On Confession [Lent 5]

 

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Genesis 22:1-14

• Hebrews 9:11-15

• St. John 8:46-59

Grace to you and peace. (1 Thess 1)
 
Jesus speaks to you on this day from His Gospel heard, saying:

“So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”

 
The only other time in St. John’s gospel, that Jesus hides Himself is just before His Institution of His Supper. This is because there is will and purpose behind God’s desire to Hide Himself. It is not “hide and go seek” “leave it up to us” in these latter days will and purpose. As if to say: God did His work, now its up to us and we can do what we want because God’s not here to tell us yes or no. Jesus’s desire to hide Himself is so that He can reveal Himself in the proper way, that is on His cross.
 
In the opposite way, the way that leads to death, the world loves to hide things from you. Clarity, transparency, and responsibility are all words that key you into the lies. When you hear someone say them, they mean the opposite, especially if they have power and authority. There is no clarity as to what we are doing here, there is no transparency as to what they are doing to us, and no one is held responsible when things go wrong.
 
I have a long list of those things, but lest we get too far off topic, self-reflection is key here. Though we can blame systemic oppression, big government, or capitalism, to name a few, those entities we point to are mere reflections. They are us on a grander scale than we could ever get to on our own, yet we find in them our own sinfulness.
 
The sinfulness of wanting to hide behind scapegoats, of wanting everyone to see only certain, favorable things about us, and of wanting to get away with our actions, no matter who it may hurt. Because, you know, we were doing it for the greater good.
 
Hear the excuses of the Jews, in today’s Gospel. First, you are a Samaritan, they say to Jesus. This is an Ad Hominem attack. Ad hominem means you attack and dismiss a person according to who they are as opposed to addressing their argument. The argument they don’t want to face is Jesus telling the truth and them not believing.
 
They take one look at Jesus, who His parents were, where He was from, the color of His skin and categorically dismiss Him, with God’s Blessing, allegedly. For the Samaritans were the people of Israel that opposed the Temple in Jerusalem, claiming true worship of God in the northern part of Israel. Since they rejected the Temple, they rejected God.
 
Next, the Jews try to hide behind death, arguing with the fallacy called reductio ad absurdum, Latin for "reduction to absurdity". Death is the greater god for them here, as it would be absurd for people to rise from the dead. Jesus, if you keep talking like this, people are going to think that death is not the end. Your argument is invalid. Knock it off.
 
Repent. You love to use God as your excuse to hide your sins. From the beginning, God’s Word has been used against Him in such a manner. If you look hard enough and twist hard enough, you can make Scripture say whatever you want it to say and justify yourself by declaring, “God said so”. You can even side with the devil and call Jesus, satan, for what He does to you in this life.
 
The trouble does not lie with Big anything. You are the trouble and you need to be exposed. For either you are exposed by the Holy Spirit or you remain in your sin. And what does God use as His tool for exposing you? Is it a world wide broadcast interview? Is it a publicizing of private records for your embarassment? No. It is His Absolution.
 
Absolution meaning, “I forgive you all your sins, in the Name of Jesus.” Absolution meaning, for Christ’s sake, you have been adopted as a son of God and though you are disciplined, you stand to receive the full inheritance, at His side forever. Yes, your sins are as scarlet, filthy rags, but in Jesus you are white as snow.
 
Jesus did not wait for the thief on the cross to confess all his sins. Jesus did not wait for Lazarus to make up for every sin he forgot in life. Jesus did not wait around to become the king of demons, though they are angels so technically He is their king. No. He wastes no time in hiding Himself behind Absolution.
 
What does this accomplish? In the first place, when God is described as hiding His face, it is bad. As Job says, “Why do You hide Your face and consider me Your enemy?” (13:24)
He sees our sin and hides Himself from us and we can no longer find Him, if He doesn’t want to be found. We are left in our sin and suffering.
 
And yet, is this a bad thing, God hiding Himself? In another way the Bible speaks, the Lord tells us that if anyone sees His face, he will die (Ex 33:20). But why? Because unholy sin cannot stand in front of a holy God. “You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong” says Habakkuk 1:13.
 
Now that sounds like God will abandon us if we don’t shape up. But that is only without Jesus. Thus, because Jesus exists and did the work that He did, this “hiding” means something else. The picture clears up as we remember Psalm 51:9, “Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.”
 
Why does God hide Himself? Not because we are not worthy, but because He does not want us dead. He does not want to destroy both body and soul and cast us into hell. He does not wish for the death of the sinner. God hides Himself, Jesus hides Himself in order that we live.
 
In Jesus, God hides His face no longer (Eze 39:29). All of God’s cards are on the table. The Jews today are trying to force Jesus to play His hand early. They want to bury Him beneath all those tomb-ish rocks before He can get to the cross. But that is not happening. 
 
Jesus will go on the path He has made for Himself, the path of saving His people from their sins. This does include being stoned to death, as the ancient law requires, but it must be all stonings of all time, not just a one and done. The sacrifice Jesus makes, pays for all those punishments of stoning that the Law required in order to forgive.
 
And that is it. Jesus hides Himself, God Almighty hides Himself in Jesus in order to forgive sins, in order to redeem the thief on the cross, raise Lazarus from the dead, and absolve your sins. He hides Himself so that He may be found!
 
Imagine trying to find a spirit! God is spirit. The Holy Spirit flits this way and that, allegedly. Go find them. Where are they? Will they be there when you need them?
 
In Christ, God is located. In Christ, all the fullness of the godhead lives bodily. Seeing Christ is seeing the Father. Being in Christ’s presence is being in the presence of the Triune God. Hearing His Absolution pronounced upon you by words, is hearing and receiving forgiveness as if Christ our Lord spoke the words Himself.
 
Seek the Lord while He may be found! He hides in His Word and Sacrament. I was looking for Jesus, but He was in the Bread and Wine the whole time. How could I have known? Who would have thought of such a thing?! Who could imagine that when Jesus hides, He is found?
 
The Jews thought He was the king of demons, Jesus was so well hidden. But He was only hidden from unbelief, for even though God’s face was hidden from His people when He was angry, the faithful still sought Him and found Him, even when He was hidden, in His promised Messiah.
 
Now we have that Promise more fully received, in Body and Blood. What Abraham could not imagine as a proper sacrifice of a son, happens not in a ram caught, but a Son willingly crucified. 
 
What we could not imagine as being powerful enough and relevant enough to rescue us from our suffering and death, has been set before us. Jesus has set His Table in the presence of His enemies and has redeemed them, poor miserable sinners.
 
It is to this Lord, then, this hidden Lord Who is found as easily as water is, that we trust in. This Lord Who’s hiddenness makes Him the least inconspicuous God in all of history. This God Who, for our good, even hides behind the title of “demon king” in order to defeat all and pronounce His absolution.
 
God does not hide Himself behind loopholes or turns of phrase or even the laws He Himself commanded. He takes full responsibility for them and though it is not He Who sinned, becomes the chief of sinners that He might procure Absolution from Eternity.
 
Who can understand his errors? We retain Private Confession in our church, in order to bring this Absolution to every individual suffering under the weight of sin. And Jesus delivers. The sin we find in ourselves reaches out to the world like a nuclear winter, covering all. That same sin we see hanging on the cross, with our Savior, being banished to hell forever.
 
He then gives us Word and Sacrament, Pastor and Absolution, in order that we find this hidden God in grace and forgiveness. This hidden, easy-to-find-God we wait on. For though He is hiding His face from our sins, we look eagerly for Him (Is 8:17), for He has promised to save, He has promised to forgive, He has promised show Himself.
 
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt 5:8). On Easter, this is true because of Christ, but also every Sunday in His Supper, it is true for us. Jesus is the only pure-hearted and we are the only sinners baptized into union with that Jesus-of-the-pure-heart. So that we may see and believe. See His Sacraments and hear His Word, hold it sacred, gladly hear and learn it. Thus, we find Jesus after He has found us.
 

In words and deeds [Wednesday in Lent 4]

 

[ [ [ TEXT ONLY ] ] ]

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Ezekiel 36:23-28

• Isaiah 1:16-19

• St. John 9:1-38

Grace to you and peace. (1 Thess 1)
 
Three words from God this evening, from each reading, set us up to receive our fourth pro-tip for witnessing Jesus to the world, which is to witness in words and deeds, as our man from St. John 9 shows us.
The first is Ezekiel 36:27, “walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules”
Next from Isaiah 1:17, “learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause”
And finally, St. John 9:4, “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.”
 
What this tells us is that there is a life to live as Christians. It is a life that is different from the one we were living or thought we were living. If we were converted as an adult, then the values we had and the decisions we made before are not valid under God’s Law. In the renewal of our mind, those things change and therefore, so does our life.
 
If we have been Christian our whole lives, then it is still a life of back and forth. We fall back into sin, God brings us forth out of it. There is never a “you made it” moment in this life, unless you are talking about the Gospel. Under the Law, there is always something to do. Under the Gospel, Jesus has done it all for us, so in Christ we “made it”.
 
Regardless, I still wake up each day and have to face other people. Other people who need my attention and some who literally depend on me for survival. God’s Law tells us to do good, to do the right thing by our neighbor. God’s Law is so sovereign that even humanists and atheists will tell you, “be good for goodness’s sake”. Even they know “good” is out there…somewhere…
 
So the Christian is a do-gooder, a goody-two-shoes. He takes a perspective on life that holds everyone as having a high value, morals are good, values are good. Be ye friend or foe, God made you, loves you, and you have value. As Jesus said, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Mt 5:16).
 
But God does not just give you this wonderful life of service to others, neglecting yourself. There’s more. On top of being commanded to love, there is a second level to the life of Faith. That is, before we begin to do good, we first must hear of the good.
 
It is the Lutherans, then, who see the life of word and deed repeating a cycle of three stages, in their Latin: oratio, meditatio, tentatio; prayer, meditation, suffering. Through these means, God makes a theologian. Not through classrooms, many books, or degrees, but through the study of the Scriptures in the crucible of a world that wishes to destroy us, with the devil breathing down our necks, falling to our knees in prayer, begging the Father for His aid, continually reading and rereading the words that He has handed down to us.
 
Oratio comes first, not as if from a “3-step program”, but because one cannot study the Scriptures without prayer. This sets the Scriptures apart from any other book. There is no other book that one must approach solely through prayer, for there is no other book that not only teaches about eternal life, but actually delivers it.
 
What do we pray for? David tells us: “Teach me your statutes!  Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works.” (Psalm 119:26b-27) We pray for the Holy Spirit, for apart from the Holy Spirit, apart from Him Who inspired the Scriptures and thus kept them from error, we cannot rightly understand or interpret them. The Scriptures cannot be properly read, and no one can be a theologian, apart from faith in Christ, faith worked by the Holy Spirit.
 
Meditatio means “a thinking over, contemplation, dwelling upon.” True meditation is thinking and thinking involves content. The Christian is not trying to turn off his thinking by meditation or clear his mind; on the contrary, the Christian seeks to use his intellect in order to understand the Word of God.
 
Although intellectual apprehension is not the goal, it is the means to the end. The Holy Spirit works faith in the heart through the knowledge grasped by the head. This is why we pray in the general prayers of our church: “Help all who hear the Word rightly to understand and truly to believe it.”
 
Meditation is “repeating and comparing oral speech and literal words of the book, reading and rereading them with diligent attention and reflection, so that you may see what the Holy Spirit means by them.” (LW 34:286). Repetition is key, which is also the reason why our Sunday mornings appear repetitive. By repetition, we increase memory, by increasing memory we increase knowledge and therefore our love of God’s holy things.
 
Finally, Tentatio sounds like “tension” and indeed means something like an “agonizing internal struggle”. Tentatio is unique to the Christian, for though unbelievers also have internal struggles due to tension in life, tentatio is a direct result of prayer (oratio) and meditation (meditatio). For, when a Christian prays for the Holy Spirit, when he meditates on God’s Word through which the Spirit works, then the spirit of darkness, the devil, will assault him and cause tentatio. The devil hates God and His Word and so attacks the Christian occupied with it.
 
Thus, David wrote, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word” (Ps 119:67). Luther writes, “For as soon as God’s Word takes root and grows in you, the devil will harry you, and will make a real doctor of you, and by his assaults will teach you to seek and love God’s Word” (AE 34:287). Where the devil means to drive you from God, in tentatio, the Lord drives you from your own weakness back to His Word.
 
So in your witness, whatever you do in word or deed, do it all with a heart full of faith and love to the glory of God in Christ Jesus and to the blessing and benefit of your neighbor. You are not a worker bee, bereft of will and living in a vacuum. You are in the world, surrounded by neighbors and works. Recognizing prayer, meditation, and suffering, you will be a better witness.
 

The Resurrection King [Lent 4]

 

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Exodus 16:2-21

• Galatians 4:21-31

• St. John 6:1-15

Grace to you and peace. (1 Thess 1)

 

Jesus speaks to you on this day from His Gospel heard, saying:

“Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.”

 

Do not calculate, but celebrate (Ap VII VIII:42), says our Apology of the Augsburg Confession when speaking of our Church.

 

In this light, it is extremely fitting that we continue our talk about the true Church on earth, that we started last Sunday, with this Sunday’s joyful Gospel of the feeding of the 5 thousand. Last Sunday, the Holy Spirit revealed to us that our earthly and heavenly Church membership rests on God alone. He converts. He retains. He sustains. The Word of His cross is the Word of salvation.

 

Today we make the confession that “Although the Church properly is the congregation of saints and true believers, nevertheless, since in this life many hypocrites and evil persons are mingled therewith, it is lawful to use Sacraments administered by evil men, according to the saying of Christ: The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat, etc. Matt. 23:2. Both the Sacraments and Word are effectual by reason of the institution and commandment of Christ, notwithstanding they be administered by evil men” (AC VIII).

 

Same source of comfort. Since it is God’s own Word, no matter who speaks it or administers it, believing we receive what it says. Where this matters for us is when people try to take the Faith and recreate it. They use the word “god”, but make them define it and it turns out to be a false god of their preference. They use the word “christian”, but mean “self-ian”.

 

When Jesus fed the multitudes, I’m sure the question that was on every jewish mind in attendance was: is Jesus now going to restore the kingdom of Israel to its former glory. Though that question is only recorded once, in the first chapter of Acts (1:6), it is always at the tip of the tongue at every miracle of Jesus, probably. 

 

They then think, when the blind receive their sight, when the lame walk, when the sick are healed, when the hungry are fed, this makes the previously unable able. Able to fight. The amount of soldiers increase, for they are once again fit to fight for the kingdom. Once again fit to rejoin us who have been able since the beginning, struggling under their weight and our own, since they could not help bear the burden.

 

So it is that we hear the crowds, satisfied with Christ’s bread, clamoring for a king, when no king of bread will be given. No miracle king, is our Savior, and yet this is all we want Him to be. What is so wrong with wanting to make Jesus king? Well, first off, His kingdom is not of this world, so…

 

Secondly, His crown is of His own choosing. His throne is His own. What throne could any sinner possibly put Him on when the earth is His footstool, heaven His home, and the sun, moon, and stars, His crown? In fact, Jesus purposefully confuses this earthly issue of kingship by causing the sun to rise on the evil man and the good, and rain to the righteous and unrighteous (Mt 5:45).

 

Similar abuse has been done to the Lord’s Church. Where no dates of ceremony and celebration were set by the Word, man’s word declared them required and necessary for faith. On the other hand, where the Word invites the world to eat and find within His cross of wood the Tree of life with every good, the same gatekeepers close the gate.

 

They say you must do so many pilgrimages, service, or much penance, before receiving the Body and Blood. You cannot be divorced; you cannot retain any spot or wrinkle. They say that you should only commune in one kind, just the bread, just to be safe. They finally conclude that the Lord is not in His Sacrament, because it is in too much danger of being blasphemed, to say that an infinite Lord resides in finite material, touched by you.

 

Repent! Well did Jesus chide and rebuke the super religious men. For we are quick to change our Lord’s words and slow to change our own . We speak of universal ordinances that are allegedly handed down from the Apostles, but we forsake the Doctrine of the Apostles. We teach the traditions of men as God’s Law, and cast aside the Word made flesh.

 

Think of it this way, no dates for holy days are given by the Apostles. They just didn’t think it necessary or of importance when such things be observed, only that they should be observed and celebrated. Errors in computation, should not negate celebration. Celebrate, don’t calculate! 

Thus our new righteousness errs on both sides of the horse: first that we believe universal uniformity is necessary and second, that we throw celebration in the trash.

 

And when we say celebration in the Church, it means a complete Divine Service. For the victory and celebration feast is the Lamb’s High Feast, which He sets before us, saying take and eat, take and drink. Jesus is Lord before we decide to make Him Lord.

 

With or without our prayer, our bread and miracle King is the Resurrection King. He wants all to be healed and fed, but healed and fed perfectly. Yes, we are given our daily bread and health and wealth and all that, but so is everyone else. It is not a sure and certain sign of the hope Faith gives to us.

 

The sure and certain hope is that God Himself comes to enthrone and en-crown Himself. With or without our prayer, Jesus hides Himself from the Bread lines in order to be by Himself, as our Gospel said. That means, by Himself, He will retake His throne and crown. That means by Himself, He will retain the honor and glory due His Name. He will stand alone with no help from miracles, signs, or earthly thrones.

 

And stand alone He does, not just in front of synagogues and Temples, but on His cross, in His tomb, and at His Easter. In Christ’s “here I stand” moment, He accomplishes all good things. For in His death and resurrection there is purchased sight for the blind, legs for the lame, health for the sick, and food from the Table of Heaven, which does not run out.

 

Crowned with the crown of thorns, Jesus Christ assumes His heavenly and kingly duty of remaining holy by keeping His promises of ruling over and rescuing His people. Ascending His throne of cross-shaped wood, He resumes His sinlessness in decreeing that all be justified for His sake alone, in front of Him. 

 

In celebration of such a momentous and eternally salvific moment, He lays out His board and is Himself host and meal. No normal bread does our mighty God-man lay out, but a bread that never spoils and reaches into eternity. No sour wine of vinegar and gall is in the Cup of the Resurrection King, but a Blood in which is the Life of God.

 

Death no longer holds Him. Sin no longer has claim on Him. The devil no longer has any lies or accusations that stick. The false charge of “King of the Jews” has become the true title of “King of Word and Sacrament”, that is to say, “For all who trust and will believe, Salvation's living fruit receive” (LSB 561:4). 

 

This holiness, righteousness, and power of the Word, Jesus brings with Him each time He comes to serve you His forgiveness. We do not get to “make what we will” of Jesus, neither do we create “what Jesus means to me”. What does Jesus make of Himself! When we encounter Jesus, we should just confess our sinfulness and stand with the Pharisees and high priest and ask, “Who do you say that you are, Jesus?” 

 

He is the Christ. He is the Son of the Almighty. He will be seated on high and in power with the angels ascending and descending upon Him. He will be honored. He will be glorified. He will be worshipped. 

 

More important to Christ is that He be celebrated. In His Church, whom He redeemed with His holy, innocent, and precious Blood, and whom the Holy Spirit has created, before He is obeyed, and sworn to, and followed, He will be communed with. The invitation is sent. The replies are moot. 

 

Hear and believe that Christ has come into His Kingdom and He brings His Kingdom to earth. Not by soldiers tramp of feet, but by Gospel, by forgiveness, by invitation to the Lord’s own Victory Table. 

 

Here the Bread King truly takes His rightful throne, where He can serve so many more than 5000, so much more than just full bellies. Here the miracle King truly works the miracle of reconciliation with God and a resurrection to an eternally sinless and blessed life with Him. 

 

It is the Crucified, Resurrection King that His true Church worships. And remember, true worship is the desire to receive from the Lord’s hand what He chooses to give. And He chooses Word and Sacrament, which by His Word give in reality exactly what they say, no matter who utters and administers.

 

In this way, your own brothers and sisters in Christ outnumber the Lutherans. For in no way has God’s Word been limited to Lutheran Altars and Pulpits. Where God’s Word is heard and believed, true faith is received. God’s Word is living and all powerful. The preacher’s words are fleeting and shrivel under the Lamp Who is the Lamb of God. 

 

Yet this is what makes us Lutheran. That we are constantly worried we are not hearing God right or taking Him at His Word and so we continue in catechesis our whole life, checking and rechecking. Did God really say “this is my body; this is my blood” (Mt 26:26, 28)? Yes? Check. 

 

Did God really say that Easter is a pagan holy day and not to be celebrated or that Easter is only to be celebrated on the first Sunday after the full Moon that occurs on or after the spring equinox? Or that the Apostles taught an oral tradition binding to faith, not written in or even contradicting His Word? No? Double check! 

 

Did God say, “as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Cor 11:26) and “behold I am about to rain bread from heaven upon you” (Ex 16:4) and “I am the bread of life” (Jn 6:35), and "the bread that I shall give is My flesh” (Jn 6:51) and “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn 6:54)? 

 

Triple Check. Time for God’s Divine Service, given to sinful man, in His true Church on earth.

 

Fan of Justification [Wednesday in Lent 3]

 

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Exodus 20:12-24

• St. Matthew 15:1-20

So far, in our Witnessing about Jesus Toolbox, we have our Fandom. That we should be fans of our Divine Service and fans of Sermons, in order to increase our interest and knowledge, thereby equipping us to increase interest and knowledge in others.
 
For this evening, we get close to the heart of the matter as we begin to uncover the Lutheran Difference. In other words, why you are seated within these 4 walls as opposed to other, enclosed spaces not labelled “lutheran”.
 
The fast reason is, because of the Gospel. That church, salvation, conversion, faith, belief, good works, forgiveness, holiness and any other thing found to be described in the Bible is God’s Work alone. It is all His idea. He instituted all of it and because He chooses Word and Sacrament, that is what is good and right and holy.
 
In St. Matthew’s gospel this evening, we heard Jesus speak of this idea saying, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up.” No matter how much we want to plant, it is all on God.
 
This, historically, the Church has called Justification. To define justification a bit: Justification is not about a change in us, but based on what God has done in Christ apart from us. Justification is therefore not a process, but a promise, a promise that creates and gives in reality what God says.
 
In our Exodus reading from this evening, the Lord says, “You have clearly seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven”. God made the first move to chose this people, this mountain, and this method of how things are going to work. He even concludes the pericope saying, “In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.”
 
“I”. “Me”. God causes His Name to be remembered. God comes to you. God blesses you. There is no movement from earth to heaven, only heaven to earth. It is God’s Work, not ours.
 
Thus, there is no such thing as “god”. 
There is no such thing as a generic category for God that we can just use to get along with others. Just because God in Arabic or Aramaic is “Allah” does not mean Jesus was Muslim. But when you use “god” language you end up generic and may even be promoting a false god.
 
Likewise, there is no “christianity”!
There is no “love is love” generic, broad-brush christianity. Denominations exist. Why? Because sinners create a “christianity” that suits their preferences. Really it comes down to “did God say” or didn’t He. Did God do the work or didn’t He?
 
Some churches believe that Jesus gets us in by forgiveness, but we have to keep ourselves in by following the rules. So, if only for our own sanity and certainty, we must find the truth and in finding the truth, we make distinctions and take a stand, which causes separations.
 
And our stand is on Justification, in other words that God’s word of forgiveness actually is powerful and creative, calling into existence the things that are not (Rom 4:17), even calling sinners righteous and thereby making them righteous by His mighty say so. It is a promise to be received by faith, for Christ’s sake. Justification is not a process, but a promise, a promise that creates and gives in reality what God says.
 
Which brings us to our third pro-tip for witnessing: become a fan of the Church’s catechisms, both Small and Large. For there, justification takes physical form. Learning about Baptism as God’s own work and claim on you, as opposed to an outward sign of an inward change. 
 
Learning about Private confession and absolution as God’s own work of working repentance in you and Him giving your pastor to pronounce God’s own forgiveness, right in front of you. A man forgiving sins?? If you know your catechism, God’s Word explains it all.
 
Learning, also about the Lord’s Supper and all its wonderful benefits promised to us, in taking and eating. Really, that’s what witnessing is all about, not just getting into arguments, but revealing all of God’s love and promises in the things He chooses for us. So take some devotional time and devote it to the catechism.
 
As a surprise to many, to be Lutheran is simply to be Christian, in the true sense of the word. Our distinction is to give clarity to the Faith and hold God’s Word as the power for salvation. The catechism prepares us to explain, from God’s Word, the means by which God chooses to forgive sins and create and strengthen faith.
 
so we embrace our faith and its history, but how to open a conversation about justification? Well, how do you use the words justify, right, or make right in your day to day life? Where do these ideas come into actual use in life? 
 
But the first step is to be in that faith, immersed in it. God’s Work is to give us this faith, to unite us to Himself in baptism, to plant us, and to come to us, in His own Way, blessing us with His Word and Sacrament. 
 

Outward & Inward Communion [Lent 3]

 

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Jeremiah 26:1-15

• Ephesians 5:1-9

• St. Luke 11:14-28

Grace to you and peace. (1 Thess 1)
 
Jesus speaks to you on this day from His Gospel heard, saying:

“But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

 
Outward signs. Inward communion. As Jesus and St. Jeremiah face down Temple authorities today, we are faced with a real problem. We always wonder if we are really in God’s Church or not anyway, by what we believe and do each Sunday. Today, with church authorities rejecting Jeremiah and even Jesus, we begin to wonder if we can ever be sure of our earthly membership, much less our heavenly membership.
 
One of the things that infuriates me is when non-Christians bad mouth Christianity in light of the actions of a few who call themselves “Christian”. Case in point, there is a quote from Ghandi that has and continues to make the internet rounds saying, “I like your Christ, but not your Christians. Your Christians are not like your Christ”, apparently disproving Christianity. Ghandi is also quoted as saying, “Half my quotes on Pinterest are fake”, but whatever.
 
Regardless, the words sting our hearts. First, because we know of many who say they are Christian and yet act and speak completely contrary to Christ. Are we in fellowship with them? And second, because we know we are also part of that problem, that we ourselves act less than Christ-like most of the time.
 
There is one way out of this situation I will give you, though it’s not our solution for today. Ghandi is disqualified from commenting on Christianity because he does not know Christianity, which means he also doesn’t know Christ, which means he has no idea what he is talking about. In fact, the best he can comment on is morality and that is exactly what he means in his quote. 
 
But we are going to tackle this problem genuinely, not politically.
 
The problem is that we find such a difference between Jesus and us, His kingdom and our sinful kingdom, that when He promises certain people are in and others are out, we immediately want to find the list of requirements, not so that we love them and want to keep them, but to make sure others are worse off than us and we fly under God’s radar.
 
So that when we look for the Kingdom, we look for outward signs, like morals, just as the unbelievers do. We look for activity and morality. We look for propriety and novelty. We look for engagement and entertainment. And once that checkbox is filled in, we kick back and say, “Soul…relax, eat, drink, be merry” (Lk 12:19). You found it.
 
Yet, almost immediately, we fall back to square one, because something will happen there, that we don’t like, and we’ll blame others, cause division, and wonder if we can ever find Christ’s Church on earth. For once we admit that, “The sinner, therefore, who has been soiled with any blotch cannot be called a member of the Church of Christ, neither can he be said to be subject to Christ” (AP VII VIII:11), it appears to be a hopeless quest.
 
Repent. Thusly does the devil divide and conquer and so you are divided and conquered. You have worried about the opinions of man and have concluded they are of more value than the Word of God. You look on the outward appearances for the Church of Christ and only find hypocrisy and divisions and therefore, despair. You want yourself and the church of your preference to shine bright like a diamond, instead of the coal-black of sin.
 
This we call the Outward Fellowship. When we rely on outward signs such as morality, the Word, profession, sacraments, objects, and rites we are only dealing with how people make themselves look to the naked eye. Yes, I even said Word and Sacrament, because you can have those things around and yet still not believe in them. You can claim morality, and yet remain immoral. 
 
One of the reasons some of this infuriates me is because, all of us, in our sin view Christ’s church the same way as the unbelievers. We want the strength to cast out demons and call that “faith”. Hear the Lord through Jeremiah, in our Old Testament, witness to such “church membership power”:
 
“But as for me, behold, I am in your hands. Do with me as seems good and right to you. Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its inhabitants, for in truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears” (Jer 26:14-15).
 
These were Temple, Church, leaders. These were the men who had sincerely sought out God and thought they found Him. Yet, here they find themselves against God. What went wrong? Such is the extent of our “powers”, to slander and to kill, even the Lord’s prophets.
 
Such is the sinful world that Christ comes to commune with. But since it is full of sinners who use and abuse, what is an almighty God-man to do?
 
He has come to inaugurate His Kingdom and sin will not stop Him. He has come to do His will and He will do so through His Church on earth, in spite of herself. He has come to do His work and it is an alien work. Alien to us, because we would never think that a servant would accomplish more than the powerful, especially a Servant God.
 
So it is that, “The Church does not consist of men with respect to power, or ecclesiastical or secular dignity, because many princes and archbishops and others of lower rank have been found to have apostatized from the faith. Therefore, the Church consists of those persons in whom there is a true knowledge and confession of faith and truth” (AP VII VIII:22).
 
While Outward Signs are necessary, they can be imitated. That is why, along with Outward Signs our Lord gives us Inward Communion. That is, the Holy Ghost, faith, and the fear and love of God. All things we cannot see and yet all things that are promised to us by Christ alone. 
 
When Jesus said His kingdom was not of this world, He meant that we would not be able to discern its success or failure by sinful eyes. This He said right before His humiliation, suffering, and death on the cross. And yet it was exactly in that Good and Holy Work of God on the cross that produced the Kingdom on earth.
 
For in that work, more properly, in the Body and Blood of Christ lives the Inward Communion between God and man. In the one, Jesus Christ, both natures reside fully and at peace. There is perfect communion there. Just as the Father and the Son are one, now all those in the Son are in unity with the Triune God.
 
The perfect, Inward Communion that is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, overflows into those baptized believers in Christ, even if, especially if they have been overcome by sin, death, and the devil. 
 
So, how is it that we can tell if we are in true Communion with our Lord’s Church? That we don’t just share Outward signs, but also have the Inward Communion with the God of all things?
 
Faith. Faith that it is only the Good and Wholesome work of Christ, the Son of God, that purchases holiness and purity for His church, on earth as it is in heaven. Because of Christ we say, “that one holy Church is to continue forever. The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered” (AC VII).
 
Those three things must be true of the church we align ourselves with: that “forever” bit you heard, the Gospel, and the Sacraments. “Forever” we have to leave up to Jesus, which is perfect since He is both God and man, has risen from the dead to live forever, and is our source of every grace and blessing.
 
The Gospel, therefore, necessarily centers on Jesus alone, excluding us, for the Gospel is none other than His solitary work of paying for sin, and defeating death and the devil for us. The Sacraments are where He includes us into His Gospel and His “forever”, proving the truth of His words. These 3 are the necessary components for God’s True Church and our inclusion.
 
Which makes us able to say, “And to the true unity of the Church it is enough to agree concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. Nor is it necessary that human traditions, that is, rites or ceremonies, instituted by men, should be everywhere alike. As Paul says: “One faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all” (Eph. 4:5-6).
 
For this reason, St. Jeremiah was able to remain steadfast in the Faith, because he knew that God had given him both Outward and Inward communion with Himself. Likewise, he could be sure that those who wanted to take his life, going against the commands of God, were only working within Outward signs of fellowship with the Church, and in no way reflected the Holy One of Israel (Is 47:4).
 
For this same reason, Jesus can shrug off the accusations made against Him and His Church. Not only do the opinions of men not matter, but they do not change what He has created with His innocent suffering and death. It does not matter that men can point out the evils acted out by men who are in the church, outwardly. All that matters is God’s promise to keep His Church holy until the end.
 
In this way, Faith gathers you around those promises. Faith shows you that God’s Word is true, that it teaches actual history, and that you believe it, thus you possess Outward and Inward Communion.
 
Faith shows you that the Sacraments are true, and you believe that what you hear, you receive. That when Jesus says “Baptize”, you believe, by water and Word, that you are saved. Likewise, when Jesus says, “Commune”, you believe, by bread and wine, Body and Blood, that you have eternal life.
 
Hearing all this and believing these words, “I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”, you receive exactly what they say: the forgiveness of sins, life, light, salvation, and eternal membership in the Lord’s Church.

Fan of Law and Gospel [Wed in Lent 2]

 

- - [ TEXT ONLY ] - -

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Esther 13:8-17 (Apocrypha)

• St. Matthew 20:17-28

Grace to you and peace. (1 Thess 1)
 
These Wednesdays, we are trying to focus our attention on how we can witness Christ, that is how we can talk to others about our Faith with the hope that they also believe and come to Church with us. 
 
Last week, we said our first pro-tip to witnessing Christ is to become a fan of the Divine Service. Know the facts and the ceremonies like you know the facts and ceremonies of your favorite sports team. This tip works for two reasons: 1) because Jesus shows up at Church and its where He does His work and 2) people will see your interest and become interested themselves.
 
Tonight, we continue that fandom thought as we consider the way we hear God, that is through Law and Gospel. In other words, God’s No and God’s Yes. No and Yes is the simple way to understand Law and Gospel. God says no to us asking for His blessing in our sin or when we want to sin. God says yes to us only in one place, His Son.
 
These are the facts: God’s No and God’s Yes, and facts are one of the first things we need to be a witness. Emotions and feelings are not admissible in court and while they can help you communicate to people, your feelings and emotions are not theirs, neither do we find within them the power of God for salvation.
 
Though we harp on emotions a lot here, we do not dismiss them, we are all human after all. But when we want to win people over, we need to be more universal than that. So we mix them. We use both our emotions and our facts. We have our emotions down, but what are the facts?
 
To get to those, we have to go through Jesus, and in tonight's St Matthew reading, it appears as if Jesus has a secret saying things like “raised on the third day” and “whoever would be first must be your slave”. He also tells us at certain points in the gospel books, after He performs a miracle, to not tell anyone about it. You would think that His miracles would be great for personal testimonies, however, it is only one time, out of all those miraculous times, that Jesus says, “Go and tell”.
 
In Matthew’s gospel, its “Go and tell it to the Church”, in chapter 18. In St. Mark, it is in chapter 5 to a severely, demon-possessed man. The reason this guy gets the “go-ahead to go and tell” is because what Jesus does for him is closer to the facts of the matter, than all the other “hush-hush” miracles done.
 
That closeness is none other than what we confess in our catechism in the Creed, article 2: “I believe that Jesus Christ…is my Lord Who has redeemed me a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil.” And there is our witness! Nicely pre-packaged for us in our own Small Catechism!
 
In it are most all of the facts you need to be a sure and certain witness to others and tell God’s love for them. The 10 Commands sum up God’s will for our relationship with Him and towards our neighbor. Wonderful and holy works from God are found with them, and yet God still says “no” to most of what we want to do.
 
This is because our conflicting thoughts accuse us or even excuse us from these laws (Rom 2:15. These conflicting thoughts are unacceptable in witnessing, just as they are unacceptable in matters of faith. If you believe in God so much, why do you still waiver and why do you fight so hard against God’s Law? Remember, the Law always accuses us, it always reveals our sin (Rom 3:20). No amount of emoting in front of God relieves you.
 
As we approach the Gospel, in Law and Gospel not just the books, we come to Jesus’s big reveal of His secret which He wants no one to know. But He only wants no one to know before His resurrection. After His resurrection, after all the facts about God and His plan of salvation have been made known by Him, then it is, “Just as the Father sent me, I am sending you” (Jn 20:21).
 
So while the Law shows us our sin, the Gospel shows us our Savior. Faith cries out, “Jesus is Lord” (Rom 10:9) and “all men are liars” (Ps 116:11). My works only reveal my sin, but my Savior only reveals His salvation purchased and won for me. And to confess “Jesus is Lord” is the same thing as confessing that this man, Jesus, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, was crucified, buried, raised and ascended. 
 
He is at the same time, in the same person, the Lord, the Son of God, one with the Father and the Spirit in one true eternal God. Again, a nicely pre-packaged witness, just waiting for us to speak it out loud. In the Gospel, Christ is center. God says “No” to us in our sinfulness, but all of God’s promises made are “Yes” to us, in Christ Jesus (2 Cor 1:20).
 
Where does this come out clearly in our day to day lives, in order for us to use the Law and the Gospel as a witnessing tool? Your Pastor’s sermons. So, witnessing pro-tip number 2 is to become a “sermon connoisseur”. 
 
St. Paul says to St. Timothy, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15). That “right handling” is to see the difference between Law and Gospel in what God says to us and it is the fundamental training every Lutheran Pastor goes through. Which means, it should be in every sermon.
 
Which also means you hear it on a weekly basis, at least. Which also also means that you have been a student of this art and have not known it. But now that you do know, you can look for these two things: God’s Law and God’s Gospel. You can listen actively for how God reveals your sin leading to repentance and for how Christ actively wins and dispenses His righteousness to us.
 
Maybe take some Sunday afternoon time to try and remember, with your family, where the Law and Gospel were in Pastor’s Sermon that morning, improving your memory of holy things and adding to your “facts” of witnessing.
 
This new listening will then spill over into how you read your Bible. That is, that you should be on the lookout from the same things: what God is telling you to do or not do, repent of and change. And at the same time, hear God’s promises made to you and His assurance of forgiveness in Christ.
 
And where does Law and Gospel and its application in our lives end? It doesn’t. It is the very center of our hearing and understanding God, thus it will be at the very center or everything we do. Not only will we be confessing God’s truth in Church, but in Christmas cards, explaining the importance of the season to friends and family. Also for funerals, graduations, new jobs, and new babies.
 
Let’s start with this evening’s readings. The Law from the OT is that God is in charge of everything and that He can save Israel if He wants to, but hearing Mordecai’s prayer it seems that its not so obvious God wants to. The Gospel is that God’s people are spared, not through earthly conquest, but through the person and work of Christ. God saves eternally, not just temporally.
 
What about St. Matthew? The Law is that the greatest must be the least, which does not work on earth at all, that somehow we have to get into Jesus’s kingdom, but that He is going to die. Of course the Gospel is the suffering and death of Jesus, followed by His resurrection, because it is there that the Least, Jesus, is made the Greatest, and that the price of sin, which bars entrance into heaven, is paid.
 
So is our witness to God’s loving care towards us, in Law and Gospel, and such is our place to bring where and when God works to ourselves and to our neighbors, not despising preaching and the Word, but holding it sacred and gladly hearing and learning it.

About Satisfaction [Lent 2]

---> NO AUDIO THIS WEEK <---

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Genesis 32:22-32

• 1 Thessalonians 4:1-7

• St. Matthew 15:21-28

Grace to you and peace. (1 Thess 1)

 

Jesus speaks to you on this day from His Gospel heard, saying:

“O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.”

 

Last week we heard Jesus speak of contrition for our sins, but if repentance, confession, and absolution do not follow contrition, then we are not sorry for our sins. For just feeling sorry is not enough, we must fear, love, and trust God to realize contrition leads to the forgiveness of sins in Christ, not eternal punishment.

 

The point of controversy from today’s Gospel how to make satisfaction for our sins or if there is satisfaction to make in the first place, which, spoiler alert, there isn’t with Christ. With satisfaction should follow penance and good works. Our Canaanite lady in the Gospel reading, appears to have some secret sin, or her daughter does, and it is afflicting them in the form of a demon, since she is still suffering.

 

Though she had faith, as Jesus attests, she still is burdened and is seeking Jesus to help her. Maybe to help her overcome the situation? Her secret sin has apparently torn her away from faith’s protection and so she must “endure all things willingly, be contrite of heart, confess with the lips, and practice complete humility and fruitful satisfaction” (RCC II, V, 21).

 

Between what she has to suffer with her daughter and how Jesus apparently treats her, its a wonder that even believes anymore. However, some preach and teach that her penance appears to be rewarded, or is it? She suffers under Jesus’s intense scrutiny and comes out on top. She has persevered through penance and has been reconciled?

 

Even our Epistle would side with her, giving us a nice list of how to walk with and please God, or in other words, how to make satisfaction for the sins we have committed since our Baptism. God has called us to holiness after all. And if we want to keep the demons away and keep God happy with us, then we must work hard to make ourselves walk worthy.

 

Repent. Penance, your working yourself into a miserable sorry state for your sins in front of God to prove yourself, is not a sacrament. However, penance is included in the Sacrament of Baptism. What you feel is left undone by the Lord’s Baptism, is simply your guilty conscience fighting against the perfect grace and mercy Jesus has already shown, and continues to show to you, in Word and Sacrament.

 

Looking at our Epistle reading again, we see that the “will of God” is your sanctification. That is that He purifies and cleanses you from all unrighteousness, for Christ’s sake alone. There is no, “up to the point you sin again”. God’s sanctification is an eternal sanctification, purchased by the Body and Blood of Christ. The works St. Paul lists following will be the fruit that follows you being saved.

 

Likewise, in the Gospel. There is no secret sin, only Original Sin, of which we are all guilty. Neither is there any penance for some imagined “falling out” between God and this family. Rather the faith that saves is grabbing a hold of Jesus and not letting go until He leaves a blessing. If she was fallen from grace, she would care not at all for Jesus. Since she has faith, she knows that this is the only place to go for aid.

 

Yes, there is quite the bit of humility, contrition, and endurance on the part of the Canaanite woman, but those are the results of God-given-sanctification. They are the good works that Jesus has given all of us, while we bear our crosses and follow Him. Works supply the proof that faith is living, they do not supply faith itself.

 

Dear Christians, the fact that Jesus can present Himself in front of you and you recognize and acknowledge Him as God and Lord in His Word and Sacraments, is proof of the salvation Baptism has already given to you. That you continue to seek Him out where and when He has promised, is also proof of the faith Baptism continues to supply you.

 

That you constantly recognize your sinfulness and unworthiness to stand in God’s presence and expect only mercy and forgiveness from Him, instead of punishment, to you then is also said, “Great is your faith, be it done for you as you will!”

 

Because, again, the greatness of your faith does not rely on your greatness, but the greatness of the One Who gave it to you. Just as we would say the terribleness of sin is such because of the terribleness of the One sinned against. Yet, we still believe the Gospel is greater, for where sin abounds, grace abounds much more (Rom 5:20).

 

If we believe something greater than Jonah, Solomon, and the Temple has come among us, then why, when He accomplishes His greatest work, could it be made to be nothing in the face of our filthy sin, secret or otherwise? 

 

It doesn’t. Jesus does not face the Canaanite woman in a courtroom manner, demanding penance and paperwork to prove her true loyalty. He faces her as a sinner waiting for the redeemer of Israel (Lk 2:38). He listens to her. He speaks with her. He engages with her. He understands her, better than we understand, as all we do is judge God when we hear this interchange. 

 

And most importantly of all, He does not leave her in her sin to find her own way out. He goes after her while she is still a sinner, and brings her out himself, plus her daughter! He does not wait until she works herself into enough of a penitential frenzy before He says “good enough”.

 

“Baptism now saves you” and that’s that. While we were enemies of God, Jesus finished, completed our salvation. Are we going to move closer and farther away from faith as we live our life? Yes. Does all that unrighteousness we commit nullify the grace of God? By no means!

 

In fact, all it does is amplify. Where sin abounds, grace abounds much more. Jesus comes to seek, save, and heal those who are sin-sick, not those who can heal themselves. Our penance and change-of-heart are fruits of the love of Christ, not the root. We want to make amends toward God and our neighbor, because faith moves us to, having already been saved ourselves.

 

Any reconciliation we do, or think we do, is only effective between us and our human neighbors, in faith.

 

For Faith is going to bring forth good fruits on its own. Any good fruits we see in our life are a result of Christ living in us and for us (Gal 2:20). It is necessary to do good works commanded by God, because of God’s will, as St. James says, “Faith without works is dead”. 

 

But nowhere is it commanded to rely on those works to merit justification before God. For remission of sins and justification is apprehended by faith, apart from works. Jesus even says: “when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants;” (St Luke 17:10). The same is also taught by the Fathers. For Ambrose says: It is ordained of God that he who believes in Christ is saved, freely receiving remission of sins, without works, by faith alone.

 

So it is that just as St. Jacob and the woman with the flow of blood reach out to Christ, clinging to Him incessantly until He bless, we do the same. Rather than looking inside ourselves for perfect obedience, we have our ears opened to hear His Gospel, the work God has done on our behalf, when we could not and would not in our sin.

 

Rather than attempting to reconcile ourselves to God after a bout of temptation and sin, we remember our Baptism which unites us to the one and only sacrifice of Christ, Who has made satisfaction for all sin, for all time. 

 

Rather than attempting to dig deep in our pockets to look for some sort of payment that the God-Who-cannot-be-repaid, will accept, we simply lift up His Body and Blood, receiving it at His invitation, as He desires! “What shall I render to the Lord”, says Psalm 116, “for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord” (v 12–13).

 

Yes. This is why we elevate the Host and the Cup in church: for the Lord to see and for us to see the satisfaction that has been made, once for all, in the given and shed Body and Blood of the Only-begotten Son of God. We elevate Jesus, not us. Our focus is His Satisfaction, made for us, on His cross.

 

Become a fan [Wednesday in Advent 1]

 

[ T E x T  O N L Y ]

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Exodus 24:12-18

• 1 Kings 19:3-8

• St. Matthew 12:38-50

Grace to you and peace. (1 Thess 1)
 
As we begin talking about Witnessing our Faith, these Wednesdays in Lent, we hear Jesus saying to us that something greater than both Jonah and Solomon is here, we also hear Him say, “Come up to me on the mountain”, from our Exodus reading this evening. And though it should be “broad side of the barn” obvious, we have to make this statement concerning where and how to witness: “Witness where Jesus speaks and works.”
 
When we speak of witnessing, the first mistake we always make is to think that we are on our own. No one is going to be there with us when we finally get the chance to tell someone about the Jesus we love and adore. But since He is busy doing heavenly things, it is up to you to bother with His earthly things, such as “going and telling”.
 
Silly Christian. Jesus is not gone, but alive with us. He is a living, breathing God Who dwells with and never leaves His living and breathing creations: you. Now, it may be true that when you undertake to witness about Jesus, you are doing the impossible. You weren’t there when they crucified your Lord. You did not get to “see” Him at all.
 
How quickly we forget that Jesus is both man and God. Therefore, we should believe our Lord when He says, “The Word is near you” (Rom 10:8). We need to also remember and believe “blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (St. John 20:29).
 
Why these are important promises to remember is because our readings this evening bring out another important promise made to us. He promised, “On this Rock I will build my Church” (Mt 16:18).
 
This is why we hear, “Come up to me on the mountain”, because the Lord is not going to hide or work in the shadows only. He is going to be living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. If He is living then He not only needs a place to stay, but is also able to visit. And since He is God, He can visit more than one place at a time.
 
So, you witness Jesus where He comes to you. That makes sense. If He’s going to show up, what better place to be ourselves or what better place to take someone who doesn’t know Him? Now, in our Bible readings, it seemed like a high place is where God is.
 
But there are many high places in the Bible and 90% of them are false places of worship. Which makes sense. If you’re trying to get to heaven, you’d get as high as you could to worship, right? The real problem is that God did not promise to dwell on high forever, at least not a height we could ever reach.
 
He told Moses to come up at that time, because at that time He promised Moses He would be there. But He left, after His business with Moses was finished. In fact, in an unprecedented twist of God and man relations, God promises to go with Moses and His people. “I will go in your midst” (Ex 33:3), He says later in Exodus.
 
So today for us, His promise is to build a Church in our midst. A Church unlike a mountain top or even a middle-eastern Temple. A Church built on nothing but the Body and Blood of the God Who suffered and died on the cross. A Church that is near you such that, when you hear the Word of Her Lord, though you have not seen, you do see.
 
The Word is the witness and He gives us His witness through His powerful Word, so that when we hear it and believe it, we become heirs of its promises and witnesses of it.
 
Thus, in order to witness Jesus properly, you must be where He is. Then, you should be become the biggest fan. That is, witnessing tactic number one is to become a fan of the Divine Service. 
 
Think about it. If the Lord takes the time to go to Church and you are not attending Him, then why should anyone else listen to you when you speak about Him? Why should they think its important when you do not? Or why would they return when all you do is grumble about your church?
 
You do not go to church because you have an obligation. The Lord accepts no payment or repayment. He also does not stay on high only to be worshipped and adored. The one, true God comes to serve. He comes, God incarnate, to offer His gifts of Word and Sacrament to cleanse, forgive, renew, feed, and restore.
 
Be a fan of this “coming to church” so that when you’re asked why you “waste your time” at church, you can say wonderful things. On top of that read, actually read, through your hymnal. Look up the references to the Bible noted in the margins. Think about what each part means. Pray your hymns and study those as well.
 
Be very aware of what you are singing and praying so that you may come to know better how Jesus witnesses His Gospel, forgiveness of sins, and God’s promises to the public and how the Divine Service is a helpful vehicle for all that to local communities.
 
Love your church and people will notice and ask, making witnessing as easy as its supposed to be. 
 
Easy because God does all the work for you. Not only suffering and dying for you, but also making Himself known and being present, Body and Blood, to give us His Grace. The Church belongs to those who show up and that’s exactly what God does, for us and the whole world.
 
For no longer is it, “come up to me” on some middle-eastern mountain. But it is come up to me in my Word and Sacrament. The “something greater” than Jonah, Solomon, and Solomon's Temple is the Lord and Creator of all three, in the flesh. God, truly spiritually and physically present, in Christ, for you, is the single, greatest presence and the place to be, allowing us to witness simply by saying, “Come and see”.