in both body and soul—nothing sound from head to toe.
• Leprosy is a disease that spreads. So does sin, coming into the world through one man and spreading to us all. St. Paul calls it “the works of the flesh”—with all those nasty symptoms of “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger” and so on—all those symptoms that even present themselves in us.
• Leprosy cannot be healed by man’s efforts. Today, treatments may prevent the disease from getting worse, but they cannot reverse the  damage. And remember the story of Naaman. He sought healing from the King of Israel, but the King of Israel cried out, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive?” (2 Kgs. 5:7). Sin absolutely cannot be healed by human means—not by doctors, paramedics, or politicians. After all, those “desires of the flesh are against the Spirit.”
• Leprosy is a viral disease that spreads to others who are healthy. Modern medicine may quibble with just how it spreads. Sin itself does spread its contamination. Consider the many ways our fallen world infects us all in thought, word and deed to think, speak and act in ways that go against God’s Word, ways that lead us to distrust God and be unloving to our neighbor—“rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these.”
• And leprosy, once it takes hold, eats its way more and more through the body. Likewise, sin. Because of this infection we all have, one sin leads to another, and that one easily to yet another. First, the desire; then the misdeed; then the excuse; then the cover-up; then the lie; and so on.

If it weren’t for our leprosy of sin, we would not need police officers, laws, penalties or rulings of law courts. If it weren’t for our leprosy of sin, we would not have to endure racial tensions, injustices, pandemics or destructive rioting.

In the Old Testament, God instructed His people on how to deal with lepers. Lepers had to separate themselves from everyone else because their diseases of infected, decaying, rotting flesh could infect others. When healthy people walked by, the lepers were supposed to warn them by crying out “Unclean!” When a person was infected with leprosy, he had to show himself to the priest. The priest would pronounce him unclean, and the person would have to quarantine in the leper colony outside the city. Social distancing, Bible-style!

When a leper was healed of his leprosy, he would again show himself to the priest, the priest would offer the appropriate sacrifices, and then pronounce him “clean.” In Leviticus 14, cleansing of lepers happened, first, by killing a bird in an earthen vessel over fresh, living water. Next, a live bird, a piece of cedarwood, and a scarlet yarn were dipped in that water mixed with blood. Then the priest, using the live bird wet with blood and water, would “sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease” (Lev. 14:7). As God said, “Thus the priest shall make atonement for [the leper], and he shall be clean” (Lev. 14:20).

So, let’s imitate the ten lepers as Jesus comes passing along between the Samaria and Galilee of our lives. Let’s lift up our voices and cry out: “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” And let’s listen to and heed Him when He bids us to show ourselves to the priest. No, not those priests at the Jerusalem temple, but Jesus, our great High Priest who has passed through the heavens (Heb. 2:14). “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 2:15).

How can we be healed and saved from our spiritual leprosy? Only by finding our way to Jesus, the sole physician for the soul. “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 2:16). “Offered was He for greatest and for least, / Himself the victim and Himself the priest” (LSB 637:1). Not only is Jesus both victim and priest for you, He is also the dead bird and the living bird for you. He is the One who cleanses you “by the washing of water with [His] word, so that He might present [you] to Himself in splendor” (Eph. 5:26-27), cleansed of your leprosy of sin.

Actually, we don’t have to find our way to Him. He has found His way to us! Just as the ten lepers were cleansed before they found their way to the priests—not by their own reason or strength, nor by their decision or will—we are cleansed in the bath of our Baptism—not by our own reason, strength, decision or will. Our baptismal bath sprinkles us with the very blood and water that flowed from the side of Christ crucified. He is the One who was crucified outside the city. He is the One who comes by water and blood; not by the water only but by the water and the blood (1 Jn. 5:6).

Now let’s put ourselves in the shoes of the one cleansed leper who returned to Jesus. Let’s take our cue from him on how to live all of life in our Baptism. I’m sure the other nine former lepers were generically thankful as civic courtesy and politeness would dictate. But they went on to live their lives apart from Jesus. The Samaritan, however, “turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks.” He did more than just give thanks. He gave praise to God. He returned to the Giver of the gift of cleansing. He was not merely content to enjoy the gift; he wanted to enjoy and be with the Giver.

That’s living your baptismal life. Not just a generic thankfulness for a quick healing. Not just a slight nod and a mental note that something special happened a long time ago, but then getting back to “real life.” No, the baptismal life is about living all of life in Jesus, with Jesus, and in the presence of Jesus. Daily contrition and repentance. Drowning that Old Adam in you. Making him die with all sins and evil desires every day. And then—thank the Lord and sing His praise!—emerging and arising every day to live before God in righteousness and purity forever. Your one-time baptismal cleansing becomes your daily hygiene routine—not a burdensome routine, but a joyful living in the blood and water that continually heals and cleanses.

We all wrestle with sin every day. That leprous disease keeps flaring up even in us who are cleansed by Jesus’ blood and water. We will keep wrestling with our leprous sin until Jesus returns on the Last Day. It’s not a matter of Jesus’ healing not fully doing its job. It has! It’s a matter of living in faith, continually receiving His cleansing, and thus praising Him as did the Samaritan.

Martin Luther confessed this in the face of those who deny that sin remains after Baptism. The fact that sin remains after Baptism undercuts every notion of perfectionism—that is, thinking you can be free of sin or attain a sin-free life this side of heaven. It also topples any notion of “once-saved-always-saved.” While the healing for that Samaritan and the other nine was instantaneous, Jesus chooses to heal us over the long-haul. The sin is forgiven, to be sure; Jesus’ healing, though, is ongoing. Here’s how Luther expressed it:

“This life…is not godliness but the process of becoming godly, not health but getting well, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not now what we shall be, but we are on the way. The process is not yet finished, but it is actively going on. This is not the goal but it is the right road. At present, everything does not gleam and sparkle, but everything is being cleansed.” (“A Defense and Explanation of All Articles” [AE 32:24]).

So we return to Jesus yet again, at His Table. “Draw near and take the body of the Lord, / And drink the holy blood for you outpoured” (LSB 637:1). We return to receive the healing He gives. We return to give praise to Him.

“Let us praise the Word Incarnate,
Christ, who suffered in our place.
Jesus died and rose victorious
That we may know God by grace.
Let us sing for joy and gladness,
Seeing what our God has done;
Let us praise the true Redeemer,
Praise the One who makes us one” (LSB 849:3).

Amen.

Homily for Trinity 12 - 2020

"Freed from Isolation"

Mark 7:31-37

The deaf and mute man was cut off from everyone around him. Other people could talk, but the deaf man could not hear them. He could try to speak in his muffled, muted speech, but people around him could not understand a word he said. This poor man was isolated, alone in his own little world. Quite the lonely life. Until Jesus. When Jesus healed this man, He freed him from his life of lonely isolation. When Jesus restored this man’s hearing and speech, He also ushered him into a new and vibrant life of hearing and talking with God and other people.

Just as our gracious Lord healed the deaf and mute man, He also heals us. What He did physically for the deaf man in Gentile territory, He does spiritually for us week in and week out. Not only does He open our ears to hear Him and His message of mercy, but He also rescues us from our isolation. Not only does He loose our tongues to sing His praises and confess Him to others, but He also ushers us into vibrant life with Him and with each other.

The man’s deafness was certainly a result of Adam and Eve not listening to God in the Garden. His physical state of being tongue-tied was surely a result of Adam and Eve using their tongues to taste the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge—that one tree for which God said, “You shall not eat of it.” So when Jesus takes this man aside, puts His fingers into his ears, spits, and touches his tongue, our Lord reverses the age-old plague of sin and death. It’s a plague that closes our ears and shackles our tongues. It’s a plague that isolates us from God and from one another.

Perhaps you’ve noticed this plague of isolation when you talk with other people. Think of times when you and a family member are just not communicating well. You’re both speaking English; your mouths and ears are functioning fine, giving and receiving sound waves. You can hear and understand each other’s sounds and syllables. But for some reason he or she is not hearing what you’re saying; you’re not getting what he or she is talking about. You’re isolated from each other.

Such conversations lead to frustration and misunderstanding. Then, instead of listening to what the other person is actually saying, you’re planning your response to something just said, or you’re strategizing how to make your next point or “win” your case. Or, worse yet, as the other person is talking, your mind is off in a galaxy far, far away, wondering what’s for dinner. Your ears and tongue may be functioning just fine, but you’re still in isolation.

Our isolation really shows up when we get upset with what other people say to us. A friend may say something as a matter of fact, but you take it as a put down or an insult. You might take it as an obstacle to some dream or hope that you have. Perhaps you invite your friends over to play cards. They respond, “Sorry, we can’t make it. We have a prior commitment.” In your isolation, you start wondering, “Am I not good enough?” or “What’s wrong with me?” It’s the isolation of our sin and death.

This isolation especially separates us from God. When we get so wrapped up in our own little world of daily demands and hectic schedules, listening to God in His Word is far from our minds. We may talk a lot with loved ones, friends or colleagues, but talking with God in prayer? We tend to put that off, tell ourselves we don’t know how to pray, convince ourselves we’re not that good at it. Do you ever feel like your tongue is shackled when you pray? It’s our isolation of sin and death.

It’s the isolation that Jesus comes to heal and wash away by His blood. As Jesus healed the deaf-mute man, He also heals you. As our merciful Lord had compassion on the man isolated in his deafness and silence, He also cares enough to rescue you from your sin and death. This same Son of God joined Himself to our human flesh and blood to restore it to God’s original design. This same Lord of mercy endured the isolation from His closest disciples as they fled from Him. This same Lord hung on a cross carrying the full weight of humanity’s sin all by Himself. This same Savior plunged into the deep, dark isolation of death in order to open the graves of Adam, Eve and all the dead so that His vibrant life might burst forth for all to enjoy.

This same Jesus comes to you in your Baptism. He puts His fingers into your ears, spits, and touches your tongue even as the Spirit-filled waters cleanse you from sin and give you life. With your ears opened and your tongue loosed, you are brought into the Lord’s Church. Here you are no longer alone, no longer isolated. Here you get to enjoy the vibrant sounds of God’s Word and the joyous notes of praise sung by people around you. Here you learn how to live in harmony with others healed as you are.

This same Jesus comes to you in Confession and Absolution—and not just the general Confession on Sunday mornings, but especially when you come to receive the Holy Absolution in private. Here you get to confess those specific sins of not listening to God or to your loved ones, friends, or co-workers. Here you get to confess your many ways of isolating yourself from God and your fellow Christians by your self-centered thoughts, words, or deeds. And when you confess, your pastor speaks our Lord’s healing words into your ears. Yes, your pastor is a sinner like you, but what matters is what your Lord does. In the words of Absolution, your Lord Jesus again puts His fingers into your ears to open them up. And when your ears are opened in the forgiveness of your particular sins, you get to enjoy the vibrant sounds of life with God and renewed life with people around you.

And in the Eucharist, your Lord Jesus again touches your tongue so that it can speak and sing His praises and then build up your neighbor. Think of that as you come to the Lord’s Table this morning. With His very Body and Blood under the bread and wine your Lord looses your tongue from those unkind, bitter, even judgmental words you speak against someone near and dear to you. Unshackled from such sins, your tongue has new life to thank and praise God. Your tongue has new life to speak kindly to and graciously about people around you. Strengthened and fortified by Christ’s life-giving Body and Blood, you may use your tongue to declare the wonderful deeds of our Savior. As the hymn leads us to sing:

“Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace!

My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad,
The honors of Thy name” (LSB 528:1-2).

The daily prayer liturgy of Matins begins with these words: “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise.” That’s what our tongues were made for! “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” (Rom. 10:10). But we don’t do that in individual isolation. No, we get to speak, sing, and praise in the Lord’s Church even when we pray alone at home. The Matins liturgy also sings what our ears are made for: “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it. Lord, I love the habitation of Your house and the place where Your glory dwells.” When our Lord opens our ears and looses our tongues, we are rescued from our isolation. We are restored to life with Him; we are rejoined to the people around us. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). Now we get to listen well to our loving Lord and to our neighbors. Now we get to speak God’s wonderful deeds and build one another up in love. Amen.

Homily for Trinity 11 - 2020

"In Which Line Do You Stand?"

Luke 18:9-14

“Get in line, now!” Remember your grade school teacher’s voice repeating that command, several times each school day? Much of our school days were about learning how to stand in line, wait in line, and practice proper “line etiquette.” Stand right behind the child in front of you, not to the side. Don’t squirm or fidget or push others. And certainly do not, ever, cut in line. That got you into trouble in the lunch line and when you went out to recess. No one likes a line-cutter. After all, that’s cheating. Instead, be good, stand and walk single file, wait your turn, and you’ll get where you’re going in due time.

The reason we learn to stand in line during the school day is so that we can properly stand in line the rest of our lives. It’s a skill and an art form. All the more so these days, trying to stand on those social distancing stickers or mentally measuring the appropriate six feet. We do it at Schnucks when we get our groceries. Oh, and the scowls that come when that guy three people behind you cuts ahead of you when you weren’t looking!

Then there’s the sense of shame that comes from standing in the wrong line, waisting your time and having to go to the end of the other line. Think of the DMV, when you go to renew your driver’s license. You walk in, grab your little paper ticket with the number on it, and wait. (At the DMV, sitting in chairs is just another form of standing in line.) Finally, your number is called, you go to the desk and the gal sitting there says, “Sorry, this is the line for plate renewals. You’ll have to go over there and take another number.” So you start all over again.

Today’s Gospel shows two examples of getting in line. The Pharisee was a line-cutter, for sure. He strolled past everyone else and went to the front of the line. The Pharisee had priority. He deserved attention before anyone else. He pulled out his credentials and laid his papers on God’s desk. They were proof of his rights and claims. The Pharisee also knew to be polite. So he politely thanked God. It was only politeness, of course, because he was a self-made man. True thankfulness is the response to a gift. And accepting a gift means admitting you need and receive help from someone else. The Pharisee wasn’t going to admit that and weaken his case. He didn’t need any help. He trusted in himself. But it was still nice to be polite and thank God.

As the Pharisee stood at God’s desk, he looked around at others in the office. “A pretty sorry bunch,” he thought to himself. There’s the man who can’t get customers into his electronics shop. He must be overcharging them, underserving them, or both. Then he sternly looked at the child who suddenly wailed…and even more sternly at the irritated mother who had just corrected her child. The Pharisee saw no one who was like himself. This made him feel comfortable and pleased. His chances were good.

Most of us find it both necessary and gratifying to see someone as less than ourselves. We like our car more when we see that it’s better than someone else’s. When things go wrong in our lives, we console ourselves that others are worse off than we are. We crave being better than others around us. It may be in stronger muscles than the other guy or in a better singing voice than that gal. It may be in making a better salary or having better behaved children.

The Pharisee had no problem finding people less than himself. So he listed his superiorities. He fasted twice a week while most ordinary folks fasted only once a week, if that. The Pharisees thought that their extra measure of fasting would make up for, even atone for, those other schlubs who obviously had more sins. And while the “hoi polloi” would busy themselves at the unclean marketplace, the Pharisees would fast with special services and prayers—for the sins of those at the market, of course.

The Pharisees did the same with the tithe. God’s Law required a tenth of your produce or income. But those poor farmers and traders did not give the required tithe. So Pharisees upped their ante. Not only would they tithe on their income, but also on whatever they purchased. After all, that flour or sheep might just be untithed goods.

So the Pharisees did have a lot to show for themselves. They did live clean, decent, useful lives. They did their best to fulfill God’s Law and be responsible for their neighbors.

Now before we condemn those Pharisees, we should compare their exemplary lives with our own. How many of us are ready to give 10 percent twice to the Lord, first for our income, then second for every purchase we make? How many of us look down on the Pharisees for relying on their works? After all, we Lutherans know we’re saved only by grace through faith; it’s the gift of God, not a result of works. No, dear saints, we may not condemn that Pharisee. Instead, we must learn to recognize and condemn this Pharisee, the one each of us sees in the mirror. You see, each of us measures himself/herself over against other people and finds himself/herself bigger and better than they.

This is not even the height of being a Pharisee. That comes when we take God’s Law and use it to glorify ourselves before God Himself. We think we are good, decent and moral people. We actually expect God to agree with our good opinion of ourselves. We conclude that we are self-made persons whom God Himself should admire and look up to. But such lofty evaluations of ourselves only block us from seeing God, from seeing ourselves alone in His presence.

There was someone that day who did know that he stood alone in the presence of the personal, holy, living God. And he was afraid. He did not get in the line; he stayed outside the church. That line was for the good people who had tamed God. This man didn’t even think he knew how to pray. He did not know the proper phrases or gestures. He just blurted out the truth about himself. He was a sinner. He needed mercy. He cried to God.

Realizing this comes not from comparing oneself with other people, but by standing in the presence of God. There every pretense and deception is stripped away. How does God judge each of us? He says, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Lev. 19:2). We are not at all as God is. He is holy; we are sinners. No amount of comparing ourselves with others can change that.

So the tax collector blurts out: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” He thinks other people may be all right; he does not judge them. He stands alone before God. It’s between him and God. And sinners have no rights before God. He gave God the right to condemn and reject him. He was a sinner and needed God. He cried to God for blood-bought mercy. Only by the mercy of God could he stand. And so he returned to his house having received mercy. He returned with God. The tax collector was in the right line after all. This line has a sign above it that says: “For Sinners Only.”

Our Lord Jesus does not condemn the exemplary life of the Pharisee, nor does He commend the dishonest life of the tax collector. He simply points out how the Pharisee tries to negotiate and bargain with God, while the tax collector surrenders every right and claim. You see, mercy is possible only when you surrender yourself into God’s hands and God’s decision.

The Pharisee could not and did not do that, but the tax collector did. And he, by God’s grace in Christ crucified and risen, went down to his house justified. He was given mercy by the bloody sacrifice of Jesus. He was forgiven. Now he was God’s free, joyful, and grateful man.

So the question for you is this: in which line do you stand?

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Amen.

Homily for Trinity 10 - 2020

 "Peace in Both Realms"

Luke 19:41-47

Listen here.

When Jesus wept over Jerusalem, it’s both a spiritual thing and an earthly, political thing. On the one hand—the right hand—our Lord wept that His own chosen people did not know “the things that make for peace.” They did not know the time of their “visitation” by the One who came to bring peace between God and sinners. On the other hand—the left hand—Jesus wept that the earthly Jerusalem would be destroyed by enemies who would surround it, build a siege mound to invade it, and tear it down to the ground. This would happen in AD 70 under the Roman emperor Vespasian. God’s ancient city of peace, including the temple of stone—where God would come to visit His people—would be razed to the ground. So Jesus wept. He wept over lack of peace in both realms.

It’s most fitting to ponder the two kinds of government God has established among us humans. Luther said this about the first kind of government: “The one is spiritual; it has no sword, but it has the word, by means of which men are to become good and righteous, so that with this righteousness they may attain eternal life. He administers this righteousness through the word, which he has committed to the preachers.” We call this the “right-hand realm.” This is the Church.

Then Luther wrote of “the left-hand realm”: “The other kind is worldly government, which works through the sword so that those who do not want to be good and righteous to eternal life may be forced to become good and righteous in the eyes of the world.” This is the earthly, political realm. Righteousness in this left-hand realm does not lead to eternal life; only righteousness by faith in Christ can do that. But God does give us the left-hand realm so that we may have peace among people and enjoy other temporal blessings. Luther concludes: “Thus God himself is the founder, lord, master, protector, and rewarder of both kinds of righteousness” (AE 46:99-100).

Our God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—does indeed rule over all things. He “has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all” (Ps. 103:19). He rules over all people and the entire world as the Creator. In this reign of power He seeks to maintain and sustain His creation. But our God also reigns in grace over His Christians, His Church. This is His gracious and saving rule. It leads us to look forward to the resurrection of the body and the restoration of His creation when Jesus returns on the Last Day.

Until that day, though, we live, work, and play in the wild, hectic, messy intersection of God’s two realms—the earthly, political left-hand realm and the heavenly, spiritual right-hand realm. Now we might have a clue as to why 2020 has been so crazy! Not only are we dealing with the COVID pandemic, economic shut-down and reboot, destructive rioting and rising crime, but it also happens to be election season. What does that mean for life in the left-hand realm and in the right-hand realm? After all, we live in both realms at the same time.

In 1831, French historian Alexis de Tocqueville made a nine-month visit to the young United States of America. He wanted to study American social practices, laws, and politics. His book Democracy in America is the record of his journeys and the journal of his reflections. Tocqueville called a presidential election “a moment of crisis.” He compared it to a river overflowing its banks, as in a flash flood. Tocqueville wrote: “As the election draws near, intrigues intensify, and agitation increases and spreads. The citizens divide into several camps, each behind its candidate. A fever grips the entire nation. The election becomes the daily grist of the public papers, the subject of private conversations, the aim of all activity, the object of all thought, the sole interest of the moment.” Yep, still true! Nothing new under the sun. Then, Tocqueville says, after the verdict of voting is rendered, the river “returns peacefully to its bed” and calm is restored (pp. 151-153).

The question before us as God’s people in 2020, then, is this: how do we participate in this time of election-year “crisis”? How do we confess our Savior Jesus even as we weigh the issues and enter the voting booth? How do we vote “Christianly”? How do we keep in mind the things that make for peace in both realms?

In our Gospel, Jesus wept because His people had forgotten their God and His Word. They neglected God’s design in all of life—the vertical dimension of fearing and loving Him above all things and the horizontal dimension of loving their neighbors as themselves. They had the appearance of godliness but denied its power (2 Tim. 3:5). Since they focused only on the outward, earthly, political realm, they did not know their peace—Jesus in the flesh—nor the time of their visitation—His coming to bring the peace of sins forgiven.

In a similar fashion we too run the risk of not knowing the things that make for peace nor the time of our visitation from our Lord. We live in a culture that has forgotten God, where everyone turns to his own course and many hold fast to the deceit that humans rule and control the world. We breathe that same air and stew in those same juices. We set our hopes on vanquishing a new coronavirus, even though we still cannot cure the common cold. We believe the right policy will overcome oppression, crime and injustice, even though all wickedness comes from the fallen human heart within each of us. We look to political parties, candidates of choice, and campaign promises as the ultimate solutions to our problems rather than relying on the Savior who brings the only true peace in all things.

As Jesus wept over Jerusalem, though, He was on His way to achieving that peace between fallen, fearful human beings and the God who rules all things. When He cleansed the temple and drove out the money-changers, He also liberated the sacrificial animals. They would be needed no longer. You see, He came to be the temple of God in the flesh. He came to be the once and for all sacrifice to bring peace—the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, in both realms. He went to the cross outside the earthly Jerusalem to bring you into God’s gracious presence in the new Jerusalem, His Church.

Your Lord Jesus still comes for you to know the time of your visitation. Once He came in blessing, all our sins redressing. Now He comes to keep bestowing His forgiveness and peace by means of water, word, and meal. These are His things that make for peace.

And His peace leads you and I out into the earthly city. What do we do there? We bear witness to our Lord and the peace He brings. And if 2020 is any indication, the earthly city desperately needs some peace! You and I are called to take part in the political life of our nation. No, we do not seek to establish a specifically “Christian government” or enact a some uniquely “Christian agenda.” But we do seek to serve and love our fellow human beings. We take part in our nation’s civic life with the common sense that comes from God’s Truth.

In our time, we Christians are called to rise above the usual bitter divides of red vs. blue, Republican vs. Democrat, right-wing vs. left-wing. God’s peace in Jesus frees us to engage and vote based on God’s Truth. What do I mean? Instead of looking at life in the civic realm through red- or blue-colored lenses, we look at it through the prescription glasses of God’s commandments. After all, God’s commandments give us clarity in seeing His design for all of life. And when we follow that design the best we can in the civic realm, life runs more smoothly, more peacefully in the civic realm.

So we might want to ask questions such as:

• Does the candidate, the ticket, or the political party support and defend God’s gift of physical life, from womb to tomb and every moment in between?
• Does the candidate, the ticket, or the political party honor and promote God’s gift of marriage between one man and one woman? Do they safeguard the nuclear family?
• Does the candidate, the ticket, or the political party seek to let people improve and protect their possessions and income?
• Does the candidate, the ticket, or the political party strive for contentment over the baser urges of envy and jealousy?
• And, most of all, will the candidate, the ticket, or the political party at least acknowledge God Himself? Will they be at least okay with the worship of God, the calling on His name, the hearing of His Word and how all of that shapes and influences people to live out their lives in the civic realm?

Such are things that make for peace in the civic realm—God’s left-hand realm. Since you and I live at the receiving end of God’s peace in His right-hand realm—peace that comes only from Jesus once on the cross and Jesus now given in water, words and meal—we can live and labor for the peaceful benefit of those around us. Amen. 

 

Homily for Trinity 9 - 2020

"Free to Be Shrewd" 

Luke 16:1-13

Listen here.

Put yourself in the shoes of the manager. For some time you’ve worked for this successful, very wealthy man. He has always been fair and honest—a good boss. He’s also a shrewd business man. He seeks out and acts on every good business opportunity he can. He’s one of those CEOs who wants to bless and benefit others. Because of this, the company has done quite well. Your boss also has many loyal clients. They rent property from him so they can plant, grow, and harvest their crops, usually olive oil or wheat. From their harvests they pay the rent to your boss—various agreed upon amounts of olive oil or wheat.

Your job has always been to manage these business transactions. Make sure the rent comes in on time. Keep the ledger to show who owes how much and who has paid up or not. Inventory the olive oil and wheat that come in and how well they sell in the market. Your boss has entrusted you with a great responsibility. He has trusted you to keep everything running smoothly. As his “estate agent,” you’ve done well and made a good salary. The business owner and all of his clients all seem to respect the job you’ve done.

Until now. Out of the blue, just this morning, your boss came to your workspace and said, “You’re fired. Please hand over the company’s accounting books, gather up your things, and be gone by the end of the day.” You were stunned. You did muster the courage to ask, “Why? What have I done?” The boss said, “I’ve heard word about you, how you’ve been dipping into the profits, taking olive oil and wheat for yourself. You’ve been squandering my possessions.” Then the boss left.

Squandering? Then you remember that story Jesus told—the one about that willful, prodigal son demanding his inheritance while his dad was still alive and then going off to another country and squandering it on the party scene. What wretch that guy was!

Now what will you do? You’re not in shape for strenuous manual labor. And rely on handouts? Never! One of the landowners must have seen something and said something. How could you be so careless? Yeah, not exactly the right thing to dip into the profits for yourself. But now, your family, how will you feed them? Remorse can wait. It won’t help you land on your feet. Now what? Time is short. This is an existential crisis.

Then it hits you. You know your boss is honorable, truly a man of mercy. So you call in his debtors. You tell them to reduce their rent payments. They’ll think he gave the order and you’re simply implementing it. They’ll be happy and, hey, one of them may even give you a job. Perhaps you can land on your feet.

What happens when the boss—this man of mercy—hears what you’ve done? He actually commends you! No anger, no dressing down. No, he does not approve of your dishonesty or your cheating. He did have every right to throw you in jail for your theft, but he didn’t. Instead, he compliments you on your shrewdness, your street smarts.

There’s one major problem with this parable from our Lord’s lips. It’s not that Jesus commends the dishonest manager, as troublesome as that appears. The real problem is that it’s so true. You and I do not have to pretend to be the dishonest manager—put ourselves in his shoes; we ARE that dishonest manager. God Himself is the rich man—the One who owns everything under the sun. He is the wealthiest, fairest, most honest One. And He shows Himself merciful. You and I are but His managers, His “estate agents.” We can only work with what belongs to Him—His possessions. Even we belong only to Him, not to ourselves.

We ARE that dishonest manager, and Jesus confronts us with that truth. We have wasted and do waste His possessions in thought, word, and deed. We routinely squander our heavenly Father’s possessions—both physical and spiritual—in selfishness and “ingrown eyeball-itis.” (That’s another term for “sin,” by the way.) It could be money and stuff. It could be Word and Sacrament. We squander it and deserve to have the management taken from us, forever.

What do you do with such an existential crisis? What do you do when the wealthy, merciful God of the universe confronts you, gives you your pink slip, and says, “Out of my presence”? You can’t do anything. There’s no human escape from this crisis. The solution must come from outside yourself.

Just as the manager in the parable did, you must trust the character of your Master—God—and stake everything on His mercy. He shows that mercy by sending His only-begotten Son to be the best and only honest manager. He comes, bringing all of the Father’s treasures, and He cancels your debt, your dishonesty, your doubts, your fears, all by going to a cross. His forgiveness for you is honored by His Father because of that death on a cross.

Your Lord Jesus is also shrewd in dispensing that cross-won forgiveness for you in the anointing of your Baptism and in the wheat of His Supper. When you have, receive, and use your Lord’s Sacraments, you have an eternal home when this earthly home fails you.

So it was the master’s mercy that freed the dishonest manager to be shrewd. Jesus highlights this with His parable punchline: “the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.” When you stake everything on your Lord’s mercy, you are free to be shrewd—but shrewd with honesty—in all of life. After all, Jesus also said, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise—that’s shrewd (same Greek word)—as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16).

Let’s pray for shrewdness, or wisdom, in all of our management of God’s possessions, everything from His money and stuff to His mysteries of the Gospel and the Sacraments to our dealings with one another. His mercy in Christ frees us from our mismanagement and dishonesties. Now we are free to manage and use all things for His glory, for the good of His Church, and to benefit our neighbors.

On that note, let me encourage you in some shrewdness and then thank you for some shrewdness. First, the encouragement. I encourage you to view our time together in this place as both “political event” and “peaceful protest.” After all, this is the city of God in the midst of the city of fallen man. This place is God’s embassy in a foreign land, as are all Christian churches faithful to His Word and Sacraments. We are called to peacefully protest all the injustices and oppressions of our sinful flesh, this fallen world, and the devil himself. We must protest when leaders find ways to keep churches closed, punish them for opening, or otherwise muzzle the Gospel. We must protest when leaders prompt us to suspicion of one another, division from one another, and reporting one another, even over what we wear or don’t wear on our faces. Most of all, we must protest the old evil foe who stirs all of this up to distract us from the Lord’s mercy and our life together. After all, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of evil, especially in times of pandemic and pandemonium.

Now the “Thank you.” Please receive a hearty “Thank you” for your shrewdness in stewardship these past few very trying months. During this time when so many people, families, businesses and even churches are struggling, you—all of you—by God’s grace, have made sure that Hope congregation is not struggling. In fact, we have been operating in the black and continue to do so. And all it took was a pandemic to bring out such shrewdness! So thank you for strongly supporting the preaching of the Gospel and the giving out of Jesus’ Sacraments. Thank you for taking care of your servants, both called and hired. And thank you for your shrewdness to use “unrighteous wealth” for our Lord’s eternal purposes.

Our Lord’s mercy frees us to be shrewd for the sake of proclaiming Him. Amen.

Homily for Trinity 8 - 2020

At Peace with Sin, or with God?
Jeremiah 23:16-29; Acts 20:27-38; Matthew 7:15-23

Listen here.

Notice what God condemns through the Prophet Jeremiah: the notion that you can be at peace with God and at the same time be at peace with the sin in your life. In Jeremiah’s day false prophets were telling people, “It shall be well with you.” They were promising this to people who “despise the word of the LORD” and “to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart.” But you cannot eat your cake and have it too. You cannot cozy up to sin and cozy up to God. You cannot coddle the rebellions of your heart and yet maintain saving faith and a living relationship with the living God.

Jeremiah gives the only antidote to this foolish dreaming of the prophets. Those prophets had infected the people with a spiritual lethargy. God wants to heal them by waking them up: “Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the LORD. Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”

Yes, God’s message to you today is a fire that purges and cleanses from sin. It’s a hammer that smashes and breaks your stone-cold, rock-hard human heart to pieces. Nothing can stand up to that Word when it is spoken faithfully. Sure, a person may rebel against it. He/she may say, “Go away God! I will live life my way.” But that does not make God’s Word any less effective. Its fire will still burn. Its heavy blow will still fall and break to pieces.

So, do not imagine, even for a second, that you can live in peace with sin and with God at the same time. If anyone suggests such a thing, they are a false prophet. They are just like the prophets who lied to Israel. And Israel found out the hard way. They discovered that those preachers who said, “‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace” (Jer. 6:14), were only belly-servers and soul-deceivers.

This is not just a problem for the Old Testament people of God. The same problem runs through the New Testament. In today’s Gospel our Lord says, as plainly as He can: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” Then He tells you how to spot them: “You will recognize them by their fruits.”

The fruit of a prophet is what results from believing his teaching. What happens if you take a false prophet at his word? What fruits bud and grow in your life? If you were to listen to the false prophets of Jeremiah’s day, and take to heart what they preached, you would think: “Hey, I can do whatever my little heart desires, after all, God will forgive me no matter what.” In other words, their teaching bore the fruit of leaving people unrepentant for their sins. It left their hearts in a state of rebellion against the Holy God of Israel. That’s how you can tell if you have a false prophet on your hands and in your ears.

Jesus could not be clearer, or more blunt: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.” He says it flat out. On the Last Day some will say to Him: “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?” To them He will give the sad and tragic reply: “‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

“Lawlessness,” Jesus says. “You thought you could serve sin, even rejoice in it, and still enjoy My presence? Don’t you understand that I came to destroy sin? Don’t you get it that I came to free you from sin’s shackles, not to strengthen their hold on you?” Remember, Jesus went to His Cross, bearing the full load of your sin, so that you could be forgiven and stand in the Father’s presence. He poured out His blood for you. He blotted out the handwriting that was against you. He became a curse for you in order to free you from the curse of sin. He did all of this to set you free from sin’s tyrannical clutches. Yes, He bought you as His own flock with His own blood, the very blood of God.

In Acts 20 we hear Saint Paul speaking in concord with Jeremiah and our Lord Jesus. Paul warns the Ephesian elders—the pastors—to pay careful attention to themselves and to the flock that the Holy Spirit committed to their care. Paul forewarns them that, after he leaves, fierce wolves will come in among the flock. They will even arise from among their own number. They will speak twisted things to draw disciples to themselves, and thus away from the Good Shepherd. And what could be more twisted, and more certain to separate them from the Shepherd, than telling people: “God forgives you. Go ahead and continue in your rebellion”?

Paul does what every good pastor must do: he commends them to God in prayer. He commends them to the message of God’s grace and mercy in Christ Jesus. After all, only Jesus is able to build them up and give them “the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”

So, have you have been playing with sin, enjoying its hollow promises and fleeting pleasures? Have you been toying with it, serving it, living in rebellion against God and His ways of life? Have you been holding a grudge, slandering, committing sexual sin, being disobedient to the authorities that God has given you? Have you been a slave to food or drink? Have you been thinking that you can do whatever you want without a care for God or the people around you? Have you been thinking that you can live life on your terms, yet still cling to and enjoy the grace and forgiveness of God? If you’re vertical and breathing, you certainly fit in there somewhere. So I invite you to hear God’s Word of grace for you today.

You cannot cling to both self-seeking sin and God-given forgiveness. In fact, your whole life as a Christian should be one of constantly fighting against the sins that you enjoy far too much. We call that repentance and faith. Your whole life should be marked by repentance—by a changed mind, a changed will, and changed loyalties—changed from fearing and loving earthly things to receiving the gifts of God. Remember how Luther teaches you to live in your Baptism. “What does such baptizing with water indicate? It indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.”

Here’s the comforting, healing Good News: Even though you seek to be at peace with your sin, God still wants you to be at peace with Him. God still cleanses you. God still nourishes you to enjoy His mercy, His grace, His presence instead of your sin. No matter how defiled, no matter how rebellious and sinful, no matter how deceived by false prophets, He calls you to Himself, the Crucified and Resurrected One. In the blood and water that once flowed from His pierced side and now flows through the sacred Font, He washes you from your sins and sets you free to live for Him. In the same body once nailed to a tree and the same blood once spilled from the Cross, He comes to you again today at His holy Table. He who puts an end to sin and conquers death feeds you with His forgiveness and life. He calls you to come to Him and let Him give you His forgiveness—to hear from the lips of your pastor the Absolution that sets you free from the chains of your sins and covers you with His perfect righteousness. He wants to unite you to Himself and pour out His good Spirit into you.

So, beware of false prophets. Beware of anyone who suggests to you that you can stay safe and secure in your sin. Beware…and flee. Flee to Jesus, the True Prophet, who conquers the sin, who rescues you from its clutches, and who gives you life and strength to live with Him. Amen.

Homily for Trinity 7 - 2020

"Things Profitable for Us"
Mark 8:1-9

Listen here.

Can you believe that unbelieving question from the disciples? Jesus wants to feed the crowd, because, after all, they’ve been hanging out with Him for three whole days, listening to His teaching on the gracious rule and reign of God. But when Jesus expresses His compassion for the crowd, the disciples respond with faithless confusion: “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?”

Now of all people, the disciples should have known better. Jesus had already fed 5,000 people from a mere five sandwich rolls and two small fish. Yet somehow the fears of the moment hid that from their hearts and minds.

In John’s Gospel, the disciples had two different worries at that earlier miraculous meal. First, they fretted over the mammoth need. Philip said: “The wages for 200 days of work—that’s just over $11,000 with our current minimum wage—would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little” (Jn. 6:7). Second, they fretted over the meager resources on hand. “Andrew...said to [Jesus], ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they among so many?’” (Jn. 6:9). Yet Jesus used those meager resources to meet the mammoth need. From the five small loaves and two small fish He made a feast that fed 5000 men plus women and children and had twelve good-sized baskets of fragments left over.

You’d think the disciples would remember that. But no! Now comes a second mammoth need with meager resources. And what do the disciples ask? “How can we possibly feed all of these 4,000 people?” Remember how Jesus started this discussion: “I have compassion on the crowd.” So He takes the seven loaves and the few small fish. He blesses them. He hands them to the disciples. They, in turn, distribute them to the crowd, and everyone is satisfied. And again they have leftovers—seven good-sized baskets full.

Come to think of it, you’d think that we would know better too. After all, we have both stories, and we hear them year after year. We heard the Feeding of the 5,000 back in Lent. Now today we hear the Feeding of the 4,000. It’s almost as if Jesus is quizzing us to see if we’ll catch on and trust Him to provide for us. But we keep worrying about how we’ll make ends meet. We keep wringing our hands over our mammoth needs and our meager resources. We keep wondering and fretting over how our Lord can possibly feed us and provide for us here in this desolate place called the world.

We continually worry and fret over things like nasty viruses, power-hungry politicians, mob violence and riots in our cities, the economy, and how best to enter our stores of choice. Is the stock market trending up—like a bull—or going down—like a bear? Will our 401(k)s and our IRAs have enough in them when it’s time to retire?

Then, in our anxiety, we seek to uncover what went wrong—what government policies or what business practices—and determine whom to blame—what politicians, what businesses? And with the next presidential election just around the corner, which candidate will fix everything for us? Let’s be honest, though. None of this can truly solve our faithless confusion. None of this can soothe our troubled souls or heal our anxious cares.

That’s why we need the words and actions of our Lord Jesus. What He said to His disciples He also says to us: “I have compassion on the crowd.” Words of great promise and comfort! Then He puts those words into action by feeding the mammoth crowd of 4,000 with the meager resources of seven loaves and a few small fish. Remember, this is the same Jesus who would also promise and show His great compassion by going to the cross, by suffering and dying to free us from fears and doubts, from sin and death. This is the same Jesus who would rise from the dead on the third day to proclaim and give us His life with God, both now and into eternity. That’s His greatest compassion!

So how does that help us when we fret and worry about the mammoth needs and the meager resources? Listen again to the words we prayed in today’s Collect. We began by addressing God, “whose never-failing providence orders all things both in heaven and earth….” We may look at our nation’s economy and our personal finances, at the pandemic and the pandemonium, and think things are out of control. But our gracious God truly orders all things both in heaven and earth. Yes, our Lord and Savior Jesus is in control of all things. He does know what we need and what we endure. He does give us what we need to live and survive. That also shows His great compassion.

Then we petitioned our God who provides: “we humbly implore You to put away from us all hurtful things and to give us those things that are profitable for us.” Yes, we may classify a worldwide pandemic, chaos in the streets, economic suffering, and racial tensions as “hurtful things.” But actually there are things more hurtful to us—things such as fear, anxiety, and worry; things such as our dependence on money and stuff for meaning in life; things such as trusting our elected leaders—fellow sinners—for safety and security above our Savior who loves us and gave Himself for us.

We ask God “to give us those things that are profitable for us.” He always has, He always does, and He always will. As people who trust the strong, cross-won, resurrection-given compassion of our Savior Jesus, we can receive and view most things in life as “profitable for us.” After all, times of trial, stress and upheaval may just lead us to rethink and revise our priorities. They may just cause us to realize that all the goodies of life are here today but gone tomorrow, passing away like the morning dew. They may just lead us to know more deeply that we must and can depend on our compassionate Savior to sustain us.

That’s exactly what He does, dear friends. If our Lord Jesus can feed a mammoth, hungry crowd from just a few loaves of bread and some fish, He can certainly take care of us in our daily needs. When we have Him, His life, His forgiveness, His salvation, everything else is but icing on the cake. When we have and hold dear His new life in Baptism, we see that the current uncertainties cannot take that new life away. When we have Him in His Body and Blood on the Altar, we are nourished and strengthened to persevere and endure whatever trials come our way. Without it, our faith only withers; but with it, our Lord strengthens and fortifies. In fact, when we cling to our compassionate Christ in His words and deeds, we realize that He is the chief thing that is most profitable for us. Our great, giver God has already answered our prayer. When He gives us His Son to feed us and satisfy us, He gives us exactly what we need. So, come to His Table, eat, drink and be satisfied!

Lutheran Service Book has a most fitting prayer “For the nation” (LSB, p. 313). The last line of the prayer sums it up well. There we pray: “When times are prosperous, may our hearts be thankful, and in troubled times do not let our trust in You fail.” Prosperous times and troubled times come and go. Needs might be mammoth and resources meager. However, our Lord Jesus has compassion, and we can trust Him to give those things that are profitable for us, even when they feel most hurtful. Not only does He open His hands and satisfy the desires of every living thing, but He also satisfies us with Himself, with His mercy, forgiveness and life with Him. Amen.

Homily for Trinity 6 - 2020

"God's Loving 'No' and 'Yes'"
Exodus 20:1-17 & Matthew 5:17-26

Listen here.

It takes a loving adult to tell a child, “No.” Devoted parents know this. When the toddler starts to dart out into the street, dad will sternly but lovingly yell, “No!” or “Stop!” When the little one puts something dangerous in her mouth—something dirty, something sharp, something poisonous—mama will firmly but lovingly say, “No, no.” The same applies when the child grows into the teen years and tries to experiment with cigarettes, booze, drugs, sex outside of marriage, and other harmful things. A loving adult must say, “No,” because some activities and behaviors are harmful. And a loving adult always wants what’s best for the children.

God is our loving adult, our Father, who must tell us, His human children, “No” to things that harm us. This He does in His Ten Commandments because He wants what’s best for us. God’s firm and loving “No” to things that harm us really is what’s best for us.

To say it another way, God’s commandments—each of them individually and all of them together—are like the fence around the back yard. When the children play inside the fence, they are safe and protected. Life goes well. If there’s no fence, then the children can easily wander off, stroll into the busy street and be harmed. So the curbing commandments really are a blessing from our loving Father.

Knowing God’s commandments brings another blessing. When we know them, heed them, live them, and put them to use, we have an anchor for all of life. We may just need and be able to use such a firm, solid anchor in our time of chaos, uncertainty, and upheaval. In the preface to his Large Catechism, Martin Luther said, “This much is certain: those who know the Ten Commandments perfectly know the entire Scriptures….” If you want to know and understand your God and His will for you and everyone around you, especially in unprecedented times, study, learn, and stay grounded in God’s commandments.

Luther then added this about those who know the Commandments: “…in all affairs and circumstances [they] are able to counsel, help, comfort, judge, and make decisions in both spiritual and temporal matters.” (Luther, LC, Preface, 17; KW, 382). When you know God’s Ten Commandments, you are well equipped to discern what’s going on around you in this crazy, chaotic world. You are anchored to withstand the stormy seas of pandemic and pandemonium. You are made wise to resist the emotional hype and propaganda that intentionally cause so much fear and panic. You are placed on solid ground so that you may give aid to those who are aimless and adrift.

Commandments 9 and 10 erect a protective fence around God’s gift of contentment. But notice how discontent and disgruntled so many people are these days, and that same discontent and unrest infect us, God’s children reborn in Baptism. We want what God has not given and we are annoyed when we don’t get it.

Commandment 8 erects a protective fence around God’s gift of a good reputation for each and every person. But notice how speedily and how frequently reputations are smashed, trashed and cancelled, and with gleeful vehemence. Say, communicate or tweet the so-called wrong message, and let the shaming begin until the target slinks away.

In Commandment 7 God builds a protective barrier around money and possessions. But instead of helping to improve and protect our neighbor’s possessions and income—including statues and store fronts—we witness looting, vandalizing, pillaging and taking what rightly belongs to others.

Commandment 6 is God’s way of protecting the gift of marriage between one man and one woman and the family that comes from that union. Confusion about this and disregard for it in recent years have brought much angst and pain, in the Church as well as in the culture.

The Fifth Commandment, which Jesus highlights in our Gospel reading, protects God’s gift of human physical life. In it God also “wants to remove the root and source by which the heart is embittered against our neighbor” (LC I:186). Think of the anger so evident in the rioting and attacks we now see on a daily basis. Think of the bitterness that leads to treating fellow human beings differently based on nothing but skin color, whichever direction it goes. Think of the suspicion and even vitriol that flows between those who want to wear masks and those who don’t.

In the Fourth Commandment, our Father gives us parents and other authorities as gifts. Parenthood, of course, has the highest place, and other authorities flow from that high office. Yet we also know that sinners occupy these positions of authority. We want and need to honor them, serve and obey them, but it’s quite difficult due to their imperfections and failings, especially when their actions or inactions lead to and even foster the fear and chaos.

Here’s why we need the first three Commandments. Without them the protective fence is rickety and wobbly at best. In our current time, it’s why the fence has collapsed altogether. When the bases, posts, and rails of the first three commandments are removed, it’s no wonder the pickets, or slats, of the other commandments cannot stand upright.

We need to treasure and gladly hear God’s Word and receive His Sacraments. We need to call on His name in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks. And, most of all, we need to fear, love and trust in Him above all things. It’s obvious the culture at large knows none of this. What about you?

Do you fear COVID-19, the violent riots, or the downward spiral of our culture more than God? Do you trust science or a promised vaccine more than God? Do you love yourself more than your fellow human being? The answer, of course, is “Yes.” So it’s time to repent of our idolatry, our fears, and our misplaced trust for safety and security. Your righteousness should exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, but thanks to the mirror of God’s Law you know it does not.

And so it’s also time to take comfort in God’s “Yes” spoken and achieved through His Son Jesus. He came not to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill them in your place and for your benefit. He submitted Himself to governing authorities and laid down His own life for you. Even as His reputation was trashed, He was content to accomplish your forgiveness and salvation on the cross. And in His resurrection He gives you His new life—new life to consider yourself dead to sin, new life that is alive to God in Christ Jesus, new life that happily and joyfully lives within the fence of God’s care and keeping. In Jesus—and only in Jesus—your righteousness does exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.

Since you have been buried with Jesus by baptism into death, your shortcomings and failings are washed away. Just as Jesus was raised from the dead, you too may now walk in newness of life. You may fear, love and trust in Him above all things, including viruses, vaccines and violence. You may call upon Him in all trouble, pray and give thanks for His eternal care and keeping. You may gladly hear and learn His Word and receive His Body and Blood that truly sustain and comfort in all circumstances.

In addition, you may truly love your neighbor, your fellow sinner, just as Jesus does. You may honor your authorities even as you evaluate and sometimes must critique their decrees. You may stand up for the life of every human being, regardless of age, skin color, or station in life. You may live chastely. You may protect possessions and income. You may safeguard reputations. You may live with contentment in all things.

By doing so, you will quite naturally stand out in this world marred by chaos and insecurity. Those who wander aimlessly and who are lost in their fear will notice. Then you will have the grand opportunity to welcome them into God’s “backyard,” into the genuine safety, the only true safety, of His salvation and life with Him in His Church. Amen.

Homily for Trinity 4 - 2020

"Reflecting God's Mercy"
Luke 6:36-42

Listen here.

Martin Chemnitz, “the second Martin,” once said: “Good works are like the sun: It’s nature is to give light; you don’t have to command it to do so.” It’s what Jesus does for you, and it’s how He calls you live and practice mercy with one another. It’s why Jesus says, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” It’s like the relationship of the sun and the moon. The sun is the source of light and abundantly radiates that light. The moon also gives light, but that light is not its own. The moon simply reflects the light it receives from the sun. God is the source of mercy and gives abundant mercy through His Son Jesus. His Christians also show mercy as they reflect the mercy that they receive from God Himself. “Jesus’ disciples are to be characterized by mercy and forgiveness and thus portray God’s character to the world.” (Just, 295)

The first thing Jesus says to you today is: “Imitate your heavenly Father.” Children love to imitate their parents. They dress up in Mom and Dad’s clothes. They carry around a purse like Mom’s or a tool like Dad’s. Remember this when you hear Jesus say, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” First, comes the Father’s mercy, then comes the Christian’s mercy as he/she imitates Papa in heaven. And in the Bible “mercy” is more than attitude or emotion. “Mercy” shows itself in concrete actions.

The Father shows His mercy in the concrete act of sending His own Son Jesus into this broken, fallen, messy, sick, chaotic world to rescue and redeem sinners such as us. Christians then, enlivened by the Holy Spirit through Gospel preaching, Baptism, Absolution, and Lord’s Supper, show mercy in many and various concrete actions of daily life.

But you and I like to pretend that we are something we’re not. We like to think that we are above other people. We choose to treat them in whatever way we want. That’s not being merciful! When you “have issues” with other people—in your family, at work, or in the Church—it’s usually because they are not saying or doing things that you prescribe or demand. This leads to the judging and condemning that Jesus warns against. When you judge or condemn, you’re not imitating God’s mercy; you’re trying to play God.

Yet God still shows mercy to people like us. He shows His mercy in the very concrete act of sending His Son Jesus to take on our human flesh and blood, live our life, die in our place on a bloody cross, rest in the tomb, and rise again on the third day. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, God forgives you and gives you new life.

So you get to imitate your heavenly Father. You get to interact with people—especially fellow Christians—in their chaotic, messed up lives and in their viral infection of self-serving. You get to show mercy and forgiveness. St. Paul said, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph. 5:1-2). St. John said, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 Jn. 4:11).

The second thing Jesus says to you today is: “What you dish out, you get back.” Jesus gives some practical examples: “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you.”

Now this is probably one of the most misquoted and misunderstood verses in the Bible. We live in a time when tolerance is king; we are to judge absolutely nothing, no matter how raunchy, perverted, or misleading it gets. We are told to tolerate everything from killing babies in the womb to so-called “marriages” that cannot possibly bear children without outside help. To 21st century American ears and mouths “tolerate” has come to mean “approve of,” “bless,” even “kneel down and grovel.” We Christians are told that whenever we talk of Jesus as the only Savior from sin and the only way to life with God, we are being “intolerant” and “judgmental.” When we Christians stand for God’s ways of protecting life and marriage in the public square, we are told to hush up and “be tolerant.” When we reopen our churches to gather for hearing God’s Word, singing His praises, and receiving our Lord’s Body and Blood as we have for centuries, we are told that we are “killing grandma.”

But even Jesus warned against false teachers and their infectious teachings. And St. Paul warned against those who would give you another “gospel” that’s not focused on Christ alone for forgiveness and life. And St. John gave this judgment: “every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ is not from God” (1 Jn. 4:3).

What’s Jesus talking about? Well, He’s not talking about legitimate, moral decisions in a court of law. After all, He gives the governing and judicial authorities. Instead, Jesus is talking about those frequent, petty criticisms that happen any time sinners get together. She really made me mad with her negative comments. His attitude really offended me. And so on.

Jesus is not talking about judging doctrine and life. Jesus does want us to judge doctrine and confront sin. He wants us to make sure that His Church teaches His pure Word in all that it says. But He does not want us to make judgments or condemnations about doctrine and life without substantial evidence. Jesus says don’t judge or condemn based on your own personal standards, or based on the world’s standards, or based on a misunderstanding of God’s Word. Instead, let God’s judgments be yours. When God says something is wrong and sinful—say, murder, abortion, racism, adultery, homosexuality, theft, cheating, lying, gossip, slander, coveting, and discontent—then you may also say it’s wrong. When God says something is true, good, and beautiful—say, loving Him, serving your neighbor in need, defending the defenseless, treating all people as human regardless of skin color, protecting marriage, remaining pure before marriage, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, protecting reputations—then you may also make the same good judgment.

Instead of being characterized by judging and condemning, Jesus wants you, His forgiven children, to be known by forgiveness and giving. After all, Jesus let Himself be judged and condemned in your place, in order that you may be forgiven and be given His life.

So Jesus says, “Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you.” As you dish it out, it will come back to you. If you judge, condemn and criticize, then you can expect to be judged, condemned and criticized…perhaps by other people, but especially by God. When you forgive and give, though—when you love your neighbor—then God will continue to forgive and give. St. Paul said it well: “Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all…. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

And the final thing Jesus says to you today: “Clear out your vision to help your neighbor.” Jesus tells a little parable. A friend of yours gets a speck of sawdust in his eye. But you have a 6 foot long 4x4 beam sticking out of yours. How can you say, “Here let me help you,” when you can’t even see your own problem? Jesus exaggerates to make a point: “First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.”

Translation: Yes, your neighbor has sins. But before you deal with your neighbor’s sins, confess your own. Once you rest in Jesus’ forgiveness for your humongous sins, then you can help your neighbor with his itty-bitty sins that may vex you. In order to show mercy, you need to receive Jesus’ mercy. And that’s what you get to do every Sunday in the Divine Service. You confess your sins—not your neighbor’s sins—and you receive Jesus’ forgiveness. You hear His Word and His works of mercy read and proclaimed. Jesus heals you by His words and works, and He removes the 4x4 beams from your eyes.

After you receive God’s mercy in Christ, you get to sing and pray for God’s mercy for each other, for the Church, and for the world. “Lord, have mercy.” “Lamb of God, You take away the sin of the world; have mercy on us.” And today we hear the story of Joseph to illustrate what Jesus says. Joseph suffered greatly because of his brothers’ evil deeds. But he did not hold those sins against them. He chose not to play God. Instead, he imitated God—he reflected God’s mercy—by forgiving and showing mercy to his brothers. As Joseph said, “God meant it for good…that many people should be kept alive.”

Yes, there are times when you need to point out the sins of other people. Don’t do it to judge or condemn. Instead, do it to bring your relative or friend or fellow Christian into Christ’s mercy. After all, we don’t want our friends or family—especially our brothers and sisters in Christ—to live and die in their sin. We want them to rest and relax in Jesus’ cross-won, Gospel-given mercy. You can be merciful, because in Jesus your Father is merciful to you. Amen.