2 October 2022 - Michaelmas 1 - Matthew 9:1-8

When we think of the harmful effects of sin, the first things that may come to mind are the many ways in which human sin ruins our relationship with God, and our standing before God. Sin separates and alienates us from God, and invites God’s judgment and wrath.

But sin has harmful effects on our own individual existence, too. It doesn’t just ruin our relationships, but it ruins us, on the inside.

The Psalmist speaks for all sinful human beings when he says, in Psalm 88:

“My soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to the grave. I am counted with those who go down to the pit; I am like a man who has no strength.”

In describing his own sinful condition in Psalm 118, the Psalmist once again describes the sinful condition of all of us:

“The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me; the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.”

In his Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul describes, with alarming detail, what a fallen human nature is capable of - and what we are capable of - as the sin that is in our hearts unfolds and spreads into all arenas of life:

“...God...gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator...”

“...God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.”

“...God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful...”

Elsewhere in the same epistle, Paul writes that all of us, before we knew Christ, were ungodly and without strength.

Indeed, sin pollutes our thoughts and our desires, and corrupts our emotions and our will. It turns us in on ourselves, twisting our minds and hearts, causing us to reject the good and choose the evil. Sin is a leprous disease that infects soul and body, keeping us spiritually sick and morally weak.

Because of sin we live to serve ourselves, and not others. Our actions are motivated by pride and love of self, and not by a love for our neighbor in need. Our words are infused with deception and manipulation.

Sin weighs us down and morally crushes us. It binds and strangles us, and spiritually cripples us.

In our natural condition, even if our conscience tells us that we should be living in a different way, with different values and priorities, we are not capable of doing so. As members of the fallen human race, we - by nature - are stuck and paralyzed in our degraded state, with no way of escape by any effort of ours.

We need to be lifted up by a force stronger than we are. We need to be cleansed by a washing more pure than we are.

Today’s Gospel from St. Matthew presents us with an illustration of this universal human problem, and of God’s solution to this problem, in the story of Jesus’ healing, and forgiving, the paralytic. The first thing we are told, is that Jesus “got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city.”

Jesus was in a place where he could be expected to be found - that is, in Capernaum, his adopted home. But in the picture that is verbally painted for us by the words of this account, it is emphasized that the paralyzed man could not get himself to Jesus by his own strength and ability, but needed to be carried to him.

We are told that some concerned friends brought to Jesus “a paralytic lying on a bed.” In himself, as far as his need for healing and restoration was concerned, this paralyzed man was helpless and hopeless.

But with Christ, help was to be found. In Christ there was hope.

“When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, ‘Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.’”

This may seem strange to us. Wasn’t the man coming to Jesus for a healing of his body? Why then did Jesus give him a different blessing, namely, forgiveness of sins?

Well, Jesus knew that the man’s bodily weakness, and his inability to walk and live normally, was a picture, or a manifestation, of a deeper problem - a problem that affects everyone, and not just handicapped persons.

As I’ve already noted, sin damages our relationship with God and our standing before God. It’s an offense against his holiness and a violation of his good and loving will for all people. That’s why only God can forgive sin.

But sin is also a burden and a heavy weight on each of us. It is a corruption that damages us on the inside. It pollutes us. It is a spiritual disease that infects us.

In forgiveness, God pulls sin out of us and off of us, by the power of his Word, and by the grace of his Spirit. The Greek word that is translated in today’s text as “forgiven” means literally “sent off.” The sin that had been crushing the paralyzed man’s soul was lifted off of him and sent away from him.

So, in this gracious forgiveness, his relationship with God was restored, and his standing before God was now that of a reconciled and righteous member of God’s family, and a citizen of God’s kingdom.

But also, the damage that sin had done to him personally, and internally, was now also reversed and healed. Not only was his relationship with God restored, but he was restored.

The crippling effects of sin on his mind and heart, and in his thoughts and desires, were now washed away. He was free of the inner burden that had afflicted him and weighed on him.

Our catechism speaks of the salvation from sin that is ours in Christ, in terms of salvation from the guilt of sin, and salvation from the power of sin. The blood of Jesus takes away our guilt and shame before God, and it also liberates us from the harmful workings of sin inside of us.

In Christ we are saved and delivered from the destructive compulsions, the unrestrained greed and lust, and the overwhelming pride and selfishness that would otherwise flow out of our sinful nature and bleed into the rest of our lives.

In the forgiveness that we receive in the Lord’s absolution, these influences are not eradicated, but they are suppressed and restrained. They no longer so thoroughly cripple us and weigh us down. What St. Paul writes about in today’s lesson from his Epistle to the Ephesians, actually happens, by the working of God’s Spirit through the healing power of the gospel:

“You have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

To use some additional Pauline terminology, we are now able to walk by the Spirit, and to live as children of light. We are transformed by the renewing of our mind, and are able to put on the mind of Christ. We are transformed into his image, from glory to glory.

Now, some of the scribes who were present for the events described in today’s Gospel, and who heard what Jesus said to the paralytic, didn’t like what they heard. They said within themselves, “This Man blasphemes!”

“But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, ‘Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven you,” or to say, “Arise and walk”? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins’– then He said to the paralytic, ‘Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.’ And he arose and departed to his house.”

Jesus, as God in human flesh, and as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, did indeed show compassion to this man, by healing him in both body and soul. He had the divine authority to do it, and he did it.

And in both cases, where there had been a crushing debilitation and a paralyzing weakness, there was now health and strength. The physical infirmity, and the infirmity of sin’s inner corruption, were both now reversed.

We are also told that “when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men.” We would hope that before long, the multitudes in Capernaum would also have benefitted from this power for themselves.

The other people who were there may not have needed or wanted a dramatic physical healing, but they all needed the kind of inner healing and renewal that God’s forgiveness of sin brings.

And you also need that inner healing. Those who do not know the Lord certainly need it, in a big way. But we who daily falter and fail, and regularly slip back into disobedience, and into the infirmity of sin, also need to be pardoned for that disobedience yet again, and to be raised up from that infirmity yet again.

So, don’t just marvel, from a distance, that God has given this power to men - that is, to Christ, and to those who now speak in his stead in the exercising of the keys. Receive this power, partake of it personally, and let it work in your heart, mind, and soul, by truly repenting of your sins today. Receive this power - and let it free you from the chains of sin that are entangling you once again, and from the heaviness of sin that is bearing down on you once again - by truly believing the absolution that Jesus announces to you today.

Because Jesus did die and rise again for each of us, and because he did suffer and win the victory over sin and death in our place and for our benefit, each of us is able to know that God will not count our sins against us, but will welcome us into his kingdom.

And, each of us is able to know that God will also answer this prayer: “By Your Holy Spirit increase in us true knowledge of You, and of Your will, and true obedience to Your Word.”

Indeed, as far as the shame and guilt of your sin is concerned, God will likewise answer this prayer: “Cast me not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me.”

And as far as the inner destructive power of your sin is concerned, God will answer this prayer, too: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

God in his divine providence has called and carried you to this house of worship on this day, where his Son Jesus Christ is available to you in his means of grace. Jesus is here, in this familiar place where he can always be found, to help you once again, and to heal you once again.

Jesus is here to send your sin away from you, and to remove from you the judgment of the divine law against you: so that your relationship with God is restored, and your standing before God is set right. And Jesus is here to lift your sin off of you, and raise you up from the spiritual paralysis and moral debilitation that your sin causes.

Through the lips of his called servant, he says:

“I forgive you all your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Through the lips of his called servant he says:

“This is my body, which is given for you.” “This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins.”

Jesus has the authority to say these things, and to do these things. And Jesus is saying these things, and doing these things, for you.

Jesus also says: “Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Christ and his church amplify that loving invitation to us, and we gratefully heed it:

Come in poverty and meanness, Come defiled, without, within;
From infection and uncleanness, From the leprosy of sin,
Wash your robes and make them white; Ye shall walk with God in light.

Come in sorrow and contrition, Wounded, paralyzed, and blind;
Here the guilty, free remission, Here the troubled, peace, may find.
Health this fountain will restore; He that drinks shall thirst no more. Amen.

---

9 October 2022 - Michaelmas 2 - Matthew 22:1-14

The parable that Jesus tells in today’s Gospel from St. Matthew, is one of the more important mission texts of our faith. It is also an important text about God’s justification of sinners.

Through this parable, our Lord teaches us what the scope of the church’s outreach is to be - that is, to whom we should deliver the king’s invitation to the wedding feast of his son.

And he also teaches us about the basis upon which entry is granted to those who do heed this invitation - that is, what kind of garment is to be worn by those who are welcomed to this celebration as guests.

God, in his sovereign mercy, had - from very ancient times - entrusted his oracles to the children of Abraham: the chosen people of Israel.

Those sacred Scriptural oracles had embedded within them, from the very beginning, a “save the date” kind of message about the Lord’s plan someday to send his only-begotten Son to Israel as a Savior: not only for the descendants of Abraham, but for all peoples.

Through the centuries, the ancient Hebrews were told, by means of the Prophets of the Lord, that this day would come. And they were exhorted to remain always ready for that day, so that when the announcement would finally be issued that all was ready, and that the Messiah had arrived, they would embrace him and believe in him.

But as Jesus tells his story in today’s text, he points out, with sadness and disappointment, that this is not what was happening, and that this would not happen.

The king “sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.”’”

“But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.”

When God’s Son did come among them, the Jewish people, by and large, rejected him. Most of them rejected the gospel of redemption in Christ, and of true reconciliation with God through Christ, that Jesus’ apostles also proclaimed to them.

Many of them chose instead to put their trust in the Zealots, and in the political salvation from Roman imperialism that the Zealots pledged to achieve for them by military means. But as Jesus says elsewhere, all who take the sword will perish by the sword.

The military uprising against Roman control that the Zealots stirred up did not result in national independence. Rather, it resulted in death and destruction.

The temple, and the city of Jerusalem, were destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 A.D. The inhabitants of the city were either killed or taken away into slavery.

In a sense, this was something that they had brought upon themselves, by their decision to ignore God’s invitation to the banquet of spiritual salvation that he had prepared for them, and by their decision to set up for themselves instead their own banquet of political salvation.

But in the mystery of God’s invisible working behind the scenes of human history, as he executes his just judgments in the earth by means of human and natural agencies, this was also a divine punishment of unbelief and misbelief. That’s the hard truth that Jesus teaches us today.

Jewish people today, as individuals, are still invited to come to the banquet that the God of their ancestors prepared for them in Jesus. The people of Israel are not under a unique ongoing curse of God in comparison to other nations, as misguided Christians in history have sometimes thought.

But the people of Israel do not have a special standing with God, either, as they once did. God has cultivated and raised up a new Israel, and a new chosen nation, drawn from all nations.

To recall a different parable of Jesus, the unfruitful branches of Israel were pruned off, leaving a thin remnant of this chosen planting of the Lord. Some of the Jewish people did embrace Christ, after all, and thereby became the legitimate continuation of the chosen nation of God, around whom the Christian church was then built.

Onto this remnant of true and believing Israel, new branches - from among the Gentiles - have been grafted by God, the master gardener.

Returning to today’s parable: Jesus tells us that after those who had been sent the “save the date” notice, refused to accept the actual invitation when it was issued, the king then widened the scope of his invitation:

“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.”

This is the great commission. For most if not all of us, who are of Gentile and not of Jewish ancestry, this is why we can be completely sure that we also have a place in God’s kingdom.

And this universal invitation is universal in more than one way. All nations are invited to come to where Christ is; and all classes within all nations are invited to receive and celebrate the forgiveness, life, and salvation that Christ accomplished for humanity in his death and resurrection.

People who have lived - in their outward behavior - according to respectable standards of civil righteousness, are invited to receive the true righteousness that counts before God. “For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

And people who have outwardly disgraced themselves even according to the lax standards of human society, are likewise invited. As Jesus elsewhere says: “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Whoever you are, whatever foolish mistakes you may have made, whatever shameful things you may have done, and whatever secret faults and sins you may harbor in a troubled conscience: You are invited.

In Jesus’ story, the king tells his servants to invite to the wedding feast as many as they find, both good and bad. This announcement of the Lord’s invitation has found you, and has been communicated to you, if not before, then at the very least through the words that I just spoke!

And God is also inviting everyone you know to the wedding feast of his Son. No one is excluded.

You should prayerfully consider if you may actually be the servant God has in mind, to be the messenger who delivers this invitation to someone you know, who has not yet received it; or who may have received it in the past from another of the Lord’s servants, but has not yet heeded it.

God’s invitation reaches us as we are, with all of our embarrassing failures and flaws still in place. God’s inviting hand reaches down as low as it needs to, into whatever hole of shame and despair we may have dug ourselves into, in order to pull us out and save us.

But the condition in which God’s invitation finds us, is not the condition in which that invitation leaves us, as it draws us into the celebratory banquet of God’s love in his Son. Our appearance before God - as we stand under the scrutiny of his pure standards - does not remain as it was.

If it did, we would, in the end, not be admitted to the feast to which God invites us and all people. And that’s because there is a dress code for a celebration like this - for a salvation like this.

Because Jesus crafted his parable in the form of a story about a royal wedding, his first-century audience would have understood, without the need of further explanation, that any people who would attend such a wedding, would not be able to wear their own clothes - not even their best clothes.

The extravagance and opulence of royal occasions in that era required attire of such high quality, for those who attended them, that this could be achieved only by the wearing of a garment that the royal host would himself provide for his guests.

This is similar to the practice of high-end restaurants in our day, that have a dress code requiring gentlemen to be dressed in neckties and jackets; but that also have a selection of restaurant-owned neckties and jackets available near the entrance, so that a male diner who may not have known of the dress code could borrow, and put on, what he needed, before he entered the dining room.

It is also similar to the rules for female attire that were in place at certain Eastern Orthodox churches in Ukraine, when I lived there. These rules required women to wear a head covering, and a skirt or dress, to enter the church.

But those churches also offered an array of scarves and slip-on skirts at the door, which could be borrowed, so that any woman who showed up in slacks or without a hat could easily conform herself to the rule, and then be able to go inside.

Today’s parable teaches us about God’s dress code, by showing us what happened - in the story - when someone without the proper clothing presumed to try to finagle himself into the wedding celebration anyway:

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

The imagery of a certain standard of attire being required for entrance into the wedding feast of the king’s son, has nothing to do with the literal clothing that people wear or don’t wear to church. It is not referring to suits and ties, to dresses and skirts, or to a pastor’s vestments.

This is about something much deeper, and much more profound. This is about how we, who are sinners, can now be brought into the presence of a holy God who hates sin.

This is about how we, who have alienated ourselves from God because of our defiance of his revealed will, can now be reconciled to him. This is about how we, who have isolated ourselves from God’s Fatherly love through our rebellion against his goodness, can now be adopted into his family.

Human “fashion-designing” efforts, calculated to create a line of self-righteous, superficial moral “accessories” that would presumably be so impressive as to distract God from noticing the sin-stained rags we are also still wearing, will never work.

He sees everything we are wearing. He sees everything we are.

As we are told in Psalm 14: “The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one.”

All such moralistic self-salvation schemes are like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, after their fall into sin, trying to hide their shame with skimpy coverings they had made for themselves from fig leaves. It was not enough. Their shame before God was not truly covered until God covered it, with substantial garments of animal skins.

These garments - which required the death of animals for the benefit of Adam and Eve - were emblematic of the righteousness of Christ, our true substitute and sacrifice, which is draped over all who repent of their sins and in faith receive God’s forgiveness: so that when God sees them, he now sees Christ.

St. Paul draws upon this imagery in his Epistle to the Galatians, where he writes: “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

You gain entrance into the wedding feast, not on the basis of who you are or what you have made of yourself, but on the basis of who Christ is, and of what God now gives you in and through Christ.

You are also not welcome in God’s kingdom on the basis of your genealogy - whether your ancestry goes back to the Hebrew patriarchs, or is marked by a long Christian pedigree - but on the basis of Jesus’ eternal, divine “pedigree.”

The eternal Son of the Father - who is God himself - took on your flesh, lived perfectly in your place, atoned for your sins, and opened for you the gateway to eternal life by his victory over the grave.

God the Father now invites you - all of you and each of you - to receive upon yourself, by faith, the garment of his Son’s perfect righteousness, which completely covers your sin, and therefore makes you acceptable in his sight.

God the Father now invites you - all of you and each of you - to feast continuously on the riches of his grace and love that are served to you at the banquet of his Son. These riches are served here and now, in the preaching of the gospel, which feeds our soul.

These riches are served here and now also when the blessings of the gospel come to us in a very specialized way: in the administration of that sacramental meal which, more than anything else, connects communicants to the mysteries of heaven, and to Christ our heavenly bridegroom.

As we are indeed welcomed into the fellowship of the church on earth, to begin our enjoyment of the wonders that God has prepared for us through his Son, we do also look to eternity.

We think about eternity, and we think about what it will be like in eternity, for the Lord’s redeemed and forgiven people - from all nations - to be clothed with Christ, and to be mystically united to God through Christ, forever and ever.

The Book of Revelation gives us some words into which we can anchor those peaceful and comforting thoughts:

“I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, ...and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”

We close with these words from Nicholas von Zinzendorf, as Englished by John Wesley:

Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness My beauty are, my glorious dress;
Amidst flaming worlds, in these arrayed, With joy shall I lift up my head.

Bold shall I stand in that great day, For who aught, to my charge, shall lay?
Fully absolved through these I am From sin and fear, from guilt and shame.

Lord, I believe were sinners more Than sands upon the ocean shore,
Thou hast for all a ransom paid, For all a full atonement made.

When from the dust of death I rise To claim my mansion in the skies,
Even then, this shall be all my plea: “Jesus hath lived, and died, for me.” Amen.

---

16 October 2022 - Michaelmas 3 - Genesis 1:1-2:4

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

It’s not possible, in just a few minutes, to explore everything that is touched on in today’s text - the creation account from the Book of Genesis. But we can think together about some of the things that the creation account tells us about the true God, and about the relationship that exists between this God and his creatures.

In the ancient world, the testimony of the Book of Genesis - as it was preserved by the Hebrew people - would have seemed very odd to the various pagan nations. Almost all of them believed that the heavenly bodies - the sun, the moon, and the stars - were gods.

They prayed to the sun and moon. They sought to appease the sun and moon, and to cajole blessings and favors from the sun and moon.

But in the Book of Genesis, the sun and moon, and all other heavenly bodies, are described as impersonal creatures of one supreme, personal God. They are not the objects of adoration and petition.

This honor belongs only to the infinite God who stands behind them; who brought them into existence by the power of his word; and who set them in their place to mark times and seasons according to his divine will and purpose.

This also goes for all the earthly objects and natural phenomena that the superstitious peoples of the past often deified. Mountains and rivers, bulls and birds, were worshiped - together with the heavenly bodies.

But these features of the earth likewise were, and still are, a part of the creation of the one true God - the maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. They are not themselves gods.

Another aspect of the Genesis account that would have been shocking and even offensive to the ancient pagans, is the testimony it gives to the unity of the human race. Most of the old pagan tribes and cultures had a unique myth of origin for themselves, which put supreme value on their own existence, but which minimized the value of people in other nations.

These myths of origin often involved a far-fetched tale of an ancient transmutation from animals to humans, or a story about some other kind of biologically impossible event, which supposedly explained where the people of that particular nation came from; but which did not take into account the origin or existence of other nations.

The pagan nations that saw themselves in these ways therefore did not feel a brotherly connection to their foreign rivals and enemies. As a consequence, they became capable of extreme cruelty in their treatment of those dehumanized enemies.

These other peoples were not seen to spring from the same source. They were not seen to have a shared humanity, or a shared human dignity.

But here in the Book of Genesis, we read of God’s special creation of the original parents of the whole human race. The table of the nations that appears later in the book makes that clear. And this man and woman were created in God’s own image and likeness, no less!

It would have been in the political and military interest of the Hebrews to have their own contrived myth of origin, which excluded the Egyptians, the Philistines, the Assyrians, and other enemies of Israel from the human family to which the Hebrews belonged.

Then they could have killed all of them without any qualms of conscience. But in spite of the propaganda value that there would have been in their making up such a tale, the ancient Hebrews did not do this.

Instead, they believed the word of God, who told them that even their earthly enemies were, at the deepest level, their brethren - descendants with them of Adam and Eve. And this helped them to look forward, with the prophets, to a future when all nations would come to Zion, as it were, and worship the Lord with them.

Hardly anyone today builds altars to the sun, or offers sacrifices to the moon. But these ancient forms of idolatry are actually similar to the kind of belief system that is held to in our time by modern atheists.

To them, the material world is all that exists. The material world is the ultimate reality. There is no supreme creator standing above or behind it, giving it meaning and purpose.

This means, therefore, that they put their trust in this material world. In the final analysis, the material world is what they believe in.

This kind of materialism is really a superstition - a superstition in the same basic category with the superstitious beliefs of sun-worshipers and moon-worshipers. Materialism attributes to the material world the kind of ultimacy that properly belongs only to the true God, and not to any creature of God.

I doubt very much that any of you sitting here today are atheists and materialists.

But as you work your way through the issues of life, and as you make decisions about how you are going to interact with the people and events you encounter each day: how conscious are you of the fact that there is a creator who stands behind everything, and who is governing and guiding all the natural processes that surround you?

The decisions that you make in life - ethical decisions, practical decisions, decisions about relationships, all decisions - should begin and end with an acknowledgment of the God who made everything, who preserves everything, and who oversees everything.

Your understanding of who and what you are according to the objective truth of how you were made - whether you are a man or a woman - is likewise to be based on God’s divine right and authority to define his own creation, and to order it according to his good pleasure.

In this life, you can’t trust ultimately in your own human judgment. You can’t place your confidence ultimately in your own human instincts.

And you can’t rely ultimately on your own human emotions: because God is the one who created your judgment, your instincts, and your emotions. He created you.

So, seek his wisdom. Ask for his help. Pray for his protection in all your ways, and for his direction in all your thoughts.

Today there are few people in the world who do not acknowledge the unity of the human race. The existence of an organization like the United Nations, for example, and the fact that all countries in the world belong to it, are evidence of this.

As a matter of principle, everyone knows - or should know - that we are supposed to acknowledge the value and dignity of all other human beings.

But, we do not always live this out, in the way we actually treat other people. Various forms of prejudice and bigotry often influence the way we think about people who are different from us, or of whom we are afraid.

But the Book of Genesis requires us to believe that there is indeed just one human race: in which all stand equally before God as his beloved creatures; and in which all are equally accountable to God for their personal words and actions.

We are to be concerned about the well-being of all. If God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son for the salvation of the world, then we, too, are to love the world, and each person in the world.

Yet the common humanity that we share with all other descendants of Adam and Eve does not only place obligations on us. It also bestows great blessings on us, especially when we consider the saving work of the second Adam, Jesus Christ. As St. Paul reminds us concerning him, in his Epistle to the Colossians,

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible... All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.”

But the world which God originally created through his eternal Son - as a “very good” world - became a cursed world due to the sin of man.

Adam and Eve fell away from their fellowship with God through their disobedience of God’s command. They thereby brought into themselves - and into all their descendants - the contagion of spiritual death, and an inner, inherited hostility to God.

And yet God did not leave us as we were. To save the human race from the guilt and power of sin, God’s Son became a part of that which he sought to save.

As a real flesh-and-blood man, he became the substitute for all men under the curse of the law, and he atoned for the sins of all men. It is God’s will that all people would now have an opportunity to hear and believe the gospel of forgiveness and reconciliation through Jesus Christ.

St. Paul goes on to explain that “in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

The impact of this gospel on those who have believed it, is described by St. Paul in this way, in his Epistle to the Colossians:

“And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight - if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven...”

The doctrine of redemption from sin, rises or falls with the doctrine of sin itself. And the doctrine of sin rises or falls with the doctrine of creation.

Each of us belongs to a human race that was especially created by God, in his image and likeness. Each of us belongs to a human race that fell into disobedience and death, through the transgression of our first parents.

Each of us belongs to a human race that was redeemed by Christ: God of God, and also our brother according to the flesh. Each of us belongs to a human race that is therefore the object of God’s special forgiving and restoring love, as revealed to us in the gospel.

An atheist’s unbelief doesn’t make God cease to exist - although it does cut him off from the blessings of salvation and reconciliation that God is offering to him. And a Christian’s faith in God doesn’t bring God into existence.

But in faith, we are able to know and see who God is, as the supreme creator and governor of the universe. In faith we are also able to know and see the redemption and restoration that God has provided for his beloved creatures.

In faith you are able to know and see the redemption and restoration that God has provided for you. And by the grace of the Holy Spirit - who is the Lord, and the giver of life - you are able to be, and you have been made to be, a new creature in Christ.

God’s word, spoken into you with all of its supernatural power, makes this happen - just as the power of God’s word brought the whole creation into existence in the first place.

St. Paul writes in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

The God who created you, is the God who has re-created you, by means of the gospel of his Son’s incarnation and life, death and resurrection. The new life that he has bestowed upon you by the gospel, in preaching and Holy Baptism, is nurtured by that same gospel, in preaching and Holy Supper.

As God in these ways renews you in faith, he thereby renews you also in love: love for your Creator, and for your fellow-creatures - of all tribes and cultures, of all lands and nations.

And he thereby prepares you to hear, and to be drawn into, the great commission, that his Son Jesus gives to his church for the benefit of the whole human family, and that St. Mark’s Gospel expresses in this way:

“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”

As we believe, so we speak, and so we sing. And we invite all God’s redeemed creatures to sing with us:

From all that dwell below the skies Let the Creator’s praise arise.
Let the Redeemer’s name be sung Through every land, by every tongue.

Eternal are Thy mercies, Lord; Eternal truth attends Thy Word.
Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore Till suns shall rise and set no more. Amen.

---

23 October 2022 - St. James of Jerusalem - Acts 15:12-22a

On our church calendar, today is the commemoration of St. James of Jerusalem. The New Testament calls him a “brother” of Jesus.

This probably means that he was a step-brother - a son of Joseph by a previous marriage. There is circumstantial evidence that James was older than Jesus. But his being called Jesus’ brother might mean that he was a younger half-brother.

In any case, his human kinship to Jesus is not the reason why his name is honored in the annals of church history. The relatives of the Lord did not have a special standing in the church simply because they were relatives.

Jesus himself taught that his relatives, including even his own dear mother, should not - for this reason - have a special spiritual status in the minds of his disciples. We read in St. Matthew’s Gospel:

“While [Jesus] was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with Him. Then one said to Him, ‘Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You.’”

“But He answered and said to the one who told Him, ‘Who is My mother and who are My brothers?’ And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, ‘Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.’”

The reason why James of Jerusalem is honored among us, and why his example is held up before us, is because he did do the will of God the Father in heaven. He is therefore a “brother” of Jesus also in this sense.

St. John tells us that the brothers of Jesus - including James - did not believe in his Messianic calling during the time of his earthly ministry. Now, the Lord’s relatives were certainly not among his overt enemies during that time. They were not involved in any kind of plots against him.

In fact, they were concerned about him. But their concern was expressed in a way that demonstrated that they did not know who he really was.

On one occasion, when Jesus’ relatives saw and heard what he was doing and saying, they feared that he had become mentally unstable, and was losing his sanity. St. Mark narrates that when crowds had gathered around him, his family tried to seize him and take him away from the crowds, saying, “He is out of His mind.”

But in the case of James, that all changed when the Lord appeared to him after his resurrection. Regarding the resurrection appearances of Jesus, St. Paul reports in his First Epistle to the Corinthians:

“He was seen by Cephas” - that is, Peter - “then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present... After that He was seen by James...”

We don’t know what the risen Christ said to his brother, but we can easily imagine what their conversation was like. And we do know that, after this, James became a stalwart follower of Jesus, recognizing him now not only as his human brother, but also as his divine Savior.

He no longer thought that his brother might be crazy. Instead, he now knew that his brother was much more than his brother.

He truly was the Son of God hidden in human flesh: who had come to redeem Israel - and all nations - by his suffering and death; and who was alive forevermore as the victor over Satan and the grave.

I have known many people who view Jesus, and their relationship with Jesus, through the lens of family relationships.

Sometimes this means that young adults come to church only when, and only because, their parents come to church. They don’t feel a personal connection to Christ, apart from their connection to their family.

At other times, the children of a Christian couple, who are inclined to rebel against their parents in general, also rebel against their parents’ faith. So, Jesus is seen as the object of their parents’ religious devotion. And that is enough of a reason for rebellious children to dismiss his claim on their lives.

James had dismissed the claims of Jesus, too. His situation was not exactly the same as the scenario I have just laid out, but it was still the family relationship “thing” that had no doubt clouded James’s perception of who Jesus really was.

It should not have mattered if Jesus, according to his human nature, was James’s brother, or anyone else’s brother. In the final analysis, it should not ultimately matter to people today if Jesus is the Savior of their parents, or the Savior of anyone else’s parents.

What should matter, and what does matter - to James, and to anyone - is that Jesus is your God, and your Savior. James finally realized this through the miraculous encounter with the resurrected Christ that he was privileged to have.

And you today can also realize this - regardless of what your parents or other relatives think or don’t think - through the miraculous encounter that you have with the resurrected Christ in his Word and sacrament.

You - you as an individual, called by your own name - are baptized into Christ. In Baptism, Jesus individualizes his claim on you. He tells you that he is going to deal with you, in warning you about your sins, and in washing those sins away.

Family kinships are not a defining feature of this intensely personal baptismal relationship with your Lord. No other distraction or excuse matters, either. Only Jesus matters.

That’s what James found out when Jesus came to him, personally. And that’s what you find out when Jesus comes to you, personally.

James was now not only a believer in Christ, but was also called to be a public minister of Christ’s church. He became the chief pastor or bishop of the church at Jerusalem - the mother congregation of all Christendom.

In Jerusalem - living and working as he did in the shadow of the temple, and in the heart of the Jewish nation - James conducted himself in such a way as to exemplify great respect for the Mosaic law.

It is reported in early historical sources that he was very scrupulous in his observance of the appointed times of prayer. He also followed the other prescripts of the law, as an observant Jew.

But as an observant Messianic Jew - as one who knew that Jesus had come to fulfill the law for us, and to offer himself as an atoning sacrifice for us - James also understood that our new life in Christ, and our new ability to live morally in the power of Christ, come to us as gifts of divine grace through faith in the Word of Christ. James wrote in his Epistle:

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.”

James was a serious student of the Hebrew Scriptures, but he read and studied these Scriptures in the light of Christ. He therefore knew that the Old Testament’s picturesque prophetic descriptions of the Messianic age, did not point forward - in the final analysis - to a future earthly kingdom, but to the kingdom of God that has now been established by Jesus in the spiritual fellowship of his church.

An important council was held in Jerusalem, to discuss the nature of the church’s outreach to the gentiles, and to consider the question of whether or not the gentiles must first become Jews - through circumcision and through being bound to the Mosaic ceremonial law - before they could become Christians.

In speaking to this momentous question at the council, as today’s reading from the Book of Acts recounts, James quoted from the Prophet Amos:

“After this I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will set it up; So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who does all these things.”

According to James, this prophecy did not ultimately pertain to a literal rebuilding of a literal tabernacle. James does not endorse any millennial scheme, whereby Jesus is expected to set himself up someday as an earthly king over a universal earthly empire, with a gloriously rebuilt Jerusalem as his earthly capital.

Rather, according to James, this prophesy pointed forward to the building of the spiritual temple that is the church, as Christ - the supreme son of David - draws all nations to himself in the gospel, and embraces both Jew and gentile with his saving love.

That settled the question. And James had the credibility to settle it in this way, because everyone knew how ardent he was in his own personal adherence to the ritual obligations of the law.

But for those who were not Jewish, James made it clear that, according to the Scriptures, they were now to be welcomed into the fellowship of the church as they were.

They were to be invited to receive the same baptism for the remission of sins that the Jewish Christians had received, without the need to be circumcised first. They were to be assured that the reconciliation with God that the gospel offers, is truly offered to them; and that God wants them - in repentance - to believe this gospel, and to be saved from eternal death and judgment through it.

Jesus is indeed the Prince of Peace, who reigns over a kingdom of peace. And after his second coming, he will continue to reign in unimaginable glory and splendor.

But his eternal kingdom is now, and always will be, a kingdom that is not of this world. His eternal kingdom is now, and always will be, a kingdom in which you are I are invited to live: through faith in him, and through the regeneration that is bestowed on those who have now become new creatures in Christ.

It is understandable why the early Christians had a difficult time coming to grips with all of this. Unlike the hesitancy that we often have in associating with people who are ethnically or culturally different from us, the inherited attitude of the original Jewish Christians did have a basis in the Old Testament Scriptures.

For many centuries the children of Israel had lived under a divine command to keep themselves separate from the pagan world, so as to preserve in purity the oracles of God, and the true worship of God.

But James was among those who knew that all of this had changed with the coming of the Messiah, and with the great commission that the Messiah had now given to his disciples. In Jesus, God was establishing a new holy people, comprised of believers from all nations who are circumcised in heart even if not in body.

This change, which James endorsed and supported, is the reason why we are a part of God’s family today, and why we are welcomed at the table of the Lord today. All who repent of their sins, and who believe in and confess Jesus as Lord, are now “kosher.”

As Christians, we do indeed retain many remnants of our Jewish roots in worship and prayer. Terms such as “Alleluia,” “Hosanna,” “Sabaoth,” and especially the oft-spoken “Amen,” are Hebrew words.

The first part of our usual Divine Service follows the pattern of the Synagogue service. And the exchange that begins the second part of the Divine Service - “The Lord be with you. And with your spirit. Lift up your hearts,” and so forth - also has a very ancient Jewish flavor.

But we are at home in this Jewish setting, with these Jewish words and ideas. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has invited us in, and has shown himself to be our forgiving and restoring God, too.

The God of James has invited us in, and has conferred on us - on all of us - a true first-class citizenship in the kingdom of his beloved Son, who is the Savior of the world, and our Savior.

The teaching and testimony of James of Jerusalem contributed greatly to the establishment of a new culture of openness and generosity among the Jewish Christians of the first century, whose attitude toward the gentiles now came to be characterized by a welcoming love for them, and by an ardent desire to see them delivered and saved from their idolatry and ignorance.

This openness and generosity, by which your gentile ancestors were first welcomed into the church, is the same kind of openness and generosity that God’s Spirit works within your heart and mind, as he helps you overcome those fears and prejudices that would otherwise hinder you from bringing the message of his salvation to those who live beyond the boundaries of your comfort zone.

Indeed, our Jewish friends - who usually think that Christianity is a religion for gentiles and not for Jews - may be surprised to know that the first controversy of the church was over whether gentiles were actually allowed to become Christians as gentiles, or if Christianity is actually supposed to exist in perpetuity as a subset of Judaism.

Perhaps you can be the one who tells this interesting story to a Jewish friend; who invites that friend to consider the claims of Jesus on her life; and who invites her to trust in Jesus as the fulfillment of all that God had promised in the Hebrew Scriptures.

In the words of Charles Wesley, we pray to the Lord of the Nations:

Pour out the promised gift on all, Answer the universal “Come!”
The fullness of the Gentiles call; And take thine ancient people home.
To Thee let all the nations flow, Let all obey the Gospel word;
Let all, their bleeding Savior, know, Filled with the glory of the Lord.
O for Thy truth and mercy’s sake, The purchase of Thy passion claim!
Thine heritage the Gentiles take, And cause the world to know Thy name. Amen.

---

28 October 2022 - Funeral for Vicki Angstman - 1 Corinthians 15:51-58

As I was thinking about and preparing this message, I typed the words “Change is” into my Google search engine. In various places on the internet, those two words are finished off in lots of different ways. A few examples:

Change is inevitable. Change is good. Change is hard. Change is scary.

Over the years and decades, there were many noticeable changes in Vicki’s life. For everyone, in all circumstances - as we walk the pathway of our existence in this ever-changing world - change for us personally is indeed inevitable.

Some of those changes for Vicki were brought about by her own decisions, or through her own efforts. When she agreed to marry Roger Angstman, and to establish a new Christian home with him, that was a good and joyful change.

When that home was augmented over the years by the pitter-patter of four sets of little boy feet, with each new addition, it was yet another good and happy change for her and for her family.

In middle age, when she and Roger were becoming empty-nesters, and at a stage in life when most people are getting ready for a calmer and less busy existence, Vicki went back to school, and studied to become a teacher.

And she did then serve for many years, and with great delight, as a first-grade teacher in the Zimmerman school district. This was an exciting and rewarding change.

This change may initially have been scary; but before long it was obvious to everyone - to Vicki, and to her students who greatly benefitted from her love of teaching - that this, too, had been a good change.

Vicki’s desire to be helpful to others, and her eager willingness to use her creative gifts and abilities for the benefit of others, were brought to bear in a very focused way in her career as a teacher. But these were brought to bear in other important ways, an in other places, as well.

As Vicki’s new pastor - yet another recent change in her life - I was just beginning to get acquainted with her when we lost her. But my predecessor has told me how active and helpful she was in this congregation in earlier years, and what a positive impact she had on so many: through her dedicated work as a Sunday School teacher, and as a volunteer in so many other areas of the life of the church.

But most of that changed, with the changes that began to occur a few years ago in regard to Vicki’s personal health and strength. Such changes are inevitable, given the passing of time and the aging process through which we all must go. But they are hard changes.

She became increasingly unable to do so much of what she used to do, and had to step back from a lot of things that had been important to her. As these changes became more significant, she was no longer able to maintain her own home. She lost much of her independence.

The worst and hardest change of all - as I’m sure Vicki would say - was the change that happened when her firstborn son passed away, not that long ago. No parent ever gets over such a change in a family.

Her previous loss of her husband, with all of the changes that this brought, was certainly not easy for her to go through. But everyone knows that there is a 50-50 chance that you will outlive your spouse.

You always assume, however, that your children will all outlive you, and that someday they will bury you. That seems natural. Burying a child is never natural.

These and similar changes were difficult for Vicki to accept. They would be difficult for any of us to accept.

But she did try to accept them, and to make the best of the situation she was now in, because of one particular thing - one very important thing - that had not changed, when almost everything else had.

Through the Prophet Malachi, God himself had spoken these words of admonition and invitation to his people:

“‘For I am the Lord, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from My ordinances and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,’ says the Lord of hosts.”

The unchanging foundation in Vicki’s life - the unchanging rock, and the firm anchor which sustained her in these trials - was the certainty of God’s grace and love toward her, and of God’s abiding presence with her, that the gospel of Christ crucified for sinners brought to her and instilled within her.

The Epistle to the Hebrews teaches that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” And the saving message of Jesus’ redeeming love - for the humanity whose sins he carried to the cross - likewise is always the same saving message.

The Book of Revelation calls it “the everlasting gospel.” And in his First Epistle, St. Peter penned these words to his fellow Christians:

“Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because ‘All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, But the word of the Lord endures forever.’”

I’ve already mentioned the things that Vicki gave to others as a member of this church. But before she gave anything here, she came here to receive: to receive from God, for Christ’s sake, the cleansing and forgiveness that she always knew she needed, as a member of a fallen and broken human race.

To borrow some words from Malachi, she always returned to the Lord: in humble repentance, and with faith in his certain promises. And the Lord always returned to her, and bestowed upon her over and over again all the gifts of his grace that ornamented her life and conversation.

Vicki received from the Lord, who does not change, his pardon and peace, in the absolution that was spoken over her, and in the sacrament of the body and blood of God’s Son that was offered to her. She partook of this sacred Supper often - as recently as the Sunday before she died - because she was confident that her Savior, though hidden, truly joined himself to her here: so that in her weakness she could know and receive his strength.

As God’s Word and Spirit continually came to her, her living hope for an eternity in God’s presence was continually renewed. And her yearning for a special change yet to come - a supremely good change - was continually fed and nurtured.

Today’s lesson from St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians speaks of this wonderful future change, which the general resurrection on the last day will usher in:

“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed - in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”

As Vicki’s faith looked beyond the horizons of this world, and of life in this world, she did indeed believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting, according to God’s revealed plan for the restoration of all things in his Son.

And unlike the many painful and difficult changes that Vicki endured in recent years, this change would be most welcome to her - even as it will be most welcome to all who confess the faith that she confessed, and who know the Savior from sin and death whom she knew.

She knew that Jesus had promised to his disciples - and therefore also to her - that he, as the resurrected and ascended Lord, was going to prepare a place for them, and for her; and that someday he would come again, to take his people to himself forever.

When Vicki departed from this world last week, she did so as an adopted child of God, destined for the mansions of her Father in heaven. She did so as a subject of Christ’s kingdom, whose citizenship was in heaven, from which she also eagerly awaited her Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Vicki lived and died in this hope. And as she has now passed into the nearer presence of Christ, and is with the Lord, she is tasting and experiencing the beginning of the fulfillment of this hope.

Vicki’s passing has now brought about significant changes for us, too. It is a sad change for her children, grandchildren, and other relatives, not to have her as an active part of their family any more. It is a sad change for her fellow members at Bethany not to have her beside them, in the pew or at the communion rail, on Sunday mornings.

But just as Vicki faced changes - including unwelcome and difficult changes - through her heartfelt reliance on what does not change; so too are we encouraged today to find solace and comfort in the gospel of Jesus Christ, our divine-human Savior. In the midst of all the changes and uncertainties that we may face - both now and in the future - he does not change, either in his holiness or in his mercy.

His wise admonition, to one and all, to turn away from all that would separate us from God; and his gracious invitation, to one and all, to trust in him for forgiveness, life, and salvation, are the same admonition and the same invitation that he has been issuing to humanity for two millennia.

Yet his words are as relevant and as powerful today as they have ever been. His life-giving love has as much healing power - for you, and for everyone who looks to him in faith - as it has ever had.

We close with these words from the hymnist Thomas Chisholm:

Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father, there is no shadow of turning with thee.
Thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not; as thou hast been, thou forever wilt be.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide,
strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside! Amen.

---

30 October 2022 - Reformation Sunday - John 8:31-36

O God, our Lord, Your Holy Word was long a hidden treasure
Til to its place it was, by grace, restored in fullest measure.
For this today our thanks we say, and gladly glorify You.
Your mercy show, and grace bestow, on all who still deny You.

This opening verse from the hymn that we sang a few minutes ago - dating from the sixteenth century - reminds us of what the main theme and thrust of Reformation Sunday should be.

Reformation Sunday is not a day for Lutherans to congratulate themselves that they are right and that everyone else is wrong. It is not a day to glory is the greatness of Martin Luther or of any other hero of our church.

It is a day, rather, to offer humble thanks to God for his saving Word, and for the proclamation of his Word - in its truth and purity - within his church.

Today’s Gospel from St. John speaks to this as well, which is why this text is appointed for our instruction today. Here Jesus, the Son of God, is speaking to a group of people described as “Jews who had believed him.”

But in the case of at least some of these people, we do have to wonder what “believing” Jesus had meant for them. They resisted the Lord’s statement that, without him and his saving message, they would remain in spiritual slavery. And it got worse.

By the time we get to the end of Jesus’ increasingly tense dialogue with them - several verses beyond the portion of it that is quoted in today’s reading - Jesus is telling them that their father is not God, but the devil. And they are calling Jesus a demon-possessed Samaritan.

It would seem, then, that for some if not most of the people to whom Jesus is speaking, their having “believed” him did not mean that they had believed his Word. In their supposed “belief,” they were, instead, apparently projecting onto him certain preconceived, erroneous expectations of what they thought the Messiah was supposed to be like.

Jesus, they imagined, had come to vindicate them, and to destroy their political enemies. The Messiah they were expecting would - they thought - reward them for their faithfulness in obeying the law of God, and punish evil-doers.

But they didn’t get these ideas from anything that Jesus had actually said. They hadn’t listened to him very carefully.

And so, their supposed “belief” in him was really a belief in themselves - a belief in their own presumptions, illusions, and self-deceptions - and not a belief in the real Messiah who was actually there to save them from their slavery to sin.

As heirs of the Reformation, we’d probably like to think of ourselves as people who do listen to Jesus, and whose faith in him is in fact based on his Word, and shaped by his Word. Hopefully, among us, that’s more true than not true.

But I would venture to say that it is not as true as it should be. How often do we find ourselves feeling a little bit uncomfortable, as we listen to some of the things that Jesus has to say to us?

Perhaps we have created - in our minds - a “safe” Jesus who does not threaten the status quo in our lives, and who does not demand very much from us. And then, when we are forced to listen to what the real Jesus wants us to know about himself - and about our relationship with him - we hesitate to accept that genuine Word from him, because it doesn’t match up with what we have come to expect.

On this Reformation Sunday, and on every Sunday, how do you evaluate and process the Word of Jesus, when that Word comes to you in statements like these?:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.”

“No servant 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.”

The content of your “belief” in Jesus is not something that you get to make up, in whole or in part. You are not permitted to imagine what you think Jesus should be like, and then to put your faith in that imaginary Jesus.

For example, Jesus is not an indulgent and non-judgmental resource for your own self-defined spirituality, even if that’s what you would like him to be. Jesus does not sit back, wait for you to come up with your own moral code, and then dutifully bless whatever that turns out to be, even if that’s what you would like him to do.

Perhaps you wouldn’t call the real Jesus - with his real demands, and with his reals claims on you - a demon-possessed Samaritan.

But if you are not willing to accept as true and binding on your life, everything that he says; if you have, in your mind, put distance between yourself and his Word; or if you have constructed an artificial Jesus who is anything other than the Jesus who makes himself known in his Word in all of its parts - then that means that there is a part of you that is willing to treat him as if he were a demon-possessed Samaritan.

Jesus says: “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Notice, too, that Jesus says that genuine discipleship comes in our abiding in his Word. We are not simply to visit his Word, and to listen to him, only from time to time - say, on Sunday mornings for an hour or two - while our hearts actually live elsewhere, devoted to other priorities.

Jesus does not invite us to be an occasional guest in his Word. He invites us to live there: to abide there permanently, all the time; in everything that we think, say, and do.

Sometimes the Bible does speak of the Word of God being in us - in our hearts, and in our minds. That imagery is certainly true as far as it goes. But that imagery is not as strong and all-encompassing as is the imagery of our being in the Word of God.

If the Word of God is in you, then conceivably other things may also be in you, competing with it for your loyalty. But when you are said to be in the Word of God, that paints a picture of your being totally enveloped by his Word, and completely surrounded by it.

And that’s the picture that Jesus wants to paint in your mind and heart by his speaking in this way, in today’s Gospel.

The Word of Christ in Scripture does not tell us everything we need to know for our various earthly callings. We use our God-given reason and ingenuity to figure out a lot of things about life in this world - both individually, and collectively as a human civilization.

So, the Word of Christ does not tell us everything about everything. But it does tell us something about everything.

For all the human relationships in which we may find ourselves, and for all the tasks and duties for which we may find ourselves responsible, Jesus does speak to us concerning our inner character; concerning love and service to others; and concerning the necessity of a life lived without shame before a holy and perfect God.

God is angered by arrogance, malice, greed, selfishness, abusiveness, and contentiousness. He is pleased, however, by things like these, as Jesus elsewhere lists them:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit... Blessed are the meek... Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness... Blessed are the merciful... Blessed are the pure in heart... Blessed are the peacemakers...”

Jesus says: “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Abiding in the Word of Jesus does mean abiding in a continual acknowledgment of the rightness and fairness of all his demands upon us - in all aspects of life. It therefore also means abiding in a continual repentance of all our failures, and of all our halfheartedness and hypocrisy.

When Jesus says that if we abide in his Word, we will know the truth, that means, in part, that we will know, and admit, the painful truth of our sin - which we, in pride, would probably not admit, if God’s law, as Jesus preaches that law, didn’t rub our faces in it.

But that’s not the only truth that we will know, when we abide in the Word of Jesus. We will also know this truth, which Jesus speaks to you and to me:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned...”

And also this, likewise from the lips of our Savior:

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

This is that aspect of the Word of Jesus that shows us the truth of our justification before God, and of our acceptance by God. And this is a very real justification, and a very real acceptance.

God, in Christ, truly does count us as righteous. And that really does matter to a conscience that is deeply aware of its sin.

Jesus accomplished this for us by taking our sins upon himself, and carrying them to the cross. As St. Paul writes in today’s lesson from his Epistle to the Romans:

“For...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith...”

In today’s Gospel text, Jesus says: “if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” In his death, in his resurrection, and in his pledge always to remain with his church, and always to intercede for it, the Son has made you free. And therefore you are free indeed.

In Jesus’ cross, you are set free from the weight of your guilt before God. It is lifted off of you by the atoning sacrifice of Christ, and is replaced by the joyous reconciliation that God’s forgiveness brings.

In Jesus’ victory over the grave, you are set free from your fear of death. That fear is replaced by the peaceful hope that the living Christ now instills in you.

And in Jesus’ ascension and glorification, you are set free from the devil’s lies and plots: through the enlightenment of Christ’s Spirit; and through the constant protection that you have from the one who is the Lord of heaven and earth, and your closest friend.

Jesus speaks of all these things in his Word. Jesus speaks all these things into us, by the supernatural power of his Word.

As we abide in his Word - by faith - we abide in all these blessings of redemption and restoration. These blessings are with us on Reformation Sunday and on every Sunday; and in every moment of every day.

As we abide in his Word, we know that these things are true - and will always be true - because the words of Jesus will never pass away, even if heaven and earth pass away.

And finally, as we abide in the Word of Jesus, throughout our pilgrimage in this world, we who have been admitted to the Lord’s altar abide most intimately, and most gratefully, in these particular words of our Redeemer:

“Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you.” “Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the New Testament in My blood, which is shed for you and for many, for the remission of sins.”

On this side of eternity - as we fill out our remaining time on earth - the Lord’s Supper gives the Lord’s disciples a most vivid way of heeding this invitation, and of receiving what he therein promises: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

And as we ponder our destiny in the world to come, we listen carefully to our Savior as he also declares: “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Jesus says: “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Lord, You alone this work have done, by Your free grace and favor.
All who believe will grace receive, through Jesus Christ our Savior.
And tho’ the foe would overthrow Your Word with grim endeavor,
What plan he tries, it always dies; Your Word will stand forever. Amen.