JULY 2023


2 July 2023 - Luke 1:39-56 - Visitation

Quite often, important events look and feel like important events. They are witnessed by a lot of people, and they make a big impact on a lot of people.

But sometimes, important events can go unnoticed by everyone except those few people who are participating in them. And maybe even those people may not fully realize how and why what they are doing is important.

The meeting of Mary and Elizabeth, and what transpired between them when they met - which today’s Gospel from St. Luke recounts - was a largely unnoticed event. As far as we can tell, it involved just four people: Mary and Elizabeth, of course; and also the two unborn children who were in their respective wombs.

By outward appearances, there was nothing happening here to make anyone think that this was important. Pregnant women often get together to talk about, well, their pregnancies.

Those who are not pregnant usually find those conversations to be uninteresting. Is that what was going on in today’s Gospel?

Mary and Elizabeth were certainly talking about their pregnancies. But in each case, there was a whole more going on than what is usually going on when a woman is expecting a baby.

Given the decadent cultural circumstances in which we live, we should also pause here to draw attention to something that in the first century would have been taken for granted, even with respect to an ordinary pregnancy: namely, that an unborn child is indeed a child - a real, living, human child - whose life is valued by God and man, and for whose life God has a plan.

A large segment of the population of our nation pretends that this is not true - despite the voice of conscience telling them that it is. But a part of why today’s story is so heart-warming, is because Mary and Elizabeth both joyfully acknowledged the beloved children who were in their wombs.

Elizabeth’s son, John the Baptist, leaped in his mother’s womb when Mary spoke. He was at six months gestation, and could hear what was going on in the outside world.

Indeed, it was for joy that he leaped in the presence of Jesus. The Holy Spirit caused John to know - while he was still in the womb - who this was, and whose mother this was.

Elsewhere in Luke’s Gospel we are told that John would “be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.” This was evidence of that. And as today’s text tells us, Elizabeth was also filled with the Holy Spirit, so that she, too, knew who Mary was, and who Mary’s Son was.

Mary had miraculously conceived only a short time before this. Few if any people knew about it. But Elizabeth knew, and Elizabeth described Mary as “the mother of my Lord.”

Mary was not merely going to be a mother. She was a mother already. And she was the mother of the world’s Savior.

In the blood-soaked culture of death in which we live, every attack on an unborn child is, we could say, the devil’s attempt symbolically to attack and kill John the Baptist and Jesus all over again, and to destroy everything they stood for. The devil now knows, in hindsight, how dangerous those babies were for the fulfillment of God’s plan to destroy him and his power.

In his rage, Satan is now lashing out against everything and everyone that represents those ancient babies, and what they grew up to be and to do. And all babies in the womb do vividly symbolize John and Jesus in the womb.

May we love and protect the unborn children who are among us, and may we be of help and encouragement to their mothers when such help and encouragement are needed. And if in the past we have not loved and protected the unborn as we should have, may we repent of that sin, and call out to the Lord for forgiveness and healing.

Returning to today’s text, through Elizabeth and Mary, and through the special babies who were inside of them, God was unfolding a gracious plan of redemption and deliverance for the human race. Hardly anyone was noticing, but God was at work.

Elizabeth’s pregnancy was miraculous, in that she was old, and past the time of bearing children, when she conceived. An angel had appeared to her husband Zacharias to tell him that this would happen, and to tell him that his son would be the forerunner of the Messiah, long foretold by the prophets.

Indeed, his son John would be the last of the Old Testament prophets, who would prepare the people of Israel to receive their Lord, and the new covenant that he would inaugurate, by calling them to humility before God, and by administering to them a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

John’s conception did take place through a divine intervention, but Zacharias was still John’s father. The nature and character of Mary’s conception, however, was miraculous to a much greater degree than Elizabeth’s conception.

Jesus had no human father. This scientifically unexplainable mystery is the reason why Jesus was not born with a sinful nature.

The Augsburg Confession teaches “that since the fall of Adam, all who are naturally born are born with sin, that is, without the fear of God, without trust in God, and with the inclination to sin.”

That includes all of us, because we have all been naturally born. But Jesus was not naturally born. His conception and birth had a supernatural character about it.

Yet Jesus - who was God from all eternity - did also have a true human nature, which he received from his mother Mary. Elizabeth said to Mary, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”

Jesus, according to his human nature, was the fruit of Mary’s womb and of her humanity. According to his human nature, he is one of us - a fellow descendant of Adam and a real human being, who came to save the human race from within the human race.

It is important to emphasize this, because some American evangelicals teach that God created a new and separate human nature for Jesus, which had no genetic connection to Mary or to the rest of humanity. Mary was, in effect, a surrogate mother for Jesus, but was not his actual biological mother.

In their minds, this is the proper way to explain how it is that Jesus does not have a sinful human nature. But in truth, this heretical teaching would mean that Jesus doesn’t have a human nature at all, but only a copy of a human nature. And it would also mean that real human beings like us have no real human Savior from sin and death.

What transpired when Mary and Elizabeth met, and what they said to each other on that occasion, was about the wonderful truth that we really do have a Savior from sin and death. While still in his mother’s womb, the divine Savior of mankind was already among us, and was already being praised and worshiped.

Jesus was coming to overturn every idol that the world, the flesh, and the devil promote as truly important. He was coming to show his saving power through what the world considers to be insignificant and weak.

Mary poetically expressed this hope and expectation in the song that she was inspired to sing when she met Elizabeth. And what God would someday do in his Son was so sure and certain, that it was confessed by her in the past tense.

Indeed, all the saving deeds that Jesus would accomplish in the years to come, were but an unfolding of who Jesus already was, when he was the size of a grain of rice. And so Mary sang:

“He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty. He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.”

God had promised to Abraham that through his Seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. As the details of this promise were brought into sharper focus throughout the history of Israel - in the writings and sermons of the prophets - it became ever more clear that this divine blessing would reach beyond the realm of earth, and beyond the needs of the body.

God would bless Israel, and all nations, with the gifts of the forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, and eternal life. And God would bring these blessings to us himself, by becoming one of us, and in our place dying and rising again.

In the person of his Son, God would also distribute his saving gifts to each of us personally, in words of human speech that are filled with divine power, and in sacraments that use elements of the earth that are filled with heavenly grace.

As we consider the wonder of the divine Christ being hidden in the womb of the virgin Mary when she visited Elizabeth, so too do we marvel at the mystery of the Spirit of Christ bringing regeneration and the bestowal of faith, under the humble form of water; and so too do we marvel at the mystery of the body and blood of Christ bringing remission of sins and the strengthening of faith, under the humble forms of bread and wine.

It was not by natural means that Elizabeth knew who was inside her young relative’s womb. The Holy Spirit had revealed this to her.

And it is also not by natural means that we know who has come among us, and who abides with us in hidden yet real ways, in and through the designated earthly elements of the sacraments. God has revealed this to us, in the words of Holy Scripture, and in the Words of Institution for those sacraments.

The world does not notice these things - just as the world did not notice what was going on when Mary and Elizabeth met and greeted one another. Back then, even religious people did not know what was happening in that sacred moment of greeting and embracing. But Mary and Elizabeth knew.

Today, the world does not notice or understand what transpires here, when we gather in the name of Christ around his means of grace. Unbelievers don’t know what any of this means, and they don’t care that they don’t know.

Please don’t allow the spirit of this world to allure you into joining them in their unbelief and indifference. Instead, as the Holy Spirit leads you and gives you words to say, invite them to join you in faith: in the faith of Elizabeth, and in your own faith, which with the heart - as the heart is shaped by God’s Word - sees a lot more than what can be seen with the eye.

Also today, even religious people - professing Christians - who have absorbed too much of the rationalism and empiricism of the world, often do not know what is actually going on in Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

But all who humbly listen to God - as Elizabeth did - can and will know. And like Elizabeth, they can and will be blessed by what they know, and by what God gives and does.

For the salvation of an entire world of sinners, and for your salvation, what was said and done when Mary visited Elizabeth was deeply and profoundly important. The fact that hardly anyone knew about it or noticed it, does not change this.

And, for the salvation of an entire world of sinners, and for your salvation, what is said and done in the communion of Christ’s church is likewise profoundly important - as long as the church in any give time and place is faithful to his words, and humble before his will, in its administration of the means of grace.

The same Christ who was present in Mary’s womb to be a blessing to her and to Elizabeth, is invisibly present among us, to be a blessing to us. The same Christ who was praised by Mary and Elizabeth, is praised by us:

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.” Amen.


9 July 2023 - Trinity 5 - Luke 5:1-11

There are many in this world who think they are too smart to be a Christian. They know that it is necessary for Christians to believe in miracles: chiefly the miracle of the incarnation and the miracle of the resurrection; but also the many other miracles that took place during the earthly ministry of Jesus. But they refuse to believe in miracles.

Their minds have been shaped by a rationalist and materialist worldview, according to which there is no such thing as a miracle. Therefore the Biblical miracles on which the Christian faith is based, and that the Christian faith requires, did not happen.

They did not happen, because they could not happen. That’s the assumption. That’s the conviction - the deeply-held faith commitment - of an increasing number of people who deny the possibility of miracles. And so, what they say to Jesus, in effect, is this: “Depart from me, for I am a rational man, O Lord.”

Simon Peter, the fisherman in Capernaum, looked at all of this in a totally different way. In today’s Gospel, St Luke gives us his version of a very familiar story involving Simon Peter.

Peter was not as naive and gullible as are today’s skeptics, who have talked themselves into the ridiculous belief that miracles cannot happen. Peter knew that miracles were possible.

He knew this, not only because he, as a Jew, was familiar with the reliable record of miracles that was to be found in the Old Testament; but also because he had seen miracles personally. In his presence, Jesus had turned water into wine, at the wedding in Cana. In his presence, Jesus had healed many who were sick - including Peter’s own mother-in-law.

When St. Luke tells us about that incident, he reports that after Jesus had “rebuked” the high fever with which Peter’s mother-in-law was afflicted, and it left her, “immediately she rose and began to serve them.”

So, as Peter was in the process of figuring out who Jesus was, and what his purpose in this world might be, he was more than willing to believe that Jesus could perform miracles. He had seen the evidence of this with his own eyes.

In today’s text, St. Luke reports that after Jesus had finished using a fishing boat as a platform for a seaside sermon, he said to Simon Peter,

“‘Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.’ But Simon answered and said to Him, ‘Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.’ And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking.”

This is the kind of miracle that a fisherman like Peter would certainly welcome, don’t you think? Who would object to Jesus healing your mother-in-law, so that she can cook for you, and wait on you and your friends? Who would object to Jesus using his power over nature to make you prosper and succeed in your business?

Peter doesn’t think he is too smart to believe in these miracles. Peter doesn’t think he is too smart to believe in Jesus. He certainly does not say to Jesus, “Depart from me, for I am a rational man, O Lord.”

But after Peter had seen the miraculous catch of fish - something that was actually of great practical benefit to him - much to our surprise, he did tell Jesus to depart. It was not because Peter was a rationalist and a materialist. St. Luke tells us:

“When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!’ For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken...”

Now, the miracles of Jesus were never an end in themselves. To be sure, they were of practical benefit to the people who received them, and they manifested Jesus’ personal compassion for the suffering and the weary. But the deeper purpose of these miracles was to give those who witnessed them a symbolic picture of who Jesus truly was, and to illustrate the more profound reason for why he was in the world.

God’s Son did not come into this world to turn water into wine on a regular basis, so as to put wineries out of business; but he came to provide supernatural sustenance for us by his Word and Spirit.

God’s Son did not come into this world to heal the physical ailments of sick and injured people on a regular basis, so as to put physicians out of business; but he came to heal our broken hearts, and our wounded spirits, by the new birth of his Spirit.

And God’s Son did not come into this world to fill the nets of fishermen, so that they would no longer have to do any more hard work; but he came to give us an abundant life in his Spirit, and to let us enter into the true Sabbath rest of faith.

Peter was beginning to understand this, and to perceive that there was something pure, something righteous, and something divine in Jesus, that was fundamentally incompatible with the iniquity and the flaws that were in Peter, and that were a part of his sinful life.

Peter’s developing relationship with Jesus - also including its emerging tensions - was not based merely on the physical health and material wealth that the Lord’s miracles produced: for him, for his relatives, and for his friends. If Peter was concerned only about such superficial things, he would have welcomed the continuing presence of Jesus, and the continued working of the miracles of Jesus.

Peter’s relationship with Jesus was, rather, going in a different direction from this, and it was making Peter uncomfortable. It was a relationship that was getting inside Peter, and was making Peter face up to things - frightening and troubling things; challenging and threatening things - that he would rather not think about or deal with.

Peter, it would seem, had become accustomed to ignoring the voice of his conscience, regarding his unworthiness to stand before the holy and righteous God. This was a problem, but it was a problem that he was not thinking about, or doing anything about.

But now Jesus is making him think about it. Jesus, in a way that Peter does not at this point fully grasp, embodies within his own person the holiness of the God of whom Peter is frightened. Peter is beginning to see this.

Jesus - by getting close to Peter, and by revealing himself to Peter through his miracles and through his preaching - is therefore making Peter admit that things between him and God are not right, and that something needs to be done about this.

But this scares Peter. This is unsettling to him.

And so the easiest way to avoid dealing with this problem, and not to think about it, is to pretend that it is not there; and, to get rid of what it is that is forcing him to think about it - that is, to get rid of Jesus. “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

Peter, acutely aware of his sin, but unwilling or unable to deal with his sin, was repelled from the righteousness of Christ. And in many cases that’s what is really going on in the mind and conscience of those who think they are too smart to believe in Jesus.

They’re not too smart to believe in him. They’re too scared to believe in him, and to submit to his rightful authority, over them and within them.

They know that if they let Jesus get close to them, and to stay close to them, their whole life will need to change. The sinful behaviors and attitudes that they think bring fun and satisfaction to them, will have to stop.

Familiar yet sinful things will have to be abandoned. Unfamiliar things will have to be embraced. For human pride, this is too much.

And so, an arrogant excuse for pushing Jesus away is fabricated. A clever way of showing disdain for Christ and for what he stands for is devised. A lie - which they tell to others and to their own conscience - is created. “Depart from me, for I am a rational man, O Lord.”

But Jesus does not depart so easily. Jesus haunts you. He pursues you. He does not stop striving with you, calling you to account, and calling you to repentance.

This is especially the case if you are a baptized person. You may have forgotten about your baptism, and about the claims that Jesus put upon you when you were baptized.

But Jesus has not forgotten about those claims. And he is going to continue to reassert them.

This is especially the case also if you have Christian relatives and friends who are praying for you. They are calling Jesus’ attention down upon you over and over again. They are lifting you up into his sight, so that he will not forget about you, or depart from you.

And Jesus did not depart from Peter, either. Peter gave voice to the anguish of his guilty conscience, and expressed the hesitation of his weak faith, when he in fear asked Jesus to depart from him. But then, “Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid...’” Embedded within that short statement was Jesus’ absolution for Peter.

A heart that knows its sin, and that also knows the righteous judgments of God against sin, rightly fears that judgment. But Jesus suffered, died, and rose again for us, and for that sin.

Therefore when he speaks his peace into our fear, that fear is dispersed, like a morning mist is dispersed by the light of the rising sun. That fear is vanquished and expelled by the certainty of Christ’s forgiveness, Christ’s cleansing, Christ’s reconciliation, and Christ’s renewal.

When Jesus told Peter, “Do not be afraid,” those words - filled as they were with grace and life, with pardon and peace - took that fear away from his heart.

How close do you let Christ get to you and to your inner self? Since you are here in this worship service, I assume that you are not among those who would say to Jesus, “Depart from me, for I am a rational man, O Lord.” But otherwise, do you keep him at a safe distance from you?

Do you perhaps use the externals of your religious practice as a shield or barrier between you and his holiness, so that you will not actually have to deal with unresolved personal and interior issues that lurk in your conscience: issues that your pride and your shame, in a strange combination, wish would be left alone and not be disturbed?

And if Jesus does start to get too close to you - maybe through a particularly challenging sermon, a particularly incisive hymn, or a particularly probing Bible reading - do you cast about for excuses not to pay attention to him, not to listen to him, and not to humble yourself before him?

Do you want him to stop stirring up your conscience? Do you say, with Peter, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord”?

Oh, you do admit that you are sinful in general terms. Our Liturgy makes you admit this - at least outwardly - at the beginning of each Sunday service, through the prayers of confession that we always speak.

But maybe you don’t want to think about certain specific painful sins - of the past or in the present - that are too shameful, or too powerful, to be confessed and dealt with, without humbling yourself before God at a level where you don’t want to go.

Yet Jesus is not going away. And he is not going to leave you alone. You may wish to say to him, “Depart from me,” but he is not going to do as you wish.

“You are not your own, for you were bought with a price,” as St. Paul reminds us in his First Epistle to the Corinthians. Jesus bought you, and he still claims you. None of your excuse-making or self-justification will change that, or persuade him to give up on you.

Maybe you don’t want to dredge up something toxic and poisonous from the past that is deeply buried in the recesses of your memory, to deal with it once and for all.

Maybe you don’t want to expose an ongoing problem of sin and rebellion against God and his goodness that, up until now, you have not admitted is as harmful and spiritually dangerous as it really is.

But Jesus wants to dredge it up, and expose it, so that he can deal with it - not for his benefit, but for yours.

The Book of Revelation gives us an image that can apply to this kind of crisis of conscience. Jesus is quoted to say:

“Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; so be zealous, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

Jesus, as it were, is standing at the door of that hidden room in your conscience - a room of embarrassment to which you are afraid to admit him - and he is knocking. And as he knocks, and as he seeks admission, he also says: “Do not be afraid.”

This thought is expanded in the Book of Isaiah, where the Lord declares to those who need his compassion and forgiveness:

“Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.”

You will forget the shame, because in his forgiveness - as you receive it by faith - your loving God assures you that he has forgotten it. Through Jeremiah he declares: “For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

The prayer of a heart that is delivered from its fear, and does then receive the liberating and soothing pardon of its Savior, is written in Psalm 31:

“In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me! Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily! Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me! For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me...”

“Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God. ... I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul, and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy...”

“Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also. For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away. ...”

“But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hand... Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love! O Lord, let me not be put to shame, for I call upon you...”

When Jesus comes into the darkest place in your soul, and brings his light and life, nothing but good can come from this. And a lot of good does come from this.

This kind of naked honesty before God might hurt for a while, but then the hurt stops. The guilt stops. The fear stops. And the healing, and a new beginning with God, begin.

Jesus does not leave, but he stays. He stays, and he helps you, he guides you, he protects you, and he justifies you by his own righteousness.

In moments of fear, you may try to distance yourself from him. But in a lifetime of faith, you come to him for rest, and for his loving acceptance.

In his cleansing absolution, and in the nourishing sacrament of his body and blood, the forgiveness of your sins - all of your sins; all of your deep and dark sins - is bestowed upon you by the One who died for you, who rose again for you, and who even now intercedes at the right hand of the Father for you.

And as you may hesitate even today to admit to him all of your faults, and to open up to him regarding all of your failures, this One gently yet firmly tells you: “Do not be afraid.”

“When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!’ For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken... And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid.” Amen.


16 July 2023 - Trinity 6 - Exodus 20:1-17

“And God spoke all these words...” In this way Moses introduces his recounting, in the Book of Exodus, of the text of the Ten Commandments that the Lord had revealed to him on Mount Sinai.

We note, as Moses tells us, that God spoke these words. The Ten Commandments were not the result of the evolving moral consciousness of the Hebrew people, and they were not compiled eclectically by Moses - or by anyone else - from the legal codes of other nations.

Instead, these words are the words of God. God was establishing the Hebrews as their own nation - as his own nation - dedicated to him and his service. In giving them the Ten Commandments, God exercised his divine right to govern their religious, moral, and societal life.

Surveys among the general population of our country consistently show a fairly high regard for the Ten Commandments - at least as a concept. Most people, when they are asked by survey-takers if they try to govern their lives according to the Ten Commandments, will say Yes.

Another interesting fact that surveys consistently show, however, is that people usually do not have a very clear or complete understanding of what the Ten Commandments are. When asked by survey-takers to name at least five of them, respondents usually cannot do it.

All of this makes it all the more important for us to be serious in paying attention to what Moses tells us today: “And God spoke all these words...”

Of course, even before God delivered the Ten Commandments to Moses, it was possible for human beings to have some measure of knowledge of the moral standards by which they were supposed to govern their lives. St. Paul writes in his epistle to the Romans:

“Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.”

This inborn knowledge of the difference between right and wrong, which is inscribed on humanity’s conscience, is often called “natural law.” Even without a knowledge of the Bible in general, or of the Ten Commandments in particular, it is still possible for people to know, at least in a basic way, what is good and what is evil.

But people still violate the moral decrees that are written on their hearts by their Creator. As St. Paul describes the rebellion of the unbelieving world, he observes that

“They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”

Because of the sinfulness that infects our race, people have a clouded and distorted perception of the natural law. And even when people do have an accurate understanding in their conscience of what would be the moral thing to do in a particular situation, they often end up not doing it, but follow instead the destructive impulses of their flesh.

It is too easy for fallen man to twist and distort this law of the conscience in his own selfish interests; to rationalize his disobedience; and to ignore those aspects of God’s standards that he doesn’t like.

And so, after God had called the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery, and as he was preparing them to take possession of their own land, he clarified and reiterated, in an objective and written form, his unchanging and timeless moral requirements.

It would be harder to make excuses now. It would be harder to plead ignorance of what God really wants. It would be harder for a sinful man to deceive himself into thinking that he is actually doing, saying, and thinking what God demands.

The law as God makes it known in the human conscience, and on tablets of stone, serves more than one purpose. Its first purpose or use is as an outward curb on overtly wicked behavior.

A society cannot survive without at least some measure of community discipline, and without a mutually agreed-upon set of standards for public behavior.

It is sometimes said that we should not legislate morality. But this is an absurd statement. Every civil law is an expression of public morality.

Every civil law is an expression of what is considered to be either proper, or improper, ethical behavior in the society. Of course, the law code of a particular state or country doesn’t always get it right. But public morality is the intended point of public law.

God’s law - especially as it comes to all people by means of natural law - provides to all human societies a basic guide to what is necessary for the preservation of social order. The divine prohibition of murder, for example, is intended to guide a society and its citizens in protecting people’s lives and safety.

The divine prohibition of stealing is intended to guide a society and its citizens in protecting people’s property. The divine prohibition of adultery is intended to guide a society and its citizens in protecting the institution of marriage and the family - which is the basic building-block of human civilization.

There is, of course, still a lot of injustice in the world. There is no human society in this sinful world that collectively follows the guidance that God provides as fully or as consistently as it should.

It is easy for us to see examples of our own society’s failures in this respect: its failure to protect private and public property, with district attorneys refusing to prosecute shoplifting or vandalism; its failure to protect human life, in allowing elective abortion; its failure to protect marriage - both as an institution, and in many sad individual cases - with tax and pension laws that punish marriage, and with no-fault divorce laws that often make breaking up a family easier than starting one.

Yet the testimony of the human conscience is always there, to spur human societies on to necessary improvements and reforms: if only the populations and governments of those societies would listen to that testimony.

But, the law of God does not exist only for this external civil use. It also fulfills a very important and very personal role in the inner lives of individuals. This is its second purpose or use.

When we hear, and reflect on, God’s commandments - particularly in their inescapably objective, written form - the Holy Spirit convicts us in a very personal way, of our very personal transgressions.

Perhaps according to the external standards of societal order - if we refrain from committing overt crimes - we might be judged by our fellow men to be good and righteous people. But according to the more serious requirements of the divine law - which address us at the level of our deepest desires, and not only at the level of our observable actions - we are not judged to be good and righteous in the eyes of God, who searches the heart.

In his Sermon on the Mount as recorded in St. Matthew - from which today’s Gospel is taken - Jesus explains the deeper meaning of the Ten Commandments, thereby taking away from the hypocrites of his day - and from us - the ability to make any kind of pretentious claim to having truly obeyed them. He says:

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.”

Again: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

A society can still be preserved in its outward orderliness even when its citizens have angry or lustful thoughts - as long as they do not act on those thoughts. But according to what’s hidden in the sinful hearts of men, none of us can stand as innocent before God’s judgment, in view of the true inner meaning of the law that Jesus here unfolds.

And so, according to this second, spiritual use of the law of God, the law reveals to our conscience the impossibility of making ourselves righteous before God by our obedience. “For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.”

The law shows us instead our need for a Savior. It drives us to the cross of Christ. And it prepares us for the message of forgiveness that Jesus proclaims to the penitent, to be received by faith. As St. Paul says in his Epistle to the Galatians:

“Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”

One of the main reasons why Jesus Christ is able to be the Savior we all need, is because he, without any shortcomings or failures, did obey God’s law - his own divine law - to the letter.

He was a law-abiding member of the civil society of which he was a part. But even more important than that, every single thought of his mind, every single desire of his heart, and every single intention of his will, was pure and perfect.

Throughout his life, Jesus obeyed all of the law, all of the time. He never bore false witness, but always told the truth. That unvarnished truth-telling is partly what got him in trouble with the authorities.

He did not hate his neighbors, but loved all men - even his enemies. He was chaste and pure in all his relationships with all women.

He honored his Father, by fulfilling his heavenly Father’s will in going to the cross for our salvation. From the cross, he honored his mother Mary as well, by arranging for her to be taken care of by the apostle John, since he would no longer be able to care for her.

Jesus’ zeal for the First three Commandments - pertaining to God and the honor of God - was reflected in the righteous anger that he showed at the Temple, when he chased the money-changers out of a sacred place that was intended to be a place of prayer for all nations.

Therefore, when Jesus offered his life on the cross for all of us, the sacrifice that he offered was an acceptable and fully sufficient sacrifice. By a lifetime of obedience, he had established in himself a real human righteousness under the law: a righteousness that deserved to be rewarded.

The life of Christ had passed the test of the Ten Commandments in every way. It was without any spot or moral blemish.

For this reason, the death of Christ - which he personally did not deserve - could and did serve as a substitute for the death that all of us do deserve, under the just judgment of God’s law against our many transgressions of that law.

Jesus’ sacrifice atoned for the shortcomings and failures of all people. It placed his perfect righteousness over humanity’s unrighteousness.

And Jesus’ sacrifice atoned for, and covered over, all of your sins. It won for you a complete reconciliation with God.

As you now cling to Christ in faith, and trust in his words of peace and pardon - having been clothed with him in your Baptism, and having been invited to his eucharistic banquet of forgiveness - everything that he is, and has, becomes yours. His obedience - his obedience specifically of the Ten Commandments - is credited to you.

And then, the law’s third purpose or use - as a guide to Christians for holy living - kicks in. In actuality, all three uses of the law are being applied to your life by the Holy Spirit all the time - as you are simultaneously guided in your outward behavior, brought under conviction for your sins, and taught the ways of righteousness.

But according to the logic of it, the changed and regenerated heart that God’s Spirit gives us when we believe in Christ, is not afraid of God’s wrath - since it is at peace with him and is resting in his grace - but instead has an earnest desire to serve God, by cheerfully serving the neighbor in need. As the Psalmist prays:

“I will delight myself in Your commandments, which I love. My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on Your statutes.”

And as Jesus tells us elsewhere in the Sermon on the Mount:

“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

“And God spoke all these words...”

He spoke all these words, in order to clarify and reiterate the natural law that had already been placed in the conscience of all men. He spoke all these words, so that those words could serve as an outward guide for the civil order of the nation.

He spoke all these words, so that those words would reveal to each man’s heart his personal sinfulness and need for a Savior; and would serve as a description of the flawless life and perfect obedience of that Savior. And he spoke all these words, so that redeemed and forgiven children of God will know what pleases their beloved Father in heaven, and what works lovingly serve other people in their struggles and trials.

To us God gave these Ten Commands That you might learn, O child of man,
Your sinfulness - and also know To live for God, as you go. Have mercy, Lord!

Lord Jesus Christ, now help us all, Our Mediator from the Fall,
Our works are all so full of sin, But You, for us, heaven did win. Have mercy, Lord! Amen.


23 July 2023 - Trinity 7 - Romans 6:15-23

“For the wages of sin is death.” We all know what a wage is, especially in comparison to a gift. A wage is something you get as a consequence of your own work.

A wage is something you earn. It is not given to you as a gift, with no strings attached. Rather, a lot of strings are attached to it.

Your labor is attached to it. When there is, in a country, a functioning economy, the rule of law, and the honoring of labor contracts and agreements, there is a direct correlation between work and wages.

This is the framework for understanding the meaning of St. Paul’s terminology, in his statement in today’s text from his Epistle to the Romans: “The wages of sin is death.”

When there is sin in your life, what can you expect to be the result of that sin? Death is the normal and natural result - spiritual death, temporal death, and eternal death.

Death means separation. Spiritual death is the separation of the human spirit from God’s Spirit, and from fellowship with God.

Temporal death is the separation of the soul from the body. Eternal death is the separation of the resurrected reprobate person from heaven, and from God in heaven.

God had all of these aspects of the meaning of death in mind when he gave this commandment to Adam in the Garden of Eden, as we heard in today’s lesson from the Book of Genesis:

“Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

When Adam disobeyed God and sinned against this commandment, he instantly became spiritually dead. His eyes were opened, we are told, and he realized that he was naked. His inner communion with his creator was gone.

When Adam sinned, and when he was - as a punishment - cut off from the tree of life, he also became mortal. Eventually, he would now also die physically, in temporal death. He had come from dust, and to dust he would now return.

And, in his disobedience, and in his rejection of God’s will and command, Adam put himself on a trajectory toward eternal death. He destined himself for hell. It’s what he had earned, and it’s what he deserved.

Adam would have been damned, if it had not been for the Lord’s gracious and undeserved intervention: as God revealed to Adam the promise of a coming Savior; and as God covered Adam’s sin and shame with forgiveness, as illustrated by the garment of skin that the Lord made for him and placed upon him.

The fact that Adam will not eventually suffer an eternal death says something about God’s mercy in Christ, which prompted him to give Adam - and all humanity - a second chance. It doesn’t diminish our recognition of what Adam’s sin had actually earned for him in this respect.

Sin earns death, in the way that labor earns a wage. For sinners, who ply their trade in sin, death is not given as a gift. It is the deserved compensation, for those who have succeeded in their craft of sinning.

And when there is death in your life, there is no mystery as to how it got there. It is the wages of sin. That’s how it got there. That’s where it came from. Death is the evidence that sin was there first.

Before we would attempt to make individual correlations between specific sins and specific deathly results, we need to look at the bigger picture. Adam’s sin was humanity’s sin.

We were in Adam, our ancestor, when he fell away from the Lord. And Adam, our ancestor, is in us now, as we perpetuate - through our own culpable acts of rebellion - the sinfulness of the human race.

Earlier in his Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul had explained that “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”

The wages of humanity’s sin is humanity’s death. Only in that larger, general context would we then say that the wages of your sin is your death.

But we would say it, because you are not only a victim of sin - namely the sin of your ancestors. You are also a perpetrator of sin.

And your sins - your own sins, for which you are personally guilty - have earned the death that surrounds you and infects you. If there is any death in you - deathly thoughts and actions in the present; deathly fears of the future - that’s where it comes from.

This is not an invitation to try to make a cause-and-effect connection between this or that sin of the past, and this or that deathly consequence now. In most cases that cannot be done. But the general correlation between sin as a whole, and death as a whole, remains.

God is not to blame for human sin. Humans are to blame. And God is not to blame for human death, the wages of sin. Again, humans are to blame. Human sin is to blame.

People don’t like to think about death - not their own deaths, and not the deaths of other people. But not thinking about it, doesn’t make it go away.

And people really don’t like to think about eternal death, and about damnation and hell. But again, not thinking about it, doesn’t make it go away.

And since Holy Scripture spends so much time talking about it, we have to think about it, whether we want to or not, and even if we would rather not believe in hell as the destiny that many will face - and that we might face.

When you experience death - outwardly and inwardly - don’t shake your fist at God. Rather, shake your fist at yourself.

Beat your own chest with your fist, in repentance. It is by your fault, your own fault, your own most grievous fault, that you are dead, and that you will die. For the wages of sin - your sin - is death.

But... but..., the “gift” of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We recall that Adam earned death, and deserved death. Spiritually he died.

But God revived his spiritual life through the power of his Word and promise, and through the power of his forgiveness. Adam and his wife - our mother Eve - then looked forward in faith to the coming of their Savior: the Seed of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head for them and for their descendants.

Adam’s time on earth did come to an end. Bodily, he died. But he died - implicitly if not explicitly - in the hope of the resurrection.

And he will be resurrected with all of God’s forgiven and justified saints. This physical death will be undone.

And for Adam, a hellish eternal death will never be experienced, because his sin and shame were indeed covered with the garment of Christ’s righteousness, prepared for him by the shedding of the blood of Christ, his substitute: who is described in the Book of Revelation - from God’s timeless perspective - as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

As for Adam, so also for you - if you know what Adam knew. Or more precisely, if you - by repentance and faith - know who Adam knew.

The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. There are at least a couple words in New Testament Greek that are generally translated in our English Bibles as “gift.”

One of those words is “doma.” This is similar to the English word “donation,” and describes a specific thing or object that is presented to someone - sometimes as an expression of gratitude for some previous service rendered to the giver of the “doma.”

Another Greek word translated as “gift” is “charisma.” This is the word that St. Paul uses in today’s text, when he says that the “gift” of God - the “charisma” of God - is eternal life. Our English word “charismatic” is derived from this term.

“Charisma” never describes something that is given as a reward for some previous meritorious conduct. A “charisma” is always a free gift, motivated only by the grace of the giver.

And a “charisma” is not simply a thing or object that is presented to someone. It has the connotation of an endowment that is bestowed upon someone, or that gets inside of someone; and that then becomes the source of a good change in that person, or of a positive transformation of that person.

This is the kind of gift that God gives you, when he saves you from death. You can’t earn it. The only way to have it, is for God to give it to you.

Again, there is a connection between sin and death. Death comes from sin, and because of sin.

The present and future death of the human race, and the present and future death of each human being, is the result of the sinful wickedness and sinful rebellion of the human race. But eternal life, for those who have it, does not come from humanity’s goodness and obedience.

A bad result for humanity is earned by bad human actions and bad human thoughts. But a good result for humanity is not earned by good human actions and good human thoughts.

The good result of eternal life - a cleansing and a deliverance from death, in time and in eternity - is not earned at all, by any means. It is a gift. And it is a gift from God.

If there is any cause or reason for God’s giving of life to you, that cause or reason is not found in you. It is found in God.

And more specifically, it is found in Jesus Christ - the eternal Son of the Father - and in his life for you, in his death for you, and in his resurrection for you.

When an earthly boss pays you your wages, he does so on the basis of looking at your performance, and at the results produced by your efforts. When God gives you eternal life, he does so on the basis of looking at his Son’s performance, and at the results produced by Jesus’ efforts.

That’s why the free gift of God is eternal life “in Christ Jesus.” Not in you, but in him. Not because of you, but because of him.

And the eternal life that we have in Christ Jesus - the life we have in him now, filling us and renewing us; and the life that we will have in him in the resurrection and in heaven - is a divine life. Because the one in whom and through whom we have it, is divine.

The gift of God is eternal life “in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Literally, the Greek says: “in Christ Jesus, the Lord, of us.”

Jesus is “the Lord.” Jesus is Jehovah: in human flesh, to accomplish human salvation.

“God” was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. The risen one, who is “my Lord and my God” - to quote the apostle Thomas - forgives my sin, and gives me life, because of who he is, and not because of who I am.

If someone would offer you a job, and a certain salary for that job, he might say: “If you do this work that I need done, then I will pay you this wage.” It’s conditional. Strings are attached.

If, however, someone would offer you a gift, there are no “if-then” conditions. The gift is held out to you. You are invited to receive it.

When you receive it, it is yours. The gift of eternal life is a gift that God holds out to you.

Actually he speaks this life to you, upon you, and into you, when he speaks the gospel of Jesus Christ to you, upon you, and into you - through his called servants, in sermon and in sacrament. And as with anything that is offered to you through a word or a message, the way in which you receive it, is by believing it.

What we read in the Book of Proverbs is exactly what God, in Christ, would say to you and me:

“My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.”

And Jesus himself says, in the Gospel of John: “It is the Spirit who gives life... The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”

Eternal life, in Christ Jesus our Lord, is a gift. It is always, and only, a gift. It is a gift to be received, by being believed.

If you sin, have no doubt that the wages of that sin is death. All sin deserves death.

And all sin will result in death - spiritual death, temporal death, and eternal death - unless God intervenes, to cause you to receive something instead of death; something that you do not deserve, and have not earned; but something that will halt and reverse the deathward trajectory on which you sins put you.

To the penitent, God gives eternal life in Christ Jesus. Those who believe God’s word of life, receive that life, and live forever.

In Christ Jesus the Lord, God has intervened. In Christ Jesus your Lord, God has intervened for you.

God is intervening right now, for you, in the very words that I am speaking to you, right now. God is offering eternal life to you right now, through these words.

As you believe God’s word of life, you receive that life, and will live forever. Believe, and live!

For the wages of sin is death. But... but..., the gift of God, to you, is eternal life, for you, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.


30 July 2023 - Trinity 8 - Matthew 7:15-23

Jesus says, “Beware of false prophets.” Those of us who are familiar with the Bible know about this statement. For this reason it doesn’t sound all that strange to us.

But we need to realize that for most people today, the very concept of a false prophet, or of a true prophet, is difficult to grasp. The categories of “true” and “false” have largely been replaced in our modern society by the notion that everyone has his or her own “truth,” which no one else is allowed to criticize - even when that personal “truth” violates objective facts and common sense.

Another thing that makes it hard for people in our culture to grasp the importance of looking out for false prophets, is the American emphasis on practicality. We don’t usually ask whether or not something is true, but whether or not something works.

Jesus, in the text from St. Matthew’s Gospel that we heard a few minutes ago, is not talking about the kind of false prophets that are such in obvious ways. He’s not talking about the high priest of the Church of Satan, or about the chief Ayatollah of Shi’ite Islam.

Instead, he’s talking about the importance of discerning when someone is a false prophet, in a situation when it is not immediately obvious that this is what he is.

He says, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing...” The false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing are the false prophets who look on the outside like true prophets.

Perhaps they have theological credentials from respected seminaries, or ordination certificates from established church bodies. Perhaps they have winsome personalities and well-honed rhetorical skills.

They may be sincere and likable. They may be highly successful in drawing crowds and in raising money.

Jesus does say, “You will know them by their fruits.” But those things are not the fruits we should be looking for, and measuring, in order to judge the fruits of a prophet, to determine whether or not he is a false prophet. The fruits of a prophet - as a prophet - are his prophecies: that is, his public doctrine, and the content and thrust of his preaching.

The attractive personality traits that may adorn the life of someone whose teaching is false, are to be seen as the kind of “sheep’s clothing” that Jesus warns us about, so that we will not be taken in by those things, and thereby open ourselves up to being misinstructed and misled by someone who seems worthy of our trust.

If his doctrine doesn’t match God’s doctrine, as revealed in Scripture, that’s the fruit - the bad and dangerous fruit - that we are to take note of. And that’s the fruit that should lead us to stay away from a false prophet - even an outwardly friendly and kind false prophet.

Beware of false prophets. This is not just our Lord’s advice, but is his solemn mandate. And it is a mandate that is not only for the attention of the church’s trained clergy, but is for the attention also of the laity - indeed, for the laity in particular.

You cannot, in the final analysis, pass off to others your God-given duty to beware of false prophets. If you have a soul that is in need of the truth of God’s Word, then the truth of God’s Word - hearing it, believing it, and having it - is to be your chief concern.

For the sake of your own soul, and for the sake of the souls of others, you cannot set aside the duty that Christ has given to you to close your ears to preachers who preach falsely, to avoid religious practitioners who practice falsely, and to depart from ministers who minister falsely.

Jesus is deadly serious when he warns you, “Beware of false prophets.” Your obedience to this mandate truly is a matter of spiritual life and spiritual death.

Jesus said elsewhere, in St. John’s Gospel, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The flip side of that would be this: “If you do not abide in my word, you are not truly my disciples; and you will not know the truth, and will remain in the guilt and bondage of your sins.”

Jesus is also deadly serious in his warnings to the prophets themselves. Those who hold an office of spiritual authority among God’s people are, by virtue of such an office, commissioned by God to proclaim his Word, and to bind consciences to his Word and only to his Word.

Jesus made his will in this respect clear to the apostles and to all his disciples when he said that they are to teach all nations “to observe everything that I have commanded you” - as St. Matthew records that solemn commission.

We preachers may not preach as binding doctrine our own opinions, conjectures, and theories in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and under his authority. If we arrogantly presume to do so, then a frightful accounting awaits us. Jesus says:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

Jesus’ warning against false prophets is a mark of his love for us, and of his desire that we would remain always under the ministry of true prophets. He sends his true prophets into the world and into the church, and he wants us to seek them out.

He also tells us how to find them. Again, he says, “You will know them by their fruits.” As I’ve already noted, the fruits of a prophet are his prophecies. When that fruit is bad, the prophet is bad. But when that fruit is good, the prophet is good.

And the good fruit of a good prophet is the Word of God: correctly stated in accordance with the Scriptures; centered on Christ and his saving work; properly applied in the dual message of God’s judgment against sin and of God’s grace and redemption in Christ.

When a true prophet comes to us, we will notice that everything he says is drawn from and based on Scripture. For Lutherans in particular, our church provides us with a very helpful tool for carrying out this biblical discernment process, in the Small Catechism.

The Catechism, which summarizes - in an easy-to-learn format - the chief teachings of Scripture, is, in a sense, the “great equalizer” of the church. A common Christian equipped with a thorough knowledge of the Catechism can feel confident in his ability to judge and evaluate the preaching of even the most learned of theologians.

With the Catechism in hand, we can more easily recognize the biblical teachings of our faith when we hear them. And we can more readily notice when the biblical teachings of our faith are missing.

We will be able to notice whether God’s message to humanity is the message of the preacher to whom we are listening. And we will also be able to notice whether God’s message is being presented by that preacher in God’s way.

We certainly will learn from a faithful preacher what the Lord expects of us regarding how we should fulfill our obligations to God and man, and how we should honor the Lord in all our thoughts, words, and deeds. But even more so, we will learn from a faithful preacher that, on the basis of his Son’s death and resurrection for us, God’s heart toward us - in Christ - is the heart of a compassionate and forgiving Father, and not ultimately of a fearsome and severe judge.

We will learn, in our minds and in our hearts, that as the law has worked in our consciences a conviction of our sinfulness, so too does God then come to us with his pardon and peace, to heal us and to liberate us by the working of his own Divine Spirit.

He comes among us - in Baptism and in the remembrance of Baptism; in sermon and in Supper - to bestow upon us his righteousness, which covers over our sin. He comes among us, so that he can dwell within us, in a mystical union that fills us with his own loving presence.

And God does this over and over again, continually and without ceasing, as his true Word is proclaimed and applied through the ministry of his true prophets.

The words of St. Paul, from the Epistle to the Romans, summarize the kind of gracious God we have, and the kind of gracious salvation from death and the devil that he offers in the means of grace: as he makes wonderful promises to us, and as we believe those promises:

“For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it - the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”

“For there is no distinction: for 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.”

Your loving Lord sends you true prophets, so that in faith you can know how much he cares about you, and what he was willing to do in order to have you as his own dear child.

So, a prophet who proclaims a God of wrath and judgment only, without mercy, is not a true prophet. Beware of such prophets. A prophet who proclaims an indifferent and indulgent God, who doesn’t judge because he doesn’t care, is not a true prophet. Beware of such prophets.

But a prophet who proclaims a God who loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life, is a true prophet. A prophet who proclaims that the wages of sin is death, but that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord, is a true prophet.

A prophet who proclaims that all of us who have been baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ, is a true prophet. A prophet who proclaims that the cup of blessing that we bless is a communion in the blood of Christ, and that the bread that we break is a communion in the body of Christ, is a true prophet.

The fruits of such prophets - that is, their prophecies, and their teachings - are sound and wholesome fruits. They reveal to you the eternally loving heart of God the Father.

They make known to you the condescending love of your incarnate Savior and brother Jesus Christ. Their preaching is the means lovingly used by the Holy Spirit for the creation and preservation of your faith.

Embrace such prophets. Believe their message. Support their ministry.

And on judgment day, Christ will not say to his true prophets, who believed in and served their Lord: “I never knew you; depart from Me.” That’s because in their faithful preaching of Jesus’ gospel, these believing prophets did indeed prophesy in the Lord’s name.

In their faithful baptizing according to Jesus’ institution, these believing prophets did cast out demons in the Lord’s name. In their faithful administration of the sacrament of Jesus’ body and blood, according to the power and authority of Christ’s consecrating Word, these believing prophets did do wonders in the Lord’s name.

God forgives and will forgive their human failings, even as he forgives and will forgive the human failings of all of us. But by the fruits of their prophetic ministry - the Divine Word purely proclaimed and correctly applied - you will know them. And even now you can and do know them. Amen.


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