Concupiscence and Church [Trinity 3]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Micah 7:18-20

• 1 Peter 5:6-11

• St. Luke 15:1-10

 

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

 

Who speaks to you today, saying:

“In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents”

 

I am sick to death of being afraid. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Not only am I supposed to be afraid of who will be governor of Los Angeles, but also of a country, half-way across the planet, who allegedly possesses nuclear weapons which may or may not be aimed at my living room.

 

Not to mention who is in what seat of authority in our own country. And on top of that, now having to go through our own election of synod president in the LCMS and really getting to see how afraid people want me to be if the wrong person gets elected. 

 

So now, what I’m supposed to fear in the world has infiltrated my church. The Church that is the Mighty Fortress. The Church that is the Lord’s own Bride. Earlier in St. Peter’s first epistle, which we heard from today, he preaches, “For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Pet 4:17).

 

Dear Children, we are in this time of judgement. Things not being “the way they used to” or “the times are a-changin” are just excuses to quit. The things we are face within our country, our church, and our homes are all tests, for the faithful. 

 

Job has said, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10).

 

For the unfaithful, things are just getting better. If we just back and elect the right person, everything will go back to normal. But normal what? 

 

When we look out into the world we see Original Sin. Yes, Original Sin. That highly unpopular doctrine that not very many teach or preach about. Why? Because it removes alleged free will, your so-called ability to act without corruption, and your front of changing your life around. In Jesus’s Name, of course.

 

Our Confessions state:

“We have not only used the word concupiscence, but we have also said that "the fear of God and faith are lacking." We added this comment because the scholastic teachers do not understand the definition of original sin well enough. They take what they received from the Fathers and extend the definition of original sin. They argue that the evil inclination is a quality on the body, like a blemish. With their usual folly, they ask whether this quality is caused from the contagiousness of the apple or from the breath of the serpent, and whether medicines [or elections!] can cure the condition. They suppress the main point with such questions.” (Ap II(I):7)

 

We think the Gospel today is all about losing stuff. Stuff that can be found. Stuff that can be replaced. Stuff that is of little consequence: animals, money. Easy to deal with.

No. That’s not why Jesus is saying these things. The real focus is that these things get lost and destroyed in the first place.

 

Either we caused it or are responsible for it. And it is there where we take our first step towards understanding Original Sin and concupiscence, as our Confessions stated.

 

Why did the sheep get lost in the first place? What made the coin go to a place not made for it? Why can I not perfectly keep and maintain all I have or remember it half the time? If you secure a fence, it should stay secure. If you domesticate a sheep, it should stay domesticated. If you keep your coins, they should stay kept. If you were there when you put something away, it should be there when you go back to it.

 

Repent. Removing sin is not just doing better or obeying God. The first sin was not simple disobedience, as in, if we would just obey today, we could undo our sinfulness. Adam and Eve didn’t just disobey. The first sin was doubt. It was “I can be God and be better than God”. 

 

You can go back to Genesis 3 and listen in on the conversion of Eve. God lets us do that when only He was there. Eve was persuaded to make a plan. First, she heard the Word and confessed it, but then it didn’t sound right, because the tree was good, and beautiful, and pleasant. How could a loving God, maker of all things beautiful, good, and pleasant NOT want me to commune with this?!

 

The concupiscence was first conceived in her heart and, after maturing, gave birth to sin and active disobedience. As St. James says, “…every man is tempted by his own concupiscence, being drawn away and allured. Then, when concupiscence has conceived, it brings forth sin. And sin, fully perfected, brings forth death.” (1:14-15)

 

Well did Jesus say and St. James interpret, “Truly, truly, I say to you that everyone practicing sin, is a slave to sin.” And, “Whoever breaks one commandment is guilty of breaking them all” (Jn 8:34, James 2:10).

 

So, the talk about sin is major and more in-depth than we usually think. Real sin is serious and it is “…ignorance of God, contempt for God, total lack of fear of God and confidence in God, hatred of God's judgment, fleeing from God when He judges us, anger toward God, despairing of God's grace, putting trust in things of this world, and so forth” (Ap II(I):7-8), says Augsburg.

 

And Jesus has come to seek and save the lost in every and all ways. Teachers who misunderstand Original Sin believe that Jesus just came to help you find lost stuff. Hopes, dreams, a carefree life. They never dream that Jesus actually handles real sin in suffering and blood. And they never imagine that they do not fear, love, and trust in Him as He’s doing it.

 

Indeed, the rebirth and regeneration Jesus comes to purchase and win for sinners is not your choice, but His. And it is rebirth and regeneration, not buck up and make better choices. You are lost and you get lost, continually. And lost means death.

 

You in your sin are dead in your sin, which is why Jesus had to die to redeem you. But guess what? Your sin remains and you chose to die again. Daily. Jesus must make a redemption so complete that you can be renewed each and every second of the day. And this is what His Word, His Body and Blood, does.

 

Jesus can go after the one sheep who is lost, dead, because Jesus became lost, became the curse for us, and died. He has travelled the road of the dead and defeated death. Though sin, death, and the devil will still try, death has no more dominion over the lost.

 

Jesus can go after the coin, because He willingly and joyfully jumped into the darkness of sin and death to remove it. Now, only light is where Jesus is. “In the heavens He has pitched a tent for the sun. Like a bridegroom emerging from his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course, it rises at one end of the heavens and runs its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth” (Psalm 19:4-6)

 

So He finds us dead and makes us alive in Word and Sacrament, given to His Church. This is the other end of complete redemption. Jesus not only accomplishes His Salvation on the cross, but He brings it forward, to us, today. 

 

And that’s the only way to salvation. Grace alone. It must be given. And it must be given to you in the way that Jesus promises, not any way that you think He wants. His salvation. Your Original Sin. His Church. Your passivity.

 

What does this mean? This means the Church is not our creation. It is not ours to tinker with and change and mold to fit our preferences, the modern age, or any temporal fad. The Church was here before us, it is with us now, and it will remain long after our pride-filled hearts pass on.

 

What does this mean? Love your church. It’s our only recourse in the face of Original Sin because it is the only place Jesus has promised to be. Become a fan of your church. Ask the deep questions. Why do you go to this church? Why do you follow Jesus? Is your answer like Charlie Kirk, that Jesus changed your life and that’s why? That’s kid’s stuff. A seven year old can change his life and give credit to Jesus. 

 

An adult can find where Jesus is handing out the free forgiveness of sins. An adult can place himself in the path of the Light of the World. An adult can hear of and chase down the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus, in order that his body be found and made alive again.

 

Made alive. Dead men do not come back to life, unless you’re Jesus. Dead lambs do not find themselves and lost coins to not return on their own. What is lost cannot be found again. Except that One returns from the dead. 

 

And Jesus has. This is why we sing in Church. This is why we listen to the Word. This is why we chant. This is why we challenge ourselves with hard things in His Church, because there is so much joy to be uncovered here. We have repented! We are a congregation that repents! Much more than just one.

 

How many angels have we triggered today? This year? Our lifetimes? And at Jesus’s invitation to daily repent, there will be no end to this joy. It will be eternal.

So we go on sinning to create that much more joy, right?

 

No. The Holy Spirit reveals that we have enough sin for 3 or 4 lifetimes and we only live once. Jesus has enough righteousness for a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His Church. 

 

Amen.

 

God decides [Trinity 2]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE 

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Proverbs 9:1-10

• 1 John 3:13-18

• St. Luke 14:16-24

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

 

Who speaks to you today, saying:

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

 

Thus far from God’s Word, written that we may hear of God’s great provision to us. Not just the food on our own tables, but that He has provided us with heavenly bread for our salvation. This should point us to the complete work in Jesus, for us, that we may then share that news with our neighbor, instead of a laundry list.

 

Notice how our Great Banquet invitation did not go out to everyone, in the Gospel today. We usually gloss over this point and, in our minds, replace it with the word “all”. That the invitation went out to all, because that’s the kind of Jesus we worship. 

 

Though He says things like this in other places, such as one of my favorite verses in St. Matthew 20:28, “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”, He also seems to confuse when saying, “who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” in 1 Timothy 2:4.

 

Now, just to put your minds at ease, ransom and desire for salvation go together, so no worries, ok? But really that is just a secondary point. In the end, it doesn’t matter if God came to save many or save all. What matters is that He came.

 

Jesus shows up. This is the point I wanted the VBS students to take home, if they took home anything from the week. That Jesus has to come to us. We cannot rise to Him.

 

Moses was day 1, in VBS. Moses the infant. Moses the helpless. Moses the fugitive. His only crime was he was a first born male in the Egypt that wanted to murder males born to the Hebrews. “Toss them in the Nile”, the Egyptians demanded. 

 

But the midwives disobeyed their government. Moses’ mother did toss him in the Nile, but it was in a basket, a little Moses Ark, which floated among the reeds. Left to himself, Moses would not have survived. With crocodiles constantly prowling, along with Pharaoh’s men, Moses was toast.

 

Jesus shows up, though not Himself. He sends Pharaoh’s daughter, the daughter of the murderer of His people, to rescue Moses and draw him up out of the water. Good thing, too, or the first five books of the Bible would be non-existent.

 

Day 2 VBS was the entire book of Ruth. Imagine trying to read that to your children…

We got through it

Anyway, if you remember Ruth, it starts out as tragedy. All the husbands die, leaving the women homeless and penniless. The day is saved when a Redeemer shows up to give Ruth a son who, as one of the VBS students pointed out, is the 27th great-grandfather of Jesus.

 

Day 3 was Zacchaeus, who would have had no reason to climb a tree or return all he stole, if Jesus had not been there. Day 4 was part of the Easter story where, had Jesus not shown up again, the Apostles would have sat in that upper room and died from fear.

 

Day 5 was interesting. It was the Conversion of Saul. There Jesus shows up, knocks Saul off his high horse, and blinds him. Yes, Jesus shows up, but after three days of insomnia and fasting, Jesus doesn’t come back. He does show up, but now He shows up in the way that He shows up to all of us, in these latter days: through His sent man.

 

The take-home point is, God decides. Moses is not rescued, Ruth is not redeemed, Zacchaeus is not saved, the Apostles do not go out, and Ananias does not forgive, baptize, and feed St. Paul except Jesus decided it was so. Jesus must come to us first.

 

And here is our space to repent. We breeze through those stories feeling inspired, but we seldom think of Who is inspiring us. When we believe the inspiration comes from ourselves, we immediately set off on our own quest, praying and hoping to achieve what Moses and the rest did, in front of God.

 

On our own. You see once our heart is moved, we claim it. We believe we have ownership of those thoughts and feelings. So much so, that we look for Moses moments. Such as his encounter with the burning bush. He was so inspired, so blessed to have that chance from God to change his life. If only it could be that way for me.

 

Our VBS story was Moses as an infant. You skipped to adulthood. Why? Because infants are boring and dependent. Adults have free will! How exciting.

But free will only gets in the way. Remember Moses tried his best to get God to choose someone else to go to Pharaoh. In his sin, he believed God was doing wrong.

 

That will needs regeneration. It needs to be cleansed of the thoughts and feelings that God did it wrong. Here, Ananias, from Paul’s conversion, is our teacher. He, too, like Moses, refuses to go to and give forgiveness to Saul, but he goes anyway.

 

Why? Because God is passing out invitations. Ananias, in the faith he was given, knows what to expect from God, because God told him. He knows that the Lord is not doling out punishment and he knows God is not angry. Because Jesus has come, Ananias is free to confront Christianity’s biggest opponent, in Christ’s Name.

 

On earth. This is the other offensive part of Jesus’s parable in the Gospel today. It is accomplished on earth, with earthly people, and earthly things. Jesus does not go back to Saul to forgive, baptize, and commune him. He sends a man, inspired and ordained by the Holy Spirit, to do that work.

 

God chooses us and decides to follow us, giving us all good things, now and for all eternity. It is God’s choice to rescue Moses out of water, so we could remember that when St. Paul gets baptized, and then look for our own heavenly baptism, on earth. 

 

It is God’s choice to give Ruth redemption through a son, so that we could remember our heavenly Father’s Son, born to redeem us with His Body and Blood. It is God’s choice to show Himself and His salvation to Zacchaeus, without cost or merit so we could be on the lookout for the free forgiveness of sins in Jesus, as well.

 

And on Easter, it was Jesus’s choice to go rescue His Apostles out of the fear and darkness of sin and death, in order to inspire them with His Holy Spirit and with the thoughts and words they used to preach the Gospel to the whole world. 

 

And all of this is expected. Jesus is expected to do all these good things for His people, because that’s Who He is. He sets the feast and it will be filled to capacity, at His Word. For them and for you.

 

And the best place to remind us of this is God’s Word. Specifically, the Lord’s Prayer. There we see God not waiting, but giving us the words to say, even. And the Lord’s Prayer is all about what God does for us; what we are to expect from Him. Not that we tell Him, but that He reveals it to us, His Father’s heart of goodness.

 

So I tell all my catechumens to turn to the Lord’s Prayer in the Small Catechism and write at the top of the first page, “What to expect from God”. And right away, with the Introduction to the Prayer, “Our Father Who art in heaven”, we confess and believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children. And that He has decided to follow us, to be our God and to give us all good things, in Christ Jesus.

 

Make no mistake. The Word of God goes out to everyone. To the ends of the earth, is the promise. The work God comes to do through His only-begotten Son is also accomplished for everyone. Moses as an infant and adult, could not escape this love. Ruth was not forgotten. Zacchaeus was not overlooked. The Apostles were not left alone and St. Paul would not be left in his sin.

 

Some refuse the invitation, but that does not lessen the love and power behind it. Jesus has come to finish salvation, to perfect it, for all. Not a thing is missing. Not a place at the Table out of place. Jesus has accepted you into His heart. He has chosen you as His personal sinner, to seek and save.

 

Amen. 

 

 

The Way to the Father [Trinity 1]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Deuteronomy 6:4-13

• 1 John 4:8-21

• St. Luke 16:19-31

 

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

 

Who speaks to you today, saying:

“Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house”

 

For as little as we talk about the Holy Ghost, we speak only a bit more of the First Person of the Trinity: the Father. Who is He? What does He do? Usually in Church art, He is pictured as the Old Man with Santa Claus vibes. In the parable today, Jesus brings up the Father, putting that word on the lips of the Rich Man four times and that father appears to not be doing a good job.

 

For he has a dishonorable and hypocritical son. The Rich Man takes his father’s name in vain, by not doing as his words told him. And at the most successful point in the Rich man’s life, who wouldn’t? Whoever was his father spoiled him. He was careless and haphazard with his father’s house, and yet was set up and acted as the son, for all the world to see. 

 

The Father is of Whom Jesus said, “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mt 25:36). Indeed, the rich man looked blessed in this way, by all accounts. 

 

This is because this is how the Father operates. He makes no distinctions in His creation and gives life and daily bread to all, even to all evil people. And there is the catch for this rich man. He is posing as the son of his heavenly father, wrapped in purple and fine linen, but is he a true son or a false one?

 

Being known mainly as the creator of all things, the Father is going to sustain life regardless of who you are. It is His nature and it is part of His glory that all things He creates continue to work as He demands, no matter what His creations do with it. “Upright and breathing” is the status quo.

 

In this light, it is now unclear what the Father actually thinks of this rich man or even Lazarus for that matter, since they are both being cared for in the same way. The Father is not partial and the things of this world do not concern Him. Riches, poverty, health, sickness. All will be made of use in His grand plan, because He says so.

 

The parable should have ended with those first few lines in the gospel, but it didn’t. And that’s the concern for us, because we dress pretty well, are fed satisfactorily, and live pretty comfortably with poor people around, living worse than us, too. 

 

However, caring for the poor is only the second part of this parable, which we should do. The first part is the Father. Who He is, what He says, and what He does. As far as we’re concerned, the rich man was modeling this behavior accurately. The Father is rich, the Father is unconcerned, and He is satisfied eternally. The problem we run into is the word “Father”.

 

You see “father” is not a name of essence. It doesn’t describe what God is made of, as if we can mimic that behavior and everything be fine for eternity. Instead, it is a name of relation, as in, Who He is in relation to someone else. What the word “father” says about God is how He relates to the son. To be specific, how He chooses to relate.

 

The rich man was denying this Name of God: Father. He was denying the care and concern promised to creation, not in God’s almightiness or perfection, but in His love for His only-begotten Son. God turned His fatherly heart to His creation by saying to His beloved Son, “it’s time to have compassion.”

 

Before caring for the poor, is the caring heart needed to do it in the first place. The rich man’s sin was not being rich, it was taking the Lord’s Name in vain, by denying this heart. The Father is handing out this new heart for free, and he rejects it. He was denying physical care and spiritual care for Lazarus. For, the Name of God is given that we might call upon it in every trouble, pray in it, give praise to it, and give thanks.

 

Listen to Malachi teach this:

“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’ By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ By saying that the Lord's table may be despised. When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor?” (Mal 1:6-8)

 

The priests were offering blind, polluted animals as sacrifices and calling it God’s Will, revealed in His Word. They created a false father and set themselves up as false sons following false words. Their words were not His Word, thus they were not His sons.

 

The Lord says, “the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your doctrine” (Mal 2:7-8)

 

This is the rich man’s sin. Not being rich, not even ignoring Lazarus, but saying that God would do such things. Saying that God in His rich house, with His lavish table, and in His royal clothes would deny mercy to those who need mercy. 

 

This is also the tragedy of our sin. As representatives of Jesus on earth, each time we sin we are telling the world this is what Christ would do, because we are Christians, we bear His Name. Just as the Son bears the Fathers Name, we too are adopted and thus we act, thus we teach.

 

For example, the Lord puts His Table in front of us, as Malachi said. We do not practice Communion for fun. It is not a game for us to change the pieces at will. If Jesus says bread, there’s going to be bread. Not crackers, not pizza, not oysters. If Jesus says wine, there’s going to be wine. Not juice or any man-made, “close enough” iteration. For if we are going to find forgiveness in it, as promised, then it will be at the Lord’s Word, not ours.

 

In this way, we do not know the Father except through the Son. 

Who is the Son? The Magnificat says, “He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty” (Lk 1:53). As in, the rich Son, as He should be, being from the Father, is emptied. Stripped of all He has, the Son goes to the cross. We peg Him as a “Lazarus”, sent away to suffer and die for sinners.

 

Drawing near to the Father means drawing near to the Son. “The Father has sent me”, Jesus says in John 20:21. And Proverbs 30:4, “Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in His hands? Who has bound up the waters in His cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is the name of His Son—surely you know!”

 

Jesus is His Name, sent in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Who in the beginning, created all things from His infinite wealth. Jesus, Who steps out of His wealth, into the poverty of flesh and blood. Jesus, Who though dressed in purple and fine linen, was crowned with thorns. 

 

Jesus, Who gave the thoughts and words to Moses and the prophets, says that they wrote about Him. He Who is beloved of the Father. He Who is chosen by the Father. He Who is vindicated by the Father, raising Him from the dead.

 

The robes of purple and fine linen the Rich man should have been wearing, are stained with blood. The robe that Lazarus was wearing was blood and sores, the blood and sores of the sin of this world. Since the rich man was clean, he needed no Savior. Since Lazarus was a beggar, empty of all, the Lord gave Him everything.

 

Jesus begged for Lazarus’s life, with His own life. Jesus begs for the Rich Man as well, but the Rich man doesn’t need handouts. There can only be one son in the house and He is the Crucified. Abraham and Lazarus are there, because they have drawn near to the Father, in the Son.

 

Drawing near to the Father is following the Son. And the Son says, “Hear and believe”, “be baptized and be saved”, and “eat and drink for the forgiveness of sins”. The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten (Athanasian Creed). And there is only one Son. Only-begotten. Unique. 

 

“There is one body and one Spirit”, says Ephesians 4:4-7, “just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift”. “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” (1 Corinthians 12:13).

 

As the Father baptized the Son, Jesus, in the Jordan river, we too are baptized into His Son so that He sees us in Jesus and we see Him in Jesus. The blessings from the Father are sent through the Son only, which is how we know they are blessings and gifts, and not a pay check we earned.

 

We do not gain, keep, and maintain our status as children of God. It is given to us. It is given to us only through Jesus, the True Son. Any other way is another god, a false one. The Rich man can appeal to Abraham all he wants, and even call him “father”. 

 

But if he truly saw Abraham as father, he would believe what Abraham said. And Abraham said Jesus is the Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, Who was born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty, from thence He shall come to judge both the living and the dead.

 

 

Amen.