Follow blindly [Quinquagesima]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• 1 Samuel 16:1-13

• 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

• St. Luke 18:31-43

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Phil 1)

 

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

“And Jesus said to him, ‘Recover your sight; your faith has saved you.’”

 

I see said the blind man to his deaf wife as he picked up his hammer and saw.

What we do not “saw” is our sin. Even less, we do not see a way to fight against sin, when we do see it. What we think is our sin is what everyone else sees in the public. Our public persona becomes how we gauge where our sin-o-meter is at and that is not why Jesus died on the cross.

 

Now, while it is extremely important to be at peace with all people if possible, it is also extremely important to confess your sins (Rom 12:8). For if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8). And since Jesus’s main message is “Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand”, maybe we should take that a bit seriously.

 

And it starts with understanding our outward appearance. As we said, loving our neighbors, who are in public, is eternally important, but maintaining that is no great cross. It is not hard to fool people into thinking you are a nice person. We can put on our suit, we can put on our hat, we can put on our mask and be ready for God’s Will.

 

Except for when the mask slips. One of the times it slips is when we are sick. Even then we are given the benefit of the doubt to those around us. “Oh he’s dealing with a lot” or “he’s just exhausted from being sick”, they’ll say and we’re absolved from whatever we did. But we are not sick all the time.

 

Another time it slips is when we are angry. They say you see who a person truly is when they are under pressure. Then there is no time to hold the mask on. You must act, you must speak, and you must do it yesterday. The public understands this and so, just a little bit, you can control deadlines, meetings, and decorum.

 

However, the closer our sins come to our obsessions and compulsions, the more difficult it is to say no. There we get into relationships where resistance compounds desire. I say, "I'm not going to sin." Then I start thinking about sinning. Then I'm thinking about thinking about sinning. 

 

And pretty soon I'm on my way to the cupboard and once I've gotten past that point, it's easy for me to go past that point again, and again, and again, and again. We get into our own compulsions and the law is useless. I can say to myself over and over again, you shall not, you shall not, you shall not. But it just makes me thirsty. 

 

And so the commandment is not going to be sufficient. What good are the commandments doing for this blind man in today’s gospel? The commandment will teach you to cheat. It'll teach you hypocrisy. It'll teach you deceit. It'll teach you to get what you want all the while fooling everyone and fooling God.

 

And so one of the ways we fight back against sin, sin, death, and the devil, is by learning habits that are helpful. Looking at the 4th through 10th commands, the Second Table of the Law, we can find there study habits, habits of hygiene, habits in relationships, habits that serve us. And that's all helpful because when issues like that come up, you're not sitting thinking, well, I guess I have to make a choice all over again. 

 

I mean, do I really want to brush my teeth? Can I brush my teeth with godly integrity? Or am I being a hypocrite again? And should I leave my teeth unbrushed today so that I can at least be honest and let everyone know I’m a sinner? None of that malarkey. Brush your teeth. That's enough to fix my problems. There you go.

 

However, the First Table of the Law is where we encounter our bondage. Commands 1 through 3 do not provide habits or behavior solutions which we can easily practice. When God says there’s only one of Him, we have to wait on Him to fill in the rest of the blank and answer questions like, well who are You then?

 

When He says to not take His Name in Vain, He has to answer what that Name is and how it compares to other names. When He says Remember the Sabbath, well what is the Sabbath, how is it remembered, and what’s the big deal, anyway?

 

The temptation is enthusiasm. The temptation is to treat the law as though it's been conquered so that I can do that which I please. This is because the Law is placed in flesh and blood. God chooses to use our neighbor to embody His Law so that we can see right away our failures.

 

“If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother,” declares St. John, “he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20). Now we are moved from public to private, for when we face our wife or husband, there we find the cross. In those family faces we find our God staring at us, killing us, as we fail to stand up to even one of His commands.

 

Repent, O fearless man, full of righteousness. How will you fight against that? How will you fight against the sins and temptations dealing with spouse, children, and kindred? You can blame God, as Adam did, for giving you such a family or you could blame others, as Eve did, for making you do such things.

 

In both cases, Jesus is passing by and you have three choices, per our Gospel reading. You can be like the Twelve and have no understanding to what is said, fall into despair, and curse God. You can be like “those in front” who judge their neighbor as “less”, curse him, curse God, and despair.

 

The third choice is no better, according to the sinner. There we must be vulnerable and admit our weakness in front of everyone. This blind man shouts and begs all day, which is embarrassing, so to have him shout and beg now, we see no difference. He just wants a handout. He just wants attention. He could care less about the words Jesus is speaking. 

 

The third choice is to deny ourselves and admit that we cannot choose it. We do not have the strength, the reason, or the fortitude to refuse sin and temptation. No more can this blind man make himself see, than we can rid ourselves of our sins. And for our struggles, the Lord gives us the cross.

 

Jesus doesn’t just heal this man in order that he can go home and start writing his memoirs of “How Jesus healed me”. Jesus brought this man back from the dead to follow Him. He lifted him out of his sins, forgiving him, and let his will be done in giving him what he asked for, seeing eyes. And then the Holy Spirit continues to work, in calling the man to follow Jesus.

 

How does one follow Jesus? To best understand, let’s go to when Lazarus died, in St. John 11. The news came to Jesus that Lazarus was on the verge of dying, yet He did not go to him. The news finally came to Jesus that Lazarus had died and Jesus says, Now, let us go to him.

 

St. Thomas gives us our answer, “Let us follow him that we may die with Him” (Jn 11:16).

4 days later, Jesus finally arrives and raises Lazarus from the grave. To follow Jesus is to dog His steps to see what He will do, not to show off our Bible skills. To follow Jesus is to follow to the cross, where we die. To follow Jesus is to be given the Holy Spirit that we might hear His call from our own grave of sin and death, and be raised with Him.

 

Jesus is not here as our coach or our Santa Claus. He does not write His own book that we may find there “self help”. He does not go about raising the dead and performing miracles just for us to implement socialism and call it God’s Will.

 

Jesus goes to the cross. It is His habit, though He only needed to do it once. The purpose of preaching morality and a new life before God is to be delivered over to the Gentiles, mocked, shamefully treated, and spit upon. The purpose of giving the blind man his sight is that He would be flogged and killed.

 

On Jesus hangs all the Law and the prophets and Jesus hangs on a cross. Not that He is still there, but that it is there that He accomplished all the work He set out to do from Genesis 1. On the cross we see the Law fulfilled, completed, finished. It is in the Lord’s innocent suffering and death, that we find our redemption. It is in His holy, precious Blood that we find our new life.

 

Everything we have dies at the foot of the cross, because nothing we have lives through such an act. For who is as righteous as Jesus, Who lives a perfect life to God? And who is as sinful as Jesus, Who bears the sin of the world on the cross, though not His own?

 

In faith, we pick up that cross, because we have been called out by the Gospel. “Jesus alone” leaves no room for “change of life” to have any say in the matter. However, “Jesus alone” does give us new habitats and new habits.

 

The new habitat the baptized, forgiven sinner sees himself in is the Church. The Church of what Jesus is doing now. The blind man was brought back to the world of sight to see the Crucifixion and the Resurrection and then the Apostolic work after that. The blind man was not set free to go do what he wanted. He was set free to live his life of faith.

 

Faith that wants to hear the story over and over again. His own story, sure, because now he was in the Way of Jesus. Jesus did heal him, in order that he go and worship Him. Just as Israel was freed from Egypt to make a “three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God” (Ex 3:18), so too are we freed from our sin to worship.

 

To follow Jesus to His betrayal, crucifixion, and resurrection. To follow Him as He sets His Apostles over us to teach, to pray, and to break bread. To follow today as He continues that work baptizing, communing, and forgiving.

To follow God is to go where He is working and He is working in Word and Sacrament.

 

Thus, we have been gifted a new habit, in this habitation of our Lord’s work for us. The habit of Church. That is the yearly readings of the Word to attend and hold sacred. The preaching to gladly hear and learn. The work of God, given and shed for you, habitually offered at this Altar to receive.

 

All this activity gives little room for sin, because the Lord is working and you must be still and be silent to receive it. Though daily we continue to be assaulted by our temptations and sins, we can now replace it with God’s own Work, for us. 

 

So we give up. We give up trying to fight. We give up trying to resist. We give up and give to Jesus. “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”, says St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 10:5. Before we take action, we give it to Jesus to see what He will do with it. And He will always kill it at His cross.

 

And to be raised again with Jesus, we don’t look to ourselves for proof, but see if we have confessed our sins. He continues in 2 Corinthians saying, “You are judging by appearances. If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ, they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do” (10:7). 

 

That is, can your neighbor belong to Christ just as much as you do? Can your wife, husband, son, daughter, father, mother, brothers, sisters be loved by Jesus just as much as you can? Can your enemies?

 

Those who set at naught and sold Him, pierced and nailed Him to the tree, deeply wailing shall their true Messiah see (LSB 336). Jesus sits us at the cross and doesn’t let us leave. Not that He is still on it, but that we still need that sacrifice every second of every day or we will go astray. We need the habitus of His Church, His Bride, that we might hold the forgiveness of sins sacred, not as a license to sin, but as a condemnation and a resurrection in His Body and Blood.

 

 

Good Enough Follower [Sexagesima]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 55:10-13

• 2 Corinthians 11:19-12:9

• St. Luke 8:4-15

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Phil 1)

 

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

“And … a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him”

 

The crowds, the crowds. Whether its Palm Sunday or any other time Jesus is walking about, there is always a crowd coming after Him. They like His bread. They like His miracles. They like His words. Whatever it is, a great crowd gathers around Jesus. Even today, there are no end to people claiming to follow Jesus. Can they all be telling the truth?

 

Why do people follow Jesus and can we hope to do the same, but better because we want to be believers and followers??

 

St. Luke begins chapter 8 with many people being close to Jesus. He lists the 12, some female disciples, and many others who provided for the cause. Next is the parable for today where St. Luke tells of a great crowd. All have come to see and hear Jesus, hoping for a miracle of their own, and there are many of them.

 

As the chapter continues, Jesus begins to make divisions. It starts with the 4 types of ground, described, and moves on to His family, where He declares His real family are those who hear and believe, not necessarily flesh and blood. What we thought, on the Last Sunday of the Church Year, was just a 50-50 division between sheep and goats, has become a 75-25 division, with only one out of the 4 soils making the cut.

 

He embarks on a boat with only the 12, after this, and calms the storm. It is here Jesus calls the disciples’ faith into question. “Where is it?” He asks. Where is your faith? Suggesting that the size of the in-crowd is now less than 12. 

 

He then goes on to exorcise a legion of demons from only one man, heal only one woman with a flow of blood, and raise only one daughter that had died. Now, in order to be with Jesus we must have one of these experiences. If we don’t, then how can we be sure of authentic faith being in us? 

 

The real deal-ender here, is that no one has these experiences anymore because Jesus is not among us any more, as He was then. And because we know and believe that, we have replaced Jesus’s work with “good enoughs”.

 

Its good enough that I have A/C in the summer and heat in the winter, those are types of miracles right? Its good enough that we can have or are having children. Its the miracle of birth, right? The sun rises, the seeds grow, and there is kindness in the world. Good enough. Those can be miracles.

 

Because, as we well know, even a miracle needs a hand. We'll help our Maker to make our dreams come true. You hope and I'll hurry, you pray and I'll plan. We'll do what's necessary. You love and I'll labor, you sit and I'll stand, get help from our next-door neighbor, 'cause even a miracle needs a hand.

 

This is all of us working together. This is the world, coming together, to do good. And this is the promise Jesus made, right? To gather us, to unite us to Himself, but since you can’t literally be united to someone, what He meant was doing the same things as Him and calling “good enough”. 

 

So we are gathered to Jesus, but with whom are we gathered? His spiritual allies who work with Jesus in spirit only? His political allies who seek to gain a heavenly kingdom on earth? His cultural allies who live by murder and deceit in God’s Name? His religious allies who only give lip service, but don’t actually believe His mumbo-jumbo? 

 

“What are we to do?”, say the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together in council, John 11. “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” (John 11:47-48)

 

What happens to our loyalty when Jesus doesn’t lend us a hand anymore, when He appears to go against our dreams and efforts, and when He takes the “other side”?

 

Being the descendants of Abraham, the chief priests and Pharisees knew best and felt this alleged betrayal from God. No glory cloud in Temple worship, after the return from Babylon. No pure line of David on the throne, at the time of Jesus. No rewards for being faithful to the Law. Now God has come down in the flesh and we are spoken against and offended.

 

“What are we to do?” 

We will follow Jesus. “So from that day on they plotted to take His life”, John 11:53 continues. And not just Jesus, but everything He touched. They plotted to kill Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead. They plotted to pay Judas, who follows Him, to betray Him. They plotted to send the world after Jesus, in order that the world find Him the betrayer and crucify Him.

 

“For”, St. John records in chapter 12, “they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God” (John 12:43). What is the glory that comes from man and what is the glory that comes from God? 

 

The glory that comes from God? Isn’t that Abraham glory? Success, large family, and many people serving him? Isn’t it Noah glory, being given the whole world all to himself? Isn’t it Solomon glory, victory over neighbor, conquest, and riches? That’s all biblical so it must be God’s glory, if only we follow after it.

 

We don’t know what the glory of the Lord is! No one does. If the “good enoughs” are good enough, then glory is not so much heavenly as it is humanly: riches, wealth, fame. If the “good enoughs” are good enough, then the Way of the Lord is not so divine, as it is human. Even the Muslims back political morality, agreeing with the “right” on many issues.

 

The Glory of God is in the Sower’s hands and that’s what we miss. The “good enough” from the parable is that Jesus has revealed some deep truth about hearing the Word, some prescription that if we just follow that, we will be following the Lord and be able to gain His glory, the right way.

 

But Jesus is not content with “good enough”. Jesus is gathering, but when He gathers, not every one likes it. For example, John 6 is where Jesus tells all His followers that to truly be a part of Him and share His glory, you must eat and drink His flesh and blood. “After this many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with him” (Jn 6:66).

 

When Jesus proclaims that He is the fulfillment of God’s Word, specifically in Isaiah’s words, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor” (Lk 4:18-19), they intend to kill Him and drive Him off a cliff.

 

From this we see, that the offense and the glory are the same and it is the cross. There is no food for the ravens or the devil, if it isn’t handed out by the Sower. There is no root to shrivel if the rocks are not given the seed. There is no sprout to throttle, if the thorns do not receive it. There is no hundred-fold fruit, unless the seed is buried and dies.

 

And if the glory of God is the Cross of Christ, then there is no room for earthly glory, even though we perceive it as heavenly glory. And we are not to look for it either or trust in anything else but God’s own Word. So when we gather in Jesus’s Name, we do not get to self-declare that simply because we gather, that we are Church.

 

In fact, we do not even gather on our own. Just as how we don’t know the Glory of the Lord until He reveals it to us, neither do we know the Church to gather at, until He reveals it to us. And He promises to reveal it to us. He does not leave us grasping at the air to come up with “church” on our own.

 

He reveals it first in His 3rd Command: Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. We remember not as a date on a calendar, but by giving our attention and heart to preaching and the Word. That means something is done to us. Something and someone outside of ourselves, is acting on us, using a voice to form words that register in our eardrums and head straight to the heart.

 

The Holy Spirit promises to work faith through the Word only, thus we find Jesus in His Word. We find Him, hold Him sacred, and gladly hear and learn Him. It is not on a whim that Jesus divides. His division is at His Word. Of such is the Word of God, that it waters the earth, gives seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, says our Old Testament reading.

 

How? By scattering it purposefully. By handing it out, mercifully. By preaching it, with His own voice. The seed is the Word of God and the Word of God is flesh and blood, Jesus Christ. “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God” (1 Jn 4:2).

 

We cannot escape the great crowd that follows Jesus. We cannot escape the fact that we are just another face in the crowd, so to speak. We are no different than any other in this crowd, either the devoted or the sincere, because the crowd that follows Jesus is a crowd of sin, death, and the power of the devil. Even the devil himself, is there.

 

And yet, we are different. Though we retain our sin, we have been sown by the Sower Himself. Sown heedfully. As in, not just tossed and scattered, hoping for a harvest, but planted, watered, and given increase on purpose.

 

And Holy Scripture plainly saith, “I planted”, says St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:6-9, “Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.”

 

God’s own Temple, He goes on to reveal in that epistle. Baptized into the Temple, the Body of Christ, you are not like the crowd. At one point you were, rebelling and not caring for the Word, but now you are washed, you are sanctified, you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor 6:11)

 

So we stay in the crowd, awaiting His return. We move through the crowd in the Spirit of Jesus, trusting our Baptism, incensed with the Body and Blood of Jesus. We stay where we are planted: His Church. And we grow where we are planted: His Word and Sacrament. The true miracle revealed is that God dwells with man, in Jesus, and justifies them in His Name.

 

 

Vineyard of Value [Septuagesima]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Daniel 9:2-10

• 1 Corinthians 9:24-10:4

• St. Matthew 20:1-16

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Phil 1)

 

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

“Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?”

 

So the new Archbishop of Canterbury, that’s England, is a woman, churches owned by private individuals must accept uninvited trespassers, and there are gay babies. All of these are fruits of the Church of the Current Year, as they say. The new confession of faith. Either be a part of the new sensation or get out of the way. Such has the Lord’s Vineyard been abused.

 

It is a well-known Lutheran fact, and will now be here also, that the papal bulletin, issued against Luther in 1520, appealed to the Lord’s Vineyard. It reads (partly) as follows:

BULLETIN AGAINST THE ERRORS OF MARTIN LUTHER AND HIS FOLLOWERS

Leo Bishop, Servant of the Servants of God

For the perpetual memory of the event.

Arise, O Lord, and judge thy cause; remember thy reproaches, which are made by fools all the day long; incline thine ear to our prayers, for foxes have risen up, seeking to destroy the vineyard, whose winepress thou alone hast trodden, and which, when thou art about to ascend to the Father, thou hast committed the care, government, and administration thereof to Peter, as to thy head and vicar, and to his successors, as to the Church triumphant: the wild boar of the forest striveth to destroy it, and the wild beast alone to devour it. Rise up, Peter…Rise up also, we beseech you, Paul…[rise up] all the saints and the rest of the universal Church, whose true interpretation of the sacred writings has been neglected, some, whose minds the father of lies has blinded”, etc. etc.

 

What we get from this is how the Church interpreted “vineyard” from the Bible. That it represented the Church; a fertile ground of growth the Lord places all His care and concern upon. Isaiah 5 speaks of this vineyard, saying, “Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes” (v.1-2).

 

But what is going on in the vineyard is not good. Isaiah continues, “He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded thorns”. Indeed, as Pope Leo noted from Song of Solomon 2:15, there are foxes ruining the vineyards. Maybe even Samson’s foxes with torches tied to their tails (Judges 15:4). 

 

On top of the wild boar, referenced from Psalm 80, we can’t help but maybe think vineyards are cursed. And they were, all the way back in Genesis 3 where the Lord says, “cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread,

till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen 3:17-19). 

 

Maybe this is part of the problem of finding workers in the parable from the Gospel today. That the promise of work does not outweigh the despair of overwork for too little pay and suffering for nothing. The workers know the ground is cursed, thus are reluctant to approach the Master of the House. 

 

This is also the problem in our workforce today. Its not that the new generation of workers are lazy, there are lazy people in every generation, but that the incentive to work is below the reward of work. Suffering is not incentive. Long hours are not incentive. Abuse and turmoil are not incentives to return to work day after day.

 

This is not to excuse, but to illuminate us that we may begin to understand. Because this exact thinking has infiltrated the Church, like foxes and boars. Not as the Blessed Dr. Luther, but as fear and offense.

 

Look at how the workers talk to the Master at the end of the day. They are offended, because what they feared from the beginning is coming true. They were overworked and underappreciated, not in a spoiled-brat kind of way, but in a “now I won’t be able to live off this paycheck” kind of way.

 

This is your problem with the Lord’s Church, His Vineyard, today. You logically and reasonably conclude that you are suffering in your relationship with the Lord. He is the Creator, sure, but when it comes to the work, He stands far off and makes you do it, with no praise but only a “now that that’s finished, here’s this” and producing a never-ending list of chores.

 

Thus we see the Church as not worth it. The pope had to mold the church into his own image, in order for it to be worth it to him, making nations bow to him.  We, and the world, in our sin cannot stand the Lord’s vineyard, but neither can we get enough of it on our own terms. 

 

There is another vineyard of great interest to us, in 1 Kings 21. Evil Ahab is king of Israel and Jezebel his wife. There is a man who owns a vineyard right against the king’s palace, named Naboth. Ahab covets the vineyard, but Naboth refuses to sell or trade away his ancestor’s vineyard.

 

Jezebel learns of her husband’s interactions with Naboth. So “she wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal, and she sent the letters to the elders and the leaders who lived with Naboth in his city. And she wrote in the letters, ‘Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth at the head of the people. And set two worthless men opposite him, and let them bring a charge against him, saying, ‘You have cursed God and the king.’ Then take him out and stone him to death.’” 

 

Ahab, the sinner, was able to acquire the Vineyard, the Church, through the sacrificing of another man, the owner.

 

Now that story goes on and Ahab pays for his sin, but I hope you’ve seen the point. When the Lord plants a Vineyard, it is not something as sterile as we are used to. All we think of is cost and goods and maintenance. These are normal things and can be gained, lost, and regained. No big deal.

 

When the Lord plants a vineyard, not only does He create it out of nothing, but He puts His life on the line to supply it with life and to defend it. When the Lord gives a gift, it is Himself, no matter the form it takes. And the Vineyard is no different.

 

The saying goes, “if you want to make a million dollars off a vineyard, start with 2”. It is a losing venture from the start. Thus God does not only bring two million to His vineyard, He brings Himself. 

 

Now, if God has a vineyard, then it is self-sustaining, completely. He can just command the watering, command the growth, command the harvest and it will be finished perfectly. In other words, there is no logical reason for God to open up His vineyard to Adam, Ahab, Jezebel, Naboth, or any of the workers from today’s Gospel.

 

Jesus reveals this in the words, “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?” But Jesus is not the stingy workers who will not take reward or even another vineyard for their troubles. He is allowed to do what He wants with His stuff. And He chooses to give it away.

 

For through the false condemnation of two witnesses on either side of Him and His crucifixion, Jesus opens His vineyard to sinners. He brings His 2 million-dollar natures, God and man, and works in His own vineyard. He endures thirsting, hungering, anguishing. In His humanity, He feels the full weight of the Holy Law which forbids Him grapes and hands Him a crown of thorns.

 

Found guilty of our sin, falsely accused, and tortured Jesus demands better pay for His workers from the Father. He was made our ransom, our bargaining chip on God’s own table. In His suffering, death, and resurrection, Jesus is our payment to God.

 

With bloodless blood, sin entered the world. For though Adam and Eve’s struggle with the devil shed no blood, what they lost was greater: the Image of God in their blood. Death now reigned. No wonder only thorns and tears come out of the cursed ground. 

 

With bloodied blood, sin is removed from this world. For Jesus strove with God and man and prevailed. He strove with God, bargaining His Body and Blood as payment for sin, death, and the power of the devil and He strove with man, proving that His Vineyard is not a trap, but an invitation.

 

For this is not some movie set vineyard, or a spare God has lying around. It is His own Vineyard. How do we know? Because the Vine is there and there is only one. The Vine that Lord planted, back in Psalm 80 has taken root and begun to fruit. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

 

Listen to Psalm 80:

“You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.

You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land.

The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches.

It sent out its branches to the sea and its shoots to the River.” (v.8-11)

 

Jesus came out of Egypt upon His return to Nazareth, in His Youth. And it is now in His Gospel, that growth happens beyond the normal. For the spreading of the Vine is happening, and being the Son of God Himself, all fall under His dominion.

 

Jesus is the Vine. He is the fruitful soil and the Creator. The Vineyard is His beloved. The place where He chooses to lose everything in order to win everything for His Bride. He causes His Name to dwell there. He appoints His servants, the prophets to speak there. He declares His Justification there, in His Blood, daring any to say He has not kept His Word.

 

So yes, to the sinner, the vineyard is a waste, because it is filled with Christ Crucified. He is not investing in their 401ks, neither is He treating them fairly. Indeed, we thank God that Jesus is not fair. If He were fair, we’d get nothing. If He were fair, we’d be on the cross. If He were fair, we would logically and reasonably be cut off and left to the thorns.

 

But Jesus unfairly offers His Vineyard to you. He invites you to work in it, yes, but He first invites you in. He calls out to you with His Gospel, enlightening you with His gifts, in order that you see the true wonder of the Vineyard. Like St. Paul, He removes the scales of sin from your eyes and you see.

 

You see the wonder, you see the Grace, you see the working of the forgiveness of sins, the granting of faith, and the bestowing of eternal life. That is the work of the Vineyard, that is the fruit of the Vineyard, and that is the Master of the Vineyard. The payment is the same, because Jesus can only give you all of Himself and no more than that. If that is not enough, well…

 

So what is so great about grapes and the Vineyard? It is where Jesus has promised to do His work and there are no substitutions, exchanges, or refunds. It is His and we have no say in the matter. He loves us and continues to offer Himself daily, for our sins, that we might arise as a new man, to live in Him and His vineyard.

 

And we find the Lord here, as He promised. We hear His words as from the song of Songs, “My beloved speaks and says to me, ‘Arise my love, my beautiful one…for the fig tree ripens and the vines are in blossom” (2:10, 13), we are washed in His righteousness, and are fed from the Vine as branches.

 

The Lord is ours and we are the Lord’s and what He chooses for us is life, in His Word and Sacrament.

 

 

Faith alone Justifies [The Conversion of St. Paul - Jan 25]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Exodus 3:1-14

• Acts 9:1-22

• St. Matthew 19:27-30

 

Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

 

Who speaks to you on this celebration of the Conversion of St. Paul, saying:

“Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel”

 

Thus far from God’s Word written that we might learn of conversion. That conversion is the sole work of the Holy Spirit. Conversion means to be turned by something other than yourself and by it be regenerated to something new. In this case, a Christian, that is one who is saved by grace, through faith, for Christ’s sake alone. Becoming a Christian is only possible by His work, this is why He promises to do His work among us.

 

We know this, because Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, is among us as One Who serves. And as Acts taught us today, Jesus is One Who intervenes directly in order that His Name be carried into the whole world and to all people. In other words, God promises to use means, earthly tools, to do His great work of Salvation.

 

In fact, we believe, teach, and confess that we “condemn the Anabaptists and others who think that the Holy Ghost comes to men without the external Word, through their own preparations and works”, thus far from our Augsburg Confession (AC V). This is not just a Lutheran teaching. It is a Lutheran teaching because it is a biblical teaching, that salvation comes from Scripture Alone.

 

So if it is Biblical, then it means we can find it in the Bible, right? That we can find the Lutherans in the Bible? That maybe even St. Paul himself was a Lutheran? 

 

Now I know that’s silly, but only 50% silly and only because the Lutherans showed up 1500 years or so after St. Paul and the Apostles. However, remember that being Lutheran just means being Christian. It means that you believe, teach and confess that all of the Bible is God’s Word and that He works His salvation through it and His Sacraments.

 

So let’s go and listen to St. Paul’s preaching in Acts and see if it is in line with that.

 

The book of Acts is not just some historical biography of the Apostles, as if all we can get out of it is examples of a good life and good works. Instead, St. Luke’s intent, St. Luke wrote Acts, is to preach and teach that we must all be justified alone by faith in Jesus Christ, without any contribution from the Law or help from our works (AE 35:363).

 

St. Paul’s own conversion is a testament to this. For, how did St. Paul prepare his heart and mind to meet Jesus on the road to Damascus that day? By killing Christians? By persecuting the Church that Jesus sacrificed Himself to create? Is that an example for you to have your own “Damascus Road moment”??!

 

St. Paul was converted with no merit or worthiness within himself. He was found on the roadside to be an empty stone jar, zealous only for the law and Christ came and filled him. Filled him with what? Look in Acts. St. Paul was filled with the Word first, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting, he replied. Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do” (Acts 9:15-16).

 

And go he does, blind as a bat, led into the house of Judas (not that Judas) not eating or drinking for 3 days. On the third day, his pastor came to him, though they didn’t know each other yet.

Ananias brought the Divine Service to blind and famished St. Paul:

“Placing his hands on Saul, he said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength” (v.17-19).

 

Do you see the Church there as you know it, here, in this place?? Preaching, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper? I do. In chapter 13 of Acts, where we first hear of his name change to Paul, we get to hear his first sermon in a synagogue at Antioch. 

 

There, he appeals to the five books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings all to show that from David’s seed, “God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus, as He promised” (Acts 13:16-23). He did not use cleverly devised myths or philosophical knavery, but Scripture Alone in order to convert his own people. How very Lutheran.

 

He concludes his sermon with Grace Alone and Faith alone, saying, “Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through Him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses” (v.38-39).

 

This is how he continued to preach until the day he was martyred, spending “considerable time…speaking boldly for the Lord, Who confirmed the message of His grace by enabling [him] to perform signs and wonders” (Acts 14:3).  

 

His sermons did not change no matter who he was talking to or even if he was being tortured. In Acts 22 about to be persecuted, he made a defense in order to not be recounting his conversion: “I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today” (Acts 22:3). “The Law”, being another way to describe the five books of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy. Scripture again.

 

“The God of our ancestors has chosen you”, he concludes, “to know His Will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from His mouth…And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on His Name” (v.14-16). Baptism is only received by faith in His Name, given to you by grace alone. 

 

In Rome, in his last 2 years of life, St. Paul “witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God, and from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets he tried to persuade them about Jesus” (Acts 28:23).

 

St. Paul’s hope was not in his conversion experience, but consistently and predictably in “What God promised to his ancestors” (Acts 26:6). Hope is trust, faith, and hope endured all the things St. Paul went through, not because of his own mettle, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. That hope, that promise is only found revealed in Holy Scriptures (v.7), and can only be received by God’s grace (v.18).

 

St. Paul is not a riches to rags story or a privileged to marginalized story. He has not come to lift up the poor and destitute to seize the means of production from capitalist scum. He has come as a tool, someone else’s instrument, to preach someone else’s message. 

 

St. Paul does not get to use his life as he wants, not because he is under contract or has been possessed, nullifying his free will. But because the truth has constrained him. “For the love of Christ constrains us”, he says in 2 Corinthians 5, “because we have concluded this: that One has died for all, therefore all have died; and He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him Who for their sake died and was raised” (v.14-15).

 

In other words, having received the complete truth of this world, that Jesus has come in the flesh to save and forgive, nothing else in all creation matters except that Gospel. “For I was determined to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). 

 

At this, all of the book of Acts and every epistle and sermon from an Apostle confesses: sola fides justificat, by faith alone we are justified. St. Paul’s life may show that it only takes one touch from God to change a person, but what a touch! We now know what it means to be God’s man on this earth. Not leading armies, starting cults, or gaining popularity, but bearing the cross.

 

Going back to our Acts 9 reading, Jesus says, “I will show him how much he must suffer for My Name.” (v.16). A true Apostle, even a true believer, is marked by the presence of the cross, of suffering. Not self-induced suffering, nor self-seeking suffering, but a progressive recognition of sin in their lives.

 

Sin that needs forgiveness. Rebellion that needs justification. A dead, sinful heart that need resurrection. This is true conversion. That the sinner is wakened from his death-sleep, justified before God for Christ’s sake, and stood again in the very life of Christ. This is why God causes St. Paul to use these words in Romans 6: All of us have been baptized into His death. “We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.” (v.4)

 

No human can initiate or instigate his own conversion, because he is dead in his sin and dead men don’t do much of anything. However, when they are raised to new life in Christ, when the Holy Spirit calls them by the Gospel, when the Holy Trinity’s ultimate work of all eternity comes to be, the sinner is forgiven.

 

And in the face of such overwhelming grace and faith, what is there left to do but give thanks and live this life for Christ? There is no payment to be remitted. There is no gift to be given. There is no sacrifice or reformed life holy enough to merit. Jesus is on His throne and all is forgiven in His Body and Blood.

 

Even though I would still call St. Paul a Lutheran, on his way to Damascus, he was not planning on becoming a Christian. If it were not for the intervention of the Holy Spirit, St. Paul would have continued as Saul spreading murder, hate, and division, like internet Lutherans.

 

St. Paul called Jesus Lord, at his conversion, because he knew and believed the Lord’s promises from Scripture alone. St. Paul was called by Jesus directly, without any merit or worthiness in himself, but was given merit to be the Lord’s instrument by Grace alone.

 

And only through faith alone, does St. Paul endure the life beneath the cross of Christ, suffering for His Name’s sake, trusting in the sure and certain promises of Him Who rose from the dead, that there is hope in eternal life.

 

And St. Paul found all of that in the Lord’s Word and Sacrament, just as you do today.

 

 

Ritual Purity [Epiphany 2]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Amos 9:11-15

• Romans 12:6-16

• St. John 2:1-11

Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

 

Who speaks to you on this 2nd Sunday after His Epiphany in His Gospel heard today, saying:

“Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.”

 

Thus far from God’s Word. And He wants us to hear about this purification so that we begin to understand His purification, for us. That in His Promise alone are we purified. Thus, for ourselves and others, we should seek purity in no other place than the Word and Sacrament of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

In the Church, we understand purification. Not quite on the Jewish level, yet, but on the Christian level, which is the proper purification anyway. Our Baptismal rite reveals this to us and puts us through the motions as well. 

 

For in the rite of God’s gift of Baptism, there is movement. Of course, we have to get in church, we have to move to the font, and we have to move back. This doesn’t make it a work condemned, like the protestants shout, “by grace not works!” 

 

It just means there is more to it and more going on than just our movements, our work. For baptisms, we begin in the back of Church, near the Narthex, the entrance. This is because purification is not the same thing as holiness and in your impurity, you do not belong in God’s house.

 

Thus, a purification takes place before the candidate approaches the holy things of God. We even say this in the first prayer of the Rite: “The Word of God also teaches that we are all conceived and born sinful and are under the power of the devil until Christ claims us as His own.

Therefore, depart, thou unclean spirit, and make room for the Holy Spirit in the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

 

So before we even get to the Font, a purification takes place. We understand this “washing” form of purity, for we practice it. Whether its washing our hands or creating a new nation on earth. We separate what we don’t want from what we do want. 

 

If your job is to process spread sheets, you get paid for your talent in spreadsheets, not your love of Warhammer 40K. If your job is to remain faithful to one woman, till death y’all do part, then your relationship is to be monogamous. These and others should be simple concepts for us, humans, so why can’t we get them straight?

 

The stone jars at the Wedding of Cana were presumed empty, because Jesus commanded them to be filled with water. They were empty because all those who needed to be cleansed for the marriage had been. They were empty and now there was no more purification left for those who wanted to come late. The problem that leaves is what about us? 

 

Repent. Yes, there is a ritual purification of the Jews and it hasn’t died out. Our American culture has adopted many of those same rituals, but took out the religion, allegedly. We brush our teeth ritually, we clean our clothes ritually, we do our laundry ritually. And because of germ theory, we also are fearful of pathogens so we wash our hands religiously and everything else anytime we get dirty.

 

That’s just good hygiene, we say. Its how one stays healthy and God must want it this way so it is our holy duty to remain clean. However, just like purity, hygiene also has two meanings. 

First, purity’s two meanings: In John 13, Jesus washes His disciples’ feet. Thus, the Protestants have made this a sacrament, because if Jesus doesn’t wash you you aren’t clean. But one disciple, though his feet were cleaned, didn’t make the cut. So much for that theory.

 

Jesus said, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you”, referring to Judas. Likewise, when Jesus speaks of hygiene in 1 Timothy 6:3-4, He says, “If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words [the hygiene Logos] of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.”

 

The hygiene and purity Scripture is talking about requires more than soap and water and more than copying Jesus. Because, the pathogen that Jewish and American washing cannot remove is sin. Like Lady MacBeth, no amount of scrubbing would save Judas from his sin. This is why true purity is only accomplished by sacrament, that is the promise of God to make one pure through His means.

 

When Jesus made note of the fact that the Jars for Purification totaled over 180 gallons, He was making sure we knew just how great the amount of water was, to the point of absurdity. And that only for one wedding party. Imagine how much is needed for all people of all time? Much more then, when He turns the water to wine. That number becomes even more absurd, because wine is more valuable than water.

 

Meaning, we are not to seek a purity outside of or without Jesus. Much more so, we are not to seek a purity that Jesus did not promise. Indeed, we can’t. Yes the Jews practiced cleanliness and ritual purity, yet they were still considered unclean and their devotion did not save them. In John 10, Jesus promises that He has come to bring life abundantly. And in 15, He says, “Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you” (v.3).

 

Jesus has come to create a purity for you, at His Word. A purity you could not generate on your own or even “with God’s help”. You must have a purity granted from God Himself, and He is not handing out contracts and purity rings. Meaning, you are not able to wash yourself clean enough to enter the Wedding Feast of God.

 

The more-abundant purification is found only in Christ and, as He said, only at His Word. That is, at the Word made flesh. For Jesus has come to fulfill all purity, to complete it, in His own baptism. Not so that our washing of hands and feet would be acceptable to Him, but so that we may obtain the purity that grants eternal life by His side, by His grace.

 

Thus, Jesus did not instigate us to purify ourselves, but He, “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact image of His nature”, upholding “the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb 1:3).

 

After making purification for sins on the cross, He returned to His rightful throne and took back His divine powers He had set aside in the ever-blessed virgin’s womb. And, at the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel, having been given all authority in heaven and on earth, He invites us to commune in His own purity saying, “be baptized”.

 

He invites us today, with Him at the Wedding of Cana, to look into the jars for purification and find them empty. We find that the purification of man has emptied them of all godliness and holiness. Maybe those who washed before were clean, but now we are not.

 

He invites us to look again and this time we see water, filled to the brim. His Word commanded His servants to fill them. There is now an abundance of purification happening with Jesus and maybe a place even for me. For all He has to do is speak the Words and it is so. It doesn’t end with water, though.

 

He invites us to look a third time and this time we see the wine. At this point, Jesus finally allows His deacons to carry that to the people and offer it to them. From Word to water to wine; there is life in His Word, purification in the water, and holiness in the wine.  

 

“Behold, the days are coming”, saith the Lord in our Old Testament reading, “when the mountains shall drip sweet wine and all the hills shall flow with it” (Amos 9:13, 15). And in our impurity, we think its strange and believe maybe it just means celebration time. But in the purity of Christ, we see fulfillment. That is, the whole earth now drips with the Lord’s Body and Blood, celebrated and distributed at every Altar on earth, faithful to the Word of God.

 

The Gospel, the Promise, is preached through all the earth, through the Lord’s sacraments. Not only has the Lord given His Word, but He continues to work His salvation among His Christians, in His true Body and Blood. Our complete purification is found in the Promise of Jesus, not in any quest or ritual we imagine for ourselves. For it is not your feet that are unclean, but your heart.

 

Jesus purifies our heart that we may approach God. And on approach, find His feast laid out with baptismal garments provided. These are now the holy things of God, which when communed with, commute that holiness. That is, because you have touched them, obeyed the Lord’s invitation, and hear, are baptized, and eat and drink, you are saved.

 

Because that is the Promise. We did not make it up. Church is not like our wedding parties where we play WWF music with pyrotechnics, or whatever other clever things we imagine. “What does that have to do with Me”, Jesus asks. 

 

And we can answer: everything. It has everything to do with Jesus. If He were not here, none of this would exist. If He were not here, we would be lost in our impurity, drowning in self-help. But with Jesus, His Word and Sacraments are life-giving, rich in grace, and a divine washing of the Holy Spirit.

 

Sacrifice [Epiphany 1]

LISTEN TO THE (| AUDIO |) HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 42:1-9

• Romans 12:1-5

• St. Luke 2:42-52

 

Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
 
Who speaks to you on this the Sunday after His Epiphany in His Gospel heard today, saying:

“Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?”

 
Whenever we speak of sacrament and sacrifice, we must always frame it first within the Divine Service. Not because you’re not allowed to question, but because this is how the life of Faith God has given us in His Son, works. Sacrifice is not understood outside of the Divine Service of God, therefore, through His Word today, God invites us to His Sacrifice, to see what He is doing, and to commune in it. 
 
It seems as if Jesus made His father and mother give a big sacrifice, in letting Him go off on His own and spend an extended weekend in the Temple. And then He has the audacity to talk back to them. when they find each other again. Truly it is difficult being the parents of God. Which disciplinary options would you choose?
 
What is a sacrifice? Is it really a sacrifice to be the guardians of young Jesus? Our Epistle reading this morning mentioned sacrifice. It said, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (12:1). 
 
A sacrifice is usually dead, not living. As we understand it, a sacrifice is something given away never to return. Whether it is an animal sacrifice that is killed to appease a deity, or a sacrifice you make for someone else. What you offer does not come back to you, but you hope it is enough.
 
And that hope is unfounded. You have no proof that your sacrifice will accomplish whatever you made it for. If the Temple sacrifices did not have God’s own Promise behind them, Sts. Joseph and Mary would have no reason to believe and make the pilgrimage journey, in the Gospel today. And for today, having been missing for three days, Jesus had become their sacrifice.
 
It was Passover, after all. Each family was required by law, to journey to the Temple for this Feast and bring the appropriate sacrifice. St. Joseph had brought the required money for offering and he brought the required sheep for the Passover celebration, but he had not counted on the fact that he brought the Lamb, as well.
 
Maybe the words of Abraham, spoken to Isaac, echoed in St. Joseph’s head at that moment, “The Lord will provide for Himself the Lamb for a burnt offering, my son” (Gen 22:8) and it turns out to be his son. Maybe, in his panic and dread, he tried to remember the Passover promise that all the firstborn of Israel would be passed over and live (Exodus 12:13), in order to placate himself.
 
He had made the right sacrifices so his son should also be passed over and live. 
Repent. You believe, like St. Joseph and St. Mary the ever-blessed, virgin Mother of God, that you bring the right sacrifices. They thought they had brought enough in the earthly fruits of their labors, as Cain thought. And yet we are not even a chapter away from St. Simeon’s words, “a sword shall pierce your soul also” (Lk 2:35).
 
We forget what a sacrifice actually is. It is not just earthly fruits that can be replenished. Time, talent, money are all things we think are sacrifices we can make to God, because they are valuable to us. But are they valuable to God? We never ask that question. We don’t want to think about it, because deep down we know the answer: No.
 
There is no amount we can pay. No gift we can give. To even give up a son as Adam, Abraham, and David know very well, is a small price to pay for favor and blessing, if that is what is commanded.
 
If that is what is commanded. So is it? Is God a God of sacrifice Who will take away your children if you don’t make Him happy? 
 
He would, if God were like you. What we think is a sacrifice is not a sacrifice according to the One Who commanded it, because He didn’t command it. Let’s look at our Gospel reading again. Jesus asks why His parents were searching for Him if they knew He was supposed to be in His Father’s House.
 
And the most famous thing about His Father’s House; that is, the first thing we think of when we think of the Temple, or really any old-time religion is…sacrifice. Cain and Abel knew this and all of the people in Genesis knew this even before Moses recorded sacrificial procedure in Exodus and Leviticus. It was required, as Psalm 50 says, “Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice” (Ps 50:5)
 
And yet Jesus declares, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice” (Matt 9:13) and He was getting neither, for a sacrifice can be made in unbelief just as well as in belief. Therefore, true sacrifice was to prove faith was present, not the other way round. Jesus points this out in Malachi, “When you offer the blind for sacrifice, isn’t that evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, isn’t that evil? Present it now to your governor! Will he be pleased with you? Or will he accept your person? saith the Lord of Hosts” (1:8).
 
So when did a sacrifice become a sacrifice? When it was born? When it was bought? When it was brought? When it was sacrificed? You had already planned in your heart what to offer to God, before you got to Temple, before you got to Church. 
 
From 1 Samuel 15:22, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams”.
 
This is the reason Jesus says, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness”, in St. Luke 22:52-53. They have come in the name of obedience, but are not obeying. God’s command has slipped through their blood-stained fingers.
 
Now it is not that there is no sacrifice, as if we can just replace sacrifice with mercy on our own terms. God sets the terms and none of His Word will pass away. St. Zephaniah proclaims, “Be silent at the presence of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is at hand. For the Lord has prepared a sacrifice. He has consecrated His guests” (1:7).
 
Thus, sacrifice is a matter of mercy, but it is a matter of God’s Mercy, not yours. We sit and wait to see what that means and what that means is Jesus abiding in the House of the Lord forever, known forever as the sacrifice of the Lord. He is in His Father’s house as the sacrifice for you.
 
“Every priest indeed stands day by day serving and often offering the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins”, says Hebrews 10, but Jesus, “when He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God” (10:11-12).
 
Thus the sacrifice was always meant to prove Jesus was present, making the sacrifice acceptable, whatever it was, and forgiving the sins of those offering. Sacrifice was always the invitation of God to come and see what He was doing and what He was saying. 
 
For example, Communion does not become the Body and Blood by magic. We are not going to, now, take these things off the Altar, place them on our own tables and eat as if nothing was different. The moment you step into church and see the Altar, they are to be used for nothing else, because that is what’s shown to you.
 
If we had them lying around in boxes on the floor and made a grab-fest out of it, then we would say of them, “worthless”. However, sacrifice was of such importance that Jesus made eternal festivals out of them. Passover was to be celebrated forever, never to end. Date, Time, and Place were all set in holy Scripture. To transgress was to be cut off.
 
Because God was bringing His sacrifice along with us. The Man, Jesus Christ, walks among His family and His people empty handed, on His way to Passover. The whole world watches, wondering what an empty-handed man will offer on the Altar.
 
He passes by family handouts. He passes up the money changers. He turns away charity and loopholes. He stands in front of His Father’s Divine Service and opens His mouth, “Here I am. Send Me, send Me.”
 
He remains in His Father’s House forever, as the crucified, so that when you come up in your spiritual worship, you may be accepted. Spiritual worship, as in no flesh can make satisfaction for sin, no fleshly work you do may be brought up. You are stood next to Jesus and weighed in the balance. 
 
It is not you who lives, but Christ in you. And if Christ is in you, by grace through faith, that is on His terms, then you have a living sacrifice. And His Terms are simple: Hearing produces faith, be baptized and be saved, eat and drink and be forgiven.
 
“The father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate” (St. Luke 1522-24).
 
For, as Judith says, “all sacrifice is too little to be a sweet fragrance for You and all the fat is not sufficient for Your burnt offering, but he who fears the Lord is great at all times” (16:16). 
 
Jesus is, today, handing out the Sacrifice worthy to be on the Altar of God, which is the Sacrament. Those things through which God has promised to work salvation, for you. The Divine Service circles around those things which are simply, the declaration of grace, the Lessons, the Sermon, the distribution of the Holy Supper, and the Benedictions.
 
The Sacrifices of the Divine Service, done in Christ, are the confession of sins, the prayers, the hymns, canticles, creeds, and our offerings. The sacraments enact God’s holiness in this place and the sacrifices prove faith is present and listening. God does His work first, we are then invited to participate or commune in it.
 
This is why we can bring our sacrifices with joy, not because we know they are enough, but because we know and believe forgiveness is ours. And if forgiveness is ours, then the Son is ours. If the Son is ours, then so is life everlasting.
 
We offer our sacrifices in the One Sacrifice. We think we are bringing money, but we are surprised to see we have brought Jesus as well.