Third Sunday after Pentecost

Third Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 8C)

June 26, 2022

Text: Luke 9:51-62

            The Christian life is journeying with Jesus on the way, through suffering and the cross, to resurrection and eternal life with God.  Jesus Himself undertook a great journey for us, and for our salvation when He came down from heaven, the eternal Son of the Father, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.  This is the stuff of the Creed.  He made His dwelling among us.  He set up His tent in our midst.  Flesh of our flesh.  Bone of our bone.  In every way like us, except without sin.  And as a Human Child, a Boy, He grew in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.  Baptized by St. John in the Jordan waters.  Baptized into us, to bear our sin.  Sealed with the Spirit.  The Father’s voice from heaven declaring Jesus His beloved Son.  He went about doing good and healing creation of its brokenness, cleansing lepers, casting out demons, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, restoring the lame, forgiving sins, raising the dead, preaching good news to the poor.  He came down on this journey from heaven to do precisely this.  And now the time had come, the days drew near, for Him to be “taken up” (Luke 9:51; ESV), first, by going all the way down to the very rock bottom, suffering on the cross, hell, the full force of God’s wrath; death as the Sacrifice of Atonement for our sins, burial in a tomb that should have been ours.  He had to go all the way down, in our flesh, to redeem us all the way down to the very depths, that from the depths He be taken up again, in our flesh.  And that is the Third Day.  The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  His ascension into heaven forty days later.  Seated now in our flesh at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. 

            That is the journey of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Down from heaven through the cross, death, and burial, and up again to heaven by His resurrection and ascension.  When the days drew near, Jesus resolutely set His face to go to Jerusalem for that.  To suffer.  To die.  To rise again on the Third Day.  All for us.  All to save us and make us His own.  And now we are given to travel with Him on this journey in our Christian life.  But we must ask, concretely speaking, what does this mean? 

            It means, first of all, Baptism into Christ.  In Holy Baptism, His journey becomes our journey.  “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Rom. 6:3-5).  So, in Baptism, His death is our death.  His life is our life.  And where He is, there we shall be.  Heaven.  Resurrection.  New Creation.  And in the meantime, we should know that, baptized into Christ, we are clothed with Christ.  We read it just last week.  “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27).  You are clothed with His righteousness.  That is your justification before the Father.  God regards you as righteous, not on account of anything you have done (and, in fact in spite of what you have done), but on account of Christ, His Son, who covers you with Himself.  And so also, you are the mask of Christ toward your neighbor, as you walk not in the works of the flesh that harm yourself and your neighbor, but in the Spirit of Christ who has been poured out on you in Baptism, bearing the fruit of the Spirit that is for your good and for the good of your neighbor.  You daily crucify the desires of the flesh… sin, old Adam.  That is daily repentance.  And you daily emerge and arise to walk in the Spirit of Christ and bear His fruit.  That is the newness of life God has given you as a gift. 

            But you must know that life in Christ, this side of the veil, also includes some very unpleasant things.  You will taste the bitterness of the cross in this earthly life.  You will suffer.  Not, by the way, to atone for your sins.  That is all done now, in Jesus.  But because you are in Jesus.  Because you are united to Jesus.  So He unpacks for you some of these sufferings in our Holy Gospel this morning, so that you are not surprised when these things happen to you. 

            You will suffer rejection.  Jesus reminds us, “‘A servant is not greater than his master.’  If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20).  The Samaritans rejected Jesus and His disciples.  They rejected the preaching of Jesus’ messengers.  They rejected Jesus’ Word.  Why?  Because He had set His face to go to Jerusalem for their salvation.  It can be confounding, and it is always heartbreaking.  And it can be tempting… as those Sons of Thunder, the sons of Zebedee, James and John were tempted… to ask if we should call down fire from heaven, that is, God’s wrath, on those who reject Jesus and His Word, persecute His Church, and engage in idolatry and wickedness that must have its source in the evil one himself.  You know, like Elijah called down fire on the men sent to arrest him (2 Kings 1), or like the fire that consumed Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19).  But the Lord rebukes James and John for such thoughts, and He rebukes every such thought in our hearts.  Repent.  I repent.  Because Jesus came on this journey, not to pour out the fire of God’s righteous wrath on humanity, but to take that fiery wrath upon Himself in His crucifixion.  He set His face to bear that very thing.  Leave those who reject Him to God.  Your job is to confess Christ and His saving Gospel.  To speak the truth in love, with gentleness and respect.  And then to suffer for it, if that is God’s will.

            And there are some other things you must know if you are going to follow Jesus on this journey.  “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Luke 9:58).  When you follow Jesus, it will often feel as though you have no home in this world.  Because, truth be told, you don’t.  Here you have no abiding city, but you look forward to the city that is to come (Heb. 13:14).  Your citizenship is in heaven, and from it you await the Savior, your Lord Jesus Christ, who will come again, and transform your lowly body to be like His glorious body (Phil. 3:20-21).  It is He who gives you a home even now in His Church, here among the Family of God.  It is He who will open your eyes on that Day to the New Creation he has brought about by His being taken up, by His death and resurrection.  See, Jesus is your home.  Not this world.  You are comforted and nourished and sheltered and defended by the things of Jesus, here with Jesus, in the House of Jesus.

            And… “Leave the dead to bury their own dead” (Luke 9:60).  Now, Jesus is not heartless.  He is not telling the man he can’t attend his dad’s funeral.  He is saying, don’t let that, or any matter of this life, keep you from following me now.  The time is now.  You don’t know when you will die and the time of grace will be ended.  You don’t know when the Lord will come again.  Repent now.  Follow Him now.  And as for the dead?  That is, those spiritually dead, those who do not believe in Christ?  Let them tend to the matters that are purely this-world centered.  “You, follow Me!”  This is really the point.  You must not wait for all the circumstances to be just right before you follow Jesus.  It is neither right nor safe to put off following Jesus until you’re older, toward the end of your life, or until you’ve accomplished some worldly end.  “I’ll follow you, but first let me…”  Whatever.  Build my business.  Have my carnal fun” (Augustine famously said that, when he was a young convert, he prayed for chastity, but not yet!  He was afraid God would heal him of his lust too quickly, before he had a chance to satisfy it with illicit activity… needless to say, he repented, thanks be to God, and by His grace alone).  Don’t wait.  Repent now.  Be a Christian now.  Follow Jesus now.  Jesus is calling you now.  Don’t doddle.

            And, it is also true, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (v. 62).  We heard this morning that Elisha begged Elijah to let him go and say farewell to his family before taking up the Office of Prophet, and Elijah let him, so this is not a command that disciples leave their families without saying a word, or some silliness like that.  It is to say, keep your eyes forward… on Jesus!  Don’t be like the Israelites in the wilderness, who are always pining after the flesh pots of Egypt.  Jesus has freed you from the chains of sin and death.  Don’t let nostalgia for the old life reel you back in and prevent you from entering the Promised Land.  You can only plow straight if you keep your eyes forward… on Jesus.  Then, keeping your eyes on Jesus, the valleys will be filled, the mountains and hills made low.  The crooked will be straightened, and the rough places made level.  With eyes on Jesus, you will repent of your sins, and you will walk in His Spirit. 

            Why?  Because you are in Him.  And this is what being in Jesus means.  With Him.  Following Him.  On the journey.  On the way.  This is why the first Christians were called, “The Way” (e.g. Acts 9:2).  Jesus is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).  Through Him, you come to the Father. 

            And it is worth all the suffering, whatever your Lord gives you to bear.  To follow Jesus means to go the way Jesus goes, and that necessarily means the cross and suffering.  But this is the only way to be taken up with Jesus into resurrection and eternal life.  And in that, there is indescribable joy.  See, this is the journey’s end.  Not scourging and blood and death and burial.  Not rejection and homelessness and forsakenness.  No.  The resurrection of your body from the dead, even as Jesus is risen, bodily, from the dead.  Eternal life with Jesus in the Kingdom of His Father.  New heavens.  A new earth.  An eternal city.  A place.  A home.  A Father who loves you and wipes away your tears.  A Brother who has borne it all for you and now gives you to share in His inheritance.  The Spirit who is perfect love, poured out on you and abiding with you.  It was for this joy that was set before Him, that Jesus set His face to go to Jerusalem and endure the cross, despising the shame, and who has now been taken up, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Luke 9:51, Heb. 12:2).  Baptized into Christ, this joy is yours.  So you may endure.  And now, to steel you for the journey and fortify you along the way, here is a little foretaste of that joy on the altar: the crucified and risen body and blood of Jesus, His life poured out for you, and taken up again for you, now poured into you.  Come, be refreshed, as you follow Him on the Way.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

Second Sunday after Pentecost

Second Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 7C)

June 19, 2022

Text: Luke 8:26-39

            “Deliver us from evil,” we pray, or better, as Dr. Luther teaches us in the Large Catechism, “Deliver us from the evil one,” that is, whatever may happen under the devil’s kingdom.  The devil is real.  The demons are real, formerly holy angels who rebelled against the one true God, and fell from heaven.  And they are a very real and present danger to us.  Their only way to get back at God for their condemnation is to drag us down to hell with them.  So we must know something of their tactics.  We must expose their lies.  And above all else, we must know how Jesus Christ, and He alone, rescues us from our bondage to the devil, and delivers us into the Kingdom of His Father.

            The Gerasene demoniac in our Holy Gospel is a picture of each one of us as we are apart from Jesus Christ and His salvation.  Now, usually without the dramatic, obvious bodily possession, it is true.  Demon possession does happen, including full bodily possession, but among us in the modern Western world, it is either rare, or at least hidden.  I do suspect that as more and more people in our society explicitly reject the one true God, and many descend into overt and unapologetic paganism, we will see more of this phenomenon.  But, be that as it may, that is not what I mean when I say that this man is a picture of you and me outside of Christ.  I am saying that his bodily circumstances reveal the spiritual circumstances of every child of Adam apart from the life and salvation found in Christ alone (this, by the way, is why the world is the way it is). 

            The man “had demons” (Luke 8:27; ESV).  That may be stating the obvious, but what is not so obvious to us, because we don’t want to see it, is that there is no spiritually neutral ground.  If you don’t belong to Christ, you belong to the devil and his demons.  If you belong to Christ, you do not belong to the devil and his demons.  Whatever it is that brought the man into this state, he has excluded himself from Christ, from the covenant of Israel, such that, where do we find him?  The country of the Gerasenes, the Decapolis, Gentile country, outside of Israel.  Like the prodigal son who fled his father and journeyed into a far country (Luke 15:13).  The man is alone.  Isolated.  Naked.  No house to call a home.  Living among the tombs.  And with swine.  He is obsessed with death, and with all that is unclean.  And he thinks this is freedom!  He bursts asunder any restraint placed upon him in love, and for his protection, and the protection of others.  He would rather live among the dead than have to dwell among the living. 

            See, this is the description of every one of us apart from Christ.  Fleeing our Father.  Outside the Promised Land (outside the Church).  As far away as we can get.  Utterly this-world-centered, the fallen world, the pagan world.  Alone.  For all our supposed connection via social media and the information age, we've even made it a virtue to be isolated (watch for this on commercials, by the way… people sitting alone in front of devices that apparently serve as their human connection… this is killing us).  Naked.  Perhaps reveling in it, like the man.  Or, perhaps, thinking you are clothed with your own righteousness, your virtue signaling, thinking, saying, and doing all the right things.  And because we’re all caught up in the delusion, none of us will point out the obvious, that the emperor’s splendid clothing is nothing but demonic fraud.  No house to call a home.  Certainly not a Christian congregation, the Family of God gathered around His Table.  Obsessed with death.  Abortion.  We’ve made a virtue out of murdering children, tearing babies apart limb from limb, burning them with chemicals.  We celebrate that in this culture.  Euthanasia.  We’ve made a virtue out of murdering the elderly or the terminally ill, the weak, or even just people who are sad.  Uncleanness.  Sexual perversion.  Promiscuity.  The mutilation of sex organs, even on the youngest of children, in the name of freedom.  See, we, too, are pretty good at bursting asunder every restraint our heavenly Father places upon us in love, for our protection, and for the protection of others.  And that is what we call freedom.

            But in Christ, you know it’s not.  When the devil promises freedom, all he really brings is destruction: Guilt, pain, suffering, an endless and burdensome search for happiness and fulfillment in all that is not God.  He brings isolation from other people.  He brings isolation from God.  That is hell.  The outer darkness.  Hell is not an eternity of godless fun with fellow sinners.  It is to be utterly forsaken and alone.  Freedom from God is not freedom.  It is slavery.  These are the true chains.  See these things for the satanic lies they are. 

            And now, behold your Lord Jesus Christ as He binds the strong man (Matt. 12:29), the old, wicked tyrant, and plunders his kingdom, bursting your bonds.

            First of all, notice, Jesus doesn’t stay in the safe and pleasant confines of Israel, and leave the man to suffer the consequences of his own wickedness.  He goes to the man.  The man doesn’t seek Jesus.  Jesus seeks him.  Grace.  Jesus goes to the country of the Gerasenes, out to the tombs, the place of death and uncleanness, where He knows this dear man needs His rescue. 

            He asks the demon’s name.  Jesus would have the evil named.  He doesn’t sweep it under the rug.  That is the devil’s tactic.  Jesus brings the evil out into the open, to be dealt with (this is why we confess our sins, by the way.  We name them, which robs them of their power).  We know that the demon’s name is Legion, because there are actually many of them in the man.  But they are no match for Jesus, who is their Lord and their God.  He commands and they must obey.  They know it, too, which is why they beg Him not to send them into the abyss, the Lake of Fire prepared for the devil and his demons as their eternal punishment on the Last Day (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 19-20).  At their request, Jesus sends them into the unclean pigs, and it may seem like He is doing them a favor.  But still, they have no peace.  Demons and peace are two words that never go together.  The herd rushes down the bank, and in a great twist of typological irony, the possessed pigs drown in the lake, foreshadowing their ultimate destruction. 

            But what about the man?  At Jesus’ Word and command, he is free.  It is a total transformation.  The people don’t know what to make of it.  There he is, free of the evil one, sitting at the feet of the Savior, clothed, and in his right mind.  And the people are… thankful?  No, they are afraid, and they beg Jesus to leave them.  That is how the unbelieving world reacts to Jesus.  But the man begs Jesus that he might be with Him.  Well… he will be.  But not yet.  Not in a way he can see Jesus with his earthly eyes.  First, he has a job to do, a joyous task.  To go back home (now he has a home!  With people!  And no chains), and proclaim how much God has done for him.  So he goes through the whole city and tells how much Jesus, God, has done for him. 

            And now he is a picture of you and me in Christ.  At Jesus’ Word and command, we are free!  Baptism.  The Gospel.  The Absolution.  I baptize you…. I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  You can almost hear the chains breaking away.  Jesus died for you.  Jesus is risen for you.  Jesus lives and reigns for you.  Jesus gives you life.  And He will raise you from the dead.  He has bound the strong man.  He has crushed the serpent’s head.  Jesus speaks, and the demons must obey.  This Word is your true freedom.  It brings you back into the Home of your Father.  It restores you to the Father, and gives you a place at His Table.  The body and blood of Jesus, crucified and raised for you, the very same body and blood present that day in the country of the Gerasenes, is hand-fed to you.  And it burns the demons where the sun don’t shine. 

            Now, here you are, the demons gone.  You are sitting at the feet of Jesus, like Mary, who knows that the Word of our Lord is the one thing necessary, the good portion, that will not be taken away from her (Luke 10:42).  You are clothed… with the spotless baptismal robe of Christ’s righteousness.  “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27).  And you are in your right mind.  Once, you were not in your right mind.  Once, you had the mind of the world, enslaved by the elementary principles of the world, the mind that begs Jesus to depart from them, seeking freedom in a far country, naked, and obsessed with death and uncleanness.  But not anymore.  Now, you have the mind of Christ.  You are no longer conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewal of your mind (Rom. 12:2).  This is accomplished by the Holy Spirit who has taken possession of you.  There is no spiritually neutral ground.  When you belong to Christ, the Holy Spirit replaces the evil spirits. 

            So, you’ve been rescued.  The Lord Jesus has led you out of the devil’s kingdom into freedom, light, and life.  Life!  In Jesus, we celebrate life, and all that is pure and beautiful and true and good.  Now, don’t be like the Israelites, who were always tempted to return to their Egyptian bondage.  It is for freedom that Christ has set you free.  Stand firm, then, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery (Gal. 5:1).  This side of heaven, this is always a danger.  Here we should be warned against every kind of manifest sin, every act of ungodly rebellion, and all manner of uncleanness.  And it is important to say, here, do not give an opening to the devil by playing around with the stuff of darkness.  Here I am warning you against things like Ouija boards, tarot cards, mediums, and other occultic things, the Eastern forms of spirituality that are all the rage these days, as well as pornography, illicit substances, and the like.  These things can be portals for the evil one and his demons, who come and find the place swept clean and ready for habitation (Luke 11:25).  If you have dabbled in these things, or if you struggle with them, flee to Christ.  Here He is.  Right here and now.  He has come to you.  Run to your pastor.  Run to Confession and Absolution.  Run to the Sacrament.  Here, in the things of Christ, there is safety, freedom, and peace. 

            And even though you cannot be with Him now, your Lord Jesus, in the sense that the man wanted to be with Him, seeing Him every day, in His normal, spatial presence… you are, nevertheless, with Him.  Or more importantly, He is with you.  In the hearing of His Word.  Here in His House.  With His Family.  Around His Table.  Sometimes, like the man, we beg Jesus that we might be with Him where He is, to depart and be with Christ, which, as Paul says, is far better (Phil. 1:23).  That is, that He would just take us to heaven already.  Or even better, “Come, Lord Jesus.”  That is certainly coming.  But in the meantime, what are we given to do?  Tell how much God has done for us.  Tell how much Jesus has done for us.  So we do.  Jesus has freed us from sin, death, and the very devil.  We pray “Deliver us from evil.”  The Father’s answer is Jesus Christ, His Son.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.      

The Holy Trinity

The Holy Trinity (C)

June 12, 2022

Text: John 8:48-59

            There is one God.  He is the only God.  He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  There are not many gods.  It is not the case, as was believed in the ancient world, and in many places today where paganism prevails, that various gods preside over various geographical locations, or that various gods have this or that specific power or area of influence, like the Greek or the Roman gods, or the various patron saints of Roman Catholicism.  Nor is it the case, as is perhaps the predominate view in the modern Western world, that all gods are basically the same god, that we all just call him or her or them by different names and have different understandings, that we all have part of the truth.  No, there is one God, and He is the only true One.  Anything else, whether wood or stone or figment of our imagination, is a worthless idol. 

            Sarah and I were once on a field trip with our daughter in which we learned of the Nez Perce religious theory of the great rope coming down from heaven, at the end of which the various strands fray in all directions, representing the various religions and paths to god.  There are many religions, many paths, according to this theory, but they all wind up in the one rope to heaven upon which we all ascend.  This idea is very attractive, not just to the traditional Nez Perce, but to the 21^st Century American.  And it is completely, totally, wrong.  There are not many paths.  There is one path.  There is one Way.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).  This is the great scandal of Christianity.  This morning Jesus declares that if you do not know the Father through the Son, you do not know the Father.  If you do not have Jesus, you do not have the Father.  You do not have God.  But if you know Jesus, which is to say, if you know Him by faith, believe in Him, trust Him as your Savior from sin and death, then you know God and you have God as your Father who loves you and makes you His own.

            In our Holy Gospel, we find Jesus in the Temple arguing with the Jews.  These Jews had been following Jesus and listening to His teaching, but they drew the line at the divine claims He was making about Himself: That He is the Light of the world, that He is the eternal Son of the Father, that He is going back to the Father by way of His death and resurrection, that in this way He sets His disciples free from their bondage to sin, death, and the devil.  In our text, they call Him a Samaritan and claim He has a demon.  That, my friends, is the sin against the Holy Spirit, to claim that the Spirit active in the preaching and miracles of Jesus is not the Holy Spirit, but a demonic spirit.  This is a confession of unbelief.  Jesus makes it crystal clear to the Jews and to us: To dishonor Jesus is to dishonor the Father who sent Him.  It is to reject the one true God.  To honor Jesus and keep His Word is to honor the Father and to know and believe in the one true God.  And the one who so honors Jesus by keeping His Word, which is to say, believing in Him, will never see death.

            Well, that is confounding, isn’t it, because we all die.  Unless Jesus returns first (which is always a possibility), you will die.  You will physically expire.  Your soul will separate from your body.  Your body will go into the ground and return to the dust from whence it came.  The Jews think Jesus is talking about physical death, which is why they bring up the example of the greatest Old Testament saint, the Patriarch, Father Abraham.  He died, they say.  Yes, but that is not what Jesus is talking about.  Jesus is talking about spiritual death.  Jesus is talking about eternal damnation, eternal separation from God.  That is where every one of those other paths leads.  Eternal death and damnation. Hell.  You cannot get around it, no matter how fervently you may love the image of the rope with the frayed ends.  That’s wishful thinking.  It’s not the Bible.  It’s not the preaching of Jesus.  In other words, you have no authority besides your own feelings and desire if that’s what you believe.  Jesus, the eternal Son of God, who became flesh, born of the Virgin Mary, to be your Savior, says otherwise.  You do not know God apart from Jesus.  You do not have God apart from Jesus.  Jesus leaves no doubt about who He is:  “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58; ESV).  YHWH.  Jesus is YHWH.  The God of Israel is a Man.  The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is the Man standing before the Jews in the Temple.  And they reject Him.  The Jews reject the God of Israel.  They reject their salvation.  And so they will see death.  They will see it eternally.   

            But here we have this amazing Promise from our Lord.  The one who keeps His Word will not see death.  To keep His Word is not just to hear and obey.  It is to believe in Him.  Faith.  Faith in Jesus Christ receives life and salvation in the forgiveness of sins.  The one who believes in Jesus never really dies.  It is true, when you physically expire, your body goes into the ground.  But your soul goes to heaven to be with Jesus.  You do not die.  You live.  And then, on the Last Day, that glorious Day when Jesus comes again visibly with His holy angels to judge the living and the dead, He will raise you and all the dead.  In your body.  And He will give eternal life to you and all believers in Christ, in your body!  So even physical death is just a temporary state.  When you die, you live, and in the end, you live fully and completely, forever with your Lord.  Only one way leads to life, and that way is Jesus. 

            Jesus is the revelation of the one true God.  We know the Father through the Son whom He has sent into the flesh to be our Savior.  We know Him as our Father who loves us through the Son whom He gave into the suffering and death of the cross to atone for our sins and make us His own.  We know Him as the Father who gives us real and eternal and abundant life through the Son whom He has raised from the dead.  We know Him as the Father who gives us His whole Kingdom as our inheritance through the Son who has ascended into heaven and rules all things at the right hand of the Father.  And the Father sends us His Spirit through and in the Name of His Son.  The Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.  We know the Spirit in His bringing us the Son, Jesus, in the Word and the water and the Body and the Blood. 

            Here a little catechesis may be in order.  The words Trinity and Triune mean three in one.  There is one God.  He is three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  There are not three Gods, but one God, and yet the Persons are distinct.  This doesn’t work out mathematically.  You cannot comprehend how this can be.  It is the greatest and most glorious mystery of the holy Christian faith.  The Father is the unbegotten Source.  He begets the Son from all eternity.  There is never a time when the Son is not, or there wouldn’t be a Father.  He is only Father because He begets the Son.  The Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son from all eternity.  And within the Tri-unity of God, there is perfect love.  And perfect love always reaches outside of itself.  Perfect love creates its own object.  And so the Father creates, through the Son, who is His Word, and in the Spirit.  And when things go awry in Adam’s Fall, the Father sends the Son in the Spirit to save, to redeem sinners by His sin-atoning death, and restore us to righteousness by His resurrection.  And the Spirit, who is sent by the Father through the Son, comes to us in preaching and Sacrament to give us saving faith in Jesus, the Son, who restores us to the Father and shows us the Father’s love.  It is all this beautiful, incomprehensible Trinitarian action, our life and salvation. 

            But we only know it in Jesus.  The same was true for Abraham, by the way.  Abraham longed to see the Day of Christ.  He saw it, Jesus says, and was glad (John 8:56).  How did Abraham see the Day of Jesus?  It’s a fair question on the part of the Jews.  He saw it by faith.  He saw it in the birth of Isaac, the son of promise, when Abraham was 100 years old, and Sarah 90, well past their childbearing years.  He saw it when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac, his son whom he loved, on mount Moriah.  He knew and believed that through Isaac the Offspring would come, Messiah, and he knew and believed that God could and would raise Isaac from the dead.  He saw it when the Angel of the Lord, the pre-incarnate Christ, stayed his knife-wielding hand and spared the dear boy.  He saw it when God Himself provided the sacrifice, the ram caught in the thicket.  All prophecies of our dear Lord Jesus Christ in whom Abraham believed and trusted as the Savior who would crush the serpent’s head and deliver us all from sin and death.  The Old Testament saints, too, were saved by faith alone in Christ alone, the Christ who was to come, even as we in the New Testament are saved by faith alone in Christ alone who has come and made the sacrifice for our sins.  He is our life.  He is the only way to God.  He is the only Savior.

            There is one God.  He is the only God.  And in Christ, you know Him as God for you, your God, who loves you and forgives your sins and gives you eternal life.  If you ever forget who this one true God is, look at a crucifix.  He is the God who does that for you.  Then make the sign of the holy cross and remember the Name He has written on you in Holy Baptism.  It is the fullness of His own Triune Name: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.        

 

The Day of Pentecost

The Day of Pentecost (C)

The Confirmation of Matthew James Krenz

June 5, 2022

Text: 14:23-31

            “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word” (John 14:23; ESV).  That really is the essence of Confirmation, isn’t it?  It really is a response to the love of Jesus and the saving Word He speaks to us.  We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).  And we keep His Word because He has first given it to us.  And Confirmation is an expression of love for Jesus, and a confession of His saving Word.

            In the Lutheran Church, Confirmation is not a Sacrament.  But it is an opportunity for the baptized child of God to confess the gifts God has given him in his Baptism, the truth of God’s Word as he has come to know it in his study of the Holy Scriptures and Luther’s Small Catechism, and what it is that he receives from Christ in the Holy Supper, namely, the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine, given for us Christians to eat and to drink, for the forgiveness of sins.  And it is an opportunity for the baptized child of God to be strengthened and sanctified by the benediction of God’s Word and the prayers of Christ’s Church. 

            In the Lutheran Church, First Communion is not the same thing as Confirmation, though in our congregation we celebrate the two together.  We wouldn’t have to.  In fact, I think there is some benefit in instruction leading to First Communion at a younger age, followed by more instruction leading to Confirmation, but that is a discussion for another day.  Suffice it to say, First Communion is the true Sacrament going on here today.  Confirmation is a human rite… a good one, but not commanded in the Bible.  Catechesis is commanded in the Bible: “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:20).  The Lord’s Supper is commanded in the Bible: “Take, eat… Drink of it, all of you” (Matt. 26:26-27).  “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19).  Confession of faith is commanded in the Bible: “everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 10:32).  Confirmation is not commanded. 

            But Confirmation is this vista along the way in our Sacramental journey, our life of faith in Christ.  From it we view our Baptism, reveling in the gifts given there, and for those of us baptized as infants (as Matthew was), this is our chance to speak for ourselves the promises that were spoken for us at the font by our parents and sponsors.  We view our life in God’s Word, nourished by the Scriptures in the Divine Service, in Sunday School, and intensified over the course of our Catechesis.  And we view our Communion with Christ and with one another at the Lord’s Supper, connected to Christ the Vine, and to one another as members of Christ’s Body, as He hand-feeds us the fruits of His cross, and gives us to drink of His resurrection life.  So, Confirmation is not a Sacrament, but it is chock full of the Sacraments, and of our Sacramental life.

            And how appropriate to celebrate Confirmation on the Feast of Pentecost, as is our tradition, and the tradition in many congregations.  Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit…  Who will do what for us, according to our Holy Gospel?  “(H)e will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).  In other words, the Spirit will give you to keep Jesus’ Word by His teaching and calling to remembrance, and in this way, He will fan into flame your love for Jesus.  That is His work.  The Spirit works through the Word and the holy Sacraments.  He brings you to faith in Christ, and He sustains you in the faith of Christ.  And He brings you here to confess it and live in it.  This is what we mean when we say with Dr. Luther that “the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.”[1]  The Spirit does it.  He gives the gift.  We receive.  And by His gifts, He works in us to love and to keep.

            So it is with Confirmation as it is in our Holy Gospel…  The emphasis is not first and foremost on our loving Jesus and keeping His Word, though that is certainly important.  It is first and foremost about God’s loving us and keeping us, from which our loving and keeping flows.  The emphasis is on the Father’s love for us, in which he sends His Son for our salvation.  It is the Son’s love for the Father and for us, and His loving obedience to the Father in working our redemption, His suffering, His death for us on the cross, His burial, His resurrection, and ascension.  It is the Father and Son coming to us, and making Their home with us (John 14:23).  It is the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Helper… literally the Paraclete, the One we call to our side for counsel, for aid, for consolation… our Advocate, whom the Father sends in the Name of the Son (see, by the way, how this is preparing us for next Sunday and the Feast of the Holy Trinity?). 

            And what is the result of all God’s loving and keeping us in this way?  Peace.  “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (v. 27).  This is not the world’s idea of peace, as in complete avoidance of conflict, distress, or pain.  This is true peace, Jesus’ peace.  Peace with God.  Peace with one another.  Sins forgiven.  Healing.  Wholeness.  Life.  All that is meant by the Hebrew word, Shalom.  “Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid,” Jesus says (v. 27).  Trouble cannot ultimately harm you, and there is no need for fear.  Jesus died for your sins.  You are forgiven.  Jesus is risen from the dead.  You have eternal life in Him, and He will raise your body from the grave.  It is true, He has been removed from our earthly sight for a time.  But He is coming back.  And in the meantime, here is the Spirit, and here is Jesus Himself, with us bodily in His Word and gifts, and here is the Father declaring us His own precious, redeemed, forgiven, and sanctified children.  No one can snatch us out of His hand. 

            Now, there is a warning here.  “Whoever does not love me does not keep my words” (v. 24).  And that is to miss out on all the gifts our Lord here gives.  Loving Jesus and keeping His Word go together.  You don’t get to say, as is so fashionable today, “I love Jesus, but I don’t believe everything He says in the Bible.”  Love for Him keeps, or better, treasures, His Words.  All of them.  For they are all gift, and they are all given for our good.

            And there is another warning.  Life in this fallen world is dangerous, because the ruler of this world (v. 30), Satan, comes to rob us of our love for Jesus and our treasuring of His Word.  But he has no claim on Jesus, and so he has no claim on those who are in the love and Word of Jesus.  If you want to be safe from the evil one, be in Jesus, which is to say, be in His Word.  Be in the water with Him, and be at the Table with Him.  Be in His Church, which is His Body, the Communion of saints.  Be where He gives His Spirit and His gifts.

            Confirmation is not only an opportunity for the confirmand to confess the faith, and so love Jesus and keep His Word.  It is also your opportunity to examine yourself, repent of wherever you have not loved Jesus or kept His Word, re-commit yourself to that love and keeping by making the vows your own once again, and revel in the gifts that Jesus pours out for you here for your forgiveness, life, and salvation.  For Jesus unfailingly loves and keeps you for the Father by the Spirit who proceeds from them both.  And here is the manifestation of that.  Here you are, by God’s grace, immersed in the Sacramental life of the Church… your life in Jesus Christ.  Thanks be to God.  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).