The Long Defeat to His Kingdom [Feast of St. Bartholomew]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Proverbs 3:1-8

• 2 Corinthians 4:7-10

• St. Luke 22:24-30

 

Grace to you all and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Phile 1:3)

 

Who speaks to you today, from His Gospel saying: 

“And I bestow on you a kingdom, just as My Father has bestowed one on Me”

 

God wants you to hear of His Kingdom in His Word so that you feel the weight of it. It is a kingdom not of this world and so we should despair and forsake this one in exchange for it. This points us to more confidence in living in Jesus, because our hope is in Him and His life, rather than our own.

 

How great is it to be saved at the last minute? You’re in trouble. Things are going downhill fast. There is no end in sight or you are about to fail completely. Then, at the last minute, someone comes out of nowhere and helps you. The day is saved, thanks to the Powerpuff Girls.

 

Or Han Solo saves Luke Skywalker. Athena jumps in to rescue Odysseus. The eagles swoop in to carry Frodo and Sam away from Mt. Doom. And Peter Pan flies in to fight Cap’n Hook, just as the Lost Boys are about to walk the plank. 

 

That last-minute character is called the Deus Ex Machina, literally, god from outside the machine. That means that whatever was in the book, in the story, in the machine was not good enough to allow the hero to win, to succeed. He needed extra, to win. He needed something outside the box or the story would end with evil winning.

 

A common story-telling theme we all are programmed to wait for. However, there was no such character for St. Bartholomew, whom we honor today. Also known as Nathaniel, in St. John’s Gospel, he is an Israelite in whom there is no guile. No dolor: pain, anguish, grief, sorrow, suffering, resentment, indignation. No deceit, treachery, trickery, cunning, or fraud.

 

This same word describes how Jesus was arrested in the garden. The English says “by stealth”. And in Acts, St. Paul declares Elymas the Mage who opposed the Gospel as “dolorous”, same word, and then he was struck blind. In our own day, this word shows up in condolence, as in “we send our condolences on your loss”. Meaning to literally “suffer together”. Kind of like Concordia: with one heart.

 

This famous and beloved St. Bartholomew was not rescued at the last minute from his suffering and martyrdom. Maybe you can think of David versus Goliath. David avoided martyrdom there, because the Lord gave him an impossible victory over Goliath. But what was traded? A life of sin.

 

And there is the Christian dilemma. either we lose our lives, quickly, for the faith in martyrdom or win for a while, but still lose in death, later. Man was made to live on the earth. We are bound to it. It is our Ash Wednesday confession to say, “Remember I am dust and to dust I shall return”. The Lord God formed man from the dust, from the very earth itself, and caused it to be a realm he can live in.

 

Bound to it and bound up with it. “Cursed is the ground because of you”, the Lord says to Adam. Cursed is the ground and through toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. You will plant wheat, and will reap thorns. You will sow grapes and will harvest thistles. “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground—because out of it were you taken” Gen 3:19).

 

The fate of this ground, Sts. Peter and Isaiah sum up for us Revelation-style, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”

“All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree" (2 Pet 3:10; Isa 34:4)

 

Bound together to die in our sins, we must watch with all of groaning creation as everything fades, changes, and diminishes. Material victory in the world still results in a net-loss.

 

All of human history in this world is a story of grief. We build great civilizations, yet they fall. We fight evil, but it rises again in a new form. Material Progress is temporary and prone to corruption. We struggle to keep true beauty in the world, but it is a losing battle against time. And Ultimate Victory is impossible by regular earthly means alone.

 

What does Jesus say in the Gospel today? “I bestow upon you a kingdom”. A kingdom?! A kingdom of David true on the outside, but rotten within? A kingdom of martyrs, death, and more death? Indeed, Jesus says, if you do not believe that Jesus is the Great I AM, you will die in your sins.

 

But a kingdom of sin, death, and the world Jesus is not bestowing. And from David we know that it is a kingdom that is worth risking one’s eternal salvation for and from St. Bartholomew we learn that it is a kingdom worth dying for. This is because it is an undying kingdom.

 

God is not bound up with the ill fate of the earth. He is outside. He is foreign. He is unattached. That is until Jesus. Jesus is God binding humanity to Himself. He takes our form, He covers Himself with the dust of the earth intimately, inextricably. Meaning, in Jesus now God will die as His creation dies.

 

Hebrews says, “Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” (2:17).

 

This God could simply start over. Sick to death of watching His own creation suffer so, He does not start over but regenerates. He causes a rebirth and a regeneration which He pours out generously by the Holy Spirit. This He purchases and wins with His suffering, death, and resurrection.

 

It is in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ that the long defeat is defeated. In Him, the decay stops and in His work, it is reversed. The dead come to life, what is old is made new again, and true beauty lasts for eternity. 

 

Death has lost and that means David, Bartholomew, and we can risk this life in the sure and certain hope of achieving that victory ourselves. Not “achieving” as in “will we win or won’t we”?? But achieving as in the Lord Jesus has given us His own merit, His own kingdom without any merit or worthiness in me or in all creation.

 

In His merit, we stop trying to command the world, to force it to stop fading, and to rule as a false god and simply let God work and let God win. "The battle is the Lord's" is the famous Bible verse from King David himself when facing Goliath (1 Sam 17:47). And in our day, it is no different.

 

There are days when we feel as though we have to be the hero of our own epic lives because no one else seems to be stepping up. In the face of the Goliath of illness, we step out onto the battlefield ready to fight the war all on our own. Hearing the cries of those who oppose the Word of God, we feel we must personally right those wrongs using our own strength. When the enemy warriors of pain, suffering, loss, and temptation beckon us to fight, we step out all alone, trusting ourselves. We stand ready to fight for personal control under our own strength.

 

But fighting those enemies is a young person’s game. You can only lose so many of those battles before you feel like the Israelite soldiers in front of Goliath. You hear the call to fight, but you cower in fear. Who has the energy to fight against every temptation? Who has the strength to stand up against enemies that look so fierce?

 

Taking a stone, David slung it and struck the Philistine warrior in the one place that could knock him down. Rushing up to him, he took Goliath’s own sword and cut off his head with it. 

It is Jesus Who, after David, will strike down the true Goliath of sin, death, and the devil, using their own sword against them! Their own sword by taking on the sin of the world, becoming a devil to sinners, and dying He rises to new life in victory.

 

Taking our own Stone that the builders rejected, the Cornerstone, we are turned towards Confession, forsaking our earthly ambition, and receiving Absolution, that is the forgiveness of sins from the pastor as if Christ our Lord spoke to us Himself, granting us entrance into His Kingdom.

 

We have been given a Faith that lives beyond death. Built on the Rock, David, St. Bartholomew, and we confess that our earthly defeats are merely a prelude to a transcendent, supernatural victory. All the saints must lose their earthly paradise so that they can finally look toward the true, unchanging Home that lies beyond the kingdoms of this corrupt world.

 

It is our hope to be saved. And for this salvation we trust only in our dear Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true man. Son of God Who has died for me and shed His blood for me on the cross for the forgiveness of my sins. And to seal this hope, Jesus leaves us His signs of Promise in Word and Sacrament.

 

 

Amen.

 

 

Good evil, evil Good [Trinity 10]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Jeremiah 7:1-11

• 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

• St. Luke 19:41-48

 

Grace to you all and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Phile 1:3)

 

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

“He made a whip out of cords and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle. He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables”

 

And God wants you to hear St. John’s version of this cleansing of the Temple by Jesus, in order that you see Jesus drawing a line in the sand. There is good and evil in the world and therefore there are good guys and there are bad guys. “Whoever is not with me is against me” Jesus says in Luke 11:23. And yet, He also says it a bit softer in Mark 9:40, “the one who is not against us is for us”.

 

We are to apply this to our lives by emphasizing and running back to the Gospel at all times, not the Law. We are not good lawmakers or law-enforcers; therefore, we would make a mess of God’s judgement, in our sin. God does not call us for that job, anyway. He calls us to His Gospel, to repent and believe. Therefore, that is also our call to the world.

 

We think, “what was so bad about eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” in Eden, in the beginning? Knowing right from wrong is Child Raising 101. However, because we have its fruit in our blood, we hear today’s Gospel and call Jesus a sinner, a bad guy, a villain. In our sin, we call good evil and evil, good (Isa 5:20).

 

Let me explain with a writing example. There is a way to write a good villain into a story that is believable, entertaining, and compelling. Exactly what you’d want in a book or a movie. There is also a bad way. One that makes the character seem forced and unbelievable. 

 

First, a good villain should have a relatable, simple emotional pathway that led him to his bad choices. Instead of some supernatural force changing their personality, as if they are the victim, we should see his choices flow naturally. People make bad choices when they’re sad or mad or stressed. We all do.

 

Next, is true competence. A real threat needs to be a real threat or we just laugh them off. He must remain dangerous from start to finish, think Jesus today. Which leads to ruthlessness. Along with that danger, we should fear for it at every turn. Instead of just being comedic relief, you want the audience to hold their breath each time the villain acts.

 

Then we should see all that in the attacks on the protagonist. They should be personal conflicts. The hero must face his own fears, values, and morality when facing off. Even if its just facing death. As soon as the conflict centers around something inconsequential or magical, you lose the plot.

 

Next, there must be payment. The villain must leave permanent scars on the world or the protagonist. True value and morality costs something and if you take your stand in them, you should be willing to pay for their preservation in the face of the villain’s values and morality, which you are trying to disprove.

 

Finally, pain can never be the excuse. The villain can have a tragic past or a sob story, but it should never grant them a free pass. They too were willing to put their life on the line for their choices and their values. That should not be cheapened by throwing away the consequences for those choices.

 

What does this have to do with good and evil in the world?

This same villain path sounds like the good guy path. The good guy also has a simply, relatable emotional path that leads him to his goodness. The good guy also be competent in what he does or else who will follow or believe him? He should be ruthless in his goodness, meaning we should fear him straying from the path at every turn, going back on his word. 

 

He should be attacking his opposition, which we would call evil, not accepting its ways but renouncing and denouncing them. And the victory over evil should be lasting. Good should leave more goodness in the world and a mark on evil so that it hesitates to attack again. 

 

And finally, the good guy should be putting his life on the line for his decisions. He should be invested, not detached. He should believe where he stands with all his heart, because again, if he is good then he wouldn’t change his mind.

 

Returning to our Gospel, this is the role Jesus is in, but you can’t tell who is good and who is bad. These poor businessmen. They are just trying to feed their families. Just trying to get by in this world they did not choose to be born in. You cannot tell. The fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil has failed to give you the wisdom necessary to handle that knowledge.

 

Jesus has come to seek and save…who? The good guys? The wise guys? The bad guys! Sinners. And sinners can be all those things. And because sinners can be all those things, what does an absolute good God look like to them?

 

He looks like the bad guy. He looks like someone to criticize. He looks like a liar and a lunatic, not a lord. Jesus today is destroying the Church. 

 

"…the hand of God has struck me", Job cries. In Ruth, Naomi despairingly says, “…the Almighty has brought me back empty." And from Jeremiah, “He has turned his hand [against me] again and again the whole day long." (Job 19:21; Ruth 1:21; Lam 3:3).

 

So we must take a stand and right now its either the bad cop, the grabblers and the unbelievers, or the bad cop: God Who is angry. In order to make that choice, I want you to ponder this Word of God through David. King David has just sinned greatly, but in this instance the Lord allows him to choose his punishment.

 

He says, “Choose what you will: either three years of famine, or three months of devastation by your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the Lord, pestilence on the land, with the Angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel” (1 Chron 21:12). What a choice!

 

Now listen to David answer: “I am in great distress. Let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is very great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.” (v.13)

 

Because man does not keep his word and is always the “bad cop”, David choses the punishment the Lord Himself will enact. He makes this choice because he knows and believes that it is the Lord’s will to show mercy. He has faith that the Lord’s, though He punishes, “…anger is but for a moment”, says Psalm 30:5, “but His favor is for a lifetime” (Ps 30:5)

 

In the Lord’s Mercy, that is in Jesus Christ Crucified for you, we find the Good Cop, so to speak. But we must go through the Bad Cop to get to the Good Cop. This, Jesus Himself teaches with His own Body and His famous words from the cross, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?”

 

Sin is horrid and is horrid to get rid of. Christ on the cross proves one end of that, then there is our end which does not need surgery, but a death. For we have wed our sin. We have joined together with it as one flesh. We have pledged our troth upon it, till death us do part. 

 

To divorce from such thing, a homewrecker is necessary. To us sinners, Jesus coming into the world looks just like that. He doesn’t care about the life we’ve made for ourselves. He doesn’t care about our comfort. He doesn’t care about how our sin has made us comfortable and sleepy in this corrupt world ruled by satan. Jesus is invading.

 

There is a reason the prophesy in Isaiah 53 says, “He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (v.5). 

 

So really, the Christian will never encounter the “bad cop” Jesus, because He is our substitute. Before we even get there, Jesus is taking our place in our sin. He is the villain character in the story that not only becomes the curse set before God for us, but also the one Who disrupts our life of sin, with His life of righteousness, which He freely gives to us.

 

In faith, that is trusting Christ’s person, Word, and work for us we receive His punishment in baptism, having been baptized into His death. The disciplines we encounter in this world, carrying our cross, are nothing more than the death throes of our sin on the edge of defeat.

 

For God’s true enemies are known to us. Death is the last enemy to be defeated (1 Cor 15:26). “Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God”, says St. James 4:4. The devil is God’s devil, of course, sowing weeds (Mt 13:39), and our own sinful nature and unbelief.

To these, the Lord has become an enemy, and anyone who fears, loves, and trusts in them (Lam 2:5). It is not humanity that is the Lord’s enemy. This is proved by the Incarnation of Jesus. It is not humanity, but what threatens humanity.

 

So Jesus comes. He comes as a man desiring mercy, no matter what. A simple, relatable emotional pathway to His choices to come. And He is competent. Not only is His life without reproach, but He can also perform miracles and signs. These, even the demons fear at every step.

 

This He directs at His enemies, but we are in their camp. So we must face our own fears and values, measuring them against Jesus, and find them lacking. Jesus’s ultimate attack on us is His call to “Repent”!

 

The payment He makes leaves its marks on Him. The work of nails and spear remain on His body. We too must be divorced and will have cross-shaped scars when we are made righteous in Him.

 

And though the payment was the life of God, there is no grudge. There is no repayment required. It was the Lord’s joy to offer Himself in your place, in order that you know the Lord’s mercy and be redeemed. According to the Law, you encounter God’s wrath, in your sin. According to the Gospel, you encounter your Savior and the grace of God.

 

Amen.

 

 

Informed in Love [Trinity 9]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Proverbs 16:1-9

• 1 Corinthians 10:6-13

• St. Luke 16:1-9

 

Grace to you all and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Phile 1:3)

 

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

“He also said to the disciples, ‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions’”

 

Thus far from God’s Word given to us, caused to be written, that we may see how important information is to God. Any use of information should bring us to the Truth, Jesus. When it doesn’t, we take note and take those thoughts captive to Christ and perhaps leave them there. What good do they do us?

 

Mr. Rogers is very concerned that our society is much more concerned with information than wonder and reflection. And these are the thieves and discontents in our Gospel reading today. Jesus may praise the “shrewdness” in the end, but He does not praise, excuse, or condone their thievery. 

 

Neither the Dishonest Manager nor the debtors deal honestly with their Lord. They refuse to pay back, they refuse to deal fairly, and they refuse to repent. They are playing the game and using the information they have by being informed of the business to come out on top.

 

Information is still important in our day, as it ever has been. If you deal in insider trading, you get the best deal first. If you deal as a spy, you know what happens first. If you read the end of a book first…you get it. Information is key.

 

Thus, being informed should be a good thing, right? The more information you have, the better decisions you can make and the happier things will be. At least, that’s what we’re told.

 

Let’s go back to the Gospel reading. The Dishonest Manager was informed. He knew how to work the system and his Lord’s business and while that could have been used for good, he used it to be dishonest. As the Small Catechism says of the 7th commandment: 

“We should fear and love God so that we do not take our neighbor’s money or possessions or get them in any dishonest way, but help him to improve and protect his possessions and income.”

 

Likewise, being informed did not help the debtors one bit. They remained debtors, but now the Dishonest manager has made thieves of them as well. Thus being informed is not necessarily a good thing.

 

And the world has employed this “informed” strategery on you, to prevent you from being decent people as well. For when you say “informed” today, it means something completely different.

Informed, today, means just knowing about 57 different, horrible things that are going on that you can’t do a single thing about, at all times.

 

Inundated is the word. Buried under so much information that you have neither the mental capacity nor the energy to deal with it all properly. In fact, many have said that you should not be on your phone after a certain time at night, because your brain will still be trying to process all that late information while you’re trying to sleep and you won’t get good sleep.

 

Such as: how much do you owe the Master? Your body is telling you that you owe plenty. Those checks you are cashing today are going to come back. But what about your spirit? Is He also telling you something there? In your life, you promised to just be nice to people, until you weren’t.

 

In your baptism, you promised Him you would make every effort to live according to your confession, grow in Christian teaching, and not even persecution, need, or death would cause you to renounce it. How much did it cost you to not be nice? How much was it that got you to sin “for the last time”? It was without cost, wasn’t it?

 

And we would say we all deserved it. We all made the decisions. We all took the ticket. We all knew what we were getting into. Nobody made us make a decision. Nobody made the dishonest manager dishonest. Nobody made the debtors dishonest. The Lord gave us life, we did the dishonesty thing all on our own.

 

Let’s be honest. You do not know whether or not being informed is good or bad or whether or not the information you are gaining is good or bad to begin with. First off, we have to be sure there is honesty in this world. Once we find the source of that honesty, then the only conclusion is to follow it.

 

Like the unrighteous wealth we heard of in the Gospel today, information is a tool. It is not a toy and it is not given for us to pursue at the expense of others in God’s Name. It is a tool for showing the honesty of God and the dishonesty of our own selves. 

 

Information is not neutral. There is no unbiased information out there. It all comes with an agenda, no matter what the prologue tells you. Human objectivity is a myth. 

 

And while God does not snap His fingers and make dishonesty disappear, He does come to inject truth into the world. The Truth. He proves His truth, in Love. That is His solution to the dishonesty of sin: love.

 

Because He comes with the same story as any Messiah-complexed man. I have the truth! Believe me over those other guys! Follow me, not them! The difference is, Jesus gives. He does not take. He doesn’t just tell you, He shows you. 

 

He does not consider it a waste to step out of heaven into a virgin’s womb. He does not consider it a waste of time to be subject to His parents in His young life. He does not consider it squandering His Father’s power when He heals the sick, feeds the poor, and raises the dead. And that should be enough from Him to prove His truthfulness to us. 

 

In fact, that is His defense at His sham-trial in front of the high priest. He asks for which good work are they condemning Him. “I have spoken openly to the world, Jesus answered. I always taught in the synagogues and at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. Why are you asking Me? Ask those who heard My message. Surely they know what I said.” (John 18:20-21)

 

He tells us, then He shows us. For in order to perfect and fulfill His words and deeds as the God-man, He then goes on to the cross in joy and love for fallen humanity. Joy in that He gets to show the greatest love ever, that a man lay down His life for His friends and grant them faith, forgiveness, and eternal life.

 

And love in that He suffers death on a cross to purchase and win you from your dishonesty. This information does not come from the world, but is only revealed in the Bible. God’s truth about our Savior Jesus Christ, made known only in the Bible; the Old Testament, which promises the coming Messiah, and the New Testament, which tells us of the Messiah Who has come.

 

Jesus gives you His truth in true love. Love that is free of charge, leading to a message that is free of charge: the Gospel. The Gospel is without cost. Jesus suffered for it and His Apostles suffered double to make sure that was known.

 

St. Paul comments, “I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge. I robbed other churches by accepting their support in order to serve you. And when I was with you and in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my needs. I have refrained from being a burden to you in any way, and I will continue to do so. As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!” (2 Cor 11:7-11)

 

The information Jesus gives is therefore trustworthy. He has spoken in front of public scrutiny, He has done His work before all nations, and He continues to seek and save today in Public worship. This is what Jesus does with His information. “As it is written, He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever” (2 Corinthians 9:9).

 

In our sin, we weaponize the information we receive to wield against our neighbors and even against God. In Christ, we are invited into the unconditional, undeserving, and unending love of God. This is the information we obtain from the Creator of the universe.

 

Thus, it is the information we use to judge all other information. Not that we can get a degree in it, but that God’s Word keeps us in the Truth. The Truth that there is good information out there. The Truth that it is full of God’s love and mercy. And the Truth that there is a Way and a Life towards that source; in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

 

Amen.

 

 

St. James the Greater

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 62:6-12

• Romans 6:19-23

• St. Mark 8:1-9

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

 

Who speaks to you from the Gospel reading today, saying:

“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.”

 

On this the Feast Day of St. James, we honor him by worshipping. That is, gathering together with the risen Christ and His church to receive His gifts of forgiveness and life. The Apostles and prophets had no gift, forgiveness, or life that was their own, therefore they are not meant to be invoked or depended on for mediation.

But are to be honored by our thanks to God for them, our strengthened faith because of them, and our following their example of faith and good works.

 

Saint James became the first martyr of the twelve apostles. But we know practically nothing from the Scriptures about his life and ministry. This is the St. James of “and Jesus took with Him Peter, James, and John” fame, gaining the nickname “Sons of Thunder” for saying to Jesus “Is it Your will that we call fire from heaven to consume [these sinners]” in St. Luke 9:54.

 

This St. James, one of the first Apostles called by Jesus, granted to see Christ transfigured on the mount, and His deepest agony in Gethsemane, has only seven Greek words, 10 in English, to describe his service and martyrdom, “He killed James the brother of John with the sword” (Acts 12:2).

 

And of course, it was a Herod who killed him. A grandson of the Herod that went after Jesus in Bethlehem, with the sword, after Christmass. But that’s it and that is all we are given and it is more than enough. For we are not to worship James, but Jesus.

 

St. James doesn’t even get his own name. James, the name, is an English translation of the Biblical name, Jacob. In the New Testament, it is Iakobos. Jacob became James through the Latin via the Greek translation of the Bible. So even his own name is not his own. 

 

However, there was one thing that James had that Jacob did not. And though the epistle to the Hebrews says that Jacob died in the Faith, being an heir of the Promise of God, 11:13 reveals that Jacob died “not having received the things promised”.

 

This is the Jacob that wrestled with God, that saw Jesus on a ladder stretching from earth to heaven, and that inherited the most fertile and prosperous part of all Egypt. He did not receive the Promise. Where Jacob prospered, James suffered. Where Jacob amassed wealth, James was a fisherman. But where Jacob missed Easter morning, James did not.

 

Though each lived their lives, each bore their cross. And each, like every Apostle and Prophet gave up everything and followed Jesus. They committed themselves to the Lord and to His message. And that message is a message of prosperity, but prosperity through the cross of Christ. It is also a message of suffering, but suffering in order to produce eternal glory. 

 

You see, when we celebrate the saints, we are to do it in three ways. The first is to give thanks to God, not for the men, but for examples of His mercy shown to men. As St. Paul says, “For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you” (Eph 1:15-16).

It is through the saints and the patriarchs, we are shown God’s true Will, that is to show mercy. This is what is witnessed to us, by our reading from the Book of Sirach, this morning.

 

Though not a part of Holy Scripture to be used for determining doctrine, it is none the less good to read. For the part of the Bible Sirach is in, the Apocrypha, is found in the oldest copy of the Old Testament we have, dated to about 200 years before Jesus and still used, read, and quoted by the Apostles and Church after Jesus.

 

And in it, we hear today of God’s mercy. In fact, in a previous verse of Sirach, he tells of a “man of mercy” Who shows God’s mercy and is shown God’s mercy. The book goes on to use Moses, Isaac, and Jacob to describe how this mercy works and to whom it is given, as we heard.

 

Thus secondly, we receive encouragement from remembering the saints, to use God’s gifts, remember His mercy to us, and strengthen our own faith in them. Jacob and James were not successful on their own. They believed the Word of God and it was counted to them as righteousness.

 

Jacob trusted in the coming Messiah, Who would show mercy to his sinful life and his family. James trusted in the Messiah Who Had Come, suffering, dying, and rising again to produce eternal life for all who believe. The saints push us towards Word and Sacrament in order to use God’s gifts rightly and increase faith.

 

Finally, in that same forgiveness of sins, we imitate the saints’ faith and good works. By faith we mean their trust in God’s Word and belief in His promises. And by good works, we don’t mean all or any of the works of men, as if aping what Jacob literally did in his whole life, nor even seeking out a martyr’s suffering and death.

 

By good works, we mean the daily struggle of the Christian life against his own sin, the world, and the power of the devil. For a good work, in God’s sight, is everything a child of God does, speaks, or thinks in faith according to the 10 commandments, for the glory of God, and for the benefit of his neighbor. Jesus says, “He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5).

 

So we come to see that the shared glory between Jacob and James, Old Testament and New Testament, saints and you is the same glory of God: Jesus Christ. You do not wait for a pope to canonize you after death; your baptism has already canonized you in the courts of heaven. 

 

Between the Bridegroom and the Bride, The Bride brings all her debts, sins, and death to the marriage. Christ takes them upon Himself and dies for them. In return, Christ gives the Bride His endless righteousness, life, and sainthood. Baptized into His Body, you are a new Creation.

 

Hopefully you see now, that the saints and the patriarchs are not so far away as we maybe feared, but are now a part of the great cloud of witnesses, that company of heaven that follows in His train to Jesus’s call to worship each Lord’s Day.

 

And in His Call is death. Death to the world and death to self. For there is your martyrdom. And it may be worse than facing the sword. For, “martyrdom is aided by an agitated time, an emotional disposition, and it is often quickly won; it only takes a brief moment. But being faithful in little things involves bearing patiently the quiet tedium of a monotonous, elapsing life to the praise of the Lord.” (Löhe, The Word Remains, p. 81)

 

"It is a hidden glory in the Christian life to practice faithfulness in little things, that is, in one’s vocation; yet it is more difficult and more glorious than martyrdom.” Because since we carry the name “Christ” in the world, we should expect to dress like Him: in hunger, in thirst, in wounds, and in death.

 

Being conformed to His Image is more than “playing nice”. It is dying and rising to new life. A moral and honorable life is a part of that, but Christ did not die to give us a moral life. He took on flesh to succeed where Jacob failed. Jesus is faithful, chaste, and the Husband of one wife. And where James failed to preach to the whole world and come back from the dead, Jesus does that.

 

Jesus is the honor of the martyrs, therefore the best way to honor the saints is to believe their word and do what they would have done: invoke and pray to Jesus. They would have devoted themselves to the Apostle’s teaching. They would have joined in fellowship of believers. They would have had the breaking of the bread each Lord’s Day and they would be constant in prayer.

 

It should not be difficult to envision a life of sainthood or martyrdom. Jesus calls us by our baptism to new life every day, giving us His death and His resurrection. And though St. James got to be the first of the 12 to be martyred for the faith, and though he got to walk with Jesus, and though he raised the dead and did other miracles, his main gift to us is the faith.

 

The “faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3), “the prophetic word more fully confirmed” (2 Pet 1:19), and the servanthood of Christ and stewardship of the sacraments of God (1 Cor 4:1). In this way, you remember St. James in the best way possible: in the very same faith and in the very same Church he preached, suffered, and died for.

 

Amen.

Know Satisfaction [Trinity 7]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE 

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 62:6-12

• Romans 6:19-23

• St. Mark 8:1-9

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

 

Who speaks to you from the Gospel reading today, saying:

“And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full”

 

Thus far from the Word of God, which He includes for you to hear and remember that Jesus alone is the one sacrifice for sin, offered once, Who found an eternal redemption, and perfected forever those who are sanctified (Heb 7;9;10). No other person, place, or thing can make satisfaction, that is fulfill all that is needed to renew this world and you, except Jesus.

 

This should point us to a greater understanding of sin and guilt in our lives. That, though they remain, they have been covered by Jesus’s satisfaction. Thus, we thank God for the knowledge of our sin and give greater thanks that His satisfaction can heal everyone else, in the same way.

 

When are you satisfied? 

I know when you are not satisfied: Though gold should fill your coffers, though you are praised by the strong and mighty, yet you are not satisfied. Though you have the job you want, the family you spent so much time and effort on, and a place on this earth you can call your own, you are not content.

 

And though there is a discontent in us that wishes and hopes for better things for us and our neighbors, our true heart is focused only on our own wants, our own feelings, and our own hurts. For gold can be any kind of wealth we imagine is important to us. Praise is any circle of people we want to be a part of, even a circle of one.

 

You are also not satisfied with the Word of God. Remember Jesus speaking about how “man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”? (Mt 4:4)

Why? Why are we so dissatisfied with what God gives us? Not just some, but every single thing from God we gripe about how we don’t have enough or our neighbor has more or better than us.

 

And that is just with material things. As soon as Jesus brings up His Word and compares it to bread, we transition to His gifts that He brings to us and we are just as unsatisfied with them. Not only are His Word and His sacraments common and unassuming to us, but His work on the cross is also dull.

 

Its dull because its so far in the past. Its dull because I get nothing in return for it. Its dull because there are no measurable differences in my life or the life of others according to it. So for you to offer your forgiveness, feels like an empty promise and at worst, a burden.

 

So much so that we begin to hoard it. We keep the forgiveness to ourselves and make it harder for others to find forgiveness. We begin to make rules around them. Rules that never have touched God’s lips.

Funny thing about forgiveness; if its hoarded and not distributed out, it becomes worthless. And worthless spiritual things demand more laws and rituals from us.

 

Thus you hear things such as: “If anyone says that the total punishment [for sin] is always remitted by God at the same time as the guilt, and that the satisfaction of penitents is nothing else than the faith by which they apprehend that Christ made satisfaction for them, let him be anathema [cast into the outer darkness]” (Ex. of Trent II:630)

 

When we find Christ’s satisfaction for us, unsatisfying, we replace it with our own. We imagine our own satisfactions pleasing to God. As if we have something that God does not. As if we can pay God back for all that He has done. As if all that He commands and demands of us, we can fulfill with a bigger offering, many prayers, and empty vows.

 

Even if we know all this, we still attempt anyway. Why? Because in our sin, God has laid on us this hunger. Lamentations 3:15 says, “He has filled me with bitterness, He has satisfied me with wormwood.” When we seek other satisfaction besides Him, we find nothing and it leaves a bitter taste in our mouth and we say, ““My strength and my hope have perished from the Lord” (Lam 3:18).

 

But what does our Gospel reading say today? They ate and were satisfied. More than that. they ate, were satisfied, and the broken pieces leftover, the grazing fragments of food that you take but aren’t really hungry for, the full plates that find themselves in the garbage at the party that someone took but didn’t eat off. Seven baskets of “more than enough” were filled.

 

What a wolfish hunger set upon Jesus! He even calls out the crowd after feeding the 5000 in John 6. Jesus walks on water, sends His disciples ahead of Him to cross the sea in a boat, and on the other side is a crowd wondering just how Jesus got there and Jesus says, “you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” (Jn 6:26-27)

 

What does our dear Lord cry out from the cross except that He suffers this hunger for us all, “I thirst!” (Jn 19:28). The forgiveness of sins is a thing promised for Christ’s sake, not ours, and it cannot be received except by faith alone. 

 

St. Paul does not say, “[God] gives us the victory if we set up our satisfactions against death.”

But, “thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 15:57)” (Ap XIIb(VI): 49/146)

Therefore, it is impossible that our satisfactions can be a payment for the eternal punishment or for the guilt. If only because that would make the punishments of Christ not a sufficient satisfaction for the eternal punishment. 

 

However, our works will much less be such a satisfaction. For even the works of a holy man are imperfect, and cannot even satisfy for his own minor daily offenses, let alone for eternal punishment.

 

In other words, “there is no inner repentance unless it also produces the outward putting to death of the flesh”, says our Confessions (Ap XIIb(VI):34). In other other words, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” of sins (Heb 9:22)!

 

Not all the blood of beasts, not all the blood or satisfactions of men could merit the forgiveness of sins or satisfy the perfect Law of God. For He wrote it with His own fingers. With His own voice He threatened with guilt and punishment anyone who lives contrary to it. 

 

So it is we find Christ on the cross for us, with His own fingers wrapped around the nails, and with His own voice crying out, “Father forgive them!” He did not say, “Father give them a bit of forgiveness so that they can find the rest of the way themselves”. 

 

He saw the crowds gathering, knew they had no bread to eat, and fed them. At the right time, He set the table before His enemies, sinners, and called for a Great Banquet. His enemies, confused, gladly accepted and when they broke the bread, “their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus—and He disappeared from their sight” (Luke 24:31).

 

Now, in the Bread and Wine without cost; in the ever-flowing fountain of Life, we are given the satisfaction from eternity. A filling that not only fills us completely, but overflows. An eating and drinking that calms the hungry stomach and soothes the lacking soul. 

 

So now we must present our members as slaves to righteousness, as our Epistle taught today. For righteousness is the solid food of Faith, given to the mature Christian (Heb 5:13-14). Righteousness, “faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment” (Heb 6:1-2).

 

Now the Bread has become the meat. The meat of God. The Incarnation of God on earth, come to bind, come to heal, come to feed. Jesus’s love is enough for you. His care, His Church, His Life. It is enough and everything will be ok because of it. 

 

In fact, in order to defend His own Honor, to protect the Glory of His Name, and to Keep His promises that not even death can stop, He wills that you handle the Bread of Heaven. For today, the Lord has given us this food in this due season of these Last Days. He has opened up His raw-imprinted hand and satisfied the desire of every living thing (Ps 145:15-16).

 

Amen.

Baptism indicates [Trinity 6]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE 

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Exodus 20:1-17

• Romans 6:3-11

• St. Matthew 5:20-26

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

 

Who speaks to you from the Gospel reading today, saying:

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

 

With these words, Jesus reveals the Holy Life, as it should be, and spoiler alert, its not ours. What this should point us to is a greater appreciation to God for our Baptism for there we see the work and promise of God, for us, to give us the Holy Life of Jesus. We should then seek greater catechesis, learning, about baptism in order to remember our own and bring others to this great gift.

 

If Jesus willed that we all be chased out and the gates of heaven be closed off forever, He would have only had to preach and teach these few verses from the Gospel of Matthew today. Because He not only demands righteousness exceeding the Scribes and Pharisees, but exposes the true nature of our hearts, demanding they be reconciled to our brother and his anger before we even think of coming to His Altar.

 

Well do we sing in our hymnals, “If Thou remembrest every sin, who then could heaven ever win or stand before Thy presence?” (LSB 607). Does God ever forget?

 

You have heard it said that “the entire life of a Christian should be one of repentance”. Thus spake the blessed Dr. Luther at the beginning of his 95 Theses, nailed to the church door on Halloween. He said, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Repent” (Mt 4:17), He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” 

 

What he was attempting to reference was Jesus speaking in His Gospel today. That once we sit and contemplate the 5th Command from God, “thou shalt not murder”, we find no end of sins to repent of, though there are 9 Commandments left to go over.

 

For this reason, the Church of Jesus, throughout history, has decided to put this Gospel next to our epistle reading for this the 6th Sunday after Trinity. Though it is good for the entire life of the Christian to be one of repentance, today we learn not just on Christmas, Easter, or when we feel something is really wrong. Romans 6 reveals that baptism comes first.

 

For today, truly truly I say to you, when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Be baptized” (Acts 10:48), He willed the entire life of the Christian be a continual return to the baptismal font, where the Old Adam is forcefully drowned, and the New Man emerges, as the words and promises of God declare. 

 

Our Large Catechism puts it this way:

“Lastly, we must also know what Baptism signifies, and why God has ordained just such external sign and ceremony for the Sacrament by which we are first received into the Christian Church. But the act or ceremony is this, that we are sunk under the water, which passes over us, and afterwards are drawn out again. These two parts, to be sunk under the water and drawn out again, signify the power and operation of Baptism, which is nothing else than putting to death the old Adam, and after that the resurrection of the new man, both of which must take place in us all our lives, so that a truly Christian life is nothing else than a daily baptism, once begun and ever to be continued. For this must be practiced without ceasing, that we ever keep purging away whatever is of the old Adam, and that that which belongs to the New Man come forth. (LC IV:64-65)

 

In the Gospel reading for today, Jesus crushes us, with the Good and Holy Law of God. It is nothing less than Romans 3:20 come to life before our eyes, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin”. 

 

In our epistle reading, we are revived again, with the Gospel. That is, in Romans 6:3-11 Jesus proclaims the comforting, liberating victory He purchased and won for us. St. Paul declares that we have already died to sin because we were buried with Christ through Baptism into His death. We are no longer slaves to sin; we are alive to God in Christ Jesus.

 

Thus, with these two readings, we are sunk under the water and drawn out again. We are shown our sin and its depths and then brought to our Savior, Who has baptized us into His faith, into His Body. Matthew 5 slays our self-righteousness, leaving us completely bankrupt before the altar of God. Romans 6 rescues us by plunging us into the tomb of Jesus, raising us up as entirely new creations.

 

This is necessary for us, because when it comes to repentance we truly believe in “one and done”. That we sin, we ask for forgiveness. Done. No worries ever again. Similar to the 5th Commandment and St. Peter’s question on forgiveness. St. Peter asks how many times must he forgive his brother and Jesus basically answers “as many times as he asks for forgiveness”. A life of repentance.

 

What St. Peter is really getting at is a much darker question that fills us with fear. The real question we want and don’t want the answer to is “how many times will God forgive us?”

 

If we say we have no sin, then the Truth is not in us and the answer is zero times. 

Since we say we have sin, Jesus’s answer is as many times as it takes.

 

This is the great, holy, and inexpressible gift that Baptism is. Not only is it the water included in God’s command and combined with God’s Word; 

not only does it forgive sins, rescue from death and the devil, and give eternal salvation at the Promise of God; 

and not only does God’s Word create such a miracle for faith to receive;

But, it also is the sign and indication before God Almighty of us being sealed by the Holy Spirit.

 

Yes, the signs we seek are the ones that men will acknowledge, but the signs God gives are the ones He will acknowledge. This is also part of Baptism. It indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily, Daily, contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

 

We long to say the words of Joshua and have them mean something, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Josh 24:15). We long to show God just how much our anger is not as bad as our brother’s anger. We long to serve the Lord, but Joshua has words for that, just a few verses after this one, “You are not able to serve the Lord” (v. 19).

 

Why? Because, as Hebrews reminds us, “without faith it is impossible to please God” (11:6) and the chief worship of God in the Gospel is the desire to receive forgiveness of sins, grace, and righteousness (Apology IV, Tappert, p. 310).  Faith is that worship which receives God’s offered blessings (Ap IV:49).  These blessings God has located in His Word and Sacrament.

 

God makes the signs. God gives the signs. No volunteering. No making your own decisions. Only dying. Only being raised. “And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor 15:45).

 

The Old Adam in us is that entire corrupt and evil nature we inherit because of the Fall into sin. Every action, no matter how holy and righteous, is done in sin. The New Adam is Christ and all who are baptized into Him. It is only in belonging to Christ that we are a part of this New Adam which also means being crucified with Him.

 

That is impossible. You thought fulfilling the 5th Commandment was hard according to Jesus today, try going back to the moment of Jesus’s crucifixion. The Way is Christ’s alone. His Way. His Word. His sacraments. 

 

Joshua’s house is not his own. He can say those pretty words about serving the Lord, because he was brought into a land that was not his own. He did not labor in the land, he did not build the cities in that land, and he did not plant vine or tree in that land, and yet he received them. 

 

Your house, your clay vessel, your temple is not your own. You were brought here. You were given both body and soul. You did not create your life, your family, or your possessions, yet you were given them. 

 

We cannot serve the Lord, because it is the Lord Who is serving us. He sits in the lowest place. He washes the feet, hands, and heads of His Chosen. He is not reclining, but serving at the Table. And what He serves up is His cross. His cross from 2-thousand years ago. Not just news of it, but the cross itself, that we might bear it and follow Him, and that we would crucified with Him.

 

Yes it is the cross which brings us back to Baptism, as it should our entire lives. For, I ask you, with which words do we regularly remember our baptism?

The words, “In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19), known as the Trinitarian Invocation, first declared over us at our Baptism.

 

By repeating these words, in Church or by ourselves, we recall, claim, and confess before heaven, earth, and hell all that God the Holy Trinity has given us in Baptism.

And what accompanies such a declaration? The sign of the cross which we make over ourselves, to mark us as “redeemed by Christ the Crucified”.

 

At the same time, our pastor, in the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, makes the sign of the cross over you.

And while your sign, made this way, for Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then these two for Jesus, both God and man, crucified by nails through the hand. 

The Pastor makes it this way: here are four Greek letters IC XC, for Jesus Christ. The three fingers standing up, for the Trinity, and the two together for the union of the divine and human, in Jesus Christ. 

 

So who is the man that does not murder or hate His neighbor? Jesus Christ.

Who is the man baptized into and dwelling in that same glorified Body of Christ?

You are.

 

 

Amen.

 

 

The Office of God: rite vocatus [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 and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. (Titus 1:4)

 

Who speaks to you from the Gospel reading today, saying:

“Come, follow Me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men”

 

And with these Words of God, Jesus begins His tradition of ordaining men for His Holy Office of preaching the Gospel in its purity and administering the sacraments according to it. This should point us to a deeper trust in God, that He has not left us in the dark to grope about for His Word on earth, but has provided men to be pastors to teach us the call to faith, the call to forgiveness, and the call to eternal life.

 

When Google was first birthed, so to speak, there were many who were indignant, especially those teachers and professors in higher education. They would say, “don’t compare your Google search to my degree”. Meaning, at that time, that a serious degree within a field of study was weightier than a cursory Google search.

 

At that time. Today, Google or any internet search, and a dedication to the material of a subject for about an hour per day for a couple years, gets you into a Master's degree level of learning and understanding, without going to college. In other words, paper certificates don’t mean too much these days.

 

Why? Because you can have that piece of paper and still be untrustworthy. You can be peer reviewed and still be a horrible human being. Not saying self-study weeds out those sorts of students, but institutional study no longer is known for producing honorable graduates.

 

For what we are dealing with in today’s Gospel is the Call of the Apostles, specifically Peter, James, and John. This is how Jesus works. With the Apostles, it was easy. Jesus was there and Called them directly. For us, living in the Church of the Resurrection, the Call is a historically debated issue.

 

If Jesus is still Calling men today, how do you authorize and validate that Call? Or can anyone just say God called them and start preaching??

Here’s the problem: let’s say you have a hospital appointment today and it is for a serious issue. You’re anxious and worried. You go to your appointment and wait in the room. 

 

A little later, Jeff walks in. [No, not you Jeff]. Just a regular Jeff who doesn’t look like a doctor on TV. A no one. Distant cousin of my aunt's nephew twice removed. Lovely singing voice.

Maybe he has a lab coat or scrubs on, but you can buy those on the internet. Would you sit there and pay just anyone to medically examine you?

 

Neither would Jesus and His Church. Our Church confessions teach: “that no one should publicly teach in the Church or administer the Sacraments unless he be regularly called” (AC XIV). We do not want just anyone looking at our medical condition, our vehicle’s condition, or our children’s education. Thus when it comes to the life, death, and eternal life of body and soul, we should want more!

 

More comfort. More certainty. More authority. Jesus’s authority. For that, we need an Apostle. Jesus accomplished His perfect work of making the Way for sinners out of death, into life, on the cross. And then creating His Church through the Apostles and Prophets. He sends men to continue His work of the Gospel in His Church. 

 

What is the Church, on earth, that has the authority to authorize such a Call? The Church is the congregation of saints, that is, the entirety of all those who, called out of the lost and condemned human race by the Holy Spirit through the Word, truly believe in Christ and by faith are sanctified and incorporated in Christ, to receive God’s Word and Sacrament (Walther, Kirche und amt, ed. Harrison, p.9)

 

Which rather complicates things for the man who desires to preach and teach as a pastor. The divine Office of Holy Ministry, or pastor, is not a temporary function or civic job. It is a distinct, divine office instituted by God Himself for all time, in order that we receive the Holy Spirit on earth, given by the Church on earth. 

 

This Office is the instrument through which Christ promises to continue His prophetic and priestly work on earth. It is not an elite priesthood ruling over the laity, but a sacred, public stewardship of the Means of Grace given to Christ's holy flock, under His authority.

 

We see God’s careful guard over His Office in the Gospel today. First, it is Jesus Who initiates the Call to Peter, James, and John, choosing His own ministers rather than accepting volunteers. St. Peter does not stand up and give his own testimony, in fact, he rejects Jesus at first because he knows his testimony is full of sin, not righteousness.

 

Next, His Ministers are stewards of Scripture, not innovators of doctrine. Before St. Peter preaches, he must sit and listen for three years, or so. The pastoral office does not originate from human wisdom, but from the external Word of Christ.

 

Then, the church examines ministers to ensure accountability and reliance on grace. Jesus tests St. Peter with the catch of fish, invites him to repent, and then Calls him to follow Him. Again, St. Peter is not self-willed here.

 

And it would be a problem if he were. Self-appointed leaders often lack humility towards God’s Church, making it their church. A properly Called pastor knows they stand there only by grace. Therefore, a proper Call gives certainty to both pastor and congregation, allowing them to rely on Christ's established order, and not the fad of the day.

 

Finally, a true Call demands complete submission to His mission, not yours. Leaving everything behind and going where you are needed, not wherever you feel like. Doing only what you are commanded, not vision casting or reaching out. It is submission to where and how God is working on earth, today.

 

As is Jesus’s usual custom, He works in His church on earth, until His return, through His Word. And His Word is to be rejected. Not because He wants it rejected, but because the rejection reveals sin. “He came to His own and His own received Him not”. In sin, we will not accept Jesus. (John 1:11)

 

And just like St. Peter, we will not accept Jesus’s ways. “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”, says Peter to Jesus telling the disciples about His cross. And what did that get Peter? “Get behind me satan!” (Matt 16:21-23)

 

Yeah, but that was Peter and not me, you say? We know better these days, because Jesus already went to the cross. 

When you reject or love a pastor because of his personality, you reject the Word of God that teaches, “to acknowledge those who work diligently among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. In love, hold them in highest regard because of their work” in the Gospel (1 Thess 5:12-13).

 

When you reject a pastor rebuking or speaking against false doctrine, you reject the Word of God. 

When you believe it is your heart or your feelings that move you to preach to God’s people, you reject the Word of God. 

 

When you believe Jesus does not use Word and Sacrament to still give today “some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for works of ministry and to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ”, you reject the Word of God (Eph 4:11-13).

 

When you don’t believe St. Paul writes to us the Lord’s own commands when he says, “Women are to be silent in the churches. They are not permitted to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says”, you don’t believe the Word of God (1 Cor 14:37, 34).

 

The strength of the Holy Office is the strength of Christ, His Person, Word, and work. Even if the pastor has lived as a secretly evil man for some time and this is only identified later or never identified, God’s people are still assured of Christ’s gifts to them through this office. Such is the strength of Christ.

 

In Articles VII and VIII of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession we read: “We confess . . . that the Sacraments are efficacious even when evil men administer them, for the ministers act in Christ’s stead and do not represent their own person, according to the word (Luke 10:16), ‘he who hears you hears Me.’”   

 

In other words, God works through the means of grace with such tender love and care that not even the unworthiness of the servants, God help him, weakens the gifts of the Good Shepherd to His flock.

 

This Call to the Pastoral Office is a lesson for us. That lesson is the lesson taught to St. Peter today. The most loving act you can do for Jesus is to let Jesus be Jesus and let Jesus do Jesus-work. Peter didn’t want it, in his sin, but Jesus did it anyway. 

 

Therefore, the most loving act that congregational members can do for their pastor is to diligently receive God’s Word and Sacrament from him and encourage him to preach and administer the same, if he does not. 

 

Jesus watches over us as a man Who has given an account to the Father. He has brought His report to God and was judged for it, because He had taken on all your sins. With His Body and Blood He purchased and won you from sin, death, and the power of the devil. And He gives that power to men.

 

Pastors watch over those they are called to serve as men who must give account. Hebrews 13:7-17 says, “Remember those leading you who spoke the word of God to you…Obey those leading you and submit to them, for they watch over your souls as those who must give an account. To this end, allow them to lead with joy and not with grief, for that would be of no advantage to you.”

 

“For Christian perfection consists not in…contempt…but in dispositions of the heart, in great fear of God, [and] in great faith” (AP XVI:61)

 

Amen.