SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA
SERMONS - MARCH 2022
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA
SERMONS - MARCH 2022
2 March 2022 - Ash Wednesday
Today we are entering the season of Lent. This is a penitential season. That means that a focal point of the season is penitence, which is defined in the dictionary as “the quality or state of being penitent: sorrow for sins or faults.”
And the word penitent, in turn, means, “feeling or expressing humble or regretful pain or sorrow for sins or offenses: repentant.”
We are, of course, sorry for our sins all the time, all year round. Every Sunday, at the beginning of the service, we express to the Lord our regret for the wrong we have done, and we seek God’s pardon and forgiveness for the sake of his Son Jesus Christ.
That is as it should be. But in the season of Lent - the penitential season of Lent - this process can and should go deeper than usual.
Step back from your life and look at yourself. What patterns of griping and grousing have you fallen into? What patterns of laziness and irresponsibility have you fallen into?
What patterns of selfishness and insensitivity to others have you fallen into? Measure your life against God’s Word, as written in the Epistle to the Colossians:
“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
Measure your life against God’s Word, as written in the Epistle to the Galatians:
“...through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.”
Lent is a time to look not only at your specific mistakes and failures, but it is a time to look at your whole life. What kind of impact are you having on others?
Do you build others up, or do you tear them down? Do you encourage and support others, or do you judge and criticize them?
Do you love and help others according to their needs, or do you use others for your own selfish purposes? Is the first question you ask of yourself, in any situation, “What does God want?” Or is it, “What do I want?”
This kind of self-analysis is more difficult than most people care to admit. Human pride being what it is, we usually want to think well of ourselves, and we usually want to believe that others think well of us, too.
It’s not easy to admit our flaws and mistakes, or to come to realize that other people already know about those flaws and mistakes. Taking responsibility for the harm we have done is accompanied by embarrassment and shame.
But, this is Lent. This is a time that has been set aside in the life of the church, and in our lives as Christians, precisely so that we can do what is hard, and acknowledge what is true.
Let God’s Spirit lead you down that difficult Lenten pathway of honesty and humility; that necessary Lenten pathway of penitence. Take stock of your life, and admit your sins.
God, of course, is already aware of your sins, and sees them. But this season is a time for you to become aware of them, and to see them, and to turn away from them.
And then, in your penitence, please remember that the season of Lent is also a time to become aware, in an ever deeper way, of all that Jesus has done to forgive your sins, and to deliver you from the guilt and power of sin.
Lent is a time to see the cross, and to see Jesus dying on the cross for you, to justify you in his mercy, and to give you a new beginning with God - and a new beginning in all your relationships, and in your life as a whole. In today’s lesson from his Second Epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul writes:
“We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
All those sins, all those flaws and mistakes, and all that shame and embarrassment, Jesus took upon himself, and carried to the cross. And there Jesus redeemed us from the sins, atoned for the flaws and mistakes, and covered over the shame and embarrassment.
St. John, in his First Epistle, encourages all of us - in penitence, and in faith - to seek what God now offers, and to receive what God now gives:
“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
And Jesus himself says, as recorded in St. John’s Gospel:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned...”
As we now head into Lent, into our Lenten penitence, and into the new life with which God fills us on the other side of this penitence - through the death and resurrection of his Son - we do so while listening with grateful hearts to the words of St. Peter, in his First Epistle:
“Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”
So, let us pray that we would have a blessed Lent. Let us pray that God leads us to have a penitential Lent. Let us pray that God gives us a grace-filled and Christ-centered Lent! Amen.
6 March 2022 - Lent 1 - Luke 4:1-13
“And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.”
There are many occasions when unique opportunities to do something desirable present themselves; and we take advantage of those opportunities before they are gone.
At certain times in the past, you may have had an opportunity to take a good job, or to make a good investment. If you were alert to those opportunities, you took advantage of them while you could, knowing that those opportunities were not always going to be there.
At the present time, you may also have a general desire to pursue a certain goal. But you know that now is not the right time. And so you are waiting for an opportunity that you hope will come in the future, to follow through on your wishes and plans.
There is a certain item that you would like to purchase and own, but you’re waiting for an opportunity to buy it while it’s on sale, so that you won’t have to pay as much. You have decided that you want to propose marriage to your girlfriend, but you are waiting for just the right time, and for a good opportunity to do it, which would optimize the chances that she will say “Yes.”
Opportunities like this come and go. They are not always there. We know this. And the devil also knows this.
When Jesus had been in the wilderness for forty days, “he was hungry,” as St. Luke tells us. And it was precisely at this time of our Lord’s bodily weakness, that the devil tempted him to misuse his divine powers in order to feed himself, and immediately to alleviate that hunger.
“The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone.”’”
Satan saw an opportunity - presented to him by Jesus’ physical hunger - and he took it. But his effort was thwarted by Jesus, as Jesus immediately fell back onto the Scriptures to bring clarity and divine truth to the situation.
We notice a couple other things, too. The devil’s attack is oblique, and not head-on. He began by trying to plant seeds of doubt in Jesus’ mind, saying: “If you are the Son of God...”
That’s what he did in the Garden of Eden as well, with humanity’s progenitors. He did not start out by boldly telling Eve, “God did not really say...,” but he subtly asked, “Did God really say...?”
And we also notice in today’s text that the devil adapts. When Jesus responded to his attempt to coax him to sin by quoting Scripture, the devil then quoted Scripture - or more precisely, misquoted Scripture.
That is often the way he tempts religiously-oriented people. He twists the Scriptures, to make them seem to condone sin and error.
The devil uses these and other techniques, in order to make the sin that he is prompting us to commit, seem like the right thing to do - in a time of weakness, or confusion, or doubt, or fear.
He never says, when he is tempting us, “This is a really stupid thing to do, and it will hurt you when you do it.” He says, “This is the smart thing to do in these circumstances, and it will benefit you.”
Satan looks for opportunities to succeed in this - opportunities that he knows he does not always have.
As far as the Lord is concerned, when the devil took advantage of the opportunity of Jesus’ hunger to temp him, it didn’t work. But he waited for other opportunities, so that he could take advantage of them when they did come.
The temptation in the desert that Luke tells us about today, was not the only temptation that Jesus faced during his ministry. The devil tempted him also in other ways, and at other times.
Jesus did not look forward with glee to the agony of body and soul that he would need to endure on the cross, in order to atone for the sins of the human race, and to redeem the human race. And so, those times when Jesus was thinking about this impending suffering, were seen by the devil as opportunities to try - once again - to get Jesus to abandon his mission.
One such opportunity - which the devil did exploit - is reported to us by St. Mark:
“And [Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly.”
“And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning, and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter, and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.’”
This was one of those “opportune times” that the devil was waiting for. On this occasion, Satan used Peter, and Peter’s good intentions, as his instrument in tempting Jesus to turn away from the pathway to Calvary.
But Jesus could see through this. Jesus could see Satan in this.
And on that occasion, Jesus also looked around and saw his disciples, who were his closest friends. And he knew that if he were to give in to the temptation that was at that moment being brought to bear against him, those men - and all men, of all times and places - would perish in their sins.
Unless Jesus was willing to endure the cross and its shame, humanity would be damned. There was a lot at stake in that moment. For you and me, everything was at stake in that moment.
But Jesus came through for his disciples. Jesus came through for us. “Get behind me, Satan!” was his response to this temptation.
And Jesus did set his face toward Jerusalem, not distracted by this temptation or by anything else. Jesus did die for our sins. Jesus did crush Satan under his feet for us, and win eternal life for us, in spite of all attempts of the devil to head this off.
When Satan sees opportunities to temp other people, however, and when he takes advantage of those opportunities, he is usually more successful than he was with Jesus.
We are familiar with the story of King David, who was a faithful servant of God in many ways. In his younger years, when King Saul was trying to kill him, and when he was on the run as a fugitive, he continued to trust the Lord, and to believe the Lord’s promises.
As we see in the words of the Psalms that he composed during this time of his life, David did not doubt God, in the kind of circumstances that would drive many people to doubt and despair. He remained steadfast in his faith, and in his reliance on the Word of the Lord.
The Lord was his shepherd, and he knew it. The Lord was with him in the valley of the shadow of death, and he knew it.
But on another occasion many years later, David was at home, idle. And his next door neighbor’s wife was also at home, taking a bath.
David saw this. David watched this. David stared at this. And the devil saw an opportunity: the kind of opportunity that did not come very often in the life of this otherwise devout man of God.
Satan saw an opportunity to tempt David, and to destroy David, at a time when David was morally vulnerable. And he took that opportunity.
And David, in his lustful weakness, surrendered to the sin that Satan had placed before him. We all know the tragic consequences of this, and how many lives were harmed by this act and by the sequence of terrible events that it set in motion.
The devil looks for such opportunities in your life, and he often finds them. When we are weak, Satan is noticing that weakness. And that is when he will make his move.
For example, when you quarrel with your spouse, and when bitterness and anger come between you and this person to whom God has joined you for life, that is an opportunity that Satan will notice, and exploit.
It is at such times that Satan will put into your mind the thought that maybe you should bring the marriage to an end. Did Jesus really say, “What God has joined together, let no man separate”?
Satan wants to destroy you and your family, by destroying those good things in your life that remind you of God, and of God’s goodness. Satan wants to destroy you, by destroying your connection with God.
And the devil is very good at disrupting not only the harmony of families, but also the harmony of congregations, through human pride, human arrogance, and human ambition. He sees those kinds of opportunities all the time, and he takes advantage of them.
We give him those kinds of opportunities when we are impatient with one another, jealous of one another, or judgmental toward one another. We give him those kinds of opportunities when we allow anything other than the Word of God to govern and guide us, and when we listen to any voice other than the voice of Christ.
As he has done in the past, so he does now with us. The devil plants seeds of doubt. And when those seeds have sprouted and grown, he robs people of their faith, and separates them from God and from the blessings of true Christian fellowship.
When you see your weakness during a time of testing, you can be assured that the devil also sees it. He sees it as presenting to him “an opportune time” to cut you off from Christ, and to draw you into slavery to himself.
But God also sees your weakness. And God does not abandon you in your weakness.
Indeed, it is in the midst of weakness and trials - especially the deepest and most troubling of trials - that you can know, most deeply, the closeness of Christ. He endured such trials, too - and worse ones - for you, as your substitute and Savior.
His victory over temptation becomes your hope and strength in temptation. God’s love and protection is most vividly known at these times. St. Paul writes in his First Epistle to the Corinthians:
“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
For those times that the devil considers to be opportune times - opportunities to attack your faith, when the circumstances give him an expectation that he might succeed - God gives you the weapon that Christ himself used, to combat such attacks. That is, he gives you the Holy Scriptures, in which God’s own authority and power dwell, and which testify unfailingly to God’s eternal truth.
And for those times - indeed, for all times - God gives you Christ himself - his own beloved Son - who fights for you against the old evil foe. In such times of human weakness, and in such times of devilish temptation, you are comforted and strengthened also by these words of the apostle Paul, from his Second Epistle to the Corinthians:
“For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
As you then also recall the worst times in your life - times of sin and failure, when the devil was not resisted as he should have been; and when God’s help was not sought as it should have been - you are still not without hope.
The forgiveness of God is the source of life in the midst of death. It is the renewal of hope in the midst of despair. It is the wellspring of joy in the midst of grief and shame.
King David - whose great sin we have already recalled - knew this forgiveness. The Prophet Nathan - his pastor - came to him about this. We read in the Second Book of Samuel:
“Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you...the house of Israel and of Judah. ... Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight?”’ ... David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ And Nathan said to David, ‘The Lord also has put away your sin.’”
This was not a matter of external ritual, or of thoughtless repetitions of memorized liturgical formulas. When you confess your sins, and hear the Lord’s absolution, it had better not be that for you, either.
For David, this was a matter of life and death: the eternal life, or death, of his soul. When you acknowledge your sins, and your failures in resisting the devil’s temptations; and when the forgiveness of Christ is pronounced upon you in his name by your pastor, this, too, is a matter of life and death for you.
It is God’s opening to you of the gates of heaven. What the devil no doubt sees as an opportunity to bury you in guilt and shame, becomes instead an opportunity for God’s Spirit to raise you up in faith, and to renew and strengthen you.
And these heavenly gates are, as it were, opened even wider for you, when the sacramental words of Jesus echo in your ears, and penetrate to your heart:
“This is my body, which is given for you.” “This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins.”
In his cleansing and renewing gift of forgiveness, God’s word of life belies all the deceptions of Satan. God’s word of truth silences all the slanders of Satan. God’s word of justification vanquishes all the intrigues of Satan.
And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him. Amen.
13 March 2022 - Lent 2 - Luke 13:31-35 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!” Can you sense in these words, spoken by Jesus in today’s Gospel from St. Luke, the frustration that God feels, when he considers how often his love for his people has been rebuffed? Can you sense God’s exasperation, at how often his desire to save them from their sins has been rejected? Some commentators suppose that Jesus is here referring to frustrated memories of previous visits to Jerusalem at earlier points in his earthly ministry. But I think that what we have here is a much deeper and much sadder feeling of grief than what would result from a couple disappointing visits, over the time period of a couple years. I believe that this statement of Jesus is, rather, a manifestation of his anguished feelings in, and according to, his divine nature. During the time when Jesus walked the earth, and lived his life mostly according to the limitations of his human nature, his divine nature usually remained hidden. But there were times when people could get a glimpse of his otherwise hidden divinity. In the transfiguration of our Lord, for example, the divine glory of Jesus became briefly visible to the disciples who were present for that event. But today, it is not a vision of Jesus’ divine glory that we see. It is words of Jesus’ divine love that we hear. Please ponder this for a minute. God does not reveal himself in Christ only as the almighty Lord, and as the fearsome judge of the world - although he is those things, too. He also reveals himself as a merciful and patient Father - indeed, as the equivalent of a mother hen - whose heart breaks when his gracious desire to forgive and save humanity is ignored; or what is worse, when his grace and forgiveness are actively opposed and rejected. And that is what the people of Jerusalem had done so many times over the centuries, when God sent his prophets to them - such as Jeremiah, in today’s Old Testament lesson - to call them to repentance, and to proclaim to them God’s desire for the restoration of their fellowship with him. They didn’t just ignore this prophetic preaching. They persecuted, and sometimes killed, the prophets who were sent to them. But God did not give up on them. In Christ - the Second Person of the Holy Trinity in human flesh - God himself came to them. He came, in spite of his long-term grief and sadness, to try one more time, in person, to call them to repentance, and to invite them to faith. This is a side of God that we don’t often think about. But we should think about it, because this is a side of God that is still very much a part of how God thinks and feels about people today. This is a side of God that is still very much a part of how God thinks and feels about you. I’m sure you can recall some examples of frustration and disappointment that you have experienced in your human relationships. Such frustrations and disappointments are most painful when they occur with respect to the people who are the closest to you, and in whom you have invested the most: members of your family, and longtime friends. Your high expectations of these relationships are sometimes not met. Your reasonable expectations of these people are sometimes not fulfilled. And sometimes, when you have had a serious falling out with someone with whom you used to be close, and you wish that this friendship could be restored, it is a heart-breaking thing when the other person does not want such a restoration, but instead perpetuates the hostility, and rebuffs or ignores all your overtures. Well, if you multiply a hundredfold the intensity of the distress and disappointment that these strained or broken relationships have brought upon you, then maybe you can begin to imagine what it is like for God: in his relationship with Jerusalem; in his relationship with the people of Israel as a whole; and in his relationship with all nations, who are now also invited in the gospel to believe in him. There’s a lot at stake in regard to God’s desire to be at peace with us, to resurrect us from spiritual death, and to embrace us as his children. The eternal destiny of our souls is at stake. Through the Prophet Ezekiel, the Lord himself says: “As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” As quoted in St. Mark’s Gospel, Jesus says to his disciples: “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” God is very much aware of these possibilities: the possibility of eternal death, and the possibility of eternal condemnation, for those who remain hardened in pride and selfishness, and in indifference to his Word and will. These dangers stand behind God’s impassioned call and invitation to Jerusalem, and indeed to all the towns and cities of men. But are we truly aware of these possibilities? Do we care about God’s warnings in regard to these things? It’s very common to hear self-assured people declare today that they don’t believe in hell - as if their not believing in it, makes it go away. But what about you? In his Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, St. Paul describes hell as a circumstance in which “those who do not know God,” and “who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus,” will “suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” Do you believe that an eternal separation from God in the next life, awaits those who persist in keeping themselves separated from God in this life, by an unbelieving indifference, and even by an angry hostility, to the Christian message? Do you grieve in your soul for those whom you love, who have hardened themselves again God’s love in Christ? There is a mystery and a paradox in our Biblical doctrine of conversion and faith. Saving faith, when it does exist, is a gift of God, supernaturally worked in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. As St. Paul says in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” Our unregenerated old nature, which is dead in trespasses and sins, has no innately free will in spiritual matters. But by the working of God’s Spirit through the means of grace, we are given a new birth, and a liberated and renewed will. God in his grace gives Christians a desire to heed his call, by means of that call. But, the Bible also teaches that God does not coerce faith, or force people to love and serve him. What kind of faith and love would that be anyway? In St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” In speaking of his impending crucifixion - by which the sins of all people would be atoned for - Jesus says in St. John’s Gospel: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” And we would remind “all people” of what Jesus says in today’s Gospel from St. Luke: “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!” Human excuses for not listening to God, for resisting God, and for defying God, are manifold. Those who are young, and who want to pursue their youthful interests and adventures, often have the idea that they don’t need to be in any rush to get right with God. They think, “I will have plenty of time to think about these things when I’m older.” But you don’t know how much time you have. You might not even make it home from church today. And besides, knowing God by faith, and living with a clear conscience before God, are blessings that God wants people of all ages to have. The enlightenment of God’s Word, and the promises of divine guidance and protection that God’s Word brings to us, are a benefit to all people, regardless of how young or old they are. Psalm 71 teaches us to pray: “O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me.” And the excuses of those who are in “old age” are often just as foolish as the excuses of the young. Sometimes the consciences of older adults have been twisted and disfigured by a lifetime of spiritual neglect, or have been wounded and scarred by a lifetime of habitual sins and sinful attitudes. So, an older person might turn a deaf ear to God’s invitation, with the thought, “It’s too late for me. I’m too far gone.” But no one is too far gone. Where there’s life, there’s hope. Deathbed conversions are real - or at least they can be. But if you “plan out” a life of selfish indulgence, and then, as it were, “make an appointment” with God to repent and believe only on your deathbed, you don’t have the foggiest idea what repentance and faith truly are. You will be lost if you persist in such a dangerous game to your life’s end. God’s desire to save you will be thwarted. And God’s heart will break. There is no reason to delay in taking God and his invitation seriously, whether you are young or old. If you have no faith in God, believe him now, and be saved from your sins. If your faith is weak, and is distracted by the fleeting allurements of this world, then be renewed in your commitment to God’s enduring and unchanging truth, and to his loving authority in your life. “For [the Lord] says, ‘In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” So writes St. Paul in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians. Whatever your circumstance may be, the Lord is calling out to you today - just as he called out to Jerusalem for generation after generation. Whether you are young or old; whether you are mired in pride and arrogance, or are weighed down with despair and guilt, God, in his love, is reaching out to you with his Word. He is reaching out to you right now, to change you, and to draw you to himself. God is speaking to you in his law, to crush your excuses for ignoring or rejecting him. And God is speaking to you in his gospel - in the message of his Son’s life, death, and resurrection on your behalf - to lift you up into a true fellowship with him, and into a living hope for an eternity in his kingdom. In the death and resurrection of Jesus, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. In the means of grace here and now, God is still in Christ, reconciling you, personally, to himself. In the preaching of his gospel, in the remembrance of baptism that occurs in confession and absolution, and in the bestowal of his body and blood that takes place in his Holy Supper, God is in Christ, not counting your trespasses against you. Do not spurn his offer. Do not be like the people of Jerusalem, generation after generation, who broke God’s heart, and who destroyed themselves in unbelief, by refusing to receive what God wanted to give. As St. Paul wrote to the Philippians: “It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!” Amen.
23 March 2022 - Service of Passion Readings and Lenten Hymns
In Psalm 143, King David offers this prayer to his Lord:
“I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands. I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.”
And this prayer is found in Psalm 119:
“I call to you; save me, that I may observe your testimonies. I rise before dawn and cry for help; I hope in your words. My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise.”
The term “meditation” is commonly used by the adherents of eastern mysticism, in its various forms, to describe a disciplinary process by which they find peace and relaxation through clearing their minds of worries, anxieties, and sometimes of thoughts of any kind. An online advocate of this kind of meditation says this on his blog:
“Meditation...helped calm my mind from the chaotic noise of life, but even more from my own thoughts. ... Blank mind meditation...is a simple technique to clear your mind and bring calmness and relaxation. ... Blank mind meditation...centers around controlling your breathing. In the beginning, you use a series of visualization techniques to get control of your mind. As you progress, these techniques get easier and easier to remove so that you can devisualize the process into a truly blank mind meditation.”
This is not what the Psalms are talking about, however, when they speak of meditation on the works and promises of God. It is just the opposite, in fact. Instead of emptying your mind, Biblical meditation fills your mind.
In faith we want to be filled fully with a knowledge of all that the Lord has done for the salvation of our fallen race, and with the comfort of the Lord’s forgiving grace to each of us in his Son Jesus Christ.
And we don’t try to control our minds so that we can empty them. Instead, as St. Paul writes in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians, “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
We also meditate on the eternal future that God has promised us in the gospel, and through our meditation prepare ourselves in hope for that future. St. Peter, in his First Epistle, accordingly encourages us with these words:
“Being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
As we abide in the Word of God, and as the Word of God abides in us, we are assured by St. Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians that the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.
As a community of faith, we have set aside some time this evening, as a time for solemn meditation and deep reflection on the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. We will hear St. Matthew’s inspired account of Jesus’ agony in the garden, his arrest and trials, and his crucifixion, death, and burial.
In the hymns that we will sing - as they take the form of sung sermons, prayers, and confessions of faith - the meaning of Jesus’ suffering and death will be unfolded for us, and will be impressed upon us in mind and heart.
Lutheran Lenten hymns often do impact the emotions, but they do not manipulate the emotions. Instead, their dignified poetry presents to us a substantial Christ-centered message that is drawn from Scripture, and that orients us back toward Scripture.
Humanity’s sinfulness brings with it two harmful effects. First, sin separates and alienates us from the holy God who created us. In our sin we rebel against his goodness, defy his authority, make him our enemy, and call down his wrath upon us.
And second, sin damages and pollutes us on the inside, causing us to be spiritually dead and hollow, and corrupted by pride and greed.
But God loved his fallen creatures, and wanted to change all that - yet in a way that would not violate his righteousness and holiness. He therefore entered into the human race, in the person of Jesus Christ, so that he could atone for humanity’s sin, and reconcile humanity to himself from inside humanity.
St. Paul soberly yet joyfully reminds us in his Epistle to the Romans that “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.”
Paul also writes: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This gift is indeed free for us.
But it cost God a lot. Jesus said on another occasion, regarding the sacrifice of his own life that he would offer, that “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Humanity’s sin was imputed to Jesus, and he carried that sin to the cross and paid for it there; so that Jesus’ righteousness can now be imputed to us, who repent and believe in him: allowing us to stand before God free of all guilt and fear.
That’s what St. Paul means when he writes in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians, that “For our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
And that’s why all the things that we will hear about and sing about this evening, needed to happen. That’s why the man who is God in the flesh needed to die for all other men. That’s why the man from Nazareth who was without sin allowed himself to be treated on the cross as if he were the worst of sinners.
That’s why you and I can have life: because of Jesus’ death in our place. That’s why you and I can receive divine forgiveness: because of Jesus’ condemnation under the judgment of the divine law in our place.
That’s why you and I can be embraced by God in unending love: because of Jesus’ forsakenness by God in our place.
And that’s why we are here tonight: to listen to and ponder these things; to sing about and absorb these things; and to be saved from our sin and from all of its consequences because of these things - these wonderful, awe-inspiring, sacred things.
Lord, in loving contemplation Fix our hearts and eyes on Thee
Till we taste Thy full salvation And Thine unveiled glory see. Amen.
27 March 2022 - Lent 4 - Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
“There was a man who had two sons.” So begins what is commonly called the parable of the prodigal son, as told by Jesus, and recorded in St. Luke’s Gospel.
We are told in this parable that this younger of two sons said to his father, “Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.” And the father then divided his property between the two brothers.
In the context of first century Jewish culture, something like this was unheard of. The universal practice was that a man’s estate was not divided until the occasion of his death.
For the younger son to ask that it be divided before then, was, in effect, to express a wish that the father would be dead, or at least to indicate that the son thought of his father as if he were dead - without an appreciation for his father’s presence and influence in his life, and without an intention to honor his father as he should.
But the father’s love for his son was such, that he acquiesced to this request, rather than blowing up in rage at the presumptuousness and disrespect of it. If this younger son turned out to be prodigal - that is, extravagant in his spending - the father certainly seems to be quite extravagant in his generosity.
Beyond all human expectation, the father loves his son, and gives him what he asks for. And this helps us to understand that in the parable, the father does not represent an ordinary human father, but rather God, who loves his children with a superhuman extravagance and graciousness.
But as it turns out, the younger son is not worthy of that love, and wasted the premature inheritance he had received. In “a far country” he “squandered his property in reckless living.” And then, in his destitution, he “hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs.”
Bob Dylan famously sang: “You’re gonna have to serve somebody. Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”
The truth of this is illustrated in the parable of the prodigal son. The son had effectively renounced his father - treating him as if he were dead - and was no longer interested in serving him. But he could not remain detached.
And so he began to serve another master. But this was a master who had no personal regard or affection for this young man, and who put him to work in a way that was utterly degrading to him. To a Jew, being forced to be a caretaker of pigs was a humiliating defilement.
Now, if the father in the story represents God - that is, the one to whom all people legitimately owe allegiance and service - then this citizen of a foreign land, to whom the prodigal son attached himself, represents any and every false god and idol, which those who turn their back on God do serve, instead of God.
Rejecting the true faith in the true God does not mean that you will now believe in nothing. It means that you will now, in gullibility, believe in anything.
And it means that you will serve any number of false gods that will destroy you, not watch over you and protect you. It means that you will serve idols that will chew you up - morally, physically, and spiritually - and spit you out.
The devil’s promise always is, that if you remove yourself from God’s authority, you will be free. But what the devil always delivers, is the worst kind of slavery and exploitation, and ultimately death.
That’s what the prodigal son experienced. And that’s what you have experienced, if and when you have ever thought and acted like that son: in your mind opposing God; in your heart disrespecting God; doing as you please, greedily and selfishly, without regard for honor and duty, obligation and commitment.
The freedom from God that your sinful pride prompted you to seek, brought only misery - a deep and dark misery. But, like the prodigal son in today’s story, you came to your senses.
Or if you are even now secretly still mired in the degradation of a “far country” that is oh, so distant from your proper home with God, you have a chance right now to come to your senses, to admit the mess you’ve gotten yourself into, and to resolve that you want and need something better.
In today’s story, when the wandering son “came to himself,” he said to himself, “How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.’” And he arose and came to his father.
But do notice what this new inner resolve entailed, and what it did not entail. The son - who regretted his foolishness, and the horrible situation he had gotten himself into - was hoping only that his father would give him a job - that is, a chance to work his way back up to a status more respectable than where he now was.
He wanted to be hired on, so that, under the father’s patronage, he could change his life, and become a responsible person once again.
This is a form of repentance - a change in thinking that involves a disdain for the effects of sin in your life, and a desire to reverse those effects by changing the way you live. But this is not yet a true Christian repentance, or a true Christian faith.
It is moralism: a desire to be a better person, a commitment to work hard to make yourself a better person, and a belief that God is a kind of “higher power” or heavenly guide who can help you to become a better person.
Now, this is not a bad desire. It is good as far as it goes. But it does not go far enough.
Still, that’s what many people are thinking when they turn to God, in the midst of a life of sin and of the consequences of sin. They want a better life, and they think - they hope - that God can help them. And so they pray for that help.
But what God has for those whom he loves, and claims as his own, is so much more than that. What the father gave to the returning son was so much more than that.
While the humbled and ashamed son was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”
But the father said to his servants, “Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.”
There’s an irony here. The prodigal son had treated his father as if his father were dead. But he was the one who was actually dead - spiritually and morally dead. Yet now he is alive again, because he is restored to fellowship with the source and giver of life.
True repentance does not only look back on a failed life, with a humble admission that I have not been what I should have been. It also looks forward, with a humble admission that I, by my own efforts, will not be able to make myself truly righteous and fully acceptable to God in the future, either.
There’s something wrong with me on the inside, down deep. There is an inborn flaw in me that I cannot ultimately overcome in this life. And so, by my own strength I am lost. In my weakness, I am without hope.
Maybe, through will power and human persistence, I can become a better person than I was before - at least by outward measurements, and by comparisons with other people.
But I cannot in these ways become everything I am supposed to be before God. I cannot make myself worthy of the love of a perfect and holy God, and deserving of a place in his house and at his table.
So, the prodigal son’s idea would not have worked. But it didn’t need to work. He didn’t need to find a way to work himself back into his father’s favor.
Sons who come home do not become servants. Sons who come home become sons again. All is forgiven. All is forgotten. Alienation is replaced, not by probation, but by restoration.
The parable doesn’t explain why and how this happens. But this happens for real - in our relationship with God - because of the one who is telling this parable.
Jesus makes this happen, because his obedience covers over our disobedience, and his successes cover over our failures. Indeed, the “best robe” of Jesus’ righteousness is placed upon us, to cover the stains of our unrighteousness.
His blood, shed on the cross for our sins, washes away our shame and guilt. And his resurrection opens up a clear pathway for us, into the presence and fellowship of God - who sees those who trust in Christ through the lens of Christ, and therefore as being perfect in Christ.
As St. Paul writes in today’s lesson from his Second Epistle to the Corinthians: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
In our wastefulness with what God has entrusted to our care, and in our callous disrespect for God’s authority, we do indeed wander away from God. But Jesus reaches out to us - in the far country to which we have wandered in our minds and souls - and in our minds and souls, he calls us to come to our senses, and to come home.
Being invited to the celebratory household meal showed the now-restored son more than anything else, that he was home, and was fully restored to his place at the table. The killing, roasting, and eating of the fattened calf represents the joyous fellowship that God’s people enjoy with their creator and redeemer, and with each other.
This is not a reference to the Lord’s Supper per se. But when Jesus later instituted that sacrament to be a special and miraculous participation in him and in the gospel, for his catechized and confessing people, this was done in light of the first-century cultural understanding that when a host welcomes someone to his table, he thereby welcomes that person, fully and completely, into his life.
God in Christ, and through the gospel of Christ, welcomes and re-welcomes you into his life - not so that you can be his employee, working your way into his good graces; but so that you can be embraced as his son or daughter, by his grace alone, through faith in his Word.
He has again brought you under his protection and guidance. He has again brought you within his house. “And they began to celebrate.” Amen.