Righteous war [Trinity 26; St. Matthew 25:31-46]

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So, Jesus speaks to us today in His Penultimate Gospel and says,

“Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”

Two weeks ago, I mentioned how the Soviets had jumbled the work week for its citizens, keeping them guessing when the next day off would be in order to frustrate gathering on the Lord’s Day and thus suffocating Church. It turns out, life wasn’t so different under Roman Rule either as we will discover today, continuing our discussion on the Lord’s Day.

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​​Moving into the second and third centuries after Christ, we find a Church under threats of persecution, not from the Empire itself, per say, but from false accusations of disturbing the peace from the people. People who were easily offended by this “new” religion would start a riot, blame it on the Christians, and, to keep Roman peace, Roman authorities would put the Christians to death.

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​​So it is that we come to the holy, roman week consisting of 8 days of work and a 9th day of holiday celebration, or rather, every ninth day was a holiday. The Romans took their national religion very seriously and their “peace of the empire” even more seriously. Since the Jewish, now Christian, week worked in 7’s, you can see how this turns into a point of serious contention and a battle of the gods.

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​​Once the Lord’s Day landed on any day of work, it would have been impossible for the Christians to stop working in order to attend the Divine Service. And even if it happened to land on that 9th day, they were not allowed to miss the Roman holy day celebrations, on pain of death. You could have your own religion in the empire, but you must pay homage to the Roman gods or the empire will fall and it will be your fault for not praying.

“You shall have no others gods” is the commandment that frustrates the “peace of the empire” and gets the Christians martyred. See the false, roman gods can do nothing to keep their names holy or do their will on earth. They are idols. They “…are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, nor is there breath in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them” (Psalm 135:15-18)

Since idols are idle, the romans must act in their stead, carrying out what they think is their will, cleansing the earth of any lack of worship. The Christians, in observing the Lord’s Day, had picked a fight with the most powerful nation on earth and declared war to find out which god is the Lord.

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​​The Sunday that we so casually and flippantly celebrate was bought and paid for in much blood. Many thousands were martyred for the faith, during these first few centuries, simply because they went to the breaking of the bread, the Apostles’ doctrine, and the prayers, instead of being caught dead in any state religious celebration. Even though most of the Church was “underground”, this did not prevent bloodshed.

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​​And that’s another thing: what exactly was this gathering on the Lord’s Day that prompted such ire from the state and such dedication from the Christians? Was it worth it risking life and limb to simply get together for a bit and encourage one another and have fellowship? Ridiculous. These Christians were risking life, property, and liberty all for the chance to commune with Jesus. These were holy masses that were being celebrated, each time, not fellowship time, not carry-ins, and certainly not meditation time.

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​​Sacrifice was made and necessitated all in order to celebrate with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven at the Lord’s Table on the Lord’s Day. Why do you think the sheep are so surprised in the Gospel reading for today? Surrounded by sin and evil and death on every hand, when was it that they finally found time to do the works that Christ is claiming that they did?

The world separates, divides, and discriminates. The sheep were fighting a war against the world, a war that they did not win, but got to benefit from its victory. One of the reasons the sheep are so surprised to be praised by Jesus is, because the world would not let them celebrate the Lord’s Day in peace. They were harassed on every side, day in and day out, to turn away, to not go, to give up breaking the bread.

They were not going to make it on their own strength. The real divider between the sheep and the goats is faith. Faith that looks at this horrible, hard life; sees that it is quenched on every hand; finds it a never ending struggle to be a part of church and yet still believes. Believes to the point where it knows that it is not its actions that count, but Christ’s actions.

So the Church and the State engage in war. If we just look at the Roman empire, we know who won that battle, for the Church still stands, but the empire does not. Was it superior fire-power? Was it genius strategy? Was it overwhelming numbers that gained Christians the victory?

Faith is counted as righteousness (Rom. 4:22) and the righteous shall not be moved (prov. 10:30), promises the Lord. Not only that, but the Righteous One shall never see corruption (Ps. 16:10). He Who dies serving the Lord in sincerity and truth, will not make His bed in Sheol, neither will He be cast aside.

As our Introit proclaims, the Lord saves, the Lord hears, and the Lord delivers. He does so through he Word of the Cross of Christ, faithfully proclaimed every Lord’s Day. So, the winning strategy against the empire, the state, and the world is to sit our butts down in the Lord’s Church, believe in His Word, and know that not only is His death and resurrection the ultimate weapon, but they are the ultimate gift for us.

Every other religion in the world must act “in holiness”, never really knowing what the outcome will be. So they are busy making war against everything. The Church is at rest, letting God fight the war, because the war is won, even without our fanfare.

“And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Being righteous is not how much peace you can keep, or how many riots you can start for God. It is about being righteous. And Jesus says that, in order to be righteous, you must be perfect, and in order to be perfect you must be God.

And in order to be like God, you must be baptized into the Body of His Son. The Righteous One Who knew the corruption of the world’s sin, with all its raging and war, and still claimed it as His own, suffering and dying and descending into hell with it.

The struggle of the Church is the struggle of Christ with sin, death, and the devil. The victory of Christ over these false idols is given to the Church for free. It is handed out in the form of Word and Sacrament. The call to “fight for God” is the call to “take and eat; take and drink”.

Now, in Christ, the Lord’s Day is a celebration of victory won and victory freely given. The world has not figured out that the war has ended, but the Christian knows and thus he is able to sit in a pew and let God work in him, knowing full well the power of Word and Sacrament over and against all others on earth.

You are also a part of this struggle and war, but the Lord has seen fit to bring you into the victory feast to wash you clean of your wounds, to comfort and encourage you, and to feed and strengthen you. Not so that you become a Church-superman, but so that you remember the death your sin has wrought and believe the atonement Christ has made for you.

In the Land without a Sunday, there is no hope for the people. Fully dependent on earthly success and earthly rulers to make anything out of life, their despair when works and state fail them. For on Sunday, the Lord conquers all. The constant remembrance of that fact angers satan and his ilk to no end.

But even if the world was full of devils, all eager to devour us, we would not tremble or fear, because Christ fights for us. The Victor, the Valliant One, the Crucified. He that gains every victory fights for you. He that neither slumbers nor sleeps baptizes you. He Who shows up every Sunday, communes with you, in order that you may believe and out-live all warfare.

Lord's Day Takeover [Trinity 25; St. Matthew 24:15-28]

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On this antepenultimate Sunday, that is the third before the last, our Lord speaks directly to us saying,

“Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.”

Last week, we discussed the importance of Sunday and how at first it was placed alongside the Sabbath day, in Apostolic times, as we continue to consider what a Land without a Sunday would be like in these Last Days that we live in. Therefore, today we consider the fact that the Sabbath is taken over by the Lord’s Day in importance, observance, and place in Church.

As time progressed for the Christians and more meditation was had upon what it means that Christ is the end of the law (Rom. 10:4), the Apostles had to face dilemmas regarding new converts, both Jews and pagans.

The challenge these new converts presented was the same for both groups: to what extent do we follow the Jewish laws and require non-Jews to do the same? Of course when we read the book of the Acts of the Apostles, we hear of the struggles on the point of circumcision, not eating unclean animals, and other such laws, however today we will only be specifically looking at the law of observing the Sabbath Day.

So far in our discussion, the Apostles are still trying to be good Jews and yet exalt Christ above all things. Yet, how are we able to do that when we are still clinging to the Sabbath day in simple, ritual observance? And what does God’s command actually mean when He demands we keep the Sabbath holy (Ex. 20:8)?

In Acts 15, this issue is taken up in the first council of Jerusalem. It is there that the question is asked, “Do believers need to observe the law of Moses?” St. Paul concludes his arguments saying that the law should not be observed. From verses 10 and 11: “Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

Of course, the “yoke on our necks” is the Law, which is unable to save but always accuses us in front of God. The Sabbath always accuses us, if only for the need to repeat it week after week. So it is that St. James, presiding bishop of Jerusalem, makes a declaration to not trouble those turning to God with these burdens. St. James uses the clear reasoning of holy Scripture which plainly saith that the Gentiles are called by God’s Name.

He quotes Amos 9 saying: “After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David hat has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name”

Who also agrees with King David who says: “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the Gentiles. I will be exalted in the earth.” (Ps. 46:10)

And with Isaiah who says: “In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, ‘Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance’” (Isa. 19:24-25). Egypt and Assyria, of course being filled with non-Jews.

The Gentiles are fellow heirs of the kingdom (Eph. 3:6). Why would they not be included in the promises of God? Why would something such as the observance of the Sabbath Day prevent them from becoming Christians? They will be blessed by God  in the future, thus saith the Lord, so they must be today, also, and now, in His Church.

So it is, with these passages and many others and the decisions of this ecumenical council, that the Sabbath day be overtaken by the new covenant and a new day be made for the great Divine Service: the Lord’s Day.

Now you thought I was going to say Sunday. Well, it just so turns out that Sunday just happens to be the best day to teach on this subject; to show forth the Lord’s Easter and teach about the Resurrection. But, it is not THE day. In fact, because the Lord’s Day is now an eternal day of Resurrection, it can be celebrated any day of the week; every day of the week.

In the Book of Revelation, St. John says that he was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day” (Rev. 1:10) when Jesus began to reveal to him this book of the Bible. So towards the end of the 1st century, the Sabbath has already been put away as a sign pointing to Jesus and His great work of Resurrection and replaced with the Lord’s Day.

We are not to give up meeting together (Heb. 10:25), but we are to keep the Sabbath Day holy by not despising preaching and the Lord’s Word, but holding it sacred and gladly hearing it and learning it. Which can now be done any, and every, day of the week. In Christ, we do not judge according to the observation of a Sabbath (Col. 2:16-17), but instead keep it holy by hearing the Word and receiving the Sacrament.

So it is that the 2nd century Christians encourage us, saying: “…every Lord's day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure.” (Didache, 14) In fact, they considered it monstrous to practice any sort of Judaism altogether (St. Ignatius, Letter to the Magnesians 10:3).

Once again we see that the rest of the Sabbath pales in comparison to the eternal life and peace of the Lord’s Day. Not only is the Resurrection promise more important than Ritual, Sabbath observation, but it is even more important than the end of the world, if we are to take Jesus’ meaning from the Gospel heard today.

Jesus says to pray that your flight not be in winter or on the Sabbath. We understand the suffering that can occur on an outdoor trek in the middle of winter, but really how hard can a flight on the Sabbath be in comparison?

You must think about it in light of our new-found affection for the Lord’s Day. Not only would Sabbath become a day of work, violating the 3rd Commandment, but now the Christian would not be communing with his Lord an Savior.

Look at what is important to Jesus in the Gospel reading. It is not the Abomination, He never explains clearly what that is. What is important is what that Abomination interrupts. It interrupts family and home-time, it interrupts seasonal times, and most importantly it interrupts finding the Christ on His Sabbath of sabbaths.

This is what Jesus spends His time explaining to us in this Gospel reading. The horrible and unforgivable intrusion that this Abomination and even the Last Day wreaks on the normal, holy work of Christ’s people is the true danger of these final days before Christ Returns. Especially that it interrupts the seasonal, familial time spent in the Divine Service. 

In fact, this is the real meaning of “Abomination of desolation that stands in the holy place”. It is anything that removes your faith from you. It means being able to be offended by Sabbath Day violations and keep the faith. It even means being able to see Almighty God suffer and die on a cross and yet still believe.

It was eternally important for the Lord’s Day to overtake the Sabbath Day as central to the Faith. The Lord’s Day finally brings the promise of rest made on the Sabbath to fruition. What the Law could not accomplish, no matter how many people or times it was observed, Christ accomplishes for us on the cross, on His Day, and today in His Divine Service.

Every Sunday [Trinity 24; St. Matthew 9:18-26]

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Jesus speaks to us in today’s Gospel saying:

“Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, ‘Take heart, daughter; your faith has saved you.’ And instantly the woman was saved.”

As we approach the End of the Church Year, these 4 Sundays in November, I want to take all four Sundays and take you through what I’m going to call the Land without a Sunday. And Just so you know, this is not original to me. It is actually the title of a short essay that Maria Von Trapp wrote in the first half of last century. But as you will see, the issue has not aged at all.

Her idea behind writing this essay comes from a vacation story from some friends of the Von Trapps, back in Austria. The vacation their friends took was six-weeks to go all over Russia, when it was still possible to get a visa, in that time. Though they were assigned a “tour guide” who never left them for a moment, they returned home safe. Their friends actually wrote the book called: The Land without a Sunday.

For that is what impressed them most on their trip. It wasn’t the siberian concentration camps or the misery and hardship under the socialists. It was the fact that they never heard a church bell ring once the entire time. Socialist Russia had gotten rid of Sunday and was therefore able to commit all of their atrocities.

But you can’t get rid of a whole day. You must fill that gap with something and the socialists did. They replaced it with “a day off”, but not in the same way we would think of a day off. In specific intervals, differing throughout the entire country, a day off would eventually come in the work week. Some would have a 5 day work week, with the 6th off. Some would have a 10 day work week, and still others would have an 8 day work week. Change up the weeks and work, work, work.

And if you didn’t work, you were shot. This is what replaced Sundays. Work and fear and love for Big Brother. Do you know why? Do you know why it is that when any oppressive regime comes to take over a country, the first thing they do is attack churches? It is because on Sundays, the Church preaches Rest, Peace, and Liberty, exactly what Jesus is doing in the Gospel today.

But first off: we are not just speaking of institutionalized Sundays, meaning the Sundays that happen “just because they’ve always happened, so why change it”. I am today teaching about how important Sundays are to the Church and where that importance came from.

Remember, the Church began on Saturdays; the Sabbath day. That Day of Rest that God made holy on the seventh day of Creation. So it was, and to some still is, that the 7th day was the holy day, made so by God Himself. So it is that when we fast-forward to Jesus, in the Gospels, we find Him also attending synagogue on the Sabbath religiously.

So, Biblically we should have been here yesterday and not Today, right? 

Jesus offers us help in this area. In Matthew 28, He gives us an account of His Easter. We hear, in English, that after the Sabbath, that was Saturday, dawned the first day of the week, which we would call Sunday. However, there’s a trick here. In the Greek, in a divine convergence and agreement between all four Gospels, the phrase in question quite literally says, “...the first of the Sabbaths” (Mt. 28:1, Mk. 16:2, Lk. 24:1, Jn. 20:1). 

Now, with this information, we have one of two choices: In the first case, we can agree with the Jews and say that by Jesus’ time the word “sabbath” had come to mean “week” or “day of the week” as some generic term, but this way we run the risk of rendering the sabbath into vulgarity that which God has called holy.

Or, we may take it to mean that, just as Christ is the end of the Law for all who believe (Rom. 10:4), He is also the end of the ceremonial Law which commanded the Sabbath to be observed. Which then means that the Sabbath, the seventh day on which God rested, now has an evening. The sun has finally set on that never-ending 7th day of God’s rest from Genesis 1 and has now arisen upon the Sabbath of sabbaths; the first of the Sabbaths: Resurrection Day. Of course, this was the plan from the beginning.

So we will take the second opinion and find ourselves aligned with the Apostles who also continued Jesus’ tradition of attending Sabbath at the synagogues, but then began the new tradition of remaining after everyone had left, keeping a vigil, and hearing the Gospel the next morning in imitation of the Easter weekend they all experienced firsthand. St. Paul confirms this when he encourages offerings to be taken up on the “first day of the week” (1 Cor. 16:2).

In this way, the first Easter vigil is repeated over and over again. Not just that first Sunday but every other one as well, in order to celebrate. Every Saturday through Sunday becomes a little Easter for the Apostles and they never let a single one go past them. For us too, now every Sunday is a little Easter where we are able to prepare ourselves with Confession on Saturdays and greet our Lord at His Table the next morning, being resurrected to new life, Romans 6:4.

Now, even though Jesus is bringing rest to this little girl’s tortured and grief-stricken family, and even though His presence brings the eternal peace of God, and even though this family and all who believe are set free from death to live a life of liberty, none of that would have come without Sunday; without that Easter Sunday.

Looking at our Old Testament reading, we also hear nonsense from Isaiah if we do not have Easter Sunday. Demanding that God wake up seems silly, especially since He already tells us that He “slumbers not nor sleeps” in Psalm 121:4. However, it may make some sense if the Seventh Day of rest is still in effect. If God is still resting from creating all things, then maybe we must awaken God.

But if God awakens on His own from the slumber of death and shows the entire world what He has done, then Isaiah is not speaking of God sleeping, but God rising again from the dead, never to die again. Then verse 11 of Isaiah 51 makes eternal sense, that the ransomed will eternally be saved in the Resurrection. Everlasting joy, gladness, and comfort can only come from the fact that death is no more, as Jesus showed us by raising this daughter.

But this Resurrection Sunday does not stop there. It comes directly to you to affect you, to change you, and to gift you with the same everlasting peace. For because of Sunday, you have been baptized into the Good Friday and Easter Sunday of God. Your baptism places you in direct contact with this Sunday that Jesus creates and gives to you.

Not just the first day of the week, not just the next day, but a brand new day that has never been seen on earth before. The day where it is possible for the dead to come back to life. Not a day of work or a day of rest, but a day of eternal blessedness that will not have an end. 

This is why this new-old day we call Sunday is now the day of worship, because of all this. Hopefully now, if anyone asks “why Sunday”, you may answer with confidence: “why not Sunday?”

Ceremonious [Trinity 19; St. Matthew 9:1-8]

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Jesus is speaking to you, from His own Gospel, saying,

“But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins—he then said to the paralytic—Rise, pick up your bed and go home.”

It is a fact that only 45% of our own earth has been explored. Granted, most of what is unexplored is out in the middle of the ocean, but this fact should still give us pause when we claim to know something scientifically about the earth and its climate and yet know only about 45% of it.

Perhaps to a similar percentage is the exploration of our own bodies. Now you’d think after how many people have lived in, experimented with, and experienced life in a body, that we would have it all figured out. Surprise! There are more things than you think that people can’t explain about our own bodies.

For example, no one knows why we have fingerprints. At one point it was thought that they allowed for better grip, but they actually make less of our skin come into contact with things and work against grip. We take them for granted, not needing an explanation for them, and simply adjust our lives around them, especially when it involves criminal behavior.

No one knows why we have appendixes, why we have dominant hands, or why we yawn. There is so much more about our bodies that is still mystery today, even to its owners, yet these don’t change life for us, much. We are still able to live a good and full life even though we are only 45% sure that our body is doing ok.

This means, that despite living within a mystery, quite literally, we seem to function just fine. We are able to be taught how to live out our lives, not knowing everything about it. Is this cognitive dissonance? Are we ignorant? Are there just some things that science is incapable of explaining??

According to the dictionary, a ceremony is “an act or series of acts performed according to a traditional or prescribed form”. Of course, this is exactly how Creation is designed just for us: that things work in a prescribed way again and again. There is also ceremony, that series of acts performed, to everything we do in order to interact with this world and survive. There is a certain way to eat, a certain way to drink, and a certain way to care for one’s body. 

You do not shove just any old thing into your mouth, much less any other place on your body. It must be food, it must be prepared, and it must go in through your mouth. Same with drinking and same with hygiene. You do not brush your hair with fire neither do you care for your hair by cutting your nails. We sit down and bow to many ceremonies all day long and they pass us right by without a second thought.

It is any wonder then, that God’s ceremonies are treated in the same way? Our Holy Scripture readings are full of ceremonies this morning. Jacob is in the middle of unceremoniously escaping his brother Esau and looking for a wife, in our Old Testament reading. Yet, he is the blessed son who, upon seeing the cross of Christ which he sees as a ladder, sets up a place of ceremony there at Bethel, meaning “house of God”. So of course Jacob would set up a church there and of course he would return and worship in chapter 35 and of course it would be one of the first places the Ark of the Covenant came to when Joshua and the Judges were leading Israel in Joshua 8 and Judges 20.

Thus all the ceremonies prescribed by God, given through Moses, were to be enacted at this place of worship. For hundreds of years, Bethel remained a place of ceremony and celebration, but was just a quickly turned to a place of anti-ceremony, being turned over to golden calves, and promptly condemned by the prophets saying, “On the day I punish Israel for its transgressions, I will punish the altars of Bethel, and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground” (Amos 3:14).

So it is that St. Paul, speaking over a millennium later, speaks of those same idolatrous ceremonies that should not be. Yet they persist, because the devil is tireless. The anti-ceremonies are described by St. Paul in our Ephesians reading. “Put away all falsehood...and clothe yourself with righteousness and holiness”. Which means, just as important as the ceremony is the heart and life that the ceremony is aiming to rescue.

Ceremonies teach. Jacob and Israel did not just imitate other religions and build Altars and Temples, they were taught by God Himself. And even though they did not understand how heaven could reach earth, nonetheless, they did as instructed and the Divine Service played out as God promised. 

Teaching and doing go hand in hand. The Lord told us to make disciples by baptizing and teaching, Matt. 28. And in that case, we typically*do* first (baptize) and *teach* (catechize) later. Similarly, we have children memorize prayers long before they know what they actually mean. Most children have chanted "ellemenopee" before being taught that these are actually five different pictographical representations of sounds used lingusitically for the purpose of representing vocables graphically. Imagine if we taught that complex thing first, and then and only then had the kids actually sing the ABC song.

No. In the Church, Jesus has set things up for you in such a way that you can both learn about His ceremonies beforehand and be thrown into them to learn them as you go. In fact, “doing” is the better teacher here. Thus, we do not keep our children separate from ceremony, but invite them to participate. We do not keep people away, even when practicing Closed Communion. That is simply inviting them to learn and participate more.

This is because in these ceremonies you encounter God, Whom you do not know even a tenth of. And yet we find Jesus, today, forgiving a paralytic of his sins. Because when you encounter God, the first part of the ceremony is always forgiveness. It is always the handing over of all the fruits purchased and won on the cross, by the Word made Flesh. It is always mercy, not sacrifice. It is always making whole what has been lost and destroyed. Thus, this paralytic that has been decimated by sin, must be revived into new life in Christ by hearing, believing, and receiving the forgiveness of sins in order that he be returned to the ceremony.

There must be ceremony. There must be an expression and a revelation of that which is spiritual into that which is physical. This was always God’s plan from the beginning and your own body teaches you this. The only way that your soul, your inner-being, that unexplainable-hidden-thing-that-makes-you-you, interacts with the world and expresses itself is through ceremony; the ceremony of acting through your body.

When Jesus encounters this paralyzed man, He encounters someone who is unable to perform the ceremony; unable to let his soul interact with the created world of his Lord. First step in the ceremony then becomes to proclaim the Gospel; the good news that the kingdom of heaven has come in the form of a man and that the forgiveness of sins is to be found above all else.

Second is to receive the heavenly gift of hearing and believing: faith, in order that faith would also receive healing. So, in these steps Jesus proves three things: one, that the kingdom has come, two, that it comes in the name of peace and forgiveness, and three, that it is accessible even to the most cripple among us.

Our entire universe can be 100% mystery to us and that would not keep the Kingdom from coming among us and giving and teaching His ceremonies. Our bodies could be 100% foreign to us and that would not prevent God’s will from being done among us also. God can be God; something completely other and almighty and different from us and yet, in ceremony and celebration within His Church, He can be heard, touched, smelled, seen, and tasted.

In the Incarnation, God is not “something else”, He is made man, just like us in every way, except without sin. Thus, God enters into His own prescribed ceremonies with us, in order to fulfill them and live with us, through them. Because Jesus was made man, these ceremonies bring faith down to earth, for us.

It is in this spirit that St. Peter declares to us that we don’t follow man-made myths or made-up legends (2 Pet. 1:16). In that same vein, neither do we follow fabricated or mythological ceremonies, when we gather around Word and Sacrament. We did not make this stuff up. The Roman Catholic church did not make this stuff up and use it to fleece wallets from everyone.

The ceremonies that we become a part of in the Divine Service are born from billions of baptized believers continuously encountering God in communion, which He created. In living out that life and standing in front of the God Who forgives and the God Who heals, the Service you inherit today is the sum of all believers’ actions. What you hold in your hymnals and the motions, prayers, and canticles you put your body through are so ancient, they cannot help connect you to the Ancient of Days, mentioned in Daniel 7, made flesh in Matthew 1.

Ceremonies not only reveal God to us, but allow us to come close to Him, close enough to believe He is both God and man and commune with Him. Of course, we have to admit that, to the outside, they look like any other religious rites that have been on this earth thousands of times before. And I would agree, except for the fact that God calls our ceremonies different. Just as baptism is plain water without the Word, so is ceremony without the Word.

But since we have the command and the promise of God, “Do this in remembrance of me”, and since Jesus has suffered, died, and risen from the dead, these words and promises of the Crucified Jesus make them different. Thus, in our sin, we say with Jacob, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it”, but in faith we cry out: “This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!” (Gen. 28:16-17)

Seconds, please [Trinity 18; St. Matthew 22:34-46]

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Jesus speaks to us today, saying,

“This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it...”

In case you forgot, the word “deuteronomy”, as in the book our Old Testament reading is from, literally means the “second law”. From holy Scripture we know that this is not “second” as in “new law” or “second best”, but simply the second time Moses had to receive the Law of God from God Himself. Jesus saying that there is a “second” greatest commandment will set us off on this trail.

When Moses first received the Law, the Jews were fresh out of Egypt having just strolled through the Red Sea. In Exodus 24, God says that He gave Moses two tablets of stone with the written testimony, from Him, on both sides of each tablet. This takes place in chapters 19-34 of Exodus.

The second giving of the Law happens just as you heard it today from Deuteronomy 10, where again there are two tablets, heard in v.1. God again is going to write on them, but this time Moses, can we please make sure they get put in the Ark of the Covenant as I commanded last time? Don’t go smashing them just because you’re upset about golden calves again (Ex. 32:19).

However, it was not only these two times that the Lord spoke to Moses and to His people through Moses. In reading Exodus through Deuteronomy, we find Moses going up and down the mountain of God and back and forth between God and His people, relaying God’s commands many more times than twice. There were over 600 commands, after all.

The question becomes: which time did the Law of God stick with the people so that they understood its significance? Which time was the time that everyone finally got it? None of them. In fact, for the next 1400+ years between Jesus and Moses, the Jews spent that time hearing the Law over and over again and promptly forgetting it. Which is why we are hearing Jesus today, still, speaking of God’s Law, for the umpteenth time.

It seems that Jesus fudges a bit in offering a second commandment, when He is only asked for one. Though there is a perfectly good explanation for that, it first is worthwhile to go through some significant “seconds” that occur elsewhere in Scripture.

Of course there was a second Day of Creation, but in the second month after the rain stopped, Noah saw a completely dried up earth and exited the Ark (Gen. 8:14). Of more significance is Abraham’s encounter with the angel when the Lord asked for Isaac as a sacrifice. The second time the angel speaks to Abraham, it is not a Law, but a blessing; the Gospel saying:

            “I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” (Gen. 22:15-18)

More to the support of Jesus’ Second Greatest Command, that is towards neighbors, is the sacrifice of two rams to ordain Aaron and the Levites to serve in the Tabernacle, Lev. 8. The first ram was completely given to the altar, but the second ram was given to the Altar and put on Aaron and his sons. The first ram for offering to God, the second to offer for the neighbor.

Thus, the first significance of Jesus giving more than one “greatest command” is to include His neighbor in all things, meaning, you. Even the greatest of all Feasts, the Feast of Passover has an exception to it for the neighbor. In Numbers 9, God declares that if you are unclean because of a dead person, in the first month, which is when Passover is celebrated, then you may be made clean and celebrate Passover in the second month. All so that no one be left out.

And yet we know from holy Scripture that God speaks ever so many more times than two. Jesus laments this when He tells of two sons who are asked by their father to go work, in Matthew 21, and it is the second son who says, “I will” but never goes. So it is that the Lord says in Job that “For God speaks in one way, and in a second way, though man does not perceive it.” (Job 33:14)

In our sin, we hear the Lord once and do not understand. We hear the Lord a second time, we pay lip service in offering our devotion, but still we do not understand. And a third, and a fourth, and a brazillionth. If you believe you understand better than Nicodemus who thought God’s Word demanded that he enter into his mother’s womb a second time to be born (Jn. 3:4), then I’m afraid the rooster will crow a second time for you as it did for St. Peter (Mk. 14:72).

Does this all mean that its God’s fault that He couldn’t make a law the first or second time that would fit us? God forbid! In fact, it really has nothing to do with you and everything to do with the covenant itself, as St. Paul says, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second” (Heb. 8:7) Since, that is exactly what has been promised: a second covenant.

Not that the first one was insufficient, but that there was greater and better things that God had planned for you in the second. Not that 1, 2, 10, or 614 commands were lacking in God’s power, but that the Command to fulfill all commands was the ultimate in things to come. In that the first man, Adam, who received commands from the Lord’s hand, was from earth, the Second Man, Who fulfilled the Lord’s commands, was from heaven (1 Cor. 15:47).

The first is taken away in order to establish the 2nd, Heb. 10:9. Hagar is the first covenant and bears children for slavery, but Sarah is the second covenant and she bears the child of promise. In fact, the Lord’s continued promises to Israel about sending a son, hides this true nature of the second covenant behind a veil of flesh, just as the Holy of Holies was hidden behind a second veil. And as we see on Good Friday, both veils were torn in the Temple, as the flesh of God hanged upon the cross, torn open itself to reveal the love of God in this second covenant, for the veil that hides it is the flesh of Jesus, as Hebrews says in chapter 10 (v.20).

Now we understand clearly. We are not dealing with commandments or covenants and the lawyer’s question today really is stupid in light of this. We are not dealing with ourselves and our position in God’s Law, we are dealing with the God-man, Christ Jesus, and His fulfillment of the Law for us: the Gospel.

In the Second Psalm, it is Jesus Whom the Lord has begotten and even though the nations rage against His Laws and commands, He still is a refuge for those who believe in His Son. Look again at what Jesus’ answer is to this upstart lawyer. First, it is to reveal that the Greatest Command is not a command at all, neither is it split in two. It is one: that is to love. 

And God’s love is always laying down His own life for friends, neighbors, and enemies on the cross. That He not just leave us with Law a first or a second time, but that He love us and send His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 Jn. 4). So Jesus answers the lawyer a second time, asking Him Whose Son the Christ will be.

More important than commands is Jesus Christ who is the Son Who refuses His Father’s will to His face, in our sin, yet goes to do the perfect work of fulfilling the Law. He is also the second Son Who pays lip service to His Father, yet does not do holy work, but redemptive work, calling sinners guiltless.

In Jesus’ second birth, from death to life, He does not need a second command to complete His task. He simply raises Himself from the dead, having been guiltless of all sin, even ours which He took upon Himself.

In Jesus, god need only speak once and all things are accomplished. In Jesus, there is no second time, because everything is done perfectly the first time. Jesus, then, is the second ram of offering for you, that you might be sprinkled with His Blood, binding you to His Altar, His death, and His resurrection. All because Jesus is Love and love gathers all things together.

Jesus loves God and His neighbor and is able to reconcile them with His Body and Blood. David’s Son and David’s Lord, able to fulfill the Law by being born under it, and able to live perfectly by being born from above. 

Being baptized into this second covenant, we will be witnesses of another and final “second” that will take place, that of the second coming of Christ. “…so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Heb. 9:28). “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom 10:4).

Now that God has done the work, we are no longer under the Law, but saved by the Gospel. Now that David’s Son has gone out to work the vineyard, we are no longer enemies of God, but neighbors. Now that we have been baptized into the Righteousness of God, we look forward to the second coming, where we will be raised from the dead, never to die again.

The second Greatest Command, is the same as the first. The second giving of the Law is the same as the first. In Christ is the Love of God, the Father and the Holy Ghost, Who sustains you to the end in His Church and in His Word and Sacrament, in the Second man, in the Second Covenant, but in the First Place.

The True Proverb [Trinity 17; St. Luke 4:1-11]

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Jesus speaks to you today, in your hearing, saying:

“Now he told a parable to those who were invited...”

The book of Proverbs is a favorite staple in prison for 2 reasons: first, it appears extremely practical and second, having 31 chapters makes it the ideal time-keeper. In reading a chapter a day, you know what day of the month it is. I don’t know where this practice comes from, but it gives prisoners a little bit of confidence and comfort. They think that they not only have something with which to pass the time, but also something to do, and its God’s Word.

It would seem then to us today, that from our Old Testament reading, we understand it the same way. Hearing v.6 & 7, we can understand being humble and respectful to others and how it is better to be invited rather than place ourselves in the place of honor, even though we haven’t had a king in the U.S. since 1776.

In verses 8, 9, and 10 we hear more easy-to-do things, as in don’t be so quick to judge and don’t think you’ll come out on top or in the right just because you’re the first to get your case heard. Tables turn quickly in the court room. Verse 11 is a pretty metaphor, verse 12 also, but encouraging listening to good advice as well as giving it. Verse 13, another metaphor about being faithful and 14 a metaphor about not being a disappointment to people.

In this same way, the book of Proverbs goes on for 31 chapters: do this or you’ll be sorry. Don’t do this and you’ll be sorrier still.” A pretty straight-forward book of action.

Until it isn’t.  Not everything in Proverbs is as apparently doable as we have thus far seen. Sometimes it gets flat-out weird saying things such as: “The wicked is a ransom for the righteous, and the traitor for the upright” (21:18). And what do we do with this mysterious name of this Son in 30:4?! “Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name? Surely you know!” Don’t you?

At points, the Proverbs appear to contradict other parts of holy Scripture. When it says that there HAS been a just man on earth in 20:7: “The righteous who walks in his integrity — blessed are his children after him”, yet Ecclesiastes 7:20 says, “Surely there is not a just man on earth who does good and never sins.”

Or when Proverbs 2:7 presumes to affirm the existence of a righteous person, “the Lord...stores up sound wisdom for the righteous” but Romans 3:10-11 says no way: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks after God.”

This is not even the worst part. The worst part is, when we come across these passages in our personal study of God’s Word, we deal with them the same way prisoners do: we don’t. They get filed under “something to worry about later” and later usually means never. And that means we miss out on the most important parts of holy Scripture, every time we read them.

Fortunately, the Holy Ghost did not leave King Solomon without divine inspiration, as in having nothing to do with Christians and faith. We begin to unravel this dilemma in returning to the first chapter of Proverbs to hear the book’s purpose in verse 7:

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom...and piety toward God is the beginning of discernment” Read literally, it means that the origin of wisdom is fear of the Lord and the origin of discernment is piety or godliness.

So we must consider fear and piety in order to gain wisdom and discernment. First off, piety and what it means. And What it means is actually a lot simpler than we may think. In no uncertain terms, St. Paul let’s us have it in 1 Tim. 3:16 saying, “the mystery of godliness [is]: [Christ] was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.”

Which sounds a lot like the Creed we confess each Divine Service. Jesus’ prayer for us is “...that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment”, but discernment for a specific purpose, that is: “...so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God” (Phil. 1:9-11).

So if we want to discern what the proverbs wish to say to us, we must be pious. And if we want to be pious, we must attend the Divine Service and confess Jesus in the Creed. This will illumine our understanding of the Proverbs for us. For, in the first place, how can we understand if we first do not practice the faith?

Which brings us to fear. The key to understanding Biblical fear is to remember that there is a difference between the fear of a son and the fear of a servant and fear, when seriously reflected upon, reveals what our true god is. For the servant, there is no hope of mercy or inclusion. They are not a part of the family and they stand to gain no inheritance. Therefore, this fear is simply fear of punishment.

The fear of the son is wholly different. The son is not in fear of his life, his position in the family, or his life after family dies. For the son fear is fear of being disciplined. So when we hear the explanation of the First Commandment: “...fear, love, and trust God above all things”, it is more saying that we should fear nothing else, but God. Death, misunderstanding Proverbs, or even what seat we will be assigned at a wedding are all things that should not phase us.

Again, though, this fear leads us back to a life of faith; lived out in Faith, rather. Meaning, true fear of the Lord can not happen except you already be a son and already worshipping in the Divine Service. And we know that we have the adoption of sons. Thus true fear we already have and that fear, the fear of the baptized believer, prepares a place for God’s love and likewise, His wisdom.

Yet even before we get to all these verses, we should have heard Jesus speaking to us when He said that “...because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).

Jesus is the Wisdom come from God. He is the Righteousness, the Sanctification, and the Redemption, come down from heaven, in the flesh. Where before, these ideas had only an abstract, spiritual meaning for us, Jesus gives them a concrete existence. In Christ, we do not just repeat these things, but live in them.

In other words, the beginning of any and all good things done in this life, be they proverbs or parables, is Jesus. The Fear of God is for us, because the Son of God has adopted us as sons. The piety we need to be perceptive is found in confessing this same Jesus in the Creed and worshipping Him by Word and Sacrament. True discernment of the correct meaning of the Bible is Jesus Himself; hearing and reading His Word in light of Who He is, what He has done, and What He is still doing, that is, forgiving sins.

So we go back to our Old Testament reading and hear it in this light: Jesus does not put Himself in the king’s presence; not Herod’s, not Pilate’s, not even God’s. He is put there. Jesus is forcibly brought forward and, in an upside-down way, faces the punishment of the one who puts himself forward. He faces the shame of the one who takes the highest seat on his own, when He Himself did no such thing.

“Come up here”, the king says to Jesus and He is placed high upon a cross. 

False witnesses, who did not have faith, were quickly brought in to condemn Jesus, misunderstanding His words when He said, “Destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days.” Great was our shame when Jesus was raised from he dead, forever vindicated of the guilt and punishment for our sins, yet we in that sin thinking it meet and right to kill God.

Jesus boasted of being able to give eternal life and sinners tried to prove Him wrong, by killing Him. Yet Easter proved that Jesus did have the gift of eternal life which He is also able to give in Word and Sacrament. Thus, Jesus is the faithful messenger Who brings tidings of great joy in His Gospel. His word of forgiveness are words fitly spoken. His declaration of righteousness for all, opens sin-deafened ears to listen.

So watch Jesus carefully. Just as He moves through dinner at the house of Pharisees, so too is He moving through the book of Proverbs healing, forgiving, and setting right what sin has marred. The Proverbs and parables speak of Jesus first, then us, in Him, second.

Exalting Himself as God of all, Jesus is humbled upon the cross. Yet, humbling Himself to death, He is exalted above death, never to die again. Going back to our strange Proverbs, we can confidently say that of course we know the Son’s name now, from chapter 30. And of course the wicked are a ransom for the righteous, because Jesus became sin for you, became wicked, in order to make you righteous.

In order that you, now invited to the feast; to the Holy Sacrament which is the High Feast of Heaven, may sit yourself down in the lowest place, that is to come with no thought of merit or worthiness. For Jesus comes to commune with you and He is the more honorable One. No shame comes to you, though, for you have received the wisdom of unworthiness and, therefore, the highest seat at the Table. For in the Sacrament, penitent sinners are truly awarded the highest honor heaven can bestow.

Dead works, men [Trinity 16; St. Luke 7:11-17]

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Jesus speaks today, saying,

“And the dead man sat up and began to speak…”

The lure of Islam, and its central teaching, is not what you’d think. You would think it would be its own creed, or Shahada, which is: There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet. While they certainly do use this to weed out unbelievers and fakers, there is a concept greater than this tawhid, that of its allegedly, divinely inspired name: Islam.

Islam, meaning submission, is something that can be practiced by anyone of any time and any place and is therefore universal and makes their religion the universal religion. Of course, they mean submission to their god, but there is the rub. Just because you pick a universal value as the name of your religion, does not imbue your religion with the same significance as the word itself.

Judaism is the same way. It has evolved to latch itself onto the idea of “awe”. Of course they mean awe towards their god, but really anyone can have and practice “awe”, especially when it simply means being in awe of human value and practicing social justice. This universal value of humanism then becomes what it means to be Jewish nowadays.

American religion is in the same boat. “God” and “Jesus” have become less names of actual, living people and more mere concepts. Those words now stand in place of words such as “love” and “dedication”, being more concerned with the strength of your private convictions rather than naming somebody. We’ll all be good muslims before you know it!

No doubt you submit yourself to God’s almighty plans and when things go really crazy, you re-commit yourself to your dedication to re-orient yourself. You stand in awe of God’s majesty everyday and give thanks that you get to show this awesomeness to others. You may even tack on the Name of Jesus at the end of prayers and actions, just to be sure.

Do not doubt, then, that this young man at Nain was anything less than we have described so far. You can be sure that this young man was on fire for the Lord and had a heart for working tirelessly for his fellow man. His memorization of Scripture was second to none. People would come from all over just to hear him pray for them.

An apparent celebrity whose numerous deeds all amounted to causing his mother grief.

So pleased was God with this young man’s entire portfolio that He was all too happy to reward this man with death. Mohammed, the man the Koran says is the best of the best, the excellent model for all men to imitate (Sura 33:22) and the one who possesses sublime moral excellences (Sura 68:5), died by poison. Abraham died, the prophets died, and all the nicest and best people in the world, ever, died despite their best efforts.

When we behold God in His holiness and in our sin, we only see Him as the Master to submit to, or else. His high and lifted-up-ness is not something to love, but fear. In this way, we simply see and hear impossible-to-meet demands, even though they be demands of love and kindness and when we attempt them, only suffering and death are given by Him, as the man at Nain shows.

This horrifies everyone, because not only does it mean that sin is real, it also means the punishment God reveals for it, is real too. Dear Christians, it is entirely true that God demands such things. It is also entirely true that Christ fulfills such things. Even better, because Christ has passed the gates of death and come out alive, God’s demands are completed and become promises to you which Jesus prepares for you, Himself.

The dearest and best efforts of Christ amount to suffering and dying as well, but they do not end there, where ours do. In fact, in the Resurrection Christ’s work of salvation never ends. This is why the one true religion on earth is called Christianity, because it is Christ alone Who defeats death and not any value, moral or otherwise.

Now in the resurrection to eternal life, it is Jesus’ submission to God, made on our behalf, which gives meaning to life on earth in the midst of death. Our example to imitate for sure, but more than that, Jesus’ perfect submission alone pleases the Father and opens the gates of heaven to sinners. No other man’s submission could hope for such a reward, because real submission demands not just your life, but your death and resurrection as well.

Therefore, true awe of God’s majesty is not just loving your neighbor or your environment. It means being in awe of the way God creates salvation for you Himself: through the suffering and death and resurrection of Jesus. Awe is not the realization that you small and insignificant in the universe, but realizing that God offered Himself up in the place of sinners and yet still comes to you in peace in His Word and Sacrament.

This allows us to shift our focus on God, for now the meaning of this passage has been made clear. Not that we despair of the strength of our own works, but that we rejoice in just how weak death truly is. Jesus is teaching us how powerless and how insignificant death is.

Look at all it took to raise this dead, young man: a word. There was no pep-talk, no boost in self-esteem, and no shot in the arm. Without anything we would consider helpful in such a situation, Jesus simply says, “Arise” and at once the dead man is alive.

Once we confess the sin of all our work, good and bad, they are cast aside so that we can see Jesus. Once faith in the promise of Jesus takes over, then we are freed to do actual work confidently and need not trouble ourselves about death, anymore. For, just as Jesus raises this young man and empties his coffin, Jesus also climbs in the coffin as a replacement. He climbs into our sick-beds, death-beds, and graves in our place so that death must take Him instead of us. Nothing then is left for us to do except live.

And baptism places this event in time for us. We can never submit enough to God, but He can baptize us once and it is finished. We can never gawk and gape enough at God’s power, but He can hand out His forgiveness in bread and wine and it is enough.

So we sit down and shut-up and let God be God. How is God, God? God is washing and speaking and serving. Do we dare let our works overpower that? Faith will not let us. In hearing St. Luke’s Gospel today, it reminds us that if we are hearing Jesus’ words, “Young man I say to you arise” and we are believing them, it means that we came to Service this morning dead in our sin and have just been raised out of death and out of sin, ourselves.