Life surrounds death [Trinity 16]

 WATCH AND LISTEN HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• 1 Kings 17:17-24
• Ephesians 3:13-21
• St. Luke 7:11-17

    “As He drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out…”

 A Sunday School question from a child may be, “Where did Adam and Eve live?” In the child’s mind, they had the entire world to live in and all its beautiful places untouched and unpopulated. They could go anywhere, live anywhere, and they had plenty of age, 930 years, to do so. So if they could go anywhere and do anything, the possibilities are endless for an active imagination.

​​​​However, I believe the answer is much sadder than the blessed child imagines. Though the Bible is not clear on this, I believe they set up camp, and did not move, from just outside that fiery gate of Eden from which they had been summarily evicted. At least, in the beginning. 

​​​​“In the very midst of life snares of death surround us”, says Dr. Luther’s hymn, 755 in our hymnals. What all of creation was for Adam and Eve and still is, was Eden. Or at least, what it should be. Adam knew that there was infinite life in God, but now faced with this new world of sin and death, he and his wife only had one thing on their minds: getting back.

​​​​However, Eden was closed. Used and abused, Eden fulfilled its purpose in housing Adam and Eve temporarily. There would be no going back as history has proved. For, as we move ahead in time a bit, today’s Gospel events have shown that the decedents of Adam and Eve are still surrounded by death, though their Lord is the Lord of life.

​​​​In fact, all of Luke chapter 7 is about being surrounded by death. In verses 1-10, a centurion’s vibrant and lively household is struck by the death of one of his slaves. Devastated, the centurion sends out those who are still alive to find Jesus and get a simple word from Him (7:7). A word that would restore full life to the household. 

​​So what did the household do? They sat around the dead waiting for their loved one to come back. They didn’t move on. They didn’t move away. Same with the widow of today’s gospel. She is near her son. For some reason she thinks that if she stays near, maybe he will come back, just as Adam and Eve thought.

​​In the next part of chapter 7, 18-28, Jesus says you will know the Messiah by the fact that He will raise the dead. In verses 29-35, Jesus talks of the dance of death done by those who try to please God with their own merit. In gluttony and drunkeness, lively activities, they only find death. 

​​Finally, in verses 36-50, we hear of St. Mary Magalene. And this is the climax of the chapter because it is Mary who feels death keenest. She knows that, because of her sinful lifestyle, death is but a heartbeat away from taking her to eternal judgement and she has no recourse for mercy. She feels it so much, that she washes Jesus’ feet with her tears of fear which don’t seem to stop.

​​​​Jesus rewards her begging with mercy. Just as He rewards all in this chapter of St. Luke and all who believe in Him with the words, “Your faith has saved you”, depart in peace. These then become the words of His Church, not wishing to merely mimic Christ, but to use the same words in confidence and hope of the same rewards. 

​​​​That our sinful life of death would be forgiven. That our dance with death and sin would be taken away. That our dead would be brought back to us so that life would win out the day once more. For, looking around us, we also find death surrounding us. Though we look busy, we lock ourselves away in our tomb-like houses, we shield ourselves from sun, dirt, and air, and we jump at every cough and shadow. Truly there is no world as deadly as ours.

​​​​So it is that in our sin, the world is flipped upside-down. Now it is in the land of death that we dwell, not life. God’s creation seems distant, a mere pipe-dream. “In the very midst of death” we sing. Our faith has dwindled to the point of us repeating, “Maybe there will be life later, but not today.”

​​​​Jesus disagrees with you. Instead of Jesus hanging His head in defeat, He tells you “Do not weep”. He declares that the dead will rise. He shows another dance; the Easter dance of Life. He brings faith and forgiveness to a dark world of death in order to force life into it once again. 

​​​​While the gates of Eden, the very foundations, have been sealed and destroyed, the mask that forgiveness has torn in two, from top to bottom reveals a better Eden; a perfect Eden. Adam and Eve sat by Eden in despair. They had children and built cities in hope. They left the doorstep, because the promise was not a return to Eden, but a perfect rest and forgiveness from all fear.

​​​Dear Christians, we still live in that Eden-like world of life. It is the devil who wants to convince us that death is the only scenery. It is he who wants us afraid of everything but God and it is he saying, “Your son is never coming back”.

​​​​No, our hymn is correct. In the midst of life; in the midst of the life of Christ, the life of faith, the life of the Church, snares of death surround us, but do not touch us. Death does not have dominion, it only has guerrilla warfare. Because Christ has dominion in heaven and earth, He makes His kingdom on earth through the resurrection of the dead and the forgiveness of sins.

​​​​Christ brings forgiveness to sins that lead to death and He brings resurrection to death, that leads to life. It is in this double portion of promises and hope that we face death ourselves, carefully burying our own dead and boldly marching through life. All in the sure and certain hope that we only face these things for a short amount of time.

​​For these truthful accounts from Luke 7 could be and are accounts from our very lives. We have empty seats in our households. We are doing our best to dance, play, and utterly distract ourselves from the truth of sin, and we have tears that flow over how sinful and close to death we find ourselves daily.

​​​​Who will help us in this strife? Where shall we for refuge go? Jesus is the slave to God who dies in place of the centurions slave. The only son of the Father who fills casket and tomb, in place of other sons. The one who dances with death in a vicious struggle and comes out alive, raising all flesh from the grave, and handing out forgiveness, faith, and salvation.

​​​​The Lord Jesus is our only hope and we flee to His deathly wounds that could not hold Him. For in His dying, we are purchased. In His suffering, we are comforted in knowing that our suffering will end.

​​​​In the meantime, how can we find this Life God wants for us? Where is our own stay from the dark veils of death around us? The last wall we hit in life is here in the Church. For as we process in our own funeral march towards it, Jesus stands at the end, resurrected and serving Life.

​​​Serving life in water, Word, and Bread and Wine. Planting His sacraments in graveyard soil, causing caskets to spring open and reveal living loved ones. Our dance is the liturgical dance of life, around the sacraments.

There will be life today, because the Lord of Life is not only with us, but He dines with us; communes with us. Death is laughed to scorn among us, because Jesus has broke death’s prison. It is a joke. There is no death for the Christian. Death now stands in the marketplace, in his clown outfit.

While we sit at the footstool of Jesus and are clothed in our baptismal garments, which do not fade away. We receive life from the imprinted hand of Christ and nothing else matters. The good that we have chosen, in faith, shall not be taken from us and faith will not allow anything to come between us and God’s love for us in Christ.

So He brings us, not to the gate of Eden, but the gate of heaven. The new way of restoration is the cross. The cross which our Savior bears for you in order to purchase and win your death, in exchange for His life. From the cross, Jesus tells us, “Do not weep”, because the Son will rise again. He will sit up and preach and teach the forgiveness of sins in His own Gospel.

​

 

The Man [Feast of St. Matthew]

 LISTEN AND WATCH HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Ezekiel 1:10-14
• Ephesians 4:7-116
• St. Matthew 9:9-13

To you all who are beloved of God in Rensselaer (Monticello) called as saints:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 Who speaks to you today as always, only through His Gospel saying,

“For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

 In the Old Testament reading from Ezekiel, you hear the prophesy of the Four Gospels to come and proclaim the favorable year of the Lord (Isa. 61:2) by the forgiveness of sins. To follow the Holy Ghost handing out and proclaiming whatever He gives and says, these four living creatures are representing what the Gospel does. The fire is the Light of the World speaking His Gospel through them. Speaking of mercy and not sacrifice. Preaching the truth in Love and the fullness of Christ.

 For it has been since Apostolic times that the Church has associated these four living creatures in Ezekiel with the Four Gospels. The human face with the Gospel according to St. Matthew whose feast day we celebrate today, the lion with St. Mark, the ox with St. Luke, and the eagle with St. John. Each animal representing a unique aspect of the Gospel associated with it.

 For St. Matthew, it is the human face, or literally, the face of a man. This is because a recurring phrase in St. Matthew’s gospel is “the man” when talking about and referring to Jesus. The sad part is that it doesn’t come through in English translations, but St. Matthew is known for emphasizing the man-ness of Jesus and focusing on the human nature of Jesus.

 Not that St. Matthew forgets or neglects the divine nature, but that we hear more of how God was made man and what sort of things He spent His time doing, as a man. Meaning they are important for us men. This comes out in our Gospel reading, though again not in English. 

 In v.12, the Greek says, “But The Man, hearing [them], said…”

And it happens all over St. Matthew’s gospel. “The Man” did this or “The Man” did that. Jesus is The Man and as Man He lives a life of perfection, He suffers, dies, and is buried just as men are. It is in this part of the mystery of “God made flesh” that St. Matthew keeps our attention on throughout his gospel book.

 Even though it is St. John’s gospel that holds the phrase “Behold the man” uttered by John the Baptist, the first 2 chapters of St. Matthew are not in the other gospels. This includes the genealogy of the man, Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, that same man giving Jesus His Name, and the wise men, flight to Egypt, and the murder of the Holy Innocents.

 So it is that the Man, Jesus, does hear, as the gospel said He heard the Pharisees. He hears the Pharisees cries of self-righteousness, their self-proclaimed wellness as the gospel says, and He also hears the tax-collectors’ and sinners’ cries for mercy, those who are sick or evilly afflicted with a worldly lifestyle. Jesus hears even when all parties have no idea they are praying for those things.

 For whether you think you are well or think you are sick, Jesus passes in front of us and calls out. But He calls out in a rough way and St. Matthew uses himself as an illustration for us. You see, at the beginning of the gospel pericope, it is Matthew being called and spoken to by Jesus. At the end, Jesus says that He has come to call and speak to sinners. St. Matthew, in his own hand, is calling himself a sinner.

 Now, you would sinfully think that since St. Matthew is writing this gospel to be heard by the whole world that he would take the time to make himself look good. Maybe he would be the first one Jesus called, or the beloved disciple, or the most devoted. This would be the time to do just that and other writers have done it and continue to.

 In the Koran, Mohammed is continuously promoted as the “model for all men” and is given the most “blessings” from Allah. In Mormonism, John Smith had the secret knowledge and all the best stuff from everyone. Even in the eastern religions, you are the best if you live life virtuously and to be copied by everyone else. And any book by a politician, well, you know.

 Instead, St. Matthew knows John the Baptist’s words well, “He must increase and I must decrease” (Jn. 3:30). There is something bigger than St. Matthew happening and St. Matthew is very much aware of this something. We are made aware of his awareness in the very first verse of his entire gospel book and in one other place, for example. 

 When St. Matthew says, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” in 1:1, he literally says in the Greek, “The book of the genesis of Jesus Christ…”. Meaning, St. Matthew knew he was writing scripture, as in, finishing or completing what Moses’ book of Genesis started.

 In another place in St. Matthew’s gospel (24:14, 26:13), he records Jesus saying “wherever this gospel is preached” and “this gospel will be preached” throughout the whole world. “This gospel” meaning this book that St. Matthew was writing. 

 But that didn’t matter to St. Matthew. He didn’t try to paint himself rosy. He knew that God knew his sins. He knew that he was already exposed to the Almighty and that every single one of his thoughts, words, and deeds was known. He also knew that they would be revealed to everyone on the Last Day, so why try to hide them now?

 No, St. Matthew’s trust was not in how well he did things in Jesus’ eyes neither was it in how well he wrote about those things that Jesus did. St. Matthew’s trust was in the Man. The Man, come down from the heavens in order to hear sinners and call them to follow Him to Confession and Absolution. 

 Jesus says, “Follow me” and tax-collectors and Pharisees follow Him. Like moths to a flaming torch, all creation cannot help itself around God’s Word. When God says, “Follow me”, St. Matthew rises as if from a deathly, sinful sleep to follow. Man to man, God stands in front of you and speaks to you.

 Jesus stands in front of you, calling you a sinner, but He does so from His cross. He may have the face of a man that you can grab hold of and scourge, but He is also the face of God. And, in St. Matthew’s gospel, He is the God-man come to call sinners to follow Him where His Body and Blood is to be a ransom for the many (Mt. 20:28).

 He makes the demand of you, from our Introit, to speak wisdom, talk of judgment, and hold the law of God in your heart. But instead of extracting that tax from you, He taxes Himself and suffers and dies in order to purchase and win you. 

Neither does He wait for you to write the perfect confession or vow. Instead the wisdom and righteousness He wants is His own words which He conveniently pens down on paper, through the Apostles, for you. In His mercy, Jesus gives us His righteousness found in the gospel that St. Matthew wrote, through the Holy Ghost. Holy Wisdom is found only in speaking God’s Word, which you find in the Gospel according to St. Matthew.

 Thus it becomes St. Matthew’s priority to get his gospel book to all people. He does not just write, but he preaches. Legend has it that he wrote the gospel as a sort of catechetical, farewell letter to the Jews before leaving and being martyred in Persia, some years after. 

 We know that he not only carried his gospel and shared it, but that he did so in the context of the Divine Service, for all the Apostles and pastors “devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). 

It is this gospel and Divine Service light that opens our minds to comprehend just how the four living creatures of Ezekiel represent the Gospel. Four faces, four gospels. Wings of the angel messengers that carry the message of God. And the Light of the World, unchanging, not turning to the left or to the right, and flashing for the world to see as we hear Psalm 97:4 say, “His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled.”

In Christ Crucified, St. Matthew’s gospel book brings salvation and faith by hearing, in the light of Christ. Christ gives us His Apostle’s teachings to hear and read that we might be equipped, build up His Church, and finally attain the “unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God”…”so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” as our Epistle teaches us today.

 This is the kind of God you worship. This is the kind of Savior you have, that the power of His salvation and redemption is stored in the gospel written by a man, a sinner, a tax-collector no less, and revealing the Son of Man to you, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

 We rise for the Gospel reading during Service, just as St. Matthew rose at our Savior’s words to follow Him. Not because they are pretty, but because in them we hear of mercy, of peace, and of forgiveness from God. We rise from our deathly slumber of our own sin, death, and the devil to once again shout “Amen” and “I believe” upon hearing it. 

We follow Christ through His Church Year, going again and again to the cross through Advent, to Easter, to the Last Day. We look around our own church in faith and see our Lord reclining with us at the Supper Table and know that His Word is for us. That when we hear His Word, we know that we are sick and we know that our God comes with mercy to call sinners to His healing waters, especially in His Gospel.

 

 

God's graven image [Exaltation of the Holy Cross]

 WATCH AND LISTEN HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Numbers 21:4-9
• Philippians 2:5-11
• St. John 12:20-36

To you all who are beloved of God called as saints:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Today, we once again look to the only place God is speaking these days, pointing to His cross, saying,

“Sir we wish to see Jesus”

When we talk about the cross, we are not talking about the actual piece of wood that killed our God, as if a true piece of it would create marvels and miracles among us. This sort of thing is what started this festival in the Church, when back in the 4th century, it was thought that a piece of wood was a piece of the cross. We do not deal with a magical, smoke and mirrors god.

When we talk about the cross, we talk about the crucifix, the cross with Jesus on it. We talk about the cross with Jesus on it, because of what the Greeks demand of Phillip an Andrew today, saying, “Lord, we desire to see Jesus”.

Now, the desire to see God is not unique to Christianity. Every religion, indeed, every person desires to see God. Whether or not they believe God is Who He says He is, or what He says He is, they desire to commune with whatever mysterious power is controlling things and making things what they are.

What is unique to Christianity is the world can see God. when we ask to “see God” we don’t need a golden calf, or a superman, or any other imaginary image to at best pretend to see god. We worship a God Who locates Himself. 

This is why the Greeks from the Gospel can ask Phillip to see Jesus: because He can be seen and He says He’s God. They must have been very familiar with Isaiah 55:6 when God says, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.” They knew that they didn’t have to search their feelings, they could just search for a man.

For Jesus doesn’t seem to answer the Greeks, at first listen. He appears to go on a side rant talking about seeds of grain and hating life. Jesus does it again as He continues, talking about glory and hours. He concludes that it will only when He is lifted up off the earth that anyone will truly see Him.

So it is that the Gospel reading ends with Jesus hiding Himself. Not because He was tired. Not because He needed to recharge. It is because He is directing us to where He is going to be found; where we can go to see Him.

Dr. Martin Luther said, 

    “Of this I am certain, that God desires to have his works heard

    and read, especially the passion of our Lord. But it is impossible

    for me to hear and bear it in mind without fanning mental images

    of it in my heart For whether I will or not, when I hear of Christ,

    an image of a man hanging on a cross takes form in my heart, just

    as the reflection of my face naturally appears in the water when I 

    look into it. If it is not a sin but good to have the image of Christ 

    in my heart, why should it be a sin to have it in my eyes?”

So when we ask God to show us Jesus, He tells us to seek the grain of wheat that fell into the ground and produced much fruit. That is, the seed of the Word of God Who suffered, died, and was buried.

When we ask God to glorify His Name in all the earth, He turns our eyes and ears towards the Son of God, high and lifted up upon the cross, drawing all men to Himself by way of His death. The light we are to walk in is hidden, but it is hidden behind means in order that it shine more brightly.

You think of the bright light of the Resurrection, as this light, and you are half-right. It is the light of the Resurrection, but it is that light shining through the cross of Christ. For even after the lights of Resurrection and Pentecost fame, the Apostles remain firm in their preaching, telling only of the crucified Christ (1 Cor. 2:2) and boasting only in His cross (Gal. 6:14).

The continued focus of the Apostles’ preaching and teaching was finding Jesus on the cross, whether it was baptizing everyone in His death and resurrection or communing with that same body and blood that hanged on the cross. The Lord of all hides Himself in means of the Spirit so that we might engage Him in all 5 senses.

And we hear that in God’s Word. He expressly teaches us that Jesus is the Divine Image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). The Son of Mary is the image that God fashions for Himself for the world to see. An image that the entire world can look at, contemplate, and come to no other conclusion than God offers Himself in the place of sinners for the forgiveness of sins.

Why would we not want this image in front of us? Why would we not keep it close to us and look to it in times of trouble and doubt? Yes, there is the fear of turning it into an idol, but come on man. Idols are supposed to be comfortable, reassuring, and desirable. It is very hard to make a dying man on a cross sweet and cuddly. 

Yet, this is comfort for the Christian. It is comfort because it is not glorifying capitol punishment. It is glorifying a God Who is gracious and merciful and loving. God gave His only-begotten Son to suffer and die in our place. It is comfort because there is the promise. The promise that if Jesus dies and is buried, like our grain of wheat, that there will be hope.

Moses prophesied Christ’s crucifixion in the bronze serpent, which was also lifted up for the healing of all who looked at it and believed. Hidden in the crucifixion is the narrow way to the healing of God, for by His wounds we are healed (Isa 55:3). Since we will imagine those wounds in our head when we hear of it, we can, in all godliness, fashion a picture of them outside of our head.

So, the goodness of God is hidden in the suffering and death of Jesus, Who is exalted for His work on the cross. To find that goodness for ourselves, we have no choice but to turn to the only place where it is given: the same Body and Blood that worked out our salvation of the cross. 

For this reason, the crucifix has been one of the most treasured images of the church throughout the ages. And, as Moses showed, even before there was a “church” proper. It is our central message, as Christians. It is the center of Jesus’ work for us sinners. 

So much so, that we “keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2). the crucifix becomes this point of symbolism, teaching, and reinforcement of the important truths of God’s Word.

that is that in sin, God is hidden. He does not allow Himself to be found in the things of this world, even though it be the holiest work ever done. God hates sin. He hates sin so much that He did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all and now through Him graciously gives us all things (Rom 8:32).

At the very same time, the crucifix proclaims how much God loves you. God is gracious, merciful, and loving but only in the cross of Christ. God is all inclusive, but He only leaves the door open at the Baptismal font. God is all forgiving, but His hand of mercy only rests on His Supper at the Altar.

God is hidden and yet not. The Greeks cannot see Him because they are not yet looking through Jesus’ crucifixion. Everyone is following Him in the Gospel, because they have not yet witnessed the suffering of God. The world is waiting for a shining throne, shield, and sword to proclaim God’s presence on earth, yet they miss the light of the cross.

Seek first the kingdom of God where He is to be found: in His Word and Sacraments and in the holy images and icons that reveal that truth to us. For the Image of God will return and in order for us to recognize it, we need to acquaint ourselves and memorize it now. It is good, right , and salutary to keep Christ in front of us, literally.