Baptism indicates [Trinity 6]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Exodus 20:1-17

• Romans 6:3-11

• St. Matthew 5:20-26

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

 

Who speaks to you from the Gospel reading today, saying:

“For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

 

With these words, Jesus reveals the Holy Life, as it should be, and spoiler alert, its not ours. What this should point us to is a greater appreciation to God for our Baptism for there we see the work and promise of God, for us, to give us the Holy Life of Jesus. We should then seek greater catechesis, learning, about baptism in order to remember our own and bring others to this great gift.

 

If Jesus willed that we all be chased out and the gates of heaven be closed off forever, He would have only had to preach and teach these few verses from the Gospel of Matthew today. Because He not only demands righteousness exceeding the Scribes and Pharisees, but exposes the true nature of our hearts, demanding they be reconciled to our brother and his anger before we even think of coming to His Altar.

 

Well do we sing in our hymnals, “If Thou remembrest every sin, who then could heaven ever win or stand before Thy presence?” (LSB 607). Does God ever forget?

 

You have heard it said that “the entire life of a Christian should be one of repentance”. Thus spake the blessed Dr. Luther at the beginning of his 95 Theses, nailed to the church door on Halloween. He said, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Repent” (Mt 4:17), He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” 

 

What he was attempting to reference was Jesus speaking in His Gospel today. That once we sit and contemplate the 5th Command from God, “thou shalt not murder”, we find no end of sins to repent of, though there are 9 Commandments left to go over.

 

For this reason, the Church of Jesus, throughout history, has decided to put this Gospel next to our epistle reading for this the 6th Sunday after Trinity. Though it is good for the entire life of the Christian to be one of repentance, today we learn not just on Christmas, Easter, or when we feel something is really wrong. Romans 6 reveals that baptism comes first.

 

For today, truly truly I say to you, when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Be baptized” (Acts 10:48), He willed the entire life of the Christian be a continual return to the baptismal font, where the Old Adam is forcefully drowned, and the New Man emerges, as the words and promises of God declare. 

 

Our Large Catechism puts it this way:

“Lastly, we must also know what Baptism signifies, and why God has ordained just such external sign and ceremony for the Sacrament by which we are first received into the Christian Church. But the act or ceremony is this, that we are sunk under the water, which passes over us, and afterwards are drawn out again. These two parts, to be sunk under the water and drawn out again, signify the power and operation of Baptism, which is nothing else than putting to death the old Adam, and after that the resurrection of the new man, both of which must take place in us all our lives, so that a truly Christian life is nothing else than a daily baptism, once begun and ever to be continued. For this must be practiced without ceasing, that we ever keep purging away whatever is of the old Adam, and that that which belongs to the New Man come forth. (LC IV:64-65)

 

In the Gospel reading for today, Jesus crushes us, with the Good and Holy Law of God. It is nothing less than Romans 3:20 come to life before our eyes, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin”. 

 

In our epistle reading, we are revived again, with the Gospel. That is, in Romans 6:3-11 Jesus proclaims the comforting, liberating victory He purchased and won for us. St. Paul declares that we have already died to sin because we were buried with Christ through Baptism into His death. We are no longer slaves to sin; we are alive to God in Christ Jesus.

 

Thus, with these two readings, we are sunk under the water and drawn out again. We are shown our sin and its depths and then brought to our Savior, Who has baptized us into His faith, into His Body. Matthew 5 slays our self-righteousness, leaving us completely bankrupt before the altar of God. Romans 6 rescues us by plunging us into the tomb of Jesus, raising us up as entirely new creations.

 

This is necessary for us, because when it comes to repentance we truly believe in “one and done”. That we sin, we ask for forgiveness. Done. No worries ever again. Similar to the 5th Commandment and St. Peter’s question on forgiveness. St. Peter asks how many times must he forgive his brother and Jesus basically answers “as many times as he asks for forgiveness”. A life of repentance.

 

What St. Peter is really getting at is a much darker question that fills us with fear. The real question we want and don’t want the answer to is “how many times will God forgive us?”

 

If we say we have no sin, then the Truth is not in us and the answer is zero times. 

Since we say we have sin, Jesus’s answer is as many times as it takes.

 

This is the great, holy, and inexpressible gift that Baptism is. Not only is it the water included in God’s command and combined with God’s Word; 

not only does it forgive sins, rescue from death and the devil, and give eternal salvation at the Promise of God; 

and not only does God’s Word create such a miracle for faith to receive;

But, it also is the sign and indication before God Almighty of us being sealed by the Holy Spirit.

 

Yes, the signs we seek are the ones that men will acknowledge, but the signs God gives are the ones He will acknowledge. This is also part of Baptism. It indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily, Daily, contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

 

We long to say the words of Joshua and have them mean something, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Josh 24:15). We long to show God just how much our anger is not as bad as our brother’s anger. We long to serve the Lord, but Joshua has words for that, just a few verses after this one, “You are not able to serve the Lord” (v. 19).

 

Why? Because, as Hebrews reminds us, “without faith it is impossible to please God” (11:6) and the chief worship of God in the Gospel is the desire to receive forgiveness of sins, grace, and righteousness (Apology IV, Tappert, p. 310).  Faith is that worship which receives God’s offered blessings (Ap IV:49).  These blessings God has located in His Word and Sacrament.

 

God makes the signs. God gives the signs. No volunteering. No making your own decisions. Only dying. Only being raised. “And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor 15:45).

 

The Old Adam in us is that entire corrupt and evil nature we inherit because of the Fall into sin. Every action, no matter how holy and righteous, is done in sin. The New Adam is Christ and all who are baptized into Him. It is only in belonging to Christ that we are a part of this New Adam which also means being crucified with Him.

 

That is impossible. You thought fulfilling the 5th Commandment was hard according to Jesus today, try going back to the moment of Jesus’s crucifixion. The Way is Christ’s alone. His Way. His Word. His sacraments. 

 

Joshua’s house is not his own. He can say those pretty words about serving the Lord, because he was brought into a land that was not his own. He did not labor in the land, he did not build the cities in that land, and he did not plant vine or tree in that land, and yet he received them. 

 

Your house, your clay vessel, your temple is not your own. You were brought here. You were given both body and soul. You did not create your life, your family, or your possessions, yet you were given them. 

 

We cannot serve the Lord, because it is the Lord Who is serving us. He sits in the lowest place. He washes the feet, hands, and heads of His Chosen. He is not reclining, but serving at the Table. And what He serves up is His cross. His cross from 2-thousand years ago. Not just news of it, but the cross itself, that we might bear it and follow Him, and that we would crucified with Him.

 

Yes it is the cross which brings us back to Baptism, as it should our entire lives. For, I ask you, with which words do we regularly remember our baptism?

The words, “In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19), known as the Trinitarian Invocation, first declared over us at our Baptism.

 

By repeating these words, in Church or by ourselves, we recall, claim, and confess before heaven, earth, and hell all that God the Holy Trinity has given us in Baptism.

And what accompanies such a declaration? The sign of the cross which we make over ourselves, to mark us as “redeemed by Christ the Crucified”.

 

At the same time, our pastor, in the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, makes the sign of the cross over you.

And while your sign, made this way, for Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then these two for Jesus, both God and man, crucified by nails through the hand. 

The Pastor makes it this way: here are four Greek letters IC XC, for Jesus Christ. The three fingers standing up, for the Trinity, and the two together for the union of the divine and human, in Jesus Christ. 

 

So who is the man that does not murder or hate His neighbor? Jesus Christ.

Who is the man baptized into and dwelling in that same glorified Body of Christ?

You are.

 

 

Amen.

 

 

The Office of God: rite vocatus [Trinity 5]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• 1 Kings 19:11-21

• 1 Peter 3:8-15

• St. Luke 5:1-11

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

 

Who speaks to you from the Gospel reading today, saying:

“Come, follow Me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men”

 

And with these Words of God, Jesus begins His tradition of ordaining men for His Holy Office of preaching the Gospel in its purity and administering the sacraments according to it. This should point us to a deeper trust in God, that He has not left us in the dark to grope about for His Word on earth, but has provided men to be pastors to teach us the call to faith, the call to forgiveness, and the call to eternal life.

 

When Google was first birthed, so to speak, there were many who were indignant, especially those teachers and professors in higher education. They would say, “don’t compare your Google search to my degree”. Meaning, at that time, that a serious degree within a field of study was weightier than a cursory Google search.

 

At that time. Today, Google or any internet search, and a dedication to the material of a subject for about an hour per day for a couple years, gets you into a Master's degree level of learning and understanding, without going to college. In other words, paper certificates don’t mean too much these days.

 

Why? Because you can have that piece of paper and still be untrustworthy. You can be peer reviewed and still be a horrible human being. Not saying self-study weeds out those sorts of students, but institutional study no longer is known for producing honorable graduates.

 

For what we are dealing with in today’s Gospel is the Call of the Apostles, specifically Peter, James, and John. This is how Jesus works. With the Apostles, it was easy. Jesus was there and Called them directly. For us, living in the Church of the Resurrection, the Call is a historically debated issue.

 

If Jesus is still Calling men today, how do you authorize and validate that Call? Or can anyone just say God called them and start preaching??

Here’s the problem: let’s say you have a hospital appointment today and it is for a serious issue. You’re anxious and worried. You go to your appointment and wait in the room. 

 

A little later, Jeff walks in. [No, not you Jeff]. Just a regular Jeff who doesn’t look like a doctor on TV. A no one. Distant cousin of my aunt's nephew twice removed. Lovely singing voice.

Maybe he has a lab coat or scrubs on, but you can buy those on the internet. Would you sit there and pay just anyone to medically examine you?

 

Neither would Jesus and His Church. Our Church confessions teach: “that no one should publicly teach in the Church or administer the Sacraments unless he be regularly called” (AC XIV). We do not want just anyone looking at our medical condition, our vehicle’s condition, or our children’s education. Thus when it comes to the life, death, and eternal life of body and soul, we should want more!

 

More comfort. More certainty. More authority. Jesus’s authority. For that, we need an Apostle. Jesus accomplished His perfect work of making the Way for sinners out of death, into life, on the cross. And then creating His Church through the Apostles and Prophets. He sends men to continue His work of the Gospel in His Church. 

 

What is the Church, on earth, that has the authority to authorize such a Call? The Church is the congregation of saints, that is, the entirety of all those who, called out of the lost and condemned human race by the Holy Spirit through the Word, truly believe in Christ and by faith are sanctified and incorporated in Christ, to receive God’s Word and Sacrament (Walther, Kirche und amt, ed. Harrison, p.9)

 

Which rather complicates things for the man who desires to preach and teach as a pastor. The divine Office of Holy Ministry, or pastor, is not a temporary function or civic job. It is a distinct, divine office instituted by God Himself for all time, in order that we receive the Holy Spirit on earth, given by the Church on earth. 

 

This Office is the instrument through which Christ promises to continue His prophetic and priestly work on earth. It is not an elite priesthood ruling over the laity, but a sacred, public stewardship of the Means of Grace given to Christ's holy flock, under His authority.

 

We see God’s careful guard over His Office in the Gospel today. First, it is Jesus Who initiates the Call to Peter, James, and John, choosing His own ministers rather than accepting volunteers. St. Peter does not stand up and give his own testimony, in fact, he rejects Jesus at first because he knows his testimony is full of sin, not righteousness.

 

Next, His Ministers are stewards of Scripture, not innovators of doctrine. Before St. Peter preaches, he must sit and listen for three years, or so. The pastoral office does not originate from human wisdom, but from the external Word of Christ.

 

Then, the church examines ministers to ensure accountability and reliance on grace. Jesus tests St. Peter with the catch of fish, invites him to repent, and then Calls him to follow Him. Again, St. Peter is not self-willed here.

 

And it would be a problem if he were. Self-appointed leaders often lack humility towards God’s Church, making it their church. A properly Called pastor knows they stand there only by grace. Therefore, a proper Call gives certainty to both pastor and congregation, allowing them to rely on Christ's established order, and not the fad of the day.

 

Finally, a true Call demands complete submission to His mission, not yours. Leaving everything behind and going where you are needed, not wherever you feel like. Doing only what you are commanded, not vision casting or reaching out. It is submission to where and how God is working on earth, today.

 

As is Jesus’s usual custom, He works in His church on earth, until His return, through His Word. And His Word is to be rejected. Not because He wants it rejected, but because the rejection reveals sin. “He came to His own and His own received Him not”. In sin, we will not accept Jesus. (John 1:11)

 

And just like St. Peter, we will not accept Jesus’s ways. “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”, says Peter to Jesus telling the disciples about His cross. And what did that get Peter? “Get behind me satan!” (Matt 16:21-23)

 

Yeah, but that was Peter and not me, you say? We know better these days, because Jesus already went to the cross. 

When you reject or love a pastor because of his personality, you reject the Word of God that teaches, “to acknowledge those who work diligently among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. In love, hold them in highest regard because of their work” in the Gospel (1 Thess 5:12-13).

 

When you reject a pastor rebuking or speaking against false doctrine, you reject the Word of God. 

When you believe it is your heart or your feelings that move you to preach to God’s people, you reject the Word of God. 

 

When you believe Jesus does not use Word and Sacrament to still give today “some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for works of ministry and to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ”, you reject the Word of God (Eph 4:11-13).

 

When you don’t believe St. Paul writes to us the Lord’s own commands when he says, “Women are to be silent in the churches. They are not permitted to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says”, you don’t believe the Word of God (1 Cor 14:37, 34).

 

The strength of the Holy Office is the strength of Christ, His Person, Word, and work. Even if the pastor has lived as a secretly evil man for some time and this is only identified later or never identified, God’s people are still assured of Christ’s gifts to them through this office. Such is the strength of Christ.

 

In Articles VII and VIII of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession we read: “We confess . . . that the Sacraments are efficacious even when evil men administer them, for the ministers act in Christ’s stead and do not represent their own person, according to the word (Luke 10:16), ‘he who hears you hears Me.’”   

 

In other words, God works through the means of grace with such tender love and care that not even the unworthiness of the servants, God help him, weakens the gifts of the Good Shepherd to His flock.

 

This Call to the Pastoral Office is a lesson for us. That lesson is the lesson taught to St. Peter today. The most loving act you can do for Jesus is to let Jesus be Jesus and let Jesus do Jesus-work. Peter didn’t want it, in his sin, but Jesus did it anyway. 

 

Therefore, the most loving act that congregational members can do for their pastor is to diligently receive God’s Word and Sacrament from him and encourage him to preach and administer the same, if he does not. 

 

Jesus watches over us as a man Who has given an account to the Father. He has brought His report to God and was judged for it, because He had taken on all your sins. With His Body and Blood He purchased and won you from sin, death, and the power of the devil. And He gives that power to men.

 

Pastors watch over those they are called to serve as men who must give account. Hebrews 13:7-17 says, “Remember those leading you who spoke the word of God to you…Obey those leading you and submit to them, for they watch over your souls as those who must give an account. To this end, allow them to lead with joy and not with grief, for that would be of no advantage to you.”

 

“For Christian perfection consists not in…contempt…but in dispositions of the heart, in great fear of God, [and] in great faith” (AP XVI:61)

 

Amen.

 

 

Ignorance of God [Trinity 4]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Genesis 50:15-21

• Romans 8:18-23

• St. Luke 6:36-42

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

 

Who speaks to you from the Gospel reading today, saying:

“Be merciful even as your Father is merciful”

 

And with these words, the Lord teaches how to love Him and how to love your neighbor. And we must be taught, because we don’t understand on our own. Therefore, to seek God is to seek instruction. No one knows God without Him telling them. This should lead us to greater hunger for knowledge and faith in His Word and for His Church.

 

Today we hear of the ignorance of God. It is definitely our ignorance, but maybe even God’s ignorance, although we can only say that in our sin and only because God wills our ignorance. He wills it so that we may forsake all works and reason and trust in His work alone.

 

Yes our ignorance of God; of Who He is, what He is saying, and what He is doing is symptomatic of Original Sin and the Gospel today reveals this in us. This is our biggest problem in life. You could almost say that we drown out God with our lives and the world.

 

We do not understand when hear Jesus speak in proverbs: “if you do this, then this” and also “don’t do this, do this instead, and then this”. We believe that ignorance of God is simply not knowing enough facts about Him. So we make it a priority to find out who really owns realty in the middle east, and gain insight to Who God is. Which doesn’t happen.

 

Let us take the plank and the speck. Some today may say that it takes great strength to carry around a plank and that carrying that load and being willing to help your neighbor at the same time, is a noble thing. Only the strong survive and God only gives His hardest tests to His greatest believers.

 

Or some may say of the blind men: better to fall into a pit outside, than to sit and rot in self-pity inside. You know. At least they tried. Just do your best and God will do the rest. That’s in Scripture somewhere, right?

 

But we know these passages and have heard them. We are not ignorant of them, so what does ignorance of God have to do with us? In the first place, our ignorance is built into our very created, being. We are the creature, He is the Creator. We are the humans, He is God. Incomprehensible, inscrutable, unapproachable. We do not have a mind that can even begin to understand Him and we weren’t made to, at least not on our own.

 

Second, we have an active rebellion going on against God. In our sin, we don’t want to know about Him or hear Him or care about Him. We are in bondage, our Epistle taught us this morning. So much so that Joseph's brothers, from our Old Testament reading, acted the way they did.

 

Maybe Benjamin, the youngest didn’t have a hand in things at that time, but did you ever think about all the men that sacrificed Joseph? They are biblical leaders. Patriarchs. Leaders of the 12 tribes of Israel, that so many people are fawning over these days. 

 

Reuben the first born. Supposed to be the example for all the rest. “My might and the first fruits of my strength”, says Jacob (Gen 49:3). 

Levi, the 3rd born, from whom come the line of all the priests of all Israel. 

Judah, who received the ultimate blessing of being a direct father to the Messiah! And the rest over the 12 tribes of Israel, mentioned in Revelation 7, sons of Jacob who saw and wrestled with God, meant evil instead of good, thinking they were doing good, being ignorant of God’s will.

 

In sin, we miss God’s will and plan, completely overlooking Joseph, as well. And it makes sense to us. Who would want to be Joseph, killed off, even if it was faked? Who would want to be sold into slavery and told, “its all part of God’s plan”? 

 

Our Confessions state:

"In spiritual and divine matters, the intellect, heart, and will of unregenerate human beings are completely blind. By their own powers, they cannot understand, believe, accept, or do anything that is right or pleasing to God... Human reason is blind to the things of God and can see nothing but what is contrary to God." (SD II:7-9)

 

What do we really know about God? We say words like “all-powerful”, “all-mighty”, and “all-knowing”, without knowing what they actually mean. But listen to 1 Corinthians 1:25 and Romans 1:19, “the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God stronger than men” “for what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them”.

 

We know nothing of God, except what He reveals in Christ Jesus. Not only is God far above us, alien you could say, but so is the kingdom of faith. It is ruled strangely as God always makes men strong when they are weak. And He even demands that men become weak first, before He begins to make unreasonable and impossible requests, such as with Jonah.

 

(2 Pet. 3:8ff) St. Peter says, “Do not be ignorant of this one thing”, the Word that creates is the Word that recreates. And since we are in darkness, the Light must come and tell us. Jesus reveals the Apostles’ ignorance by teaching of His coming death and resurrection.

 

He heals their ignorance with instruction. “if you speak a blessing in spirit, how can someone who is uninstructed say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are saying?” (1 Cor 14:16). 

 

Jesus is the weakness and foolishness of God. Jesus, the Word of God made flesh, is the cure for ignorance. What is God doing, Joseph? He is dying and rising again, he says. What is God saying, Jonah? He is calling for repentance and handing out free forgiveness. What kind of God is He, brother? He removes all planks and specks to build a cross for Himself.

 

God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways, because He thinks only of forgiveness and mercy. We all out here trying not to judge, not to fall in a pit, and worrying about planks and specks, when the true knowledge of God has been revealed outside us. 

 

Acts 17:30 says, “Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now commands all people everywhere to repent. For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”

 

Ignorance is a forgivable and curable sin. As Scripture plainly said, repentance counters ignorance. How can repentance counter ignorance? Usually you’d go to school or spend time in Room 101 in order to undo your ignorance. But in the real world, repentance leads to absolution, forgiveness, and forgiveness leads to Jesus.

 

The Bible does not simply contain the Word of God, it is the Word of God. Every bit of it He wants us to hear. We are not saved by knowing enough facts from the Bible nor is the Bible is a code book for probing God’s mind and predicting the end of the world. The Bible is a unity revealing God’s holiness and His love in Christ and that foolish love hangs on a cross.

 

Thus, the only way to return to the correct order of all things is to repent and be forgiven, wiping away our ignorance. For there, we find God’s foolishness and it goes another step further than the cross. 

 

Yes, our opponents say, it is foolish for God to die on a cross. And out of the other side of their mouth they say that it is foolish for God to be touched and eaten. It is shameful, not glorious, for the Lord to put His true Body in the Lord’s supper. It is ignorance.

 

God’s ignorance. And I’d rather have God’s ignorance than the world’s wisdom. I’d rather have the weakness of God, rather than the strength of men. In weakness, Jesus purchased and won me from all my sins. In ignorance and foolishness, Jesus beat the devil at his own game, for me.

 

As our Introit today taught us, the wicked stumble and fall when they come to eat up flesh, because they are in darkness and ignorance of their sins. They believe God is seeking power, when God is seeking sins. They trip over plans to forgive and show mercy.

 

The world believes the flesh of Jesus brings the power to conquer, to be gods.

We know and believe that the Body and Blood only brings adoption and the redemption of our own bodies.

Amen.

 

Concupiscence and Church [Trinity 3]

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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.