READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Genesis 1:1-2:3
Ephesians 6:10-17
St. John 4:46-54
Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father
and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love. (2 John)
Who speaks to you this morning saying,
“‘Go; your son
lives.’ The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.”
Our Scripture reading for today is from the Gospel where
Jesus sends a man away saying “Go.” God included this in His Word to show that
we do not go out from Church unequipped, but we return to Church to requip
often. God points us towards Jesus that we may watch Him purchase all the tools
we need in Word and Sacrament and with that gift, we may live free in Him.
During the Reformation, that is in the midst of anxiety
about the future, threats of death, and actual civil persecution, the Reformers
had no comfort. They could not see the future to gain comfort as to whether or
not what they were doing was right. They had no insight into the universe to be
able to say “this is the way” when everyone was saying “not”. They had no
confirmation of their good work, in the face of people dying and suffering for
their teaching.
Could you do it? Could you go when Jesus says go and gives
you no evidence that it is the right way? Could you go and “be dragged
before governors and kings for [His] sake, to bear witness before them and the
Gentiles” (Matt 10:18)? Do you even remember your Confirmation vows to
suffer all, even death, rather than turn away from the faith?
Today, God treats this official in the same way. He sends a
man out from His presence with seemingly nothing to go with. The official gets
no immediate miracle, no bread, no fish, and no wine, since we are back at
Cana. All he gets is a word: go.
And this is all we hear in our sin. Go. As in, go out, away
from Jesus. Go out and help, go out and witness, go out from your comfort zone,
all by yourself. And we take that to mean, “not in church”, that there is
nothing in Church, its all outside. We believe this and wonder why our churches
are empty.
And when we go, we quickly realize we have nothing in our
toolkit to build with. It is true that Jesus told the 72 disciples to go out
with nothing, in Luke 10, and because of His Word, they lacked nothing.
However, at the end of St. Luke, Jesus says take moneybag, pack, and sword
(22:36), for the fight is fierce and the warfare long.
Repent! Jesus does not send you out as orphans or
comfortless. He does not give you numbers to decode, a hidden message to find,
or a third temple to build. He gives you Himself. The Father stands up and
speaks “Go”, but it is “Go your son lives”, that is “Go in the victory already
completed with perfect equipment at the ready”.
Jesus, of course, is the true son Who is forsaken unto
death, with no one to revive Him but Himself (Jn 10:18). Jesus seems to
complain about signs and wonders, but it is exactly signs and wonders that He
is giving to the people in order that they believe. Not just miracle parlor
tricks, but signs to show just what sort of salvation He is going to work out
for the good of those who believe.
That salvation comes in one little word: finished. Looking
back to our Old Testament reading, chapter 2 begins with: “thus the heavens
and the earth were finished”. In the work of Creation, God finished,
completed all He set out to accomplish and He called His work Very Good.
Meaning, when Adam and Eve stepped on the scene, they found
that they were already a part of this completed scene. They inherited a
perfectly created and fully functioning realm. God said see those trees, you
can eat from them. See those animals, you can care for them. See those heavenly
lights, you can enjoy them. See each other, you can belong.
The place was already prepared in the best way to receive
humanity and still persists in that duty today. Though we sweat, bleed, and die
these days, because of sin, we are still able to live, be free, and pursue
happiness. Thanks be to God.
Similarly, in Ephesians 6, we are told to put on the whole
armor of God. How can that be possible if it were not prepared beforehand? The
promise, in verse 15, is a readiness from God. A readiness that is already
ready for you to show up and participate.
The armor is ready. You know you have taken it up when you
see the world and its passions as lies and instead, not only trust in God’s
Word, but hear and believe that you have been justified by grace, for Christ’s
sake, through faith ALONE.
The armor you reach for has been purchased with the holy,
innocent bitter suffering and death of God. Purchased with Blood, yet cleansed
in the Resurrection. This armor, this righteousness of Christ is imputed to you
in baptism. You put on Christ: His death and His resurrection. And if you have
so died to sin, you are alive to God. This is the armor freely given.
The Word is also ready. You know you have the Word when you
not only do what it says, but treasure it and keep it close. Belief must come
before action or you will not care what God’s Word has to say. But He is ready.
The Word is ready as He has already been made man, suffered, and rose from the
dead. You know you have the Word when that Word is Christ Crucified for you.
The Church is ready. All of this needs a house to house it.
The Bride is resurrected daily, for daily she sins much. But she is a creation
of the Spirit of Jesus; called, gathered, enlightened, and sanctified in His
Name, with His good gifts. The Church is ready and equipping you for life when
there is the preached word, baptism, the sacrament of the altar, the keys and
confession, the ordaining of pastors, prayer, and bearing the cross.
In Jesus Name we have already prayed for this preparedness.
In our Collect of the Day, we prayed for continual godliness, freedom from
adversities, and access to devout works.
Not gradual godliness we invent ourselves, even if we use
God’s Word. No, continual godliness already ready; to-go; Take and bake. The
godliness that is freely given in Word and Sacrament. In this the Armor, the
Word, and the Church go into the world freely and, having communed, they go
with you freely.
We are free from all adversities and yet we must face all
adversities. In Christ, in Church, the Way is cleared to all godliness and
righteousness. You may take them as often as you do this. In the world, these
things are darkened and confused. Our way remains filled with trials. We may
think we see the summit we are trying to reach, but when we get there, it is
false and there is more to go through.
We do have access to devout works as well, plainly in the
Divine Service, knowing those are meet, right, and salutary. But hidden in the
world, as we are unsure which are right and which are wrong. You can simply
pray to God for these works and see what He does in your life.
“All things are in Thy will, O Lord” our Introit told
us. Whether we believe that we have to make our own church or that we have been
sent out ill-prepared, it is the Lord’s Will to crush His Son. Whether we can
feel the armor, manifest the Word in our hands, or believe we are on our own, the
Lord wills that you hear and believe His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
We are sent out at a word from Jesus: go, your son, your
church, your faith lives, but we drown in despair, believing that nothing is
ready, adversities persist, and that God doesn’t care. The Lord makes that
drowning a Baptism and the result, His Resurrection for you.
In this way, we come to the Scripture that really sparked
the reform in Dr. Luther, that is Romans 1. “The righteous shall live by
faith” (1:17). Not faith that blindly totters around the world in ignorance
and timidity, but faith in the “finished”.
Faith that, what God has given us in His Son is good enough
for battle. Faith that Christ completed His Church and salvation in His
suffering and death. Faith that the resurrection gifts of Word and Sacrament
are enough to take down the gates of hell, crush satan under our feet, and even
work peace and comfort in our sin-wracked lives.
Go, The Son lives and you live in Him. Alleluia. Amen.
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