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!

 

Plain speech of the Gospel [Easter 6]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Numbers 21:4-9

• James 1:22-27

• St. John 16:23-30

 

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:

“His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech!”

 
Thus far from God’s Word teaching us about proverbs and boldness. The Lord wants you to hear His plain speech and not stay lost in the figures of speech. Jesus is God’s Word and He will explain and teach all plainly. Simply follow Him and you will hear His Gospel. This should lead you to confess this same truth in your life and conversation.
 
Don’t let anyone tell you there is no humor in the Bible, because this verse is peak, right here. The disciples are acting like “Yes-men”, just acknowledging what Jesus is saying and not really processing it. Yes, Jesus, yes we will understand you. Yes, Jesus yes You are going to the Father. Yes, Jesus, yes You have a plethora of piñatas for your birthday.
 
And you encounter your own “plethora” when you come to church, your own things that you don’t quite understand. And it is at that point where the devil attacks. For others, who claim to be the true church, will say that your church, this church, is not a true church of Jesus Christ.
 
Some examples:
Did you know the Trinity is not in the Bible and is therefore evidence of corrupted Scriptures? If your church teaches the Trinity, then you are not in a true church of Jesus Christ.
Did you know if your church doesn’t have and teach a proper doctrine of the Urim and Thummim, then you are not a true church of Christ?
If your church doesn’t have a doctrine of polygamy, because you know those Old Testament Patriarchs had those harems, then you are not in a true church of Jesus Christ.
 
And the list of obscure Bible passages, turned into necessary doctrine for salvation, goes on. When it comes right down to it, those teachers who make those lists are attempting to follow Jesus, when really they are only copying Jesus. In other words, they mistake the proverbs, or figures of speech, from Jesus as His plain speech.
 
Proverbs, figures of speech, are allegories. We find this same word in 2 Peter 2:22 which says, “What the true proverb says has happened to them: ‘The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.’” An allegory uses common words to get you to think and understand truth. 
 
Obviously people are not literal dogs eating vomit, but he is alluding to the truth of what sin does to a man. It turns him into a false prophet who, having first heard and believed the Gospel, goes back to his falsehood. We do not copy Jesus here, by becoming dogs and avoiding vomit. We follow Jesus by believing and not returning to our past sins.
 
There is another level to figures of speech, that Jesus gets to in John 10:6 when He is teaching about being the Door of the Sheep. It says, “This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what He was saying to them.” We do not copy Jesus by saying, “Yeah-Yeah Jesus. You’re the Door man. We dig it.” Instead, we take Jesus at His Word and follow His Word into His Church.
 
So, this is using proverbs to teach about Christ and this is what God’s Word does all the time. Not what we are to do, but what Christ does for us. This, then, brings us to the “speaking plainly” word that is in the Gospel today. This is better understood as boldness or openness. As in how Jesus explains in John 18:20, “I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret.”
 
If we think that by just copying Jesus, that is, just doing whatever the Bible says, then we will be lost in translation and be unable to interpret the figure of speech.
For example, when Israel was wandering through the desert, the issue of authority came up. Did Moses truly have God’s own authority to lead Church Service or could anyone do it? It was just praying and offering incense, anyway. So easy even a caveman could do it.
 
Korah, in Numbers 16, believing Moses to be lording it over everyone, when he is simply acting as the pastor, hurled insults and false charges against Moses. Moses said, fine, you think its so easy and that everyone is a minister? Go ahead and offer your incense to the Lord. 
Being un-ordained by God, even though the actions were the same, true “fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men offering the incense” (16:35).
 
To copy or mimic just because there are words in the Bible does not produce faith. The Urim and Thummim are mentioned a grand total of 8 times, but are valued so highly simply because the word is there on the page. No one knows what they are or where they are, but if we just have something and call it the Urim and Thummim, then we will be biblical.
 
Nevermind that the words mean light and truth. Nevermind that they were used as lots to determine God’s “yes” and God’s “no”. And nevermind that Jesus said, “Let your yes be yes and your no be no”. As in do not simply ape words. For Jesus explains in St. Matthew 23:16-22: 
“Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes it sacred? And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes it sacred? So then, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the One who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the One who sits on it.”
 
So, which is greater: the words written or the One Who caused them to be written? And if He caused them to be written, then He has the purpose for them. We do not put on a turban and pretend to be Old Testament Jews. Once again, we ask Jesus, what does this mean?
 
Temple. Gold. Altar. Gifts. What do they all have in common? The One Who dwells in it. Without Him, it is but stone, metal, wood, and junk. “Be doers of the Word, not hearers only”, says St. James, and the Lord is the Doer. His gives the Promise, and the place where He chooses to dwell becomes the Temple. He gives His Word, and the gold that covers the Temple becomes sanctifying. He steps up to His own Altar, offering Himself as sacrifice, and it becomes the Forgiveness of sins.
 
Only in Jesus do figures of speech become plain speech.
He Promises that He will visit the orphans and widows and yet remained unstained. That is, while we were yet sinners, Christ dies for us (Rom 5:8). While we were orphaned, having no one to take us in to wash us, feed us, or teach us; while we were yet without father, mother, and family; while all had been taken from us by our own sin, by the power of death, and by the devil, Jesus spoke above the din: today you will be with Me in paradise!
 
What is promised in the Trinity, in the Urim and Thummim, and in marriage between one man and one woman? Unity with Christ. That’s it. The Revelation that God the Almighty gives is that Christ is God and salvation is found only in Him. The figures of speech were everything that came before, pointing to the coming Messiah. And the plain speech is everything the Messiah did when He came.
 
This is the mystery of the Word made flesh. That He speaks plainly to us in the place of His choosing, the words of His choosing, and the gifts of His choosing. He so desires that His religion be undefiled that He takes up His cross to purify His own creation, covering all sin with His own blood. He so desires that His Blood be upon us and our children, that He promises to give that Blood by hearing, by Baptism, and by Communion.
 
He so wills that His gifts of faith in Him, forgiveness of sins, and life eternal be strong upon the earth that He defeats death by death and opens His kingdom to all believers, at His Word. 
Of the Law, of copying Him in figures of speech, Jesus says in Psalm 50:16, 21, “What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips?…These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you”.
 
And St. Paul agrees. “For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the Promise is void” in Romans 4:14. God forbid! And yet, there is a lack in you that prevents such adherence. That even if you were to offer sacrifice to God, He would not accept it. That is your Original Sin.
 
But there is a gift that has been prepared for you. Before you thought of the Trinity, before requirements for priests’ clothing were given, and before a proper doctrine of marriage, there was a Savior. A Savior Who desires unity with you. A Savior Who wants to cover you in His Clothing. A Savior Who pledges Himself to you, even beyond death.
 
For the plain speech of the cross now presents Word and Sacrament to us. The means by which Jesus truly gives to His Church to become one with Him, even today. The figures of speech were preparing you and the plain speech saves you, for it is the Body and Blood of Christ that forgives sins.
 
So now, in the true Church and Faith of Jesus Christ, let your yes be yes and your no be no. You may be “yes men” all you like in the face of the truth of God’s own Gospel. Even if you don’t understand it, pray for understanding. Do not throw away what the Lord has set before you. Pray for understanding and continue to confess the faith.
 
That God is three in One. That Jesus is the Truth and the Light. That marriage is between Christ and His Church, whom He purifies as a bride. And if His promise is to purify, then no amount of copying Old Testament dress codes will do a better job. 
 
Only in the Name of Jesus. The Father loves you, in the Name of Jesus only. Loving Jesus and believing in Him makes you a recipient of the Father’s love. Loving, believing, and following Jesus means desiring to receive what He is handing out in His church: forgiveness of sins, grace, and righteousness (Apology IV(b):189). 
Faith is that worship which receives God’s offered blessings (Ap IV(II):48).
 
Amen. 
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
 
 

What this does mean [Easter 5]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 12:1-6

• James 1:16-21

• St. John 16:5-15

 

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:

“now I am going to him who sent me. [and] None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’”

 
Thus far from God’s Word, in the Bible in order that we understand the importance of using words honestly, but also that we turn to God for meaning. That is, when we are confronted with something that seems like it goes against God’s Word, but everyone else says it doesn’t, we should be very careful to let God do the talking there. 
 
You might think it self-evident that words should have meanings, but our country is growing to believe words can mean anything the speaker wants. With God, He chooses His words carefully and purposefully. Such that we can trust Him to speak truth, when all men are liars.
 
For example:
One of the biggest sham words in our country today is “democracy”. It is a sham word, because it is thrown around without meaning. Someone says it, but if you ask them to define it, they cannot. Or worse, when they do define it, they use it to confuse rather than clarify. Meaning, they’ll take a definition they like that suits their purposes, instead of one everyone can use.
 
For example, in the 1984 presidential election, Ronald Reagan’s first reelection, he won every state except his opponent’s home state. It was a landslide victory, the media reported. Unprecedented! Absolute! Regan won with 54 million votes. Yet, in 1984, there were 170m registered voters and 235m people living. He won with less than 1/3 of the total votes. That’s an epic landslide? That’s consent of the governed??
 
“Democracy” is typically used, not in its proper sense, but as short-hand for “legitimate” or “the government has the consent of the governed”. In this way it is twisted to fit a pre-written narrative that one group wants to impose on another and not about actual governance.
 
Democracy is not found in the founding documents of our country, so why make it seem like it is?
Distraction. From what? From the Truth. For now, because of similar situations involving gender, abortion, and war we do have a democracy. A democracy of words. Meaning, who’s ever in charge or has the biggest mob, gets to define the words.
 
Democracy, socialism, gender, patriotic, justice, fascism, climate change. All of these have several different meanings which cannot be reconciled, on purpose. The people who use them are consciously dishonest and wish only for division, that their team win, and that faith be destroyed. 
 
The Blessed Dr. Luther already was a prophet in this subject, in his day. For he was fighting the same battle, but in Church. Sin, grace, faith, and Scripture were all words that had been hijacked, dishonestly, not to promote truth and unity, but to push propaganda. Dr. Luther also knew the way to dispel such nonsense.
 
This we find in our Small Catechism when it asks, “What does this mean?” That we stick to the word in question until its defined. We “call a thing what it is”. If its good, we call it good. If its evil, we call it evil, no matter what. 
 
Dr. Luther says:
“A theology of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theology of the cross calls the thing what it actually is. This is clear: He who does not know Christ does not know God hidden in suffering. Therefore he prefers, works to suffering, glory to the cross, strength to weakness, wisdom to folly, and, in general, good to evil. 
 
These are the people whom the apostle calls “enemies of the cross of Christ”, for they hate the cross and suffering and love works and the glory of works (Phil. 3:18). Thus, they call the good of the cross evil and the evil of a deed good. God can be found only in suffering and the cross…therefore the friends of the cross say that the cross is good and works are evil, for through the cross, works are dethroned and the “old Adam”, who is especially edified by works, is crucified. 
 
It is impossible for a person not to be puffed up by his “good works” unless he has first been deflated and destroyed by suffering and evil until he knows that he is worthless and that his works are not his but God’s.” (AE 31:39ff)
 
Dr. Luther is not safe from conscious dishonesty either. There are those who call themselves “lutheran” today who say things like: Martin Luther said that the theology of the cross is about “calling a thing what it really is.” The theology of the cross is an honest theology, a humble theology – unwilling to speak for God or claim more than one knows; unwilling to gloss over sin, doubt, evil, or despair; unwilling to explain suffering away with sayings like “everything happens for a reason” or “it’s all part of God’s plan.” To call a thing what it is the beginning of liberation. We can name what the doctrine of discovery did, what Christian nationalism is, what the legacy of white supremacy continues to do. We can name how human greed is intricately related to a climate in crisis.
 
To which we say, “What does this mean?” Not anything Lutheran or Christian, for sure.
 
In our Gospel today, Jesus is being pointedly and consciously honest. He is begging us to ask Him, “What does this mean” when He says, “Why are none of you asking me where I’m going?” It is unthinkable to Jesus that He be miscommunicating. It is not in His agenda to bark orders. It is unfathomable that the conversation between God and man would stop.
 
Thus, Jesus is the Word of God Incarnate, in the flesh. The Word that creates all things. The Word that makes covenants. The Word that threatens and makes promises and that Word Who holds discourse stands before you today, taking questions. So why don’t you ask Him something?
 
Ask Him why life is so hard. Ask Him why your family and marriage are falling apart. Ask Him why no one gets along with you. Ask Him why the wicked prosper and you have to struggle, grasping at threads.
 
Ask Him and He will say I am going to the Father Who sent me. It means God the Father is His source. Jesus proceeds from the Father, is sent by Him. Jesus is going ahead to prepare a living place for you. So that, where He is you may remain.
 
Ask Him and He will tell you that He is going to the cross. And it is at the cross that all definitions, words, and theology rests. Jesus goes to the cross and the Theologian of the Cross asks why? Sin, death, and the devil. 
 
As our Gospel said today, Sin takes Jesus to the cross, because we don’t believe His words and substitute and distract from the true work of Jesus. Jesus goes to produce faith and faith comes by hearing. Death is the fight of Jesus. He goes to the Father and the Father demands sacrifice for sins. Jesus wants plenary justification for the sinner, but must buy it with His holy, precocious blood and His innocent suffering and death.
 
Judgement comes upon Jesus for our sins, as the devil’s constant accusations twist and mar the Law of God, until it is all meaningless and he alone seems to be the winner, excluding us. However, right and wrong, true and false, good and evil are for the Judge to decide, not the prosecution. The devil is judged and the world is next.
 
Is it a judgement of guilt that defeats the devil, the world, and our sinful nature? No. It is a judgement of not guilty. And “Not guilty” is not in our dictionary. 
 
Yet. How do we get it there? We go back to the basics: what does this mean? We go back to our catechism, sort ourselves out, then return to the world with the same scrutiny. 
 
So we ask: why is Jesus going to the Father? One, He was sent by Him and two because He came from Him and was returning. He was returning, because He had humbled Himself, not His theology. He humbled Himself to redeem me a lost and condemned man.
 
What does this mean? He took my guilt and punishment upon Himself and freed me from the slavery of sin. “Through the obedience of One Man”, Romans 5:19 says, “many will be made righteous”.
Christ is king. Christ is Substitute. He took my place under God’s judgement against sin.
 
And on the third day He rose again. What does this mean? Christ is the Son of God, His doctrine is the truth, the Father accepted Christ’s sacrifice for the reconciliation of the world, and all believers in Christ will rise to eternal life.
 
In Jesus, not only does God hold Himself accountable for His promises, but allows us to hold Him accountable as well. For He gives His promises to us, to have and to hold. We have them to lift them up and say, “Remember Your promises, Your Word, O God!” (Ps 119:49)
 
Indeed, remember Your Word as He hangs on that cross, suffering and paying for the sins of the world. Remember Him as He comes into Your kingdom to intercede for me. Remember Him as He said His yes was yes, and His no was no. 
 
“For”, says 2 Corinthians 1:20, “all the promises of God find their Yes in [Jesus]. That is why it is through Him that we utter our Amen to God for His Glory.”
There is no promise made, no “Yes from God”, in anything else. Not democracy, not gender, not abortion. 
 
The only word worth anything in this world is “Christ” and the only thing that means is “Christian” and the only way to get there is “Baptized into Christ” and the only response to that is:
 
Amen. 
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
 
 

Death and Life contended [Easter 4]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Ezekiel 34:11-16

• 1 Peter 2:21-25

• St. John 10:11-16

 

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:
“A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me”
 
You see folks, life is real easy. There are only two religions in the world: “Do this” and “Done. And there are only two paths in life: life or death.
 
Behold Jesus sets before us two ways of life, today. The way of seeing and the way of not seeing. This is not the first time Jesus has spoken like this. He asks questions like, “Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?”, from Mark 8:18. 
And, John 12:40, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.”
 
And my personal favorite in John 9:39-41, “Jesus said, ‘For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind…If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.’”
 
What God wants us to hear in His Word is that there is a Way of Life and a Way of Death. What’s interesting about John 9 is that it is those who are blind who are declared guiltless, forgiven, you could say. Their blindness saves them. Why is that? Because, when we say, “we see”, we are putting our fear, love and trust in our observation and reason, as opposed to the Word.
 
And yet, Jesus gives sight to the blind and blindness to the sinners who refuse to repent. 
 
Jesus has addressed this sort of upside-down Gospel before, such as in Jeremiah 21. At that time, Babylon is threatening the complete conquest of Judah and Israel, finally destroying Jerusalem, and taking all the treasure and all the people captive to Babylon. The Babylonian Exile, in other words, is right around the corner. The king and the priests turn to Jeremiah for the Lord’s guidance, His all-seeing wisdom.
 
And the Lord responds:
"Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death, he who stays in this city (Jerusalem) shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live and shall have his life as a prize of war. For I have set my face against this city for harm and not for good, declares the Lord: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.” (v.8-10)
 
So much for being God’s chosen people. Thus, the leaders of the Israeli kingdom said in their sin, “We do not see this happening” and they murdered Jeremiah. His message of “submit to Babylon” earned him multiple assassination attempts, imprisonments, and eventually his martyrdom. As Jesus said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!” (Mt 23:37)
 
He says the same in our Gospel today. Will you have joy now or later? Will you have suffering now or later? If you suffer now, as our pregnant woman, that is, if the Jews submit to Babylon, forsaking Israel, and allowing their capture, then their sorrow will turn into joy. That is, they will go to captivity, but they will come back. God will not forget them.
 
Jeremiah even gave them the great promise of “seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper”, before they went (Jer 29:7).
 
But if they want joy now and listen to the false prophets, they have their reward now. “They are swindlers and liars”, says Jeremiah, “from the least of them right to the top! Yes, even my prophets and priests! You can’t heal a wound by saying it’s not there! Yet the priests and prophets give assurances saying “peace, peace” when there is no peace. Were my people ashamed when they worshiped idols? No, not at all—they didn’t even blush. Therefore they shall lie among the slain. They shall die beneath my anger.” (Jer 6:13-15, ESV and TLB)), thus saith the Lord.
 
Thus, the unfaithful say two opposing things at the same time, we do not see our pride and joy failing and we see our success only. This is the way of death. The repentant sinner says, we see judgement coming, but we cannot see how this can be, or how God can do such a thing. This is the Way of Life.
 
But why is it so backwards? Why can’t God just be upfront and obvious? Proverbs calls this out saying, "There is a way which seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Proverbs 14:12). 
 
In our eyes, the way that seems right is to cling to our own empires and declare them “what God wants for us”. However, when we get what we want out of it, it is never enough. So much so, that when we get what we want it is not what we want, as we thought. The way that seems right is the way we observe in sin. Thus, our very point of reference is warped.
 
So when the sinner looks at the suffering and death of Jesus, he says, that’s all wrong. Its all backwards. Its all so messed up, in unbelief. Jesus is supposed to bring about the new kingdom of Israel. Jesus is supposed to right all the wrongs. Jesus was supposed to live. 
 
In Jesus the way of life is the way of death. In this case, death to self and death to the world. The Way of death, that way of hearing the Word of God and rejecting it, comes only after faith can hear and eyes can see. The way of death Jesus has come to walk is the way of the Law.
 
That, you would think, would be the Way of Life. And it is, for the good, upright, and holy. As St. Paul says in Galatians 3:10, “For all who rely on works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them’”
 
And here is our best at walking this way, in our catechism from the 9th Command: “We should fear and love God so that we do not scheme to get our neighbor’s inheritance or house, or get it in a way which only appears right, but help and be of service to him in keeping it.”
 
We should do those things. But we don’t. Jesus does and thus we hate Him for it. That He can be content, that He can want more for His neighbor than He has, and that He can be right in serving that way, takes the spotlight off us. 
 
When God is made flesh for His neighbor, His own received Him not. Jesus only had the Way of Life, so our sin, the devil, and the world had to put Him on the Way of death, falsely accuse, and convict Him, and nail Him to a tree. 
 
Little did our sinful minds understand that love is the fulfillment of the Law, of the Way of Life. And since, Jesus took up His cross and followed God in perfect, pure, sacrificial, obedient, and serving love for God and neighbor, He was accepted by God, “a fragrant sacrificial offering” (Eph 5:1).
 
What appears wrong, the suffering and death of Jesus, is meet, right, and salutary. What appears right, rejoicing and reveling in our self-righteousness, is wrong. Sin has skewed our vision and thus we remain in our sin. The Son of God has come giving Faith; faith to hear, see, and believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
 
The Kingdom may not be of this world, but there is life in it, in Jesus. And that life is found and received by faith alone. For, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14)
 
The Way of Life is the Way of Jesus, really Jesus Himself and His work completed on our behalf. That is, that the Word of God be taught in its truth and purity and we as children of God lead holy lives according to it, from our Catechism again. (1st Petition) 
 
The way of death is every other way that is not the Way of Life. That is, despising and teaching or living contrary to God’s Word. That is the Way of the Cross, that He Who knew no sin chose to walk the way of the sinner, ingesting the wages of sin, in order that death be destroyed. 
 
And death is destroyed by death, the death of God in the flesh. It’s reign and power ended, but Christ lived on. Jesus was supposed to live and He does live. And because He lives, the Way of Life lives as well, now open to all Who believe and are baptized.
 
This can be done any and everywhere. The Jews believe, “Israel first!”, Rome thinks, “Rome first!”, the Americans think, “America First!”. Each believing that they have found God’s promised land and woe to any who disagree.
 
But if we just look at God’s gift of Holy Baptism, we see that’s not true. Anywhere there is water, can be a holy baptismal font. Likewise, anywhere the pure Gospel is read and taught, can be a holy pulpit. And anywhere Jesus is proclaimed as Body and blood, God and man, given and shed for you, can be His Holy Table.
 
The Way of Life is the Way of Faith. And faith leads to the cross first. When Jeremiah and Moses lead the people out of a seeming promised land into exile and into the desert, they are prophesying the cross. 
 
Back to Galatians 4:25-31, “present-day Jerusalem…is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother…Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise…Therefore we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.”
 
In faith, we see that suffering comes first, glory second. In faith, we see that our heavenly Father has placed us in our own Babylonian Exile that we may learn to love Him and our neighbor. In faith, we walk the path of sin and death, because it is the path that our Savior leveled out for us, not that we continue in our sin and die, but that we live.
 
Moses cried out in Deuteronomy 30:19, “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;”
 
Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die” (Jn 11:25-26)
 
Amen. 
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
 

Misericordia: A Life laid down [Easter 3]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Ezekiel 34:11-16

• 1 Peter 2:21-25

• St. John 10:11-16

 

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 through His Introit in His Divine Service saying:

“The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord: Alleluia!”

 

Each and every Sunday, we are saturated with the voice of our Good Shepherd. Every chant, every prayer, every hymn from the Bible, as you can see for yourself in your hymnal. God has ordained it this way so that you are familiar with His voice your entire life. So familiar that it is like family. We repeat the sounding joy over and over so that, by God’s Grace, we may hear our Shepherd when the Last Invitation goes out.

 

With these words from our Introit, you are connected to the early medieval Church. Over a thousand years ago, this part of Psalm 33 was employed to express and proclaim this Third Sunday of Easter. On top of that, the chant tone we used for it, while having some modern modifications, dates back at least 1500 years. And the Psalm itself, was composed about 3,000 years ago, which then connects us to the rest of God’s revealed Word to us.

 

You are loved by God, O little Flock. You are remembered. You are treasured and not an orphan. This is part of the goodness of the Lord, chanted of in the Introit. Ironic, too, because Psalm 33 is termed an orphan psalm. It is one of 50 in the book of Psalms that do not have a clear author. That is ok because they do not disagree with the rest of the book or the entirety of Scripture.

 

And another thing that gives great comfort in trusting these psalms is that they can be explained ceremonially. As in, a large, biblical character may not have written them, though they probably did, but instead the Old Testament Church may have. As in, these Psalms were written for the Divine Service done in the Temple. Very likely, the Book of Psalms is a hymnal.

 

As in, now by chanting this psalm at this time and in this place, you are now in communion with the Old Testament Temple worship, chanting at the appropriate, set-aside-time to pray, praise, and give thanks, along with all the other believers in Christ. 

 

So nice. But also, how bloodless, as in we have never met those people and praying, praising, or giving thanks is no real sacrifice on our side. Time has a way of drying out our bones, so to speak, and we lose that familiar, blood connection. The goodness of the Lord may extend to us from the beginning of all things, but what good does that do me today since I cannot interact with those people? 

 

The word used in the Introit psalm for “goodness” is actually a little deeper than simply being good. The Lord’s goodness is His mercy; thus, the word is just that. Better to understand the psalm as saying, “The earth is full of the acts of mercy of the Lord: Alleluia”. 

 

Acts of mercy come in two ways: spiritual and physical. From today’s Gospel, Jesus explains it as the Voice and His Life. In the Voice, Jesus teaches that the Gospel far exceeds monetary and physical aid. We see this in Jesus’s encounter with the paralytic. On the 19th Sunday after Trinity, men of His own city, bring to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed (Mt 9).

 

Instead of healing him, Jesus forgave his sins and would have left it at that, had the scribes present not accused Him of blasphemy, “only God can forgive sins”. At that, Jesus did heal to prove the fact that He was God. Nevertheless, we see the emphasis on forgiveness. The Gospel is more important than healing.

 

In Acts 3, a lame man was brought to the city gate daily to beg for money. Sts. Peter and John looked directly at him, said they didn’t have money, but healed him instead. The point being, physical restoration expands the meaning of mercy. Forgiveness is first, but Christ’s name meets the deepest need. This act of Apostolic charity became an evangelical platform that gained thousands of converts (Acts 4:4).

 

When thinking about the life of Jesus, we must think on His death. This is the meat of “acts of mercy”, or in the Latin “misericordia”. Literally, “miserable heart”. It is the miserable heart of the world that demands our death, with no mercy. In fact, there is a medieval weapon named the Misericorde and it was used for mercy killing mortally wounded knights after a battle.

 

No real mercy, however. No life. Just misery. No “thank you”. No “well done good and faithful soldier”. Just, “you’ve outlived your usefulness”. This is the extent of the world’s mercy and what our old Adam extends to his neighbor.

 

It is the miserable heart of Jesus that combats the world and our sinful nature, for His voice and His life have come into this world. The Word of God is made flesh and has compassion upon His creation.

 

His voice goes out, with His Voice, all under the banner of His Gospel, that Gospel of the free forgiveness of sins. And He lays down His life for the sheep. Not a miserable heart, but the ultimate act of mercy. A joyful heart, joyfully giving His own life, that we may live. A merciful heart, desiring mercy and not sacrifice.

 

God’s misery is not like our misery. He is only miserable until there is His compassion. Jesus does not give in to despair, but He does weep, He does anguish, He does get anxious. This all, however, is only for His suffering and death. He weeps for His friends Lazarus, whom He must rescue from the dead. He bows down in aguish and anxiety when He nears His cross. Not because He doesn’t know, but because He is true man.

 

But the kind of power to forgive sins and rise from the dead does not come from man. St. Peter proclaims, back in Acts 3, “Men of Israel, why are you surprised by this? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?” 

 

The miserable heart of God is the joyful heart of God. Not miserable, but joyful and merciful. For the dagger that pierces the haze of time and history for us is the cross of Christ. To bring life to us who are here, thousands of years disconnected from those people, places, and events. It is the Blood of Jesus that centers all of history and all of His Church.

 

St. Peter explains, again in Acts 3:

“By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know has been made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through Him that has given [this man] this complete healing in your presence” (Acts 3:16)

 

The Blood of Jesus comes to us by faith alone. The Good Shepherd’s voice leads us to His Body and Blood, His blessing, and His history. The Word of God is living, because the Word is Jesus. Therefore history is alive as well, in Christ. 

 

Do you want to be a part of the Third Sunday of Easter, in the true Church? Faith alone has granted you this seat. Do you want to be in the choirs of the true Church spanning thousands of years? Faith alone. Do you want to worship the Lord with the Temple, with David, Moses, and Adam? 

 

Jesus is the key. The Good Shepherd calls, gathers, and enlightens all to Himself. He alone fulfills God’s promise, made to Israel, to gather all those exiles into their own land, their own green pasture, which is the Body of Jesus. 

 

The Body of Jesus Who was crucified. The Body of Jesus Who bids us follow Him. The Body of Jesus into Whom we are baptized. The Body of Jesus Who gives us our cross to bear, our own misericorde dagger. 

 

Indeed, we are mortally wounded by sin. By faith in the Name of Jesus, we are killed and raised to new life. In Holy Baptism’s dagger, we are united to Christ’s death and resurrection. Why? Because the Old Adam in us must daily die. Bury him, and do not visit his grave again. Rather, let Christ crucify him and bury him.

 

When we fall into temptation, the Old Adam rises again, to dry us out, to cut us off from family, from our Church family. He promises fulfillment but delivers only suffering. Christ promises suffering, but delivers only eternal life, forgiveness of sins, and faith in Him. All this He accomplishes through His Word and sacrament.

 

So where do you belong? Which line is the line following the Good Shepherd? Where have your fathers gone before you in the faith? Will there be mercy when you get there?

 

In Christ alone there is mercy in death, for the grave is open and death has lost its sting. The Shepherd has laid down His life for the sheep. There is no other history and there can be no other song.

 

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

 

 

Word and good bones [Easter 2]

  * * T E X T  O N L Y ~ A U D I O  O N L Y * * 

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Ezekiel 37:1-14

• 1 John 5:4-10

• St. John 20:19-31

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 through His Apostles saying:

“These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God”

 
Thus far from God’s Word, written and spoken to us, because God wants us to always hear His Word. And what better way to accomplish that than to create His Church and place all of those words in Service, prayer, and song? You are to hear Jesus connecting you to His Church today, His Body, and giving you the words to praise Him with. These Church words you are to memorize, treasure, and teach, as He commands.
 
Cremation is cheaper than a regular funeral, because bones are not included in the cost. Oh you get the bones of your loved one back, but they have been ground to dust, not burned with the rest. You see, most of what chemically makes up your bone is non-flammable and actually melts at high temperatures, not burns. 
 
The bones are always left behind.
 
The bones are always left behind to tell a story. In this case, it was that our loved one lived a life and we loved them. In Divine Service today, our Lord gives us two instances of bones. First in our Old Testament, where the Lord says of the valley of very dry bones, “these bones are the whole house of Israel” (37:11). Now, this may be a metaphor, but who’s bones were those and why were they in that valley?
 
The second instance is this Easter appearance to His Apostles. It is St. Luke who records Jesus saying this: “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” (Luke 24:39)
 
Now, because of our Epistle reading, we would expect Jesus to say Body and Blood, not “flesh and bone”. This is the only place Jesus speaks this way about Himself. This, too, tells a story, or Jesus is meaning to connect us to the story. That is the story of Adma an Eve, when Jesus presented Eve to Adam and he said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gen 2:22).
 
Brought into easter, then, that old bones story is Jesus teaching that His will is to be united with us. That we be a part of His Body in order to grant us eternal life with Him. It is an important part of the complete story of Jesus the Crucified that He renew us and take us into Himself: water, spirit, flesh, blood, and bones.
 
We use this same metaphor today, when we see an old building that is still doing its job of standing up. We say it has good bones. After our admiration, then its “who built it”, “why is it here”, “what stories could these walls tell”? And they tell nothing, of course, because they are walls and walls don’t speak. 
 
However, the Lord’s Church is different. During the Reformation there was a fight over bones. When fighting for a proper understand of the Mass, what we term the Divine Service today, the Lutherans found 6 things that violate the rule: “The Word of God shall establish articles of faith, and no one else, not even an angel”, from our Confessions (SA II:II:15).
 
First was the invention of purgatory, next was appearances of souls of the dead demanding vigils, pilgrimages, and alms. Third was those pilgrimages, fourth the monasteries, sixth the infamous indulgences, and fifth, because we’re talking about it, relics. These relics were mostly the bones of saints, when in reality they were animal bones. But, they were sold as bones so blessed that you don’t even need Jesus for faith.
 
Bones that outlasted the bodies of the saints. Bones that contain a history. Bones that connect us to our history and patristic wisdom. And that’s the religious pull. If only we had something more than a book. If only we had something more than spirituality. If only we had something to sink our teeth into, then our faith would be genuine and we could know that it came from God.
 
Repent! As your Introit stated we are indeed newborn infants in the faith. We love to misunderstand God, because it makes more sense to us. We would rather be connected to God in our own way, since we know ourselves best and can feel the results.
 
Except we don’t. The famous line “know yourself”, is a lie of this world. Instead, Jesus says, “deny yourself”. Deny, deny, deny ourselves to death maybe, until all that’s left of us are some dry bones. Yes, dry, dead, and forgotten in our sin. That’s our belief. That’s the apostles’ belief, too, on Easter Sunday. 
 
So we seek another way, the way of better men than us. But all the biblical men are dead. Long dead. That is probably what the Lord wanted to teach us in the valley of dry bones. So we imagine that if we just have a bone from them, no matter how small, we believe we can be connected to them and their holiness. Even though we believe that better men than us lived, we are it today. Dead, dry, forgotten.
 
That all changes when Jesus passes through the locked doors. You see, when you died and were buried with your fathers, as the Bible says elsewhere, it was your bones that were kept. For example, Joseph, of the coat of many colors fame, made his people swear an oath to take his bones with them if they ever left Egypt. Thus, Moses took Joseph with the people, just before crossing the Red Sea (Ex 13:19).
 
What that means for us today is that bones are locked inside the bone box. They cannot get themselves out. Though a living person may open the box, the bones are trapped in death. Same with the bones of saints, apostles, and prophets. All dead. All trapped.
 
Imagine a bone box opening on its own and the person coming out! That is the debilitating fear that held the apostles in that upper room. Why didn’t Jesus knock on the Upper Room door on Easter? “Behold I stand at the door and knock”, right? 
 
They wouldn’t have let Him in. There would have been furniture piled up against the door. There would have been a laundry bill. Was it Jesus? Was it the Jews? Was it Elijah? The Apostles were overwhelmed and sick with fear. They could feel it in their bones.
 
Jesus, in a suit of flesh and bones, came in anyways. He came in out of His tomb that was supposed to be locked and sealed. His bones are not supposed to move around, much less speak “Peace be with you”! His bones are not supposed to tell the story. His bones are not supposed to connect us to God. His bones were not supposed to do anything but lie still until the end of days.
 
Jesus was not supposed to, but Jesus is alive, never to die again. Death has no more dominion over Him. So while Jospeh’s story must be told for him, Jesus comes to tell His own story, which includes Joseph. There Jesus stands in His flesh and bones to bring peace to His wayward Apostles and to bring a message: Go.
 
Go into all the world with the flesh and bones of Jesus. That is, His Body, the Church. What are the bones of the Church? Are they dead saints? 
They are the words of the Living Savior. The Church has the Word. It is the Word that carries the stories to us and faith to our ears. We have been baptized into His Body. And what is Baptism? Water and the Word. What is a worthy reception of the Lord’s Body and Blood? He who has faith in these words, “given and shed for the forgiveness of sins”.
 
Water, blood, Spirit, and belief. All these come wrapped in one package for us. This is why the Epistle speaks of overcoming the world by believing that Jesus is the Son of God and why the same author, said in the gospel today, “These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God.”
 
This is why the Church has her own language and uses words and phrases you don’t find in the outside world. We use these words because they connect us to our faith, the Bible, the Apostles, our God, all of it. Every Sunday we sing the word “Hosanna” and it is Palm Sunday when we hear why. When we sing it, we sing along with the crowd around Jesus, on that first Palm Sunday.
 
Every Sunday, we sing, Gloria in Excelsis, or “Glory to God in the highest”. It is Christmas that let’s us hear just what those words make us a part of. Where Palm Sunday was on earth, the Gloria in Excelsis is the song of angels. Our history and memories in those words now tie us to heaven.
 
And the list of these words, these bones, goes on. By hearing, singing, and praying these words, you prove the survival, longevity, and endurance of God’s Word. Thus, the Church has accumulated these words and kept them around, teaching them to the next generation. 
 
Here our Psalms preach to us: “Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name” (Psalm 86:11). And from Deuteronomy 11:18-20, “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
 
Hosanna, Gloria, Amen, Sanctus, Nunc Dimittis, and Justification all are strange words and yet all are used by Jesus to join us to Him. “Truly, truly, I say to you”, Jesus says in John 5:24, “whoever hears my Word and believes Him Who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” 
 
At the Word of Jesus, in His Church, spoken to us in this valley of dry bones, we then are brought together. We are gathered, bone to bone, sinews and flesh, as Jesus knits us into one communion in the mystical Body of Christ, as we pray at funerals. He gives us breath through His Gospel preached in its purity and we are stood up again, back from the death of our sins, a great army for the Lord.
 
We are gathered in Jesus. We have hope in Jesus, because His bones came back. Risen from the grave, Jesus proves His words true and shows His intentions. Not to leave us as orphans, but to be as He is, Body and Blood. And to have His breath, His Holy Spirit, to remember, to witness, to confess these same words, “Peace be with you”. 
 
No one’s bones have come back, except Jesus’s. No one’s words hold power except Jesus’s. No one’s wounds heal except Jesus’s. We do not fill Church with our own words. Though it is our language, our Lord’s words still carry their full strength and we hear and believe, ever to confess the One Who comes by water and blood. Water to baptize and Blood to feed, unto life everlasting. Amen.
 
Alleluia! Christ is risen!