The Jesus Book [Trinity 8]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Jeremiah 23:16-29

• Romans 8:12-17

• St. Matthew 7:15-23

 

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

 

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”

 

Beware of the false prophets who, will take one look at God’s Word and say, “That’s not what God meant” and then proceed to tell you what God meant. A very interesting fact, along this line of thinking, is the American Sign Language’s sign for Bible, for the deaf. It goes like this…

Why this is interesting is because it literally means, “Jesus book”. As in, you will find nothing else but Jesus in this, His own words, written for us. Thus, a false prophet will work his hardest to find something, anything other than Jesus in His own Book.

 

And the Lord has made it so that it is only in the words of the Prophets and the Apostles that we find and hear the true and revealed knowledge of God. And those words are the only infallible authority for faith and for life. Almighty God has thusly appointed these words to be His Word and we have termed this written, revealed knowledge of God as the 66 books of the Bible.

 

Now, that is just what we call them, not as if we put them together or we gave them their “power” simply because we “believe in them”. The Bible is something that we received. It was something that put itself together even before we thought of it. We do not define it. It is defined for us, therefore it is our duty to faithfully and clearly confess what the Bible is.

 

If only because our Lord presents us with many problems that could come from an unclear confession of the Bible, in all three of our Scripture readings today. In Jeremiah, we hear of prophets who ran and spoke, though they were not sent or commanded to run or speak. Our problem lies in how we are to know whom God sent? Even if its Jeremiah speaking, are we so certain about his words?

 

We also hear about dreams and dreamers. Dreams can be very powerful and very real to us. So it makes sense that when we encounter a dreamer, we tend to side with him in awe of his “gift”. So mysterious! So insightful! I wish I could dream dreams.

 

Then there is the problem of the Spirit in our Epistle reading. Which spirit and Who’s is He? A matter of grave importance, once we start talking about “death” and our bodies, don’t you think? Many false religions have taken this quite literally and have committed mass suicides, in the name of their “holy writings”. 

 

And finally, the false prophets, good and bad trees, and the “many mighty works” that do not get us into heaven, from the Gospel. What are those actually like and who’s to say which gain us recognition in front of God or not? 

 

Repent! We don’t really work too hard in the “getting things from God right” department and usually we don’t care, in our sin. We side with the world when it comes to where our stance is on the Bible. Why? Because, they say, its divisive, its intolerant, and its ancient. 

 

And we don’t want to offend anyone by talking about politics or religion, so the Bible just becomes a bed-side book. A book we read in our closets or when there is nothing better to do, if we read it at all. 

 

So what is to resolve this for us? Do not be ashamed just because you have been told that the Bible is a book written by men. Everyone has a “book” in their lives that is holy to them and dictates their beliefs and values. Your decision to trust the Bible is no different than theirs, at least in that respect. 

 

However, Jesus’s book is different from all others. Then the question comes down to, why the Bible. These are all questions that the Bible resolves for us, if we believe what God wants us to believe about His book, or we should say books, 66 of them, because people also try to discredit it by saying one book can’t say its true and we believe it.

 

But there are 66 books that have been inspired by God and they all have 7 attributes that we believe in. 

Our first trustworthy attribute of the Bible is Inspired, that the Holy Spirit has given the thoughts and the words expressed by the chosen men who wrote our Scriptures. They are God-breathed, says 2 Timothy (3:16) and they are God-taught (1 Thess 4:9). They are no mere books of men.

 

Second, the words spoken and recorded in Jesus’s Book are Inerrant, meaning they do not wander from the Truth, Who is Jesus Christ. St. John 17:17 says, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth”. On top of that, thirdly, our Scriptures are Infallible, that since it is God speaking, He does not lie. He is the Person Who speaks the Inerrant Words and so, from St. John 10, “Scripture cannot be broken” (v.35).

 

These first three terms combined, then, give us the Sufficiency of Scripture, in the fourth place. That in them we have everything we need for life and godliness. It is not a textbook for every single topic we can dream up of studying, but it is the textbook on Salvation. “even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8), therefore there is one Lord, one Faith, one Gospel.

 

Clarity, is fifth. The Lord is clear on this, in His revealed Word. There are no secret puzzles to unravel in order to achieve what the Lord has given us to achieve and what He wants to achieve as well. “Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path” (Ps 119:105). It does not conceal, but gives light. It is clear on the Way of Salvation.

 

Sixth, Scriptures are Efficacious, they do what they say. Man’s words can only describe reality, Jesus’s Words create reality. If He says you are free from guilt and shame, then you are free. “it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith” (Rom 1:16-17). 

 

It is what blesses us and what works in the world for us. “Blessed is the man who’s…delight is in the law of the Lord” (Psalm 1:1-2). For lack of a better word, Seventh, the Scriptures are Awesome. Not awesome in a cowabunga way, but in the fullest and proper sense of the word: it inspires authentic awe in all who hear it. We don’t just want to read it, but we want to meditate on it and delight in it.

 

Again, we are not treasuring this Book to be Worshipped. We will not be setting the Bible up on the Altar, instead of Jesus. That is not the purpose of the Jesus Book. The Purpose of the Jesus Book is to hand over Jesus to us. Plain and simple. Every verse. Every chapter. Every iota.

 

In fact, I tell my catechism students to write in their Bibles, at the top of the beginning of every book, Jesus's words from John 5:39, “these speak of me”. So, we learn these seven truths about God’s Word, not so that we can be right, but so that we can believe them and live in them. It’s one thing to speak rightly about the Scriptures, but another thing to rejoice in the great truths of them.

 

And our rejoicing stems from and centers on the God-man Who gave us His Word in the first place. And He has 7 purposes for His Book to fulfill:

That He "(1) convey to the understanding of men the truths and precepts of holy Writ, (2) convert the unregenerate, 3) preserve and strengthen the faith of the regenerate, (4) rear them in holiness of life, (5) give them consolation in their afflictions, (6) furnish weapons of offense and defense, to combat error and falsehood conflicting with God's Truth, and (7) all this for the glory of God and man's eternal salvation."

 

The Jesus Book, our Jesus Book, is now a dogma of Faith, that is you cannot be a Christian and not cling to, delight in, and meditate on it. If only because the words of that Book have broken through into the flesh. The Word made Flesh is Jesus, both God and man, leaping out of the text and accomplishing exactly what He said. 

 

All of what we have mentioned today works us to that point: to confess that Jesus came in the flesh for us poor miserable sinners. That He came to give us new things to live for, such as His Life and His Truth. For the world has battled, since time began, to replace the Word. But the world will pass away. The Word of the Lord endures forever.

 

Glory and Cross [Trinity 7]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Genesis 2:7-17

• Romans 6:19-23

• St. Mark 8:1-9

 

Grace to you all and Peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus, the Christ.
 
Who speaks to you today, saying: 

“In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him”

 
In today’s Gospel of the feeding of the 4 thousand, we see Jesus hiding. Not that He is behind a tree so no one can see Him, but that, instead of doing work immediately with His own hands such as His miracles, He is doing His work mediately, that is through something or someone else. In today’s case it is a double hiding, one because He makes His disciples hand out the food He multiplied, and two, He is handing out multiplied food and not some eternal power gift.
 
One thing we understand from this is how we even know about God in this world that seems completely devoid of Him. This, God wants for our lives, so that we know and believe that knowledge of God must be revealed to us and that it is impossible to understand Him only through the things He created, also known as the Natural Knowledge of God.
 
But, the scientist in me wants to get a piece of that bread that Jesus miracled and that fish and study it. Is it different from other bread and fish in the world? Has its structure been changed, seeing as though they multiplied and don’t usually do that? Was there something special about that particular bread and fish Jesus had, that made it possible for Jesus to use it in such a way that doesn’t normally happen on my table at home?
 
With these curiosities leading us into the unknown and invisible, we start on the path towards being a theologian of Glory as opposed to a Theologian of the Cross. A Theologian of Glory operates on the assumption that Creation and history are transparent to human intellect, or reason. That one can “see through” what is created and what happens, so as to peer into the invisible things of God. In other words, “what’s really going on”.
 
We may take bread as an example. Jesus held it in high esteem so we attempt to understand bread. We have taken it apart and put it back together, so to speak. We have delved into its secrets. We know how to make it, what ingredients come together for it. We even know their chemical make-up and atomic structure, peering into its blueprint. With this blueprint, we can not only make a variety of breads, but also bread substitutes, that is bread without God.
 
You may not know the difference between a hydrocarbon and a carbohydrate, but your body does and if we can make your body think its eating bread simply by feeding it a chemical formulae, then we would have achieved a state where we don’t need bread, as we know it. Jesus just had to use bread because He didn’t know what we know. 
 
And if we don’t need bread, then we don’t need Jesus. That is the logical conclusion of the Theology of Glory. That we can see beyond what God has made and discover how to make it ourselves, thus ultimate truth and ultimate knowledge become ours. God multiplied bread and fish, but so what? What was His real purpose behind such an act? Who is the real Jesus?
 
The problem with Glory is that you continue to run into God’s divine attributes; His timelessness, His immutability, His almightiness. If God immutably chooses people to be saved, before time even exists, then how can there be any freedom? If God is almighty, then why use bread and fish to feed people? 
 
Thus, the standard explanation for the Theologian of Glory is analogy. That is, since God is a higher being, He can only interact with us lower life forms in certain ways. So feeding with bread and fish becomes a clue to something bigger and hidden for us to follow, like a mystery novel. 
 
And Jesus says, guys its bread and fish and eating. What’s not to get?
 
Repent. In this way, we may become the true Christians, or rather, the true knowers of beyond Christianity, or whatever it would be called. We find ourselves above sin, above creation, and above the work of Jesus. We are not slow-witted like those others who need crosses and miracles. We can see. We can know. We can strip God down to His bare parts and know how He works, stealing His crown and taking His place as “god” of all.
 
This is what Dr. Luther described as the nakedness of God and then proceeded to warn us all that we should flee from such a thing as if from the devil Himself. Why? Because anything beyond what God has said and done for Himself is not Who God is or what He has done. It is the realm of “not God”, or demons. 
 
This is the same thing we do to the Church. We peer into its dark corners, we spy out its inner workings, and conclude that it is just as messed up as the rest of the world and not some purified Bride that has been purchased and won. Leading to the belief that Church is worthless and not to be considered in our quest for holiness.
 
A theologian of the Cross believes differently. They can’t get around the cross. Where the Theologian of Glory makes the cross of Christ transparent, as if there is something more important beyond it, the Theologian of the Cross is turned back to the visible and manifest. Not, what did God mean by this act, but what has God accomplished by this act.
 
Instead of contemplating the invisible intellectually, we instead comprehend the visible contemplatively, that is through suffering and the cross. This ultimately means that we believe God acted how He wanted and knew what He was doing. In multiplying the loaves and fish, He was not giving away a clue to the key to life, the universe, and everything. Rather He was revealing the Key Himself: Jesus.
 
When Moses asks God, “Show me Your Glory”, what was it God did in response, in Exodus 33? “And the Lord said, ‘Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.’” (Ex 33)
 
Only His back! God refuses to be seen in any other way both for our protection and in order to put down any theology of glory within us. It is the cross alone which is our theology. Therefore the “back of God”, which Moses saw, was Jesus; the suffering and crucified Christ.
 
God presents us with how He wants things done. When He feeds the 4 thousand, He wants us focused on Himself, just as the whole incident is focused on Jesus. Jesus sees the crowd, Jesus calls the disciples, Jesus has compassion, Jesus gives thanks, Jesus breaks the bread, Jesus gives them to His disciples to distribute, and Jesus does the multiplying.
 
So when it comes to what He wants us to understand about His miraculous feedings, He wants us to hear and see what He does. There may have been multiple feedings, but He is not going to be a Bread King (Jn 6:15). In fact, if we continue reading St. Mark chapter 8 the Pharisees ask for a sign and Jesus gives them a Passion Prediction.
 
Meaning that they didn’t take the feeding as a sign, which is not all bad, because that’s not all there is. But the Sign given will be Jonah’s sign, that “the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mk 8:31).
 
The Feeding points to Jesus Who then takes us along with Him to the cross. It is His suffering, dying, and resurrection that Jesus wants us to use to explain the multiplication of the breads and the fish. It is not something in the bread or in the fish or in you, it is something in the Giver of all. That something is God in the flesh. 
 
You see, Adam and Eve knew they were naked in the garden and in sin they thought it a bad thing, even though Jesus created them that way, and it was in that bare openness that God walked with them. They knew Him and shared His righteousness, shared His will. In the Fall into sin and death, they couldn’t stand that blatant openness and wanted to cover themselves and God.
 
And God consented. He both clothed Adam and Eve and He put a veil over His Glory. And when that veil was torn in two, at the crucifixion of Jesus, we see and believe that Jesus is both God and man, risen from the dead. That God in the flesh has come to feed us with the bread of heaven, that can’t be studied or replicated by scientism, but must be given out of the heavenly Body of Jesus.
 
We cannot know God apart from His Scriptures. We can get a sense of His presence in light of His creation and because of our conscience, but we cannot tell Who He is or What He wants. That must be revealed to us. We must be told that the bread and the fish point to Christ and His Church. We must be told to take up our cross and follow Christ to His Church.
 
That the Bride is clothed and veiled in majesty, because of Her Bridegroom's Blood. That the Bride is rent asunder by schisms and yet one with Her Lord. That the Bride does not misuse the knowledge of God through works, but depends solely on the works of Jesus: His work of the Cross.
 
Because we only misuse His knowledge through works, Jesus wishes to be recognized only in suffering, and through that suffering, condemn the wisdom of this world that seeks glory in invisible things, that is in things where glory does not exist. All Glory belongs to God and His glory is Jesus Christ. The Theologian of the cross hears and believes this revelation from God, even though, to the world, it is foolishness.
 
A fleshy God suffering and dying? An all-powerful God handing out bread? What shame! What weakness!
 
What care! What compassion! What humility to stand before the creatures who rebelled and give them heaven’s own righteousness, pastors to administer, and the flesh and blood of the Son of Man to eat and drink for the forgiveness of sins. 
 
        “As silver tried by fire is pure, from all adulteration;
        so though God’s Word shall men endure, each trail and temptation;
        Its light beams brighter through the cross
        And purified from human dross
        It shines through every nation”
 
 

From Command to Word [Trinity 6]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Exodus 20:1-17

• Romans 6:3-11

• St. Matthew 5:20-26

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph 1)

 

Who speaks to you today, saying:

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.”

 

“You have heard it said to those of old”, says Jesus. As in, that was for them and not for us. And so begins the descent into dozens of other excuses we offer to God for why His Commands are no longer useful, valid, or applicable to us. Not that they are outdated, but that we have evolved beyond them. There is no need for such vengeance, violence, and pettiness from people or God, as expressed in the 10 Commandments. We’re better than that, now.

 

Our Old Testament reading only gives two examples of this “violence”, but there are many more in the Bible we would label “unreasonable”. Being angry 3 or 4 generations down the road? What did they have to do with anything?

What if I’m not tired on the Sabbath or there’s an emergency? 

 

In light of that unreasonableness that our sin, the world and the devil love to capitalize on, let’s understand our Commandments a little better so that we are not fooled by the world’s foolery and continue to honor our Lord. Let’s start with Dr. Luther’s hymn which we sang first, today.

 

What we hear in stanzas 1, 11, and 12 are his commentary on the Ten Commands. Let’s make one small correction to our hymn: in the first place it is true that Moses did bring the commands off the mountain of God to us, but it was God’s Hand that wrote them. From God, to Moses, to us. This is and remains God’s pattern: that He does His work through men.

 

And God did write them for our good, though His Law always accuses us in our sin, it was Moses’ obedience to God’s Will that got them here. Now, as Lutherans, we tend to run from the word “obedience”, but there is a Gospel side to the Law among us. If your pastor did not obey God’s will and preach and teach the forgiveness of sins, would Jesus find faith on earth, when He returns?

 

So there is a benefit to obedience, but the true obedience is found in hearkening, listening with strong intent, to what God is saying and doing first. Moses’ obedience was hearing God invite him up to the mountain to receive good things at His hands. THEN, Moses delivered the goods to the congregation. An important point and order of things to not forget.

 

Why? Because in the 10 Commands God presents Himself, in His full glory, and He reveals the righteousness that exceeds the Scribes and the Pharisees. In, what we sinners call, His Holy Law God shows us the life He lives in purity and holiness and just how free from sin we have not been.

 

Repent. With Jesus on the scene to explain Exodus 20 to us, He only makes things worse. His catechetical teaching on the 5th Commandment takes God’s goalpost of following His commands, which we thought was close, and reveals that it is further away than we thought. Jesus teaches that our own works only take us further and further from this holy and godly life.

 

The “last penny”, Jesus speaks of then becomes less and less of obedience and more and more of life-force. Meaning, it is not about us giving 110% or all of ourselves to Jesus. How preposterous and impossible! However, it is about spending our very last breath paying for our sins. The “last penny” is that last piece of life in us until we die, as St. Paul says, “he who has died has been set free from sin”, from our Epistle (Rom 6:7).

 

Jesus is the First and the Last (Rev 22:13). He is the First Payment, that is the Creator of all things, giving of His very Self to bring all things into being. And He is the Last Penny, He Who’s imprisonment in death, destroys death. That Last Penny frees all from the slavery of death and pays for our fulfilled and perfect righteousness.

 

Does it not make sense that He Who gave the Law is the only One Who can fulfill it? Is that unfair to you, that God would give a Law that can’t be followed? Is that unthinkable? Illogical? Maybe, just maybe if we think beyond ourselves and our fragile feelings for one second, maybe God gave the Law for something, or someone else.

 

Dr. Luther has said, our Old Testament reading “makes it clear that even the Ten Commandments do not pertain to us. For God never led us out of Egypt, but only the Jews. The sectarian spirits want to saddle us with Moses and all the commandments. We will just skip that. We will regard Moses as a teacher, but we will not regard him as our lawgiver—unless he agrees with both the New Testament and the natural law.” (AE 35:165)

 

Remember these words? “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Mt 5:17). Not, “I have come to have you fulfill them”. Not, “I have come to explain how you can do better”. 

No. I have come so that I can fulfill them. Complete them. Bring them to their intended perfection.

 

“For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom 8:2-3).

 

We sorta knew it all along, but were too afraid to admit it. Too afraid to admit that Christ really has accomplished everything. Too afraid to be the “do nothing” church. Too afraid to be labelled as the “faith without works” church to turn to our Servant God Who does these wonderful things for us. 

 

Faith is not ashamed of the Gospel. It is not afraid to take a back seat to the Jesus Show. Our own work is a hopeless thing. ‘Tis wrath alone it can bring. But Christ is our mediator in such a thing. He shows us our sin and gives us that life before God, in Him. And in Him we have His works and His faith.

 

Romans 8 goes on: “He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit”. The righteousness that pleases God is received by Faith. The holiness that pleases the Father is found only in the Son. The purity of thought, word, and deed is only given by the Holy Spirit.

 

Despair of your own works. Christ works in you now and lives in you. For your old self was crucified. We live with Him and we will live with Him forever. Trust in Christ. Not as a Helper, to give you a leg up on the Commandments nor as a “get out of jail free” card, a pass for not following the Commands. 

 

Trust in Christ as your redeemer, who redeems you from the pit to live today. Yes, He forgives your past sins. Yes, He has secured your future by His work alone. But there is still today. The Day which the Lord has made for you to commune with Righteousness Himself. The Fulfillment of the Law has come down all glorious just for you, today. He comes to His Church to tend and feed with His Holy Life.

 

So the Commands, the Law, is to be heard. And our response is: “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, that He might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for Him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation” (Isaiah 25:9).

 

We have waited for Him and His fulfillment of the Law. We have waited for Him for three days, to see His Resurrection Day. We have waited for Him for our whole life to be glad and rejoice in His Divine Service where He once again tells us the Greatest Story of how He defeated death and turned His victory into a victory feast, where the fulfillment of the 10 Commandments in put onto lips and into mouths.

 

From Psalm 45:2 “You are the most handsome of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you forever.”

 

They are the Ten Words from God and show His total dominance over all humanity and our total dependence upon Him. For us, they are given in a four-fold way: instruction, thanksgiving, confession, and prayer. But there are so much more than 10. Every command, every Word from God should be heard and used by us this way.

 

For, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word is the Command.

 

 

Through Men [Feast of Sts. Peter & Paul]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Acts 15:1-21

• Acts 12:1-11

• St. Matthew 16:13-19

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph 1)
 
Who speaks to you today, saying:

“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

 
Today we celebrate the Feast of Sts. Peter & Paul and hear God’s Word of rocks and churches and gates of hell. Why? Because this is reality. God knows it. You don’t, because it is reality you cannot see with your eyes the way they are now, so it must be revealed to you. That is, you must be shown where to place your hand on the Rock. You do not have to make it up.
 
It doesn’t take a biblical scholar to notice that Saint Peter is first and foremost among the 12, in the Bible. Not only is he mentioned the most by name, but he is also given special prominence and is always referred to, especially by Saint Paul, as someone important. We find this church history recorded in art, as well. Usually, icons of Saint Peter have him holding a set of keys, keys to the church to forgive sins, to retain sins, and to open close the gates of heaven by the forgiveness of sins.
 
Saint Paul would be the second pillar of the church, if we may say so, though not a part of the Original 12. He is also of significance being chosen in a special way, having been given a revelation apart from the 12 and yet no different than the 12. He may have been brought in after Easter, but he received the same word, the same gospel, and the same doctrine as the apostles themselves. Thus Saint Paul carries the sword in Church art. The sword is the sword of the spirit to convert the gentiles and bring the Jews to the one true religion of Christ Crucified.
 
In today’s gospel, we heard of Peter being renamed “the rock” by Jesus. However, Saint Peter is not the rock upon which the church stands or falls. Faith given gives the Rock. Jesus is the rock, the only sure foundation and the temple itself. So what is Saint Peter’s job here and why does Jesus speak this way about him?
 
Let me put it to you this way, when we go out to clean up our cemetery and we want to level a gravestone that has sunken or fallen askew, and we have the heavy crowbars and men leaning into lift that heavy stone that cannot be lifted by hands alone and they’re struggling and straining and almost out of strength and someone asks for a rock to level the stone. What is it that they’re asking you to give them?
 
Are they asking for a vote on what a rock is? Are they asking for your feelings on rocks? Maybe they want to know the current political climate around rocks or how much they are on the stock market. Those things will surely help in that situation.
 
No. What those men want is a rock. A piece of stone that they can grab onto, shove under the grave stone, and get the job done. They need a physical tool to help them in the work in front of them. They don’t need thoughts or opinions on rocks. They need an actual rock.
 
Repent. You need an actual rock. The events in your life? The world couldn’t care less. If you graduate or get a new job, maybe your mom is impressed, but the world doesn’t bat an eye. If you lose a loved one, the world doesn’t miss a beat. If your family or marriage is disintegrating or if you are struggling, life goes on, unmercifully.
 
Peter and Paul knew this all too well. Who cares about what 2 men are teaching in 1st century Palestine? Nobody, much less 12 men. Who was on the scene for one brown man from the Levant, convicted and punished by the death penalty? Not one reporter. Who cares what life is throwing at you? I’ve got my own problems and I don’t need yours. Keep it to yourself. Everyone is going through the same thing. Nobody cares.
 
Vacillating in this depression and despair, you realize the emptiness in your world. It’s like living next to a freeway. Hundreds of thousands of people pass by your house every year, but not one would stop to help you or even know you needed help. Pressed down by this weight, we find that we cannot enter into the secret places of heaven.
 
“Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his mind of flesh” (Col 2:18). Who is Paul? What is Cephas? Did they die for you? Were you baptized into their names? (1 Cor 1:13). St. Peter’s popery failed him every time. St. Matthew records that immediately after St. Peter’s Great Confession, in the Gospel today, he is called “satan” by Jesus.
 
At Gethsemane, “satan” could not be on watch for a lowly hour. Outside of the High Priest’s house, he could not even admit being associated with Jesus 3 times. In. A. Row.
 
St. Paul was a Jew of Jews, killing Christians as the religion was just starting, in hopes of squashing it out of existence. 
 
The impenetrable wall between heaven and earth is not breached by intention, or opinion, or knowledge, but by thorn, nail, and spear.
 
Our weakness follows men in hopes of bearing the glory of the majesty of God. The weakness of Jesus follows the Father and does not hope, but actually gains the glory and majesty of God. Who knew that rocks could be pierced by iron? Now we know.
 
“upon this Rock, I will build my Church”, but “He was speaking about the [Rock] of his body” (Jn 2:21). 
 
1 Corinthians 10, “Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ” (v.1-4).
 
Deuteronomy 32:4, “He is the Rock”
 
St. Paul, in persecuting and murdering those in Church, was visited by Christ Who said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4). Jesus, both God and man, inseparably and eternally joins us to Himself.
 
Our sinful weakness desires the hope of salvation in our own, recognizable flesh. We are not convinced by someone coming back from the dead, because we do not come back from the dead. We are convinced by magic tricks and turns of phrase, though.
Jesus chooses to battle this corruption through men and through the death of death, in order that He gain all.
 
Jesus does not come as a Rock, with no feelings and no resemblance to men. He arrives as a man and spends 33 or so years proving it to everyone. “When he was twelve years old…Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers”, except His parents. “Why have you treated us like this”, they said (Lk 2:41-52). As if to say, you are a child and cannot be doing these things. You are too young. You are too immature. You don’t know. “Get behind me satan”
 
Later on, He was simply a carpenter, a poor boy from a poor family. “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” (Jn 6:42)
 
How can He say He is the Temple; He is the Tree; He is the Rock? 
He is the Temple, because He can be utterly destroyed and yet return, alive forevermore, three days later. He is the Tree, because He can give His Saving Word into the mouths of men and it save just as well as if He spoke Himself. He is the Rock, because He continues to penetrate through heaven’s iron gates with His Body and Blood, for us today.
 
Here, now, is the true miracle of Sts. Peter and Paul being the pillars of the Church: that through them alone, God gives His gifts to men. That their example continues Christ’s preaching and teaching that causes paralyzed men to rise up and walk. Through them, the Word of the Rock that is a hammer that breaks the rock, continues to give faith to believe.
 
To break the Rock on Calvary, to purchase and win the faith which breaks the rock of our stony heart, the Word is preached. We look to St. Peter and St. Paul, because they are men chosen by God, empty vessels filled to the brim with God’s authority to forgive sins and preach and administer the Gospel. They are not Christ. Their authority is only in the words of Christ. When they speak contrary to God’s Word, they are no longer chosen.
 
This is not a papistic view, but a Christian view. St. Paul should be in St. Peter’s seat, if we are speaking of being “chosen the best”. But he is not. He, and all the Apostles, were sent to be pastors, not popes. To preach the Gospel in its purity and to administer the Sacraments according to it.
 
The Gospel that says your brokenness is healed. The Gospel that says your darkness is lightened. The Gospel that says your life is important, even though you are not an apostle, because you have the same Word of Promise that gave the Apostles their authority and their gifts, you are also chosen. This means that the holier, greater glory is found, not in spiritual gifts, but in belief and communion with the Lord.
 
It is unbelievable that Jesus would care about the Gentiles, be their Rock also, but believe it. It is unbelievable that God could be anything but “what the Jews were expecting” in themselves, but believe it. It is unbelievable that flesh and blood could house and utilize God, but believe it, because in Christ, they are remade One.
 
“He Himself therefore comes to us in order to lay hold upon us with that nature by which He is our Brother. And because our weakness in this life cannot bear the glory of His majesty, therefore His Word and His body and blood are present, distributed, and received under the water, the bread, and the wine.” 
 
“Nor does He will that we wander around the gates of heaven uncertain in which area of heaven we ought to look for Christ in His human nature or whether we can find Him; but in the Supper He Himself is present in the external celebration and shows by visible signs where He wills to be present with His body and blood, and there we may safely seek Him and surely find Him, for there He Himself, through the ministry of men, distributes His body and blood to the communicants. These most sweet and necessary comforts will be completely snatched away from us if the substantial presence, distribution, and reception of Christ's body and blood are removed from the Supper.” - Martin Chemnitz
 
 

Grumble Grumble [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 and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. (Titus 1:4)
 
Who speaks to you today, saying:

“And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, ’This man receives sinners and eats with them.’”

 
The real object that Jesus is searching for in His parables today is His Image. The world believes the image of God is found in human kindness and humanitarian beauty. As if, humans are divine and contain the divine and there is no other divine. The Image of God is not found, it is given. Jesus is the Image of God and He has come to restore His Image in Word and Sacrament and that is the “problem”.
 
On the surface, “receiving sinners and eating with them” is an easy Bible passage to interpret. We have the “bad guys” saying bad things about their neighbor and therefore will be punished. Jesus, the great philanthropist, always takes the side of the oppressed and down-trodden, so you too should fight for social justice. Jesus demands it.
 
On the other hand, Jesus has come for sinners, especially those wearied and heavily burdened with their sins. These usually tend to be those whom society looks down on and would rather not associate with and yet we see that Jesus does. You cannot tell which sinners will be received and which will not.
 
Jesus is the Great Teacher and so you should hear those words and feel guilty about how often you do not help the people that others look down on. But Jesus is also more than just another social justice warrior or teacher of morality. He is God. He is the Crucified and Risen Savior. He is the Alpha and the Omega. Simply eating with sinners, or lending them a hand, does not get the job done.
 
Our answer lies in the grumbling of the Pharisees and the scribes. Funny enough, the grumbling of Israel is made infamous by the books of Moses. More specifically, it is the Exodus from Egypt that set the Hebrew people to murmur greatly like a constant buzzing of negativity against Moses and, therefore, against God. And the grumbling was always about the same thing, as you will see, though it had different targets.
 
One of the first Sunday School lessons you learn is the wandering in the desert, where all the Hebrews grumble against God and Moses. From Exodus: “And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, ‘What shall we drink?’” (Ex 15:24) and “what shall we eat?” You should’ve just killed us by the Egyptian meat pots (Ex 16:3). “Why is the Lord bringing us into the land of Canaan (sinners) to die by the sword?” (Num 14:3).
 
Do you notice what the grumbling is about? It’s not about having a nice bed to sleep in or indoor plumbing available in the desert. Its about sinners and its about eating and drinking with them. First, its about staying with Egypt: they were sinners, yeah, but they had all the food. Second, its about themselves: Egyptian sinners had food, we chosen and righteous do not.
 
And who do they complain to? Not God, He’s too scary. He’ll kill us just by speaking to us. They complain to Moses and Aaron, who are only men. But too bad for them, grumbling against Moses and A-A-Ron is the same as grumbling against God. So much so that St. Paul recalls in 1 Corinthians 10, “nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer” (v.10), referencing Numbers 11. 
 
Thus the first issue here is sin, not some good old boys club beating down the common people. It is the lack of the Image of God and a lack of recognizing the Image of God. We heard the indignation of the Jews last week when one said to Jesus, “Blessed is he who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” (Luke 14:15). Those that eat and drink with God are to be blessed, worthy, not rabble and cut-throats. 
 
Repent. Sin against God is not just disobedience. Disobedience is down the line. Sin is not listening to God when He tells you what He’s saying and what He’s doing. “Why should a living man grumble about the punishment of his sins?” (Lam 3:39). He shouldn’t, he is guilty, after all. But its not fair to him, seeing as how he is the pinnacle of creation, and that’s why he grumbles.
 
Why can’t you just excuse the sin and love the sinner and that be the end of it, God? Grumble grumble. Why are people crazy these days? They’re all so entitled. Grumble grumble. 
I wasn’t like that when I was young. This is not what I’m used to at church. This is not how it was back in my day. Grumble grumble grumble.
 
You grumble against God day in and day out, but you make sure to stay away from the big sins. Instead, your focus is on your normal, day-to-day life. So what will God do in the face of all this grumbling? Is He going to change the way He does things? Is He going to get with the times? Is He going to make things more attractive to a new generation that doesn’t understand all His Church mumbo-jumbo? Is He going to bow to your grumbling? 
Well, in a way, yes. Jesus is God giving in to your grumbling.
 
If there’s grumbling in the Old Testament about eating and drinking and grumbling in the New Testament about eating and drinking, what do you suppose we have to grumble about today?
 
When Jesus gives us the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin to answer that question, we hear of an invitation sent out to friends and neighbors. An invitation to a joyful celebration. An invitation to rejoice in eating and drinking. For the Prodigal Father declares, later on in St. Luke chapter 15, “And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate” (v.23-24).
 
In the presence of the Lord there is eternal celebration. And celebrations always include a feast. We even have an old saying, “nothing brings people together like food”. How do we know the Lord is present among us today?
 
As our meal prayer from Psalm 145 states, “You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing” (v.16) and that open hand is punctured. A puncture that spilled the Life Blood of God, which is so valuable it can even stave off death.
 
Jesus says, “my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink” (John 6:55). He has also prophesied that when we eat and drink, we see God (Ex 24:11). Eat and drink what?
Now we know. But how can an almighty and holy God justify receiving sinners and eating and drinking with them?
 
God declares sinners righteous for Christ’s sake; that is, our sins have been imputed or charged to Christ, the Savior, and Christ’s righteousness has been imputed or credited to us (LSCE, 166). In other words, “he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21).
 
How can this man receive sinners and eat with them? Because He has traversed life and death to find His dead-in-sin sheep to bring them to life again. “you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live” (Ez 37:13-14). I will set up one shepherd over you and he shall feed you: he shall feed you and be your shepherd (Ez 34:23).
 
Jesus, receiving sinners and eating with them, is Jesus receiving you and eating with you. Jesus gives in to your grumbling and gives you what you need, that is union with Him. The grumbling about His Way and His means is the temptation to prevent them from happening in our own lives. In sin we grumble. In the forgiveness of sins we celebrate.
 
We grumble because we sinfully believe that we will not have a place in the Kingdom, but we just misunderstand the Image of God. It is not something we produce within ourselves neither is it something we chase after like the holy grail, to find in someone’s heart. 
 
The Image of God and the Meal of God are all given and instituted without our prayer. They go on, regardless of how we act or what we believe. God calls out to His neighbors with His Gospel, inviting them to share in His joy. The joy of the restoration of sinners.
 
 

Rejected at the Banquet [Trinity 2]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Proverbs 9:1-10

• 1 John 3:13-18

• St. Luke 14:15-24

 

Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. (Titus 1:4)
 
Who speaks to you today, saying:

“And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’”

 
Today we hear God’s Word from the Gospel about a great banquet. His Great Banquet. Included for us in order that we see our Savior Who was not like us, in our sin, and so was tossed out of His own party. This points us to a better understanding of God choosing us, not us choosing God, and He wanting us to be more sympathetic in deed and truth.
 
What this means is that we should not be surprised when Jesus’ words about hate come true. He said, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before you” (Jn 15:18). This verse does not give us free reign to play the victim card, that is, that whenever anything goes wrong or people disagree with us or excommunicate us, doesn’t mean we instantly martyr-up.
 
Our Holy Crusade from God is to war against our sin and live an honorable, peaceable, and godly life. It is not to bring down the wrath of God against His enemies, which you have hand picked yourself. God its this one!
 
Thus, today, to continue to think about Pride, we will conflate Jesus’ Great Banquet with His Wedding Feast and ponder the dilemma of being invited to a same-sex marriage. Maybe you haven’t had to wrestle with this one yet, but I’m sure your time is coming. 
 
At the parable of the Wedding Banquet, you’ll remember one person who was singled out for not having on the proper garments. He was trying to sneak in relying on his own power and resources, with no regard to the Lord Who Invites. No unbeliever gets into heaven, but likewise, no Christian gets into worldly banquets.
 
As a Christian, you would go to a wedding for three reasons. 1) To bear witness to the couples' vows and to give your approval. 2) To pray for the couple that God would enable them to live in ordered harmony according to God’s Word. And 3) To bless the couple as they establish a new household in God's Name. 
 
If you can't do these things, you can't go. I guess I shouldn’t say you can’t go, but you would endanger your faith and the faith of others if you were to go. You’d be becoming a part of the world, making it easier and easier for you to excuse sin as, “well its not hurting anybody”.
 
But even if you were to go, you would be the man without the proper clothing. You would be the one without the proper values and beliefs to be at such a place, and you would be kicked out. This is because loving your neighbor means keeping God’s commands, not rejecting them.
 
Repent. Who is the One without “proper clothing” in today’s Gospel? Its not the guests. And it certainly isn’t you with your propensity to victimhood. Look at the Gospel reading again. It is the Lord Whop is giving the Great Banquet. He is cast out, but in reverse. Those who were supposed to gather, flee and forsake Him.
 
The people you despise, the sin you hate, the behavior you can’t stand, the boogeyman on your TV are all in your heart. They are the sins you love more than Jesus. Your behavior and consent are the fuel of everything you hate in the world. You must believe that the devil has no power, wants to be hated, but everything, including death, is going to be ok.
 
Jesus is always surrounded. There are precious few moments in Scripture where Jesus is by Himself. The angels gathered at His conception, birth, suffering, death, and resurrection. The Shepherds gathered at His birth announcement. The Wise Men and Herod came together to celebrate His second birthday. 
 
And the crowds. There were very few people in the areas Jesus went to, that had not gathered around Him at some point. Even the Romans came to His trial, crucifixion, and burial. 
 
And yet, when it was time for the feast to begin, time for the main event, time to stand up for Jesus. Everyone left and made excuses. Oh Jesus, I can’t be here, I need to keep my job. You say and do wonderful things, but I didn’t think you meant it. I have a family, you understand.
 
And the excuses escalate from there. All from everyday life that we would think would be acceptable to God, as did the excusers in the Gospel. The excuses escalated to suffering and crucifixion. Not to end in punishment, but to end in the Holy Spirit.
 
The servant is the Holy Spirit Who Calls to faith and He uses Jesus. His Call is the Gospel, the free forgiveness of sins. His enlightenment is faith, freely given. His sanctification and keeping is the gathering, the crowding and gathering around the One Who Was Rejected, Despised: Jesus.
 
The rally point is His Word and Sacrament. The Promises we can hear and touch, taste, see, and smell. We reach out in faith and close our grip on His Body and Blood. There is no empty space. The empty space was our sin, refusing the Lord of Life’s invitation. We thought we could fill it with our holiness and earthly righteousness, but it was all vanity.
 
When the Holy Spirit moves, He removes the authority of sin, death, and the devil from you. He removes the authority of these men and brands that threaten to tell lies about you, betray you, slander you, and destroy your reputation, in love of course. Though those things will happen, they are not indicative of the Lord’s opinion of you.
 
Because now, you have been clothed with Christ, with the outcast. You are singled out in faith, because before, you wore the robe of the world. You were accepted in PC society. You went along to get along. You kept your your beliefs to yourself. But the world has found you now. There is no more hiding. You are at the microphone. What do you say?
 
So, love really doesn’t win. And it doesn’t win, because this world is upside-down. That is, that though God is being loving in setting high standards of love for everyone’s benefit, the world hates Him for it and refuses to acknowledge His work. Moreover, sinners believe they can make something better than God, when all they do is create hell on earth.
 
And yet love does win and will win and has already won, because Jesus is Love and Love suffers, dies, and rises again to change sinners. To change them from meek and lowly, to brave and courageous. 
 
There is no shame in the Gospel. Dear Christian, you do not need to be ashamed of your belief in Christ. Your faith is just as valid as the rest of the world’s faith in whatever. And not just as valid, but actually valid, that is True, because Jesus lives. 
 
And because Jesus lives, we live and get to bear witness to the Wedding of the Lamb and His Bride, the Church. We hear that couple’s vows and give our approval. Amen.
We pray for that couple that God would enable them to live in ordered harmony according to God’s Word forever. And we get to bless the Jesus and His Bride as they establish a new household in God's Name: the New Jerusalem.
 
That is why weddings and marriages are so important among us. It is not just playing house, it is physical proof that our God is with us spiritually and physically in everything we do. Everything we do has meaning. Where we spend our currency of attention and investment, it flourishes in our lives. Support it or it goes away.
 
The world hates Jesus, because He is True Love, not pretend. The world hates you, because you are proof of that love Who is living and active, even today. The wedding garment you now wear in Christ may not get you on the right side of this world, but look around in faith, and you will find yourself surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, martyrs, dressed in exactly the same robe as you.
 
The Lord was alone in His work of Salvation. You, He brings into His family. You do your work as a group project. You. You are not alone. Ever.
 

Pride and Prejudice [Trinity 1]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Genesis 15:1-6

• 1 John 4:16-21

• St. Luke 16:19-31

 

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

 

Who speaks to you today, saying:

“The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried”

 

The sin of the rich man is not being rich. It is believing that his clothing and his feasting are equal to or better than God’s. God includes this in His Word to reveal the pride and humility of His Son, Jesus, in order that it point us to our own life of faith in His Church and humility towards our prideful neighbor.

 

The currency of pride is attention. In the case of our rich man today, the wealth of his attention is spent and gained in his house. Not only away from the social problems of his neighbors, but also away from the fine clothes and feasts of His God. Note his Church language to father Abraham: “have mercy”, “dip in water”, “send someone back from the dead”.

 

Though he used the right words, he did not believe them, and instead “feasted sumptuously”, or “made good for himself” alone. In his pride, he relocated and reallocated the Lord’s Feast to his own table and excluded those whom God included: i.e. Lazarus. It was pride that he held onto even while in torment, as he ordered Abraham and Lazarus around, instead of repenting. 

 

This is what Jesus means when He says in Romans 1:22-24, “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves.”

 

Pride is the fear, love, and trust in the stability of earthly things. Life will always be this way and it is not changing no matter how much I despise God’s laws and violate human rights. It seems as if God permits men to fall into grievous sin in order to be put to shame in his own eyes and the eyes of all men. Not only as an example, but in order that he might have a chance to repent. That he might become aware of his wickedness, turn from it, and live. 

 

If we remember Pharaoh chasing after all Israel in the middle of the Red Sea, we see the sin of pride win out. Pharaoh refuses to repent and let the people go and God urges him on down the path of his own carefully and expertly planned wisdom: to destruction. God says to Pharaoh, ok, thy will be done.

 

There is also another sinful side to pride, as if there is anything else to it. It is unique among the vices in that all the other vices are practiced in evil works: greed, wrath, gluttony. But Pride is done in and through good works. It is the love of glory and self-satisfaction that outshines even God Himself, in doing good. 

 

Love is love, how dare you say different. You’re not being loving towards your neighbor. Don’t you want everyone to be who they want to be and live their life? You’re taking away my rights. Can’t you see you’re hurting me?

 

Repent. Pride is in all of us and it is the last sin you will ever face off against. Death is the last enemy to be defeated, pride is the last sin to be engaged. This is because it infects everything we do and all other sins. Our sinful nature cannot help it. When we do bad, its out of pride. When we do good, it is out of pride. We get puffed up. We love to be noticed. We love to paint it on walls and roads: we do good things. 

 

Yes, beloved, pride even affects your elite-level pastor, who is never wrong. Sadness.

 

The Law of God, which demands these good works, these works of love towards your neighbor, is holy. That is, you must do them, regardless of who your neighbor is. Every gift of God, my eyes and ears and all my members my reason and all my senses, is good. Everything that He has created is exceedingly good, as said in Genesis.

 

However, without the theology of the cross you misuse the best in the worst way. Whoever has not been brought low, reduced to nothing through suffering and the cross, takes credit for works and wisdom and does not give credit to God. This is the misuse and defilement of God’s gifts.

 

Can’t I be proud to be a Christian?

 

Dear Christians, we do not live in our own world. We did not create it. We do not live in our own bodies either. We did not make them, neither do we know how any of it works. We can observe to some extent, but beyond our senses we are at a loss. This is why there is no call to have pride or to boast in ourselves. 

 

So what do we do about pride? We kill it with kindness. How? By dying and rising again.

 

Jesus, the proud God of all that He made and accomplished, “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2:6-11)

 

Humility may be the antibody for pride, but humility can do nothing without the death and resurrection of Jesus. That is the point of Jesus. That is Abraham’s point, in today’s parable. Both men died, true. Both were even resurrected to eternal life, you following? The difference is, there is life in the Blood of Jesus alone, not in purple robes or feastings. 

 

For the Purple Robe is the Robe of the King of kings. But the True King does not wallow in the purple robe of prosperity. He is robed in the Purple of joyful suffering for His prideful creatures. From St. Mark, “They clothed him with purple, and weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on him” (15:17). The Purple robe is the Robe of crucifixion.

 

The Feast is also only the Feast of the True King. But the true King does not give secondary, created food that melts in the morning sun or rots away from worms. True, heavenly food is from the pierced side of the Lamb of God, roasted over the fire of the cross, with His blood on the foreheads and hearts of believers.

 

The Feast is not celebrated until the last person who will be called is invited and the call goes out to the streets, the lanes, the outermost parts of the region, and to the gates. Lazarus was invited and was only admitted at the Resurrection. So it is, that the Robe and the Feast become gifts. Though they are marks of Jesus Christ, His final mark is to give them away, to you.

 

Isaiah 61, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels” (v. 10).

 

Dear Christians, the joy of the rich man’s robe is in giving it away, not having it for oneself. The joy of the Feast is in giving it away, not making oneself fat from it. The joy of our Servant God comes from giving His Kingdom to sinners He has made righteous, by His shed Blood on the cross. 

 

This is what we are to boast in: the works of Christ which last for eternity. Not His work in our life, not His coaching us in a tough spot, and not even His making us morally straight. Our boast, our pride is to rely and rest in the accomplished salvation of Jesus. We should have a godly pride and arrogance in knowing Christ in His Word and Sacrament.

 

This is the sanctified pride. The bold insistence that we are safe and secure in Christ in the face of sin, death, and the devil. No amount of road graffiti or protest signs accomplish such pride. Only the glorying of our crucified and risen Savior, Who has done all good things for us.

 

We accomplish nothing with our sinful humility, but praising the Christ who is in us and is granting us grace is a different matter. This we should do by all means, especially in light of the proud array of the Bride of Christ, the Church.

 

All of us should chiefly strive to learn to know Christ well that we may proudly claim for ourselves the triumph and the majesty we have in Christ and that we may bid farewell to the devil, however indignant and furious he may be. For in the glory of God we should be proud, not in the filth of our works and merits. 

 

We should be proud, because the omnipotent Bridegroom is in His Church of Word and Sacrament, which, though burdened with many evils, yet has a Bridegroom who assumes them all and bestows His power and glory on her. 

 

Jesus does not just say, “Pride cometh before the fall”, but He shatters that darkness with His Love. He does not just say that He “opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (1 Pet 5:5), but He takes your sin of pride and humiliates Himself on the cross, for your benefit.

 

Pride is a forgivable sin. Your sin is forgivable. Your neighbor’s sin is forgivable, regardless of his lifestyle. You cast judgement in your pride and so you fall. Instead cast forgiveness upon your neighbor and upon your enemy. That is, give them the same Christ and His Gospel of the free forgiveness of sins that you have.

 

It is the Lord’s job to judge and to exact vengeance. It is your job to glorify the Only Begotten Son of God Who is the pride of Jacob, our heritage, and the One Whom God loves (Ps 47:4). For today, Moses and the Prophets have spoken to you, begged you to believe. God Himself, in the flesh, has preached to you and, risen from the dead, communes with you.

 

There is no more room for hate. There is no room for pride. You have to invite it back in, but do not! Jesus fills all, even you. And He does it in this way:

In order that our Father in heaven would not look upon our sins, nor deny our prayers because of them; for we are neither worthy of the things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them; but that He would grant them all to us by grace; for we daily sin much, and indeed deserve nothing but punishment. So we too will sincerely forgive and gladly do good to those who sin against us. (Small Catechism, 5^th Petition)

 

Our currency is Christ and He gives Himself in abundance.