FEBRUARY 2023
FEBRUARY 2023
5 February 2023 - Septuagesima - Matthew 20:1-16
Most people believe in the existence of God. And most people who believe in the existence of God, also believe that God usually operates in certain predictable ways.
If the basis for these beliefs is not the Holy Scriptures, however, then what people tend to fall back on - in forming their expectations and assumptions about God - is their own experience in this world. People tend to believe that God thinks the way they do, and that he uses his power to do the kind of things they would do, if they had such divine power themselves.
If the realm of earthly economic activity would be used as an analogy for how God does things, then it can easily be envisioned that God is, in some ways, like a cosmic boss, or employer; and that people are, in a sense, like employees, who are hired to work for him.
There is actually some truth to this. God is our Lord, and we are his servants. People are supposed to understand themselves to be working for God in this world.
That’s the whole basis for our doctrine of vocation. God calls us, through various methods and in various circumstances, to perform the tasks that he wants done according to our station in life.
He holds us accountable for the faithful performance of these tasks. He is also readily at hand to help us in fulfilling the responsibilities of our vocation.
But, as far as earthly analogies are concerned, we have to make sure we allow God to define the extent to which such comparisons are similar to the ways of his kingdom. And we have to make sure we allow God to show us when his ways are not the same as our ways.
The relationship between an earthly boss and his workers can, in a limited way, serve as an image or illustration of certain truths of God’s kingdom. Certain people in this world - employers, in this case - are sometimes a little bit like God in some of the things they do.
But we should not think that the way people act and relate to one another in this world somehow establishes a categorical and comprehensive standard, in all respects, for what we should expect from God.
Our standards of fairness are not necessarily his standards of fairness. Our standards of righteousness are not necessarily his standards of righteousness.
God is actually less fair than we are, giving undeserving people a second chance over and over again. God is actually more righteous than we are, existing in perfection and demanding perfection from us.
God created man in his image. This is true. But we may not recreate God in man’s image - especially not as man is now, after the fall into sin. Instead, we must always remember what God tells us through the Prophet Isaiah:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
A clear example of this lack of symmetry between God’s ways and man’s ways, is the parable that Jesus tells in today’s Gospel from St. Matthew. He speaks here of a vineyard-owner who hired various groups of workers at various points throughout the day.
In the story, the employer made a explicit arrangement with the first group - hired first thing in the morning - to pay them a denarius for a day of work. That was a fair wage back then.
With the other groups he was not explicit in saying what he would pay them, but just promised to pay them what was proper.
At the end of the workday, however, not only did he give the men in that original group - who had worked all day long - the agreed-upon day’s wage; but he also gave a denarius to everyone else, including those who had worked for only an hour.
In this world, a vineyard-owner could get away with doing that only once. Word would get around fast.
The day following such an act of economically-foolish generosity, he would likely not be able to find anyone willing to work all day long - if people knew that they would get the same wage for working only one hour! Everyone would wait until an hour before quitting time, and then hire on.
But of course, in such a case, the vineyard-owner would not be able to get his grapes pruned or harvested. And a one-hour work-day, with an eight-hour wage, would bankrupt him very quickly.
But the parable that Jesus tells is not about how literal bosses and workers on earth might act. It is about how God acts - in a way that is totally different from how men act.
It is about how God rewards those who believe in him, and who bear the fruits of that faith in works of service to others. It is about how God justifies his people, by grace, with the perfect and complete righteousness of his Son.
In the parable, it is the steward or foreman who pays the workers on behalf of the vineyard-owner. Jesus is God’s “foreman” - the one mediator between God and man - who will pay all of his Father’s servants the same wage, at the end of their time of labor in this life.
The wage that he delivers to them is his righteousness. And he gives all of it, to all of them.
He gives himself to them: everything he is, and everything he did and allowed to be done for their salvation. All who repent of their sins, and who embrace and confess Christ, are justified in Christ.
It is not possible for a man to believe in only a part of Christ. Either you believe in him according to his complete person and work - divine and human, crucified and risen - or you don’t believe in him at all.
So too, it is not possible for only a part of the righteousness of Christ to be imputed to you and credited to you. It doesn’t work that way.
If you have any of his righteousness, you have all of it. If you are at peace with God, and are a member of his family, then that is exactly what you are.
These things don’t come in degrees. Either you have it, or you don’t.
Either you have been transported into his kingdom of light, or you are still in the outer darkness. Either you are a worker in his vineyard, who is paid as all other workers are, or you are still idle, outside of his kingdom.
A self-righteous and boastful person - even an outwardly religious person - whose ideas about God and man are shaped by his own reason and experience, and not by the Scriptures, will not like this. He wants to be rewarded more lavishly for his superior achievements, and for his higher level of religious devotion.
If he, in his own eyes, has been a “good Christian” for his whole life, his pride is offended at the thought that a man who committed heinous crimes may be converted - say, by a prison chaplain, while he was on death row - and be placed into the same standing before God as a man who has always served the Lord.
He refuses to go along with the notion that a murderer, just prior to his execution, is allowed by God to be embraced fully by Christ, and to embrace Christ fully, with all the eternal blessings that flow from this. He is a Pharisee, who would have sneered and scoffed at the man to whom Jesus said from the cross, “today you will be with me in Paradise.”
What brings joy in heaven - the repentance of one sinner - would bring anger and annoyance to such a self-righteous person.
It should be troubling to someone like this, to see himself rejecting what God accepts, and hating what God loves. But it’s not troubling to such a boaster, when he, in his self-deception, continues to persuade himself that God is like him, and that the true God would never do what he would never do.
But as we are instructed by the Scriptures, we know that the true God does do things like this, all the time - with everyone who comes to him, to work in his vineyard.
God’s generosity is poured out equally and fully on all who are baptized into Christ, and who live each day in that baptism by repentance and faith - whether they are seasoned veterans of the Christian pilgrimage on earth, or whether they are just starting out on the roadway of Christian discipleship.
In their justification before God, all who believe in Christ, and who know that their sins are forgiven by Christ, are equally credited with the goodness and the obedience of Christ.
This is not something that offends those who do truly know the Lord. It liberates us.
It sets us free from jealousy and rivalry in the fellowship of the church - in regard to those things that really matter most - because no one in God’s family has more of the righteousness of Jesus, or more of the love of the Father, than anyone else.
Jesus says elsewhere in Matthew, “You have one teacher, and you are all brothers.”
It’s true, of course, that in earthly matters, some people do have more material advantages than others, and some are more prosperous than others. But in God’s kingdom, we are all alive in the Spirit of God, and we are all justified in the Son of God, to the same degree - to the same fullness.
The Colt .45 revolver was often called the “great equalizer” of the Wild West. If you had one, you could do as much deadly damage as anyone else who had one, regardless of your physical stature or personal strength - as long as you were strong enough to pull a trigger.
For Christian believers, the righteousness of Christ, by which we are all completely justified before God, is the great equalizer.
A new Christian is given all of Christ. What more could an old Christian be given, as an extra reward? We all have Christ. We all have him. And Christ has us all. St. Paul writes in his Epistle to the Romans that
“Now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, ...even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 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.”
The supernatural miracle of the Lord’s Supper is a place where we really experience this great equalizing power of the gospel. In the Words of Institution, Jesus says to his disciples, “this is my body; this is the new testament in my blood.”
He did not say to each of the apostles, sitting around that table, “this is the piece of my body that is for you; this is that portion of my blood that is for you.”
Jesus did not apportion himself out, like a butcher divides up various cuts of a side of beef for his customers. This is what critics of our church’s confession have often accused us of believing. But it totally misses the point of the miracle of this sacrament.
In response to some of those critics in the sixteenth century, Luther wrote:
“They would like to...make it look as if we were such mad, senseless, raving people who held that Christ was locally in the sacrament and was eaten up piecemeal as a wolf devours a sheep, and that we were drinking blood as a cow drinks water. They knew...when they called us cannibals and blood-drinkers, at the instigation of the devil, that they were resorting to manifest, impudent lies. ...”
“For this is how it was taught..., how we still accept and teach it, and how it was accepted in the true, ancient Christian church of fifteen hundred years ago...: When you receive the bread from the altar, you are not tearing an arm from the body of the Lord or biting off his nose or a finger; rather, you are receiving the entire body of the Lord; the person who comes after you also receives the same entire body, as does the third, and the thousandth after the thousandth one, forever and ever.”
“In the same way when you drink the wine from the chalice, you are not drinking a drop of blood from his finger or foot, but you are drinking his entire blood; so, too, does the one who follows you even to the thousand times thousandth one, as the words of Christ clearly say: “Take, eat; this is my body.” He does not say: ‘Peter, there, devour my finger; Andrew, devour my nose; John, devour my ears,’ etc.; rather, he says, ‘It is my body; take it and eat it,’ etc. Each person receives it whole.”
By the power of his Word, Jesus gave all of his body to all of those original communicants - over and over again, as the blessed bread was passed to each of them. Jesus gave all of them all of his blood to drink, for the forgiveness of their sins.
Jesus has also commanded his church to celebrate and receive this sacrament, for his remembrance, until he comes again. And so, in our observances of this Supper, when I, as your pastor, hold out to each communicant the blessed bread and wine; and when I say, “this is the true body of Christ; this is the true blood of Christ,” that’s exactly what I mean. That’s exactly what Jesus means.
I do not say, as I walk down the communion rail and speak to each of you, “this is a piece of the body of Christ” - maybe a larger and more comforting piece; maybe a smaller and less comforting piece.
I say, “this is the body of Christ” - the whole body of Christ - “given for you.” Given for all of you. Given for each of you. And all of the blood of Jesus is given to you also, for the forgiveness of all your sins, both great and small.
I say this to each communicant, because it’s true for each communicant. It’s true for those of you who have labored in the heat of the sun for many decades of earthly life, as a follower of Christ. It’s true for those of you who are newly confirmed - newly hired as a worker in the Lord’s vineyard.
It’s true for those of you who today needed to repent of relatively innocuous failures, and common sins of human weakness - but nothing particularly shocking. It’s true for those of you who today needed to repent of grievous transgressions, and horrible, evil thoughts.
And so, while God is in some ways like an earthly employer, in other ways he is definitely not. He pays the same generous wage to all his servants, who come to him on the basis of his promise to save those who trust in him.
He pays that wage to those who come at the beginning of the day, and to those who come when the day is almost over. He gives his salvation to those who serve him well, with a strong and robust faith; and to those who continually struggle, with much doubt and weakness.
All of you receive all of Christ: all of his body; all of his blood; all of his forgiveness. At the Lord’s Table, no one has earned a bigger portion than someone else; a better blessing than someone else; or a larger reward than someone else.
The invitation that the Prophet Isaiah offered in God’s name to all the people of Israel, he also offers in God’s name to all of us, here and now:
“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Amen.
12 February 2023 - Sexagesima - Luke 8:4-15
Those who practice sorcery believe that the incantations they speak, in casting spells, have the power to produce the effect that they want. It is believed that if the sorcerer says the right words, in the right way, those words will make something happen.
It doesn’t matter if the person or people who are affected by this spell believe in what is happening, or understand what is happening, or even know what is happening. The incantation itself has the power to bring either a curse or a blessing to them.
And the words of the spell are believed to have this power even if those words don’t have a particular meaning, according to the vocabulary of a specific language. Linguistic scholars and historians are still trying to figure out the original source and meaning of the word “abracadabra.”
An incantation supposedly retains its power even if no one understands what it means. It is not necessary for people to reflect on such words, or to ponder them. All that is necessary is for a sorcerer to speak them.
Christians believe that the Word of God also has power. It has power in itself to accomplish what God wants it to accomplish. God’s Word is supernaturally alive, and is able to impart life.
We do not believe that God’s Word in Scripture is merely a collection of interesting but inert religious information. Rather, when God’s message of law and gospel comes into contact with people, it is able to change them: to change their standing before God; and to change their inner will, attitudes, and character.
Through the Prophet Isaiah, God speaks about this power of his Word, when he says:
“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
God’s Word has within it an active, divine energy. It does not go out from him empty, and it will not return to him empty.
But the way in which the power of God’s Word operates in a person’s life is very, very different from the way in which a sorcerer’s incantation is thought to operate. An incantation does not require, or stimulate, any conscious interaction, or thoughtful deliberation, on the part of the person whom it affects.
An incantation works externally. It forces its power onto the person on whom a spell has been cast.
But God’s Word does its work precisely in the heart and mind of the person with whom it comes into contact. That’s where its power is unfolded and made known.
And that’s one of the main points of the parable of the sower, which we heard in today’s Gospel from St. Luke. In this parable, Jesus speaks of a sower who spreads his seed around in a way that seems a bit haphazard.
The seed - like the Word of God - goes everywhere: on the path or wayside, on the rock, among thorns, and into good soil.
It does not get planted or germinate in every place where it lands, although there is always someplace where it does get planted and germinate. A potential for life and growth is inherent in the seed, but sometimes that potential does not get released, or bear its fruit.
Remember this, dear friends, if you are ever tempted to think of the Word of God as if it were the same as an incantation, which has the desired effect regardless of the state of mind of the people who are touched by it. God’s Word is not like that.
Jesus teaches us that some people who are exposed to God’s Word harden their hearts against it as soon as they hear it. We might say that when God’s Word comes to them, they immediately push it back, in unbelief.
Jesus explains: “Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.”
The people Jesus is describing here are those who do not understand God’s Word. Actually they refuse to understand it. They refuse to listen to it. The devil has his way with them instead, keeping them in a state of spiritual ignorance.
They do not believe what God tells them about the danger and destructiveness of their sin, or about his remedy for their sin. Consequently they receive no benefit from their outward exposure to this message, or from their passing curiosity about this message.
So if, say, a man’s wife drags him to church every week, and he is willing to go to please her; but if he is not willing to listen to, and try to understand, the message of the sermon and the hymns, his physical attendance at church will do him no good.
And if a woman goes to church chiefly for the sake of the social aspects of such a gathering, but also thinks somehow that a spiritual benefit will come to her simply because she is physically in the presence of preaching and singing, this is nothing more than superstition.
If through unbelief you keep the Word of God on the outside of your mind and heart - even if you are externally religious in your habits - you will not know the power of God’s Word to save you. God’s Word does not work like an incantation: externally and by force.
It works, and accomplishes its saving purposes for you, on the inside - where repentance and faith can take place - just like a seed works and germinates only when it is planted in the soil.
In the parable of the sower, Jesus also teaches that there are cases when the Word of God is believed or acknowledged only temporarily, or only superficially. He explains:
“The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away. Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.”
You cannot comfort yourself with the memory of a faith that you no longer have. Of course, it is a good thing if you have been baptized - that is, if you were given the washing of water with the Word at some point in the past. It is a good thing, too, if you attended Sunday School as a child, and believed then what you were taught.
But if your baptism is not living in you right now - if you are not living in your baptism, in daily repentance and faith - then God’s Word is no longer benefitting you. If you do not believe at the present time what you were previously taught from the Bible, then as far as your current state of salvation is concerned, you might as well have never believed these things.
The power of God’s Word in your life cannot be limited to the realm of sentiment and memory. It is either a contemporary and vibrant power - impacting, shaping, and directing your mind and heart right now - or it is not truly a power in your life at all.
God’s Word does have within it a supernatural power that can indeed drive us to our knees in shame and humility, when we have sinned, and when God’s law makes us admit that we have sinned. And, God’s Word has within it a supernatural power that can lift us up in Christ - up to the glory and peace of heaven itself - when the gospel dresses us in the pure garment of Christ’s righteousness, to cover over all our sins.
The power of God’s Word is a power that can permeate all aspects of our life with the life of God himself, so that we bear the fruit of the Spirit in what we think, say, and do.
God’s Word confronts and subdues the sinful impulses that still plague us. It shines brightly to dispel the darkness that still lurks in the corners of our old nature. It brings understanding and contentment to our confused and frightened minds.
God’s Word makes us truly alive in Christ. Jesus describes all of this in this way:
“The [seeds] that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.”
What is the basic difference constitutionally between those who respond positively to the Word of God, and those who reject it, either immediately or eventually? Why are some saved and not others?
This is a question that ultimately cannot be answered, because Scripture does not answer it.
The point of comparison of the parable is also limited in what it is attempting to teach us. The imagery of the parable doesn’t raise or answer this question.
We cannot say that God does not earnestly intend to plant the seed of his Word in the lives of those who end up not believing. This would violate the Bible’s teaching that God wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
We also cannot say that those who have the “good soil” of faith were, in their unregenerated nature, more receptive to the gospel than others. This would violate the Bible’s teaching that we are all by nature sinful, and unclean.
This would also violate the Bible’s teaching that those who are saved are saved by grace alone, through a faith that is itself a gift of God. We are not saved through a faith that arises from the unconverted heart and mind of man as a prelude to conversion, since the unconverted heart and mind are still in the condition that St. Paul describes in his Epistle to the Romans, when he writes that
“The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
And Paul explains in the same epistle that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
We are saved by a faith that God gives us, miraculously, through the power of his Word, when he engenders within us a new nature, and a new way of being and living.
If you are resisting the operation of God’s Word; and are closing yourself off to what God wants to do, for you and in you, through his Word; then be warned that the power of God’s Word will not benefit you.
If you are trying to fabricate some kind of assurance for eternity on the basis of a past faith, or on the basis of a former relationship with Christ that does not exist any more, do not deceive yourself.
But, if you today do repent of your sins - if you acknowledge, today, that what God says to you about those sins is true - then know that God, in his love for you, is making you to be a person of “good soil.”
If you today do trust in your crucified and risen Savior Jesus Christ for forgiveness - if you stake everything, today, on him and his promises - then know that Christ, your true hope, is planting the Word of his kingdom in you.
God’s Word is in the means of grace that are presented to you, and is united to the earthly elements of the sacraments that are offered to you. And through these divinely-appointed instruments, God’s Word then enters into you.
It delivers forgiveness, life, and salvation to you. It rescues you from the world, the flesh, and the devil.
And recall again what the Lord had said through Isaiah:
“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth...”
In the parable of the sower, and its explanation, Jesus compares the seed that is planted in the good soil to his Word. But in the Prophet Isaiah, God reminds us that his Word is what makes the good soil to be good.
God’s Word, as it were, “waters” you, and makes the “soil” of your heart and mind to be receptive to the gospel. God’s Word does everything.
As a seed that is planted, it offers forgiveness and life to those who will receive these heavenly blessings in faith. As a refreshing rain that invigorates the soil of the heart, it creates the very faith that it calls for.
The power of God’s Word is not like the power of a sorcerer’s incantation. God’s Word addresses and engages your mind. It plants itself in your heart.
It transforms you internally. It changes your way of thinking, and your way of living.
God’s Word brings to you a faith that is centered on Christ, to receive from him his pardon and all his mercies. And God’s Word brings to you a faith that is alive in Christ, bearing the fruit of good works.
Almighty God, Thy Word is cast Like seed into the ground;
Now let the dew of heaven descend, And righteous fruits abound.
Oft as the precious seed is sown, Thy quickening grace bestow,
That all whose souls the truth receive, Its saving power may know. Amen.
19 February 2023 - Quinquagesima - 1 Corinthians 12:31b–13:13
The thirteenth chapter of St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians - which we heard read a few minutes ago - is often called the Bible’s “Love Chapter.”
And since the institution of marriage is - or is supposed to be - marked by love, and by two people being in love, this chapter is frequently read at weddings. Its text is frequently printed on cards or favors that are passed out at wedding receptions.
To be sure, the qualities and traits of love, as St. Paul describes them, certainly should characterize the relationship of a man and woman in marriage. Paul writes:
“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”
A marriage that is characterized by this kind of mutual affection and selflessness will certainly be a happy and rewarding marriage. But marriage is not the only place, and is not even the primary place, where the qualities and traits of genuine love should be seen and lived out.
The frequent linkage between First Corinthians 13 and weddings, reflects the very romantic way of defining and applying the concept of love that has predominated in our culture since the advent of romance novels and romantic movies. And this romantic kind of love, in turn, is generally thought of as a feeling that resides in the emotions.
So, a young man whose attention is drawn to an attractive young woman may think that he loves that woman, because of the exhilarating feeling that he gets when he sees her or talks to her - even if he knows very little about her character and personality, her beliefs and values, or her interests and abilities.
This kind of superficial and shallow love is more accurately described as infatuation, rather than as love in the true sense. But this is what often passes for love in our society.
Marriages that are built on the basis of such an infatuation - even if it is a mutual infatuation - often do not last. And if they do last, they are often not happy unions.
Paul’s words concerning love, in the so-called Love Chapter of his First Epistle to the Corinthians, are not addressing this kind of romantic attraction. They are addressing something that goes much deeper, and that reaches out more widely.
The Greek word that is rendered as “love” in our translation is “agape.” Most English Bibles translate “agape” as “love.” But the old King James Version translated this Greek word as “charity.”
In some ways, “charity” is actually a good term to use, since it captures an aspect of the full meaning of the Greek term that the word “love,” all by itself, may not. And that’s because Paul’s descriptions of “agape” are not so much about how love makes you feel about other people, as they are about how love makes you treat other people.
True love - that is, true charity - involves a willingness to make sacrifices for the sake of others - sometimes very substantial sacrifices. True love expresses itself in behaviors and actions that are characterized by patience with others, kindness and compassion toward others, and humility with respect to others.
True love is charitable in interpreting the words and actions of others. It is always looking for ways to meet the needs of others: material and emotional needs, needs for security and safety.
My love for someone does not exist merely inside of me, in the realm of my thoughts and feelings. It exists also and especially in the practical realities of my actual relationships: relationships with others that I already have, and new relationships into which God places me so that I can be someone’s new friend.
So, when Jesus tells us, in John’s Gospel, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another,” he is not telling us simply to cultivate certain warm feelings in our heart when we think about one another.
He is, rather, telling us to make a real difference in the lives of one another. He is telling us to give of ourselves, into the lives of one another.
Be a companion to the lonely. Cloth the naked. Feed the hungry. Comfort the distressed. Calm the fears of those who are afraid.
And when it’s not easy to do this - because of the sin that clings both to you and to those you are called to love - do it anyway.
Be patient with those who irritate you. Be at peace with those who tempt you to anger. Forgive those who have hurt you. Give a second chance to those who have disappointed you.
And if you have been the one to hurt or disappoint another, swallow your pride, and apologize. If it’s possible to make things right, make things right.
And, when Jesus tells us in Luke’s Gospel, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you,” then we know for sure that he is talking about a way of thinking, and a way of living, that this fallen and hate-filled world does not know, and will never understand.
But, this is the way of love. This is the more excellent way. This is the way that St. Paul describes for us, and exhorts us to follow:
“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”
It is probably not necessary for me at this point to take too much time and effort to remind you - and to remind myself - that we have definitely not lived up to this standard.
In speaking of the wickedness of the end times, in St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says that, “because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” Maybe this aspect of the end times has started to come true for you already.
And if that is the case, it should frighten you and alarm you, because neither Jesus nor St. Paul make the love that we are called to have for others - and to show to others - optional. St. John also chimes in with a firm warning and admonition, in his First Epistle:
“If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.”
In this Epistle, St. John also writes:
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
If that was all John said, we would be left in despair. And God - who is love - would seem very far from us.
If this was all John said, our conclusion would have to be that we are not born of God, and do not know God, because our love for others - such as it is - is very weak and unreliable. It is polluted with selfishness and indifference, with greed and grudges.
But this is not all that John says. In the very next sentence, he also writes this:
“In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
This is good news, even for those who know that they are sinners, because the love that God has shown to us, is a love that prompted him to send his Son to pay the ransom price for our sins, and to sacrifice himself to atone for our sins.
And John gives us an additional encouragement, to know that this salvation is indeed for us - even as we are weighed down with regret over our failure to love others as God loves us - when he also writes in this epistle:
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ...if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”
Indeed, what God has done for us in his Son, is the best example of love that there has ever been. We do not regularly recite a verse that tells us that God so loved the world that he felt certain emotions, or pondered certain thoughts. Rather, we recite a verse that tells us that God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son.
God the Father loved us and gave his Son to us. And the Son loved us, and loves us still, so that he too gives, and gives again.
Regarding his disciples - and this includes us - Jesus prays to his Father: “I have given them Your word.”
Regarding his sheep - and this likewise includes us - Jesus says: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.”
One of the most ancient descriptions of the Lord’s Supper - used already during the time of the apostles - is that it is the church’s Love Feast. This description appears in the Epistle of St. Jude. And it is a very fitting description. Jesus said:
“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love.”
The commandment in which this promise from Christ is most fully realized, is the gracious commandment that he gave to his church on the night in which he was betrayed:
“This do in remembrance of me.” “This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
Jesus elsewhere said: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends, if you do whatever I command you.”
The life that Jesus did lay down for us - that is, the body that he sacrificed for us, and the blood that he shed for us - is exactly what we receive from him in our church’s Love Feast, over and over again.
As Jesus’ Spirit prompts us to do what he tells us to do - to consecrate bread and wine with his words, and to eat and drink that blessed bread and wine with faith in his words - Jesus is, in that very moment, loving us, and forgiving us.
In that very moment, the divine love of Jesus is manifesting its patience and kindness toward us. In his love, Jesus is - in that very moment - rejoicing over us, and bearing with us.
The love of the Lord, at the altar of the Lord, is not failing, because his love never fails.
And also in that very moment, we are loving and forgiving one another.
“The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” - as we are reminded by the Epistle to the Romans. Together, we receive God’s love in Christ; and from this love we learn how to love.
We arise from the Lord’s altar to return to our vocations and relationships: to embrace and serve others as Christ has embraced and served us; to bring help and healing where help and healing are needed; to speak words of hope and peace where words of hope and peace are needed.
We arise ready and able - with a readiness and an ability that Christ has given us through the wondrous fulfillment of his sacramental commandment - to fulfill also his other commandments, which are summarized in the phrase: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
As we do this - energized as friends of Christ, of each other, and of all in this world who need our love - we say what St. Paul said in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians:
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.”
O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee.
I give thee back the life I owe,
that in thine ocean depths its flow
may richer, fuller be. Amen.
22 February 2023 - Ash Wednesday - Jonah 3:1-10
The reading from the Book of Jonah that we heard a few minutes ago tells us that, after Jonah called the ruler and people of Nineveh to repentance for their sins, they did indeed repent. And their repentance was accompanied by certain outward actions that symbolized and underscored their humility before God, and testified to their acknowledgment that their behavior had displeased him and invited his punishment. We read:
“So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes.”
So, the king of Nineveh sat in ashes. At other times and in other places in the Old Testament - but in similar circumstances - people put ashes on their heads as a token of their penitence and shame, and of their deep humility before the Lord.
Why ashes? Well, lets think for a minute not only about what ashes may represent, but about what ashes actually are, and where they come from.
If something is torn, it can probably be fixed with tape. If something is broken, it can probably be fixed with a couple nails. If something is cracked, it can probably be fixed with glue.
But, if something has been consumed by fire, and burned to ashes, it cannot be fixed. It cannot be restored or revived. It is totally destroyed. It is gone forever.
St. Peter, in his First Epistle, admonishes all of us with these words:
“All of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’”
Pride does indeed lay at the root of many if not most of our sinful attitudes and actions. The Book of Proverbs says several things about pride - none of them complementary:
“When pride comes, then comes shame.”
“By pride comes nothing but strife.”
“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
It is indeed very often because of pride, in one form or another, that each of us has fallen into something wrong or improper that we then later regret, when God’s law puts us under the conviction that what we did or said - in our pride - was wrong and hurtful.
So, it is often the case that God’s word of judgment tears into our pride; that God’s wrathful anger breaks open our pride; and that God’s threat of punishment cracks through our pride.
And we then feel bad because of our sins - for a while. We suppress our pride and its harmful influence - for a while. But we don’t totally let go of our wounded - but still living - pride.
And then, when the immediate intensity of the feeling of guilt subsides, and we slip back into our old routines, we put some tape on our torn pride. We put a couple nails into our broken pride. We put some glue onto our cracked pride.
Our pride once again raises its ugly head, and sharpens its claws, and the whole vicious cycle begins yet again. Our repentance was incomplete. Our remorse was half-hearted. We didn’t forsake our sinful pride, but we hung onto it. We patched it up and fixed it. We then invited it to dominate and control our lives once again.
In true repentance, however, sinful human pride is not merely torn, broken, or cracked. It is not merely injured, but it is killed.
With a sincere sorrow over sin, our greedy pride is not merely put into a state of temporary disrepair, but it is incinerated by a deep and thorough remorse over the wrong we have done, and over the good we have failed to do. Our lascivious pride is burned up by a deep and sincere regret over the pain we have inflicted onto others, and over the harm we have done to our own soul.
Our arrogant pride is razed to the ground, destroyed and obliterated, by a fearful admission that we have offended God, and have placed ourselves on a pathway to damnation by our many transgressions.
That’s what ashes mean. That’s what ashes are. That’s what genuine repentance means. That’s what genuine repentance is.
And that’s what we are all called to, in this penitential season of Lent: this season, not of a torn pride, not of a broken pride, and not of a cracked pride; but this season of a pride that has been turned to ashes.
Physical, external ashes may serve as a symbol of humility and sorrow, to remind us of the need to repent and to humble ourselves before the Lord.
But the real ashes - the spiritual and internal ashes - are the reality of that true humility and of that sincere sorrow, deep down in our minds and hearts.
Yet in the midst of this repentance - this real, ashen repentance - we remember what St. Peter said:
“God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
And immediately after that line, he goes on to write this:
“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”
Humility and ashes before God are not an end in themselves. Rather, they prepare the way for what God really wants to do for us - during the season of Lent, and in all times and seasons. Psalm 113 speaks to this desire on the part of God, and to how he accomplished his desire to redeem and save his people:
“Who is like the Lord our God, who dwells on high, who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth? He raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the ash heap, that He may seat him with princes - with the princes of His people.”
God, who is almighty, holy, and righteous, always loved his creatures even when they - when we - defied him and ran away from him. And when the right time came, he humbled himself in the person of his Son to be born of a virgin, so as to pursue us with his Word and Spirit; and to die and rise again for us, to redeem, restore, and exalt us.
In his Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul explains this in more detail:
“God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
Christ died for you, and in Christ you have died to sin. Christ was raised up for you, and in Christ you have been raised up to heaven itself, where your citizenship now is, and where your destiny will be.
The righteousness of our Savior has been credited to us who believe in the One “who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification” - as Paul reminds us in his Epistle to the Romans.
Jesus came among us - and in his Word and sacraments he comes among us still - preaching repentance, and also announcing forgiveness to those who are penitent; preaching the need for a humility before God that is like ashes, and also proclaiming and applying to us an exaltation and a washing away of all that is dirty and unclear in us, filling us with heavenly joy and supernal peace.
Through the Prophet Isaiah, God’s Son himself prophetically speaks to us:
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”
If you do not first know and experience the ashes of a heavy heart before the Lord, and the ashes of sadness and mourning over your sins, then you will never know and experience the true joy of being able to praise Christ for the cleanness and beauty of his wondrous mercy: as he clothes you in his righteousness, and makes you to be righteous and acceptable to his Father - who by adoption is now also your Father.
But when in repentance, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, you are emptied of all pride, then Jesus fills you with his healing grace. When in repentance you acknowledge your poverty in spirit, then the message of life and liberation that is good news to the poor, becomes good news to you. You are set free from the power of sin and death.
Your hope is now in God, and not in yourself. Your aspirations are now shaped by his loving will and direction, and not by your own selfish pride. Jesus does this for you. Jesus does this in you.
We close with these words from the song-writer Steven Green:
Out of ashes prayers are lifted from the weary mourners’ call,
Broken hearts are being mended, Jesus’ stripes can heal them all.
Out of ashes into freedom, out of dying into life,
See the joy that’s set before us in the blinding cross of Christ.
Out of ashes He is risen, seated with the heavenly hosts.
Clouds of witnesses are praising Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.
26 February 2023 - Lent 1 - Genesis 3:1-21
The devil generally follows a certain well-rehearsed strategy in the spiritual warfare that he wages against the human race. He has not made any fundamental changes in his tactics since he started this war against humanity in the Garden of Eden millennia ago.
The reason why Satan’s basic strategy has stayed the same, is because that strategy continues to work; and because human beings in every generation continue to be vulnerable to it and to succumb to it - as they allow the devil to draw them away from God, and to keep them disconnected from God.
The descendants of Adam and Eve - as a whole - have not, in their fallen condition, become wise to Satan’s ways. In the state in which each of us comes into this world, we are still just as gullible, and just as foolish, as human beings have ever been.
So, if we want to get an idea about what kind of techniques the devil might be planning to use against us, in his attacks on our faith and our salvation, we can and should carefully consider the techniques he used against Adam and Eve.
And studying how Adam and Eve reacted to the devil’s machinations in the Garden of Eden, can perhaps give us some insight into how and why we react as we do, to the machinations that Satan brings into our lives.
We notice several important things when we read what today’s lesson from the Book of Genesis tells us. In dealing with Eve, the devil first sought to plant doubt in her mind regarding God’s Word, before he launched a full frontal assault on God’s Word. He asked, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
Satan knew, of course, that God had not said this, but had merely forbidden humans to eat from just one tree. In the way in which he phrased his insincere question, the devil tried to confuse Eve, and to make her uncertain as to what God’s commandment had really been.
And Satan does the same thing today. “Has God indeed said that you are not allowed to have sex?” No, he has not said this; but he has said that such intimacy is to be reserved for marriage.
“Has God indeed said that you are not allowed to succeed and prosper in life?” No, he has not said this; but he has said that in your efforts to succeed and prosper, you must never resort to dishonesty or stealing, or fall into an idolatrous love of money.
“Has God indeed said that you should never be happy?” No, he absolutely has not said this; but he has said that true happiness is to be found and defined in that which is noble, honorable, and godly, and not in satisfying the selfish and destructive desires of the sinful flesh.
Many times we are led astray from the truth by subtle deceptions like this. Such devilish exaggerations of God’s actual law make God look unreasonable and arbitrary. And they make us feel justified in disobeying him.
And second, in the account from Genesis, we see the devil creating within Eve a desire to be like God, and to be the mistress of her own destiny. And then we see the devil using that wrong desire against her.
He said: “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
He caused Eve to think that God was selfishly keeping something from her that would actually be beneficial to her. His sly words diminished Eve’s perception of the holiness and goodness of God.
But instead of raising Eve to God’s level, Satan’s lies, when Eve believed them, had the effect of lowering God to Eve’s level - at least in Eve’s mind. She lost her fear of God, and her willingness to submit to God.
Of course, it seemed right to Eve, at the time. Eve may have liked the feeling of independence and autonomy that the devil’s deceptions gave her - when he successfully plucked her away from God and his authority.
But this feeling of independence and autonomy was an illusion. What was really happening was the first stage of the devil’s enslavement of Eve, and of the whole human race, under the power of sin and death.
Don’t fall for this when the devil tries it with you. Satan wants you to think that you are “taking charge” of your own life, when you turn your back on God’s Word. But that’s not what’s really happening. What’s happening is that the devil is taking charge of your life, in order to destroy it.
Psalm 99 says: “The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!”
Don’t misconstrue and misapply the love that God genuinely does bear toward the world. His love is an undeserved and condescending love, which comes down to us from the heights of his majestic glory.
But his love for us does not cause him to stop being God over us. God, as God, is not our peer, or our equal. Remember, we should fear and love God, and so obey all his commandments.
Any and all temptations we have to think of ourselves as “little gods,” who can make up our own rules about what is right and wrong, are temptations to idolatry. But God is God. We are not God.
“You will be like God” is a lie that Satan has repeated over and over again, to Eve and to all her descendants. It’s a lie that often does appeal to the worst aspects of sinful, human pride. Don’t let it appeal to you. We can also take note of a few things about the reaction of Adam and Eve to all this. Their reaction is pretty much like the reaction of all others in human history, who have ever succumbed to the devil’s temptations.
In her initial response to the devil’s probing, Eve said, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
That’s an interesting answer, because in the directions that God had given Adam, he did not, in fact, forbid the touching of the fruit of the tree, only the eating of the fruit. It may not seem all that important, but Eve is misquoting God’s Word, and is adding something that is not supposed to be there.
We must never do that. I wonder how many times we’ve heard that the “Good Book” says something that it does not, in fact, say.
Many people imagine that popular axioms such as “cleanliness is next to godliness,” or “God helps those who help themselves,” are from the Bible. But they are not. They are from “Poor Richard’s Almanac,” written and edited by Benjamin Franklin in the eighteenth century!
As we would want our faith to be guarded against unexpected temptations, and as we would want to be prepared for the challenges and trials of life in general, it is important for us to know what God’s Word says: not just to have a general idea, or a vague recollection, but really to know.
It’s easy for the devil to twist the meaning of the Scriptures, and to deceive you in that way, when he knows the Scriptures better than you do. And he knows them very well.
He knows how to misuse them, and how to make them seem to say things they don’t really say. Don’t help him in that process!
Instead, read and study God’s Word. Meditate on God’s Word. Listen attentively when your pastor preaches and teaches God’s Word.
Know God’s Word. And when you confess you faith, base that confession on God’s Word - without adding anything that is not supposed to be there; and without omitting anything that is.
We also read in today’s text:
“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.”
And when our first parents were confronted by God after this transgression, and were called to account for what they had done, look at how they responded.
God asked Adam, “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” He answered, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
Then the Lord asked Eve, “What is this you have done?” She answered, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
For each of them, their first instinct was to “pass the buck.” Adam did not forthrightly take the blame for his sin.
He passed the blame onto Eve, and even onto God himself. “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree.”
And Eve’s performance was no better. “The serpent deceived me,” she said.
She should have admitted, “I wilfully allowed myself to be deceived by the serpent, even though I knew better.” But there was no such humility and honesty.
And it’s no different today. When you’re caught in a sin, is your first reaction to admit your fault? Or is your first reaction to find someone else to blame? I think we all know the answer.
When you are to blame for what you have done, God knows it. When you lie to him, or try to trick him into thinking that someone else is really responsible, it just makes him angrier.
Don’t treat God as if he doesn’t know as much as you do about what’s going on. He does. And he also knows a whole lot more.
He knows that Satan is trying to hurt you and destroy you whenever he tempts you to sin. He knows what’s really at stake when you play with fire in this way.
And so, don’t lie to God, or try to evade his scrutiny. Repent, honestly and humbly. Admit your fault. If there are others who are also partially to blame, God will find them on his own, and deal with them himself.
Just take the blame for whatever it is you actually did. Even if others coaxed you to do something that was wrong, since you knew that it was wrong, you are to blame for your own actions, not them.
And, ask the Lord for his mercy and forgiveness. He will show it to you, and give it to you.
We’ve noted that the devil hasn’t changed his strategy for all these many generations, because that strategy does usually work. By continuing to use it, he continues to succeed in bringing pain and suffering into the lives of sinful men, and in further alienating the human race from its Lord and creator.
But Satan’s strategy doesn’t always work. Even in the case of Adam and Eve, it worked only for a time. Their sin was inexcusable, but God still brought a word of promise and hope to them, even after they had fallen into the devil’s trap.
God’s Word had been clear. Once they had turned their back on his Word and had believed the devil instead, Adam and Eve did not deserve God’s help. But they got God’s help anyway.
God spoke these words to the devil in such a way as to make sure that Adam and Eve could overhear them:
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”
The offspring of the woman - the virgin-born Savior of the human race - would someday redeem Adam and Eve, and all their descendants, from the power of Satan. In his death for all human sin - including the sins that had just transpired in Eden - this Savior would indeed be bruised by the devil.
His suffering would be real, just as the offense of human sin against a holy God is real. But in his resurrection, this Savior would bring deliverance and enlightenment to those whom the devil had deceived.
He would bruise the devil’s head - giving him an incapacitating blow, as it were - and thereby set humanity free from its enslavement to Satan’s lies. The coming Savior would win the victory over sin, death, and the devil. And he would bestow the fruits of that victory - forgiveness and eternal salvation - on all who repent and believe the gospel.
This is the promise God made to Adam and Eve. And this, in essence, is the same promise that God makes to you.
The Savior who prophetically brought God’s grace to our first parents in Eden, is the Savior who has now come among us as our brother according to the flesh, and who supernaturally lives among us as the head and Lord of his church.
His Spirit speaks to us in the gospel to assure us of his pardon and reconciliation. In his absolution we are cleansed of all guilt; and all dread of God’s wrath is taken from us.
Jesus battled Satan for us, and was victorious over him for us. Jesus was bruised for our iniquities. And for our deliverance, he bruised our enemy, and freed us from his clutches.
In their shame and embarrassment, Adam and Eve had fashioned for themselves inadequate coverings made of leaves. We, too, are not strangers to such foolish attempts to cover over sin, and to hide it from God’s judgment.
We may think that if we pretend that we have not actually sinned, God will be deceived and will not notice that we have. Or we may think that if we do a bunch of good works as a follow-up to our sin, God’s attention will be drawn to the good works, and he will forget about the sin. But such cover-ups never work.
Even so, God will also forgive these foolish attempts, when we repent of them, just as he forgave the foolishness of Adam and Eve in this respect. As a substitute for the aprons they had made of leaves, God gave them adequate coverings.
The text tells us: “for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.” Implicit in this brief sentence is a testimony to the first death that ever occurred on earth.
God himself slew an innocent animal, and maybe two such animals - animals that had not sinned against him - so that their skin could be used to cover the shame of Adam and Eve. What a moving illustration this is, and a foreshadowing of our justification before God, for the sake of Christ’s innocent death on our behalf.
When God forgives us, he places the righteousness of Jesus upon us like a garment. This righteousness covers the shame and guilt of our sin, so that we can stand before God without fear and trembling, but with confidence and hope.
As St. Paul writes to the Galatians: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” And as Paul writes to the Romans,
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”
Our own self-made flimsy aprons of human righteousness would never suffice to make us acceptable to God. But Jesus’ righteousness - a righteousness that he graciously gives to us in our justification - does suffice. His righteousness, which flows from his perfect life and innocent death, is a perfect righteousness.
When God covered Adam and Eve with the skins that came from the shedding of a substitute’s blood - which was a type of Christ and his atoning death - they, too, were justified. They, too, were assured of God’s grace. They, too, were invited to approach God, once again, in faith.
The devil doesn’t change his strategy in his attacks upon us. But God likewise doesn’t change his strategy in saving us from the devil’s assaults, in making us to be new creatures in Christ, and in protecting us from future spiritual danger.
What God did for Adam and Eve, he still does for us. The grace that he showed to them, he shows to us.
The Savior in whom they were invited to believe, is the Savior in whom we are invited to believe. The righteousness with which he covered them, is the righteousness with which he covers us. Amen.