St. Mary, flesh and blood [Dormition of the BVM]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 61:7-11

• Judith 13:22-25, 15:10

• St. Luke 1:41-50

 

To you all, the Elect Exiles of the Dispersion; may Grace and Peace be multiplied to you (1 Pet)
 
Who speaks to you today, from His Gospel heard in His Church, saying: 
“…now all generations will call me blessed, because He Who is Mighty has done great things to me.”
 
Though we are Lutheran. Though we act like protestants and run scared from everything that smells too cat’lick. Though we read our Scriptures faithfully. You cannot avoid certain things. You cannot avoid kings David and Solomon’s adultery. You cannot avoid drunk Noah. And you cannot avoid St. Mary, the Mother of God.
 
As you confessed with your mouth and believed with your heart just a moment ago, “I believe…in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God…who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary”.
 
This is brought to our attention in the Gospel read today. Even though I know you’re distracted by the Judith reading earlier, it is important to note the time of events in our Gospel reading. There we see a wonderful godly order to things. First, St. Elizabeth, pregnant herself, hears St. Mary. At that specific sound from St. Mary’s mouth, John the Baptist leaps in his mother’s womb, being in utero himself and we see God’s Word does its work.
 
All this is capped off with the Holy Spirit, again, overshadowing the situation and moving St. Elizabeth to cry out loud, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”
She wasn’t blessing St. Mary’s devotion, dedication, or humility. By the Spirit, St. Elizabeth recognized the One Who blessed her, in St. Mary’s womb, and was returning the blessing to Him, the Work of the Holy Spirit.
 
St. Mary also believes this. In the small part of her song, The Magnificat, which I quoted and which we heard in the Gospel reading, she says, “…now all generations will call me blessed, because He Who is Mighty has done great things to me.”
 
Did St. Mary forget about the baby-to-come and focus on her heavenly assignment from God? Did she truly believe that her vocation was that of Evangelist, to run around and tell everyone the good news as some sort of recruiter? Its true, she had a very personal mission from God, but was it all that people try to force upon her, in these days of female empowerment?
 
St. Mary’s personal mission, her heavenly assignment, her evangelism was to be pregnant. It was to be a mother. St. Gabriel told her, you will be pregnant and give birth. This was not to make her a superwoman, but something more. This was to make her the Mother of God.
 
Jesus is God.  St. Mary is Jesus’ mother.  Therefore, St. Mary is mother of God. The Bible tells me so. 
Can’t we just read the Bible, pastor? Why do we have to deal with Mary and virginity and saints? We just need to know that Jesus loves us. Can’t we all just get along?
 
Repent! As Jesus has said, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God” (Mt 22:29). We have sacrificed education and knowledge for tenuous peace and false security with the world and yet it was exactly that knowledge which Adam and Eve were attempting to gain by eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil!
 
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”, says the Lord in Hosea 4, “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children” (v. 6).
 
We have created a vacuum of theological depth to our faith which can only be and has only been filled by emotion.  And in modern, American Christianity, this is proving to be a disaster.
 
Of course, let’s read the Bible - every word of it, many times.  Let’s pore over it and study it in the original languages.  And let’s read it along with the Early Church and the Reformers.  Let’s hear the Word preached by Chrysostom and Augustine and Luther and today’s pastor’s and professors.  Let’s stand on the shoulders of our beloved fathers in the faith.  Let’s also study it through the lenses of Arius and Nestorius, lest we too fall into their heresy.
 
For all heresy is Christological, meaning it has to do with Christ. What then does that have to do with St. Mary and what we believe about her? For that we take a trip down heresy-memory lane.
 
Trigger warning: incoming fancy words. Don’t let me lose you.
Docetism (word number 1), is a heresy from the centuries before the Ecumenical Church Council that drew up the Nicene Creed. Unequivocally rejected, Docetism centered on the belief that Jesus was not human, but only appeared that way. Thus, St. Mary cannot be the mother of God, since gods don’t have mothers.
 
Therefore, confessing St. Mary to be the Mother of God is something the Docetists would never do and is a good way of removing yourself from that error. This heresy still exists today in the form of spiritualists and Unitarians. 
 
Word number 2: Arians. These people believed the other side of the coin, that Jesus was not true God. Therefore you saying that St. Mary is the Mother of God, protects you from them as well. 
 
And number 3 is the Nestorians. These were those in churches who taught that Jesus was two persons loosely tied together in one body: a god-similar person and a human-similar person. They would call St. Mary “Mother of our Lord” as our bulletin does, but not Mother of God. This heresy lives inside the Jehovah’s Witnesses of today.
 
All of these heresies center around Christ and all can be undone by confessing that Christ is true God, 100%, and true man, 100%, in simply saying that St. Mary is the Mother of God.
 
Dear Christians, today we celebrate the Feast of St. Mary, because she is a theologian of the cross, as we are. She is humbled to be the container of the humiliation of Christ. “All generations will call me blessed”, she sings, “because He Who is Mighty has done great things to me” (Lk 1:48-49). God acts first, without any merit or worthiness within me.
 
She is blessed, for she reveals to the whole world that in her womb is Mighty God and David’s Son. Her, but not her. She does not decide to birth Christ, The Almighty chose her and accomplished great things through her. 
 
This is a part of the wonderful good news of the Gospel, that when God acts, it is in and with men, not in some out of reach place. In order to understand Creation and the garden of Eden, you have to go through Adam. In order to understand the Flood, you have to go through Noah. In order to understand Jesus Christ, you have to go through St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Mary.
 
When Christ was made man, it wasn’t just so He could show off or look like us so He could talk to us on our level. It had nothing to do with Him, but everything to do with us. He came down to get us. He came down as far as He could get from heaven. He became a servant to sinners, below them, in order to save them.
 
In Christ, we see true man separate from sin. In Christ we see true God, able to overcome sin, death, and the devil. In Christ, God and man are joined together, without sin, and no one can tear that asunder. In Christ, God is born of woman and she retains her virginity and He remains unstained by Original Sin.
 
Thus we are educated on these things from God’s Word and from Church History. All of the history, none of the heresy. Sure, the Almighty is doing great things, but I am not a virgin nor can I get pregnant. I do not have St. Gabriel showing up in my house, nor do I have a cousin named Elizabeth who is older than me. 
 
The point of St. Mary is to show us where God is and what He is doing. Same with St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Polycarp, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. John of Damascus, St. Gregory, and on and on in God’s roll-call in the Book of Life. 
 
Where is St. Mary and any of the saints when we are introduced to them? They are living life in the humdrum and yet receiving God’s gifts handed out to them where they are. Where is God when we are introduced to Him? He is on earth, among His people, and in the depths. 
 
All generations call St. Mary blessed because the salvation of the world, that God was working out since the beginning, was accomplished through her being a virgin mother. The importance of St. Mary is the revelation that God is with us. And not just with us like an invisible best friend, but as the God Who has flesh and blood from His Mother and Who continues to commune with us.
 
Thus, the greatest lesson is that you can’t get to God without going through His Body and Blood. You cannot see His divinity without His humanity. You cannot reach His infiniteness, without His finiteness. You cannot achieve heaven without first leaving behind hell.
 
This, the Body and Blood of our Savior accomplishes, which came from the virgin, for you. In Christ, you share in St. Mary’s blessedness of housing the Body and Blood of Christ, by eating and drinking. In Christ, you share in St. Mary’s vocation by being pregnant with faith and birthing your own confession of Jesus, to the whole earth.
 
In Christ, all generations will call you blessed because the Mighty One has done great things to you: suffering, dying, rising again; saving, rescuing, purchasing sinners; and forgiving, communing, and enlightening His Church by His gifts. Holy is His Name.
 

Christ: Prophet and Prophesy [Trinity 8]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Jerimiah 23:16-29

• Romans 8:12-17

• St. Matthew 7:15-23

 

To you all, the Elect Exiles of the Dispersion; may Grace and Peace be multiplied to you (1 Pet)
 
Who speaks to you today, from His Gospel heard in His Church, saying: 
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
 
As we try to figure out just what a false prophet is, maybe we can call today “false prophet day”, in the Church. No, we cannot give the demons their day. Instead, let us celebrate the not-so-well known prophet Micaiah. It was he who was called by God from obscurity and went back to obscurity only after he was made to confront 400 false prophets.
 
Though he was not given fire from heaven to use, as Elijah was, St. Micaiah was given the Word of God. We often despise the Word rightly given and spoken by God’s pastors in exchange for ambiguity and emotional rollercoasters, as they appeal to our sinful sense of self-importance more than “boring” words we have heard over and over again.
 
St. Micaiah is found towards the end of 1 Kings where the Lord recounts to us the death of Ahab. This is king Ahab of Elijah fame. King Ahab now wants to add more land and riches to his rule over Israel. He enlists the king of Judah and his 400 yes-men he calls prophets to confirm his choice of going to war again.
 
The yes-men all say yes, God has foreseen your victory! The King of Judah isn’t so sure and wants an actual prophet of the Lord to ask. Ahab responds this way: “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil” (1 Ki 22:8).
 
Repent. He was entitled long before we thought being entitled was cool. King Ahab perfectly represents us in our spoiled-childlike sin. 
 
So here maybe he teaches us a lesson about false and true prophets. That, perhaps, the first time you encounter a true prophet, you won’t like them. So, stop being so nice to me. You’re ruining my career choice.
 
But seriously, you may think you have finally gotten on God’s good side and everything is going your way, but then He places someone in front of you that just doesn’t sit right with you. You are just living your life. You love the Jesus, you earnestly repent of your sin, and seek to live in peace with everyone. Then the real Jesus barges in warning about false prophets, wolves in sheep’s clothing, thorn bushes, thistles, and not knowing you on the Last Day.
 
Repent. You do not want God to pay attention to you, especially when things are going well, and you only want a little attention when things are going poorly. You say, God, just give me a sign. Talk to me. Tell me what to do and I’ll do it. Anything.
 
St. Micaiah then prophesies Ahab’s death. The Lord’ speaks to Ahab through His real man and tells Ahab, go on up and have your little battle for more greed, but then fall in the midst of that battle (1 Ki 22:20). I’ll do anything You ask, if you just talk to me Lord, except that.
 
How God accomplished this is that He sent a spirit to be a deceiving spirit to all Ahab’s prophets, making them false prophets. This does not mean God is tricksy or a deceiver. It means Ahab wanted what he wanted so much, he was wiling to sacrifice the truth for it. The Truth being St. Micaiah's Word.
 
What was that Word? Verse 17, “And [Micaiah] said, ‘I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘These have no master; let each return to his home in peace.’’”
 
The lie of the false prophets, all false prophets, is go and cause strife and suffering for others to make their your life better. 
The Truth of the true prophets is that a True Shepherd will be sent to bring each person home in peace. The Truth of the true Prophets is the Christ.
 
Jesus today tells us in the Gospel to “beware” False Prophets. Beware means to be aware of who they are and what they do and teach, to pay attention. So pay attention to the false prophets in order that you know who they are. The prime example of what this is comes from Jeremiah 26, where Jesus uses the words “false prophets” as He does in only a few other places in the Bible.
 
Jeremiah 26:7-8: “The priests and the false prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the false prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, ‘You shall die!’” Very Christ-like action!
 
Notice that the works of the false prophets are death. Along with sin, the false prophets hear the Word and sinfully desire to crucify whoever is speaking it. Pay attention. Do not let your false prophets mislead you. They cry for peace, but crucify the Son of God.
 
Jesus is our true Prophet. Not only is He the Way, the Truth, and the Life, but He suffers and dies for the salvation of the whole world. He is not only able to speak the Truth, but He is also able to show the Truth in the flesh. 
 
As Prophet, Jesus preached personally. He did not send Micaiah to suffer and die in His place. He came Himself and validated that He is the Word of God with miracles, especially His own resurrection. 
 
And this Office of Prophet continues today. Through the preached Gospel by His pastors that Jesus chooses, He still proclaims Himself to be the Son of God and Redeemer of the world. The Law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17)
 
St. Micaiah and his brothers in arms, could only preach what God told them, dying for their trouble, and seemingly being unsuccessful as God’s people would continue to turn away from God. Jesus was able to preach about Himself, die for the trouble, and make the true Way wherein sinners could turn from their sins and live.
 
We call this the “white devil”; false prophets of today who deceive us with a good-looking front.  The devil so disguised is more dangerous than the “black devil” of Hollywood fame.  2 Corinthians 11:13-14 centers on this thought.  We read there that these white-devil, false prophets masquerade as apostles of Christ and even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.  That means he tempts us by what on the surface may feel right and good. Remember Adam and Eve at the Tree! (Gen. 3:6)  
 
He promises pleasure and fulfillment in many ways that the world honors but that set aside God’s Word and will.  He denies the need for suffering and struggle in Christ’s church.  He casts doubt on God’s love for us. This is the true and proper work of false prophets even today.
 
These false prophets crucify Christ a second time by trusting in their works, to their own harm, and hold Him up to contempt (Heb 6:6). They teach this: If you would serve God, you must merit forgiveness of sins and everlasting life, and must also help others that they may attain to salvation : you must enter into discipleship, vow obedience, chastity, poverty, etc. 
 
“The Saved”, and the rest of that religious rabble, being puffed up with this opinion of their own holiness, brag that they alone are in the life and state of perfection, and that other Christians lead but a common life, for they do no undue works, or more than they are duty-bound to do, that is, they do not accomplish the super spiritual, they are only baptized and keep the ten commandments.
 
As for themselves, besides that which is common to them as to other Christians, they keep also the works of supererogation, and the counsels of Christ; wherefore, they hope to have merits and a place in heaven among the principal saints, far above the common sort of Christians. 
 
This is false prophesy and a horrible illusion of the devil, whereby he hath bewitched almost the whole world. And every man, the more holy he would seem to be, the more he is snared with that witchery, that is to say, with the pestilent persuasion of his own righteousness. And this was the cause that we could not now hear that Jesus Christ was our mediator and savior, but instead thought He a severe judge pacified by our works. (AE 26:200)
 
Dear Christians, you are a nation of prophets and are to pay attention. In Christ, we are given a new life and open ears to hear His Gospel of Life. “Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues” says Jesus in St. Matthew 10:17, but do “pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (Hebrews 2:1)
 
And what have we heard from those preaching from God? 1 Peter 1:19, “we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention[, beware,] as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”
 
Your prophetic Word more fully confirmed is Christ Crucified. Your prophesy is Word and Sacrament. You prophesy when you take communion. You prophesy the death of Jesus. You prophesy the resurrection of Jesus (living bread). And you prophesy your faith in His Word, publicly. Jesus is the only true Prophet and all true prophesy points to Him His Work and His Word.
 
False prophesy pays attention to sheep’s outward clothing. Instead, you look for the Lamb of God Who was slain. Look for the wounds of the cross, the Body and Blood given and shed for the forgiveness of sins. Find the good grapes in the Chalice and find the Door to heaven in the Gospel of salvation preached and the Sacraments administered according to it.
 
 

Insignificant Jesus [Trinity 7]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Genesis 2:7-17

• Romans 6:19-23

• St. Mark 8:1-9

 

To you all, the Elect Exiles of the Dispersion; may Grace and Peace be multiplied to you (1 Pet)
 
Who speaks to you today, from His Gospel heard in His Church, saying: 

“I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat”

 
And Jesus shows His compassion today as we ponder this very upside-down scene that is the feeding of the 4000. It is upside-down because, in the usual form of worship, devotees, being insignificant, bring gifts to the gods, who are significant. Today, God is offering His gifts to His worshippers. 
 
Baptism grants us life after death, in Christ. Along with that, it grants us space at God’s Altar where we may be reconciled to He Whom we have sinned against. This week, St. Paul concludes Romans 6 which began with baptism and ends with the free gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord, through baptism.
 
The significance of this baptismal gift from Christ is that it has your very own name on it. It is yours and no one else’s. You, by name, personally being offered a seat at the Lord’s Altar, blots out any insignificance anyone can feel. And this is part of the purpose of the grace of God. That you are welcomed, as an individual, to His Altar, to His font, and to His Supper. 
 
This God-given significance is one point which the devil, the world, and our sinful nature target to produce unbelief in you. I will quote 3 men as proof, with whom I hope you are familiar, but if not, know that these 3 are significant in modern Scientism. And we will hear them because a modern, relevant problem we have is this supposed James Webb telescope which they love, but is racist at the same time.
 
First is Carl Sagan, who is famous for his “pale blue dot” comment on our earth. He says, “Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.” He then applied that doctrine of insignificance to justify his sins against others in his own life.
 
You are insignificant, is the repeated dogma of this religion. In fact, it is the “truth” upon which this religion stands or falls. For if you are significant, then stardust, black holes, and trillions of years holds no meaning and the religion falls apart for the scam it is. But if you are insignificant, then you must bow to your betters.
 
This Dogma continues in the mouth of Stephen Hawking. He says, “The human race is just a chemical scum on a moderate-sized planet, orbiting around a very average star in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies...We are just an advanced breed of monkeys…”
 
He tries to make it better by saying things like, “But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special” and “even if the universe does come to an end, it won’t be for at least twenty billion years.” How do you know you understand the universe, Stephen, with your chemical scum brain? Did the universe tell you that? The universe would never lie to you, right?
 
Our final “man”, Neil deGrasse Tyson, then peddles the true nature of Scientism and its scientites, that is that it is a religion. For all he offers you is the “science” you cannot prove, interact with, experiment on, or repeat yourself. He says don’t feel small, that’s just your ego getting in the way. Instead feel humble that you get to learn about the universe. Instead be one with the universe, for those big stars produced the atoms you are composed of and so you are linked to the big things and are therefore big yourselves.
 
And these are the men we are trusting with science textbooks and billions of tax dollars??
 
Do you hear the religion? None of them have ever seen or experienced this largeness of the universe first-hand and they have never seen, nor been able to reproduce, a star producing the proteins and chemicals needed for life. They simply make seemingly profound statements with no proof and tell you that you are included in some mystical, non-scientific, and impersonal way, that only they can figure out. These “priests” use philosophy, not science to make their claims and don’t even think about questioning them.
 
Repent. In one sense, these men are correct. You believe you are significant in your sin, in a pride filled way. Yet, even if you believe you are insignificant in your sin, you use that as a weapon against God, pretending that your insignificance is your significance, in other words, the Victim Card. There is no good ending there.
 
Dear Christians, your significance does not come from yourself. Your significance comes from God’s insignificance. Indeed, Jesus’s significance is based entirely on your significance. For He has promised to care for and save you and if He does not keep His promises, even in your utterly destructive and condemnable sin, then He would be truly insignificant.
 
God does not do that to Christians and God did not do Christmas that way. Jesus’ mother insignificantly made her way to Bethlehem among an insignificant group of wayfarers. She was not distinguished from the others in the least. When there was no room at the inn, Jesus’ mother made do in a manger. Jesus and his family, not Herod, were forced to flee for their lives to Egypt. Of all the wise men in the world, only three showed up. 
 
Jesus grew up humbly in the insignificant town of Nazareth, from which no good comes. He had no significant education, no money, no credentials, no nothing. Like His mother, He was indistinguishable from anyone in the crowd. “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” (Isa 53:2). 
 
Look at the Gospel for today, again. Jesus says to the 4000 that He is feeding, “who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves” (St. Luke 22:27). 
 
The crowd brings nothing to the table. Nothing except their lack of food and lack of strength to make it home for the day. That is debt. A wage. The wages of sin, which is death before making it back home. Yet, even in the face of that insignificance, Jesus still says, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28).
 
Jesus makes Himself insignificant, empties Himself, becomes sin Who knew no sin, in order to do His Father’s will of purchasing and winning eternal significance for sinners, justifying them. In Jesus’s insignificance, the Father promises to “chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are” (1 Cor 1:28), in that His very significant Son suffers and dies on a cross.
 
“God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor 1:27). It is Jesus’s hairs which are numbered. It is Jesus Who is more valuable than sparrows. 
 
God found Jesus in the desolate place, as our Gospel said, with no food or drink to satisfy righteous hunger, yet He encircled Him, He cared for Him, He kept Him the apple of His eye (Deut 32:10) and raised Him from the dead, never to die again, in His Glory forever.
 
In Christ, God has made the full significance of the godhead dwell bodily. Significance and insignificance are brought together to accomplish the greatest work of all: your significance. 
 
In Christ you are baptized. What is His is yours. In Christ, you are not floating in nothingness on a pale blue dot, you are seated with Him on His Sapphire throne (Eze 10:1). In Christ, you are not chemical scum or an advanced breed of monkey, you are knit together in the womb by His hands and in His Image.
 
In Christ, you are not one with an impersonal universe, but fed by a personal God Who comes to your person, redeems your person, and raises you up, as a person, to be a prince (Ps 113:7). The one, true Omnipotent Good cares for every one of you as if you were but one” (Augustine’s Confessions, 3:11:19).
 
You are insignificant. Your sin has made you like dead men, unable to even last through life without dying. In Christ, you are significant. In His gift you should find humility and significance, not any false humility in fear from nature. He shows true humility and true significance, for He is the gift. And this gift He offers only in His Body and Blood, only in the heavenly food that is found held in His nail-pierced hands for you.
 
 

To the Altar [Trinity 6]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Exodus 20:1-17

• Romans 6:3-11

• St. Matthew 5:20-26

 

To you all, the Elect Exiles of the Dispersion; may Grace and Peace be multiplied to you (1 Pet)

 

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

“First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift [at the Altar].”

 

From our Old Testament reading, we deal with the man, Moses, who was given the task of taking God’s holy Ten Commands in his hands and setting them before us. By the hands of a man, God’s Word is in the world.

 

However, that almost didn’t happen! When Moses was born, he had less than a thousandth of a percent chance of making it to his first birthday. At the time, Pharaoh told every Egyptian to find any son born to a Hebrew woman, and murder them (Ex 1:22). 

 

Now, even though this sounds like a government mandate or a bipartisan (meaning both left and right) law passed to protect the murder of the unborn, it is not because of those things that Moses was possibly not going to make it. It was because God ordained it to be that way.

 

And God ordained it, not because God loves murder, that’s Pharaoh. It was ordained so that God could bring Moses back from the dead. So that He could show the power of His Great Name to call all the murdered children back alive again.

 

So, it is by GRACE that Pharaoh is allowed to fall into the great shame and vice of murdering infants. Pharaoh fell into sin, by his own choosing, in order that Moses be brought back from the dead. Not just any death, but death by water, for Pharaoh had ordered all to be thrown into the Nile.

 

Romans 1:28 says, “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.”

 

In that Grace, the reportedly “murdered” Moses, comes back from the dead and leads God’s people out of the Egypt of sin and death, through the Red Sea waters of Word and Life. For it was God’s promise to save His people through the Red Sea waters.

 

So in a very strange-to-us-sinners way, God brings good (salvation through water) out of evil (Pharaoh’s addiction to murder). Thus, we hear St. Paul comment on this in Romans 9:17, “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘“’For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.’”

 

God did not cause Pharaoh to sin, but He used Pharaoh’s sin to work out the salvation of His people in the power of His Name. Moses is baptized into death, in his little reed boat, at God’s Word. That same Word, Moses gives to all Israel, “Believe and be baptized” in the cloud and in the Red Sea, as St. Paul later recorded in 1 Corinthians 10:2.

 

All this is done in order that God’s people be made to receive God’s Word in His proper context, that is, at the Altar. 

 

Israel was brought out of Egypt in order to go to Church, as Exodus 3:18 says, “you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God’” and as our Old Testament chapter concludes the 10 Commands with “make me an Altar” (Ex 20:24).

 

Dear Christians, in order to move to the Gospel, we need the Altar of God. In order to have any chance of fleeing this culture of death that we have fashioned for ourselves, we need this power and Name of God. 

 

The Name of God was spoken to Moses in the burning bush. Exodus 3:14-15 says, “’Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.’ …“The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.” This is My Name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.’”

 

Jesus then claims this Name as His own as we hear on the 5th Sunday in Lent from St. John 8:58-59, “Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’ So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”

 

The Jews knew Jesus was saying He was God, that’s why they picked up the stones. They thought murder was allowed to them by God to keep the faith pure. Little did they know that they share in Pharaoh’s sin as they scourged and crucified Jesus, fulfilling their sick, murderous lusts.

 

After we hear Jesus say in John 2:19, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” along with Jeremiah 7:11, “this [Temple], which is called by my Name”, do we have a man or a building? “But Jesus was speaking about the temple of his body.”

 

Though the Gospel is the murder of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, on behalf of the whole world, it is not for you to accomplish. God accomplishes His Gospel for you. This is because murder and anger keep you from God and His Altar. So the goal of not murdering, not getting angry, and of reconciling to your adversarial brother is for you to be able to go to the Altar.

 

In truth, it is not enough for you to just be righteous or practice righteousness, as Jesus teaches today in the Gospel. It doesn’t matter if you go around “not murdering” people or not being angry. That is your Christian duty. No holy points to be earned there.

 

No, you must make it to God’s Altar. You must make it to the reconciliation. You must be able to go to the “place where I cause my name to be remembered” in order that God “come to you and bless you” (Ex 20:24). If that doesn’t happen, no amount of NOT murdering is going to help.

 

The key to the Temple is the Altar and the Temple is Christ. The Key to the Altar is His Name which gives salvation as St. Luke 24:47 says, “that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations”

 

God’s Great Name will be used for the forgiveness of sins. It will not be used to justify racism, military or political power, or murder. God’s Great Name will be used to locate His Altar which is the powerful thing here. 

 

Christ’s Altar was the Tree where on the world’s behalf, He shed a blood unlike the blood of goat or calf, to seal God’s guarantee of grace that cannot fail (LSB #564:3). This is the great power of the Name of God: not only can it perform plagues and wonders and miracles, but it can change you into someone who can be at His Altar.

 

The death and resurrection of Jesus seals God’s guarantee of salvation from your anger, from your murder, and from every little thing that prevents you from approaching God’s Altar of reconciliation to Him. Because He does the reconciling and He does the calming.

 

Here then, St. Paul teaches us from the Epistle reading, “You must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11). You have no other choice. Do not look at your murdering heart for reform. Do not look toward your own righteousness for ascent. Look to Christ. Remember your baptism. Believe that you have a seat at the Altar because you have been united with Jesus in His death and resurrection.

 

The baptism that Moses underwent, from death to life, is yours. The baptism that Israel went into, from evil to righteousness, is yours. The Baptism that Christ took on Himself, which plunges a man into the depths of hell and raises him to the uttermost parts of heaven to sit next to God in Christ, is yours.

 

All this has been the plan and has been true since the first tree betrayed us. “You shall not plant any tree as an Asherah beside the altar of the Lord your God that you shall make” says Jesus in Deuteronomy 16:21. This is because He would plant His own tree and it is the cross.

 

“And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 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” from Hebrews 9:27-28.

 

We face sin, death, and the devil to push us towards God’s love at the Altar of His Son’s sacrifice. We face murder and anger to reveal that God’s murder and anger is all used up on Christ Crucified. God ordains this for us that we would hear His Word and Sacrament and believe it, from the hand of Moses.

 

That Word being “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” in Exodus 20:2 and Romans 8:38-39, “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 

Offered to you, by the Grace of God, at this Altar in Accident, MD.

 

The Diaspora [Trinity 5]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

 READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• 1 Kings 19:11-21

• 1 Peter 3:8-15

• St. Luke 5:1-11

Jesus judged [Trinity 4]

. . . LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE . . .

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Genesis 50:15-21

• Romans 8:18-23

• St. Luke 6:36-42

 

Grace, mercy, and peace [are yours] from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. (1 Tim 1)
 
Who speaks to you today, from His Gospel heard in His Church, saying: 
“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;”
 
No two words have ever been able to make a Christian so self-conscious and so angry at the same time as “judge not”. And there should be shame for the Christian in that, though not as the world wants it. There should be shame, because before embarrassment and anger at your neighbor for using those words, should be repentance. Repentance for forgetting what judgement is all about.
 
Let’s take a little trip through memory lane. In St. Luke 22, we are reminded of the conclusion of Maundy Thursday where Jesus was arrested to, what? Face judgement. Yes, the Christ, the Messiah of humanity, the Creator of all things is to be judged. 
 
Is He judged fairly? Well now that’s the tricky part. You see, back in Deuteronomy 17, the Lord God Almighty said, “If any case arises requiring decision … [in] any case within your towns that is too difficult for you, then you shall arise and go up to the place that the Lord your God will choose. ⁹ And you shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall consult them, and they shall declare to you the decision. ¹⁰ Then you shall do according to what they declare to you from that place that the Lord will choose. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they direct you. ¹¹ According to the instructions that they give you, and according to the decision which they pronounce to you, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the verdict that they declare to you, either to the right hand or to the left. ¹² The man who acts presumptuously by not obeying the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall purge the evil from Israel” (v. 8-12).
 
What are the take-aways here? The priest is God’s man. If you do not obey the priest, you do not obey God and shall be put to death. One of Jesus’s “crimes” was blasphemy, as in He had been doing acts of God without the permission of God, or rather God’s man, the High Priest. 
 
In so doing Jesus judges the High Priest and his cronies, as unworthy. In that judgement, Jesus is judged, as the High Priest Caiaphas rightly did. This on top of Jesus’s other crimes of desecrating God’s Law such as eating on the Sabbath, unwashed hands, eating with sinners, touching the dead and the diseased, and baptizing without authority.
 
Blasphemy! 
Also, Jesus was misleading the people (allegedly), condemning taxation, and allowing everyone to call Him king. God’s Man, the high priest, rightly then goes in front of God’s temporal authority, Pontius Pilate, and reveals this civil rebellion. Jesus is an Insurrectionist! A double condemnation.
 
Repent! This is exactly how the devil uses the law and God’s word against you. He takes you to court and backs you into a legal corner with no way out. You must either declare yourself guilty and worthy of temporal and eternal punishment or you must declare God guilty of insurrection, consigning Him to eternal punishment, with the devil as next in line to rule.
 
This is not the judgement you have chosen, though you must chose. Neither is this the judgement that the devil has chosen. This is the judgement Jesus has chosen in order to seek and save the lost. “He came to his own and His own received Him not” (St. John 1:11).
 
So we ask the question of the Reformation: can Church Councils be wrong? We faced this same question in our civil lives, the last couple years, when Romans 13 was constantly thrown in our faces: “obey your rulers”. Yes, God gives earthly power and is its only source, but does that make elected officials God, worthy of your unwavering devotion and obedience no matter what?
 
Likewise, can God’s man, in the form of the high priest, be wrong? 
 
The Pharisee Gamaliel, brought up this very question in Acts 5. He pleads the case of the Apostles in front of the priests and says, “So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!” (5:38-39).
 
How right he was, and the priests left the Apostles alone that time, but they did not leave Jesus alone. God’s man, the high priest, needed no witnesses, though the law says he needs 2 or 3 and they can not be false. Jesus says, “Then the high priest tore his robes and said, ‘He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? See, you have now heard the blasphemy’” (St. Matt 26:65). 
 
What was it that pushed God’s man over the edge? Jesus’s claims to be the Son of God. In this confession, we find out what true judgement is and it has to do with confessing properly Who Jesus is.
 
In St. John 3, Jesus says, “Whoever believes in [the only begotten Son] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (v. 18-19).
 
What this tells us is that judgment in front of God is directly linked to Who Jesus is and Who you believe Jesus is. The High Priest found himself opposing God and His only Son, Jesus Christ. He did not believe and is condemned already. Belief fulfills judgement, for by grace you have been saved, through faith.
 
Rejection of Christ leaves the judgment unfulfilled, for you to pay for, and in this case, the High Priest to pay for. Jesus says, “The one who rejects Me and does not accept My teachings has one who judges him: the word which I spoke. That will judge him on the last day” (Jn 12:48).
 
And as He said in His Law, “And the judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has testified against his brother falsely, then you shall do to him just as he had planned to do to his brother. So you shall eliminate the evil from among you” (Deut 19:18-19).
 
And the high priest gets his. But no he doesn’t. Instead from our Old Testament reading today, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive” (Gen 50:20). Instead, the high priest gets to prophesy. He gets to point to the Lamb of God Who is judged in place of the world.
 
He says, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people” (Jn 11:49-50). The high priest judges Jesus worthy of death, in God’s stead, for it is already God’s perfect will to crush the Christ that He would pay for the sins of the whole world.
 
The priests even go one step further. Jesus’s condemnation and death is not enough. There must be a sacramental holiness attached to doing this work of God. They confess quite plainly, “His blood be upon us and our children” (Mt 27:25). It comes to pass exactly as God’s man judges and Christ’s Blood is now found in Baptism which now saves you.
 
Jesus, true God begotten of the Father from all eternity, and true man, born of the virgin Mary, is sent as a lamb to the slaughter in order to be judged in the priests’ place, in your place. Jesus is judged guilty of insurrection and blasphemy, claiming to be the King of kings, as the plate above His cross states.
 
Instead of judgement for bearing false witness, the high priest receives the Vicarious Atonement, meaning while he was yet a sinner, Christ died for him (Romans 5:8). Jesus is judged guilty, that the priests would be judged innocent. Christ goes to the cross, so you don’t have to.
 
Jesus’s Blood also enters in, as the priests prayed for on Good Friday. For now His Blood covers sins, in Baptism. We are clothed in the Blood of the Lamb which washes away our sins, a crimson flood that leaves us as white as snow. In the Judgment of Jesus, there is acquittal for us in front of God.
 
Jesus says in St. John 16:11, “[The Holy Ghost] will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: …concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”
 
Indeed, satan is one way to read the “ruler of this world”. 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
 
However, we also know that Jesus reigns. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. He has set the heavens in motion and created all of it. Satan is the usurper. This means that Jesus is also the ruler of this world. Jesus is judged even before satan is.
 
Jesus judges and therefore He is judged. Jesus condemns and is condemned. The measure Jesus uses is used against Him. He subjects Himself to His own Law and His own creation in order to “judge not”. Though He is judge, He wants all to turn from their wicked ways and live (Eze 33:11).
 
Judgement is not about you. Judgment is reserved for Christ in two ways. It is reserved for Him to judge on the Last Day and it was reserved for Him to be judged on Good Friday. And in that judgment of the only begotten Son of God, God and man are reconciled. There is peace between you and God. In Christ, we can confess with St. Paul, “if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged” (1 Cor 11:31).
 
The Christian therefore rejoices in judgment, not because God gives him super-judgmental powers on earth with which to do as he pleases as “God’s Man”, but because his God allowed Himself to be judged by sinners, in order that the sinners be made into saints, in Christ Crucified. And Christ Crucified is the light of the gospel.
 
The Gospel that says there is no more judgement for you to worry yourself about and no more judgment for you to mete out and no more worry that, if you don’t, you will have missed your opportunity to bring God’s Will on earth as it is in heaven.
 
Dear Christians, “judge not” means you are done judging and being judged by sin, death, and the power of the devil. You may rest in peace, knowing that you have already been judged innocent according to Word and Sacrament and that anything else left over will be properly taken care of on the Last Day.
 
Do carry on, testing the spirits and judging doctrine that you may remain in the one true faith, but rest in the full assurance of God’s Promise. That though you, in your sin, mean your judgments for evil and the world and the devil also, Jesus Christ means it for Good. The ultimate Good. The substitutionary Good that Christ is judged guilty and innocent and, because of that, not have our sins counted against us (2 Cor 5:19) and in faith being judged righteous.
 
 

Gospel for 1 you [Trinity 3]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Micah 7:18-20

• 1 Peter 5:6-11

• St. Luke 15:1-10

 

Grace, mercy, and peace [are yours] from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. (1 Tim 1)
 
Who speaks to you today, from His Gospel heard in His Church, saying: 

“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”

 
Jesus does not send out recruitment fliers for His religion. His is an invitation. The difference is, an invitation stresses the importance of the individual, whereas recruitment does not care who is there.
 
Any main-stream sport today, except golf, is based on gathering points. The more points you have, the better your chance at being first place. If you have the most, you win. This works for board games as well as war and empires. Possession of the most pieces, the most flags planted, and the most people enslaved to taxation wins!
 
You see that your “club” needs members and so you recruit. You search the world for talent and you screen and shortlist. All this, because you just don’t want rabble, you want the best. You want productivity. You want growth.
 
This makes perfect sense. In our sinful worldview, we measure everything by success. If we plant a garden, we want success. If we start a relationship, we want success. If we start a business, we want success. And what does it mean to be successful? Numbers.
 
Here, the devil itches our ears. We hear from God “make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19), popularly called the Great Commission. And from St. Mark 16:15, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”
 
These, and other words from Jesus, give us the standing orders to go and spread the good news, whatever that means. But it takes more than one person to do something of that scale, so we recruit. Many hands, make light work, we say. And this is how we treat God’s Church, as if it were an earthly kingdom in need of recruits.
 
And the devil’s itch grows stronger. We begin to replace the “good news” with “go and tell”. We begin to transform Jesus’ Church into a recruiting station. Instead of bringing people in, we are sending them away to “go and tell”. And in continuing this practice, this dogma, we cry and wail over how empty the Church is.
 
Repent! In a very backwards lesson from the Gospel today, Jesus is not going for numbers or quantity. He leaves His lucrative “mega-church” of 99 righteous and searches for the poor, miserable sheep. He forsakes guarding the 9 silver coins in favor of giving all His focus to one. 
 
You think these parables mean that Jesus abandons those He has already saved to seek out the lost, as is believed in many other churches. No. The 99 and the 9 are Self-Righteous. They “have no use for repentance” as our Gospel reading said. These are not the churched and the saved, these are the Recruiters who have no need for a Crucified Savior.
 
The Good News, or the Gospel, is not a business slogan or a “gatcha” to fish for men. The Gospel is the free forgiveness of sins in Christ Crucified. The Gospel is the justification of the sinner by grace, through faith, for Christ’s sake. The Gospel is the Word made Flesh. The Gospel is for you.
 
This fact, the sinner immediately forgets and the Recruiter immediately throws away. Because Jesus’ work is to save the world through His suffering, death, and resurrection, the Recruiter cannot sell that message. He must gloss over that and go for the sale of “make yourself righteous for God”.
 
What sin, death, and the devil do not understand is that the way of the cross is not a way of death or a path for a dead man. Hebrews 4:12 tells us: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.”
 
This means that the Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ is living and acts in His own way. This means that the man Jesus Christ is living. He lives and breathes and is His own individual. He dictates to His Creation and He dictates to His Church. His Church will be a cruciform Church for the forgiveness of sins.
 
The devil believes in numbers. He believes that if he has enough souls, eventually more than God, he wins. He does not want you, individually, he just wants supremacy. So when a church begins to focus on numbers and recruitment strategies…
 
Jesus does not forsake the 99, but He does focus on the 1. The difference is the 99 are able to live out a life of Faith, having heard of the Good Work of the Good Shepherd. The repentance purchased and won on the cross is for them. They simply love their sins more.
 
The one has yet to hear, because he is dead in his trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1). His ears are stopped, his tongue is locked up, and his eyes are blind. In order to rescue that one, the Son of Man must be lifted up. In order that God so love the world to give His only-begotten Son “that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16), He must be lifted up in two ways.
 
First, as the Bronze Serpent. Jesus must take on the role of the Chief of Sinners (2 Cor. 5:21), not with His own sin, but with everyone else’s. Second, He must be lifted up from the sleep of death. Then, in that work, He may go out to search, sweeping the house with the Light of Life, to preach the Law and Gospel to the dead sinner.
 
Jesus did not start off with 100. He started with zero. He has to create what He is seeking. His recruitment station was abandoned for lack of success. There was no one who stopped and today that remains true. No one is righteous. No one seeks God. No one.
 
Though Jesus wants His Father’s House filled with wedding guests, as we heard last week in St. Luke 14, He wants you. He goes to search, not for just anybody, but you. He leaves His heavenly recruiting station to bring the Gospel to you. Because, for Jesus, it is not a numbers game, it is life and death and He has defeated death, so there is only life to give out.
 
His life, to you. It is not enough for Jesus to have the bigger team, He wants the biggest family. He already has His angelic army that fills the heavens and the earth, as we hear in Joel 2:11. His glory already fills the heavens and His praise, the whole earth (Hab 3:3). He has no need for you to be a drop in that bucket.
 
He has a need to suffer and die on the cross. He has the need to rise again from the dead. He has a need to purchase and win baptism for you, so that you would be baptized into His Body. He has a need to secure His Body and Blood for you, so that you would be fed heavenly medicine, conforming to His image and becoming more Christ-like, literally.
 
He also has need of preparing and perfecting His Gospel, wherein He completes His Righteousness and fulfills Confession and Absolution in order that you would be able to repent and be the cause of endless rejoicing in heaven.
 
It is not the self-righteous “soldiers of the Lord” who hear the voice of their Lord and follow Him. It is His own sheep. His own sheep which He has raised from the dead. His own sheep who have had their dead ears and dead eyes and dead tongues made alive again, through the Gospel.
 
The Gospel that the Lord has need. He has need of personally invited guests to enjoy His victory over sin, death, and the devil. The strife is over. The battle won. The soldier’s job is no more. Instead, be lifted up with Jesus. Be raised to shoulder level with Jesus. Come and repent and enter into the Kingdom of Word and Sacrament, “you who are blessed by my Father, [and] inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (St. Matthew 25:34).