To be debt free [Trinity 9]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• 2 Samuel 22:26-34

• 1 Corinthians 10:6-13

• St. Luke 16:1-9

Grace to you all and Peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus, the Christ.

 

Who speaks to you today, from His Gospel heard in His Church, saying: 

“The Lord commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.”

 

Thus far from God’s Word, written for you to show you He does not change the rules behind your back. He does not, one day, chose Judaism, then the next choose Christianity. It has always been faith alone in Jesus, that pleases God. Jesus simply reveals the Resurrection in Himself, that we too may believe and live like we have a tomorrow, forever.

 

They say rich men are like God because they both are so rich that they have nothing to worry about. So if the rich man decides to change something on a whim, it makes no difference to him. He doesn’t suffer from the decisions, those who have less do. The manager in today’s parable seems to have a run-in with a rich man’s flightiness. He thought he was ok, until he wasn’t.

 

“The job changed on me”, cries the manager. Monday we were doing it one way and now Tuesday, the rules have changed. “Lord”, the manager explains, “if we are going to get ahead in the world, then we need to make a profit. If we want to make a profit, we have to get the goy for all they’re worth.”

 

And it was a successful, soft life for him. Notice what the manager can’t do when he’s fired. Not strong enough to dig and too proud to beg. Entitled. Spoiled. Full of soy lattes. He was comfortable in the work and thought he was following all company policies. 

 

Like Job, he was the perfect, moral businessman. Wealth, he knows, comes as a reward for playing by the rules and “goodness” is like money in the bank. The “goodness” of following the rules, no matter what was thought of them.

 

What Job knew, however, was what the manager forgot: that this world of business is unstable. At any given moment, currency can change, interests can flag, and attention shift. If any small thing of that sort should happen, you can find yourself bankrupt as quickly as you were made rich. For you were invested in one currency, or area of worth, but now the system is operating on different currency.

 

Both Job and our manager find themselves in this situation. Both are turned out. Both are bankrupted. Both have been shown that the goodness they thought they had a hold of, was not the right goodness. To them, the Lord changed the rules and it was not fair.

 

This is exactly what the Jews were fighting and how they felt, just before the exile to Babylon. In Isaiah 22 we hear, that the secret places of David and the houses of his city were all pulled down to strengthen the walls of Jerusalem, in defense against coming enemies. In this distrust of God’s faithfulness, even the religious ceremonies and ceremonial items were used as grocery items, instead of proclaiming God and keeping the Sabbath holy. 

 

“but you didn’t look to Him Who made it from the beginning”, says Isaiah, “and did not regard Him Who created it”. “For this sin shall not be forgiven you until you die” and “your robe, your crown and your management” shall be given to another (Isa 22:11, 14, 19-21). 

 

Awful harsh for simple business transactions, no? No. This manager, from the Gospel, was not in charge of simple business. Look at his shrewdness. He was in charge of debt, make no mistake. And St. Matthew just so happens to call sins, “debts”, in his Lord’s Prayer (Mt 6:12). 

 

What kind of debts? Huge, ungodly debts. These debts of oil and wheat are similar in size to the debt of the Unforgiving Servant in St. Matthew 18:24. His debt was ten thousand talents or twenty years of paychecks. The oil measures in at about 900 gallons and the wheat about 9000 gallons (fluid and dry measurements were considered the same). All unpayable.

 

Repent! What we and the manager and the Jews forget is the business of the Lord. We want the Lord to pay attention to outward appearances, statistics, and prosperity. We want His success to be based on how successful we are. And He promises as such, so it seems, and to our experiences, if you want your religion to be ahead of the others, you reward your followers better than everyone around them.

 

The manager was comfortable in this. Job was not. Job knew God to be a hard man and so he “would send and consecrate [his children], and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, ‘It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.’ Thus Job did continually.” (Job 1:5)

 

And instead he suffered for being dutiful. Even his health and family were removed from Job, not just his job. However, same as the manager, this was not a change of the rules or a change of currency, on the Lord’s part. For the Lord’s business is forgiveness.

 

Pat what you owe! (Rom 13:7), the Word says, and we are debtors.

But I will prosper you, says the Lord (Jer 29:11).

So, who is right? The manager? Job? The Lord? 

 

Jesus says that we have our very life from the Word from His own mouth. The same life that Adam said came from his wife, the mother of all the living (Gen 3:21), the very life in the Breath of God (Gen 2:7). Indeed, Jesus even gives the command to “be fruitful and multiply”, suggesting success and blessing. 

 

But success and blessing are not the same thing, though they can be tied together. The world sees success and blessing as prospering in the material, money in the bank, people in the pew, a stable family life. So it transfers that experience to life with God. That if we pay the right amount, in those things, God will reward us.

 

“The measure you use will be used against you”, Jesus told us a couple Sundays ago. That measure is not just how you treat God, in some sort of imaginary way. That measure has to do with God, with His Christ, and with the neighbors He gives to you. For example, the measure you use against your wife will be what is used against you.

 

Jesus brings the measure and it is Himself. Jesus brings the rules and they are the Word made flesh. “A good man deals graciously and lends; He manages his words with judgement” says Psalm 112:5. Grace, pity, and favor are God’s mode of operation in the Old Testament and Grace, pity, and favor are shown in the Life of Christ. 

 

Jesus did not change the rules with Job. The cross was always the Way. Though Job could have success, Job’s greatest success would be found in the death of death. He even rejoices in this in his famous chapter 19 and when his fortunes are “resurrected” at the end of his book. “I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth. Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God” (Job 19:25-26).

 

Resurrection from the dead. Resurrection from the thing that actually destroys success and actually changes the rules on us: death. It was sin, death, and the devil that ruined the manager’s job, because he was focused on profit and not mercy. This reveals the shift from the Old Testament times to the New Testament times. 

 

Jesus did not change the rules on the Jews, he just continued to show mercy. He simply continued to cancel the debt of those who transgressed against His laws, no matter who had done so. Indeed, it was grace and mercy for they were His laws and His business which we profaned. And if the Lord commends shrewdness for dealing mercifully with a little, then He will commend a kingdom for dealing mercifully with all.

 

Jesus manages His own House perfectly. It is managed by faith and it is governed through grace and it is measured by Christ alone. There was no great change that took place from the Old Testament to the New and there is no great change from the New Testament to you. 

 

The New, is the Resurrection where, all having died to the Law that increases our debts, are freed from the Law by baptism. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.” (Rom 6:3-5)

And “now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the old letter of [debts]” (Rom 7:6).

Faith works fruit [Trinity 8]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Jeremiah 23:16-29

• Romans 8:12-17

• St. Matthew 7:15-23

 

Grace to you all and Peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus, the Christ.
 
Who speaks to you today, from His Gospel heard in His Church, saying: 

“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits”

 
This is the Lord’s Holy Scripture and He includes it for you to hear of fruits, or works, one more time. Not only are you required to do good works, but prophets have their own set of works, as St. Jeremiah teaches today in our Old Testament reading. Different from your commanded works, a prophet is to proclaim the Christ, the Messiah. And the only Good Tree is the cross of Jesus. If a prophet does not preach and teach the Blood of Christ, then he is false.
 
The Blood of Jesus is the only claim we have on God for anything. And yet, there are still those who teach that works merit salvation and sanctification. Those teachings are presented to us to fool us into thinking a diseased tree can bear good fruit. Their falseness is found in that they will turn to a dictionary, rather than Scripture, to make this point.
 
And the dictionary reads like this:
a) Even in the fallen state, man can, by his natural intellectual power, know religious and moral truths. 
And, b) For the performance of a morally good action, Sanctifying Grace is not required. 
Although the sinner, they explain, does not possess the grace of justification, he can still perform morally good actions and, with the help of actual grace, even supernaturally good works, and through them prepare himself for justification. Thus all works of the person in mortal sin are not sins 
 
The works of sinners are not sins? That’s convenient. The dictionary goes on:
c) The Grace of Faith is not necessary for the performance of a morally good action, they say, even infidels can do morally good works. Thus not all works of infidels are sins. And, 
d) Actual Grace is not necessary for the performance of a morally good action, for fallen man can perform good works without the help of Divine grace, by his natural powers alone. Therefore not all works which are achieved without actual grace are sins
 
Hopefully you can already hear the rise of the false doctrine of theosis. That, if there are works you can do which are not sin, then continuing to do them will cause you not to sin, and therefore not be a sinner any longer. The problem we all have is our sin. If we get rid of them, then we have no problem.
 
Grace seems to be their focus here, but its used in a strange way. That grace is sufficient for you in weakness, the false prophets will quote from 2 Corinthians 12:9, but “grace” used their way appears to be just a wink and a nod. As if God looks at your works and says, “Well, at least you tried” and that is good enough for eternal life. “Do your best and God will do the rest”, they preach.
 
Faith is not even mentioned; much more is the glaring omission of Jesus in all of that. We can work ourselves into godliness with “grace” without Christ. He may be our mediator at first, but then passes the baton to us, to greater heights of holiness. Thus, we peek into their million dollar dictionary of theological terms and find these two gems: condignity and congruity.
 
Both describe this imagined acquisition of God’s Grace. Condignity, or de condigno, declares that God will dignify human works with the grace of forgiveness and righteousness, no matter who does them. Congruity, or de congruo, promotes a grasping at any good work in the hope that God will offer His grace in return. 
 
How can either of those offer hope to the despairing soul? They cannot, because they are primarily meant to elude Scripture. If we can define away “sin”, “death”, and the “power of the devil”, then we can redefine and be “sinless”, “deathless”, and in control ourselves. He who defines the terms, wins the debate; apparently even against God Himself.
 
Repent. The intention of the one who works does not distinguish the kinds of merit he earns because of the work. In their security, hypocrites simply believe their works are worthy, and that for this reason they are accounted righteous, in their own minds. If you speak over yourself, “I am a good tree” enough times, even you begin to believe it.
 
However, there are also always conditions to being good enough. According to the false prophets, your “good enough” works must be morally good and in accordance with the moral law in object, intent, and circumstances. It must be done freely, without coercion, within or without. It must be supernatural, aroused and accompanied by actual grace and proceeding from supernatural motive. 
 
That’s a lot of big words there, miss… But how can works be accompanied by grace if we are seeking grace through them? How can we do supernatural work, when we are only flesh and bone??
 
This is St. Paul from our Epistle reading today. We are not debtors to the flesh, that is we have nothing that we owe to God in our flesh, to perfect our flesh for faith, before He gives us faith. Living according to the flesh, including good works, is to be a debtor to the flesh, having no Spirit. To live by the Spirit is to be led by the Spirit. Not by your whims and fancy, but by His Will as the Third Person of the Trinity, only revealed in the Word.
 
The Spirit leads us to the Tree and Holy Scripture tells us plainly the Good Tree from the Bad tree: Jesus. The same Jesus Who promises to make us fellow heirs with Him, provided that we suffer with Him. Suffer what? Suffer the belief that Sinners sin. That we sin because we are sinners and any work done by a sinner is sinful.
 
At the foot of the cross, our Father declares to us His Will and His Judgement. That His lovingkindness, from our Introit, be found in the suffering of Jesus Christ, His Only Son. And that that same suffering was inflicted in the Temple, His holy Temple, the alleged center of holiness and righteousness for the entire world.
 
The Will of God accomplished there which is to be praised and rejoiced in, is that Christ became sin Who knew no sin, for you. He took on the spirit of the false prophet and ravenous wolf, demanding works too good for sinful man. The thorns and thistles He wore as a crown and was cut down in His prime, tossed and left for the fires of hell to care for Him.
 
But we know what happens next and this informs us as to what actual good fruit is. Good Fruit is Resurrection Fruit. Not only does the Spirit give us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, which any man can practice, but He will raise us from the dead to life everlasting with Jesus.
 
That fruit is only found in, with, and under the Body and Blood of Jesus. To please God, faith alone is necessary. To receive Christ’s own resurrection, baptism into His death and resurrection is necessary. To have the fruit of the Spirit: forgiveness, faith in Christ, and eternal life, eating and drinking the Body and Blood is necessary.
 
Necessary because that is where the Promise to be, is. The Promise is not, “in your works you will find salvation”. The Promise is “salvation belongs to the Lord” and “He will have mercy on whomever He will” (Ps 3:8; Ex 33:19). If He wants you to find salvation in work, He would have promised it and made a list for us.
 
But, salvation is His. It is His to hand out where and when He chooses. If He chooses.
 
In Jesus we know that’s what He chooses to do. There is no redefining of work or grace or salvation that will make a good tree a bad tree, or a bad tree a good tree. The standard is God’s alone, not man’s to weasel around with, redact, and find a another way in.
 
And the standard is the Cross of Christ. If a false prophet wants to be heard and believed, let him die and rise again, proving his words. A true prophet is heard, because he proclaims Christ Crucified, Who has died and risen for His own Word and His own glory. That He hands out His grace by His grace and that the sinner is justified for Christ’s sake, by grace, through faith alone. 
 
Can sin be done in faith? No. In order to sin again, after we have been forgiven and saved, we must be lost. “It is false”, our Confessions state, “and must be censured, when it is asserted and taught…that [we] might or could act contrary [to the Law of God], and [yet]…retain faith and God’s favor and grace” (SD iv:20)
 
If you want your works to reach God, they must be baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus. In other words, you must be fearful that any one of your good works could be a condemning sin. “So you also”, declares Jesus in Luke 17:10, “when you have done everything commanded of you, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’” 
“If you live by the flesh, you will die by the flesh”, says Romans 8:13.
 
Our Confessions stand here:
“Here mercy has a clear and certain promise and command from God. The Gospel is properly the command that directs us to believe that God is reconciled to us for Christ's sake. "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him" (John 3:17). Whenever mercy is spoken of, faith in the promise must be added. This faith produces sure hope, because it relies upon God's Word and command. If hope would rely upon works, then it would be uncertain, because works cannot quiet the conscience, as has been said before. Faith makes a distinction between those who obtain salvation and those who do not obtain it. Faith makes the distinction between the worthy and the unworthy, because eternal life has been promised to the justified. Faith justifies. (Ap V (III):224)
 
So what is it that makes a tree good and healthy? Faith. What makes good fruit from the Good Tree? Faith. What causes you to be known by the Lord on the Last Day? You got it.
Not the faith you have worked up on your own, made your own, and which is impervious to anyone’s opinion or scrutiny, even from the Word of God.
 
But the faith given. That faith that has the Crucified as its object and looks to the cross to reveal, explain, and teach all things. For, the Blood of Jesus is the only claim we have on God. We are not here to make our flesh sinless, but to be baptized into the death and resurrection of our flesh. 
 
 

Understanding and Faith [Trinity 7]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Genesis 2:7-17

• Romans 6:19-23

• St. Mark 8:1-9

 

Grace to you all and Peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus, the Christ.
 
Who speaks to you today, saying: 

“And He directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And He took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, He broke them and gave them to His disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd”

 
This is God’s Word which Jesus sets before you to understand. Like a meal, you can understand how much this Word cost Him. This is to point you to the sacrifice Jesus makes for you. Not just 2000 years ago to middle-eastern hill people, but today. Today, may you hear His words, along with eating and drinking, and find there the forgiveness of our sins.
 
In St. Mark’s chapter 8 and part of 9, along with our Introit and the hymn we just sung, Jesus appears to be tackling the issue of understanding today, by setting His bread and His words in front of us. After our Gospel pericope, in verses 17 and 21, Jesus exclaims, “Do you not yet understand?” Not yet understand what? That Jesus is God in the flesh and that only God feeds in such miraculous ways, thus St. Mark is catechizing us. God has come and He has taken action.
 
Understanding, in general, is a sure sign of consciousness. In other words, being human is being conscious and being conscious means, you understand and can understand the world around you: up, down; good, bad; right, wrong. This is very helpful if you want any chance at survival. 
 
You see, understanding involves more than just knowing something. Understanding is not plugging numbers in an equation. That’s just computing. Any rusty robot can do such a thing. What consciousness and understanding give you is the truth behind the numbers. Instead of mindless computation, you believe that the mathematical rules that reveal 2 + 2 = 4, are true.
 
Same with animals. Though they seem to be conscious, they simply obey commands, whether they are right or wrong. It may be wrong to bite or attack a person, but the animal only knows rebuke and reward. Thus, obedience is not the way for us to consciousness either, since that can be produced by bit and bridle.
 
Maybe we get closer to understanding when we think of food. There are many things we call food and even things that our government calls “food”. Cows, eggs, and apples would fit the first category. Partially hydrogenated soybean oil, xanthan gum, and cyanide (in small doses, of course) would fit the second category. 
 
Yet, both categories are considered food. Understanding lets you know that consistently consuming hamburger is infinitely better than consistently consuming Xanthan Gum. Now you can say its a matter of quantity, but understanding is understanding. If your child is hungry, you reach for the bread, not the lab kit.
 
Let’s take this into the Feeding of the 4000, because Jesus brings up the leaven of the Pharisees and that’s where our misunderstanding begins. Beware the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod, He says, and the Apostles reply, its because we don’t have any bread and Jesus, once again, tells them they are wrong.
 
Again Jesus makes this spiritual. Beware the spiritual leaven of the Pharisees and Herod, that is their doctrine and preachings. Do you not understand, Jesus asks, that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. If you have even a small amount of works mixed into your Gospel, then you do not have the Gospel. If you do not understand what Jesus is doing, then you do not have Jesus.
 
However, just as knowing only takes you so far until you must understand, so too, understanding without faith is just as bad. For the Pharisees and Herod don’t only have leavened doctrine, they also have actual bread they use on the people. Bread and circuses from Herod and the Bread of the Temple for the Pharisees.
 
Repent. As is understandable, when we understand something, it is mostly spiritual to us. An inward change, if for no other reason than you cannot see thoughts. Anything that comes out of the brain is physically only chemical and electrical. A brain surgeon will never come out of the O.R. saying, “well that guy had some interesting thoughts.”
 
But Jesus, when He created us, put all of His Wisdom into creating and locating these spiritual thoughts and understandings in a fleshy brain. Such that it is necessary to have a fleshy brain to have unseen thoughts. Jesus works our consciousness in and through our bodies.
 
Same with the bread. Jesus does His work with both spiritual bread and physical bread. Not only does He feed those in need with daily bread, but He also says, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4). 
 
This means that the understanding faith gives us is to see and believe that feeding and bread are the point. The feeding that God will do with every word that comes from His mouth, is going to be through the ears AND through the mouth. He is not going to be a bread King, but God of our daily bread. Not a food pantry king, with an endless supply, but a Father with endless mercy.
 
Thus, feeding is the way to God. It is how God is accomplishing His work of salvation on earth. He is not using bread only in a spiritual way, like the Pharisees, and He is not using bread only in a physical way, like the kings and elites of the earth. All to coerce and control.
 
He is using it as a sacrifice. It is a sacrifice. Food is always a sacrifice. Whether it is burned up on an altar or ground up to feed the priests, the food always “loses” and in this way, sent up to God.
 
God makes the sacrifice. 
 
Since Jesus is the Bread of Heaven and food is always the sacrifice, then Christ is the Bread of God Who taketh away the sins of the world. He is the food Who endures to eternal life. He is the Bread Who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. 
 
“This is the bread that comes down from heaven”, Jesus says in John 6, “so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:50-51)
 
How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things? Because God said so. It is His Word that declares, “This is how it is”, not any priest, or holy man, or leader. It is His Word that generates belief in His words, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.” It is the Word along with the bodily eating and drinking which accomplishes the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation to all who believe.
 
Now, let us answer Jesus’s question of, “Do you still not understand”.
Yes. We still do not understand, but we believe. We believe in You and Your Word. That it does what it says and accomplishes the great feat of the salvation of sinners. Help our unbelief.
 
Jesus makes the point to remind the Apostles that at both great feedings, the 5000 and the 4000, that there were fragments left over from the meal and gathered reverently, in order to foster their understanding. Their understanding that He is going to save and care for His Creatures is the most perfect and final way ever: uniting Himself to you.
 
And it won’t be a union only on paper or only breathing in your nostrils. It will be flesh and blood. It will be body and soul. It will be a perfect union of God and man in Christ, such that we will be able to say, “Yes, Jesus. Now we understand. We feed on You.”
 
Not just a “sitting at table” way, but a “baptized into Your Body” way. That being members of His Body means that we feed as the heart feeds. We feed as the eyes, hands, head, and feet. This is the fulfillment of everyday eating. That we eat and are never hungry again. As branches of the vine, through faith, we live accordingly.
 
Not as robots, but understanding what our Lord is doing and loving that it is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise. And since it has been set before us, we think about these things and rejoice (Phil 4:8). For God has revealed His glory, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it (Isaiah 40:5).
 

Enthusiasm [Trinity 6]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Exodus 20:1-17

• Romans 6:3-11

• St. Matthew 5:20-26

 

Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you all from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. (2 Jn 1)

 

Who speaks to you today, from His Gospel heard in His Church, saying: 

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

 

Last week we talked about the voice of God and it was imperative that we understood it as external to ourselves. As in coming from God, not inside us. Today, we begin to examine our inner voice that the world continues to tell us to listen to and obey. So how do we know if its God’s voice inside us or if it’s just the Taco Bell we had for lunch?

 

“I tell you”, Jesus says. This is God’s Word, not mine, for you to hear over and over. It doesn’t change no matter how many times you read it. That you are not righteous, that you do murder your neighbor, and that unless you repent and die with Christ, you will remain unrighteous and murderous. It is the External Word that accomplishes true righteousness, and not anything internal to us. Trust, therefore, in the Lord’s Word and Sacraments to create and sustain faith in you and your neighbor.

 

So what happens when you give a spiritual law to fleshly creatures? They get confused, that’s what. Romans 7:14 tells us, “we know that the law is spiritual.” So when Jesus says, “You shall not murder”, we’re all like, “yeah, murder like, ‘murdering’ your good vibes, man.”

 

When we attempt to replace the Word with our experiences, reason, or our pleasures we become Enthusiasts. We name this grave sin, Enthusiasm, because this is what “inheres in Adam and his children from the beginning [from the first fall] to the end of the world, [its poison] having been implanted and infused into them by the old dragon, and is the origin, power [life], and strength of all heresy…It is the devil himself…[who is] extolled as Spirit without the Word and Sacraments” (SA III:VIII:9, 11), says our Confessions.

 

Enthusiasm is the move from the certainty of God's promises to the shaky sands of one's own uncertain thoughts or feelings as to whether God is actually doing or not doing what He promises. 

 

For example: Jesus tells us to not murder, but its spiritual. That gives us spiritual license to interpret and seek its heavenly meaning, rather than a literal interpretation. We attempt to uncover God’s intentions behind His legislation. The flesh hears “you shall not murder someone”, but the “spirit” hears “be reconciled”. Its not about murder, but reconciliation.

 

Thus, in our super-spirituality, we become the judge. We keep God’s Holy Law the way we want to. He may demand righteousness and “no murder”, but what that means to me is “enhancing life”. Maybe that means, if I advocate for the redistribution of goods needed for life to endure (whatever that looks like), unmoored from moral discriminations (whatever those are), with the hope—and trust—that just maybe the wrongdoer will repent, i.e. live like me, then I’ll achieve what God really meant by, “you shall not murder”.

 

This is spiritualizing the law, or enthusiasm. Again, while the Holy Law would prohibit violence, us spiritualizing it would involve limiting the use of violence even in situations where it's technically permitted, emphasizing peace and reconciliation and, on the other hand, authorizing violence if it produces the same, life-enhancing result. 

 

Spiritualized legal systems would focus on fostering communion and cooperation between people, rather than just enforcing laws, rights, and obligations. Ha! Spiritual Growth would then mean ritualizing the law in order that you are simply involved with aligning your actions with your values and striving for a higher purpose. As long as my goal is met, the ends justify the means to get there.

 

Repent. Sounds convoluted, right? If you are above the Scriptures, you are against the Scriptures. You must reject the “fanatical men, who dream that the Holy Ghost is given not through the Word, but because of certain preparations of their own, if they sit unoccupied and silent in obscure places, waiting for illumination” (Ap XIII (VII):13) says our Confessions.

 

Jesus does not promise to draw all men to Himself without external means. Jesus does not promise enlightenment, justification, or salvation apart from hearing God’s Word. You may wish to wait for a heavenly revelation without preaching, but just tell me if you suffer from that and I’ll drop a Bible in your lap. (FC II:13)

 

Jesus rejects enthusiasm today, in the Gospel already heard. He does this by stating the Law, spiritualizing it until only God can be righteous enough to complete it, and then putting our neighbor in front of us. “You shall not murder” has no teeth without another person in front of us. “You shall not murder” gains a physical meaning with the spiritual when you see yourself in your neighbor.

 

Meaning, our spiritual fantasies disappear when our neighbor, whom we are not supposed to murder, stands in front of us. Same with the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. If that Righteousness were to be placed in front of us, all enthusiasm (the bad kind) would go out the window. There’d be no room for it. We’d have to deal with flesh and blood.

 

If the Law could save us or make us righteous, Jesus would not have endured the cross. If we didn’t need the spoken Word and administered Sacraments, then of what use is the Bible? 

 

God comes in flesh and blood so that there is no doubt what the Word is and what His Promises are. The Word is both spiritual and physical. Jesus is both God and man. He is Judge of both, He holds the authority of both, and He comes to proclaim both. He comes to give the Law and to complete it, in the flesh. He gives spiritual truths, Who just so also happens to be the third Person of the Trinity.

 

Dr. Luther speaks this way:

Our teaching is that bread and wine do not avail…Christ on the cross and all His suffering and His death do not avail, even if, as you teach, they are "acknowledged and meditated upon" with the utmost "passion, ardor, heartfeltness." 

Something else must always be there. What is it? The Word, the Word, the Word. (AE 40:212-213)

 

The solution is: the Word, the Word, the Word. Jesus shows up. The owner of the voice shows up, admits it, and gives the promise of the voice remaining with us, even if He goes away. The Word is made flesh, dwells among us, and leaves us a record of His words. Thus, our first line of defense against enthusiasm, our neighbors and our own, is His Word which endures forever.

 

“Chapter and verse”, is the direct reply to your neighbor’s enthusiasm and to yours. “Show me the chapter and verse”, you say when someone is speaking for God or from God or about God. Did God really say you get visions? Did God really say that all laws are in the shrine of your heart and whatever you decide and command in church is spirit and law, even when it is above and contrary to the Scriptures or spoken Word?

 

I don’t think so. If you are above the Scriptures, you are against the Scriptures. The Word is the antidote and we keep our noses in the Word to shield us from nonsense. And what does the Word give us?

 

The theologian, Gerhard Forde says, “In administering the sacraments, we do not merely say something. We do not merely impart information. We do something. We wash in water. We give bread and wine to those who come. We do not just explain Christ or the Gospel or describe faith or give instructions on how to get salvation. We give salvation flat out. There it is. In the mouth. There it is, on the head.” (Gerhard Forde, book "Theologies For Proclamation")

 

Hymns are useful to us in this respect, also. For we don’t just sing for singing’s sake, just because we like it. We sing difficult hymns. Difficult because we sing what it is we believe. We sing our confessions. We sing our doctrine. We sing the Son of God. So while it may seem difficult, our hymns defend us from our preferences and place us outside the box, so to speak. 

 

Enthusiasm is rejection of the External Word. Christianity is acceptance that the Truth is outside us, that we are trying to discern it, and that we live by it even at the expense of our experience, our reason, our pleasure, our popularity, and our bank accounts. 

 

Jesus may have promised to dwell in our hearts through faith (Eph 3:17), but not that He would save you there or redeem you there or have mercy on all mankind from there. He perfected that long before your heart was even formed and He will continue the same, long after.

 

The Voice of God [Trinity 5]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• 1 Kings 19:11-21

• 1 Peter 3:8-15

• St. Luke 5:1-11

 

Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you all from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. (2 Jn 1)

 

Who speaks to you today, from His Gospel heard in His Church, saying: 

“On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on Him to hear the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret”

 

Really known as the Calling of St. Peter, our Gospel pericope today reveals to us that God uses His voice to Call. The voice of Jesus is the voice of God. God’s Word reveals this so that we do not go off on a fruitless quest of trying to hear His Voice where He hasn’t promised it to be. This should point us to the importance of His Church, who proclaims the Voice of the Lord each time She gathers.

 

People chase after the voice of God for one reason: to be better than their neighbor. For if you hear the voice of God, then you get a book deal, you get a speaking tour, you get bragging rights. And though hearing God is part of your salvation, sin causes us to interpret what we’ve heard, before we really hear it.

 

Just before our Old Testament reading in the Bible, Elijah had just faced off against 850 false prophets, revealed God to them alone, and killed them. He ran away, because even though he had triumphed, now the state was after his head. Do you think that any of those prophets of Baal thought they had a false spirit within them, a lying spirit?

 

No. They all thought they had the truth. Especially when all the others came together with the same truth, they further solidified their belief. They were prospering. They had the favor of God’s king and queen. They were sacrificing as commanded and following God’s Law. 

 

We know the difference because we’ve been let in on the story. We know God has called Elijah and these false prophets are false. But, what if we had to live the story instead of hearing it? Would we be able to tell who was correctly hearing God’s voice?

 

The “still, small voice” is something we have probably heard our entire lives in Sunday School and from just about every “Christian” book out there. They want us to hear God's voice and they want us to believe they know how to do it. One popular way is to listen for the “still, small voice”, because that’s what Elijah did in the cave.

 

How this is accomplished, they say, is by quieting both heart and mind, not running into a cave, by the way. If you are quiet, then you can listen. That makes sense, right? That same advice is given to married couples, parents, and CEOs for business, so why wouldn’t it work for God, too?

 

With that mindset, however, you may yet be silencing the voice of God. How can you tell? Voices are voices. One way to tell would be if the speaker shows up…

 

A preacher tells me, “Sit quietly. Close your eyes. Now listen for the still small voice of the Spirit in your heart.” A friend argues that a still small voice is telling him it’s time to cut ties with his girlfriend, or worse his wife, usually just before Valentine’s Day. A nature-lover says to tune into the still small voice of the universe in dancing leaves and whispering winds.

 

Repent. The counter to “God spoke to me” is “well God spoke to me too”! But where does that get you? Is Jesus going to call anyone the same way He did to the Apostles ever again?

 

And in the first place, we don’t even know what a voice is. What is its beginning? What is its ending? A voice starts as nothing and when someone stops speaking, it ends as nothing. It is a sound that touches the ear and apart from that sound, we know nothing about the nature of speech.

 

Moses says in Psalm 90:9, “all our days pass away under Your wrath; we live out our years as though they were speech”, that is they end after the shortest possible time. To keep our reason further under His thumb, our Lord also calls speech, “feet”. As we hear in Romans 10:15, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

 

“His Word runs swiftly”, from Psalm 147:15. And Psalm 91:13 reads, “You will tread upon the lion and the adder, the young lion and serpent you will trample underfoot.” This is not done except through the Word. For while the hearer sits quietly and receives the Word, the “feet” of the preacher run over him and crush him to see whether or not he can be made better.

 

And we will keep diving into this mystery of God’s voice, since it is so important, for the Voice has come to Elijah. Before that, Elijah had just settled in the cave and the Word of the Lord came to him there, just before our Old Testament reading (v.9). And before that, it was the Messenger, or Angel of the Lord that fed him, voicing the command, “arise and eat” (v.7).

 

That is, the Son of God, the Word, has come before Elijah to speak, to give voice to His Will. It was not, I repeat, not the wind, not the earthquake, and not the fire. This same Word ushers Abraham outside to count stars (Gen. 15). He appears to Samuel and stands before him (1 Sam. 3). Later still, he touches Jeremiah on the mouth (Jer. 1). Finally, the Word becomes flesh in St. Mary’s womb (John 1:14).

 

At Horeb the Lord shows Elijah (and us!) that He is to be found in His Voice, His Word, His Son. To seek the “still small voice” is simply to seek Jesus, to hear Him, to receive Him, to know all of God in Him. And Jesus is catching men.

 

Catching, not like fish to the slaughter, but catching alive. Alive in body and soul in front of God. And Jesus is the example. He knows the net woven for us is of sin, death, and the power of the devil. He knows that we are the little fish, taken in and led astray; led to the wages of sin. 

 

And what is that? Not doing enough hard work to hear the voice of God? “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices”, the Lord demands in Isaiah 1:11, “I have had enough of them”. 

“This is The One to whom I will look:”, continues the Lord in Isaiah 66:2, “He who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

 

Jesus is the only One to Whom the Father looks and Jesus preaches the Gospel and the Gospel gives the forgiveness of sins. “And as for me, this is my covenant with them”, says the Lord in Isaiah 59:21, “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children's offspring, says the Lord, from this time forth and forevermore.”

 

So faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of Christ, and the Word of Christ by pastors, stewards and apostles, Jesus being the First. The first to create, the first to speak, and the first to get caught in the net, suffer, die, and rise again. 

 

The net has been irreparably broken, because it was of the Law. The Law that demands works to prove one’s loyalty. Yet this could always be faked. Fear of God could simply be the fear of punishment. It is possible to seem “of God”, by just giving lip service.

 

The voice of God is not happy with just lip service. The Gospel preached brings the sinner to life. You want to hear the Voice of God? Listen to His Word. Let it catch you, don’t catch it. Let it change you, don’t read into it what you are already looking for. 

 

The failure of the Old Testament is our failure today, that is to fail to hear God’s voice. For through the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus has commended His words and sermons. The total righteousness of man leading to salvation depends on the Word through faith. 

 

And that Word is made flesh, has suffered, and was crucified. Much more, that Word continues among us as One Who Serves. Thus, one of the Markers of the Voice of the Lord pertains to the free justification of sinners by grace, for Christ’s sake, through faith. 

 

That was His will with St. Peter today, saying yes you are sinful, but no I will not depart. I will forgive you and count your hearing as righteousness. That was His will with St. Elijah. Yes, you cannot make it on your own, but I will not kill you. You will live and you will bring my Word to all who have not believed the devil’s words.

 

Do you want to hear the Voice of God in your life? Listen to the Son when He is speaking Himself, in His own Word and in His own Church. You do not have to make it up. Jesus already says what He wants to and His Church that gathers around His Promises and His means, already has the Voice of God.

 

Pit of Mercy [Trinity 4]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Genesis 50:15-21

• Romans 8:18-23

• St. Luke 6:36-42

 

Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you all from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love. (2 Jn 1)

 

Who speaks to you today, saying:

“Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?”

 

God allows sin to remain in our lives in order that we never forget our Savior. For if we would be sinners no longer, we would have no need of Jesus. One of these sins is our remaining paganism. We call our 5th day of the week Thursday, but linguistically and historically it is Thor’s Day. And, as Christian history tells us, Thor’s religious symbols were lightning and a hammer.

 

But before the hammer, was the ax. Though the Vikings are known for many things, the axe is the unmistakable symbol. Thus it was in Frisia, NW Germany, as St. Boniface found it in the 8th century. A land devoid of Christ and full of murder, malice, and human sacrifice, with no order except that the strong live and the weak die.

 

St. Boniface, the Apostle to the Germans, at one point in his service, took that symbol of false-god authority, the axe, and laid it at the root of another symbol of false-god authority: Thor’s oak tree, the center of their worship. He chopped it down and used the wood to build a church there. Seeing their god defeated, with no repercussions from them, many Frisians converted.

 

When you face a world, filled with unbelief, evil, and chaos Jesus wants His Words in front of you, that you may believe He has also used the world’s greatest weapons against it to defeat it. 

 

Our Gradual has already proclaimed to us this lament: “Help us, O God…why should the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’” Especially when we must face things like floods, hurricanes, and heat. Confronting people is one thing, they can talk, reason, and be predictable when in battle. However, facing nature is God’s realm, over which we have no control.

 

Regardless, the words of Jesus in front of you are saying that the mercy won’t stop. Not your mercy. It does not say you are merciful. It is the Father Who Is Merciful. His mercy won’t stop. This is needful because the world doesn’t stop and it will never stop being empty of mercy.

 

Be merciful, because there is never enough. Forgive and give, because there is never enough. 

“You will always have the poor with you”, says Jesus (Mt 26:11). You show mercy to one and there is another waiting. You give and give and give and give and it is never enough.

 

Repent. The order between faith and good works must remain and be maintained, just as the order between justification and sanctification must be maintained” (SD III:40). First comes faith, then comes works. This means that from the depths of sin, you cannot dig yourself out. As deep as the grave is, so is the death grip sin has on us. Mercy. Forgiveness. Gifts. There are none of those things down there.

 

Go to our Old Testament reading. What was it that Joseph’s brothers did to him to which he called evil? Do you remember? Yes, they laughed at his dreams. Yes, they mistreated him, judged him, and condemned him. But what specifically was the last?

 

Genesis 37:23-24, “When Joseph came up to his brothers, they ripped off his long robe with full sleeves. And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.”

 

No water, no life. No life, no mercy. Joseph’s brothers killed Joseph, buried him. Yes, they only faked his death and later sold him off, but Joseph is just a shadow. Joseph needed mercy, forgiveness, and gifts from God to get out of that grave, as he said in our Old Testament reading, “God meant it for good to save many lives.”

 

Save lives that are dead? A life is lost, we say, if they have died. There is no rational way we can say that about Camp Mystic in Texas, or North Carolina, or Palestine. The teacher teaches you to value life, because there is death. The One, True Teacher teaches you to value life, because there is life after death.

 

Water, mercy, and forgiveness is brought into the pit by God. The God Who suffers and dies, is thrown into the pit, and rises again. Jesus finds Joseph in His pit and kicks him out. “The grave only has room enough for the Son of God, not you”, He says, and Joseph lives again. Joseph lives and yet must go through years of struggle to get to Genesis chapter 50, from Genesis 37.

 

Jesus, both God and man, has descended into the pit of despair, establishing hope. Jesus dives into prison, willingly, preaching freedom to those held as slaves. The groaning of creation, from our Epistle, is the groaning of slavery. Slavery to sin, death, and the power of the devil. 

 

Verse 35 of Luke’s Gospel, says this, “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.”

 

The Most High is kind to the unthankful and evil. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom 5:8). Jesus does not wait for you to show mercy, before He decides to bring mercy down from heaven. Jesus does not wait for ill-begotten judgment and condemnation to improve on earth, before presenting Himself to the world.

 

And though the world judged, condemned, and rejected Him, preferring their sacred idols and their symbols, He was happy to comply and simply used their weapons against them. Just as St. Boniface toppled false belief with the ax, the symbol of the pagan’s might, so Jesus unsheathes sin to defeat sin, death to defeat death, and His divinity to defeat the devil.

 

In His Greatest Accomplishment, that is setting sinners free from sin and sorrow, Jesus throws Himself into our pit. He gives the gift of Himself in order to adopt us as sons of the Most High. Because God is merciful and because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, judgement and condemnation has fallen upon Him, but forgiveness and gifts upon us.

 

And the primary gift is Faith. Faith that plucks the log out of our eye in order that we may see the truth of this world. That there is groaning, corruption, and death, but that all of that has been judged and condemned, in Christ. Faith that unveils death’s pit and that it has been conquered in the fight. Faith that is good, that has been pressed down in scourging, shaken on the cross, and now runneth over into the whole world as the Sacrament of the Altar.

 

Thus we are presented with His trophies, His weapons of faith that neither death nor hell can overcome: the preaching of the pure Gospel, the washing of regeneration and rebirth, and the Eucharist. Here He leaves to us His signs and Gifts of Victory. 

 

Victory over death. Victory over evil. In His Church, Jesus secures those very things from heaven’s armory for us. He gives us His prayer to hurl at the darkness, to sustain and strengthen faith. For He will not show mercy to those who hate Him and persecute His beloved. They will be swept away in judgement for ever.

 

Those who believe in His mercy, His forgiveness, and His gifts, though they be swept away by the world, they will find rest in the One Who stills the wind and the waves, the One Who splits the Red Sea, the One Who gathers the waters of the Jordan in a heap, so that dry ground appears in the middle.

 

Corrupted creation groans in its death throes and the devil knows his time is short. But Jesus is leading through death. Open-eyed my grave is staring, even there I’ll rest secure. Though my flesh awaits its raising, still my soul continues praising: I am baptized into Christ, I’m a child of paradise!

 

The sinful ax laid at the Root Of Jesse finds an immortal foundation, not to be destroyed even in death. The dreadful flood waters that have gone over our heads are rebuked at His Word.

 

From Psalm 93:

“The floods have lifted up, O Lord,

The floods have lifted up their voice;

The floods lift up their waves.

The Lord on [the cross] is mightier

Than the noise of many waters,

Than the mighty waves of the sea.” (v.3-4)