Serpent Savior [Lent 3; St. Luke 11:14-28]

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Lost Sheep [Lent 2; St. Matthew 15:21-28]

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Self-imprecation [Imprecatory Psalms; Ps. 55]

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Ps. 55:12-14

What we are going to take to heart this Lent is what are called the Imprecatory Psalms. Imprecation means to curse or condemn. As we will see in hearing some of the 28 or so Psalms that contain these curses, they sound very out of place in such a beautiful and excellent book of poetry that the book of Psalms is.

For next to “this is the day that the Lord has made” is the verse “confuse, O Lord, and divide their tongues” which we heard in Ps. 55 this evening (v.9). Such hard and intense truths, found in all of the imprecatory psalms, seem to spring up as thorns among the sweet flowerets of God. they appear to mar any enjoyment to be had from the rest of the book for Jews and Christians alike.

So offensive do some find them, that in modern times many have called for their removal, including some popes, because they have no place in the “christian” spirit of love, so-called. Though they are mistaken, its quite hard to disagree. These coming Wednesdays we will be hearing things like, “Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.” (55:15) and “But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction: bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days;” (55:23).

So, those false teachers reject these Psalms for 2 reasons: 1) the ancients were degenerates, unable to comprehend our modern, superior sense of morality and 2) that God had not yet told them the real truth, waiting until we showed up to tell us. Or maybe God didn’t want to tell them.

Either way, Holy Scripture refuses to let either of those reasons be true, because 1) we already find in the OT the commands to love our enemies and other high values, and 2) the progression of God’s revelation is not from error to truth, but from partial and obscure to complete and clear.

Therefore, the first of five ways we interpret these imprecations is: Self imprecation.

These curses found in the psalms are not to be understood as simply the personal vindictiveness of some self-righteous, angry men. They are to be understood as the groanings of the Holy Spirit against the evil and persistent evil-doers. Namely, sinners. As terrible as these imprecations sound to us, they are nothing when stood beside the real nature of our own sin and heinousness.

Our own sin is odious. It is the worst curse that could be laid on us. It is worse than anything God could do to us or to the earth around us. Those curses God spoke in Genesis 3? Child’s play compared to our sinful nature. It is not God that curses us or causes evil or causes unrighteous suffering. It is our sin.

This is because sin kills life. It is the solid ground that will accept no amount of seeding. It is the scorching sun that shrivels faith as quickly as it matures. It is the ring of thorns that bleed out faith. It is the existence that shouldn’t exist, because its purpose is to make a space where there is no God, thus causing death, since God is the Lord of Life.

Even the smallest amount is enough to drive a wedge between us and life. As far as heaven is from hell, so far is the great divide that none can cross. Just the smallest infraction, the tiniest assent to a sinful desire is enough to cause the eternal condemnation of both body and soul.

Thus, when we return to Psalm 55 and hear the imprecations of verses 9-11 and 19-21 saying, “Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues: for I have seen violence and strife in the city. Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof: mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it. Wickedness is in the midst thereof: deceit and guile depart not from her streets.” “God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God. He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him: he hath broken his covenant. The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.”

We must hear them as final judgments pronounced upon our own sinful nature and in that despairing light cry out with the Church catholic for mercy. We pray and shout that the Lord would show mercy upon us rather than letting His righteous wrath fall upon us. Don’t let this be true about us. Don’t let us be enemies. Please, we beg you, make us loved. Make us better. Make us like you.

Psalm 55 goes on. “For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.” (v.12-14)

Here it tells us Who exactly is accusing us. It is not an enemy!! It is a man, an equal, a friend. This may make our sin even worse, but there is hope here. For we have a friend in Jesus, as we sing. He dwells among us as an equal, sharing our flesh. And He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, and was made man!

Now it is clear. This man is the God-man. The God-man Who demands such perfect divorce from this sin that He imprecates Himself, though He remains innocent. Jesus, the Just Judge, becomes Jesus the guilty-of-all-the-world’s-sin on the cross. He shows us His glorious body, hanging on the cross. We see there our sin, in all its cursed condemnation, waiting for death.

But we also see our Savior, Who fetters and imprisons all imprecation in death and hell forever. This we know is true because that black pit of a tomb is empty. Not empty of sin and death, but empty of guilt and condemnation, for the Lord of Life has taken away our imprecations and instead has baptized us into life and light, without sin.

This is the force of these imprecations within the Psalms. They bring out our own sin and rebellion against God. But, now that our Savior has mounted the cross, they are not ours anymore, but His. In order that all the blessings that were His now becomes ours. We feel our curse, we feel our condemnation, we feel our sin, we feel death. But the word of the cross is now the power of salvation.

The cross we bear and the cross Christ bears are the same. Baptized into His death and resurrection, we now hear life in the midst of death. When we feel our sins press upon us and guilt and condemnation rushing in, we know it is the work of the Holy Spirit convicting us of our sin so that we look outside of ourselves and see our Crucified Savior. Within the curse is the blessing, for Christ became the curse for us. He became sin for us.

We finish up Psalm 55 with these words of hope in verses 16-18 and 22: “As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice. He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me...Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous [in Christ] to be moved.”

“There is therefore now no condemnation [, no imprecation] to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:1-4)

Ashes in Faith [Ash Wednesday; 2 Peter 1]

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Not your transfiguration [Transfiguration; St. Matthew 17:1-9]

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Jesus teaches us today saying:

“And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.”

Ah the big three: Peter, James, and John. The three who will see the kingdom of the Lord before death, the three that witnessed the dead daughter raised from her deathly sleep, and the three taken into the confidence of Gethsemane, today get to see our Lord’s Transfiguration.

But why these three? We can theorize and speculate on their importance or prominent roles within Jesus’ 12 disciples, but Scripture is pretty silent on this point. The best we have is St. Paul quoting Moses in 2 Cor. 13, when Moses says,

“One witness shall not stand to testify against a man for any iniquity, or for any fault, or for any sin  which he may commit; by the mouth of two witnesses, or by the mouth of three witnesses, shall every word be established.” (Deut. 19:15)

What Moses focuses on here is unrighteousness and 3 different words for sin. We’re talking about committing a crime, here, not just verifying testimony. Jesus Transfigures with an openness that lands Him under capital punishment. Now who would think transfiguring yourself would be that bad?

When you do a cursory Google search for “transfigure” you come up with a bunch of mystical magical stuff, because transfiguring is impossible without Harry Potter. So, we are usually taught not to transfigure ourselves (because magic isn’t real), but to transform. Transform becomes close enough for these popular teachers of religion and for us, I mean, it sounds the same right?

So we are taught that God wants us to transform our lives, transform our hearts, and transform our behavior so that we can spread the message:

“What are YOU going to do when hearing or reading these readings for today?”, they ask. Are you going to attentively listen and allow yourself to let the message fall upon deaf ears?  What are you going to do to become ‘transfigured? You have been called to love your neighbor regardless of liking their actions or not.  WE ALL are called to listen to what Jesus taught… Practice and teach love, and hopefully those who have deaf ears will eventually come to hear the message.  We are ALL called to be ‘transfigured’ so that we can spread the message of Christ.

But is that all there is to transformation? Just, “bring a friend to church”? To transfigure means to transform into something more beautiful or elevated. In other words, something other than what you currently are. And to transform means to make a thorough or dramatic change in the form, appearance, or character of.

Our form is man. Our appearance is that of a human being. Our character is to be a body and a soul. We cannot transfigure or transform. We would be made into something completely different. We would not be human. We would not be “made man”. We would be unrecognizable to God and He would turn us away at the Wedding door.

We can pretend to transfigure or transform, but God isn’t fooled by our sinful attempts. And yet, neither is He unaware of our inability to transfigure. Thus, the main idea behind Jesus transfiguration is not that we follow suit, but to show us that we can’t do it, yet we have a Savior Who can.

There is no sin with God. There is no pretending or metaphor. In fact our unrighteousness proves the righteousness of God, because in His divine forbearance He passes over all our sins. Not for how well we transform, but for how well the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world.

For our sake, God made Jesus to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. This means that it is God’s work to transform us. It is God’s work to transfigure us. We don’t know how or what a real transfiguration looks like neither do we know how to accomplish it. So God must.

Jesus must be formed in us (Gal. 4:19), not the other way around. God then makes up the plan for transfiguration and institutes what this transfiguration is to look like. It is not up to us to pretend it happened to us. It is up to God to make a way for us.

And it is in this way that He does so. Jesus is only partially transfigured today. Though we see the glory, we only see the back end of it. Part of it. For God’s full glory is revealed on the cross. It is the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus that reveals not only the true glory of God, but also the pattern we are to follow in order to be transfigured ourselves.

And it goes in this way: that we are con-formed to His death (Phil. 3:10). Not only that, but that we share fellowship with His sufferings. And in order to gain His resurrection from the dead, we must believe that it is not us to be transfigured, but God, transfigured on the cross beyond all recognition of Him being God anymore.

There is only Jesus. This transfiguration is for Jesus. The sufferings of betrayal and scourging are for Jesus. The death on a cross is for Jesus. The resurrection from the dead is for Jesus. Life eternal is for Jesus. Word and Sacrament is the mercy Jesus extends to you which allows you to commune with His Transfiguration.

You want to be transformed by Christ?? Hear His Word and believe it. You want the transfiguration that comes from God?? Partake of God’s Sacraments. You want the ability to share that with others?? Invest in the Divine Service, attend Bible Class, make all of Church a part of your life.

People can smell a con from a mile away. They will only buy the “transform yourself” line for so long. And it will be until they realize they don’t need to be in church to accomplish transformation in their lives. But giving them the Divine Service is not a scam. It is how God has chosen to work salvation on this earth.

And it is the only way God continues to transfigure you, even though you return to your sin. Our Lord’s Transfiguration is brought to us. Forgiveness is brought to us. Jesus comes to us in Word and Sacrament that we would have the hope of His Transfiguration. Not only that it is a real, historic event, but that it is something we get to do as well.

Climate End Game [Epiphany 4; St. Matthew 8:23-27]

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From the Gospel heard today, Jesus speaks, saying:

“And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep.”

Yesterday, the Church celebrated the Purification of St. Mary and the Presentation of Jesus. Where we heard the beginning of this on New Year’s, when Jesus was given His Name and Circumcised, yesterday was the actual day when those things happened. 40 days after His birth, Jesus and His mother are purified and able to rejoin regular Temple life together.

This is a key theme to recognize in Epiphany: that Jesus, the Lord of all, the Creator of all known and unknown things, waits 6 weeks with His mother in order to return to God’s Church at the same time as her.

Which brings us to one of the many “storm of the sea” scenes that Jesus attends with His disciples, where He either calms the storm or walks on water. In similar fashion, Jesus takes the hard route, unnecessarily, simply to be on the boat.

But, once again, Jesus refuses to be just a part of the crowd. He changes water into wine, heals lepers and paralytics, and today He waves His magic fingers over the water and changes the weather. And, once again, just as He doesn’t heal all lepers or turn my water into wine, not that that would do me any good in my life, He doesn’t stop all storms. Just this one.

Let’s face it. To have a Christian opinion or worldview today will get you sent to the dunce’s chair. Nobody is saying Climate change doesn’t exist, we just call it normal weather. Yet, time and again, those in power want you focused on their scientism rather than Christ and being a decent person. “But you can’t be a good person if you’re dead”. Well you can if Jesus raises you from the dead.

In any case, every time Jesus mentions the environment, it does not exactly fall into the “good steward” category. Jesus is always talking about flowers and grass withering away; of trees being cut down and burned, and of weeds and chaff being blown away into fire. What a climate denier!!

So, let’s see: of the 1,189 chapters of the Bible, only the very first 2 find all of Creation in harmony with its Creator. For those first 6 days, there was no Climate crisis, no pollution, and no death. Jesus spoke Creation into being. All things were made by speaking 3 simple words: “Let there be…”

Yet, in the very next chapter, seemingly in the same week, Adam and Eve bring sin and death into the world and all of Creation is cursed. Upon closer listening, we find that the Word of God does not lay the blame at Adam’s feet nor even at the devil’s.

The One who curses the environment to inevitable destruction is God, Himself. As Scripture says, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope;”(Rom. 8:20)

Through His spoken Word God curses the serpent, Adam, and the environment. “Heaven and earth shall pass away”, saith the Lord and He means it.

What does this mean? What do we do with an earth-cursing God? What do we do with an environment that produces man-killing tornadoes, hurricanes, and wild-fires? How can you commune with or fight for nature when it conspires against you?

Scripture says, “O foolish [Christians]! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Gal.3)

“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my Word shall never pass away” (Mt. 24:35). In Adam’s fall, Jesus wanted Adam to know that it wasn’t going to be by nature, that he would be saved. Jesus wanted to show that it would be by an unnatural tree that redemption would be accomplished. A tree so alien to nature, that it could hold the infinite in fetters. A tree that could kill God.

Now this tree of Life, with every good, stands with Christ upon it. It is for this reason that creation groans under the curse. For, the Word of God “imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” (Gal. 3:22)

In our sinful foolishness, we believe that if we work hard and do what is right, we will be saved. Instead it is by Christ’s hand alone that we are saved. Jesus is not only willing to give up all of creation, but also His entire being on the cross, in order to forgive your sins and then be with you in all your suffering as well.

Thus, it is to this of the curse placed upon us, which we can not escape, that Jesus comes to and stays with us, as He stayed with His mother and His disciples. While we were yet dead in our sin, Jesus died for us. While we were without love towards God and our neighbor, Jesus showed us God’s love on the cross and spoke it to us in His Word.

The Word of God speaks to you even in this darkness and even as all creation heads towards destruction. He does not condemn you, He does not upbraid you. He simply is born of a virgin, is made man, suffers and dies. He reveals Himself to be the center of all of history so that, as the only light shining in the dark, He can speak His words of salvation to you and create faith.

Faith comes from nowhere else except Christ and Him crucified. In Christ is the New Creation; the new Jerusalem; the new heavens and the new earth. All of creation is the way it is so that we learn to hope for the better, perfect creation.

Scripture says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Rev. 21)

No more curse. No more climate crisis. No more pollution. No more death.

In Christ, we do not look to this current earth for any kind of comfort, be it in cures, comforts, or sustainability. But in hope, we look to that which Jesus has prepared for us; that is eternal life with Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

And it is to this hope that Jesus leads us. Not just by Word and deed, but in flesh and blood. Just as He was with His mother, just as He stayed with His disciples, just so He stays with us. In God’s Body, Jesus dwells with us in Word and Sacrament. Though we love and care for His creation, we find salvation in Him and not anywhere else, because He does not leave us.

Faith not faith [Epiphany 3; St. Matthew 8:1-13]

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From the Gospel heard today, Jesus speaks, saying:

“And behold, a leper came to Him and worshiped him, saying, ‘Lord, if You will it, You are able to purify me.’”

Faith takes no holidays, Dr. Luther writes. Meaning, there is never a time when it is not purifying and not creating belief. There is also never a time when it is not speaking of Christ and acting Christ-like, usually in the form of your own words and actions.

Thus Jesus continues our thinking about purification from last week at the Wedding at Cana, where He used stone jars to turn water into wine. These stone jars were not food grade, but were set aside for Temple baptisms and other purifying and sanctifying rituals.

So we see that turning water into wine was not just some magic trick, but an actual sacrifice on Jesus’ part made ahead of His hour of crucifixion. Yet, it was necessary because without suffering and sacrifice, there can be no purification on earth, much less faith.

In fact, Dr. Luther makes another point and teaches that, “What is of God must be crucified in the world”. So long as it does not lead to the cross (that is, to shameful suffering), it is not recognized as a work that comes from God, inasmuch as the only-begotten Son was not protected against this experience but rather was appointed the example of it" (AE 25:177)

Faith leaves these two men from the Gospel lesson no choice but to seek Jesus out. And if everything in their lives had been prosperous, they would have been like everyone else and not sought Him out. But because they were suffering or someone they loved was suffering, they not only looked for Jesus, but found Him.

“He who does not know Christ does not know God hidden in suffering. Therefore he prefers works to suffering, glory to the cross .... These are the people whom the apostle calls "enemies of the cross of Christ," for they hate the cross and suffering and love works and the glory of works .... [By contrast] the friends of the cross say that the cross is good and works are evil, for through the cross works are dethroned and the old Adam, who is especially edified by works, is crucified. It is impossible for a person not to be puffed up by his good works unless he has first been deflated and destroyed by suffering and evil until he knows that he is worthless and that his works are not his but God's.” (AE 31:53)

  

This is faith understood within the entire context of the Bible, because faith is not understood without also understanding law, sin, grace, righteousness, flesh and spirit. Thus, St. Paul spends all his time on these subjects in his letter to the Romans.

Doing the works of the law and fulfilling the law are two very different things. The law is not simply works to be done or not done as everyone naturally understands it. Works do not fulfill the law. Fulfilling the law means doing its works with pleasure and love in a godly and good life voluntarily, without the compulsion of the law in the first place. This of course, is never accomplished without faith.

Sin is not only the outward works of the body, but also all the inward activities that move you to work. Any action takes inward planning on our part, before the work takes place. When Scripture looks on your inmost heart, it finds only unbelief in such a thing as your heart. Unbelief alone commits sin and faith alone makes a person righteous.

Grace and gift are different. We have different gifts, but the same grace. We are still sinners, yet there is no condemnation in Christ. Because we believe in Christ, God favors us and does not count sin against us. Instead He graciously deals with us according to faith in Christ until sin is slain.

Righteousness is a divine work, meaning God freely gives it and credits it to us on account of faith in Christ. In faith we are free from sin and take pleasure in God’s commands and in serving our fellow man willingly and happily, offering all we have to his aid.

Flesh and spirit does not mean outward and inward. Flesh means everything, inside and out, that is corrupted by sin. Body, soul, mind, and senses are afflicted by the flesh, since it was born from the flesh and we long to remain in the flesh. The flesh is a man who lives and works, inwardly and outwardly, in the service of the flesh’s gain and of this temporally life. The spirit is the man who lives and works, inwardly and outwardly, in the service of the Holy Spirit and of the future life in faith.

Faith seeks God. Faith seeks God in suffering. Why does God conceal himself so deeply--or conversely--why does he manifest himself so paradoxically as to only show Himself in suffering? He does so in order to crush human pride so that man, having ceased to work, might be prepared for God's work (AE 31:55).

Just as the stone jars at the Wedding in Cana were empty, so too must we be emptied. For Christ was emptied for us, in order that He be that perfect sacrifice on the cross to purchase faith for us.

Faith is not a human notion or a dream of the imagination, as some people define it. When they see no improvement of life, after belief, they say faith is not enough. Faith is a divine work which changes us, despite all outward appearances. It makes us born again. It saves us. It creates belief in us. It kills the old Adam in us and makes our hearts, spirits, minds and powers altogether different.

Bringing the Holy Spirit with it, Faith never stops. It is living, busy, active, and mighty. It doesn’t stop to ask whether good works are to be done, but before the question is asked, it has already done them. It is impossible to separate works from faith, which is why Jesus can comment on the centurion and say that He has never found such a faith before.

Faith is key to salvation, but faith does not rely on faith. There is no demand from God for the sinner to have faith, you cannot. Faith doesn’t include knowing one has faith nor even requiring belief in having faith, for he who doesn’t think he believes, but is in despair over sin, has the greatest faith. Christian faith puts no faith in faith, precisely because it is faith in God’s Word alone.

The Word of Christ is sacramental. Meaning, it is completely and utterly outside of yourself; external to you. It depends on external facts for its meaning: the life, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. And its truth is located in the Christ Who speaks the sure word of promise, without conditions, to sinners.

There is no internal contemplation of faith. There is no profound reflection in faith. There is only Christ, Who, through the Holy Spirit, creates faith by means of the proclamation of the Gospel. It is not personal experience, but the content of God’s Word that saves you. To believe that Christ’s Word is for you is to be uninterested in the fact that you believe and instead captivated by what Christ has to say to you.