The Transfiguration of Our Lord

The Transfiguration of Our Lord (C)

February 27, 2022

Text: Luke 9:28-36

            Just a little glimpse.  That is what we are given in the Transfiguration of Our Lord.  Just a little glimpse of Jesus’ divine glory.  Just a little glimpse of heaven, of the victory that belongs already to our Lord. 

            A little glimpse to strengthen and sustain Jesus as He descends the mountain and sets His face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51).  Just a little glimpse to fortify Him as He bears the sins of the world, making atonement for our transgressions by His sacrificial suffering and death on the cross. 

            A little glimpse to strengthen and sustain the disciples, Peter, John, and James, as they descend the mountain into the confusion, darkness, and doubt of our Lord’s Passion, which will not be dispelled until they see Him again on the other side of death, risen and living, opening the Scriptures to them, and breaking the bread for them.  Just a little glimpse, that they may bear witness to Him after He rises from the dead. 

            A little glimpse to strengthen and sustain us as we live this side of our Lord’s glorious return, in confusion and darkness and doubts of our own, living by faith, and not by sight.  Just a little glimpse so that we know where all of this is headed… that in the end, God wins.  Jesus wins.  Death, the devil, and all the forces of evil are defeated.  Heaven and resurrection await. 

            Just a little glimpse of the eternal glory of Jesus, the beatific vision of this Man who is God, who is present with us in the flesh.  Just a little glimpse of what we will enjoy with Him in the presence of God the Father and all the saints.  This is to fortify us.  This suffering will lead to victory.  The cross will give way to resurrection.  The New Day will dawn.  Do not despair, beloved.  Endure in hope.  Persevere in faith.  This is the glory the Son has shared with His Father from all eternity.  He has it, and He will have it, forever and ever, amen.  And He is bringing you into it. 

            It is just a little glimpse, this metamorphosis on the mountain.  But it teaches us what we must know as we return to what awaits below. 

            We must know that God is a Man, and this Man is God.  Jesus of Nazareth is the eternal Son of the Father.  So His face is altered at His Transfiguration, and His clothing becomes dazzling white.  From within Him the divine light shines, He who is the Light of the world (John 8:12).  And the Father declares of Him, as He did at His Baptism, “This is my Son” (Luke 9:35; ESV), the only-begotten He gives for the life of the world, “my Chosen One,” elect from eternity to be our Messiah and Savior. 

            We must know this is the One of whom the Law (the Torah) and the Prophets bear witness, the Holy Scriptures, the whole Old Testament.  That is why Moses and Elijah are present (the representatives of the Torah and the Prophets), discussing Jesus’ departure, literally His exodus, from heaven to us, through cross and grave, and out the other side alive again.  As we know, the truth of a matter of such magnitude is established by two or three witnesses (Deut. 19:15), and so, here they are, testifying that Holy Scripture, in every part, is about this Man, our Lord Jesus, and His exodus for our salvation.

            We must know that Jesus is the New and Greater Temple, that His flesh is the dwelling place of God with man, our Emmanuel.  Thus the Cloud… the Cloud that led Israel and camped among them in the wilderness (Num. 9:21).  The Cloud that descended on Mount Sinai as Moses received the Law, the Holy Ten Commands (Ex. 19:18 ff.).  The Cloud that descended upon the Tabernacle after Moses erected it (Ex. 40), and upon the Temple at Solomon’s dedication (1 Kings 8:11).  The Glory Cloud, the Divine Presence.  Jesus is the Word, who was in the beginning with God, and who is God, now made flesh, who tabernacles among us (John 1:1, 14).  So the Cloud descends on Him. 

            We must know all this by faith, because we will not see it with our earthly eyes until Jesus raises them from the dead.  But we will hear it with our ears.  Faith comes by hearing (Rom. 10:17).  Thus the Father speaks, and He speaks of His Son, Jesus: “listen to him!” He says (Luke 9:35).  In listening to the Word of our Father, that is, Jesus, His Son, we find, as the disciples did in our text, Jesus alone (v. 36), Jesus only.  And Jesus is enough.  Jesus will bring us through this vale of tears to Himself in heaven.  He will bring us through the valley of the shadow of death, and out the other side, alive.  For He is descending the mountain to die on the cross for our sins, and on the Third Day He will arise.  So, the Word.  We are to listen to the Word.  We are to cling to the Word.  For the Word gives us Jesus.  The Word gives us faith. 

            We often wish our little glimpse didn’t just come through the Word, but that, like Peter, John, and James, we could catch that glimpse with our own eyes.  It would be good for us to be there, we think, with Moses and Elijah and the disciples, with Jesus, basking in the Light of our Transfigured Lord.  And that isn’t wrong.  It would be good.  Peter says it out loud, and he’s right… even if he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.  He wants to construct three tents, to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles (there is that word again), and stay there, up on the mountain.  Why go down, when you can stay up?  Well, that is the part that is wrong.  If Jesus had stayed up on the mountain, then Peter, John, and James… and you… and all humanity would have to go down forever into the abyss of death and hell.  Because Jesus would not have completed His saving work.  And if we don’t go down, well then, we wouldn’t be with Him, would we?  So down we must go, all of us, down below.  Jesus to bear our sins and die.  You and I to take up our crosses and follow Him.  We don’t like coming down the mountain, where we cannot see.  But it must be so.  It is divinely necessary.  For we must be with Jesus, and His way is the way of the cross.  There is no other way to glory.  There must be death before there is resurrection.  You must have the crucifix before you can have the empty tomb.  Good Friday must come before Easter.  And you must be down here now, that Jesus may bring you up and into His heavenly glory.

            So we must hear the Word, and we must believe the Word.  That is what we are given.  And Peter, who did see it all with his own eyes, says that the Word is actually better than the live and in person experience.  “(W)e were eyewitnesses of his majesty,” Peter says.  “For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,’ we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain” (2 Peter 1:16-18).  But the most important thing, Peter emphasizes, is the voice.  And you have that voice written down for you in the Word.  And so, Peter says, “we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (v. 19).  The surer Word is not what the eyes see, but what the ears hear, that which is given to you in Holy Scripture.  That is the lamp to your feet and the light to your path (Ps. 119:105).  Contrary to our way of thinking, the Word is the better glimpse. 

            So now, from this Epiphanytide mountaintop of Transfiguration, we come down into the Season of Lent.  We put away our alleluias for a time.  We discipline our bodies and our minds.  We put away sinful and harmful habits, and take up good ones.  We examine our lives, repent, and confess.  We turn our eyes to focus on Jesus alone, our salvation, and our life.  And we do that by tuning our ears to His Word.  We come down where there is confusion, and darkness, and doubt, to be sure.  But we do not despair.  For Jesus is with us, forgiving our sins, teaching us, strengthening us, sustaining us, feeding us with His own Body and His own Blood.  We know who this Man is who walks with us on the way, for we’ve had ourselves a glimpse.  Just a little glimpse, but that is enough.  We know what we need to know.  We have what we need to have.  Jesus is our Light and our Life.  Jesus is God, and He is our Brother.  Jesus is with us… Emmanuel.  And Jesus is enough.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany

Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany (C)

February 20, 2022

Text: Gen. 45:3-15; Luke 6:27-38

            “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36; ESV). 

            Our Lord preaches to us this morning, that God’s mercy toward us poor sinners should flow out from us toward those who sin against us, and toward anyone who may be in need.  God’s mercy in Christ fills us to the brim, forgiving our sins for Christ’s sake, and generously providing for our every need of soul and body, as Dr. Luther says in the Small Catechism, “without any merit or worthiness in me.”[1]  That mercy then overflows in us toward others, as God designed His mercy to do.  So our Lord Jesus preaches.  Now, if we were to look for a concrete Old Testament example of this in action, we could do no better than our Old Testament reading.  Joseph has mercy on his brothers, forgiving their sins against him, and providing for them, and for their families.

            Now, this is not to say Joseph was without sin.  At the very least, we can say, he was kind of a snot when he tattled on his brothers, and in the way he revealed his prophetic dreams to his family, in which he was the superstar, the center of all authority and attention.  Daddy’s favorite son, he never seemed to miss an opportunity to flaunt it.  So, he was a sinner, like you and me.  Maybe his sins are not the same as your sins, but this is an important point that perhaps your mother taught you.  Certainly Jesus teaches you.  When you point the finger at the sins of others, well… you’d better be careful about all those other fingers pointing back at you.  Or as Jesus teaches you just a few verses after our Holy Gospel, “first take the log out of your own eye” (Luke 6:42).  Then you can help your neighbor remove his speck.

            The point is not that Joseph was sinless, but that he was (and is still today!) a forgiven sinner.  He received mercy from God.  And so he was merciful.  Yes, even to these wicked brothers.  And they were wicked.  Remember, they threw Joseph into a pit.  Some wanted to kill him then and there.  But then the profit motive prevailed, so instead, they sold him to Midianite traders, and lied to Dad about it, posing a bloodied coat of many colors as confirmation of their claims. 

            First a slave, then a prisoner, Joseph’s hardship and suffering were great.  Yet even through that hardship and suffering, there was the Father’s mercy.  God was teaching Joseph to rely on Him alone.  For every need of soul and body.  Though a slave, God gave Joseph favor in his master’s eyes, so that he became the head of Potiphar’s house.  His master trusted him in everything.  (There is, by the way, a lesson here in how Christians should conduct themselves in their lives and work.  Why was Joseph so trusted?  Because he acted according to his faith.  He worked for Potiphar as though working for God.  Even unbelieving Potiphar recognized that [cf. Eph. 6:5; 1 Tim. 6:1; Titus 2:9-10]). 

            And then, falsely accused, having fled the temptation of infidelity, even there in prison, literally in the pit house (once again, Joseph finds Himself in the pit!), God gave Joseph favor in the eyes of his jailer, so he put him in charge of all the prisoners.  And we know that through a series of divinely directed events, by God’s mercy, Joseph became royalty in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself.  The fountain of God’s mercy overflowed in Joseph.  And not just for Joseph’s sake, but for many.  God-given wisdom saved more than one nation from famine.  It saved Egypt.  And in saving Israel, it saved us all, for from Israel came our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior from sin and death. 

            And now, here come the brothers to purchase grain.  And you know the story (and if you don’t, it’s worth a read, beginning in Genesis 37).  I won’t rehearse it all for you here.  But in our Old Testament reading we have Joseph revealing himself to his brothers, and they are rightly scared to death.  Joseph would have been justified… well, that’s a tricky word isn’t it… he would have been justified in our eyes if he’d exacted revenge!  Put those miserable wretches to the wretched death they deserve.  But then, our eyes are full of logs, aren’t they?  And Joseph would not have been justified for doing this in the eyes of God (and by the way, if he had, he would have preemptively killed Jesus, and then there would be no justification for us).  Do you see the problem with taking vengeance yourself?  There is a reason God reserves vengeance for Himself (Rom. 12:19).  What are you to do?  Have mercy.  Having received the unending and overflowing mercy of God through all his suffering and hardships, Joseph was now bound to show mercy, even to his wicked brothers.  Jesus says to Joseph, and to us, “I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (Luke 6:27-28).  We can argue about the rightness and wrongness of all the tests and trials Joseph inflicted on his brothers in the intervening time.  But even in this, he is a picture of our Father, who put Joseph himself through the trials of slavery and prison for the sake of his faith, and puts you through various trials, that you may learn how helpless you are, how desperately you must rely on the mercy of God alone for every need of soul and body.  In the end, though, what does Joseph do?  He has mercy.  He forgives his brothers, who didn’t just sin against him a little… they wanted to murder him, and for all practical purposes, they did.  He forgives them.  And then he blesses them.  Not just with words.  With food.  With money.  With a place to live, where they will be preserved.  Where their descendants will also suffer trials, to be sure.  Slavery in Egypt.  But all under God’s unending mercy as He molds them into His people.  God, who will bring them out, and settle them in the Promised Land, and bring from them our dear Savior and Lord.

            Now, we must say, Joseph does judge his brothers’ actions, and even their motives: “you meant evil against me,” he says to them at the end of Genesis (50:20).  “Judge not, and you will not be judged” (Luke 6:37), does not mean you shouldn’t call evil, evil (this may be the most abused verse in all of Holy Scripture, marshalled as it is to prohibit Christians from ever saying something is bad).  You can, and should, identify what is right and wrong, and what is sin and what is righteousness in light of God’s Word, and you should root out the sin from yourself by repentance, confessing it to God and being absolved, receiving His mercy, fleeing infidelity, crucifying your flesh.  And you can, and you should, having removed the logs blocking your sight, help your neighbor with his speck.  The point is, you shouldn’t set yourself up as judge in the place of God.  You shouldn’t damn your neighbor to hell.  Nor should you think of him as a worse sinner than you are.  In fact, what should you do?  You should have mercy.  As God has mercy on you.  You should be patient.  You should forgive.  And you should show him God’s mercy.  You should tell him about the forgiveness of sins he has in Jesus.  You should pray he knows the mercy of God in Jesus.  You should pray he receives life in Jesus.  And you should bless him.  Not just with words.  With your body and with your possessions.  Feed him.  Clothe him.  Give to him generously.  Forgive him all his trespasses against you… as you say you do in the Lord’s Prayer.  That is what you tell your Father you are hereby doing in the Fifth Petition.  “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  And not just the little sins.  The big ones.  Like Joseph toward his brothers.  After all, God has not just had mercy on you for your own sake.  He has had mercy on you for the sake of your neighbor.  It is true, Joseph says to his brothers, “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive” (Gen. 50:20), not just those Joseph physically saved from the famine, but all of us, eternally, as he preserved the nation and people from whom the Savior of the world is born. 

            Now, this is all very nice, theoretically, all this talk about mercy and forgiveness.  But you have trouble with this.  I know you do.  And yes, I’m well aware of the fingers pointing back at me, and the redwood tree in my own eye.  It is hard to forgive those who sin against you.  Because it requires you to die a little.  It requires you to die to yourself.  And that always hurts.

            It is important to remember, of course, that forgiveness is not a feeling, and you’ll struggle with bad feelings toward those who sin against you your whole life long.  You should fight against those feelings, and you should confess them to God.  They are sinful.  But you’ll have them.  Because you are still in this fallen flesh.  I imagine there were times Joseph looked at his brothers and remembered the terrible things they said, and the violent things they did, when they threw him into the pit.  And he felt the old burning anger boiling up inside.  He had to put it to death.  He had to crucify his flesh.  But forgiveness happened when he said the words: “do not be distressed or angry with yourselves… God sent me before you to preserve life… God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth,” and that means the Savior, and that means His Christians… that means you!... “Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph… Come down to me; do not tarry… I will provide for you” (Gen. 45:5, 7, 9, 11).  And so he did.  Forgiveness is a word.  And then it is that word put into action. 

            Of course, Joseph is only an example of this, and an imperfect one at that.  The personification of such mercy is our Lord Himself.  In fact, Joseph is but a type of Jesus.  Here the Son of God comes to His brothers.  He comes to His own, and His own do not receive Him.  They cast Him out.  We cast Him out.  Sold for thirty pieces of silver, the price of a slave.  Falsely accused, arrested, tried.  “The King of the Jews,” Pilate declares Him (Luke 23:38).  Yet “Crucify” is all our breath, as we’ll hear and sing in the coming days of Lent (Luke 23:31; LSB 430:3).  But what does Jesus respond?  “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).  In fact, this is all for our forgiveness.  Jesus tells us to be merciful as our Father is merciful.  Well, how is our Father merciful?  The answer is Jesus on the cross.  Jesus is the Mercy of our Father in the flesh.  The Mercy of our Father suffers all evil for our sake, that we be forgiven.  The Mercy of our Father endures God’s wrath for our sake, that we receive God’s grace and favor.  The Mercy of our Father dies for us, in our place, and is buried in the pit of a man named Joseph, that we live eternally as beloved children of our Father.  That is how our Father is merciful… In the giving of His Son, who is Mercy incarnate, God’s Mercy to us. 

            Mercy means sacrifice.  And it necessarily means the death of Jesus.  But now Mercy lives.  For Joseph’s pit is empty, and Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.  And now Mercy lives in you, and you live in Mercy.  For you are baptized into Christ, and Christ enters in to you with His life-bestowing Word and His risen Body and Blood.  You cannot have mercy by your own reason or strength.  Neither could Joseph.  But Christ is the power that gives you to have mercy, and Christ is Himself that Mercy. 

            Now, go Christ everybody!  That is the point.  You bear Christ upon you, and in you, wherever you go.  So go give Him.  You’ve been mercied.  Go have mercy.  God forgives you all your sins for Jesus’ sake.  Go forgive everything anyone has ever done against you.  God provides for all your needs of soul and body.  Go provide for your neighbor’s needs of soul and body.  Love.  Do good.  Bless.  Pray.  Feed.  Clothe.  Give shelter.  Give alms.  Even to those who abuse you.  Even to your sworn enemies.  Heap those burning coals, which we pray will not burn in judgment, but in gratitude and love, embers fanned into faith.  Your Father is not merciful toward you because you deserve it.  He is merciful toward you because Christ deserves it.  You are not merciful toward your neighbor because your neighbor deserves it.  You are merciful toward him because Christ deserves it.  Don’t look for thanks.  Don’t look for repayment.  Your Father is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.  So you.  It runs in the baptismal genes.  And in it, there is great joy.  And also a promise: The more mercy you give, the more room there is to receive even more mercy and blessing from God.  Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over (Luke 6:38).  God will repay.  He will reward.  Maybe now in this life.  Maybe you’ll have to wait for the resurrection.  But it will be more, and greater, than you ever expected.  Not because of your merit or worthiness.  But because of Jesus.

            Now, we could say a word about men named Joseph, mercifully caring and providing for Jesus’ ancestors in Egypt, and for Jesus at His birth, and again at His death and burial.  But as Luther would say, this sermon has gone on long enough, so we’ll save it for another time.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                 

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[1] Catechism quotes from Luther’s Small Catechism (St. Louis: Concordia, 1986).

Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany

Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany (C)

February 13, 2022

Text: Jer. 17:5-8; Luke 6:17-26

            This morning the Prophet Jeremiah defines for us, in general terms, what it means to be cursed, and what it means to be blessed.  That man is cursed, he says, who trusts in man; who puts his confidence in the strength of the flesh, be it his own, or that of another; in a fleshly heart that turns away from the LORD (Jer. 17:5).  That man is like a shrub in the desert (v. 6).  No source of water.  No well to draw from.  Destined to shrivel up and die and be scattered by the wind.  In contrast, that man is blessed who trusts, not in man, but in the LORD; in fact, whose trust is the LORD (v. 7), which is to say, the LORD is not only the object of his faith (that which he trusts in), but also the substance of his faith (the LORD is his trust).  This is how Dr. Luther understood faith.  For him, faith is virtually synonymous with Christ.  Faith is not a quality or a feeling you come up with somewhere deep down inside of you, which you then direct toward the Lord.  Faith is Christ.  You are saved by faith alone, which is to say, you are saved by Christ alone.  Faith comes from Him.  Faith is directed to Him.  Faith, in its substance, is Him.  We should think of faith this way to guard against the idea that faith, believing, trusting, is the one good work I have to do in order to be saved.  No, no, Christ does it all.  The one whose trust is in the LORD, and whose trust is the LORD, is blessed, like a tree planted by water, with roots in the stream (v. 8)… kind of sounds like Baptism, doesn’t it?...  And two things will result for that man, rooted in Christ in the baptismal waters.  First, he won’t fear when heat and drought come.  That is, when suffering and afflictions arise, as they always will in this fallen world, he will know the LORD has not abandoned him.  He will know he is not cursed, but blessed, because the LORD, who is more powerful than the heat and drought, than suffering and affliction, will preserve him.  And second, his leaves will be green, and he will bear fruit.  That is, by virtue of his rootedness in Christ by the baptismal waters, he will live, even in spite of suffering and affliction.  He will live and thrive with the very life of the risen Lord Jesus, and he will bear the fruit of love and good works, the love of Christ, and the works for which God has created him and prepared beforehand for him to do (Eph. 2:10).

            Jeremiah is riffing on Psalm 1, and it is probably this Psalm that our Lord has in mind as He preaches to us this morning in the Sermon on the Plain.  “Blessed is the man,” says that Psalmist, “who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law,” the Torah, the instruction, the Word, Law and Gospel, “of the LORD, and on his law,” Torah, instruction, Word, “he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water”… Doesn’t this sound just like our reading from Jeremiah?... “that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not whither.  In all that he does, he prospers.”  On the other hand, “The wicked are not so, but are like the chaff that the wind drives away.  Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners,” those still in their sins, because their trust is not in the LORD, and is not the LORD… they shall not stand “in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,” and that way is Christ, and His righteousness, His suffering, death, and resurrection for you, “but the way of the wicked will perish” (Ps. 1; ESV). 

            So notice, neither blessedness, nor cursedness, are determined on the basis of outward circumstance.  The determining factor is Christ.  If you have Him, you are blessed, in spite of any and every evil circumstance that may afflict you.  If you do not have Him, you are cursed, damned in fact, in spite of any and every good circumstance you may enjoy.  And in this, all human reason and logic is turned on its head.  This is what we call the Great Reversal. 

            Who does Jesus pronounce blessed in our Holy Gospel?  The poor.  Those who hunger.  Those who weep.  Those who are hated, excluded, reviled, and spurned as evil.  That doesn’t sound right to us.  How can Jesus pronounce those who suffer so, blessed?  Because they have Him!  And in having Him, they have everything.  The poor inherit the very Kingdom of God.  Notice, that is present tense.  Theirs is the Kingdom of God (Luke 6:20).  They have it now, because they have Jesus now.  Then the future tense, which points to the End, when Jesus comes again in glory and sets right all that is now wrong.  Those who hunger shall be satisfied.  The weeping shall laugh (v. 21).  They suffer now, for a time, but because they have the Kingdom, they have no real lack.  And the Promise is as good as fulfilled, for it is as sure as Christ.  And so back to the present tense: Those persecuted are blessed, and they can rejoice, and even leap for joy now, for their reward is great in heaven.  Take the fathers as an example.  They suffered for their delight in the LORD and His Torah in their earthly life.  But now they have received their reward in glory (v. 23).

            On the other hand, those who are rich, those who are full now, those who laugh now, those who enjoy honor and popularity in the world, because they delight in the world’s torah, the world’s instruction, the world’s word, who, like their fathers, despise and persecute the LORD’s holy ones…  Woe to them.  Like the rich man over against poor Lazarus (Luke 16:25), they have received their consolation (6:24).  They think they are blessed.  But in the End, they will find they are cursed.  All their trust is in man, in the strength of the flesh, in their own fickle and accursed hearts.  Like a shrub in the desert, they grow up only to shrivel and die and blow away.  We should never forget the Word of the LORD from another prophet, namely, Isaiah: “All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field… The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Is. 40:6, 8). 

            Now, by any standard, compared with even the most well-to-do in Jesus’ original audience, everyone in this room is relatively rich and full.  And we laugh.  And thank God, so far, though circumstances are rapidly changing, none of us have suffered the extreme persecution that many of our brothers and sisters throughout the ages, and even today in many places in the world, have had to suffer.  We have not yet resisted to the point of shedding our blood (Heb. 12:4).  Does that mean Jesus says “Woe” to us?  Well, our affluence and comfort do put us in great danger.  There is no way to sugarcoat that.  But again, blessedness and cursedness are not determined by outward circumstance.  Both Christians and unbelievers experience joys and sorrows.  Both can be found on every level of the economic spectrum.  God “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45).  The point is, woe to those who look for salvation in the stuff of this fallen world, in riches, in being full now, in laughter and merriment now, or we might just say, the pleasures of the flesh, in honor and popularity in the eyes of the world.  That is to put your trust in man.  And that is cursed.  It can only lead to death.  If that is you… “Woe.” 

            It is those who recognize that, no matter their assets, no matter how much money they have in the bank, no matter how much enjoyment they get out of life, or how respected they are in the community, before God they have nothing… It is they who are blessed because the Lord Jesus Himself is their trust, their riches, their satisfaction, their joy, and their eternal reward.  Their trust is in Him, and in Him alone.  So you can be financially destitute and blessed.  You can be wracked with pain on your deathbed and blessed.  You can be waist deep in grief and sorrow, and still you can be blessed.  After all, who was coming to Jesus for healing and relief from demonic affliction?  Those who had diseases.  Those who were troubled by unclean spirits.  Whatever money they had or didn’t have, they knew they were poor.  They needed what only Jesus can give.  They came to hear Him, and be touched by Him, and so be healed, enlivened, and restored.  And in this way, they were blessed.  Because they had Jesus. 

            And that is you today.  You come with your sins.  You come with your sorrows.  You come with your burdens, your pains, your troubles, your afflictions.  You come to hear Jesus.  Your delight is in His Torah, His instruction, His Word, Law and Gospel.  You come for Him to drive away the devil, to forgive your sins, to speak you clean, and relieve you of all that oppresses you.  You come for Him to touch you with His true Body and Blood, as He does in the Supper, perhaps to receive healing even now in your body, but certainly to receive eternal healing and restoration, which is hidden now, but will be fully manifest when He raises your body from the dead.  See, rooted in Christ and delighting in His Word, you are like a tree planted by the life-giving baptismal waters.  No matter what heat and drought may come your way, you are no shrub that will shrivel and die.  Your leaves are green, and you bear fruit.  Because your whole life is in Jesus.  Not in the stuff of this world.  In Jesus.  And so it is as He says.  You are blessed. 

            And that is the reality because Jesus, who is the eternal Son of the Father, became for you the Poor Man, taking your sin, your death, and all your afflictions into Himself, into His Body, to be put to death on the cross.  He hungered.  He wept.  He was hated, excluded, reviled, and spurned as evil.  All for your sake.  And in His death, He is the Blessed Man.  In spite of all appearances.  Contrary to all human reason and logic.  Because in His death, He won for Himself a Kingdom… the very Kingdom of God.  He won you.  And then, all the satisfaction, the laughter, the reward belongs to Him.  For Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.  And that is the very definition of blessedness.  You who are baptized into Christ, no matter your circumstances, in spite of all appearances, contrary to all human reason and logic, you… are blessed.  Because you are in Jesus.  It is all because of Jesus.  Always and only in Jesus.  Blessed is the man who trusts in Jesus; whose trust is Jesus.  Christ is the Blessed Man.  He is your blessedness.  And you can ride that blessedness all the way to the Day of Resurrection.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                                

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany (C)

February 6, 2022

Text: Luke 5:1-11

            Well, I have to confess, when it comes to expectations of success in ministry, I tend to be a “fish all night and catch nothing” kind of guy.  I expect the Isaiah treatment.  Here I am, send me.  Okay, go preach, and they’ll hear, but not understand; they’ll see, but not perceive; their hearts will be dull, their ears heavy, and their eyes blind (Is. 6:9-10).  Or as Isaiah complains in another place, “Who has believed what he has heard from us?  And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?" (Is. 53:1; ESV).  Or, as St. Paul says to Pastor Timothy, “the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Tim. 4:3-4).  These verses are true, of course.  But that is not to say the Word has no effect.  And, much to my shame, I tend to be overly pessimistic about whether the Word will "work."  Whether the people will hear, whether they will believe, whether hearts will be converted, whether sinners will repent and cling to the forgiveness of sins in Christ, whether the Church will succeed, or whether it will fail. 

            On the other hand, there is this temptation to think that if you do everything right, if you preach the right word, at the right time, in the right way, to the right people, with the right skill and the right charisma, employing all the right methods, it will be like Peter’s nets.  The Church will be bursting at the seams.  A new building, a BIG one, will be absolutely necessary, and attainable, because, if you do it right, the Lord will bless.  And that means big numbers.  Peter preached one sermon in Acts and, all at once, three thousand souls were added to their number (Acts 2:41).  That is how it’s supposed to work, right? 

            But just as I exhibit unfounded pastoral pessimism, this second attitude is a misplaced optimism.  Of course, the Word of God is effective and powerful, living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword (Heb. 4:12).  It performs.  It does not return to the Lord empty, but accomplishes His purpose and succeeds in the thing for which He sends it (Is. 55:11).  That is true.  That is the Promise.  But this misplaced optimism is, first of all, a confidence, not so much in the objective efficacy of the Word, but in my ability, my skill, to get it right.  And it is an expectation that when (and only when) I get it right, God will respond by blessing me with visible success.  By which I mean numbers.  People in the pew and bucks in the plate.  What is particularly frustrating is that on the basis of our Holy Gospel this morning, many have preached my pessimism, and many others (particularly those espousing Church Growth methods) have preached this misplaced optimism in human methods… when, in fact, our Holy Gospel this morning obliterates them both.  Because both miss the point.  Both miss Jesus’ role in the whole enterprise.  And both miss the call our Lord here gives to the Church and to her pastors.

            What is that call?  Well, it is not a call to be in the driver’s seat.  Jesus is in the driver’s seat, and it is at His Word that we let down the nets.  Nor is it a call to visible success.  Sometimes God does grant a visibly impressive response to the preaching, as He did in the wake of Peter’s sermon in Acts.  Most of the time, He does not.  Never mind that.  That isn’t the Promise, and it isn’t the call.  The call is to faithfulness as Jesus preaches through His people, through His pastors, and through His Church.  In our Holy Gospel this morning, there are at least four components of the call to faithfulness.  1. Let down the nets.  That is, preach the Gospel.  Preach the Word.  That is what the Church is sent out to do.  Pastors to preach publicly.  You to confess Christ in your daily lives and vocations, especially among your family, your friends, and your neighbors.  2. Do not fear.  Don’t always be wringing your hands about what will work and what will not, whether the people will like you or hate you, whether the Church will grow or decline, whether people will believe or reject.  No, stop that.  Do not fear.  Christ is the end of all fear.  This is His Church and He will do with it what He will.  3. Believe the Promise: From now on you will be catching men.  That is not a command to get out there and get busy.  That is not a threat that people will go to hell if you don’t.  That is pure Gospel Promise from Jesus’ lips to your ears.  It is the reality in Christ.  You will be catching men.  You can count on it.  4. Follow Him.  Follow Jesus.  That is what it means to be a disciple.  And it does mean suffering, by the way.  It means taking up your cross and going the way He goes.  It may be necessary to leave everything to follow Him.  It was certainly necessary for Peter and Andrew, James and John.  Or that may not be your calling.  You will only know that particular cross if it comes to you, most likely by force.  It will mean people thinking less of you, saying mean things to you and about you, rejecting you.  It may mean physical suffering, or even death.  But follow Jesus.  After all, you know where His cross leads.  To resurrection and eternal life.  And His is the only way that leads there.  That is the call. 

            Incidentally, if success means the cross, then success doesn’t look very much like success in the eyes of the world, or to your fallen eyes, does it?  Godly success means faithfulness through suffering, and in the end, the reward in eternal life.  But now we are talking about the true optimism.  That in spite of it all, Christ crucified, Christ risen from the dead, is preached, and sinners come to repentance and faith in Christ, and so live and become faithful confessors.  The success of preaching lies in the picture Jesus paints for us this morning.  Jesus is in the boat with His disciples, and in the same way, here He is in the Nave where you are gathered together in His Name.  He speaks His Word to the crowds across the water.  And that is a baptismal image, Words and water, preaching to the baptized.  The boats are sent out, and at Jesus’ Word, the nets let down into the sea.  The Church is dispersed throughout the nations, that the Gospel be preached to the ends of the earth.  In Hebrew thought, the sea is a symbol of the chaotic world, the unbelieving Gentile nations, afflicted as they are by demons and death.  So where are the nets cast?  Where are we to preach the Gospel?  Right into that.  And what is the result?  Fish.  And this, Jesus says, is a sign of what will happen when the Gospel is preached to men.  It is no wonder that the ancient symbol for a Christian is a fish!  One caught by the Gospel net.  One brought forth from the water.  There is even an acronym involved here.  The Greek word for fish is ἰχθύς, and on the basis of that word, the early Christians formed an easily memorable Creed: “Iesous Christos Theou Huios Soter,” “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior.”  That is, this Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the promised Messiah.  He is the Son of God.  And He is the Savior of the world, for by His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead, He saves us from our sin, from death, and from the power of the devil.  The Word of God is successful whenever it brings a sinful human being to believe and confess that.

            But how do you measure that success?  Not by sight.  By faith.  Believing the Promise.  You will be catching men.  Sometimes we get a glimpse.  Most of the time we do not.  But we know by faith in the Promise that, when Jesus is in the boat with us, speaking His Word, whenever we let down the Gospel net, fish will be drawn out of the water, baptized Christians who believe and confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, our Savior.

            Now, this has practical implications, first of all, for pastors.  There is no place for my unfounded pessimism.  Jesus has made a Promise that men will be caught in the net of His Word.  I should always trust that Promise.  For Jesus is the One who does it.  By His Spirit.  In His Word.  Neither, however, is there any place for optimism on the basis of my own skill or charisma, my ability to execute all the right strategies, employing all the right gimmicks, to bring in the numbers.  There is no place for that, because that would be a confidence in me.  Rather, I must confess, for my part, “I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8).  “Woe is me… for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Is. 6:5).  No, thank God, it doesn’t depend on me, on my talents or my ability to get it right.  It all depends on Jesus and His Word.  My confidence is to be in Jesus and His Word.  In His speaking.  His nets.  At His Word we let them down.  And then there is the catch. 

            And this has the same practical application for you.  In your confession of Christ.  In your witnessing.  In your speaking and suffering for His Word.  Just be faithful.  Do not be afraid.  Don’t worry whether you get the words just right, or whether the person to whom you confess will respond with faith or rejection.  Trust Jesus.  Trust His Word.  Success isn’t up to you.  Your call is to simply let down the net.  Speak Jesus’ Word.  Love with His love.  Serve in His Name.  Let all your speech and all your actions be seasoned with the salt of Christ.  Raise your kids in the faith.  Come to Church faithfully.  That, too, is a confession to your neighbor.  Pray for those who don’t believe.  If the opportunity presents itself, invite them to Church.  There is no pressure, here.  Remember, you’re just fishing.  Sometimes it can feel like you’ve labored all night for nothing.  And it is true, God does not act according to our expectations.  But you never know when it will happen.  Suddenly, at Jesus’ Word, there is a catch.  A new beloved brother or sister is brought into the boat.  Because that is the Promise. 

            And if you must count, remember this.  Jesus counts by ones.  Success is not measured by looking at the whole multitude gathered in any particular place or time.  It is measured by looking at each individual as one Christ loves, for whom Christ died, praying for that one, speaking Christ to that one, and rejoicing with the angels in heaven if that one repents and comes into the Kingdom of God.  But again, that isn’t up to you.  It’s all up to Jesus.  Just keep fishing. 

            The true optimism is not about the number of fish.  It is the sure and certain knowledge that Jesus is here with us in the boat, speaking His Word.  He’s already caught us.  And so He will catch more and more by the net of His Word, often using us as His fishermen, until the full number are with us in His presence.  This is what we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer every time we say, “Thy Kingdom come.”  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.