The Holy [Trinity 9; St. Luke 16:1-9]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

Whom we hear today, speaking to us, saying,

“The Lord commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.”

The first thing that pops into our heads when we hear the word “holy” is quite possibly “holy water” or if you enjoy games, perhaps it is the holy armor of the ancients or the spell of holy light. What all these things have in common is that they are flashy. When we use something dubbed “holy” we want bang, we want action, we want results.

So when the church only gives us holy baptism, holy Bible, or holy Communion, we look at them and say, “Meh” and turn our thoughts to others things WE think are more effective. That is, away from the mundane into the grand and abstract. Now I have a holy calling from God. Now I have a holy purpose. Now I have a holy blessing, etc., etc.

Thus today we hear of the dishonest manager who was not bad at his job, as is seen in his redemptive actions, but he devalues his job and wastes his Lord’s possessions, of which he is in charge. He rests on the laurels of his job. He has been hired, he does enough work to get by, and he has dreams of doing bigger things and handling greater success, quite possibly elsewhere.

It seems he does not think very highly of the business that his Lord is about and much less does he consider his Lord’s goods and promises as worthy. What good is a debt of 100 measures of oil compared to actually possessing fifty? What good is a lack of 100 measures of wheat compared to having the physical wheat?

A person that defaults on a debt does not payback the debt and the owner of the debt remains at a loss. What is the point of that? Yet, the dishonest manager does not care. He loans, he wastes, he whittles away his Lord’s business to nothing, because this is how he thinks he’s doing right.

This brings us to the holy Altar. This is not “alter” as in “make an alteration”; as in a change here, a snip there. Altar is never associated with making changes. It is always associated with sacrifice, blood, and death. You could call that a change I suppose, but it is a change from life to death. Once you come in contact, you do not remain the same.

Repent. This is how we treat the things of God? Yes, because no matter how much holy water I throw, nobody melts. No matter how much holy Bible I memorize or throw at others, nobody listens. No matter how much Holy Communion I throw down my belly, nothing changes. It is easy to devalue the Lord’s house and waste that which He has called holy and instead exchange it for what you call holy.

It is easy to prance around the church and say, “nothing is happening to me even if I do this”. If I touch the Font, nothing happens. If I curse and swear and tell dirty jokes in the chancel, nothing happens. If I don’t bow, if I don’t cross myself, if I don’t reverence the Altar, nothing happens.

In contrast, if I don’t pay my taxes I will get thrown in jail. If I throw a live grenade, something will blow up. If I don’t work, I get hungry. It is easy to devalue the Lord’s house and waste that which He has called holy, because God is a merciful God and slow to anger, so we take Him and His patience for granted.

So just what does God call holy? Not just holy Baptism, not just the holy Bible, and not just Holy Communion, but also holy people and holy Altar. Why? Because the Altar was the place in the Old Testament, the only place, where God said He would meet with and dwell with His people. He says, “There I will meet with you” (Ex. 25:22) to Moses. Even St. Paul says that Jesus is our Mercy Seat sacrifice or Altar sacrifice (Rom. 3:25).

Here is the strength and power of a promise from God: that what He says, happens. Jesus asks, “’Why were you looking for Me?’…‘Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s things?’” (Lk. 2:49). Here is the plan from the beginning: that God would be made flesh. That He would dwell among His people. That He would bless them in this way and He would do it through means. That He would dwell with us in things that He makes holy.

Jesus does not make a promise to holy water, but makes a promise that by water with the Word a person is saved. Jesus did not make a promise to ink and paper, but that through it forgiveness of sins would be given. Jesus did not make a promise to bread and wine, but that with the Word, life, light, and salvation are ingested.

Similarly, Jesus did not make a promise to brick and mortar and wood and paint and fire, but the promise is to gathering, to hearing, to believing, and to communing. It is not the things that are special, but the God-man making the promise with these things.

The holy Altar holds no inner-power or secret secrets. It is simply the fact that when faith hears that the forgiveness of sins is offered on an altar, it wants to see it. When faith hears that God was sacrificed on the altar of the tree, it wants to see it. When faith hears of a stairway to heaven, or the light of the world, or any of the other wonders God made with the things of Creation, we want to see it in Church.

The things in church point to the holy. The sacraments give us the holiness of Christ, but everything else in church moves us towards those things. The architecture of the church points us towards the Altar. The organ and the hymns remind us of salvation and forgiveness. The banners and icons show us scenes of history we did not get to witness. The pews face forward. The steps lead up to heaven.

The Church is not frivolous. Whatever teaches Christ and His salvation stays. Whatever detracts or distracts is thrown out. Sadly, many today throw out actual holy things and replace them with entertainment. The Font is cast to the side or locked in a closet. The Bible is simply a tool. Communion is no more than a symbol. The Altar and chancel are simply places up front and are reduced to shelves and places where the person speaking stands, on purpose.

It is important. It is life and death. We must set aside things for certain usages or we will lose reverence and awe. We must remind ourselves that God really is doing something, physically, or we will lose all value for God’s Word. When the Word just becomes another thing that takes place in my head or my heart, then what’s the point in acting a certain way or attending a certain place?

We lose our sense of wonder so much, that when we next encounter the baptismal waters, we scoff at it. We deride it. We replace it. “It is my commitment that does something, not water.” “It is my understanding and feelings that interpret Scripture, not the Holy Spirit.” “It is my steadfastness and my private belief that makes this meal special, not the words and promises of Jesus.”

If this is true, then there is no point. If the meal doesn’t do anything, throw it out. We don’t want it. If the Bible is just moral living, burn it. If its just plain water, dump it. If this place is just like any other on earth, then raze it and salt the earth underneath. If it doesn’t matter, if it doesn’t do anything, then it doesn’t matter.

But if it does matter; if something else is going on here; if God’s Word is always true and if He has promised that He is working in the Word and Sacraments, then by God don’t step on them!

If God truly has a body and soul, then don’t waste your own or those of your neighbors! If God really does come to live among His people, to serve them in the Divine Service, and we place the means He uses in this building and on this Altar, then for God’s sake don’t make light of them!

In his loathing of his Lord’s goods, the dishonest manager was about to lose his job, his means of life, and his reputation. The Christian has the power to do the same with his belief, to just flush it down the toilet. Yet it is in great mercy that the Lord covers our debt with His true Body and Blood and continues to present Himself in the simple and mundane, making them most holy things.

St. Mary Magdalene, human [St. Luke 7:36-50]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

Who speaks to you all through the Gospel today saying,

“Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

If we want to receive blessedness, we must first abhor sin and enter into a repentant life, and then believe that our sin is forgiven for Christ’s sake. Finally, we must also demonstrate our faith and bring it to light through works of love and mercy, as we see and hear in the sinner that is St. Mary Magdalene.

This is why, when a saint day falls close to a Sunday, we celebrate it, because not only are they an example for us, but they bring the Christian life down to our level; the human level. So often, whenever anyone starts out on a spiritual journey, it is always grand and spiritual and very far away.

When we want to live the Christian life, we think in terms of what we can do and what our neighbor isn’t doing. We think that as long as we’re working on our righteousness, that our neighbor’s righteousness is never enough. We think that as long as we feel spiritual on the inside, that is good enough.

St. Mary Magdalene shows us a different picture. I’m sure in her heart of hearts she knew and felt well within the grace of God, but faith did not let her sit still. Faith did not let her say, “I’m blessed” and sit at home or go and do something else. It screamed at her: Jesus, the Christ of God in the flesh is in front of you and walking around while you are alive. You cannot be anywhere else except at His feet.

The example that St. Mary Magdalene leaves us is a picture of what every prophet, priest, and believer has done through all of time. They all fall down at the feet of God lamenting their uncleanness and weeping over their debts. This is because, when they hear the Word of God, they are not just hearing prophecy, they are also hearing their own pardons preached to them.

That is, they use their human attributes and talents in order to thank and praise, serve and obey God. But even with those words, we are still in the high and lofty, because those things can still be done on the inside and be thought of as more grand than they are. No, we still need a concrete place to perform these works.

St. Mary Magdalene and the rest of the followers of Jesus had it easy. They had the literal face of Jesus to seek out and gaze at. They had the hands of Jesus to grasp and shake. They had the knees of Jesus to fall down at and they had the feet of Jesus to wash with tears. Later on, they also had the actual blood of Jesus, His literal cross, and the very empty tomb He rose from to sit at and worship Him all day long, if they wanted. What do we have?

Repent. We spend all our spiritual energy on trying to get to Jesus, trying to pull His ear, trying to grab His hand, trying to find His feet and we come up empty handed. Jesus even ascended to the right hand of God, but we still think that He comes to us in the same way He did to the Apostles and to St. Mary.

Do we want to know how to abhor sin and live a life of repentance? We need look no further than St. Mary Magdalene, who though she had been forgiven, healed, and exorcised; although she had already received the full benefit from the hand of Jesus Himself, she was still disgusted by her sins and continued to seek Jesus out.

She was so horrified that she did not care about the stares and backstabbing comments she knew were going on in the conversations around her as she stepped into the dining room. She went through this unbearable embarrassment to get to the true Son of God, because He does not condemn, as she well knows, but has mercy.

Who loves the Father the most except the Son? Whose debt was the greater that was forgiven except the Son’s, though it was not His own? In a strange and merciful twist of divine goodness and mercy, Jesus is the greatest of sinners, the chief sinner, even though St. Paul tries to claim that title.

Jesus receives the touch and caress of sinners and is not made unclean by them. He accepts the care of “this sort of woman” and instead of Jesus being corrupted by touch or influence, He gives out His power to forgive and to save. Instead of a double-edged sword or a beam of white-hot fire, judging and condemning, these sinners find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes.

In the incarnation of God, the Lord is reconciling the world to Himself. In God becoming flesh, Jesus now presents and proves the mercy of God; that He is close and not far, that He desires mercy, not sacrifice, and that His loving-kindness endures forever, not just because He says so, but because He acts just so, on the cross.

The suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ of God, is the only proof that God loves us. Doesn’t St. Mary tell us so? She is credited with being the first witness of the resurrection, after all. See how she follows her Lord and notes each detail of what He is saying and doing. She doesn’t stay at His feet and she doesn’t even stay at the tomb, she follows Him.

Faith knows that the Son is loved by the Father. Faith also knows that if we are not a part of the Son, that we will not be loved, but condemned in our sin for eternity. Thus, our need for God to unite with us. Our eternal need for the life of Christ to replace our life and in baptism this miracle takes place.

Faith works the same way today. It does not point us to how well we have overcome sin in our lives, but to how well Christ destroyed sin. Faith doesn’t point us to how sorry we feel for our sins or even how repentant we are, but to how perfectly Jesus has forgiven them. Thus, we follow where the forgiveness leads us: yes, to the cross, yes to the empty tomb, but those are no longer there. What we gather around today is the promise of God made to bring those things to us.

St. Mary Magdalene needed such great faith because she had to deal with a man she could see and could hardly believe He was God. But we have a faith to believe Jesus is God and man, that He has forgiven us in the same way, and that He still comes to us to care for us. Though we do not have the Body of Jesus, we have the Body and the Blood; the place where the promise resides.

We don’t have to find Jesus, or His hands, or His knees, or His feet, because He finds us. Our sin finds us as well, we don’t have to look too far for that, but Jesus makes a place in His Church, where His promise to forgive sins is stronger than our guilt. He creates a very human institution, fills it with earthly things, and declares these sacraments in this place accomplish His work.

If our head is in the clouds of self-righteousness, waiting for our own sanctification to drop down on us instead of our neighbor, we will miss God’s work of salvation completely and be locked out of the banquet. This is because God’s work, His great and most holy work, is being done at our feet, to humans, on earth, in the Word and Sacraments.

Does St. Mary Magdalene seek out and burst her way into wherever the Body of Jesus is? Dear Saints at St. Luke, so do you in the Divine Service.

Full table [Trinity 7; St. Mark 8:1-9]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

Who speaks to you all today in verse 4 actually saying,

“Where will anyone be able to get the breads to satisfy these people here in the wilderness?”

When was the last time you truly explored the depth of your trust in God? You work for a compassionate God, so why can’t you be compassionate? Of course Jesus is going to feed those 4000 people. We see His compassion revealed in the Gospel today, where the people’s physical weakness of hunger moved Jesus to act. Yet, it was He that allowed those people to go hungry in the first place.

When we look to Jesus for only a moral code, we see a very deficient God. Sure, He gives me food on my table, but for the most part I work hard for that and provide it, myself. We can say that He enables that to happen, but He doesn’t enable it for everyone. There are still people starving today, some 795 million people, according to World Hunger Statistics.

So, Jesus must not be all-powerful. He must not be able to enact miracles, or we excuse Him and say, “He doesn’t work that way”, which in turn excuses us from our having to be compassionate to and feeding our enemies.

You must remember that the miracle was only for 4000, the great catch of fish was only for St. Peter, and there is still the matter of the law condemning us in our sin and landing us in eternal jail till we pay the full price of all hanging over our head, as we’ve heard from the last few weeks of Gospel readings.

Indeed, you hear the cry Israel hurls at God saying, “Would that we had died in Egypt…when we ate bread to the full. For you have led is into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” (Ex. 16:3) Why do I have to be compassionate when it just causes so many problems. They, like you, complain to God. They blame God. They were condemning God.

“Who will feed us with meat?” (Num. 11:18), they scream. We are hungry. We demand compassion. We work too hard not to deserve it. Their lamentations begin to take on an infantile tenor in a tantrum. Moses fears for his life, for these are not infants he’s dealing with, but full grown adults able to fight and wield weapons. Moses turns to the Lord and desperately calls for aid, “Where will I get meat to give to all this nation?...I will not be able to bear this nation alone.”(Num. 11:13-14)

Repent. The evidence you present for your case against God as being uncompassionate is pretty air-tight. Just like the Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 years, you don’t see any provision or potential for provision in the immediate future. Israel was going hungry. The people following Jesus were going hungry. Your compassion grates on you and God isn’t keeping His end of the compassion bargain.

God is unable, according to you, and if He is, He only shows up every once in a while and moreso to other people, even wicked people, but not you. Yes, the wicked prosper and their eyes stand out with fatness, for all the blessing of food God gives to them and not to the poor.

King David is on your side saying, “Will God be able to prepare a table in the wilderness?...Is He able to give bread? (Ps.78:19-20) He also is in to doubt as to whether or not God can provide, not just food but true care and concern that helps in every generation, even to his future descendants: you.

Good news everyone! We don’t have to make excuses or imagine various ways we think God is acting out compassion in our lives nor must we fake being content with what we have. In fact, Jesus was able to not only provide for the needs of those who had gathered to hear Him teach, but Jesus was also willing to feed those who had gathered to hear Him teach. Which is exactly what we do today: gathering to hear Him teach. So where is the providing and feeding offered, not just to St. Luke, but to the whole world?

We have Psalm 23 telling us about the Lord setting a table before His enemies. We have Isaiah promising a banquet set by the Lord (25:6). We don’t have to throw it all into the prophesy category and say, “well God’s not doing it now, but He will later”, because Jesus has taken us the cross.

It is not just compassion that Jesus is giving out to His Church, or the 4000 today, and it is not just future hope in front of sin, death, and the devil. Jesus is giving out Himself. In the incarnation of God, the Lord takes on human flesh. Not that God slips into a flesh suit, but that He brings humanity into Himself.

Thus, whenever we think about what it means for God to “have compassion” and whenever we contemplate whether God can provide for us or not, we must always start and end at Jesus on the cross and Jesus’ Supper. Can the Lord provide for you in real ways today, or is it just spiritual imagination?

Yes. He does. And He does it in the sacrifice of His Son and the offering of His Son to you on a silver platter. Who will feed you forgiveness in this desert of forgiveness? Who will feed you life in this valley of the shadow of death? Where will you get the bread of compassion?

Our Lord Jesus took the Bread of Heaven, and when He had given thanks, He broke it on the cross and gave it to His disciples saying, “You feed them.” Faith trusts God to feed ever so much more than 4000 or even 5000. The compassion of our God is not just a future hope of fulfillment in heaven, but a present reality in bread and wine. Because Jesus does not just show compassion, He is compassion.

If you are thinking that God is only providing for you because you live in the greatest nation in the world, well that’s thinking too small. Likewise, if you think God is not providing because people are starving in other countries, also too small. God doesn’t want to care for the self-righteous. He has come to rescue and redeem sinners.

Our hunger and thirst is so much deeper than the next hamburger. They signify two things: 1) that we are weak in our sin without a constant influx of food and 2) that we don’t trust God. Thus, Jesus not only promises rescue and forgiveness, but gives us a sign that He is telling the truth: His Supper.

Do we trust God enough to be able to hand out the entirety of His promise in Christ, in bread and wine or are we waiting for a different sign from heaven? Faith not only trusts that God is compassionate, but that He is compassionate toward you. For, though our mortal eyes only behold bread and wine as we pour it, faith sees compassion incarnate, given and shed for you.

The Lord will provide, goes the saying, not only physical needs, but spiritual. Even if our physical needs are not provided for, or are over-provided, The Lord’s Supper is the same for all, providing comfort for all, compassion for all, and Body and Blood for all. Bread and fish just couldn’t cut it.

Promises, promises [Trinity 6; St. Matthew 5:20-26]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

Jesus speaks to you all today saying,

“…leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”

Here it is. The epitome of what it means to be a sinner and receive God’s Word and commands. Jesus lays it all out. Your righteousness needs to be so high or you don’t get in. Murder is not just a criminal offense but a thought-crime as well and until you pay the full price for these transgressions, you will remain in the big house.

And the sinner will use this pericope in this way: to point at and condemn his neighbor, instead of seeing his own guilt. Of course, he will first set out to amend his life under this heavy burden, but once he has had one “day of sinless living” under his belt, he will be sure to let everyone know about it.

Where we and our neighbors need comfort and healing in light of this, we only bring more impossible lists of things to do and tell them, “Just put away your anger” or “give it to God”. We medicate ourselves with more Law and its impossible demands of perfection and then wonder why no one, much less ourselves, believes anymore. If we simply train and order ourselves under the Law, we quickly wear out and give up and wonder where the goodness of God is, because the Law is without mercy.

The big picture we miss when we are so focused on getting rid of sin, is that the fullness of God and His righteousness for salvation has been manifested; made flesh, quite apart from the Law. So while the Law of God is Good and Wise, it cannot advance us on our path to holiness much less offer us any consolation.

Yet where is that peace and comfort in today’s Gospel reading of Law, Law, Law? Is it simply that Jesus has taken care of things for us so we don’t need to worry? Is God flippantly telling us to do our best and He will do the rest?

It cannot be, for God is a God of Justice. What is wrong must be made right. What is transgressed must be paid for. He cannot overlook one criminal deed or else our entire future will be bleak. It does no harm to God, but for us, a breech in justice means no mercy.

Repent. We think that because we have a Bible, that we know the right way to use His words. As it turns out, every time we try is filled with sin and transgression. We tell our neighbor to not be angry, ever, but excuse our own anger as a “temporary lapse”

The disconnect for us comes when we try to make “keep my commandments” only about doing them “as best we can”, when really “keep my commandments” means not just doing them, not just keeping them fresh in your mind and in church, but also it means promises of what is and what will be.

Think about the commandment “you shall not murder”. Yes there is the actual murdering, the “thinking about murdering”, and the anger bit. But what is the command trying to get at? It is trying to get at a world where there is no murdering and no anger. It is trying to show that there is such a place and it is promising us that we will get to be a part of it.

This works for the rest of the commands as well. They are not only “you shall nots”, but also “you shall haves”. For the “shall” is not just imperative voice, but imperative future, meaning you will have these things. You will not murder. If you have been forgiven, baptized, and are dead to your sin, murder is just something you won’t do, because it is something the Lord does not do.

Jesus did not just live the perfect life for us to show off nor as just an impossible example for us to follow. He lived the perfect life to show us Who He is and what our lives with Him will look like. God keeps all of His commandments perfectly. He lives them for all eternity. If we hope to live with Him, then we must do that also.

Life with God is a life where all the commandments are kept every second of every day, not just once in a while. Thus, when Jesus comes in the flesh to live that godly life, He is not just proving it can be done, but also bringing that same life into ours. Now, flesh and blood can obey the commands of God and God gives us this same life in Christ.

And we have it. Right now. Yes we transgress the commandments every day and are guilty of breaking all of them all the time. But the declaration from God is made apart from the Law which condemns. This declaration is made in His Son on the cross. And that Gospel declaration is: Justification.

It is not how well or how un-well we keep the commands. It is how perfectly Jesus kept the commands for us. Because He not only gives us credit for His perfect life, but also gives us His perfect life. This means, that in faith, you have never or will never murder a day in your life. Today, you have no anger. Today, the heavy guilt that the Law lands on your head is not there.

There is no sin in God. There will be no sin living under our Lord Jesus Christ, when we serve Him for eternity. Therefore the commandments are promises to us as well. Promises of what we have in Jesus and what we will be after we die. Promises that are even fulfilled in us today.

For, baptism is a death and resurrection and a pledge from Jesus that He is sanctifying our lives from all sin. In it, we are united to His death and His resurrection. We are dead to sin. The gift we get, not for our own sake, but for Christ’s sake is the resurrection in front of God free from sin.

Now, what do you have in Church? What kind of life does Jesus give you and what kind of life are you receiving in the sacraments? It is the righteous life that exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees. Its yours. You get it. For free.

What else? You are not a murderer. Not that you get a free pass if you kill people on earth, but that the condemnation that the Law brings no longer holds sway over you. You are not angry. You do not insult. You never say “Thou fool”, although Jesus does too!, this is just not attributed to you, because of Christ’s righteousness.

You are at peace with your brother, you love your accuser, and you will never taste eternal prison. These are all attributes tattooed on your forehead where you were baptized. These are all qualities you possess because you believe. These are all descriptors of your new life which you ingest at the Lord’s Supper.

The Gospel in today’s guilt-ridden reading is that it is describing the life Christ purchased and won for you on the cross. Yes, it is good news that Jesus has died to rid you of the guilt that rises to the surface when we hear these hard words, but it is also the good news that we will be like Christ. Not through our own efforts, but through the efforts and success of He Who is, Who was, and Who will be.

This is how you should think about the phrase “life in Christ”. That it is a baptized life. That it is a gift already given, not a gift to be pursued. We will be on a life-long quest to better ourselves and attain some form of righteousness and holiness as can be had in this life. But that never ends and we will not reach the end of that path, even if we die.

For the end of the Law is not us nor death, but Jesus. Obedience has an end. It has a time when it will be completed and perfected. Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. He is not a way, a truth, and a life, but quite literally these things. It is not our way, our truth, our life, but His and He Himself, as it always will be, and the only way we get it is by receiving the gift; Body and Blood.

In with the old [Trinity 5; St. Luke 5:1-11]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

In the Gospel heard today, you hear Jesus speaking to you saying,

“And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.’”

Today, St. Peter is giving up on his ways. He has professionally utilized the tested and true net and boat method and found them severely lacking in being able to provide for house and home. As a businessman, St. Peter understands investment and return, so what didn’t work today still has the proven track record to prove its usefulness.

So what does this seasoned, master-fisher-person do? He passes the buck. It can’t be his fault. He makes excuses. He says to Jesus, “Lord, we’ve used everything we have in our tackle-box of fishing talent and got nothing. We’re tired of trying. We’re tired of losing. We’re tired and sick and tired. Everything is wrong because the tools we’ve been given are wrong or not working as they should. We took nothing all night.

Lord, those hymns and catechisms you’ve given to us don’t work. The Bible just isn’t bringing people into the pews any more. No matter how long we believe, the building just gets emptier and emptier. We’re tired of trying. We’re tired of losing. We’re tired and sick and tired. Everything is wrong because the tools you’ve given us are wrong or not working as they should. We have toiled all our lives and have taken nothing.

Repent. Do we think we are evangelizing children and ADHD patients that we need shiny exuberance and emotion driven fluff to get people to come to church? If we treat people as if they are disabled, they will believe that is what we think of them and stay away. If we treat people like children, or children like children for that matter, they will always remain children and stay away.

Jesus says, “Drop the nets”. What does St. Peter do with His nets? He does not throw them out and begin looking for the dynamite, they get them out of the boats and being to carefully and purposefully mend and wash them. They painstakingly make sure that the net is how it is supposed to be so that it works like it is supposed to.

They wash the nets also, making double sure to ensure no thing is in the way of a properly performing net.

Jesus says, “Put out the boats”. Likewise, they also care for the boats. They do not scrap these that have failed them in their capitol endeavours and build brand new ones. They keep the old, polish it up, pour care and concern into them in order that they perform at their best so that the next time they go out to fish, their game will be sharp.

Repent. You pray for your church and wish for new people, but you are all too ready to throw out exactly what Jesus tells you to use. You pray that God would enliven the church, but then start to think what that would look like: more noise, more responsibility, and more headache. It turns out, having the church grow is a lot more work than just letting be.

You have you evangelism tools and your evangelism script handed to you since birth. Not only is it the baptism you were baptized with, but the catechism, hymns, and Divine Service you have learned and memorized. Moreover, you do not even have to deal with the “lost” or the “unchurched”, you have family that used to be here. You have friends that used to be here. Wherever you are employed is among the ripest fields in the world. Everyday you pass hundreds of people that you could say, “Would you like to come to church?” without going out of your way.

Why church? Why not a new kids program or the food pantry or a mission trip? Well, 1) because its God’s Word that saves, not programs and 2) God’s Word is in the old, tried, and proven: catechism, hymns, and the Divine Service.

Here is our boat. Here are our nets. We need to carefully and purposefully show them off as the primary thing we do here. We need to invest in the old and keep the Word and Sacraments. These are our tools to shout to the community, “The Kingdom of heaven is at hand!” If we would simply sharpen our minds on them, wash them, polish them up, and be excited about them, we would see that God’s Church has already equipped us to perfection.

Jesus shows us this with His own body and we get a hint of it in Peter’s reaction to the great catch of fish. Jesus had just shown St. Peter something new. Where there were no fish, He made fish. Where the old seemed not to work, He made it work. And St. Peter tells, no, orders Jesus to go away. Why? Because the miracle was too great? No, because the prayer St. Peter had been praying his whole life, for God to visit His people, had suddenly appeared before him and it was more than he bargained for.

Jesus did not magically create a new net. He did not prestidigitate an aluminum bass-master with a trolly motor and a depth finder for St. Peter. He told Peter to use what he had been given. Those were good enough. Likewise, when Jesus determined to save all mankind from sin, death and the power of the devil, He did not come as a cyborg or Superman or something new and exciting. He came in the old tired, worn out way: as a human.

Jesus’ birth sanctifies the old. Its not really old, but its what we expect and has become humdrum for us. We have lost our wonder for ordinary things, thus in our sin we balk at hymns and ceremonies, of which our church is mainly comprised, and wonder why people are put-off by our church.

Jesus comes in the flesh. Not just any flesh. Your flesh. He says that this boring old body and form of a human is so special, that God Himself is going to have one. He is the Word of God made flesh, dwelling among us in other boring ways such as water, ink, and bread and wine. There is no innovation. There is nothing new, except that now through these things, God does away with sin, death, and the devil forever.

Just because you weren’t born with the best of bodies, does not make you any less of a person. Just because you weren’t born with the perfect skill set or limitless talent tree, does not make you any less loved. Just because you find yourself baptized into the Lord’s Church which doesn’t tickle your fancy or excite you, does not mean that your church, what it uses and what it has, is at fault. It means that in sin, we hate what is good and would rather not have to deal with the saving power of God in the Gospel.

Jesus sets out His boat; His Ark that is the Church, into the depths of sin and death. He finds an abyss full of dead sinners and raging demons. He lets down His nets of the Gospel anyways, because whatever His net touches becomes holy and alive. Therefore, when He reels it in, His net is full to bursting of us who have heard and believed.

So put out the boats and let down the nets. Teach the Bible but also teach the hymns and catechism that teach what the Bible is all about. Believe with your heart, but also believe with your mouth. Change your perspective if you find yourself getting bored with the old and tied. Don’t blame the tools. Polish them up. Wash them off. Look at them for what they are: good and useful and given by the Lord.

Jesus has caught us to eternal salvation with these same old things, which makes them good enough for God. The Lord has already won the battle for us and secured St. Luke’s place in the victory. We live life knowing that the Lord will fill up heaven and fill up His Church to bursting, with or without us. But we also know that we too have been given a life to live among others in that Grace and it is a life lived by faith, in the Church, at the hand of Christ.