Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Fear of Good [Trinity 2]


READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

  • Proverbs 9:1-10

  • 1 John 3:13-18

  • St. Luke 14:15-24

 



Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom 1)
 
Who speaks to you today, saying:
“Blessed is he who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”
 
These words of Jesus’s Gospel are given to you today, to show you just how afraid you are of the goodness of God. It is too good. It is so good, that you are left out. It is only in His invitation that we are pointed to His mercy and forgiveness, which invite us in to union with God, both in body and soul. We apply this when we encounter Him in His Word and Sacrament.
 
These words and the excuses given in the Gospel, and found in Deuteronomy 20, will be our focus today.
 
There is a “controversy which has arisen…concerning the righteousness of Christ or of faith, which God credits by grace, through faith, to poor sinners for righteousness.”
 
“one side has contended that the righteousness of faith, which the apostle calls the righteousness of God, is God’s essential righteousness, which is Christ Himself as the true, natural, and essential Son of God, who dwells in the elect by faith and impels them to do right, and thus is their righteousness, compared with which righteousness the sins of all men are as a drop of water compared with the great ocean.”
 
Thus far from our Book of Concord, which accurately describes what our man at the table is getting at by saying “Blessed are those who will eat”. As if their spot at the table is a foregone conclusion. Of course I’m going to be there. Of course my blood line will be there. No matter what I do in this life, as long as I have the right last name, I’m in.
 
This is the mythical “frozen chosen” who will then go on in the teaching of Jesus, from the Gospel reading, to make excuses, godly excuses, as to why they are not more concerned with how they treat their neighbor today. They think that in the details, they can catch God and get in on a technicality or a loophole, in Jesus’s Name of course.
 
The other side to this controversy is that “others have held and taught that Christ is our righteousness according to His human nature alone.” This is the side we are most familiar with, for it deals with believing God only gives His righteousness to those who look like they have it. 
 
In good works and shining personalities, these men believe God gives only human righteousness in order to work towards a godly righteousness, eventually, sometime in the future. Regardless, your unrighteousness can still condemn you by a technicality or loophole: “remember that time the Body of Christ got stuck in between your teeth? Sorry. Deal-breaker.”
 
In opposition to both these parties it has been unanimously taught by the teachers of the Augsburg Confession that Christ is our righteousness not according to His divine nature alone, nor according to His human nature alone, but according to both natures; for He has redeemed, justified, and saved us from our sins as God and man, through His complete obedience; that therefore the righteousness of faith is the forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, and our adoption as God’s children only on account of the obedience of Christ, which through faith alone, out of pure grace, is imputed for righteousness to all true believers, and on account of it they are absolved from all their unrighteousness.” (SD III:1-4)
 
If this is such great news, why the anxiety? Why the hesitation to heed this generous and perfect invitation to His own, true Banquet? I will give two examples and maybe then, you can tell me.
 
First is Exodus. Everybody loves a good underdog story, where the line between good and bad is easy to see and everyone lives, freedom-ly ever after. God swoops in to save the day. He sends His super-man, Moses, works His superpowers, the plagues, and even sends His people through the Red Sea in order to free His people. God is good. God is great. I’m sure glad He’s on our side.
 
Second is the Babylonian Exile. Nobody loves an Old Testament forsaking. For years, the kings of Israel and Judah could not get a good word from true prophets, so they murdered them. Each time they prophesied destruction on Israel, they hardened their hearts. God was finally against them, leveled His own Holy City, and banished His own holy people, Adam and Eve style.
 
Back to the invitation: which God is the God of the invitation? Is it the God Who believes in the tenacity and perseverance of people, setting them free to go on to bigger and better things? Or is it the God of Heavenly Righteousness, Who will show no mercy in the face of disobedience or slip-ups?
 
So which is it, O godly man? Are you ready to plight your troth upon the Lord? To risk your truth and all you hold true on this God Who may or may not feel good today? Or will you hedge your bets in sin, as you always do, and take all sides, because who knows, really. 
 
You cast all your bets in with the immortal words of Treebeard, who says, “I am not altogether on anybody’s side, because nobody is altogether on my side.” (The Two Towers). Nobody cares for myself as I care for it. I can’t go risking all my hard work on some fancy story-tellin.
 
There is one final excuse God allows, in Deuteronomy 20:1, 5-8, and it goes like this, “When you march out to battle your enemies…The officials will continue to address the troops, stating: ‘Is there anyone here who is afraid and discouraged? He can leave and go back to his house; otherwise, his comrades might lose courage just as he has.’”
 
Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom, according to Christ’s divine righteousness. And, blessed is everyone who does now eat bread in the kingdom, according to Christ’s human righteousness. 
 
For, according to the Person and Work of Jesus Christ, we must reject the following:
1. That our love or good works are a merit or cause of justification before God, either entirely or in part.
2. that by good works man must render himself worthy and fit, that the merit of Christ may be imparted to him.
3. that our real righteousness before God is the love or renewal which the Holy Ghost works in us, and which is in us.
4. that two things or parts belong to the righteousness of faith before God in which it consists, namely, the gracious forgiveness of sins, and then, secondly, renewal or sanctification.
5. that faith justifies only initially, either in part or primarily, and that our newness or love justifies even before God, either completely or secondarily.
6. that believers are justified before God, or are righteous before God, both by credit and by beginning to act righteous at the same time, or partly by the credit of Christ’s righteousness and partly by the beginning of new obedience.
7. that the application of the promise of grace occurs both by faith of the heart and confession of the mouth, and by other virtues. 
 
It is incorrect when it is taught that man must be saved in some other way or through something else than as he is justified before God, for Christ’s sake. “blessed is the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works”, declares Romans 4:6.
 
St. Paul’s basis of argument is that we obtain both, salvation as well as righteousness, in one and the same way. Yes, when we are justified by faith, we receive at the same time adoption and the inheritance of eternal life and salvation; and on this account St. Paul employs and emphasizes those words by which works and our own merits are entirely excluded, namely, by grace, without works, as forcibly in the article concerning salvation as in the article concerning righteousness. (SD III:53 )
 
Christ is your righteousness. Therefore, Deuteronomy 20, where we find these legit excuses, begins by first saying, “Do not be afraid”.
“When you march out to battle your enemies and you see horses, chariots, and a fighting force larger than yours, don’t be afraid of them, because the Lord your God, the one who brought you up from Egypt, is with you. As you advance toward the war, the priest will come forward and will address the troops. He will say to them: ‘Listen, Israel: Right now you are advancing to wage war against your enemies. Don’t be discouraged! Don’t be afraid! Don’t panic! Don’t shake in fear on account of them, because the Lord your God is going with you to fight your enemies for you and to save you.’” (Deut 20:1-4)
 
Whether today God is disciplining you in your sin or He is comforting you in the Gospel, He is one God. He is the God Who both leads out of Egypt and into Exile, going with you to both places. He is the God Who leads besides still waters and comforts with a rod of iron. 
 
The Lamb Who stands as if He were slain, with seven horns and seven eyes, and demands fealty, touches your shoulder, and is seen as the Crucified Jesus, with His raw, imprinted palms.
 
Everything is made ready by His, no-excuse life in front of the Father, for you. He has bought a field and intends to be buried in it, for the sins of the world. He has purchased 5 yolk of oxen and preaches faith to all who hear those 5 Books of Moses. He marries a wife and intends to purify her with His own, true Body and Blood.
 
Is God angry with you today? It matters not. His Son has risen from the grave, divorcing you from the condemning law. Is God happy with you today? It matters not. Not even prosperity keeps Christ from the cross. 
 
Our faith is in the Promise made in Blood. Our hope is in the invitation, freely given for Jesus’s sake, that whether we encounter a flame-engulfed mountain, or a still lake, with a “God’s Table here” sign, we say, “the man on the middle cross said I get to be here.”
 
For true blessedness does come out of the bread of the kingdom of God alone and in mercy, Jesus declares, “I am the bread”. 
“as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ Then Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.‘
And Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. I am the bread which came down from heaven.” (St. John 6:31-41)
 
And the Banquet of the Blessed gathers around the Bread.
 
Amen.
 

Seen and Unseen [Trinity 1]





Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom 1)
 
Who speaks to you today, saying:
“Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house”
 
And one of the “hims” sent to his father’s, and our fathers’, houses is St. John. Our Epistle from him today says, “he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God Whom he has not seen”. Likewise, I say, “he who does not love his church whom he has seen cannot love the eternal Church whom he has not seen”. Yet.
 
Jesus’s method of operation is sacramental, that is to use creation to work His salvation among us. We hear these words of Jesus today to point us to what is unseen in what is seen. That Jesus’s Promise of salvation is only through His Word, that is the Gospel purely preached and the sacraments administered according to it.
 
For, in no uncertain terms, St. John the Apostle declares that you must love God and you must love your brother. On top of that, you must love your brother whom you can see and you must love your God, Whom you cannot see.
This is the part when you run away.
 
For one, this is every religion’s claim. Christianity is not unique here. You can’t see God now, but you just gotta believe bro. You gotta just use your whole heart bro, your whole mind, strength, and soul must be given to the invisible sky-daddy, who’s just too shy to show up right now. Bro.
 
This is a part of Abraham’s complaint and maybe you can sympathize in our Old Testament reading. For Abraham, God has already appeared to him and so is not unseen, as St. John demands of us. Abraham’s complain is that God is making a promise that is invisible, unfulfilled, and in the future, which may or may not happen. Offspring are supposed to be visible, incarnate, but as of yet, not seen and Abraham’s biological clock is ticking.
 
But Abraham believed the Lord and that belief, that faith alone is counted as righteousness in front of God. What a powerful witness. No wonder Abraham was chosen to be a father of the Church and that God chose to show Himself, revealing to Abraham descendants as numerous as the stars.
 
Unfortunately, for Abraham, there were many stars, but no offspring and Abraham knows, feels, and believes this is his soul. This is why we find Abraham in chapter 16, committing adultery with his servant Hagar to force God’s hand. What was he to do? He listened to his wife, knew Hagar, and thus finally, the offspring of promise was in hand.
 
Then, God reveals Himself again, not to Abraham, but to Hagar. She says, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?” (16:13). Though God had blessed Abraham, He now blesses Hagar who is not the mother of Promise. With these two revelations, there appears to be no sure way to make God appear for us, for He shows Himself to the righteous and the unrighteous alike.
 
Repent. One, important lesson we consistently forget is what is not seen is just as important as what is seen. The things you do and say in this life affect both your body and your soul. The mantra of the LGBTQIAAP+ marriage people is: “it doesn’t affect you, why do you care?”
 
One, you don’t live in a bubble. Your actions and behavior affect everyone around you. And two, you destroying your eternal soul does affect me, as I love you and don’t want to see that happen. Any sin destroys faith, destroys the unseen within you: addiction, fornication, immorality and others. They may not seem to have immediate consequences, but are deadly all the same.
 
The Rich Man, in the Gospel today, thought like Abraham, that he had what was unseen in his hands. He was communing with success, popularity, and prosperity. He truly believed the unseen favor of God was in those things he could see. That is misplaced belief. Belief is to be in the Offspring alone, for that is the Promise.
 
The Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, proves the God Who is unseen, and that He wills and desires to be seen only in Jesus. As our Christmas Proper Preface goes: “in the mystery of the Word made flesh You have given us a new revelation of Your glory that, seeing You in the Person of Your Son, we may know and love those things which are not seen.”
 
The unseen realm is real. The Word that gave the 10 Commands to Moses, Hagar, and the Rich Man to teach Who He is; The Word Who gave the confession of faith to the same and to us, in our creeds, to teach what we are to expect and receive from God, was made man. Made to be seen.
 
The Word was made flesh. The unseen Promise made to Abraham, fulfilled in the Offspring of David. The seen Mercy shown to Hagar and Ishmael all converge and are seen and found in the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
 
How is that? The Blood of Jesus covers sins. The suffering of Jesus pays for adultery, fornication, and all sin leading to death. Where Isaac, Jacob, and even David failed, the Son of God does the Will of our Father perfectly, satisfying and fulfilling the Law in their and our stead.
 
Though conceived in sin, Hagar and Ishmael are not forgotten, but seen. The Promise made to Abraham was to see God, in the flesh, complete His Mercy perfectly. This He does in Jesus, the Offspring, the Son of Promise. Abraham is blessed, because he was given power to believe in the unseen. That is, he will wait for God to keep His Promise in His own way. “Abrahm rejoiced to see my day”, says Jesus in St. John 8:56, “and was glad.”
 
Lazarus was comforted in eternity, because he dared to believe that faith is given to wait for God’s promised fulfillment in and through suffering flesh. Abraham’s doubt and the Rich Man’s unbelief stem from the logic that suffering does not produce victory. Their reason blinded them from expecting the Promised Offspring to suffer. It is unbelievable to accept that success and victory be found in a sin-riddled, broken body on a cross. Wouldn’t you agree?
 
Yet, Jesus still gives us His Gospel. He still stands Lazarus up in front of us, our neighbor through whom we cool our sinful tongues on Moses and the Prophets, who preach Christ Crucified. We still side with the Rich Man, desiring to cover our guilt with our works and our reason, which tell us that suffering is not very loving, which is the motto of the devil.
 
When St. John gives us his warning of seen and unseen. He is not contradicting Jesus’s words of, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). He is comforting his flock. You do not see God anymore, like you see your brother today. Your God has ascended to His complete and full power, uniting God and man in the flesh, unable to be seen by sinful eyes.
 
Your brother has need of you today. It is godly to respond to Jesus with praise and devotion, but not at the expense of your brother. He is just as worthy of forgiveness as you are, though he may be your enemy. 
 
Jesus has come back from the dead to report that He gives peace to you. Jesus has sent His Apostles and Prophets to teach you of unseen things. Unseen, but not untouchable. And not even just your neighbors. The Gospel teaches of unmerited grace in the unseen things made to be seen.
 
As Jesus was the unseen made seen, so too His work in His Church. The unseen favor of God is found in His Gospel purely preached. The unseen salvation of God is seen in His baptism, ritely administered. The unseen forgiveness in the union of God and man in one Jesus Christ is seen, handled, and tasted in the Body and Blood, given and shed for you.
 
For the Promise was, is, and always will be in the flesh of the Son, Who has made believers out of all Who trust in and drink of His Blood. That is, the unseen promise to see God has been made manifest to His Church in faith. The stars now shrink at the magnitude of offspring the Savior of the world has now produced in His suffering.
 
It is because God now has a Body, that our brother becomes this important piece in loving God. Now God just might look like one of them and if I practice hate here, I will take it with me to eternity. But if I love here, Love, Jesus covers a multitude of sins and is faithful to wash them away, for all eternity.
 
 

The Creeds [Most Holy Trinity]






Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom 1)
 
Who speaks to you today, saying:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
 
On this Sunday of the Most Holy Trinity, we have confessed the longest of our three ecumenical Creeds. And if there were a longer one, I’d make you recite that too! 
The word “ecumenical” means something pertaining to the unity of the world’s Christian Churches. Which means that if you claim to be a Christian you can and should be confessing the three ecumenical creeds: Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian.
 
Especially since this year marks the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, from which we receive our Creed in history. For 1700 years, these creeds have been confessed in Christ’s Church as a correct expression of God’s Word and for 1700 years, nothing has been found to be their equal.
 
So, we must ask: beyond Trinity Sunday, how often do you explore the trinitarian nature of God? To what extent has any of the Creeds informed and formed your faith?
 
This is asked in two ways. the first way is as a word from God, that is we feel chastised because we know the answer is negative. We feel chastised, then forgiven that we have more time to change our ways.
 
The second is mockery from the world. The world asks this question to force us to conclude that the Trintiy is not worth exploring not only in Church, but in our everyday lives. And if it is irrelevant to our everyday lives, then it is irrelevant to faith, thus, something to be rid of. 
 
And that is just what one, worldwide group calling themselves “lutheran” have done this year. Though not the full Creed, they have concluded that the filioque, the “proceeds from the Father and the Son”, is only causing division between them and orthodox churches and so should be deep six-ed.
 
This is not the first time this rather large group of so-called lutherans have done something like this. In 1999, what’s called the Joint Declaration on the doctrine of Justification was approved between them and rome and with the same thinking. Justification really only divides us, so we should just get rid of it. And they did.
 
This is the way of the world, to whittle and whittle and whittle away until it gets to where, it thinks or decides, is the least common denominator, the origin, the thing that unites. But it doesn’t want unity, it wants control. We would all agree with Dr. Luther King Jr that skin color should not determine someone’s worth. The world also agrees, but only so that it can prove that no one is different, you are not special, and you should just trust the experts.
 
We would all agree that the universe is a vast place, too vast one might say, and that we are only a small part of it, in hopes of producing some humility. The world agrees, but it wants you insignificant and irrelevant with that thought, so it can dominate.
 
We chip and chip away at life until there’s nothing left, because we have replaced our creed. Instead of Who God is and what He comes to give us, we confess hospitality, unity, and reconciliation. All of which are godly goals, but when turned into confession or dogma, become satanic lies that lead to great shame and vice.
 
You know you are in this trap when you hear someone make the point, “that isn’t very Christ-like of you” or “my Jesus wouldn’t act like that”. Not in an attempt to right a wrong, but in an attempt to shave away pieces of Jesus to His lowest, common denominator. Even more than that, since a proper confession is forgotten or lost, the law supersedes even Jesus Himself.
 
Hospitality is absolute. Unity is absolute. Reconciliation is absolute and they are our modern false gods. Even Jesus must bend His knee to these principles or He is not the real Jesus. 
 
Repent. Such is the importance of retaining our Creeds and such is the importance of you praying, studying, and meditating on them. When you begin to shave off doctrine, you begin to shave away from Jesus. But this has already been tried. 
 
First, they tried to strip away His dignity by shunning His words saying, “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?” (Mt 13:55). Next, they tried to strip away his authority, “You are not greater than our father Abraham who died, are you? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself to be?” (Jn 8:53).
 
When words failed, action took its place. Since they could not strip Him of His dignity and authority, they aimed at His honor, calling Him a liar, and they aimed at His body shaving it of both clothes and skin, such that He would bleed out on the cross.
 
They stripped Jesus, but could not reduce Him any amount. It only managed to drive the Lord’s point home that this is Who God is. This is what He is doing. This is His will, to suffer, die, and rise again for sinful humanity.
 
That is what we call a revelation. The work and will of God in the flesh reveals Who God is, what He wants, and how He gets it done. As our Small Catechism goes, first we run through the Ten Commandments to discover Who God is. Next is the Creed, “which sets forth to us everything that we must expect and receive from God, and, to state it quite briefly, teaches us to know Him fully” (LC II:1).
 
Romans 10 states, “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (10:9). But how do you do that? With the amount of information that one verse gives, out of context, you might as well be hearing it this way, “If you shalbbah dah habbidahkey xghfteohajd that garblerdarbleguck, you will be FLDSMDFR”.
 
Just saying the words “Jesus is Lord” is not good enough. You must be taught Who Jesus is, what “is” means, and what a Lord is. It would be enough if you “could by your own powers keep the Ten Commandments as they are to be kept, then you would need nothing further, neither the Creed nor the Lord’s Prayer” (LC II:3). 
 
However, “since the Ten Commandments have taught that we are to have not more than one God, the question might be asked, What kind of a person is God? What does He do? How can we praise, or portray and describe Him, that He may be known? Now, that is taught in this [creed] so that the Creed is nothing else than the answer and confession of Christians arranged with respect to the First Commandment. As if you were to ask a little child: ‘My dear, what sort of a God do you have? What do you know of Him? That child could say: This is my God: first, the Father, who has created heaven and earth; besides this only One I regard nothing else as God; for there is no one else who could create heaven and earth” (LC II:I:10-11).
 
“How can these things be”, demands Nicodemus. And the Teacher teaches. Jesus shows Nicodemus, that words are only half the battle. Nicodemus is not going to get any farther towards an answer in John chapter 3. He must move on. He needs John 18 and 19. He needs chapters 20, 21, and the Book of Acts.
 
He needs a Church that houses the Body and Blood of Christ which give strength and nourishment to his own mouth and pumps divine blood to his blood. For in the Creed, Nicodemus and the Church find the God Who gives. He gives creation, He gives redemption, and He gives sanctification.
 
Strip any of these points away and you have the devil. Replace any of the work God has done for you with your works of hospitality, unity, or any other good and holy work you fear, love, and trust more than God, and you have a demon.
 
Reduce Jesus and His work any amount from 100% and you have lost the faith. Thanks be to God, that Jesus reveals no matter how much sinful man attempts to strip off Him, He is always at 100%.
 
Take away His divinity and He remains man, while remaining God. Take away His humanity and He rises from the dead. Dissect Him down to His smallest atom and still there you will find the fullest of fullness. All the fullness of the Godhead, found in Christ in a crumb of bread and a drop of wine.
 
There is no reduction of God Almighty. The only reduction we do, in hopes of being ecumenical, is to our own faith. And though God reduces Himself to the flesh, it is only a stepping down. He loses no part of Himself in His incarnation or His Holy Communion.
 
Thus, we focus on the Rock of our Foundation each and every Sunday. We thank and Praise the Trinity every Sunday. We invoke His Name alone as we call down His Spirit to be among us. We dwell in His Word and His Work, now handed over to His Church, through the ages, to believe and confess with heart and mouth.
 
Hearts that have been transplanted and mouths that have been seared by the fiery coals of His Sacrament, given and shed for you. He lowers Himself to our level. This is no reduction, but a condescension. He allows His divinity to be handled by spirits and bodies that He has redeemed by His precious Blood.
 
You say “I believe”, because faith, which makes people members of the Church, is hidden to our eyes yet, however, the Holy Scriptures assure us that the Holy Spirit continues to gather and preserve His Church (LSCE q170).
 
Amen.
 
 

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Keep My Words [Pentecost]


READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

  • Genesis 11:1-9

  • Acts 2:1-13

  • St. John 14:23-31
 


Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom 1)
 
Who speaks to you today, saying:
“Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.”
 
Thus far from our Gospel reading today, included by God to teach us just how to be a Christian. This points us to the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Jesus, and points us away from ourselves, so that Jesus may receive all the glory and draw all people to Himself, without us getting in the way.
 
Thus, in faith, we intend to keep the words of Jesus, as He says, so that we not fall into the category of not loving Him and being rejected by Him on the Last Day. And it is in keeping the words of Jesus that keep in check those who do and do not have authority in His Church. For the Holy Trinity does not work apart from the Word.
 
The ugly truth is, what we think of as “keeping Jesus’s words” is not keeping Jesus’s words. We think, if we read it then do what it says, that that is keeping His word. Again and again we revert to our base, sinful instincts and believe that God has just handed over a contract, instruction manual, or magical formula. And that’s it.
 
It is the devil who will be our teacher then. He spouts off words of God all day long, as we see at the Temptation of Jesus. He even does them. Dare I say, he may even believe them. How can he not? Being one of God’s creatures, he really has no choice, but to obey the Word of God.
 
Now where does that put us? Maybe if we bow down and worship, the Lord will passover us. Maybe if we seek a baptism of fire and speak in tongues, He will let it slide. Maybe if we build Him the biggest, tallest, best-est tower in the world, He will have no choice but to acknowledge our efforts.
 
Make no mistake and repent. The ruler of this world is coming in all his pride and arrogance. He is a better follower of God than you. He is a better keeper of the words than you. He has a better bloodline than you: angelic! You are bested. You are outworked. You are outmatched.
 
That is, if faith, hope, and love are based on works; if keeping His word is based on works. We hear Jesus, sure, but immediately we have forgotten His words. For, before there is “keeping His word”, there is a prerequisite. Before we can even think about holding God to His contract or commands, there must be faith. We know, because Jesus introduces “keeping His words” with “whoever loves me”.
 
How does one love God? Is it simply a matter of building a relationship with Him? How is that accomplished? Is there any time when God voiced His favorite things or what He likes to do? Has He taken an ad out in the personals about loving cozy winter nights by the fire and long walks on the beach? 
 
The best we can hope to accomplish in trying to be in a relationship to God is a made-up relationship. A fake one. It will be all one-sided and all on our side. That happens, because God has not spoken about such a thing. God has never specified something like a relationship with Him. But, if we make it up, then we get to make it up.
 
Dear Christians, God has already defined the terms and conditions of the relationship He desires with you and it is only found in the Body of His only-begotten Son. Yet, even though that is said, God also needs to explain that. So we start in Genesis, not with the tower, but with the creation of all things. 
 
After speaking every single thing into existence, God doesn’t lock it away in a closet. He gives it away. He hands over dominion, wisdom, authority, and love to Adam and Eve. God is the Giving God. He creates and He hands over. 
In the Person of Jesus, it is the same. Jesus creates the way to salvation and hands it over to us.
 
So, the relationship is this: God is the Absolute Giver and you are the Absolute Receiver. 
“Greater love hath no man than this”, says Jesus, “that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Jesus is the One Who gives His life. But more than that, resurrected life. For, of what use is a dead friend’s love? Again, Jesus is not giving instructions, He is giving the gift of His life: crucified and resurrected. 
 
It was in Love that God created all things. It is in love that God gives His Word. Love that is the fulfillment of all the words and commands God has ever given. Prefect love that only resides in the God Who is Love, Who became man, suffered, died, and rose again only to, once again hand over His greatest treasure, His Bride, to those who love His Love and keep His words in His Love.
 
True authority does not silence debate, but sparks understanding. A true relationship does not intimidate, but illuminates. We do not dictate to God, “whatever You Will, O Lord, I will do”. Instead, faith says, “whatever You give, O loving Savior, I will take”.
 
And it is not uncertainty, it is not wrath, and it is not condemnation that He gives. It is peace. Peace I leave with you. Does keeping Jesus’s words, according to someone else, cause you anxiety and stress? Maybe you are not thinking about Jesus, but yourself. Keep your eyes on the Crucified Christ and you will keep His Word. Not just the moral standards that anyone can accomplish, but His sacramental standards as well.
 
Those words of Giving. The giving of forgiveness, the giving of faith, the giving of eternal life only in, with, and under His True Body and Blood given and shed for you. If you want to keep Jesus’s words, I suggest you begin at the place He is speaking: His flesh and Blood, in His Church.
 
In this Love, then, what does “keep my words” mean? It means to treasure them. It means we treat it like a treasure, locking it up so that it is always around. Keeping it on display that others may enjoy it. Making sure to visit it often, taking it in, memorizing the sight of every single detail. 
 
To keep the words of Jesus, love is necessary. Not fake love we fabricate, put on yard signs, or throw in each other’s faces in parades. The fulfillment of God’s Law is not accomplished by mere outward actions or sincere efforts or the best of intentions. The fulfillment of God’s Law is accomplished by love: pure, sacrificial, obedient, serving, perfect love for God and our neighbors. 
 
This is why St. Paul wrote to the Galatians, “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them’” (Galatians 3:10).
 
So, what does God teach and do in the Gospel? (LSCE q. 8, p. 52) “In the Gospel, the good news of our salvation in Jesus Christ, God gives forgiveness, faith, life, and the power to please Him with good works.”
 
From the moment man fell into sin and lost the image of God, God reached out in love, one sidedly, to reclaim sinful humanity.  Already in Genesis 3:15 He promised to give the One who would come to crush Satan.  That Promised One is Jesus Christ.  The world was created through Him (Col. 1:16; John 1:3, 11) and yet He became flesh (John 1:14) to give redemption to the world that had rebelled against Him.  
 
He is the One who comes among His people to teach them His Word and to feed them with His Body and Blood for their forgiveness.  In Christ, God makes you a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).  In the Divine Service today and every week, He creates in you a clean heart and renews a right spirit within you.  As we receive Holy Communion, we acknowledge that our worship is joined with that of the angels, the Apostles, and all the company of heaven.
 
Alleluia!
Amen.
 
 

Tuesday, June 3, 2025

Scandal of the Gospel [Easter 7]


READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
  • Ezekiel 36:22-28

  • 1 Peter 4:7-11

  • St. John 15:26-16:4
 


Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom 1)
 
Who speaks to you today, saying:
“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.”
 
“Falling away” has such a gentile sound to it. Like the leaves from an autumn tree. Or the winter hat of an energetic child. It almost puts one at ease rather than alarm. A leaf easily returns in the spring and a hat is easily retrieved. 
 
Thus when we hear Jesus today speak of “falling away”, it is just as comforting, if you will. It is a sad thing to happen, but it is not the end of the world. We will be cared for. We will be sought out. Daddy will come to clean up our mess and everything will be made right.
 
Did you know, though, that there is a price on your heads? A bounty set in red letters? Jesus talked about it after the “falling away” saying, “the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God” (16:2). And in an age of religious tolerance, we shrug it off and say, “not in my experience” and thus remake the world in our image, because our experience tells us so.
 
As long as we say it is so, it is so. There are no real consequences for our words. If I say day is night or dark is light, it will be written and it will be so. No penalties. No responsibilities.
 
This is one of the modern delusions we have today. We have grown so complacent, that we believe virtual reality is reality, if I just believe hard enough. We have grown so asleep at our posts that we believe augmented reality is reality, if I just say it is. We have grown so numb, that we believe anything anyone tells us, if only to not offend, and as long as it doesn’t hurt my goals.
 
The “price on your head” point, drives Jesus’s teaching on “falling away”. It is not simply falling away that He mentions here. It is scandal. He says, “I have said all these things to keep you from being scandalized.” It is much more serious than originally heard.
 
“Offense” is another soft word used to translate scandalize into English. As in, “Then the disciples came and said to him, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?’” (Mt 15:12). That saying, said to the Jews, was: “this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” (15:8). A heart far from Jesus is a heart of stone, unable to live, believe, and find comfort in Christ alone.
 
A final word chosen to translate “scandalize”, that’s three now for those keeping count, is “sin”. This begins to at least get nearer the mark. In St. Luke, we hear that “it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin” (Luke 17:2). To scandalize the little ones.
 
Now we can at least see and hear that causing offense and falling away are indeed sinful acts taking the place of faith and worth more than just a passing “oh well”. 
 
But so what? Scandals aren’t that big of a deal today, especially since we have been inundated with them. It used to be that people worked hard to remain honorable and chaste. Today, we have been liberated from such folly. Who needs self-control and sobriety? Since love covers a multitude of sins, I can serve and speak according to my rules.
 
Repent. Be scandalized by the agenda of these English translations and be scandalized that your heart would even think of moving away from Christ. Especially when it comes to matters of faith, we experience the most freedom from offense, because as long as I increase my spirituality, I’m good in front of God. Spending time getting to know myself is best. How can I be in a relationship with God, if I don’t know who I am first? Maybe I don’t like God…
 
Since inwardly I can have my own religion, we call it relationship, outwardly I can be in any church I want. And as long as I have outward fellowship that “smells” Christian, then I please God. As long as I say the right words, go to a place that calls itself “church”, and follow the man in front.
 
Any man who claims for himself the authority to make laws about acts of worship, about changing the sacraments, or about doctrine; who then wants his articles, decrees, and laws to be divine and requirements for faith, scandalizes and makes us twice the sons of hell as himself (Mt 23:15).
 
Scandal. Not good. Yet Jesus seems to cause scandal. By the Holy Law of God, some are made scandalizers, those who are hostile to the Law because it forbids what they like and commands what they do not like (SA III:II:2), as Jesus says, “But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness”, in Romans 7:8.
 
Jesus can scandalize? More like sin and the sinner are scandalized by Jesus. Jesus causes the conscience to tear its robes by confronting it with sin. Jesus lays the Truth out and we hate it. How? Let’s turn to the other place St. John uses “scandalize” in chapter 6, to find out.
 
There Jesus had just finished saying “eat my flesh and drink my blood” and “knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, ‘Do you take offense at this?’” (John 6:61).
 
Are you scandalized by this? Does it upset your sinful sensitivities that Jesus’s words are spirit and life? “It is the Spirit Who gives life”, He continues in John 6, “the flesh profits nothing.” And yet, His words He gives say, “take and eat and drink”. 
 
Falling away does not mean backsliding into old sin. Being offended by Jesus does not mean that you have a problem with what He says. Being scandalized means you do not believe in His Word and second, you do not believe that how He is doing things, in His Church today, is the right way.
 
We are scandalized by the Word of God because He was made flesh, died in the flesh, rose again in the flesh, and still comes to His Church today, in the flesh. This puts a wrench in our spiritual plans. We want to be spiritual, as in spirits, as in air, as in flighty. We don’t want to have to depend on bodies to serve and please God. 
 
Service to God is flesh and blood. When Jesus causes St. Paul to teach, “offer yourselves as a living sacrifice”, in Romans 12:1, He meant we are to live in Him. Yes, Christ is the only sacrifice for sin, that’s receiving the heart of flesh from God, in our Old Testament reading. 
 
Second, though, the living sacrifice is to live, not under some new-fangled, man-made, completely-under-God’s-control, as an instrument of righteousness. That’s still Jesus only. The Living Sacrifice lives His life in the ordered Church of God, worshipping and communing as God has commanded. 
 
And there is the real scandal. That God dares to command how we worship Him, how we approach Him, how we access Him. We are scandalized that its not our holier-than-thou works. Instead, our true service to God is yielding and conforming to His service to us.
 
Yes, we aim to amend our sinful lives, but no one is offended by someone trying to turn their life around. In fact, we encourage such a thing. Everyone is offended, however, if you spend your precious time celebrating something called the Ascension. What is that?! Everyone is offended, however, if you spend your time believing that pastor’s forgiveness is God’s forgiveness. How dare you!
 
Everyone is offended, however, when you tell them that this past Sunday you ate the flesh and drank the blood of God.
 
When we are offended by the physicality of God; when we fall away from gathering together to devote ourselves to the Apostles doctrine, the fellowship, the breaking of the bread, and the prayers; when we sin against the Body and Blood of Christ, that is the scandal.
 
That is the scandal that leads to death. Why? Not because these are man-made laws of worship, but because these are institutions of Christ Himself. I don’t make baptism save you, Jesus’s blood and righteousness does. I don’t make the Lord’s Supper forgive your sins, Jesus’s words of Spirit and life do. 
 
Jesus is sending the Helper. You do not have to call Him to you. Jesus is giving the Spirit of Truth. You do not have to witness to Him or testify about Him to get His attention and love. Thus, our main work of God is to gather around His gifts and believe that Jesus was sent in Body and Blood, to forgive our scandals in sin.
 
Alleluia…
Amen 
 

God's Questions [The Ascension]

No AUDIO -- TeXT ONLY

 
READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
  • 2 Kings 2:5-15

  • Acts 1:1-11

  • St. Mark 16:14-20


Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom 1)
 
Who speaks to us this evening, from the Book of Acts and our Introit:
“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
 
Jesus has gone up with a shout and has left us with His Mighty Word to save. Leaving us teachers to ask questions and expect answers. Answers that confess Who God is, what He says, and what He has done for you. Thus, rather than an answer to our questions, God gives Himself in the flesh.
 
The question from the angels in Acts, is asked along the same lines as others from Holy Scripture: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” (Lk 24:5), “Who told you you were naked?” (Gen 3:11), and “Why is it that you ask my name?” (Gen 32:29).
 
Do you know how many questions there are in the Bible? By one count, there are 2,506 questions asked in the NRSV translation of the Bible: 1,679 questions in the Old Testament, and 827 questions in the New. If you search for English question marks, the number goes up to about 3300. The Bible is evidently a book of questions as much as it is a book of answers.
 
Questions are important. We do not learn without them. They cause us to form information we’ve learned and solidify our own learning, thoughts, and opinions. Our Catechism works off, what’s called, the scholastic method: question and answer. I think that asking the right question can be even more important than getting the right answer. Maybe a life well-lived is found not by having all the answers, but by asking all the right questions. 
 
But what do we do when God asks the questions? There is always the “Job option” where we simply fall on our face at the question, and answer, “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further” (Job 40:4-5).
 
That may have worked out well in the end, for Job, but it did not work out so well for King Ahaz. The Lord spoke to Ahaz through Isaiah demanding he ask the Lord for a sign, any sign, of the Lord’s victory among them and Ahaz refused God. He was countered with a question from the Almighty: “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?” (Isa 7:13).
 
Another way may be the St. Peter option where we speak up and answer. Being taught by the Lord Himself, should have given St. Peter the right answer to Jesus’s questions. It wasn’t the teaching, but the student. In Matthew 16, Peter tries to deny Christ’s suffering and crucifixion and gets, “Get behind me satan” for his troubles.
 
There is a third option and it is the most interesting and exclusive only to Christianity. That is discussion. In a breach of Creator-Creature protocol, God opens up dialogue. He allows Himself to be questioned and examined. He invites both doubt and discussion. From Isaiah 1, “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:” (v.18).
 
Now we see the questions have a point. Not that we necessarily have the right answer, but that we learn something. But learn what? Isaiah 1 continues: “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”
 
Why is it that no option of answering the Lord works in our favor? Because of sin. We have lost the knowledge and understanding of holy reason and divine insight. In other words, we have lost the Image of God. This means that we cannot know God as He wishes to be known nor be perfectly happy in Him.
 
We are not holy and righteous, doing God’s will. The Lord may be asking questions, yet He may not want an answer for us, but a confession. 
 
Think about it. When the Lord asked Adam where he was, after eating the fruit, did He really not know? God knows everything. What He wanted was for Adam to come out on his own and say, “Here I am, a poor miserable sinner who ate the fruit of the tree. I have sinned. Forgive me.”
 
When the Spirit took Ezekiel to the valley of dry bones and asked, “Son of man, will these bones live?” (37:3). He wasn’t asking for Ezekiel to do something or even to understand. He simply wanted Ezekiel to confess: no they won’t, in order that the Lord reply, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Mt 19:26)
 
The answers to all of God’s questions lie within the God-man, Jesus Christ. He is the Ever-Living Who walks among the bones of the dead and makes them alive again. He is the One Who was stripped naked in front of the world, scourged, and crucified to reclothe His fallen creatures in His Blood. He Alone has the Name that is above every Name, which confers salvation to all Who trust and believe.
 
For He is the One Forsaken by God, yet beloved of the Father. Crucified, died, yet is living. The answers we seek and the signs we desire all rest with the God-made-man. In answer to the St. Job option, we remain silent and let God speak and act as He wishes. This requires faith to submit to God’s Way, instead of our own. Its not that our answers offend Him, its that He wants all the glory in our redemption.
 
In answer to the St. Peter option, Jesus allows our sinful answers to have a voice. He willingly and joyfully takes on that sin to Himself, in order that it hinder us no longer in our quest for holiness. Faith believes and so it speaks, right or wrong, but seeks forgiveness for it all.
 
In answer to the St. Isaiah option, God is made man, just like one of us. 100% man. He thinks, speaks, and acts. He grows weary, thirsty, hungry. He weeps, gets angry, and laughs. In His own Body, He presents His Holy Way to us in such a way that we are able to follow His footsteps. For He does not give us strength to succeed, but strength to believe in Him.
 
Thus, when asked what we are doing looking up into heaven as if Jesus were returning immediately or if we just stay in that one spot long enough, He’ll come back and say “just kidding”. 
 
Like St. Job, we are to remain silent, having faith that Christ’s ascension and removal from our sight is for our advantage, as He told us (Jn 16:7). Though we do not understand it, we have faith this is most certainly true. Like St. Peter, we are to speak up. The Lord has ascended, we cry! 
“I believe in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord…Who…on the third day He rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven.”
 
Like St. Isaiah, we wait in hope for the Lord to then cause our own ascension, biding our time and waiting amongst His holy signs in Word and Sacrament. We continue the lessons, constantly asking what is this Word, what is this water, what is this bread and wine? And constantly receiving the answer through faith, by grace, for Christ’s sake.
It is the Lord and His Way of His Church is glorious.
 
Jesus will return on the same path He ascended. Though He is hidden yet from mortal eyes, the pillar of cloud will be lifted, the scales of sin will fall off our eyes, and we will finally see behind the veil of Moses, that it was, is, and ever shall be the flesh and blood of God answering all our questions.
 
 
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
 

Bloody Prayer [Easter 6]


READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
  • Numbers 21:4-9

  • James 1:22-27

  • St. John 16:23-30
 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom 1)
 
Who speaks to you today, saying:
“Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
 
God receives nothing from our prayers. We receive everything from our prayers, because we pray in faith. But faith is not just something we make up, it is a gift, a physical gift, given to us that we may see and understand prayer rightly, and thus be enabled to pray for all rightly.
 
As many times as this Gospel has been read, we have heard Jesus speak in this way. That, if we ask, we will be full of joy. That because we get to ask, because we get to pray to a God Who cares and listens and will answer, then we should be joyful little creatures, or else. That is how its popularly taught.
 
The promise of prayer that Jesus makes is unique to Christianity: to be worshipping and praying to a God Who is near enough to listen and answer. Though every religion has some sort of prayer, it is for them a magical formula. Say the right words, on the right day, at the right time, with the right offering/child sacrifice and your god may listen to you. 
 
Of course, if its Crom you’re praying to, he will only laugh at you. But heard prayer is heard prayer, right?
 
Now we know! Now we understand! Now we believe, say the Apostles. Now that Jesus has related Himself, and by proxy, God, to other gods in this world, they get it. Now they know that God needs our prayers, just like other gods. Now they understand that God is not special and requires prayers to operate, like other gods. 
 
Now they believe, because the things God asks for are spiritual, just in our imaginations. Now they believe that the God Jesus is talking about, is the God of their fathers Who commanded Moses out of a burning bush and from a pillar of cloud. Commanded to pray for the people, from our Old Testament reading, and also for Pharaoh, lest we forget to pray for our enemies.
 
Yet truly they do not, now, know, for the truth is the opposite. God does not need our prayers, we do. We like to think that we have a hold of prayer. That it is one of the easiest things, from God, to understand. So much so, that we have relegated it to “having a chat with God” or worse, something we only do every once in a while. 
 
But you do not have a hold of prayer. Though you are commanded to pray, you do not comprehend the depths of the gift given to you. Jesus gives prayer and thanksgiving as one of the marks of His Church on earth, thus it is something much more than a phoneline open to Jesus.
 
The problem we have is we believe that when something is spiritual, or at least mostly in the hidden world, that it doesn’t have the least bearing on real life or faith. It’s not like prayer makes planes fly. Prayer doesn’t do anything real so I don’t have to take it seriously and I don’t have to make others believe it is serious.
 
Jesus gives us three other letters through St. John to follow up. In his first epistle, Chapter 3 says, “whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him” (1 Jn 3:22). Ah, the age-old goal of keeping the commandments. Let’s not forget James 2:10, “whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it” and Hebrews 11:6, “without faith it is impossible to please Him.”
 
This doesn’t mean don’t try to pray, it just means there is something more to prayer than making a crane game of God. His commandments must be kept and we must please Him, we just have to keep listening to find out how, instead of running with only half an answer.
 
1 John 3 does continue: “And this is His commandment, that we believe in the Name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another” (v 23). What Name? The Name you were baptized into, “In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19). What Son? The only begotten Who is the Only Beloved: “This is my beloved Son, Who pleases Me” (Mt 3:17), the cloud says.
 
Belief is the command required to receive anything we ask for in prayer. But its not just naked belief, as in “I believe Jesus is my Lord and Savior and my belief is mine so I get what’s coming to me”. It is belief in the Name. It is belief in any and everything Jesus has come to will and to do.
 
St. John goes on in chapter 5: “this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us” (v 14). According to His Will. What is His Will? John 6: “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (v 40) and “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (v 29).
 
Belief gives eternal life. The Son’s Will and Work that He has come to do is to purchase and win eternal life for His creatures. He did not come to suffer for a hotline. He did not die to create a naughty/nice, prayer/no prayer list. He did not rise again in order that you gain spiritual control over Him through contract/covenant prayer.
 
‘Cause that’s what it feels like to us, when prayer is just spiritual. It is a virtual playground in which we get to imagine all sorts of answers from God, without proof. 
 
But prayer is not bloodless, because faith, belief is not body-less. You may close your eyes to pray, you may say most of what you want in your head, you may even imagine God on the other end listening. But if you do not have the righteous blood of Jesus covering all of it, then you do not have prayer.
 
The prayer of the unrighteous is not heard, therefore the One, Righteous Man must pray for you. And He must intercede by way of His mouth, which is a flesh and blood mouth. He must Promise His Righteousness to you, which is only in His Body and Blood. He must give you faith, He must give you love and that requires a body.
 
This, once again, is the Easter lesson. Prayer, in His Name, means in the Body and Blood of Christ, literally. Moses was leading Jesus’s people through the wilderness, bodily. The people were not imagining snakes biting them and they did not fake their resulting deaths. There was a physical problem, with physical consequences, needing a physical remedy.
 
This, Jesus brings in full measure, so that there is no room for doubt. Jesus is made man in order to unite us to Him. He reveals Himself and His command that we pray. He comes in a body to teach us to pray the prayer He uses. He takes His Body and rational soul through suffering to death on a cross, then rises again.
 
And in that resurrection, He shows us the total and complete union of God and man, such that God comes into the world in our dying flesh, but ascends with undying flesh. Then, to make our joy complete, fulfilled, perfect, He unites His Body to our body, His Blood to our blood and promises faith and belief in that way.
 
This, then, is today’s prayer. Jesus is teaching another prayer. He is not only saying that when you pray you should be joyful. He is saying “pray for joy”. He is saying, when you pray, ask me to fill up your joy and you will receive it. Why? Because where true joys are to be found, there the resurrected Christ stands with His wounds, offering union in Word and Sacrament.
 
You cannot understand prayer without having first being united to Christ. You cannot begin to pray without beginning within His Body and Blood, washed over you in baptism and ingested by you in Communion with Him. 
 
And though, in prayer, you will pray for many things, in many states of mind, and in many seasons of life, the One thing you are always praying for, in whatever words come out, is for the Crucified and Risen Christ to rescue you from this body of death and for Him to give you a new life beside Him, for all eternity.
 
This is the answer to every prayer and the words to every prayer. Rescue. Redemption. Joy. Only the promise of such things is found on the old earth. Thus, we are told to pray, we are told to hope, and we are told to rejoice in the Promise. So we pray, while we wait in our meat suits, knowing and believing that we will rise again to live, breathe, and have our being in complete, endless, and utter Joy.
 
 
Alleluia!
Amen.