Concupiscence and Church [Trinity 3]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Micah 7:18-20

• 1 Peter 5:6-11

• St. Luke 15:1-10

 

Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. (Titus 1:4)

 

Who speaks to you today, saying:

“In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents”

 

I am sick to death of being afraid. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Not only am I supposed to be afraid of who will be governor of Los Angeles, but also of a country, half-way across the planet, who allegedly possesses nuclear weapons which may or may not be aimed at my living room.

 

Not to mention who is in what seat of authority in our own country. And on top of that, now having to go through our own election of synod president in the LCMS and really getting to see how afraid people want me to be if the wrong person gets elected. 

 

So now, what I’m supposed to fear in the world has infiltrated my church. The Church that is the Mighty Fortress. The Church that is the Lord’s own Bride. Earlier in St. Peter’s first epistle, which we heard from today, he preaches, “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Pet 4:17).

 

Dear Children, we are in this time of judgement. Things not being “the way they used to” or “the times are a-changin” are just excuses to quit. The things we are face within our country, our church, and our homes are all tests, for the faithful. 

 

Job has said, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10).

 

For the unfaithful, things are just getting better. If we just back and elect the right person, everything will go back to normal. But normal what? 

 

When we look out into the world we see Original Sin. Yes, Original Sin. That highly unpopular doctrine that not very many teach or preach about. Why? Because it removes alleged free will, your so-called ability to act without corruption, and your front of changing your life around. In Jesus’s Name, of course.

 

Our Confessions state:

“We have not only used the word concupiscence, but we have also said that "the fear of God and faith are lacking." We added this comment because the scholastic teachers do not understand the definition of original sin well enough. They take what they received from the Fathers and extend the definition of original sin. They argue that the evil inclination is a quality on the body, like a blemish. With their usual folly, they ask whether this quality is caused from the contagiousness of the apple or from the breath of the serpent, and whether medicines [or elections!] can cure the condition. They suppress the main point with such questions.” (Ap II(I):7)

 

We think the Gospel today is all about losing stuff. Stuff that can be found. Stuff that can be replaced. Stuff that is of little consequence: animals, money. Easy to deal with.

No. That’s not why Jesus is saying these things. The real focus is that these things get lost and destroyed in the first place.

 

Either we caused it or are responsible for it. And it is there where we take our first step towards understanding Original Sin and concupiscence, as our Confessions stated.

 

Why did the sheep get lost in the first place? What made the coin go to a place not made for it? Why can I not perfectly keep and maintain all I have or remember it half the time? If you secure a fence, it should stay secure. If you domesticate a sheep, it should stay domesticated. If you keep your coins, they should stay kept. If you were there when you put something away, it should be there when you go back to it.

 

Repent. Removing sin is not just doing better or obeying God. The first sin was not simple disobedience, as in, if we would just obey today, we could undo our sinfulness. Adam and Eve didn’t just disobey. The first sin was doubt. It was “I can be God and be better than God”. 

 

You can go back to Genesis 3 and listen in on the conversion of Eve. God lets us do that when only He was there. Eve was persuaded to make a plan. First, she heard the Word and confessed it, but then it didn’t sound right, because the tree was good, and beautiful, and pleasant. How could a loving God, maker of all things beautiful, good, and pleasant NOT want me to commune with this?!

 

The concupiscence was first conceived in her heart and, after maturing, gave birth to sin and active disobedience. As St. James says, “…every man is tempted by his own concupiscence, being drawn away and allured. Then, when concupiscence has conceived, it brings forth sin. And sin, fully perfected, brings forth death.” (1:14-15)

 

Well did Jesus say and St. James interpret, “Truly, truly, I say to you that everyone practicing sin, is a slave to sin.” And, “Whoever breaks one commandment is guilty of breaking them all” (Jn 8:34, James 2:10).

 

So, the talk about sin is major and more in-depth than we usually think. Real sin is serious and it is “…ignorance of God, contempt for God, total lack of fear of God and confidence in God, hatred of God's judgment, fleeing from God when He judges us, anger toward God, despairing of God's grace, putting trust in things of this world, and so forth” (Ap II(I):7-8), says Augsburg.

 

And Jesus has come to seek and save the lost in every and all ways. Teachers who misunderstand Original Sin believe that Jesus just came to help you find lost stuff. Hopes, dreams, a carefree life. They never dream that Jesus actually handles real sin in suffering and blood. And they never imagine that they do not fear, love, and trust in Him as He’s doing it.

 

Indeed, the rebirth and regeneration Jesus comes to purchase and win for sinners is not your choice, but His. And it is rebirth and regeneration, not buck up and make better choices. You are lost and you get lost, continually. And lost means death.

 

You in your sin are dead in your sin, which is why Jesus had to die to redeem you. But guess what? Your sin remains and you chose to die again. Daily. Jesus must make a redemption so complete that you can be renewed each and every second of the day. And this is what His Word, His Body and Blood, does.

 

Jesus can go after the one sheep who is lost, dead, because Jesus became lost, became the curse for us, and died. He has travelled the road of the dead and defeated death. Though sin, death, and the devil will still try, death has no more dominion over the lost.

 

Jesus can go after the coin, because He willingly and joyfully jumped into the darkness of sin and death to remove it. Now, only light is where Jesus is. “In the heavens He has pitched a tent for the sun. Like a bridegroom emerging from his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course, it rises at one end of the heavens and runs its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth” (Psalm 19:4-6)

 

So He finds us dead and makes us alive in Word and Sacrament, given to His Church. This is the other end of complete redemption. Jesus not only accomplishes His Salvation on the cross, but He brings it forward, to us, today. 

 

And that’s the only way to salvation. Grace alone. It must be given. And it must be given to you in the way that Jesus promises, not any way that you think He wants. His salvation. Your Original Sin. His Church. Your passivity.

 

What does this mean? This means the Church is not our creation. It is not ours to tinker with and change and mold to fit our preferences, the modern age, or any temporal fad. The Church was here before us, it is with us now, and it will remain long after our pride-filled hearts pass on.

 

What does this mean? Love your church. It’s our only recourse in the face of Original Sin because it is the only place Jesus has promised to be. Become a fan of your church. Ask the deep questions. Why do you go to this church? Why do you follow Jesus? Is your answer like Charlie Kirk, that Jesus changed your life and that’s why? That’s kid’s stuff. A seven year old can change his life and give credit to Jesus. 

 

An adult can find where Jesus is handing out the free forgiveness of sins. An adult can place himself in the path of the Light of the World. An adult can hear of and chase down the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus, in order that his body be found and made alive again.

 

Made alive. Dead men do not come back to life, unless you’re Jesus. Dead lambs do not find themselves and lost coins to not return on their own. What is lost cannot be found again. Except that One returns from the dead. 

 

And Jesus has. This is why we sing in Church. This is why we listen to the Word. This is why we chant. This is why we challenge ourselves with hard things in His Church, because there is so much joy to be uncovered here. We have repented! We are a congregation that repents! Much more than just one.

 

How many angels have we triggered today? This year? Our lifetimes? And at Jesus’s invitation to daily repent, there will be no end to this joy. It will be eternal.

So we go on sinning to create that much more joy, right?

 

No. The Holy Spirit reveals that we have enough sin for 3 or 4 lifetimes and we only live once. Jesus has enough righteousness for a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His Church. 

 

Amen.

 

God decides [Trinity 2]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE 

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Proverbs 9:1-10

• 1 John 3:13-18

• St. Luke 14:16-24

Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. (Titus 1:4)

 

Who speaks to you today, saying:

“A man once gave a great banquet and invited many”

 

Thus far from God’s Word, written that we may hear of God’s great provision to us. Not just the food on our own tables, but that He has provided us with heavenly bread for our salvation. This should point us to the complete work in Jesus, for us, that we may then share that news with our neighbor, instead of a laundry list.

 

Notice how our Great Banquet invitation did not go out to everyone, in the Gospel today. We usually gloss over this point and, in our minds, replace it with the word “all”. That the invitation went out to all, because that’s the kind of Jesus we worship. 

 

Though He says things like this in other places, such as one of my favorite verses in St. Matthew 20:28, “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”, He also seems to confuse when saying, “who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” in 1 Timothy 2:4.

 

Now, just to put your minds at ease, ransom and desire for salvation go together, so no worries, ok? But really that is just a secondary point. In the end, it doesn’t matter if God came to save many or save all. What matters is that He came.

 

Jesus shows up. This is the point I wanted the VBS students to take home, if they took home anything from the week. That Jesus has to come to us. We cannot rise to Him.

 

Moses was day 1, in VBS. Moses the infant. Moses the helpless. Moses the fugitive. His only crime was he was a first born male in the Egypt that wanted to murder males born to the Hebrews. “Toss them in the Nile”, the Egyptians demanded. 

 

But the midwives disobeyed their government. Moses’ mother did toss him in the Nile, but it was in a basket, a little Moses Ark, which floated among the reeds. Left to himself, Moses would not have survived. With crocodiles constantly prowling, along with Pharaoh’s men, Moses was toast.

 

Jesus shows up, though not Himself. He sends Pharaoh’s daughter, the daughter of the murderer of His people, to rescue Moses and draw him up out of the water. Good thing, too, or the first five books of the Bible would be non-existent.

 

Day 2 VBS was the entire book of Ruth. Imagine trying to read that to your children…

We got through it

Anyway, if you remember Ruth, it starts out as tragedy. All the husbands die, leaving the women homeless and penniless. The day is saved when a Redeemer shows up to give Ruth a son who, as one of the VBS students pointed out, is the 27th great-grandfather of Jesus.

 

Day 3 was Zacchaeus, who would have had no reason to climb a tree or return all he stole, if Jesus had not been there. Day 4 was part of the Easter story where, had Jesus not shown up again, the Apostles would have sat in that upper room and died from fear.

 

Day 5 was interesting. It was the Conversion of Saul. There Jesus shows up, knocks Saul off his high horse, and blinds him. Yes, Jesus shows up, but after three days of insomnia and fasting, Jesus doesn’t come back. He does show up, but now He shows up in the way that He shows up to all of us, in these latter days: through His sent man.

 

The take-home point is, God decides. Moses is not rescued, Ruth is not redeemed, Zacchaeus is not saved, the Apostles do not go out, and Ananias does not forgive, baptize, and feed St. Paul except Jesus decided it was so. Jesus must come to us first.

 

And here is our space to repent. We breeze through those stories feeling inspired, but we seldom think of Who is inspiring us. When we believe the inspiration comes from ourselves, we immediately set off on our own quest, praying and hoping to achieve what Moses and the rest did, in front of God.

 

On our own. You see once our heart is moved, we claim it. We believe we have ownership of those thoughts and feelings. So much so, that we look for Moses moments. Such as his encounter with the burning bush. He was so inspired, so blessed to have that chance from God to change his life. If only it could be that way for me.

 

Our VBS story was Moses as an infant. You skipped to adulthood. Why? Because infants are boring and dependent. Adults have free will! How exciting.

But free will only gets in the way. Remember Moses tried his best to get God to choose someone else to go to Pharaoh. In his sin, he believed God was doing wrong.

 

That will needs regeneration. It needs to be cleansed of the thoughts and feelings that God did it wrong. Here, Ananias, from Paul’s conversion, is our teacher. He, too, like Moses, refuses to go to and give forgiveness to Saul, but he goes anyway.

 

Why? Because God is passing out invitations. Ananias, in the faith he was given, knows what to expect from God, because God told him. He knows that the Lord is not doling out punishment and he knows God is not angry. Because Jesus has come, Ananias is free to confront Christianity’s biggest opponent, in Christ’s Name.

 

On earth. This is the other offensive part of Jesus’s parable in the Gospel today. It is accomplished on earth, with earthly people, and earthly things. Jesus does not go back to Saul to forgive, baptize, and commune him. He sends a man, inspired and ordained by the Holy Spirit, to do that work.

 

God chooses us and decides to follow us, giving us all good things, now and for all eternity. It is God’s choice to rescue Moses out of water, so we could remember that when St. Paul gets baptized, and then look for our own heavenly baptism, on earth. 

 

It is God’s choice to give Ruth redemption through a son, so that we could remember our heavenly Father’s Son, born to redeem us with His Body and Blood. It is God’s choice to show Himself and His salvation to Zacchaeus, without cost or merit so we could be on the lookout for the free forgiveness of sins in Jesus, as well.

 

And on Easter, it was Jesus’s choice to go rescue His Apostles out of the fear and darkness of sin and death, in order to inspire them with His Holy Spirit and with the thoughts and words they used to preach the Gospel to the whole world. 

 

And all of this is expected. Jesus is expected to do all these good things for His people, because that’s Who He is. He sets the feast and it will be filled to capacity, at His Word. For them and for you.

 

And the best place to remind us of this is God’s Word. Specifically, the Lord’s Prayer. There we see God not waiting, but giving us the words to say, even. And the Lord’s Prayer is all about what God does for us; what we are to expect from Him. Not that we tell Him, but that He reveals it to us, His Father’s heart of goodness.

 

So I tell all my catechumens to turn to the Lord’s Prayer in the Small Catechism and write at the top of the first page, “What to expect from God”. And right away, with the Introduction to the Prayer, “Our Father Who art in heaven”, we confess and believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children. And that He has decided to follow us, to be our God and to give us all good things, in Christ Jesus.

 

Make no mistake. The Word of God goes out to everyone. To the ends of the earth, is the promise. The work God comes to do through His only-begotten Son is also accomplished for everyone. Moses as an infant and adult, could not escape this love. Ruth was not forgotten. Zacchaeus was not overlooked. The Apostles were not left alone and St. Paul would not be left in his sin.

 

Some refuse the invitation, but that does not lessen the love and power behind it. Jesus has come to finish salvation, to perfect it, for all. Not a thing is missing. Not a place at the Table out of place. Jesus has accepted you into His heart. He has chosen you as His personal sinner, to seek and save.

 

Amen. 

 

 

The Way to the Father [Trinity 1]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Deuteronomy 6:4-13

• 1 John 4:8-21

• St. Luke 16:19-31

 

Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. (Titus 1:4)

 

Who speaks to you today, saying:

“Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house”

 

For as little as we talk about the Holy Ghost, we speak only a bit more of the First Person of the Trinity: the Father. Who is He? What does He do? Usually in Church art, He is pictured as the Old Man with Santa Claus vibes. In the parable today, Jesus brings up the Father, putting that word on the lips of the Rich Man four times and that father appears to not be doing a good job.

 

For he has a dishonorable and hypocritical son. The Rich Man takes his father’s name in vain, by not doing as his words told him. And at the most successful point in the Rich man’s life, who wouldn’t? Whoever was his father spoiled him. He was careless and haphazard with his father’s house, and yet was set up and acted as the son, for all the world to see. 

 

The Father is of Whom Jesus said, “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mt 25:36). Indeed, the rich man looked blessed in this way, by all accounts. 

 

This is because this is how the Father operates. He makes no distinctions in His creation and gives life and daily bread to all, even to all evil people. And there is the catch for this rich man. He is posing as the son of his heavenly father, wrapped in purple and fine linen, but is he a true son or a false one?

 

Being known mainly as the creator of all things, the Father is going to sustain life regardless of who you are. It is His nature and it is part of His glory that all things He creates continue to work as He demands, no matter what His creations do with it. “Upright and breathing” is the status quo.

 

In this light, it is now unclear what the Father actually thinks of this rich man or even Lazarus for that matter, since they are both being cared for in the same way. The Father is not partial and the things of this world do not concern Him. Riches, poverty, health, sickness. All will be made of use in His grand plan, because He says so.

 

The parable should have ended with those first few lines in the gospel, but it didn’t. And that’s the concern for us, because we dress pretty well, are fed satisfactorily, and live pretty comfortably with poor people around, living worse than us, too. 

 

However, caring for the poor is only the second part of this parable, which we should do. The first part is the Father. Who He is, what He says, and what He does. As far as we’re concerned, the rich man was modeling this behavior accurately. The Father is rich, the Father is unconcerned, and He is satisfied eternally. The problem we run into is the word “Father”.

 

You see “father” is not a name of essence. It doesn’t describe what God is made of, as if we can mimic that behavior and everything be fine for eternity. Instead, it is a name of relation, as in, Who He is in relation to someone else. What the word “father” says about God is how He relates to the son. To be specific, how He chooses to relate.

 

The rich man was denying this Name of God: Father. He was denying the care and concern promised to creation, not in God’s almightiness or perfection, but in His love for His only-begotten Son. God turned His fatherly heart to His creation by saying to His beloved Son, “it’s time to have compassion.”

 

Before caring for the poor, is the caring heart needed to do it in the first place. The rich man’s sin was not being rich, it was taking the Lord’s Name in vain, by denying this heart. The Father is handing out this new heart for free, and he rejects it. He was denying physical care and spiritual care for Lazarus. For, the Name of God is given that we might call upon it in every trouble, pray in it, give praise to it, and give thanks.

 

Listen to Malachi teach this:

“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’ By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ By saying that the Lord's table may be despised. When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor?” (Mal 1:6-8)

 

The priests were offering blind, polluted animals as sacrifices and calling it God’s Will, revealed in His Word. They created a false father and set themselves up as false sons following false words. Their words were not His Word, thus they were not His sons.

 

The Lord says, “the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your doctrine” (Mal 2:7-8)

 

This is the rich man’s sin. Not being rich, not even ignoring Lazarus, but saying that God would do such things. Saying that God in His rich house, with His lavish table, and in His royal clothes would deny mercy to those who need mercy. 

 

This is also the tragedy of our sin. As representatives of Jesus on earth, each time we sin we are telling the world this is what Christ would do, because we are Christians, we bear His Name. Just as the Son bears the Fathers Name, we too are adopted and thus we act, thus we teach.

 

For example, the Lord puts His Table in front of us, as Malachi said. We do not practice Communion for fun. It is not a game for us to change the pieces at will. If Jesus says bread, there’s going to be bread. Not crackers, not pizza, not oysters. If Jesus says wine, there’s going to be wine. Not juice or any man-made, “close enough” iteration. For if we are going to find forgiveness in it, as promised, then it will be at the Lord’s Word, not ours.

 

In this way, we do not know the Father except through the Son. 

Who is the Son? The Magnificat says, “He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty” (Lk 1:53). As in, the rich Son, as He should be, being from the Father, is emptied. Stripped of all He has, the Son goes to the cross. We peg Him as a “Lazarus”, sent away to suffer and die for sinners.

 

Drawing near to the Father means drawing near to the Son. “The Father has sent me”, Jesus says in John 20:21. And Proverbs 30:4, “Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in His hands? Who has bound up the waters in His cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is the name of His Son—surely you know!”

 

Jesus is His Name, sent in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Who in the beginning, created all things from His infinite wealth. Jesus, Who steps out of His wealth, into the poverty of flesh and blood. Jesus, Who though dressed in purple and fine linen, was crowned with thorns. 

 

Jesus, Who gave the thoughts and words to Moses and the prophets, says that they wrote about Him. He Who is beloved of the Father. He Who is chosen by the Father. He Who is vindicated by the Father, raising Him from the dead.

 

The robes of purple and fine linen the Rich man should have been wearing, are stained with blood. The robe that Lazarus was wearing was blood and sores, the blood and sores of the sin of this world. Since the rich man was clean, he needed no Savior. Since Lazarus was a beggar, empty of all, the Lord gave Him everything.

 

Jesus begged for Lazarus’s life, with His own life. Jesus begs for the Rich Man as well, but the Rich man doesn’t need handouts. There can only be one son in the house and He is the Crucified. Abraham and Lazarus are there, because they have drawn near to the Father, in the Son.

 

Drawing near to the Father is following the Son. And the Son says, “Hear and believe”, “be baptized and be saved”, and “eat and drink for the forgiveness of sins”. The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten (Athanasian Creed). And there is only one Son. Only-begotten. Unique. 

 

“There is one body and one Spirit”, says Ephesians 4:4-7, “just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift”. “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” (1 Corinthians 12:13).

 

As the Father baptized the Son, Jesus, in the Jordan river, we too are baptized into His Son so that He sees us in Jesus and we see Him in Jesus. The blessings from the Father are sent through the Son only, which is how we know they are blessings and gifts, and not a pay check we earned.

 

We do not gain, keep, and maintain our status as children of God. It is given to us. It is given to us only through Jesus, the True Son. Any other way is another god, a false one. The Rich man can appeal to Abraham all he wants, and even call him “father”. 

 

But if he truly saw Abraham as father, he would believe what Abraham said. And Abraham said Jesus is the Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, Who was born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty, from thence He shall come to judge both the living and the dead.

 

 

Amen. 

St. Nicodemus of Gradual Grace [Most Holy Trinity Sunday]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE 

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 6:1-7

• Romans 11:33-36

• St. John 3:1-15

Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. (Titus 1:4)
 
Who speaks to you today, saying:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God”

 
With these words of God, He invites us to contemplate a figure who speaks directly to the quiet, heavy trials of the human soul: Master Nicodemus. He is our teacher today and our Saint of Gradual Grace.
In our Lutheran life, we cling fiercely to the comfort of the Gospel. Yet, our weak flesh often betrays us and trembles, fearing that our faith is too small or our growth too slow. Look to the example of Nicodemus and find consolation where he finds consolation: Christ alone.
 
To begin: In our own liturgy, we have now changed seasons. Where in Easter we doubled up on our Alleluias, singing one in-between the Old Testament and the Epistle, and another between the Epistle and the Gospel, as well as many others dispersed throughout Service, today marks a change. Trinity Sunday now gives a return to the Gradual, the psalm we sing between the Old Testament and Epistle, and less Alleluias.
 
The ecstatic Alleluia, alleluia, alleluias of Easter have sobered up to the Gradual march to the Return of Christ. Slow and steady. Little by little. Sometimes there may be immediate conversions to the faith, like St. Paul, but most times we are brought along with God’s patience, through this life. We are fed spiritual milk, as spiritual infants, until we mature enough for spiritual food. 
 
This, the Church reflects in Her practice of Catechesis and in Her yearly cycle of worship. She continually repeats these things over and over again, and it all comes from the Bible. Yes, far from being only a Bible character, Nicodemus is also a liturgical one.
 
What do I mean by that? I mean that Nicodemus is the pattern the Christian follows in his own life of faith. And the Church aids that life, by what we do each time we gather around Jesus. Let’s explore.
 
Thanks be to God that most of us first entered the Church in our infancy. We were born to faithful parents who catechized us, brought us to church, and had us baptized. Yet even if this is not the case, you can imagine coming to a church like ours for the first time. 
 
Really, any first visit to any new place is disorienting and uncomfortable. What do I do? What do I say? Who are you people? Why the strange words and books? Why the funny pajamas?
We are timid. We are unsure. We would rather be in a corner or in the dark of night to observe and not be noticed in case we do or say something wrong. 
 
Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night and this is the poor soul entering the Narthex. You know, that first little room in between the outside doors and the Nave proper, here. We stand out there, cloaked in the shadow of our sin and death, blinking at the light. Interested. Seeking.
 
As Nicodemus, we cannot grasp the things of God on our own terms. "Our churches teach”, declares our Lutheran Confessions, “that since the fall of Adam, all who are naturally born are born with sin, that is, without the fear of God, without trust in God..." (AC II:1). Furthermore, the Formula states that human reason is utterly blind: "...before regeneration, human reason and understanding in spiritual matters are completely blind and understand nothing... as it is written in 1 Corinthians 2:14" (FC II:2, 9).
 
What Nicodemus and all of us face in the Narthex is the limit of our reason, because of Original Sin. Just as Nicodemus cannot grasp the washing of rebirth and regeneration in water and the Spirit, neither can we grasp the things of God. We are turned away, for God refuses to give Himself in any other way than His Word and Sacraments.
 
But Nicodemus refuses to leave. He engages in the divine dialog. How can an old man be born again? How can a man enter his mother’s womb a second time? How can these things be? He may leave with more questions than answers, but God has given His answers in Jesus and at the Word of Jesus, the Spirit creates faith which refuses to let go without a blessing.
 
We approach the Word and wrestle with Him. We enter the Nave and move closer to the Ambo, or as we have, the Lectern, where God’s Holy Word is proclaimed. It is there that our reason and intellect are challenged and shattered, in the face of God’s own wisdom. Challenged by the Gospel, our minds must be renewed and remade by divine Truth.
 
Our Confessions teach it this way: "To obtain such faith God instituted the office of preaching, giving the gospel and the sacraments. Through these, as through means, He gives the Holy Spirit Who produces faith, where and when He wills, in those who hear the gospel..." (AC V:1-3). Luther adds in the Large Catechism that to be born again through water and the Spirit “means to enter into Christ's kingdom and be cleansed from sins." (LC IV:25).
 
Nicodemus, and we in our sin, miss that we do not rebirth ourselves; God does it to us. God attaches His life-giving Word to the water, giving us His Holy Spirit, and birthing a new creation where human effort failed.
 
We then fight a war on two fronts: we continue to wrestle with God in His Church and we begin to fight against the world and its sinfulness. Later on in John chapter 7, Nicodemus speaks again, this time in front of the chief priests and Pharisees who will later condemn Jesus, but who now want Him killed and out of their way.
 
Nicodemus finds a bit of courage in the Spirit and opposes his brothers, saying, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” (Jn 7:51). His brothers mock him saying, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee” (Jn 7:52). Except for the ones that were, like Jonah…
 
The Church’s candles have been lit and the light hits Nicodemus and us in the face with the force of grace. We have been given new words and a new song that no longer line up with the devil, the world, and our sinful nature. The Holy Spirit given to us does not stay silent. In Him, we are ravenous for the Truth and we hunger and thirst for righteousness, which now we believe are not found in this world.
 
"Our churches also teach that this faith is bound to bring forth good fruits, and that it is necessary to do good works commanded by God, because of God’s will...", teaches Augsburg (AC VI:1). The Formula clarifies that "...faith is a divine work in us that changes us and causes us to be born anew of God... It is impossible to separate works from faith, quite as impossible as to separate heat and light from fire." (SD IV:10–12).
 
The final place we are brought to is the cross of Jesus. Nicodemus again shows up at the burial of Jesus where he brings a royal amount of incense to bury and honor the Body of Christ. Nicodemus has found the Altar of God on which sits the Sacrifice of God, His Son, the Lamb, Who takes away his sin and the sin of the world. 
 
At the work of Jesus, Nicodemus of the night, becomes Nicodemus of the day. By night he had first approached Jesus, now in faith he proclaims the Son of God in the light for all to see. This is contrasted with the disciples who had all followed Jesus during the day, but ran in the darkness of Good Friday.
 
The divine light of the cross, as a refiner’s fire, burns away all doubt and sin. We sing this wonderful climax of faith in Dr. Luther’s hymn “O Lord look down from heaven behold”: 
“As silver tried by fire is pure, from all adulteration, so through God’s Word shall men endure each trial and temptation. Its light beams brighter through the cross and purified from human dross, it shines through every nation.” (TLH 260:5)
 
The Formula of Concord puts it this way: "...although renewal and sanctification are a fruit of Christ's righteousness they do not justify a person before God... but they follow faith." (SD III:27, 41). 
And that same Body, reverently taken down from the cross, is given to us in a great mystery: "...it is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, in and under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ himself for us Christians to eat and to drink." (LC V:8).
 
This was three years for Nicodemus to stand where he did, and it is a lifetime for us. The beset Nicodemus lives through his own halting, imperfect, and closeted belief, yet still culminates in heroic sanctity, in Christ. Rather than “one and done” faith, Jesus gives us a lifetime of faith to live out. He takes great care and patience with us, that we may gradually come to strong belief.
 
For we of the true Church on earth, have been placed on the Way in multiple ways. As we have explained, our Liturgy is one Way where we are kept on the straight and narrow. Another part of that is our Church Year. 
 
Today is the day after we have been given the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, so now what? As Master Nicodemus teaches, we move into the season of Trinity, where the Trinity works His mysteries upon us in Baptism. We are birthed into the Body of Christ and now live under Him in His Church on earth. Through Advent, Lent, and Easter, Nicodemus teaches us to believe in the necessity of the Sacraments and to trust the light of the cross, rather than fear it.
 
All this happens at the Word of the Most Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Ghost. He is not slow, as some count slowness. “Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9).
 
In our beautiful journey towards Jesus, The Word gives us the rhythm of the Church Year to live with us, bring us along, and transform us into the Life of Christ while living our own life. Church is meant to bring you into the faith ever deeper from the darkness of sin and fear, to the bright love of the Crucified, and finally to the death of death forever.
 
Grace works both quickly and slowly. While we have been purchased from all sin, from death, and the power of the devil by Christ alone, we still cling to our sin. Yet, even when we can’t see it, the Word is changing us. Grace is an invitation, not a command.
 
And there is profound hope. For we have seen God transform Nicodemus, a timid and fear-filled night visitor, into a bold saint at the foot of the cross. And we pray for that transformation too. Let us allow the seasons of the Church Year, the Word and Sacrament, and our Liturgy to reshape our hearts, moving us out of darkness and into the fullness of God’s Light.
 
Make no mistake, you are on this path. for just as Nicodemus received the Body of Jesus from the cross, you also receive His same true Body and Blood at the Altar today.
 
Dear Christians, do not despair if your faith feels small, or if your sanctification seems to advance at a snail's pace. The devil loves to terrify the conscience by whispering that a slow faith is no faith at all. By justification, by faith, through grace, for Christ's sake, received as a free gift, your standing before God does not depend on the speed of your holiness, but on the certainty of your Savior.
 
So, if you are currently a "Nicodemus by night"—seeking Jesus in secret, plagued by doubts, or paralyzed by the fear of what others think—take heart. The Holy Spirit who began a good work in you will not abandon you. He is the God of Gradual Grace. He protects the smoking flax and will not break the bruised reed. Trust His Word, feed upon His Sacraments, and watch how His inviting grace brings you from midnight darkness into the marvelous, eternal light of His presence.

Amen. 

Der Schwärmer [Day of Pentecost]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Genesis 11:1-9

• Acts 2:1-13

• St. John 14:23-31

 

Grace to you and peace from Him Who Is and Who Was and Who Is To Come: Jesus Christ. (Rev 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 God’s Word given to us to hear this Pentecost Day, that we may see the Holy Spirit’s intimate connection with means. Far from spirituality being a disconnection, the Holy Spirit is today purposefully connecting Himself to the Holy Church on earth. The wind, the fire, the words of St. Peter, and the baptisms that day all prove that the Holy Spirit continues Jesus’s work on earth through means. This should lead us to treasure Word and Sacrament as external to us and as the only, true power of God on earth.
 
Today’s Pentecost word of the day is schwärmer. As it is used in the Smalcald Articles in the Book of Concord: Darum müssen wir wacker und gerüstet sein und uns von dem Wort nicht lassen weisen noch wenden, daß wir die Taufe nicht lassen ein bloss ledig Zeichen sein, wie die Schwärmer träumen.
 
Anyone with the Gift of Tongues here today?
What I just said was from the Large Catechism of Dr. Luther, “Therefore we must be watchful and well-armed, and not allow ourselves to be directed nor turned away from the Word, in order that we may not regard Baptism as a mere empty sign, as the Schwärmer dream” (LC IV:63).
 
What need we of the gift of tongues when we have Google Translate? 
And if Google translate and artificial intelligence is that useful, then what need we the gift of religious words when we have modern science and understanding to demystify them for us?
 
Yes, we wouldn’t have words unless God had not first given us the gift of language, but let’s go further than that, because the Lord does. So in the creation of all things, God created language, but what does language have to do with the Son of God and the Spirit of God?
 
We could say that Jesus used language to bring about the Gospel, which we will explore. And we could say that the Holy Spirit uses nothing but what the Father and Son have, so of course He is going to use words and language.
 
Where the word “schwärmer” gets us, is to the point where we must ask where the language is coming from and how do we test that Spirit? 
 
Enthusiasm is the best translation of “schwärmer” and it is, once again, a word that has been dipped in the bleach vat and removed of all meaning. Or so everyone thinks.
 
Enthusiasm is defined as passion, zeal, or eagerness to describe that spark of energy we feel when something matters to us. Interestingly, this word comes from ancient Greek, where "entheos" meant "filled with a god" or god-possession. Today, enthusiasm helps us connect with nature and take positive environmental action in our daily lives. Who knew??
 
And here’s the religion part they just can’t take out: enthusiasm also does something special to your words. When you speak with it, people notice. They feel that energy and want to connect with you. Regular talks turn into something people actually remember. This energy or spark is defined as a pathogen. Modern science says its “infectious” recruiting others coming into contact (read: “mob mentality”).
 
“Enthusiasm” activates multiple brain regions and spreads as emotional contagion, literally "contaminating" others' feelings, often without either party realizing the transmission is happening. 
 
Sounds gross and manipulating. But, if you claim to have the moral high ground, then you can say that’s a good thing, because you are spreading good contagion. Who are you to judge? 
In conclusion, though, we find the word enthusiasm has not been sterilized or demystified at all, as the world would like us to believe.
 
That is the abuse done by the unbelieving world. Believing they can be possessed by this enthusiasm and it not be religious. Yet, from the ancient world that is exactly what enthusiasm is. Literally "having a god within" or "being inspired by a spirit." In other words, possession.
 
Ancient Greeks used this word to describe people who seemed possessed by divine energy, they called it. They believed certain individuals could channel godly inspiration, especially during religious ceremonies or creative moments. Exactly as modern religious fanatics use it and exactly as modern unbelieving fanatics use it. It seems no one can’t get away from words and their meaning.
 
So how did the Church use this word? Well, both Old and New Testament Church tried their very best to not use it, for the reasons we have already explained, which I hope you see. They avoided it, because it meant being possessed and infected by other gods, a.k.a. demons.
 
Instead of “entheos”, they would just use the Holy Spirit’s Name directly, saying they “were filled with the Holy Spirit”. Such as today’s reading from Acts. Sts. Peter and Paul fall into trances, or extasis, to see visions, but these extacies are sober-minded extacies. A well-thought out sermon to the people. Also used are words like zeal, which has the connotation of discipline, or disciple, in it, and words like zeo, similar, but means a burning passion for the Spirit and His Word of Christ Crucified.
 
And this is where our Lutheran Confessions speak up. From Smalcald: “In issues relating to the spoken, outward Word, we must firmly hold that God grants His Spirit or grace to no one except through or with the preceding outward Word (Gal 3:2, 5). This protects us from the enthusiasts (i.e., souls who boast that they have the Spirit without and before the Word). They judge Scripture or the spoken Word and explain and stretch it at their pleasure...Many still do this today, wanting to be sharp judges between the Spirit and the letter, and yet they do not know what they are saying (2 Cor 3:6).” (SA III:VIII:3-10)
 
And this is the devil’s trick, that there is a kernel of truth to the schwärmer. That God is in us and working in and through us. That we should be motivated to love the Faith and love our Church to a fanatical degree. And we should be into it enough, that we can spot the fake before it gets to our pulpit and hymnals.
 
God’s Word gives us the answer and our Confessions explain it. St. John says to, “not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you will know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God” (1 Jn 4:1-2).
 
“in the flesh”, means He has come to do His work in that specific way and to continue to do His work in that specific way. God is in us and working in and through us His Way, not our way or what we think is His Way. Thus, the main goal of the enthusiast is to separate God from His Work, to separate the Spirit from His earthly means of grace.
 
The spirit may dwell in our hearts, but He does not speak directly to nor does He produce faith in that way. Faith comes by hearing. The ear, not the heart. An outside voice must be activated in order for the Holy Spirit to work. Not that He is bound, but that He has bound Himself to that external Word, promising us to be easily found, heard, and understood.
 
Smalcald again says, “Therefore, we must constantly maintain this point: God does not want to deal with us in any other way than through the spoken Word and the Sacraments. Whatever is praised as from the Spirit without the Word and Sacraments, is the devil himself” (SA III:VIII:10)
 
“The Schwärmer scorns physical things. They look at the water of Baptism and say, "How can a handful of water help the soul?" (LC IV:47–49). They look at the bread and wine of the Altar and say, "Christ's body cannot be here; this is just a symbol." (FC VII:27).
 
And that is not what Jesus is doing today, through His own Spirit, on His Feast Day of Pentecost. It is St. Peter who is standing up and talking with his own body, because in our Gospel, it was his Lord Jesus Christ Who first stood in His flesh, in order to preach the Gospel, the free forgiveness of sins.
 
Instead of spiritual detachment from the world, the Spirit attaches Himself to His means. Jesus sets this up in the Gospel by connecting love to His Word. As in, the one who doesn’t love Jesus will be one who does not treasure His Word. Likewise, the home that the Father and Son will use to dwell with us is identified by the Word.
 
Jesus promises. And what Jesus promises is the Spirit and the Spirit works through the preached word of men, Jesus being the first. Jesus is God made man and He speaks His own words, from His own mouth, in His own way. This is not your heart. Your heart is not where revelation from God is dwelling. Home is where the heart is and Home is with the Word.
 
“the one who hears you, hears me”, says Jesus in Luke 10:16, “and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” He says this to His called disciples, all men.
From first and second Corinthians, St. Paul continues to preach the same thing, saying, “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.”
And,
“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us”, that is the Apostles.
 
Jesus, in His own flesh and blood, is located, meaning He is in a certain place at a certain time. Not because He is weak, but because we are. We believe every wind of doctrine, every fad that floats past our ears. But He remains. 
 
If Jesus had not given us His external Word, external to our heart, emotion, and experience, then we would not remember, we would not be comforted, and we would have no peace. If we say we have peace, but another claims to have a different peace, who is right?
 
So we must fight the Schwärmer fiercely. Their teaching threatens to destroy the miserable sinner’s only peace and consolation in this world. For if I can trust my heart and God says not to trust my heart, then I fall into despair and can never be sure of salvation.
 
True peace and comfort in Christ comes in the power and the ability given to us, to be able to look outside of that mess to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We can turn to the promises of the Word, rather than “what I know to be true”. 
 
We can find the Father acting outside of our experience as His own person. We can find the Son accomplishing His greatest work, even before we were born. And we can find the Spirit acting, just as He promised, in Word and Sacrament. These are the means. These are the testing.
 
The home that the Father and the Son make are with the Spirit and the Spirit is in His means, loved and treasured by His Church. We do not have to pretend to be the Church, we can objectively find a biblical checklist and live up to it.
 
Do we treasure the Word, especially when it talks of salvation being found in Word, water, bread, and wine? Do we love Jesus, Who keeps His Body, even now, at the Right Hand of God, ruling heaven, earth, and His Church? Are we remembering all Jesus said to us, because He technically didn’t say it to us, only those alive in the first century?
 
The Day of Pentecost has arrived, just like Easter: as an eternal day. There is no day in the Church that is not Easter and Pentecost. There is no day where we do not celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ and there is no day where the Holy Spirit is not present, because we keep His Word. 
 
And the Word promises to always be with us; Body and Blood and words. Words of the Apostles and those men they ordained after them. An unbroken chain of Apostolic doctrine from Jesus to you. This is the Office of the Holy Ministry, given by Jesus.
 
That chosen men, with the exact preaching of the Apostles, be ordained. Thus, we reiterate what we have already heard our Smalcald articles say, that “we must constantly maintain this point: God does not want to deal with us in any other way than through the spoken Word and the Sacraments. Whatever is praised as from the Spirit without the Word and Sacraments, is the devil himself” (SA III:VIII:10)
 
Amen.
Alleluia…
 
 

Never be confounded [Sunday after Ascension]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

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 Him Who Is and Who Was and Who Is To Come: Jesus Christ. (Rev 1)
 
Who speaks to you today, saying:

“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.”

 
Thus far from God’s Word teaching us what God is going to do for us: send the Helper. Once more, God takes the lower place, beneath us, serving us His own Spirit that we would not fall away. This points us to the Lord’s church and the place where He has chosen to make His Name dwell: Jesus. In our own lives, this should move us to love our church, become a fan of the Divine Service, and be able to explain why we do what we do.
 
For, today we have come to the Sunday after the Ascension of Jesus. As in, Jesus can no longer be seen as He used to. Which may or may not beg the question, how now are we to distinguish between good and evil; between what Jesus wants and what the devil wants?
 
Jesus has promised to never leave us and He has gifted us His Word as a seal for that promise, and yet where is He? And at that point, the point of wavering, the point of doubt, the devil steps in. He tempts us to turn away from Christ and his temptation is always the same: “Did Jesus really say…?”
 
And it is in the Church’s song called the Te Deum, that we sing the words, “O Lord in Thee have I trusted; let me never be confounded”. And it is at this prayer against being confounded, that we, the Lord’s true Church on earth, find ourselves in this life simply because we cannot see Jesus as the Apostles could.
 
How fragile we are. How true we are of little faith. We are confounded, confused, ashamed. We hear of this on the 9th Sunday after Trinity in the parable of the dishonest manager. He has been found wasteful and turned out. He then comments that he is “ashamed to beg” (Lk 16:3).
 
Shame is to misrepresent and misunderstand what God’s Will is, a true confounding. The dishonest manager could have made a happy life, begging, as the Lord had just moved his life in that direction. Instead, he was ashamed. So ashamed, he thought he knew God’s will for his life and he was wrong.
 
Adam and Eve were both naked in the Garden of Eden and they were NOT ashamed. They were both fully known by God and by each other and there was nothing to hide, nothing to be ashamed of. When they took their own will into their own hands, they fell into sin, death, and the power of the devil. Now, they were ashamed and they attempted to cover up their misunderstanding of God’s Will.
 
Where Adam, Eve, and the manager believe it is God’s will that they be successful and ascend to God on their own, their rejection teaches them otherwise. It is there that they learn God’s true will for them, but it is not their humility and service to Him that pays for their sin, but His.
 
God’s Divine Service. Not that God is our butler, but that He is the Eternal Giver. There is our distinction that Jesus leaves us in this world: God’s Service to and for us. We know what that is: His Word and Sacraments given to us for our forgiveness and salvation. And God doesn’t waiver on that, we do. So just for our own sakes we add ceremony and celebration to surround God’s Service to us.
 
Ceremony, meaning those things we add to God’s Word and Sacrament which are neither commanded or forbidden by Him, such as candles, buildings, and lectionaries. And celebration meaning all those Sundays and extra days when we come to church to hear of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
 
Part of that ceremony and celebration is what we do for baptisms. To start off, historically, the confessions of the Church, what she believes, have been called symbols. Our creeds, Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian, are called the Three Symbols of the Church. They are representative of what the true Church believes. Where you find those symbols believed in and confessed truly, you find the Church.
 
Adding the Lutheran Confessions to them, in the Book of Concord, and we have the Lutheran Symbols. Those important things which we confess, over and over again, which aid our fight against the devil and his will. 
 
And symbols, in a Church of Sacraments, are both spiritual and physical. We have our spiritual words in Holy Scripture, Creed, and confessions, but we also plaster our environment with symbols. Not just any symbols, but those that point us back to our Confessions. Our confession of Christ Crucified.
 
What are those symbols? Not just art and fabric, but physical. Bowing, folding hands, crossing yourself. While they may seem superstitious, these are means of focusing your body and mind on the truth. For we bow at things like the Name of the Trinity, we fold our hands when addressing and being addressed by our Lord, and we cross ourself whenever the wonderful Name of Jesus, which was given to us in our Baptism, is named among us.
 
We form these pious habits like God’s own armor upon us. We ingrain them into our bodies and souls to bolster faith and have the Word of God among us. From Psalm 31:1, “In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be confounded”. “As it is my eager expectation and hope”, confesses St. Paul, “that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death” (Phil 1:20).
 
We pray to never be confounded, because we always are. Look at our Old Testament reading again. What is it that we have done to earn God’s action? We have profaned His Name, we have a heart of stone, and we dwell in an unclean nation. 
 
Moving to our Epistle from St. Peter, what is it we have done there? We have failed to see the end is near, we lack self-control and sobriety, our love for others has failed, and we have not glorified God through Jesus Christ. In our sin, we are slaves to sin and sons of our father, the devil. 
 
We do not speak the words of God freely, writing them on our doorposts, or putting them on our hearts. We go to hear them, sure. We have a Bible sitting around, maybe. But these simply become talismans, good luck charms. We pay lip service to the Lord, but our heart is far from Him.
 
And our lips keep moving, even in our sin, even in our guilt. We continue in our sin and would do so even if we could eat from the Tree of Life, condemning ourselves for eternity, self-justifying the whole way down.
As Ezekiel said, though, God is acting, and there is one hope He gives us in the midst of our incessant babble: forgiveness.
 
From Ezekiel 16:62-63, “I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the Lord, that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord God.”
 
Did you catch it? Two things, first God causes us to be confounded, not because we are right or are on to something He can’t control, but because of our sin. First, He confounds our sinful speech and second He atones. And in the face of that atonement, that forgiveness, no words can hold up.
 
This is why Jesus sends the Helper to us. Not to help us out of tough situations, not to help us when we just can’t even, and not to help us when we need a boost. He sends the Helper to help bear witness about Jesus. Specifically, what was talked about in Ezekiel. That we bear witness to the Lord’s great act of Salvation, even with our bodies.
 
When we are given power from God, it is to do impossible things, but not the variety we think up. Ephesians says we are given power specifically to allow “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (3:16-19).
 
That is, you are given power for God’s purpose, for His Will. And His Will is to break and hinder every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature. This is how we truly know God is breaking into the world, that His Word has gone out to the ends of the earth, and is working on creating faith, forgiving sins, and granting eternal life.
 
Witnessing about Jesus is the marker and now, in faith, we want to be there, using the right words, and acting the right way. We want to not only be in His Word, but IN His Word; body and blood, life and soul. In faith, we believe that it is The Word alone that has the power to do all things. It creates all things that exist and it proclaims justification for those in Christ Jesus.
 
Our Large Catechism says, “If you could see how many knives, darts, and arrows are at every moment aimed at you [Ephesians 6:16], you would be glad to come to the Sacrament as often as possible. But there is no reason why we walk about so securely and carelessly, except that we neither think nor believe that we are in the flesh and in this wicked world or in the devil’s kingdom.” (LC V:82)
 
And baptism brings us to faith, to Jesus, and in His Word. And while we are there, we are raised and taught new words and nurtured in the New Life. And to comfort us, we have been given the rite of Baptism by the Church. In this rite, we have been given words to properly align us, as in the Divine Service.
 
If you would like, please join me on page 270 of the hymnals and we will go through it as the Church.
Zion Lutheran Church, do you renounce the devil?
Yes, I renounce him.
Do you renounce all his works?
Yes I renounce them.
Do you renounce all his ways?
Yes I renounce them.
Do you believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth?
Yes, I believe.
Do you believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead?
Yes, I believe.
Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting?
Yes, I believe.
 
You are made witnesses.
 
Amen.
Alleluia…
 

Christ the Ladder [The Ascension of Jesus]

~ ~ TEXT ONLY * NO AUDIO ~ ~

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• 2 Kings 2:5-15

• Acts 1:1-11

• St. Mark 16:14-20

 

Who speaks to you this evening, saying:

“And they went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked through them, confirming His word by the signs that accompanied it”

 

When we speak of the Ascension, we are speaking of stepping up. And, there are a few places in the Bible where an ascent to heaven happens. And it happens in such a way that we might even believe heaven opened up at those places and maybe is still open for us, if we could just reach the right spot.

 

The first place is the Garden of Eden, where God walked and talked on earth. there, heaven was on earth, but in a massive descent, the Fall, the way was closed. If it were possible to get ourselves back to the garden, maybe there would be a way of getting higher. 

 

Then there’s Enoch, who seemed to have slipped into heaven’s gate, who knows how. There’s Elijah that rode the chariots of fire up to heaven. All very convincing but all very out of our league. From fiery chariots to flaming angel swords, all those ways appear locked or at least impossible to pass. 

 

There is one that is hopeful, however. That is Jacob’s Ladder. This is something that is not only comprehendible, we all know what a ladder is, but also something that is within our abilities to produce. Who knows when the first ladder was invented, but I bet it was really early because they are very useful!

 

So to see that there is a ladder that can reach up to heaven, from, earth, gives real hope. Even if it is not a literal ladder, that also means a metaphorical ladder exists that one can ascend into heaven, just by exerting some effort. 

 

In fact, these false prophets say, you can activate your faith and climb such a ladder. And since you are a citizen of heaven and it all belongs to you anyway, your activated faith should allow you to ascend, grab heavenly things, and bring them back down with you. Activation usually involves falling into a trance, you know, just like St. Peter…

 

To move upward, then, its the usual menu: speaking your faith out loud, take action on corresponding works, act on God’s Word, pray with expectation, I don’t know why else you’d pray, and the coup de grace: step out of your comfort zone.

 

Every sermon you’ll hear, out there, comes with one or more of those points. As if ascending is all a part of God’s big plan for your life. As if robbing heaven is the point of ascending and as if there is a way to get there.

 

“But the righteousness that is by faith”, says Romans 10:6-7, “says: ‘Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’’ (that is, to bring Christ down) or, ‘Who will descend into the Abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead)” (Rom 10:6-7)

 

So there is no ascension for humanity, apart from Christ. What would that look like? Becoming like God? God has never been like man nor was there a time when He was not God. Indeed, being able to move up on our own would make all of God’s work vain, because it would mean God and His Life are accessible directly. Open to any hacker. And God would have no need to come down to us.

 

In other words, there would be no need, no worth, in Jesus Christ. As the central figure in His own religion, Christ-ianity, He would be a useless entity. Unneeded. And some who call themselves “christian” believe this, that Jesus was simply a man who pointed the way to all of us becoming our own gods.

 

To this, Holy Scripture plainly saith in Isaiah 14:

“How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the ground, O destroyer of nations. You said in your heart: “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the north. 

I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” But you will be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit. Those who see you will stare; they will ponder your fate: “Is this the man who shook the earth and made the kingdoms tremble, who turned the world into a desert and destroyed its cities, who refused to let the captives return to their homes?” (Isa 14:12-17)

 

Jesus is not just the key you need to unlock something for you, beyond Him. He is the Key, the Door, and the Beginning and End. And His Ascension is the first and last ascension for humanity. There is no “becoming like God” without Him. Call it what you will; deification, theosis, or change of life. The Ascension of Jesus is the only way.

 

And that way has two qualifiers to it, in order that we recognize it correctly. The first is, “whether God and His life are accessible directly, or only in the crucified and risen Savior, and in His gospel means of salvation alone. And second, “is whether deification is driven by the downward movement of God or by the upward movement of man.”

 

To this God answers in 1 Timothy 6:16, He “is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see” and from Job 36:22, 26, “God is inaccessible due to his power…God is exalted and unknowable; the number of his years is beyond counting”. 

 

And yet, as usual, when we run to quoting verses out of context, we run into opposing verses, such as “God is near” and when Jesus says, “If you have seen Me you have seen the Father” (Phil 4:5; St. Jn 14:9).  Likewise, Jeremiah 30:21, “Who would dare approach me unless I let them come? declares the Lord.”

 

But therein lies the turn and our point. There is no ascension unless the Lord first wills and allows it. There is no holiness unless the Lord first creates it. The point the Lord wants to make is for you to listen and not just mimic the words you see on paper. For in order to ascend to God you must first know where He is, Who He is, and what He’s doing.

 

If you simply ascend with your own understanding and your own wisdom, even with Scriptures, you will not ascend, but descend. You will walk a path that leads to shame and great vice. You will think you are mounting the hill of God, but upon reaching the summit, you will find the devil sitting on the throne, enjoying the view.

 

Yes, it has been tried. You are not innovative in thinking that you can ascend to God when even satan has failed. Yet, he made it there before you, as Isaiah quoted earlier said, and it was the cause of his downfall. Not because he invaded heaven, but because of what he found when he got there.

 

What he found was the Incarnation of God. He found heaven empty, because the Lord had taken on flesh. Jesus had descended to the depths of hell to take on flesh, suffer, and die for sinners. This Way is what the angels are investigating for all eternity in joy and what they are doing on Jacob’s Ladder.

 

The always behold the face of the Father and look constantly at His divinity. And now they descend from heaven after He was made man. Now they look upon Christ and wonder at His Incarnation. They see that He has been made man, humiliated, and placed on His mother’s lap. They adore the man Who was crucified and rejected, and they acknowledge Him as the Ascended Son of God.

 

If you could ascend on your own it would not be grace, it would not be faith. Jesus has already tackled the question of why God says in His Psalms, “I have said you are gods”, in John 10:34, and it is because the Word came to them. The Word descended first. The way was opened first. The offering was made first.

 

Then we perceive it. After the work of making holy what had become unholy, sinners, was finished, then we are invited up, in Christ. Into the suffering, into the wounds, into the grave where we are then brought along into the eternal Easter. That is ascension by grace, through faith, for Christ’s sake alone.

 

“No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him” (Mt 11:27). In the Fall into sin, we lost the knowledge of God. In our redemption in Christ, we are restored to God. Not partially, but fully. “it is finished” means it is finished.

 

The blessed Dr. Luther puts it this way:

“we are so filled with "all the fulness of God," that is said in the Hebrew manner, meaning that we are filled in every way in which He fills, and become full of God, showered with all gifts and grace and filled with His Spirit, Who is to make us bold, and enlighten us with His light, and live His life in us, that His bliss make us blest, His love awaken love in us. 

 

In short, that everything that He is and can do, be fully in us and mightily work, that we be completely deified [vergottet], not that we have a particle or only some pieces of God, but all fulness. Much has been written about how man should be deified; there they made ladders, on which one should climb into heaven, and much of that sort of thing. 

 

Yet it is sheer piecemeal effort; but here [in faith] the right and closest way to get there is indicated, that you become full of God, that you lack in no thing, but have everything in one heap, that everything that you speak, think, walk, in sum, your whole life be completely divine” in the Crucified Christ. (CTQ 64:3, 197-198)

 

Jesus has ascended, true, but He remains with us. Notice again the end of St. Mark’s Gospel which we read this evening: “And they went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked through them, confirming His word by the signs that accompanied it”

 

Amen.

Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!