St. Peter: the rock; the author [St. Luke 5:1-11]

In the Gospel heard today, you hear Jesus speaking to you saying,

“On one occasion,while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God…”

There is no getting around it. As much as we want to disagree with our Roman Catholic friends, St. Luke puts St. Peter front and center, today in the Gospel. He is the rock, the leader of the 12, and spokesman for them. In hearing Jesus, St. Peter is now to become a different man in order to witness a greater miracle than just catching a bunch of fish.

This greater miracle is not going to be a mountain-top experience, its not going to be a personal revelation, its quite possibly not even the resurrection of Christ Himself. No, the greater miracle is smaller than all of that. It is simply the conversion of a sinner by hearing the Word of God.

That’s right. Hearing the Word of God is a miracle, in and of itself. No other God in the history of the world has ever held conversation with man face to face, made good on His promises, and doesn’t change. And, St. Peter, like this crowd, did just that: heard the Word of God.

In the first place, when sinful Peter hears the Word of God, he is self-secure. Just before this event, his mother-in-law was sick, but Jesus healed her. St. Peter had heard the Word of God, seen Him in action and yet continued on in life as if nothing had happened.

He is secure in his sinful ways and wishes not to depart from them. He wishes to retain his sin and love them and can not take comfort in the love and grace of God. He is thankful for the restoration of his mother, but believes nothing more needs to be done that he can’t do himself.

In the episode of the great catch of fish, St. Peter is called directly by Jesus, but he is only awakened. In this awakened state he begins to believe, but now knows there are things he must do.

The first of which is to repent of his sins, of which he begins to find too many. In one way, the large number of fish caught reveal to St. Peter the large amount of sin that he has, for he has toiled all night in search of all his sin, by his own hands, and has come up with nothing.

This pattern does not end for St. Peter with him following Jesus at the end of this reading. He remains in this awakened state even when the dawning of Easter is upon him. Throughout the gospel, St. Peter continues to hear that his sins are abominable and condemnable. He continues to learn that dregs can not satisfy an hungry soul.

They do give a sense of tumbling recklessness, where anything is permissible, but that is not peace. They do feed your imagination, giving you misplaced senses of awe, wonder, and majesty, but they offer no refreshing hope of conversion. 

Jesus reveals to us what it means to not only be truly awakened, but also truly converted and St. Peter shows this to us. Acknowledging Jesus as true God and true man, believing He is crucified and risen for the salvation of the whole world, and that the Call of St. Peter has something to do with all that, is the point.

It is no coincidence that Jesus has 2 boats, 2 testaments, and 2 natures. It is not background story that water and boats appear again and again in all of Scripture. Jesus is at certain places at certain times to reveal sin to self-secure sinners and also to reveal their Savior and He does so through St, Peter and the Apostles.

It is not the way St. Peter acts. It is not the way he works. It is not the great example of faith that he displays. The only purpose St. Peter, or any other man in holy Scriptures, is there is to hand down the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures to you.

Prophetic Scriptures are defined by two things: 1) they tell of a promised Messiah in every word and 2) they are written by the prophets. The Apostolic Scriptures are similar yet they differ in two small points: 1) they tell of a Messiah that is here now and 2) they are written by the Apostles.

From the creation of the world, to the crossing of the Red Sea, to catching a bunch of fish, Jesus has declared that what these men write down is holy. And just to make sure that point sticks, He becomes a man, Himself, and speaks as a man, even though He is also fully God.

For the sinner, God is not approachable. If we can not get near to God, there is no point in Him helping us do anything. If we can not speak with Him, there is no point in Him speaking to us. If we can not commune with Him, then there is no point to any protection or forgiveness He offers, because it would all mean nothing.

That is only if God were far away. In Christ, God becomes near. God does not just observe and interject here and there at random. In Jesus, God interacts and intercedes, physically. There is no call for you to be a fisherman, not catch fish, and then have God give you a great big catch, even metaphorically, in your life. In Jesus, God is speaking, men are hearing and are writing it down in the Spirit.

The reason you know what Jesus is telling you, and that it is in the Bible, is because you are hearing His Word and what He is teaching is that faith comes by hearing; hearing the Word of God, only: Scripture alone. No other revelation is acceptable. In no other place, except the Bible, is God handing out salvation.

Even the fish get it and much to our shame, they are the first to respond in this scene. First, there were no fish. Jesus spoke, then there were fish. You were caught in the Gospel the same way. First, there was no Church, but by the preaching of God’s Word, today the Church is practically full.

And on the Last Day, you will see that the Church is completely full. Not because St. Peter went fishing one day and certainly not because you had a vision. The Church is filled and God’s Kingdom is extended when His Word is preached and the Sacraments are administered according to it.

This is public knowledge. The Lord never spoke to someone privately and if He did, it was written down. Not too private anymore. Never believe a private revelation unless it is the Words of Scripture. The Prophets and the Apostles died to get them to you in order that you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

You hear the Word of God and you see it fulfilled in the open. The Christ suffers and dies, He rises again three days later, and He makes it so the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures are the inspired Word of God. Period. No commas, no additions, no editing. Salvation is found in no man, except the God-man, Christ Jesus, and only in His Word: the Holy Bible.

Logs and specks [Trinity 4; St. Luke 6:36-42]

Jesus speaks to us today by the Gospel saying,

“You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.”

I put it before you today that if you were able to remove the plank from your eye, then the prophecy of old would come true, that your eyes will be opened and you will know good and evil. However, you know that those were the devil’s words and not God’s.

There are two commands from Jesus today: take you own plank out and take your brother’s speck out. So do you want eyes that see or do you not, because it appears as if the devil and Jesus are saying the same thing here.

To complicate things even further, Jesus says in John “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”(9:41). Also, your favorite song states that you were once blind, but now you see.

So, hypocrite, what is it going to be? Will you desire your sight, to see good and evil, in order that you see more good and evil than you can handle OR will you remain blind and keep the sins you already know and love?

I am not trying to trick you and neither is Jesus. You will be tricked if you feel that there just must be some thing you can do about it all, but if you are saved by faith alone then all you hear is God’s revelation of your own sin and Christ’s absolution.

A true plank in the eye is not just some misguided principles, it is anything that turns you away from the person, words, and work of Jesus. Anything that says, “Jesus didn’t really say that…”.

For the Pharisees, they continued to condemn Jesus and His disciples by the Word of God. They refused to listen to God’s interpretation, from His own mouth of flesh, and instead interpreted holy Scripture according to their thinking and pleasure.

For the modern world, there are too many to list, but for an example we can look at what is said about marriage. The modern American thinker condemns marriage, not upfront, but in a round about way. By refusing to see the real good of getting and being married, marriage is rejected.

It is said that it is better NOT to be married. Then you are free from the responsibility of children and the drudgery of being with just one person forever. Keep your options open. Don’t have children. All this is taught and yet their only alternative is to wallow in prostitution and adultery.

Repent. You think you have no plank in your eye. And this is Jesus’ point. You presume to see the tiny faults of your neighbor and point them out, as I just did, but you believe that those things are not in your life.

You believe that, because you have your life under reasonable self-control, that your plank does not exist. In fact, you are so plank-free that you just want God to use you to extend His kingdom. You are so plank-free that you want some greater experience with God, because you have out-grown His milky Word and are mature enough for solid theology.

Dear Christians, true mercy means that you are performing speck-surgery on each and every person of the world, every minute of the day and being successful. True non-judgment means you let your neighbor get away with wronging and defrauding you, every time. True forgiveness means to really forgive and mean it, not just forgetting about it.

Jesus would rather that He be defrauded in the front of all people, than that you remain with a plank in your eye. Jesus would rather be wronged and falsely accused, than allow you to determine which is the best way to remove your plank. Jesus would rather that His Name, the Name of the Almighty, everlasting God, be dragged through the mud and open to all accusation and criticism, than you to expend one iota of energy on doubting your forgiveness.

Jesus is as merciful as His Father in heaven. Jesus gathers all those with specks and planks in their eyes and performs successful surgery. Like a magnet, the cross of Jesus forcibly collects all the specks and planks, making it incredibly large. And when it looks like God can not take all that suffering, He rises from the dead.

Jesus is non-judgmental. The unlimited atonement He paid for in holy, precious Blood, covers ALL sin. His forgiveness goes so far as to plead for those who don’t even believe in Him and who wallow in their wickedness.

Unlike your mercy, judgment, and forgiveness, Jesus’ actually does what it says its going to do. Being both God and man, Jesus can pronounce judgment upon sin, death, and the devil and they are judged and condemned. Jesus can unleash His mercy on whomever He wishes and they will have mercy, regardless of who they are.

Jesus can proclaim salvation to the entire world and it will be true, simply because He said it and it is all yours simply because He says so, in His Word.

What a wonderful comfort it is to know that when we start to really concentrate on planks and specks and find no end to them within ourselves, that there is no lack of the Blood of Christ to cover them. What a joy to know that though we fail and come short of true mercy and true sight, that the Body of Christ works these out for us perfectly.

God gives no instruction manual on how to remove your plank or your neighbor’s speck and that is for the express purpose of not letting you do it. Because, when you remove one plank or speck, two take its place. There is no end to sin in you or your neighbor and both are fatal to the eye. God gives no manual, but He does give His Son.

These are what build up the cross and yet we are not condemned, but set free. Our sins have caused the suffering and anguish of the God-man, Jesus, yet we are given prosperity; you are given the fruits of the wronging and defrauding of God and they are eternal life and forgiveness.

You receive your just desserts, not from your transgressions, but from the suffering and death of Jesus. And those desserts really are desserts, not sarcastic ones. You really do get to sit at the King’s table, wear the King’s clothes, and sleep in the King’s bed, because you have been given, for free, true Faith.

And this Faith is the only thing that lays hold of God’s grace in Christ, and justifies you before Him. Faith alone, without any work, lays hold of God’s blessings. Though we pray for a sin-free life or rescue from misguided principles, salvation is only to be had by a clean heart and a right Spirit.

In this way, even the twisted words of Satan to Eve come true, by the grace of God. IN sin your eyes have been opened to see good and evil just like God. It has come to pass just as the devil said it would.

But God has taken you one step over that line. Not only are you like god in knowing things, but you are now physically a part of Him. In Christ, you don’t just think and act like God as child’s play or pretend, you are gods. Christ has assumed your mortal flesh into His immortal flesh, something that the devil couldn’t even foresee or want.

You are now the god of this world you always wanted to be, except through suffering and death, for this godliness is attained only through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus, not your own. You now see good and evil, not in order to use it to judge others, but to judge yourself dead to sin, but alive in Christ.

Your condemnation has been removed. You judgment has been meted out upon Christ. The forgiveness and mercy you receive from the Father, at the hand of Jesus is full and complete. You now receive the Good measure which overflows from the side of Christ, into you mouth, for the forgiveness of your sin.

Jesus’ solution to the pandemic of planks and specks is to dissolve them Himself in Body and Blood given and shed for you. 

Seekers [Trinity 2; St. Luke 14:15-24]

Jesus speaks to us 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 already ready.’”

You may be familiar with Psalm 14 as the April fool’s day psalm, for it says, “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” But King David does not stop there. He goes on to speak of those that seek out God, saying:
    They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds,
    there is none who does good.

² The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man,
    to see if there are any who understand,
    who seek after God.

³ They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
    there is none who does good,
    not even one.”

The Lord looks down from heaven and sees that there are NONE that seek after Him. In fact, this is what our hymn of the day was lamenting, that there are but a few within the fold of the Lord and that faith seems quenched on every hand.

And yet we hear Isaiah giving us a command from God telling us to “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;” (Isa. 55:6).  Even Jesus gives the command to seek first the kingdom of God (Mt. 6:33).

You are commanded to seek God and many are ready and willing to tell you how to do so and may even use holy Scripture to tell you. The usual place they start, however, is outside of holy Scripture. They demand that you have a “personal relationship” to God, to always desire more of Him, and to fill the vacuum in your life with only Him.

If you would just love God at the center of all you do, spend a lot of alone time with Him, and integrate Him into every area of your life, then you will have “seeked” the Lord. Sounds as though you are trying to find a girlfriend. It sounds as though you are seeking someone to marry. This is not what God has told you to do.

There is no way you can have a personal relationship with God. Just reading the Bible often does not produce the sort of relationship God demands. Neither do you desire more of God, because that means giving up your life and everything that you are. God doesn’t just want the small part of your heart with a vacuum to be filled, He wants all of it.

Neither do you love God. If you try to put YOUR love for God at the center, then you are only loving yourself and your love, not God. If you spend alone time with God, you are not only neglecting your neighbor, but you are putting your trust in how much time YOU spend, not God.

And finally, if YOU are working YOUR hardest to put YOUR God into everything YOU do, then once again, it is all about you. Do you see what happens here? If you are seeking, then YOU are doing the work and therefore YOU get the glory. You, you, you.

Listening to the Gospel once again, we hear of a place where everything is already ready; already completed; already worked for. Think about it. If you are God commanding that You be sought after you are not going to leave a secret code behind nor are you going to hide yourself in earthly blessings or even other people.

If you want to be found, you will make it so you can be found. This is not hide and seek, this is life and death, because if you do not find God, you die eternally. But, if you do find Him, you live eternally and God wants everyone to live forever.

Jesus is the only way and the only reason you have to say that God wants to be found. It is only from Jesus that you hear and know that the Lord is merciful and loving. Jesus, on the cross, is God, saying to the world, “Here am I. Send me, send me.”

Through the cross, Jesus makes Himself painfully obvious and He does so in His Church, but still you do not seek Him. He gives you blessings and cares for your every need, and still you do not seek Him. He makes everything around you point to Himself and still you look in every other place except His Church.

One of the lessons from the Gospel is that God does not hide Himself in success; meaning, the success you have in life is not equivalent to how much God is with you. In fact, as Lazarus taught us last week, it is the opposite. It appears as if, if God is with you, then you will not be successful.

Who gets into this great and wonderful feast? Who is it that receives comfort next to Abraham? Seeking the Lord while He may be found means listening to Isaiah as he speaks more of God’ own words, saying:

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;
⁷ let the wicked forsake his way,  and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa.55:6-9).

Did you never think why your thoughts are not God’s thoughts? You think rich; God thinks poor. You think full; God thinks empty. You think life; God thinks death. The only way for the wicked to forsake his way is to die to sin. His only chance to return to the Lord is by denying himself. A true seeker of God will be seeking forgiveness for being unable to do all these things.

This is what the Lord means by having compassion and abundantly pardoning. It means you need compassion and you need an abundance of pardon. It means that when you hear the Lord forgiving sins, there it is that you have found Him. For, when you hear the word of the Cross, your search is over.

Jesus’ Church will be filled. That is the promise. Whether or not we are in it, depends on whether or not Christ has died for us. Whether we are in or not depends on if we are poor, crippled, blind, or lame.

This is your cross to bear and your constant need for the Church which not only tells you of your utter depravity, but also of your abundant pardon. You do not seek Jesus, Jesus seeks you. He seeks you out in your poverty of spirit; your crippled will; your blindness to sin, and lameness on the Way.

He seeks you out because He has a baptism to give to you. He has a kingdom that has been prepared for you since the foundation of the world. There is a rich Spirit being handed out for free. There is wholeness of bodily senses given to you in the perfected Body of Christ.

For as much as I’ve talked about it, do not listen to all that talk of “uninvited”, or “poor, crippled, blind, and lame”. Because that is not you anymore. You were that way, but not anymore. You still struggle with sin and will have to face death, but they have no power over you anymore.

For you have died to sin and have been baptized into the one true faith, found only in the Body of Christ. You have heard the Gospel and believed that where it is preached in its purity, there the Church of Christ is. You have faith in the words “given and shed for you” and therefore have exactly what they say: forgiveness of sins.

The Lord “may be found” in His Church. The Lord is near, in His Church. His Bride is dear to Him and will never be forsaken. These promises are also for you because you find yourself in that same Church. Not just as a weekly participant and financier, but as a bodily member; a grafted in branch; an adopted son.

This place where the Lord is forgiving sins, is your home. This place where the Lord is handing out salvation, is your rightful throne. This place where heaven meets earth in a beautiful assumption of the flesh, is where you belong.

For you have been brought in, through the cross. You have been invited, in Christ. You are made whole and are forgiven, in Faith alone. Looking back at the first verse of the Gospel today, we now re-work this man’s wrong words for him. It is not, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”, but “Blessed is everyone who, right now, eats the Bread of Heaven in the Church of God”. For, now has Christ passed through life and death and lives still. It is today that is the day of salvation for you.

Who is poor? [Trinity 1; St. Luke 16:19-31]

Jesus speaks today, saying:

“And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.”

Thus the rich man did not hear Moses and the prophets speaking to him about the care for the poor. The rich man did not hear that God demands caring for the poor, not because it is a requirement to get into heaven, but because when the Messiah comes, He will be poor and poorly treated.

Don’t fool yourself. Anyone can care for and love the poor and do it better than a Christian. Similarly, anyone can give to charity, even to a church, but this is not why you give to church.

Last week, we talked about how the belief in a Triune God gives us a different worldview and that, because God exists this way and interacts with us in only certain ways, that changes how we go about living our lives. The story of Lazarus and the rich man further explains this to us.

The first thing we need to understand, is that when Jesus tells His parables and stories and other things, He is speaking to the Church and to those in the Church. It is not unbeliever vs. believer and it is not “reaching out”.

Jesus has framed the rich man as a member of the church. The clues are that he is dressing in purple and fine linen, which are Church things. Purple as a king color and fine linen is what dresses up the altar. He feasted sumptuously from food that had no lack. This is yet another picture of the kingdom’s great feast.

The final give-away is that he recognizes Abraham as his “father”. The rich man is a member, probably in good standing because of his generous offerings. For obvious reasons, Lazarus is also a member so where is the disconnect?

The rich man is disconnected from Church. He has reduced Church to an offering plate. He has pushed his Church aside in exchange for those things which he believes to be God-pleasing, which turn out not to be. He has ceased to see how much he needs the Church and how intimate his relationship with it really is.

The rich man no longer owns his Church. He no longer weeps with it, celebrates with it, or lives and dies by it. His life is not invested in it except by the means of a check. He has never known the poverty of not having the Gospel. He has never known the sorrow of comforting someone for whom he can do nothing except sit there.

The Church, to him, is a country club; a weekend getaway; a waste of time. The reason he thinks this way is because the truth is too hard to bear. Because, if the rich man treats the Church incorrectly, then who does it the right way? Lazarus.

Lazarus, the poor. Lazarus the sick. Lazarus the beggar. Lazarus the helpless. Lazarus the worthless. Here is what you must become in order to be a true picture of the Church of your faith. Here is the example you are to follow in order to imitate Christ and be a true believer.

Do not be surprised and do not be surprised at your own reaction against this, just as the rich man rejected it. Do not be surprised, but repent. In America, you are so far removed from poverty that you have never known need. You have never known of a famine of the Word of God and you have never been so thirsty for righteousness that you needed to start up your own church in a tent.

You are drunk on prosperity and you overlook the poor and yet your Savior was poor. Jesus was sick. Jesus was the beggar. Jesus was helpless and became worthless. Jesus left His prosperity and took up your cross. Jesus was laid in a stranger’s grave, covered with mortal wounds.

In this life, the wicked receive good things and the Church receives the bad, just as Jesus did. On this side of glory, the Triumphant Church is the sickly Lazarus. In this life, evil is conquered by God on a cross. In this life, all are dealt with by the blood of Christ.

Partying hard and dressing fancy are not unforgivable sins and even if you don’t help each and every poor man in the world, the Lord is not going to strike you dead. The Lord is not just going to return and find you in sin, He sees what you do each and every day, already. He has no need to be sneaky about it.

Indeed, He accomplishes all these things through the cross. The public way we know and believe the love God has for us is Jesus, on the cross. The real and physical way God abides in us is in Jesus. Love is perfected with us, because Jesus died among us, on earth, as one of us.

Truly, as He is so also are we in this world. Jesus, the Crucified, still has the marks of the nails and the spear in His body and that is how we will look. In His life, Jesus was Lazarus. Yet, unlike Lazarus, the suffering and death of Jesus allow a pathway to be opened, from death to life.

Because of the Crucified and Risen God-man, Jesus, there was hope for the rich man and that same hope is for you. That hope is that, even though every investment we make in this world fails us, time, money or emotion, the heavenly investments we make do not. That even if we are made into paupers, through generous giving or through no fault of our own, our reward remains great in heaven.

Our reward is Christ. There is no purple or fine linen on earth that matches the baptismal garment Christ clothed you with in baptism. There are no excuses or fancy words that out-perform the life giving Word of Christ and there is no sumptuous feast that lasts to eternity, forgiving sins, except the Feast which the Lord lays out before you.

Our hope is that we are forgiven. Our hope is hearing the Word and believing it when it says not only that we are deserving of the rich man’s fate, but that for Christ’s sake, we are given Lazarus’ fate instead.

And even though the world treats us like Lazarus, we are comforted here as well as in heaven, because Jesus has spoken and His Holy Spirit gives us Faith to believe that we will be on the right side of that chasm.

Whether one day you feel like the rich man or another you feel like Lazarus. The only feelings that matter are Christ’s feelings for you and His Word declares that you are saved.

What to do with the Trinity [Trinity Sunday; St. John 3:1-15]

Jesus speaks to you all today saying,

“Nicodemus came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.””

So, really; what does Isaiah’s vision of the Lord upon a throne have to do with Trinity Sunday? Well, we could say that this part we heard today, from Isaiah’s book, is filled with threes.

The Lord is on a throne, high and lifted up, and His robe fills the Temple. The Seraphim, which means fiery-ones, have 6 wings; that’s 3 times 2. The wings cover face, feet, and they fly. They cry out, Holy, Holy, Holy. Isaiah is in fear of his life because he has unclean lips, his people have unclean lips, and he has seen the Lord of Sabbaoth.

Finally, one of the Seraphim flies to Isaiah with a burning, hot coal which touches Isaiah’s lips, takes his guilt, and atones for his sin. So, at second glance, maybe the reading from Isaiah has a lot to do with the Trinity. We could spend all week in the Old Testament finding similar and more obvious examples.

Looking at the antiphon for today, it comes from the book of Tobit. It was written in-between the time of the Old and New testament. Even there, we hear the angel Raphael exclaiming to Tobit the glory of the Trinity.

Of course, then, in Jesus’ own words, He tells us to baptize in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Any way you shake a stick at it, it falls out as the Holy Trinity.

Now, where did things go wrong? In the Garden of Eden. Since that time in the beginning, the true understanding of the Lord has been attacked. The Bible has been rewritten and edited just so that most of these references are taken out. If they can’t edit them out, then they taught that God is only one and He would just use angels for two others to be there.

But we don’t just need symbolism to be taught that God is three in one. Its not even going to be the words of men that is going to convince anyone of a God that is one but yet three persons. As the Gospel tells us, only the Spirit will make us believe.

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

As we found threes in Isaiah, we could also search for threes in our heart or threes in our life, but we would be sorely disappointed. As the saying goes, good or bad, things come in threes. If they wanted to speak the truth, they would say that those things don’t just come in threes but in multiples of three.

Nothing of the flesh; nothing in nature tells us of God. We don’t know His will, we don’t know His personality, and we certainly don’t know what He is saying. We will also certainly agree with those who tell us that the Trinity is not in the Bible, because the word “trinity” is not there.

Against human nature, then, the Church has firmly placed the Trinity in the centre of the true faith, by establishing the creeds. Moses and the Prophets have constantly preached the Trinity, as we heard, even to the Jews. If all of this is true and of monumental importance, what does it have to do with you? What does “one God, not three gods” and “not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person” have to do with planting corn, counting pennies, or graduating?

It has to do with world-view, meaning, how you view everything you think , say, and do in the world  AND how you view everything that others think, say, and do in the world. A man that believes in the Trinity does plant corn the same way as everyone else, but he does not plant corn for the same reason as everyone else.

This is because now that the Trinity has placed true belief in his heart, the only motive behind planting, working, or doing anything is so he can go to Church.

Now that God has revealed Himself in His Bible, now that this verbal revelation has taken on flesh, and now that the Trinity offers Himself, literally, to His Church for her salvation, what is the point of doing anything else or to being anywhere else except the place God does this?

Indeed, it appears as if things become pointless; meaningless. They become altogether too much for our small minds to handle: an eternal washing accomplished with tap water? Heavenly salvation simply by listening? Divine forgiveness given in eating and drinking?

Yet, it is in these impossible things that the Trinity points us away from and points us to easy to understand things such as words in a book, working, and graduating, among other things.

We are not allowed to remain confused and overwhelmed, but are given gifts and tasks that are within our means to comprehend. Jesus has perfected and accomplished all the impossibles for this reason. These high and mighty topics still remain, but now everyone understands them through Jesus.

Therefore, since we have such a great high priest and since this glorious salvation is already ours, along with the entire kingdom of God, we can simply live. Having faith in baptism that never dries out, we can go into a dry field, plant crops, and know that big or bust, Christ has secured our salvation. Having faith in a Gospel that gives faith freely, we can work 9-5, 9-12, or 12-12 and know that we believe. Having faith in the Body of Christ, we can gain all the knowledge in the world and know that it is all a wash if we do not have the forgiveness of sins.

When Nicodemus comes to Jesus and does not understand baptism, Jesus takes offense, because He knows Nicodemus has worked long and hard to elevate his teaching and life to an high, godly plane of existence. However, Jesus is not in the high and lofty. Jesus is not working and saving that which is high and lifted up. Jesus, and therefore the whole Trinity, is working here, down below.

If Nicodemus really wanted his work to be godly, he wouldn’t work out the most holy things he could think of. He would realize that, in Christ, he is already as holy as he is going to get and therefore could have the most meaningless job on the planet and yet still be doing holy work.

The only thing that divides the work of the Christian from the works of everyone else is faith. Faith that even if we do, what we feel is, a worthless task, God takes pleasure in it. Because, no matter what the Christian does, he can do it loving God and loving his neighbor.

Faith tells us that, even though the Trinity is impossible to understand, it can still shape our life and affect us. Belief in the Trinity therefore changes our worldview and makes us see that it is not what we do, but what Christ has done for us. Therefore we should seek Him out where He wills Himself to be found.

That place, of course, is His own Church where forgiveness and salvation daily come by His merits and are handed out for free.

The Child [Easter 4; St. John 16:16-22]

The resurrected Jesus speaks to you today, saying,

“When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a man has been born into the world.”

A mother’s sorrow is not just limited to labor pains, nor is ended when her child grows and goes through adolescence. A mother’s true sorrow begins when she examines her own life and realizes what a great impossibility it is that she is alive, at that very moment.

For when she was in her own mother’s womb, there were any number of things that could have gone wrong, from ectopic pregnancies to umbilical cord complications, not to mention the strong peer pressure to abort.

Through no fault of her own, the woman as a fetus, really had such an impossible task just being born. Then its time to deliver and I don’t think we have to go over the amount of danger involved in that. Let’s just say its so much, that the prayer of the Litany devotes solemn attention to the perils of women in childbirth.

Once she is out, then its vaccines, viruses, bacteria, and nutrition. Then its clothing, shoes, house and home, food and drink, and everything else associated with bare needs care of the body.

If you were to stand back and examine the sheer probability to be overcome in order for a child to survive, you may be taken aback. Thus, when she thinks about having her own kids, she asks, “Why would I subject someone else to all that danger?”

A child born is a child that will die, so what’s the point? Many give this argument today to not only not have their own children, but also to prevent others from having so many, or even one.

Repent! Last week we were lamenting over a Good Shepherd that dies and leaves us and today we are hearing the same thing about children. You think they are only good for taxing your wallets, patience, and emotions. You feel that bringing them into the world will only add to the sorrow and despair of an already doomed world.

On top of that, you are conceived in sin (Psa.51:5). There is no escape, so what’s the point in having children? In doing anything?

There is another impossible and that of a virgin birth. Where there was no life and no hope, the Lord of Life was conceived and born. Where there was only deep darkness, Christ, our Crucified Lord created His Church.

You must never forget that this Gospel is about Jesus and it is Jesus who gives us clarity here. Jesus, both God and man, is going to leave His Temple in order to enter this world from another “temple”, that of the virgin’s womb. Jesus is going to risk His life, going through all of that danger of fetus-hood and childhood, in order to be made man.

He is going to subject Himself to blood, disease, and evil. He is going to subject His parents to toil, tribulation and sorrow. He is going to strain the world’s economy and environment, by being another person to be supported. Through this suffering and pain, the salvation of the world is purchased.

Jesus does it this way. Jesus chooses this path to be the Way. There were others, but Jesus made it so that the death of the Lamb of God would serve as infinite goodness and righteousness to His poor miserable creation.

And if the death of God is of infinite importance to the Church, then the death of His children are of infinite importance to the Lord. Not that we seek out our own deaths, but that by the Crucified Christ, we are comforted and no longer fear what death can do.

The Christian brings new children into this world in hope. The world does not have this hope because it does not believe the words and promises of Jesus. This is the hope of perfect healing, eternal life, and the resurrection of the dead.

Hope is what the Christian has, because of one birth: the birth of Jesus. The woman in labor has hope, because her Lord has traversed fetal development and has come out kicking and screaming. Parents in anguish have hope, because their Lord has conquered sin and death.

All children, young and old, have hope because the resurrection is theirs in baptism. You have hope because Jesus gives His Church life in abundance and that means having children. Not just physically, but spiritually.

If you ever doubt that there is joy to be had in the birth of a child, simply look into this baptismal font and you will see and never-ending line of newborn children in the Faith, all having Christ’s righteousness and all having Christ’s life and forgiveness.

There is joy in the birth of the Christ Child. There is joy in the death and resurrection of Jesus. There is joy in the death and rebirth of sinners, in baptism. There is joy in having children, because there, not that you have fun going through all the bad stuff, but because your Lord has given these things to you as a gift, it is the right thing to do: having children.

For a little while, in the Church, we will have sorrow. We will have sorrow, because our hour has come to stand in the face of sin, death, and the devil and either we will give in or Christ is triumphant for us. On that day we will fear because either we will deny Christ before men or Jesus will confess us to the Father, for us.

Because Jesus has accomplished and secured our salvation for us; because He has given us the hope of the resurrection, our sorrow turns to joy, because the God-man has been born into the world and suffers and dies for you. And when He rises again from the dead, all the hope you need is found in that promise that His resurrection is for you.

"...is a dead shepherd." [Easter 3; St. John 10:11-16]

Jesus truly speaks to you all today saying,

“The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

Last week, when we heard about the St. Thomas incident, one thing that should pop into your mind is what the Church thought of St. Thomas. They picture him as a sort of engineer, because his “coat of arms”, so to speak, contains the image of a square. Not the 4-sided kind, but a measuring square.

Thus, the Church expects some sort of intelligence from the Apostles, especially when it comes to the resurrection, to be able to prove and disprove it. When we get to Jesus, what He does and what He says, we also expect the same sort of intelligence, but when He talks about the Good Shepherd laying down His life for the sheep, this one throws us for a loop.

What good is a dead shepherd? Just as bad as a shepherd that flees is the shepherd that dies. Both leave the sheep and both abandon their duties. Forgetting the hired hand, for the moment, we find that the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep, but what then?

Maybe he thinks that he can atone for some past sins, by dying. Maybe he thinks this is the only way. Maybe he thinks that he should fight to his very last breath, rather than regret no having fought hard enough against the wolf.

You have to admit that the hired hand has the right idea, for you have heard it said, “He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day.” The shepherd is more important than the sheep. For if he lives, he can just rebuild the flock, after the attack, and care for them. The sheep can not do that on their own.

How much more good can be accomplished if one goes on living, instead of being a living sacrifice? The soldier can return home. The shepherd can continue his livelihood. The parent can continue to parent.

Repent! The twisting of Scripture continues! By this logic, Jesus made a mistake. He should not have died. He should have been exonerated and continued to live, teaching and caring for the outcasts and the unloved by society. Live, Jesus live. You are better to us alive rather than dead.

Jesus doesn’t think so and since He is God and knows what He’s doing better than you, you should stop and struggle with this. Jesus doesn’t think that the hired hand is coming back. Jesus doesn’t think that the soldier can sacrifice enough. Jesus doesn’t think that you have all the good intentions you say you do, on Sunday mornings.

Against all reason and intelligence, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, lays down His life. In other words, He dies. Death claims the victory and the Sheepfold is left undefended. At least, that is what the devil would have us think.

Rage and ruin as they might, death and the devil could not hold the Good Shepherd in their icy grasp. Jesus bursts from the tomb, having laid down His life for the sheep. Not just any life, the life of God. For it is only Jesus, true God and true man, who could offer Himself for us.

God will be the shepherd. He will not do that job through door-to-door salesmen, but Himself will come and shepherd His flock. The salesmen will have you believe that they are doing God’s will; that they know what God wants and that only you have the power to please Him or to anger Him.

The salesmen will point you to this method or that path and they will point you inside yourself asking, “What does this mean to you” or “Won’t you give everything to Jesus”.

The Good Shepherd points you to Himself and leads you to Himself. He does this with His sacraments. The promises in and with the sacraments provide an mighty bulwark as a sheep pen. The water combined with God’s Word is worked into a reinforced titanium gate. The Gospel, purely preached, creates the Shepherd’s voice to follow. Eating and drinking in Faith, not only gives strength and health to the sheep, but also a sure foundation of forgiveness.

In this wonderful, gracious way, the Church is not left to fend for itself. Jesus has left His voice behind for us to hear and to believe. Jesus has left the pen open to all who believe and keep this Word as a priceless treasure.

The Shepherd that lays down His life is the Shepherd that never leaves His flock, even in death. The Good Shepherd is the man that speaks to His flock by Moses, the prophets, and the Apostles. The Good Shepherd is the man that bursts from death to new life, dragging His sheep behind Him.

The Word and the Sacraments always point to Christ and therefore are always what the Son of God uses to forgive His people in the 21^st century. If a door-to-door salesman ever stops by to ask you to do something outside of this scope, asks him if baptism saves, as the Bible says. If it does, then you have no need for the door-to-door salesman. If he says it doesn’t save, or you must do something beyond that, then you still have no use for the salesman.

Jesus physically keeps you in the one, true faith and in the one, true Church. This is the takeaway for today. The Good Shepherd is good because He died, and lives still today. The salesman is known by his incessant talk of himself and his works. The hired hand knows nothing of the Sacraments and denies their power.

The Good Shepherd, Who died and rose again, gives His resurrection to you in baptism. He gives his Faith to you, by His Gospel. He strengthens and keeps you close to Himself by forgiving your sins in His Supper. These are His good and gracious works, done for you and these are the only works that matter.