The Keys [Trinity 4; St. Luke 6:36-42]

Jesus speaks to us today saying,

“Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”

There was a time when the flag of the United States stood for liberty and justice for all. A time when men were proud to sacrifice their lives for the rights protected by the constitution and upheld by civil servants, but that age is quickly coming to a close. The flag is now coming to represent a people that is hostile towards the Church.

Indeed, the world has betrayed you. It promised you life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It promised to uphold your inalienable rights, but has instead decided that those sorts of things only get in the way of progress. The world is all too happy to prove its point to you at the edge of a sword or in federal court.

The devil has betrayed you. He has told you that the world is at peace. He has told you that marriage is about self-fulfillment and that sex has nothing to do with marriage or procreation. Just take this pill or get a divorce. Oh, and don’t worry, allowing these things won’t destroy or alter any one’s morals or values.

You have lied to yourself. You have told yourself that this is all someone else’s fault when, in fact, god-fearing heterosexuals have been destroying marriage all by themselves. Gay Americans only make up less than 2% of the population. Who do you think is changing the government? The people supporting these extreme movements are not radicals, but folks just like you and many in good standing with the Lutheran church.

Repent. America is not a Christian nation and you are unmerciful. In your attempt to make the Church an American institution, you have cast aside your neighbor. In your patriotic zeal, you make the Church a political arena where only mercy is shown to republican voters or those like-minded.

It is time to wake up. Jesus demands your mercy no matter what and He demands it now. The political and legal climate of the country has little to do with God’s mercy that is only found in Christ Jesus and you are withholding it, comfortable in peacetime.

Christ is Lord of the Church forever and always. Jesus knows that the world hates the Gospel and His mercy, yet regardless of nation or flags, Jesus has mercy. For true mercy is only found in the humiliation and suffering of God on the cross.

Being merciful does not mean “live and let live”. Being merciful does not mean playing nice nor does it mean placing acts of mercy over the Word of God. The command from God is not “make yourself merciful”, but “be merciful”. Right now, be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful. Perfectly merciful.

This is the mercy Jesus offers to you. In baptism, you are placed into this mercy and are made as merciful as your Father in heaven. Regardless of who rules over you, how many times you are hauled in front of the judge, or how much you fail, Jesus is merciful and promises mercy. In the Office of the Keys, you receive this.

In this special Office, God shows you and the whole world His mercy. The Keys is that special authority Jesus gives to His Church on earth to forgive the sins of the repentant sinner, but to withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant as long as they do not repent.

In St. John chapter 20, we hear that Jesus breathed on His disciples and said,

“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Americans can pass any law they like. God’s words and promises remain unchanged. Whether its marriage, abortion, or defining what good is, the Word will always demand our confession that all our works, thoughts, votes, and associations are sinful and worthy of condemnation.

Before God, we are guilty of all sins; known and unknown. But confession has two parts. First that we confess our sins and second, that we receive Absolution, that is, forgiveness, from the pastor as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that by it our sins are forgiven before God in heaven.

This wonderful, merciful gift is given to us, in Christ. America is not Christian and it doesn’t have to be. The flag is not a symbol of all that is good in the world and it doesn’t have to be. You do not have to have a constitution in order to receive absolution.

For you believe that when the Called ministers of Christ deal with you by His divine command in particular, when they exclude openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation and absolve those who repent of their sins and want to do better, this is just as valid and certain, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself.

You are baptized into Christ. You may have been born in Iraq and yet Jesus would still feed you His true Body and Blood for your salvation. As we heard last week, Jesus is not just everywhere, He is somewhere. He is where His Gospel is preached in its purity and the Sacraments are administered according to the Gospel.

Jesus does not wait for you to be ready or ask Him to come into your life. Jesus does not have to wait for the right law to be voted on in order to rule heaven and earth. Jesus is not searching for these things.

Jesus seeks out the unmerciful in order to make them merciful. Jesus looks for the judged, the condemned, and the blind in order to give them His righteousness. On the cross, we see Jesus judged and condemned in our place. He falls into the enemy’s pit in order to bring us back out with Him. He takes our planks of sin, fashions them into a cross and dies to sin, never to die again.

Fear not, dear Christians. Jesus does provide and He will provide for us. His Church, purchased and won in His Blood, is prepped for any future. She is well provisioned with heavenly store and secured against any and all disasters. Because the Word of God dwells with us rightly, heaven and earth may pass away, but in Christ we will remain forever.

In Christ, the Word remains and though devils all the world should fill, all eager to devour us; we tremble not, we fear no ill, they shall not overpower us. This world’s Prince may still scowl fierce as he will, he can harm us none. He’s judged; the deed is done; one little word can fell him.

Home is where the Church is [Trinity 3; St. Luke 15:1-10]

Jesus speaks to you today, saying,

“And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’”

Notice that the Shepherd neither returned to the 99 sheep nor did he go to the pen or the barn. He dashed off after the one, scooped him up, and ran home to the Feast. Same thing with the woman and same thing with the Prodigal son.

The father, heedless of his looking and acting like a fool; heedless of the day’s work, runs towards his wayward, unworthy son, embraces him, and lays out a great feast at his home.

When you talk about your church, it is never “home” for you, is it? We have our own houses. We each have worked hard in order to provide a house for our family and, as the 9^th and 10^th Commandments tell us, house and home are important.

So when we hear about this house being returned to, in the Gospel, we can relate. You wouldn’t go anywhere else to celebrate something so important and you wouldn’t have it any other way. Neither would Jesus.

The home you have worked hard for and built a family, or a life in, is no small thing to you. You invest time and money in building or buying, because you want what you what and how you want it. You then continue this forever, because there is always something that needs doing, in your house.

Last month we talked about how the Church is our mother, but if we weren’t able to find her, what good would she do us? Thus, the Shepherd knows His home and returns to it. Once the lost, probably dead, lamb is found, He returns for with this single sheep, all is completed.

He returns to where the promise of house and home is kept and heard. He returns to the place where there is celebration over this found sheep. And, as verse 7 tells us, that place is heaven.

Jesus completes the flock with just this one sheep and just this one coin. Celebration begins over one and when brought to the visible home, all is finished. When you see the promise fulfilled, you know that the house is full, the home is complete, and the Feast is set.

How can you fill a house with just one? No one is big enough to fill an entire house. You can do it metaphorically, by filling it with things that represent you, but that is not the same level of ownership and comfort. True ownership is being there in all places at all times.

Repent. There is no way you can own house, home, or anything completely, much less build a proper house and home. We raise families, if we’re lucky to have children, but they leave. We accumulate stuff and it deteriorates or gets destroyed by floods. The things you hope in for eternity are not made by your hands.

Dear Christians, the Good Shepherd is the Lord. The one, lost Sheep is Jesus. Jesus has left His heavenly fold, become a man, and suffered and died in order to fill His Father’s House. Jesus alone is able to accomplish this.

Jesus alone can make a House and home that is eternal. Jesus alone is able to make promises and keep them. Jesus alone is able to be lost in our sin, die because of it, and be found again in new life. Jesus alone is able to accomplish all this and yet keep His promises and make it so they are available, with no question, mystery, or trickery.

The Church is the household of God. The place where you are called by the Gospel, not as sinners, failures, or backsliders, but as members of the Body of Christ.

“¹² For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” (1 Cor.12)

The Father returns with His Son, Who was dead, but is now alive, to this House. For it is only in the Son that any and all promises of God have anything to do with us. Us who are baptized into the Body of Jesus now are not a part of the 99, but of the one; the one who is rejoiced over. “Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.” (Eph.5:23)

The one Whose sin was not His own and yet He became sin for us. In Jesus suffering and dying on the cross, He has sanctified His Church, making it holy. He Himself, being the Lord of all that is holy, gives His holiness to His Church for free. It is His gift, thus we call the Church, ourselves, holy.

This holy Church is Christian, because she would not exist without Christ and finds all her substance and being in Him. For it is no longer we who live, work, or contribute, but Christ. In this holy, Christian Church the Gospel is preached and the Sacraments are administered for salvation and forgiveness, as the words and promises of God declare.

That is Evangelism. So this holy, Christian, evangelical Church declares God’s Word. That is orthodoxy or aligning and conforming to what God has said. Also, she is a part of eternity, containing all baptized believers of all time; universal or catholic.

In this holy, Christian, evangelical, orthodox, catholic Church Christ comes among His gathered Body to teach and feed them publicly. We do not accept this work nor do we obey; we simply receive. All is made ready, all is accomplished, and all is perfected. Jesus worked His holy and Good work in order that He give it to us, for free.

By the miracle of washing, rebirth, and hearing, God brings us into and keeps us as His Church. The holy Church is called by God and given many glorious names and standing. She is called by God to receive and give His Love, Who is Jesus.

Nothing is more important than house and home, because nothing is more important than Christ’s House and Home. But your house and home need not be worshiped or a model for all. You do have an example to follow, but far more importantly you have perfection to receive at Jesus’ hand.

You already have a House, here that does not fail. You are already part of a Home that does not fade or fall apart. You are God’s people because you have received mercy from Him, regardless of how much we gain or lose. Jesus has purchased and won the Church with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.

The holy Christian Church preaches this Gospel in its purity, for salvation, and administers these sacraments according to the Gospel, for the forgiveness of sins. The Word of God is here, this must be Church. Christ has come among us, rejoicing, this must be heaven.

Mass affect [Trinity 2; St. Luke 14:15-24]

Jesus speaks to us today, saying,

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

From the Epistle, Jesus also speaks through St. John telling us that we KNOW we have passed from death to life and that Christ has laid down His life, for us, for that purpose. We know because God’s Word declares this to us in the promise of baptism; to be dead and buried to our sin and alive towards God as Jesus was and is.

Dead Men do not attend banquets. Sinners do not enter into this great feast. As Jesus says it is ready for those who have been invited and no one else. However, Jesus does not even allow us a measure of comfort there. He concludes with the statement that none of those who were invited will taste the banquet.

The Invited do not get in. They have better things to do. They substitute other things such as work or chores, objects and stuff, and even blame family on their absent-ness. Maybe they think that, since God is everywhere, it doesn’t really matter where they worship, as long as its true. God knows what’s in their heart after all.

If God is everywhere, then what does Church matter? If God is everywhere, then what does denomination or religious affiliation matter? If God is everywhere, who are you to say that Christianity is right or that Islam is wrong?

The Bible joins Jesus and His Church together so that they can not be separated. If you are in one, you are in the other. If you reject one, you reject the other. You can’t have Christ without His Church.

Thus, our Lutheran Confessions state very clearly that we do not abolish the Mass. It is retained and celebrated among us with the highest reverence (AC XXIV). You should remember this one, for we went over it in Bible Class. The Great Feast of the Lord is held and the Divine Service provides a foretaste.

Jesus tells us, through St. Paul, that we must prove all things and hold fast to all that which is good (I Thess. 5:22). In fact, since there is a banquet, there must be a sacrifice because we need something to eat. Since there was a death, we need to be able to proclaim it. No death, no feast.

Repent. You reason in your hearts that if you got as much profit and gain out of the preaching of the Gospel as I get out of my own business, I would attend. But, since you don’t, you won’t.

Are you the people who uninvited themselves from the Feast or are you the poor, blind, crippled, and lame? You favor casting aside God’s Church for something informal and emotionally charged. The Mass is not for excuses, it is for those who have no business being in the presence of God whom sin has crippled, blinded, and killed.

The Mass is not a Roman Catholic thing. It is the offering of a sacrifice, but not by you, by Jesus. The Mass, therefore, is ingrained into the Church Year and you pass it by without thinking. Each year you celebrate Christmas, or CHRIST-MASS.

The Mass is Christ’s. It is the Divine Service that He comes down into to physically be with His people and offer His sacrifice to you for free. Any and every time the Sacraments are celebrated in the Church it is Mass; Christmass, Epiphanymass, Lentmass, Eastermass, or Trinitymass.

All Sundays deserve a celebration of the Mass, because all Sundays are a reminder to us of Good Friday and Easter, in which the Lord of all saw fit to take His own life, lay it down for all of creation, and take it back up again.

This is the Gospel. This is the power of God for your salvation. In proclaiming the Lord’s death, we proclaim that sinners get to live. We get to do that, it is not a requirement for salvation, but the Lord allows us this special participation.

For as often as we eat and drink the Body and Blood of Christ, we proclaim His death until He comes (1 Cor. 11:26). In the Mass, the Divine Service, you are proclaiming the Gospel to the whole world. His death is our life. His guilt is our innocence.

For God has arisen. Creation’s groans have reached His ears and our sin smells to high heaven. He sends His saving Word, Jesus, in the flesh, to fight fearlessly and sharply against all sin and evil. Through the Word, we endure in the light that shines through the cross of Christ.

Lifted upon an instrument of death, Jesus purchases life for His poor, blind, and dead creation. Risen to new life, He justifies those whom He has chosen out by His gifts and Gospel and calls and gathers all, on His own.

Yes, you are the ungrateful who make excuses about coming to Church. You are also the ones who can’t make it here alone. IN Christ, your excuses are drowned in the waters of baptism and come out as shouts of Hosanna! In Christ, your ailments and inability to be of any worth are exchanged for the righteousness of Christ.

You are not worthy to be here, but in Jesus you are the Son. You are an heir to the Kingdom. You are the most holiest and sanctified person on the whole planet and therefore privy to any and all good things from above.

Which is what this banquet is: it is a free gift, given by God for you to simply receive. There is no entrance fee, no pre-examination, and no offering required. It does not require your approval, your enthusiasm, or your vote.

Jesus simply lays out the Feast before you and gives instructions: Eat, drink. In the Mass, the Lord gives a sacrifice to you, not to please you, but to make you pleasing. The Lord’s sacrifice gives you a clean heart, a right spirit, and forgiveness of sins.

In fact, we are doing nothing else but following the example of the Apostles. Immediately after the Ascension of Jesus, they took to their heels and celebrated the Mass. In Acts, we hear that they “devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

Trinity 1 [St. Luke 16:19-31]

Jesus says,

“And [the rich man] called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’”

Here, Jesus removes your free will and says that there will be a judgment, even without your approval. That some will go to hell and some will go to heaven. That hell is made up of pain and torment, as fiery flames and heaven is like cool water.

This is how it is and, just as the rich man suggests, only water can be of relief. In the next chapter of Genesis, from our OT reading, Abraham allows Sarah to throw out Hagar, because Hagar is pregnant with Ishmael.

Cast out into the desert, Hagar and her son find small refuge by a spring of water and there are found by the Lord and He has mercy on her. Not because of who she is or what was done to her, but because of Who God is. He is the Savior and save He does.

Although the spring of water quenches Hagar’s thirst and may save her from dying, it is the Promise of the Lord that gives her a mighty son, to which the great nation of Islam claims heritage. The Lord took a small, unborn child, and made of him a great nation.

Likewise, the rich man asks for water. He asks that Abraham command Lazarus to baptize his finger and apply this heavenly, rich water to his inflamed tongue. This only so that the rich man may remain where he is, yet be comforted: a sinful request in attempting to drag heavenly things into hell.

What is baptism for you all? In the same vein, we may ask, who do you all say that St. Luke Evangelical is? Is baptism simply a symbol; a tool you choose to use when and where you desire? A nice thing that grandma and grandpa did so we should too? Or is it a part of who you tell others you are?

Likewise, what do you say about your church to others?

Repent. You and the rich man are fed up with Church. You are in it for social and familial status. You treat it like a sumptuous buffet table, only taking those things which you think you need and discarding everything else. You dress up in nice clothes and think, God has blessed me, but I don’t know about these others, especially that guy up front.

In your own zeal for what you think the Church is and Who Jesus is, you have completely ignored Moses and the Prophets. You have forgotten that the prophets call for a complete repentance for all your works, bad AND good. You have forgotten that your catechism has judged you and found you lacking.

Lazarus is Jesus. Jesus is not handsome. Jesus is not charismatic or lovey-dovey. He has no form that we should hold Him of any account. He is cast aside by our sinful will and left for the dogs who, instead of eating what is falling from their master’s table, lick Lazarus instead.

Jesus does not do what we want Him to, neither does He act the way we want Him to. He does not save everyone and He does so in His own way: through baptism. For, unlike Lazarus who could not save the rich man from torment with water, Jesus can.

Jesus is greater than Lazarus, for although both are stricken, smitten, and afflicted and left by their friends, Jesus exalts Himself for our benefit. Jesus has come specifically and only to cross that chasm and come back. Jesus has gone to those who are tormented in hell. He has preached His gospel, but they reject it even then.

Moreover, Jesus does rise from the dead, yet there is still unrepentance among even us. Jesus defeats death, rises again to new life, and we can hardly bring ourselves to Sunday morning, much less any other activity in Church.

But, by the grace of God, Jesus never misses a Service. Jesus never misses an opportunity to prove that He has saved you and that your sins are forgiven. Jesus constantly and consistently combines His Word with water to produce new Christians. Jesus inexorably, time and time again, calls you by His Gospel and enlightens you with His Sacraments.

This is how Abraham knows Lazarus; this is how the rich man knew Lazarus and this is how Jesus knows Lazarus. In his own baptism, Lazarus wasn’t just Lazarus anymore. He had a new name engraved on his forehead. It reads, “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”

Your name is not to be found on your birth certificate, but on your re-birth certificate. You are a Christian. That is how you answer any who ask. You are also Lutheran, which is the same thing, but in our day and age a necessary addition. That is to say, you believe that Jesus is the Christ and that He still works among us in His Word.

And that Word is, “Go and make disciples of all nations by baptizing them in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” So, when people ask, or even when they don’t; or when Satan asks, you say, I am baptized into Christ. That is who you are.

What does such baptizing with water indicate? I mean, if Jesus is Lazarus and we would just as soon pass Him by like any other person strewn by the wayside, then what makes you think a baptism done by Him, is so great?

It is the Word of God written so that you may believe. So that you may believe, not only that Jesus gives you all you need for this life in this Divine Service, but so that you might also believe that you were buried with Jesus into death.

That the Old Adam, your dead, blind, and deaf self, is daily drowned; drowned by daily contrition and repentance. So that, you should daily emerge and arise to live before God in everlasting righteousness and purity, before God. For, just as Christ was raised from the dead, you too may live a new life.

A new life of love, excitement, and forgiveness. Even though Lazarus suffered and died, he was carried by the angels, because His Savior gave him the kingdom. As we are and as we will be, we are royalty because the King of kings has baptized and redeemed us.

Even if we die, we will yet live. Death’s flood has lost its chill since Jesus crossed the river. He has loved our souls and delivered them out of all our ills and woes.

Jesus willingly and joyfully takes up the cross on our behalf and He joyfully hands all that He won there, over to us. Jesus is excited to be in Church today in order to save you from the death of your sin.

Hosts of One [Most Holy Trinity; St. John 3:1-15]

Jesus speaks to you all today saying,

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up”

So must the Son of Man, that’s Jesus, be high and lifted up. Three Sundays ago, the Old Testament reading was about Moses and this serpent that was lifted up. Yet, here Jesus is lifted up and in complete solitude. No one goes with Him and even God turns His back on Him.

This is done so that we know that no creature could make satisfaction for our sins. Only Christ, true God and true man, could do that. Also, this solitude-ness is God acting completely backwards. In Philippians, we hear Jesus speaking of the same idea. That, somehow, Jesus emptied Himself (2:7).

So, how can this God of all things, Who fills all things, Who creates all things, Who of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, and Who needs not one thing from anybody be empty and act in solitude?

One word God uses to describe Himself may help us with this. That word is “sabbaoth”. Not to be confused with Sabbath, Sabbaoth means “hosts” or “great (amounts of) armies”. When we sing the Sanctus, just before Communion, we confess that the Lord is Holy, holy, holy and that He is the Lord of hosts.

The “sabbaoth” of God are more numerous than can be counted and this was a great source of comfort when the angels sang this fact to Isaiah. For God was always telling His people to do outrageous things. He was always advising them to take on tasks too great for the number of people they had.

Whenever the Israelites would march to war, it was always, “Take as few people as you can”. When Moses faced Egypt; when David faced Goliath; when Gideon faced the Midianites (Judges 7); when Isaiah faced his own people and when Jesus faced all of creation.

There was not a time when sheer numbers overwhelmed the enemies of God. The Lord never called upon His hosts to fight for anything in Scripture. He always made sure to empty His forces as much as He could. He always made sure the small conquered the great, the weak conquered the mighty, and the humble conquered the exalted.

Repent. You let these little things in Church, pass you by. You think words and words come out of your mouth, but the true meaning of it is categorized as useless and put into the storage compartment of your brain.

However, you can understand might and power. You understand this word, Sabbaoth, because it deals with strength and potential victory. If the Lord has hosts, He can run over evil in this world anytime He wants. If this church were bigger, we could do more.

Dear Christians, Jesus is the Lord of Sabbaoth, but He uses His hosts sparingly. Indeed, at one point Jesus even said to Pilate that none of this suffering and dying stuff had to happen, because Jesus could call down these hosts to save Himself.

But He didn’t. Jesus of Sabbaoth issued the order to stand-by, for this is the way the charge will be won and the victory secured: God alone will die and rise again.

Yes, Jesus surrounds you with this great host to protect you from every danger, but they are there to, first and foremost, protect your faith. This faith which is so important, that the Creed tells us we must think thusly of the Trinity or we can’t be saved (Athanasian Creed).

This faith is so important, that we have spent gobs of paper and resources to make sure we know it, make sure we have it and can keep it. The faith that is so important, that Jesus used His Holy Trinity power to become a man, die on the cross, and rise again for you.

Thus, only one man is responsible for the care of Israel, not a host of hosts. One man is responsible for the faith remaining on earth, and one man is responsible for your salvation: Jesus.

Not just any Jesus, but true God and true man, Jesus; Jesus who created all things, Jesus; Jesus who causes His Name to be kept holy among us and to be written on our foreheads in Baptism, Jesus.

Which is why, when Nicodemus comes, the Lord of Sabbaoth, embodied in Jesus, speaks of salvation in baptismal terms. Because if one is to be saved and see the kingdom of heaven, then one must be a baptized believer, for it is there that the true Faith is given to believe and to think on the things of God.

It is necessary to think of Jesus, but in all and everyway holy Scripture speaks of Him. You can not speak of the power of God without speaking of the weakness of God. You can not speak of the Godhead of God, without speaking of the humanity of God. You can not speak of the Lord of Sabbaoth, without understanding the suffering of Jesus.

Or can your god not do those things? Is your god too full to be empty? Is He too powerful to be weak? Is He too alive to be dead?

The only point to being the Lord of Sabbaoth is to also be that Lord without hosts. Meaning, Jesus can be Lord of Hosts even when He, alone, is dead and buried. Jesus can be the sustainer of the universe, while feeding at His mother’s breasts. Jesus is so alive, that He can die and it not affect anything.

Isn’t that the almighty God you want and have been pining for? The God of the Athanasian creed is also the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is also Jesus. Jesus is the Man who continues to reveal Himself to us in His Word, for that is the power of God for salvation. Your salvation.

So, as you are saying or chanting the word “Sabbaoth”, it is no idle or small thing. The word conveys not just its literal meaning, but, when applied to Jesus, reveals to us all the things He has said and done, as Lord, including His suffering and death, but also His sacraments given so that we would have communion with all of that.

Singing the word, Sabbaoth, should make you think of the great God who is always concerned with you, more concerned than He is about sparrows. Yet, it should also remind you that Jesus hid those hosts and became a servant, in order to serve you forgiveness in water, Word, and bread and wine.

Holy, holy, holy is the angels cry at the appearance of the Lord. Holy, holy, holy is our cry in this place, at the appearance of that same Lord, in the flesh, and on this altar. Heaven and earth are full of His glory, because He took on our flesh and died on a cross. This place, on earth, is filled with His Glory, because He promised it. Blessed is the God-man Jesus, because He is the only one that comes in the Name of the Lord, doing His will, fulfilling His Law, and giving us salvation.

This is your Lord of Sabbaoth and this is the Lord you want saving you, and none other. This is the catholic faith and whoever does not believe it faithfully and firmly cannot be saved.