The Seventy [Septuagesima]

 READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Exodus 17:1-7

• 1 Corinthians 9:24-10:5

• St. Matthew 20:1-16

In the Name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

To all of you who are loved by God and called to be saints:

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

Who speaks to us today, saying,

“I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you.”

“For twenty-three years…to this day, the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened…therefore…This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years” thus spoke the Lord through St. Jeremiah in chapters 25 and 29.

This is what God’s Word said to those false prophets who were preaching, “Peace, peace” when there was no peace in Israel. The king was evil. The government had soured. Taxes were high. Mandates and totalitarianism were the orders of the day. And all this was happening to God’s “free” people and Babylon was coming for them, ready or not.

Here and now, we commune with the people of Israel. For today is 70 days before Easter, hence the name Septuagesima. With the weight of our sins, more like 70 years until we make it to Easter. Did we even have Easter last year? 

In that light, these 70 days of exile, mirroring Israel’s 70 years, are even more anxious for us for, since Easter did not happen last year, will it even happen this year? Will our exile in the Babylon of our sin ever come to an end? Will the rulers stop telling us how to do church and leave it to the Lord of the Church?

“The years of our life are seventy” says Psalm 90, “…yet their span is but toil and trouble” (v.10). Hopefully we can see that in the clown world around us. So what do we do? We practice what we preach. We begin our sorrowing for our sin with Israel starting with seventy days and also with 40 days of Lent. 

Though we have put away our Alleluias and Gloria, just as the Israelites hung their lyres on the willows beside the waters of Babylon (Ps. 137), we have not yet entered Lent. The true difference between these 3 Sundays before Lent and Lent itself is not in colors or sharp divisions, as we have been trained by other Lectionaries.

The difference comes in texts and practices. The texts of Lent differ from the Gesimas in that they focus on Jesus suffering for our sins and the historic practices have been to have Mass every day of the week; communion every day of the week. Each day of Lent has its own readings and propers for a full Divine Service, because how you celebrate Jesus is with Communion. 

All this on top of regular fasting. Talk about intense.

Confronting this intensity of God’s judgment against our sin, we do the only thing we can: repent. In the face of a world gone mad, we repent. In the face of out of control government we flee to confession and absolution. We look at the world around us and admit that we deserve it, since all things come from God. 

We have forgotten what Lent is and so we can’t distinguish it from the three Gesima Sundays. We have forgotten that we are in exile. That we are barred from heaven. That God turns His discipline upon us. We think that simplification of Service, cutting back a little, changing colors, not saying a few words, or giving up chocolate for a month is exile.

It was a bit more than chocolate that the Israelites gave up in exile. It was freedom. It was rights. It was the Temple and all the Services there to provide forgiveness and they chose that way. They chose to live in their sin. Everything that was Church was taken from them and they said, “…our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land” (Ps 137:3-4).

How? As we hear in the book of Daniel, most of the rulers of Babylon made executive orders to criminalize anything to do with Church, such as singing or worshipping. You’d get thrown into a burning furnace alive or into the lion’s den. Would you risk federal prison or death for the faith?

In Israel’s tribulation, you see your own. In sin, you are in exile and you cannot get into heaven. Your own sin leads you into shame and great vice and unbelief. So much so that no one is left to sing in Church, regardless of mandates, because they are all dead in their sins.

This is the scene that Jesus enters upon in today’s Gospel. He creates a vineyard full to bursting with ripe fruit, still waters, and green pasture and yet, there is no one running to work in it. This is because He has erected His paradise in the middle of a desert. To be more precise, the middle of a cemetery full of dead sinners.

Where there is no work, there is no action. Where there is no action, there is idleness. Where there is idleness, there is the devil’s playground. And the devil’s playground is hell and death. Our Gospel reading calls it the “marketplace”. Jesus goes to this non-working world, in this non-working marketplace, and calls out, “Here is work”. 

And here is the Gospel: that there is work, that there is a vineyard, that there is the Lord of Work and Vineyard, even in exile. Jesus calls out from the streets just as Wisdom does in Proverbs 9 after He builds His House and sets His Table, and says, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.  Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight” (v. 5-6). 

In other words, “Here is Church. Attend and live the life of faith that is given freely in Christ.”  

Listen to what God tells St. Jeremiah to say to those going to Babylon in chapter 29:

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:

Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jer 29:4-7)

Egypt. Babylon. Modern America. The command is the same: be fruitful and multiply. What does it matter where you live or how many laws are against you or how much they hate you on account of the Name of Jesus? They do not prevent you from following God’s commands or following God’s Son, which is exactly what St. Jeremiah is proclaiming. The Exodus was all about God securing this right of worship. 

It took the Son of God going into exile, to win and purchase work for us. Not just everyday work, mind you, but the title of Worker. In other words, believer. And we must be hired, we must be made into workers before we start working. We must be found and called, before we can rejoice and follow. We must be born from above, before we can rise from the dead.

“I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you.”

In other words, Jesus chooses to give to those suffering great tribulation the same things He gives to those living in peace in Word and Sacrament. Jesus doesn’t change and neither does His gifts. His birth stays the same, cemented in history. His growing up, His words, His miracles, His sacrifice, His resurrection. Nothing changes with the changing of this world.

With or without harps, the Divines Service moves on. With or without the temple in Jerusalem, God’s Service carries on. With or without our prayers, God’s will is done and His kingdom comes, one baptized communicant at a time. 

Back to Jeremiah 29:

“For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. ¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. ¹² Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile” (Jer 29:10-14)

This means that remaining in weekly communion with God, we can sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land that is hostile to the Church. We can even watch the kingdom around us crumble, because the Church will never crumble.  

For the plans that the Lord has for welfare, a future, and hope is the Resurrection. And the plans the Lord has to gather you back to the place from which He exiled us is for us to be at Jesus’ side in His Church.  

In the light of the suffering, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus, the Exile is over. This is why there is a vineyard and not an office space, because there is to be a party, not just work. There is celebration in Church and rejoicing, even in the very midst of death. 

Because Life reigns as a result of the work of God’s only begotten Son. The water and the Blood rushing from the Savior’s side does not dry up. We all drink from the Rock, baptized and communing with the imperishable Christ. 

Who, this day, stands in your presence saying, “Behold, I stand before you, once stricken smitten and afflicted, but no more.” “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isa 55:1).

 There was weeping and tears, but no more. “…for there is a reward for your work, declares the Lord”, in Jeremiah 31, “and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future, declares the Lord”, for your future is full of life, not death, from everlasting to everlasting.

 

 

Transparent God [Transfiguration]

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Exodus 34:29-35

• 2 Peter 1:16-21

• St. Matthew 17:1-9

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

To all of you who are loved by God and called to be saints:

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

Who speaks to us today, saying,

“And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only”

 Transparency is the key to dissolving criticism, for if every move you made is out in the open, then there are no secrets. If something was wrong it will show up. If something was right it will be on display for all to see, as Jesus is today in His Transfiguration. 

 Transparency leads to accountability. As in, if everything is known, you are also taking responsibility for it, for everyone can then see what you did. This is why transparency is a campaign promise and nothing more. It is a great buzz word, because transparency produces trust. But since it also means responsibility, the promise dies on the campaign trail and never gets to the office.

 Jesus is the city on a hill, not any earthly institution. Jesus alone is covered in lights, transparent as can be in His Transfiguration. He is not see-through, but His purpose, intent, and identity are all on display today, out in the open. He is true God and true man. He has shone in the darkness. He has shown Himself to be as a flashlight in the darkness making both heaven and earth transparent and He is turned off when He points out what He was looking for, for you: Himself only.

 As it turns out, the whole of our Christmas and Epiphany season has been about the transparency of God. In fact, the word epiphany means “to be visible”, “to appear”, in other words to be able to be seen and known. God begins His transparency in creating the world, then giving the Commandments, and finally being made man to prove that true transparency in only found in God, not man.

From the historic Introit, Psalm 77, “Thy lightnings lightened the world”. Literally, thy “lightnings”, thy “glare of light” has epiphanied, become visible to the houses or dwelling places: the world. Which you could call “the world” as it is the only habitable realm in all of creation. This is what these words mean.

 This world of habitability, this household, is the Lord’s, says Psalm 24, and He has circumscribed His Word to it (Isa 10:23) in order to preserve it and rescue it. He has sent His Word out unto all lands (Ps 18:5) through men He chose. And yet even though His Word permeates all, He inhabits, or “dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see” (1 Tim 6:16). 

 Some have portrayed God as hiding Himself or keeping secrets, because He is hidden and because He is infinite and we are not. Some have even accused Him of not existing simply because all they see is God’s opaqueness. And as we have just heard from 1 Timothy, He is unapproachable.

 Regardless, this Light shines on the world and graces us with His Law and lightens even the darkest mind with His wisdom, such that He will judge this world, this dwelling place, according to His wisdom and with the light of His righteousness (Ps. 9:8). And in a bit more of God’s transparency, it turns out that you are a dwelling place as well.

 A dwelling place that is supposed to house the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 3:16). A shining city on a hill, not a light under a bushel. “Let your light shine before men” and “you are the light of the world” says Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:14-15. 

 And yet here we are, opaque with sin, doubting, unbelieving. Here we sit in the world that satan was hurled to as lightning (Lk 10:18). Jesus continues in Luke 11, “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is [transparent], your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness” (v. 34-35).

 Be careful, He says. Too late. Romans 7 tells us that what inhabits us is sin, darkness (v. 17). Sin that causes God’s transparency to become thick darkness, and lightning, and fire, as on Sinai (Ex. 19:16). Darkness that causes us to be lumped in with Lucifer and only appears right.

 But therein lies the epiphany, the lightning of Transfiguration. You see, when Jesus shines His light upon the world, His glare is pointed at us and the darkness scatters, leaving only Him standing as righteous and holy, because sin and corruption are destroyed by it. But, that sin-destroying, wrath-filled light is redirected to the image we see today. 

 Like a high-powered lazer set to “kill”, the light of God’s judging Law is focused upon Jesus. Jesus is illuminated. Jesus is captured by the prison-guard light of justice. Jesus alone is seared by the flames of God’s wrath in judgement upon this world. And Jesus alone takes the wrath-filled light, and changes it into Easter light.

 1 John 2:8 says, “…the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.” “The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people”; “the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior” (Titus 2:11, 3:4). Salvation means that your darkness is passing away. Indeed, in the goodness and loving kindness of our Savior, it has already passed. For this salvation is for all the living, the whole world that this light has enlightened.

 Just as you have already passed from death to life in baptism, so has your darkness passed away. Though you retain your sin, it has passed away with Christ’s passing on the cross. Where Christ was raised, never to die again, sin has been razed, never to rise again. 

 You “outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Mt 23:28). This is the opaqueness of sin that God’s light settles upon. In the transparency of God, “you are God's temple and…God's Spirit dwells in you” (1 Cor 3:16) for, “light [has been given] to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide [your] feet into the way of peace” (Lk. 1:79).

 In Baptism, the evil spirit is cast out and room for the Holy Spirit is made within you. AS you commune with your Lord, the injuries and wounds from sin and death are patched up in light. In the Word and Sacraments, you are daily being built up into a holy temple, a royal priesthood for God.

 The Lightning from God has made the world transparent. That is, in His Light we can see the sins of the world and our own sins. It is apparent that God’s holy Light will scatter the darkness, even the darkness that is a part of us, leaving only light. Not such a pleasant experience, especially for those who love the darkness and love to throw around the word transparency, but mean the opposite.

 It has also been brought to light that God’s Holy Light will fall upon the Son, indeed is the Son Himself, Who sacrifices Himself and instead shines the light of forgiveness upon those who believe in Him. In complete transparency, God offers Himself, in order to reveal the true nature of the world and His true work of salvation.

 In this world, we will not find transparency, no matter how many times someone uses that word. With God alone is all transparency. There is no shadow, or darkness, or scheming with Him. He will not trick you, fleece you, or pull the rug out from under you. There is no secret code, or handshake, or password. There is no permit, paper work, or application. No interest, hidden fees, or penalties.

 There is only Jesus. Jesus Who saves Whom He wills and has mercy on Whom He will have mercy. How this is done and who these people are is also no secret. We clearly see His salvation for all people in baptism and weekly communion. 

 The Word and Sacrament are the transparentest things on this planet. There is no hiding water, anyone can find some. There is no hoarding of bread or wine. These means of the Spirit are so abundant, that no one can withhold or keep them from anyone. Secrets are hoarded on earth, but the way to heaven is open as the wounds Christ bore for you on the cross.

 In this world we deal darkly and with shadows. In the world of the Gospel all are known, even God Himself. For as He told us, after the lightning had passed, after the terrible light made known the darkness, after all the world had witnessed it, we lifted up our eyes and saw no one but Jesus only.

 

Surrounding God [Epiphany 2]

 Readings from Holy Scripture

    Exodus 33:12-23

    Romans 12:6-16

    St. John 2:1-11

Surrounding the Lamb

Only God can save you. Only God will save you. Not a mask. Not a syringe. Not a civil war. God has a plan to save you and He lays it out today how He is going to do so. There will be a party, a wedding even. There will be a Groom and a Bride. There will be wine. There will be belief.

There will be no masks as holy Scripture never mentions them. Well, it does, but its in the negative. Moses wore a mask so that the people couldn’t see God’s shining glory streaming out of his face, Exodus 34 (v. 30ff): “Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him…And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.”

But we are not like Moses who proclaimed a ministry of death, written on stone, by his mask, says 2 Corinthians 3 (v.7), because the Holy Ghost has more glory than stone, death, and a mask. Our mask is instead over our hearts and the mask on our face reflects that “whenever Moses is read” to us, continues 2 Corinthians 3, “a [mask] lies over [our] hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the [mask] is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with [unmasked] face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (v.15-18).

Thus we hear today in our Gospel the unmasked glory of the Lord’s Wedding Feast, which is His plan for us and His solution to all our woes and fears. This unregulated, unmitigated, anti-social distancing nightmare is what God has planned for your life, not just in the future, but today. For today God shows you what His back can accomplish and what you receive by being behind Him, as we heard from our OT reading.

Not like our political handlers, who within minutes of fearing for their lives and being harried in a chaotic retreat out of the Capitol building a week and a half ago, our duty-bound millionaires bravely took their rightful place in front of camera and microphone immediately to deliver a carefully written, and long-thought out speech. Funny.

In this miraculously prepared speech, the deeds and accomplishments of a great temple were listed off in order to be worshiped. We are told to rally around democracy, whatever that is, and the party. If we just follow these millionaires, we will be alright. If we just get behind their idea of life, we will be healed. If we just bow down…

But really, they are just fleecing us. They do not want us behind them, they want us in front of them. They want us to go along with their idea and, instead of going with us they will leave us out in front to face the consequences. However, they will be behind us using us as a meat shield.

This is the lie that Satan told to Adam and Eve. If you just eat this fruit first, you will be like God. Go ahead of me, Eve. You bite the bullet first.

In fact, satan was also saying to go ahead of God, for God’s Word to them was not to eat. Satan was saying that if you take the next step in faith, eating, what God really wants you to do is step out on your own two feet and then you will have it. As we found out, there is only death ahead of, or in front of, God.

Jesus also takes a hold of and claims the idea of “getting behind” Him, not in front of Him. And we are considering just what He means, because Moses is shown God’s back today. So we must find out what God means by revealing His back, because what sinful man always means when he says “get behind me” is “you take the fall instead of me”.

Now Jesus tells us to follow Him in many places in holy Scripture, so we can assume that He is going to stand in front of us, which He does. But when He does so, He says to “follow” Him, in other words, get behind Him.

But what is behind Jesus? what exactly is this back that Moses is seeing in Exodus 33?

Jesus says, “Get behind me satan” in Matthew 4 (v.10), then says to St. Peter, “get behind me satan” in chapter 16 (v.23). He tells the Apostles to come behind Him and He will make them fishers of men, Matthew 4 (v.19) and whoever does not pick up his cross and get behind Him is not worthy of Him in Matthew 10 (v.38).

Quite the motley crew gathering behind Jesus, at God’s back. The sinners are there. Both believers and unbelievers. For, according to St. John, who’s Gospel we heard today, those disciples that could not stand the practice of eating and drinking the Body and Blood of our Lord, also went behind Jesus, but did not follow Him any more (6:66).

In fact, the whole word goes after Jesus, as the Pharisees prophesy in John 12:19. That is to say, that when God reveals His plan, those who hate it and those who love it will be behind Jesus, following to see what He will do.

Also in St. John’s gospel, Jesus is the one Who “gets behind”. He is the one “behind” or coming after John the Baptist in 1:30 and the One behind St. Mary at the Empty Tomb on Easter (20:14).

Now Jesus is not only before us, but behind us as well, where our social managers are only behind us hiding as Adam and Eve did hoping to avoid all divine attention. Psalm 139:5 says, “You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.”

Jesus is in front of us in every aspect. In creating all things, He was first in the universe and first on earth and first to see everything in it. In becoming incarnate, He was first to be miraculously conceived and born of a virgin, first to mature and live as man perfectly united with God. In being crucified, He was the first to endure the sum total of all sin and in the resurrection, He is the first to leave all that behind and take a human body and soul to eternal paradise, ruling all things.

This is what Moses sees at God’s back. He sees a savior Who stands in front. He sees a God Who sacrifices Himself and lays down His life so that his could be redeemed. He sees a back strong enough to bear the weight of suffering and the cross caused by all sin of all time and yet still rise again for the fight.

To get behind Jesus is to see Him do all these things. To see Him do all these things on your behalf is to believe, as the disciples did today at the Feast of Cana. Notice how careful the Lord is with Moses. He places him in a safe, secure spot. He covers Moses to protect him. He tells Moses exactly what’s going to happen and exactly what he’s going to see. The Lord stands behind Moses, supporting him.

Jesus is behind us, in every respect. Not only is He our support and strength in times of trouble, but He has also placed Himself lower than us, becoming the chief of sinners on the cross. He the servant, I a lord. He gives us the glory, the crown, and the honor. All that He has from His Father, He gives away, to you.

To be in front of Jesus is to see everything that He has purchased and won on the cross. Life, light, salvation. To be in front of Jesus is to be received into the Lord’s presence with the merits and worthiness of Christ. To be in front of Jesus is to be pushed into death, only to be led right back out again by Jesus in front.

Psalm 17:9 laments that my deadly enemies surround me. They have “surrounded our steps;

    they set their eyes to cast us to the ground” (v.11) in death, as Daniel was surrounded by the lions. 

• Psalm 32:10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.

• Psalm 125:2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore.

And

• Psalm 32:7 You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. The shouts of deliverance that echo in this church. 

If God wants you to get this virus you are getting this virus. But God doesn’t want to give you this virus, He wants to give you His Body and Blood. You may still get the virus to produce repentance in you and for you to do better, but only to lead you to His forgiveness that you can eat and drink. This is the reason why we should want Communion every chance we get and offer it every Sunday, at least.

Because God’s plan is to have you surround Him, now. God’s plan is for you to hem Him in on all sides. God’s plan is for you to approach His back, which is Jesus, in Body and Blood for the medicating of both body and soul and vaccination against death and sin. 

The whole world does follow Jesus, as the Pharisees prophesied, along with death, disease, and tragedy. But those baptized into the faith follow to the wedding hall, where not only is water turned to wine, but wine turned to Blood for the forgiveness of your sins.

The whole of Christendom follows behind Jesus and is spurned onward by Jesus, to His Holy Supper. Where we fail, God is trustworthy. Where we are placed in difficult and impossible situations, God is faithful. He hems you in. There is nowhere you can go where He will not follow you, not even to hell.

Psalm 139:8 says, “If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!”

Only God can save you and He does. He saved you through the past, the death and resurrection of His only begotten Son. He saved you “…by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on [you] richly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:5-6).

And He saves you now, from all things, by His means of His Spirit, the Word and Sacrament, which you surround. Dear Christian, you are already saved. In faith, you have already won the race, you have made it and no matter what this world does to you it can not take that away. In faith, you will be saved. You will awaken from death and arise to a final, eternal life next to your Savior. 

Today, you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, alive. Today you eat and drink and make merry, because tomorrow you live. God spreads His wedding feast in jars of clay and offers this spot at the table next to Himself, just for you.

Next year, in the Resurrection! [Trinity 18]

 WATCH AND LISTEN HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Deuteronomy 10:10-21
• 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
• St. Matthew 22:34-46

Dear Saints,

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

Jesus speaks to us today, saying,

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

 One of the major take-aways from this spring, this year really, must be that we are aliens in an alien land, as our Old Testament reading today has taught us when Moses said, “He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” in verses 18-19.

 Sojourner of course being another word for not-belonging or alien. This is evident by the fact that the land in which we live thought nothing of cancelling our holy days, as if it had the power to do so, and is poised to cancel Thanksgiving as well. Since it has no respect for our holy days, it has no respect for us, which causes us to conclude that we don’t belong here.

 Jesus encounters this same issue today in the Gospel, for it appears as if He is doing and saying things that are contrary to the law of the land, laws and lands He created no less. He encounters a hard-hearted and stiff-necked people who have no need for His Word and no need for His forgiveness and mercy. He is questioned, interrogated precisely because they think He doesn’t belong.

 This is not the first time this has come up. No, on the very occasion of God ransoming His chosen people of Israel out of Egypt, He remarks on the same subject saying, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people” (Ex. 32:9). This coming immediately after the wonders of the plagues in Egypt and the passing through the Red Sea on dry ground, no less.

 In the same breath to Moses, Jesus even comments on the hardness of hearts of Israel, even back then saying, “He said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so’” (Matt 19:8).

 From the beginning, God’s chosen were liars. Do not think you are exempt. St. Paul warns you in Hebrews 4:7, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts”, because he knows that you will.

 So when we listen to our rulers and those around us clamoring for the removal or skipping of holy days, we must begin to question, who is the stiff-necked and hard-hearted?

 One answer is the world. It does not understand the need for holy living so it does not understand the need for faithful hearts to need a yearly cycle. Well, in a sense the devil and the world do understand the need for cycles, which is the whole reason why they would bother attacking feast days in the first place. They have their cycles as well, their unholy, yearly cycles of taxation, government sponsored entertainment, elections, and so on.

 In reality, they have an endless job to disrupt the holy cycle. Hate as they might, they need to yearly obstruct these celebrations. Over and over again, because the cycle, even if interrupted, simply continues on as if nothing ever happened, and will simply celebrate its missed feasts the next year.

 In the feasts we missed this year, there are many lessons to learn. One of them we have mentioned, that we will come around again to that feast next year. Another is the constant lesson God gives to us: a reminder of our own sinful nature, our own failure to celebrate.

 For, we constantly fall for the Pharisee trap, always trying to trap Jesus in His Word. “Which is the greater command, Jesus” we ask, “to love myself, I mean my neighbor, or to be at church on a certain day?” In our sin, we think that there is a priority laid out in God’s commands and so we attempt to find it and catch God in the trap, as the Pharisees had hoped today.

 When we do that, however, we find nothing but disappointment. Not only do we not increase our holiness in attempting to fulfill this law, but Jesus also gives us a face-palm and says, “Let’s start over again from where I lost you.”

 Let’s start over again from Advent and find the place where you went astray. You missed the point of the greatest commandment, because it wasn’t about God or your neighbor primarily, it was about love. Love fulfills all of the law, but it must be a love that is pure and sacrificial. Something Pharisaical sinners such as ourselves do not have. Which is why Jesus continues to speak after He reveals that love fulfills the commands.

 What He goes on to speak of is what He is always speaking of: Himself. And we miss it. We are so caught up in “does God want this” or “Will He be happy with that” or the like, that we confuse God’s Law with God’s Gospel. We confuse “have to” with “get to”.

 Now, don’t get the wrong idea. The law will never go away. It is who God is, after all. But our mistake is thinking that we can do something about that.

 Because Jesus reveals another great commandment by His words, and yet its not a commandment at the same time. He reveals that it is a command to be able to recognize the Christ, the Messiah, and know whose son He is. It seems to even be the priority here and I would say that it is. But it is not a command, because it is on Jesus to reveal Himself. Thus it becomes a matter of love, not ours but God’s, to reveal Himself and give us faith to believe it.

 There you have it. The answer to the Pharisees and the answer to missed festivals is belief. The world has no need for Jesus’ Word because His work is alien to us. God’s proper work is to love and to save, God’s alien work is the work of the cross: to suffer, die, and rise again in order to produce faith in our unfaithful hearts.

 God’s proper work is to command and rule. God’s alien work is to serve sinners salvation. So when He encounters a stiff-necked, uncircumcised-in-heart-and-ears people (Acts 7:51), both works come into play. He comes to His own and His own receive Him not. Well, they do receive Him, but only through a cross.

 In order to keep God’s proper work on earth, we must put God to death. It is the law.

In order to keep God’s alien work on earth, we must become aliens and outcasts ourselves, enduring for a little while hardships, which include not always being able to gather as we wish or choosing not gathering because of our sin.

 Such is the gracious, proper, and alien work of our God that we are shown our sin and shown our Savior. That we are shown how sinful and afraid we really are of God working and communing among us and yet we are given grace to see another year and another chance to celebrate the wonder of His Resurrection.

 Even more than that, each Sunday in the church year is a little Easter. Each Sunday is the chance to hear again our Lord’s command and victory over death. Though the hymns are different, though the propers are different, Jesus tells us that Moses and all the prophets prophesied that the Son of Man should suffer and rise again (Lk. 24:46). 

 Every part of holy Scripture reveals Jesus’ Easter. The land that God swore to our fathers to give them is both geographic and heavenly, in the Resurrection. The gifts in Christ and the fellowship of Jesus, from our Epistle, is given through the risen Lord. Love is the end of the law to all who believe, when Jesus rises from the dead in triumph.

 Now that we have been baptized into His resurrection, we enjoy life in this corrupt world as victors who cannot be oppressed by fiat, jails, or even death. We enjoy, now, His victory as we enjoy the life of Faith in His Church, returning again and again to His person, Word, and work yearly.

 So we are sad and upset. There is always next year. That or we can chose to fear God rather than men and celebrate as we have decided to celebrate and when we have decided to celebrate in the Lectionary and the Liturgy. Both of which have been handed down to us, illegally, by aliens, saints that have gone before us and have worshipped and communed just as we do, in the midst of oppression and suffering. Which, providentially, is exactly how Jesus did it.

 

 

O God, you devil [Trinity 17]

 WATCH AND LISTEN HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Proverbs 25:6-14
• Ephesians 4:1-6
• St. Luke 14:1-11

Dear Saints,

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

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

“Then he took him and healed him and sent him away.”

 When God becomes the devil, or devilish. That is the subject we are going to briefly explore today. Of course God is not the devil, but when we undergo temptation or testing in our own sinfulness, He can certainly seem like a devil.

 To start off, I want to talk about Adam and Eve again, because they present such a stark example of what Jesus is talking about. We love to sing the not-so-old song of the not-so-old days about walking in the garden with God. It is a seemingly, beautiful picture of what Adam and Eve probably experienced in being able actually walk with God.

 It was peaceful. The dew was on the roses. God speaks ever so gently and kindly and we never want to leave. But what the song does not go on to sing about is what happens after. Oh it hints at it, saying that He bids us go to woe, but it only suggests that we’ll be sad. The song never tells us why.

 It doesn’t tell us because it would be too hard to explain and too dark, for such a rosy song. The truth of the matter is, God bids us leave the garden because He is about to do violence. Violence from which many will not return to believe in Him.

 Let’s go back to Eden. Adam and Eve walked with God. They sinned. They were kicked out. The first thing that happens after that is violence. Violence that God commits. We are in woe because now God is a God of woe. In Gen 3:21, God clothes Adam and Eve in garments made of skin. Who’s skin? Some dead animal that God had to kill in order to get its skin.

 So it is that the God of lovey-dovey dewy roses is now the God of the butcher shop. The sweet whispers of God are now drowned out by the squeals of death. Death brought on by the sin of Adam. But now that this is God, what are Adam and Eve to do? Will He kill them next?

 Fast-forward to our Sabbath day of rest, in our Gospel reading, and the Pharisees being silent for once. Yet their silence speaks volumes. For these decedents of Adam know that God is “a hard man, reaping where He did not sow, and gathering where He scattered no seed” as the single-talent-bearing man says in Matthew 25:24. 

 So, they test Him again and again. Would God do this? Would God say that? Would God eat with them? Would God talk with her? Would God touch him? These questions frighten the Pharisees, though they ask them in other places. 

 They frighten them because, in their minds, only two options exist. Either God doesn’t associate with sinners, therefore He doesn’t care, therefore He doesn’t exist or at least has left off caring for earth and its creatures. Or God does associate with sinners and they are in for it.

 There is only losing for the sinner, because it is sin that makes God the angry God, the wrathful God, the vengeful God. Sin cannot conceive of any other option, for the self-righteous are always the victim. 

 But Jesus, I’ve always been a good boy. But Jesus, those sinners could have gotten real jobs. But Jesus, you gave us this law and told us to avoid those people.

 God becomes the devil for the sinner, making unreasonable, holier-than-thou demands in His law, demanding mercy at unreasonable times, and demanding a relinquishing of our special seat in front of God to someone at the lowest place.

 Temptations will come and testings will come. It is not by reason that we will survive the war with spirits of evil in the heavenly places (Eph 6:12). It is not by reason that we will encounter God as He is and come away believing. That way, we have no chance.

 It turns out, that we don’t have to go very far for rescue from this pharisaical problem. It turns out that brooding over our sin and how special we think we are in order to impress God, only makes things worse and will eventually make us miss the main point.

 That is that God when God becomes devilish, He does so in order to rescue us. Look at Genesis 3 again. Does God commit violence to threaten or to clothe? To demand sacrifice or to show mercy? To rescue or condemn?

 Jesus weeps when violence is done, especially when He must do it to Himself. When He kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden, it was not abandonment. He kicked them out and went with them, lowering Himself beneath their level, and producing the first death in the world with His own godly hands.

 Showing not only what He was going to do to sin, death, and the devil, but revealing that He would get His hands dirty for His creation. In kicking Himself out of the garden, Jesus went ahead of Adam and Eve, into the new land of corruption, and took it all upon Himself, even causing His name to be taken in vain by those who won’t believe.

 In covering Adam and Eve and all their decedents, Jesus has fallen into the pit of hell. In caring for and taking responsibility for all of their acts of sin, He has left His high, and mighty seat in heaven and taken the lowest place in suffering and dying as a sinner, yet without His own sin.

 The God of Eden is the God of hell, for now all that awaits the sinner in the garden is the Tree of Life, everlasting life of sin. The God of Life is the God of death. Were the sinner to eat from the Tree of Life in his sin, he would only receive eternal death. All things are in His hand and that is frightening. Especially when He appears in front of so many people as a man. Our evil spirit cannot stand it. We fall silent, as the Pharisees, with rage. We cannot contain ourselves. God must die and now, as man, He can.

 And He does. And He suffers. The lowest seat turns out to be the seat of sinners, but even worse, a God who appears to be a sinner Himself. Charged with claiming to be the King of the Jews, He dies and is buried a guilty man, falling into the well of the grave on a Sabbath day, unwilling to heal Himself. 

 But only unwilling, because it would ruin His plan of becoming a curse on behalf of His creatures. Unwilling to take the road of revenge and punishment, because He would then leave all of His poor, wretched, sinful people behind. No, as we have seen even in the first book of the Bible, God is willing even to die on a cross to save His wayward sheep.

 Now the devilish God is the crucified God and there is no question as to what His intention and will were from the beginning. Now we see the crucifix and know that His wrath was not aimed at us, but at Himself that He might keep His promise to save and not to curse. 

 In our own trials and temptations then, we don’t seek dewy roses, but a rose-colored soaked God, sacrificing Himself in order that we be covered with His righteousness. And that baptismal righteousness goes with through all testing and temptations, giving us hope.

And it is in this hope that Faith walks in a manner worthy of your calling as Christian. In the humility, gentleness, and patience with which God dealt with you, by His Son on the cross. In love, Jesus bore you out of the baptismal waters towards His own Body and Blood in which is the Spirit of peace and unity.

 In Christ, the better Eden is opened to us by His merit alone. His own Grace carries Him to the grave and His grace alone brings Him back out. In His own Faith, healing is found in His wounds any and every day of the week. In His holy Scripture, He describes for us His invitation to us. To join Him at His own feast where He is both Master and Servant. As the Master, He invites sinners. As the Servant, He gives us the best of the best in Word and Sacrament.

When God becomes the devil, it is solely to destroy sin and death and take the punishment for your sins. For God is never the devil because He never lies. Even though He may act devilish, His promise remains unshaken: Your sins are forgiven. Peace is with you. Even in your darkest hour.

 

 

Life surrounds death [Trinity 16]

 WATCH AND LISTEN HERE.

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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