First Sunday in Lent

First Sunday in Lent (A)

February 26, 2023

Text: Gen. 3:1-21; Matt. 4:1-11

            In Adam, the devil conquered our human nature, condemning us to eternal death.  In Christ, our Second Adam, our human nature conquered the devil, granting us eternal life and salvation.

            We know the story.  The first round, in the Garden, went to the devil.  Eve believed the word of the serpent.  She listened to him.  Eve doubted God’s Word and did not listen to Him.  The serpent held before her eyes that which is forbidden.  And he painted it as good for her to take and eat, delightful, desirable, useful to make one wise.  Did God actually say?  You will not surely die!  You will be like God, knowing good and evil.  God is holding out on you.  He is afraid you won’t need Him.  He wants to hold you back, and keep you down.  And His command is so unpleasant, and so unnecessary.  You should be true to yourself.  You should get what you want while the getting’s good, and so be filled, and fulfilled.  Take… take!  Eat… eat!  Eve took, and ate.  And then she preached the satanic sermon to her husband, and she gave to him the unholy anti-communion, and he took, and he ate.

            Now, Adam, for his part, was apparently standing there the whole time.  And he failed to preach.  This is why Adam, and not Eve, is held responsible for the fall into sin.  He should have said something.  He is the head of his family.  He had been given the Divine Command, before the creation of Eve.  It was entrusted to him to proclaim to his wife and their children to come… to the world!  But instead, he left the preaching, the ministry, all that religion stuff, to the woman, though it was not given her to administer.  He listened to her, and believed her preaching.  He doubted God’s Word, and did not listen to Him.  He took and he ate.  And in so doing, he failed to guard and keep his wife and their future children (and that includes you and me).  He did not lead his wife, and therefore his children, us, in the way we should go, in the fear and admonition of the LORD.  He did not provide for us the fruit that is given, which is also good and delightful and desirable, and truly wise, because it conforms to God’s Commandment. 

            And so, what happened?  Their eyes were opened, and they were exposed.  They now knew evil, and it was them.  Now the serpent offered them no comfort.  One wonders what accusations and preaching of despair he hissed at them in the aftermath of the affair.  But Adam and Eve knew, now, that they were naked, and now, for the first time since time began, this nakedness is a shameful thing.  Our parents, they ran away and hid.  They sewed fig leaves together, to cover themselves.  They concocted excuses and passed blame to conceal their guilt.  But they couldn’t hide from God.  God knows where they are, and how far they’ve fallen.  He asks… but He knows.  Where are you, Adam?  Where are you, Eve?  Do you even know?  Do you even realize you have cast yourself headlong into the pit of death?

            Human nature, ever since, is fallen, corrupted, infected with the terminal disease that is Sin.  Original Sin, we call it.  And it is hereditary, passed down from fathers to their children.  Brought on by our first parents’ act of rebellion, it is, nevertheless, not an act, but a condition, a state of being.  We are brought forth in iniquity, and in sin do our mothers conceive us, says King David (Ps. 51:5).  Sinful from the moment of conception, before we ever have a chance to do, think, or say anything.  But, of course, this sinful condition, Original Sin, is what gives birth to our actual sins, the fruit of the corrupt tree, the symptoms of the disease, the actual bad things we do that break God’s Law (sins of commission), the actual good things we fail to do in fulfillment of God’s Law (sins of omission).  And in the end?  Death.  Physical death.  Spiritual death already, now.  Eternal death in hell.  The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23).  In Adam, the devil conquered our human nature, condemning us to death.  Round one goes to Satan.

            And so the succeeding rounds.  Israel in the wilderness.  Israel in the Promised Land.  Israel in exile.  Israel after exile.  And the whole world going to hell around them.  Believing the lies of the serpent.  Listening to his word.  Taking and eating what is forbidden.  Forever seeking good by grasping at evil.  What is to be done?  We are enslaved to the very devil.  Who will fight for us?  Who will deliver us from the inescapable demonic claws?

            Now steps onto the scene the Valiant One, whom God Himself elected.  Still wet with the Jordan’s baptismal water, anointed by the Spirit, the Father’s voice still ringing in His ears, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17; ESV), our Lord Jesus Christ is led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  To face off against him.  To do spiritual battle in our place, and on our behalf.  To succeed where Adam, and all of us, failed.  Now, the temptation is real.  Remember, our Lord Jesus is a flesh and blood Man, without Sin (He didn’t have a human father from whom to inherit it), but otherwise like us in every way.  Add to that, 40 days and 40 nights of fasting.  Hungry.  Weakened.  The opportune time for the serpent to strike. 

            The temptations our Lord suffers are not markedly different than those of Adam and Eve, or the temptations we all face.  The particular circumstances may be different, but see if you can spot what they all have in common: Stones into bread… Food!  The desires of the flesh.  The desire to put me first, to use my God-given gifts for selfish ends, for my own pleasure, to fulfill myself by my own efforts and desires, and not to rely on God to provide for me and fill me with what is good.  The pinnacle of the Temple… Throw Yourself down… Tempt God.  Make Him prove Himself.  See if His Word is true.  Let’s make Him put His money where His mouth is.  The angels will catch you.  That’s what the Psalm says.  You know they will.  And then… instant glory.  Fame.  A huge following.  They’ll worship You for the God You supposedly are.  And then the high mountain, and all the kingdoms of the world, across all of time and space, and their glory, displayed in a moment.  I’ll give it to You, if You bow down and worship me.  Power.  Selling yourself to the devil for power.  You determine good and evil.  Why are You letting God hold You back?  We’d make good partners, You and I.  See, all these temptations have one thing in common.  Doubt.  Calling God and His Word into doubt.  If God is who He says he is, and if You are who God says You are (His beloved Son, with whom he is well-pleased), then surely God would want You to have what I, the devil, am promising.  Did God really say?  Nah, couldn’t be.   

            Jesus exposes the devil’s temptations for what they are…  Lies!  All lies!  We often wonder when we sing “A Mighty Fortress,” what is the “little word” that will “fell” Satan?  And we make lots of good guesses.  Some Word from Scripture.  The Name of Jesus.  Christ.  All true, I suppose.  But Luther once revealed what little word he had in mind.  Liar!  When the devil is exposed as a liar, and his temptations as lies, he loses his power over us.  All at once, he is naked, and he has to run and hide.  And we realize that the forbidden things he offers us… whether evil things we should not touch… or things like the forbidden fruit, which are, in themselves good, but are not given to us to take for ourselves… God forbids these things for our good, because He loves us, and because He knows and wants what will lead us to life and blessing.

            How does Jesus expose the devil’s lies?  By the Truth of God’s Word.  Scripture.  Deut. 8:3: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).  It is true, what God says in Psalm 91:11-12: “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone’” (Matt. 4:6), though, the devil leaves out the very important words indicating that the angels will guard you in God’s ways, and we should always know that when the devil quotes Scripture (and he knows the Scriptures even better than you do), he is always spinning it, bending it to say something other than what it says.  Nevertheless, Deut. 6:16: “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” (Matt. 4:7).  And finally, “Be gone, Satan!  For it is written,” Deut. 6:13: “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve” (Matt. 4:10). 

            Jesus is our New Adam.  Where Adam failed to preach in the face of the devil’s temptation, Jesus speaks God’s true and life-giving Word.  Where Adam and Eve believed the devil’s word, and did not believe and listen to God’s Word, Jesus faithfully heard, believed, and kept the Word of His Father.  Where Adam and Eve turned away from God and curved in on themselves, providing for their own needs and pleasures, rejecting the gifts God had given them, Jesus relied totally and alone upon His heavenly Father to sustain Him in hunger and provide for His every need.  And, by the way, what did the Father do?  He sent His holy angels to attend to Jesus, to guard Him in all His ways, as He promised.  Jesus knew, in spite of the devil’s lies, that the Father’s will and Command are good for Him, delightful, and desirable to make one wise, to receive only good, and protect from all evil.  In Adam, the devil conquered our human nature.  But in Jesus, God in human flesh, our human nature conquered the devil.  Our Lord did not fall.  This round goes to Jesus.  And God counts His victory over Satan, as our own.

            And, of course, this is just the beginning.  For Jesus is the Seed promised to the woman, who, by His suffering and death on the cross, will crush the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15).  Where we have fallen to temptation… where Adam and Eve and Israel and the whole world fell… Jesus did not fall.  But He takes our fallenness into Himself, the Original Sin that infects all humanity, and all our actual sins of thought, word, and deed, all the evil that is in us, and is us, into Himself, into His body.  And He puts it all to death on the tree.  He buries it in His tomb.  Forever.  Now, He rises from the dead.  That is the final death blow to Satan and death.  But our Sin does not rise.  The only thing Sin, Satan, and death have to look forward to now is the Final Judgment when they will be forever cast into the Lake of Fire.  We are forever free.  And our silly and inadequate fig leaves of self-justification, our concocted excuses, and our passing the blame, well… no more of that.  Jesus clothes us with skin.  His own, in Holy Baptism.  And His cross, now, is the Tree of Life, the fruit of which is Jesus’ own body and blood, given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins, and for the healing of the nations. 

            Where are you, dear Christian?  And what have you done?  You’ve sinned, it is true.  You’ve fallen to temptation.  And the wages of sin is death.  But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 6:23).  By one man came death.  But by this one Man, Jesus Christ, comes life and righteousness.  And so, where are you now, now that you are in Christ, dear Christian?  To be sure, you are, in this moment, in the wilderness, under the devil’s temptation and attacks.  But you aren’t here alone.  You are with Christ.  And the fight is His.  If it’s your fight, the devil will surely win this round, too.  But it isn’t.  The fight belongs to Christ.  For us fights the Valiant One, the Son of David, who, with His five crucifixion wounds, slays the satanic Goliath.  Your only hope for victory against the devil is to stay with Christ.  And how do you do that?  By immersing yourself in His Word.  As you are immersed right now.  Be in Church.  As often as possible.  Bible Study.  Sunday School.  At home, in daily Scripture reading, meditation, and in prayer.  In your Baptism, and in the Sacrament of His body and blood.  Especially in times of temptation, run to the Scriptures, and to the Lord’s Prayer, “Lead us not into temptation,” and to the Holy Absolution.  In this way, you oppose, and expose, the devil’s lies with the truth of God’s Word.  With Christ Himself.  And His victory is your victory.

            When Adam and Eve fell into sin, they were expelled from Paradise into the barren wilderness.  And so Jesus has come into this wilderness, to open once again the living way to Paradise through His flesh.  Follow Him, beloved.  The way leads through Good Friday and the cross, but the end of it all is Easter and the resurrection of the dead.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                       

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday

February 22, 2023

Text: Matt. 6:1-6, 16-21

            The imposition of ashes on the forehead is not a practicing of righteousness before others, not any more than others observing you as you put your envelope in the offering plate, or bow your head and fold your hands for prayers.  Some of my colleagues worry that ashes on the forehead is a violation of our Holy Gospel this evening, as though we’re disfiguring our faces so everyone will know we’re fasting.  Well… I agree with them.  If they are tempted to wear ashes for that purpose, they should not wear them, and the same goes for you.  In my experience, though, most Lutherans are thankful the Ash Wednesday service is in the evening so they can go straight from Church to the bathroom sink and wash away the smudge before anyone else is the wiser.  If anything, I really envy the rare bird who is unafraid to wear the ashen cross to work or school.  In our day, this is surely not a mark of pride.  Actually, it makes the person a target.

            The ashen cross is not a pious fashion accessory.  It is, rather a visible Christian confession.  The ashes proclaim that we are dust, and to dust we shall return.  We are mortal.  We will die.  Because we are sinners, and we sin.  The ashes are a confession of sin.  Why ashes?  Ashes are the remnants of what is destroyed by fire.  Cities leveled, like Sodom and Gomorrah, or burned out Jerusalem, led into captivity for her faithlessness and idolatry.  Or the ashes left over from the burnt offering of atonement for sin.  That is why the ashes are smeared in the shape of the cross.  For on the altar of the cross, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, was roasted in the fire of God’s wrath over our sin, a whole burnt offering, an acceptable sacrifice, to make atonement for the sins of the world.  The cross is a confession of faith.  Though we are dust, and on account of our sins, to dust shall be justly returned, we will not suffer eternal destruction in the fire of God’s wrath.  That wrath has been spent on Jesus.  And He will raise us up out of the dust and ashes of death.  For the crucified Lamb of God, who takes away our sins, is risen from the dead. 

            So, wear your ashen cross like you’d wear a crucifix or a cross necklace.  Not as a display to elicit the praises of others, but as a confession of who you are apart from Christ, a lost and condemned sinner, and what Christ has done about it in His suffering and death and resurrection, and therefore who you are now in Christ, a repentant and redeemed sinner, receiving the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from works or acts of piety.  That is what the ashen cross is all about. 

            But what about what Jesus says in our Holy Gospel?  “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them” (Matt. 6:1; ESV).  The issue is not that other people see.  It is that you do them so that other people see… and praise you.  So that they will say, “Oh, what a great and pious Christian he is.  Oh, to have her heart of service and Christian dedication.”  Now, there are people we say such things about.  We should have Christian role-models we admire and emulate.  But to be such a Christian role-model, the person must not do what he or she does for the sake of admiration, or to bring any glory or attention to the self, but to give all glory to God, and to love and serve the neighbor.  To avoid the temptation to exalt oneself in the eyes of others, we should sound no trumpets.  We should not let the left hand know what the right is doing.  We should go into our room and shut our door to pour out our petitions before God.  We should anoint our heads, and yes, wash our faces in the bathroom sink tonight, that our Father may see our fasting in secret, and so our Father who sees in secret will grant us a reward.

            But wait a minute… Fasting?  Reward?  Well, yes.  But don’t blame me.  Jesus is the One who says it.

            Lutherans aren’t very good at fasting, but this is one we may want to re-think, because, to my knowledge, every other Bible-believing Church encourages the practice.  More importantly, the Bible does, and in our Holy Gospel tonight, Jesus doesn’t say “If you fast,” but “when you fast” (v. 16).  It’s a given that you will.  Why?  Because here we find ourselves in the wilderness of this world, in Babylonian exile, in this fallen sack of flesh.  And our sins are many, and our need for God’s mercy and help is great.  And though Jesus is with us always, as He promises, particularly in His Word and Sacraments, we can’t see Him with our eyes.  Fasting is a physical act of lament, of prayer and pleading.  And it is an exercise in self-discipline, a mortification of the flesh, and a preparation for times of deprivation and persecution which are likely to come to us as a result of our Christian faith, just because we bear the mark of the holy cross.  The prophets all fasted.  Daniel and the three young men ate only vegetables while in exile in Babylon.  Esther bid her people to fast for her as she went into the king, on pain of death, to plead for the lives of the Jews.  Jesus fasted.  The Church of the New Testament fasted.  All the Church fathers, and the Church though the ages, fasted.  So this is not some strange thing we’re talking about here.  It’s just strange to Lutherans.  I confess, I’m not very good at it.  But here it is in our Scripture readings.  “‘Yet even now,’ declares the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments’” (Joel 2:12-13).   

            Now, this is not a command in the sense that you must express your repentance in just this way.  This is a matter of Christian freedom, to do or not to do, so, if you don’t want to do it, don’t do it.  But Lutherans use this as an excuse to never do it.  So at least think about it as a salutary possibility.  Now, everyone’s fast will look different.  You design it for yourself.  And if you have to break it, you have to break it.  It is no sin.  In fact, not everyone should fast.  Pregnant and nursing mothers should not fast.  Diabetics should stay on their regimen.  The elderly and sick should follow the doctor’s orders.  But for most of us, living as we are in a time of unprecedented wealth and plenty, overindulgence, and instant gratification, a little fasting wouldn’t kill us.  There is a time for everything.  There is a time for fasting, and a time for feasting.  This, beloved, is the time of Lent.  The fast.  Easter is coming.  And on that day, we should not fast.  We should feast!  There is great wisdom in ordering our lives according to the seasons of the Church. 

            The point is self-discipline, denying the flesh satisfaction of its impulses and desires, and so crucifying the sinful nature.  Even many Lutherans decide to “give something up for Lent,” which is a form of fasting, so… good.  Just as important as giving something up, and possibly more beneficial, may be to take something up.  Like the things Jesus says in our Gospel.  Give to the needy.  Maybe give a little extra money to provide for the needs of your neighbors this Lent.  Pray.  When Jesus tells you to go into your room and shut the door, He isn’t talking about the public prayers in the Divine Service, and He certainly isn’t forbidding you from praying with a family member or friend.  But He is talking about the ritual habit of personal prayers.  Which means, first of all, hearing what God has to say in His Word, and then responding with your petitions and praise.  Maybe you add more time for this in your daily routine this Lent.  More Scripture.  More prayer.  Fasting can go right along with all of this.  What you would have spent eating out, you can use to feed someone else.  The time you would have spent eating, you can spend praying.  It’s not a command.  You don’t have to do it.  But you may do it.  These are just possibilities, suggestions, to be taken or not.

            But here’s the thing, and your Lutheran instincts are going to kick against this, but they shouldn’t, because this is the Bible, and therefore this is Lutheranism: Your Father will reward it.  That’s what Jesus says.  Now, He doesn’t mean you are earning eternal life or merit or worthiness before God by doing these things.  Of course not, don’t be ridiculous.  But what is the reward?  The reward is, first of all, in the thing itself.  The more you give away wealth, the freer you are of the idol of wealth.  The more you pray and read Scripture, the deeper is your relationship with the one true God.  We’re simply talking about repentance and faith here.  And fasting?  The reward is greater freedom from the tyranny of fleshly desire.  And greater joy when we come to the time of feasting.  The reward is bodily participation in your prayer and lament, and the realization that true fulfillment comes not from food… or satisfaction of any other fleshly desire… but from God alone.  As Jesus Himself will say to us on Sunday: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). 

            See, the point of all of this is, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (6:19-21).  Don’t set your heart on wealth, or the accolades of others, or food, or sex, or money, or power.  Or anything else in this fallen world, which can be taken from you in a moment.  Set your heart on God.  Set your heart on Jesus.  He is the Treasure.  He is the Reward.  Not by merit.  But by grace.  By His grace.

            For He set His heart on you, and so made you His treasure.  He gave up everything, the wealth of divine glory, to provide for your needs and purchase you to be His own.  He prayed to His Father in solitude and bloody sweat that, if it be His Father’s will, He drink the cup of God’s wrath down to the very dregs, to save you.  And this Sunday we will hear of His wilderness fast.  40 days and 40 nights of hunger and weakness, to go toe to toe with the devil in your place, and on your behalf, to free you from the tyranny of the devil’s temptation.  And He won.  Jesus won.  By His suffering and cross.  He won you to be His own.

            And so you are marked with His cross.  Ashes… but His cross.  Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.  But remember, Christ is risen.  And He will raise you from the dust when He returns.  In the meantime, a little food to sustain you for the fast.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.              

The Transfiguration of Our Lord

The Transfiguration of Our Lord (A)

February 19, 2023

Text: Matt. 17:1-9

            “When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.  But Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Rise, and have no fear.’  And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only” (Matt. 17:6-8; ESV).

            One thing only, one voice only, one Person only, can raise you up out of the dust, and cast away your fear…  It is Jesus only, who died for your sins on the cross, and who is risen from the dead.  The account of His transfiguration, in every detail, attests to this. 

            High up on the mountain, with the requisite two or three witnesses to establish the matter (cf. Deut. 19:15), all at once, Jesus’ face shone like the sun, and His clothes became bright as light (Matt. 17:2).  Just as the Angel of the LORD, the preincarnate Christ, appeared to Moses on Mt. Horeb in a flame of fire in the midst of a bush, and the bush was burning, but was not consumed; and there the LORD revealed His Name (“I AM WHO I AM”) and promised His people salvation (the Exodus from Egypt and possession of the Promised Land) (Ex. 3); so here the divinity of God the Son shines through His humanity (and does not consume it!), and even through His very clothing, attesting that this same LORD who appeared to Moses, has now come in the flesh, Jesus (which means, “YHWH saves”), to lead us in Exodus from our Egyptian bondage to sin and death, into the Promised Land of Resurrection and New Creation.

            And speaking of Moses, who should appear on the mountain with Jesus, but the man himself, along with the great prophet Elijah, the requisite two Old Testament witnesses, representing the totality of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Law and the Prophets, the Torah and the Nebiim, talking with Jesus about His own Exodus through the wilderness of suffering and cross into empty tomb and resurrection!  This is the same LORD who appeared to both of them on Mt. Sinai, Horeb, before whom Moses and the elders of Israel ate and drank, and did not die (Ex. 24), and who spoke to Elijah, not in wind or earthquake or fire, but in a low whisper (1 Kings 19).  Here they are, with Him again on the mountain, this time probably Mt. Tabor (and we should note, Moses has finally made it into the Promised Land), and in this way, they are attesting that this Man, Jesus, is the great fulfillment of their whole ministry, of the sacred writings, of all the saving and mighty acts of God.  He is Messiah.  He is God in human flesh come to save humanity from all that terrifies us and lays us in the dust of death. 

            Then there is the cloud overshadowing the whole scene.  Ah, the cloud.  The pillar of cloud by day, shining with fire by night, God’s Angel (Christ) leading God’s people Israel in exodus through the wilderness (Ex. 13:22).  The cloud and fire of Sinai, the very presence of God, writing His Commandments with His own finger (Ex. 20).  The cloud that descended upon the Tent of Meeting outside the camp, the LORD speaking to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend (Ex. 33:7-11).  The cloud that covered and filled the Tabernacle in the grand finale of the Book of Exodus (Ex. 40), and also Solomon’s Temple upon its dedication, such that the priests could not do their work (1 Kings 8:10-11).  Once again, now, at the Transfiguration, the cloud comes over the mountain.

            And from the cloud, a voice.  It is the voice of the Father, proclaiming of Jesus the very same thing He said at our Lord’s Baptism: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 17:5).  It is the unmistakable and unequivocal declaration that Jesus of Nazareth, as the only-begotten of His Father, is God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, one substance with the Father.  This Man is God the Son.  And the Father is pleased with Him.  The Son is doing what the Father sent Him to do, namely, save us.  And He is doing it well.  The Father approves.  The Father accepts the saving work of His Son.  What is about to happen to Jesus in His descent from the mountain, is just what must happen for us men and for our salvation, according to the Father’s eternal, saving plan.

            And then, “listen to him” (v. 5).  He is the Prophet of whom Moses spoke just before his death: “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen” (Deut. 18:15).  He is God’s Spokesman.  He is God’s self-revelation.  He is the Word of God, who was in the beginning with God, and who is God… the Word who became flesh and tabernacled among us (John 1:1-2, 14).  If you want to hear the Father, listen to Jesus.  Listen to Him as He speaks to you in the Scriptures.  Listen to Him as He speaks by the mouths and pens of His Apostles and Prophets, and in the Apostolic preaching of His Church.  And what happens?  Just as in your Baptism into Christ, you become what Christ is, children of the Father with whom He is well pleased… that is, God adopts you as His own and justifies you, declares you righteous for Jesus’ sake… so it is when you listen to Jesus.  Listen… not just the vibrations of the words beating upon your ear drums, but hear His Word, receive it, and believe it.  Then He comes and touches you (as He really and substantially does in His Supper), and raises you from the dust of death (spiritually now, bodily soon), and bids you “have no fear” (Matt. 17:7).  For all your sins are forgiven.  Jesus atoned for them.  God is no longer angry.  Death is no longer your sentence.  Life is your sentence.  Eternal life.  So what do you have left to fear? 

            Now, Peter, God bless him, in the middle of all of this, can’t help but run his mouth.  He thinks it would be good if they all just stayed up there on the mountain.  Let’s celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles up here.  He proposes that he, Peter, will build three tents for the three dignitaries (and notice how he equalizes all of them), one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.  We three can sleep in the open air.  We’re just happy to be here, at the campground. 

            But, of course, Peter has missed the point entirely.  That’s why the cloud must interrupt him, and the voice of our Father must redirect him.  Peter can’t build a tent for Jesus.  Peter can’t shelter Jesus.  God builds a tent for Peter and for us all in Jesus Himself, the Word who tabernacles among us, pitches His tent among us.  Which is to say, takes up our flesh.  Jesus is our shelter.  Peter’s intentions are good, but as always, let’s just say his intentions don’t pave the way to the salvation of the world. 

            But then, you’d want to stay there, too.  So would I.  It's good up there on the mountain with Jesus and the Bible All Stars.  But we mustn’t misunderstand what is happening here.  This is just a preview of the Lord’s visible glory as it will be manifest in His resurrection and ascension, and as we will see it, and bask in it, when we are with Him in heaven, with Moses and Elijah and all the saints who have gone before.  If it all ended at the Transfiguration, yes, Jesus would be glorified, but the rest of us would be doomed. 

            To save us from that doom, Jesus must come down the mountain and head toward suffering and the cross.  Then, after suffering and the cross, on the Third Day, resurrection.  Glory.  Peter, James, and John, must come down the mountain with Him to witness these things happen, to be the requisite two or three, and give testimony, preach the things they have heard and seen, and write them down, that many more may listen to Jesus and be raised from death.  And that includes you and me, right now, listening to Jesus as His Word is preached.  And so we must come down the mountain with Jesus.  It is not yet the Day of Resurrection.  Soon.  Soon.  Today, we’ve had a glimpse.  But for now, we are still in the wilderness, the wilderness of suffering and the cross.  And in this wilderness, there is a season for everything, for every purpose under heaven.  And so we put away our alleluias for a time and enter upon the season of Lent.  Lent is a season of penitence: self-examination, repentance, confession, and Absolution for all our sins.  It is a season of preparation: self-discipline and fasting, mortification of the flesh as we look forward to the Feast to come and our own bodily resurrection with Christ.  It is a season for immersion in the things of God, the things wherein we hear Jesus and receive His healing and life-giving touch, His Word and the Sacrament of His body and blood.  We meditate on His Passion, His suffering and death for our sins.  There are additional Church services and devotions with our families and in our homes.  It is a season of attentiveness and prayer.  “Watch and pray,” Jesus bids His disciples, “that you may not enter into temptation.  The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 56:41).

            It is tempting for us, as it was for Peter, to want to stay on the mountain and go directly from Transfiguration to Easter to the Last Day when Christ returns in all His glory.  But trust me, you don’t want to face Judgment Day apart from the cross of Christ, and there is no risen Jesus apart from the One who is crucified for our sins.  There must be Good Friday, or there is no Easter.  There must be death if there is to be life. 

            And so Peter, and we, are interrupted by the cloud and the voice of our Father, directing all our attention to Jesus.  It levels us.  It terrifies us and lays us in the dust.  So that Jesus can touch us, raise us up and cast out all our fear.  “And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only” (Matt. 17:8).

            “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2; NIV).  Lent has this way of lifting up our eyes… away from our own navels, away from our idols and pet sins, away from our endless quest for self-righteousness, self-justification… to see Jesus only.  And that is good and right.  Whether on a mountain-top or in the valley of the shadow, in the wilderness or in the Promised Land, it is good for us to be wherever Jesus is.  For there is only one thing, one voice, one Person who can raise us out of the dust of death and cast our fears away.  It is Jesus.  It is Jesus only.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                    

Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany

Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany (A)

February 12, 2023

Text: Matt. 5:21-37

            Now that in Christ Jesus, your righteousness does exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 5:20), because your righteousness does not come from your own efforts or state of being, but is Jesus Christ Himself…  Now that you are justified by faith alone, freely, for Christ’s sake, apart from works, or any merit or worthiness in you, on account of His death on the cross for your sins, and His justifying and life-giving resurrection from the dead…  Now that you are baptized into Christ, and the Holy Spirit rests upon you, calling you and gathering you into His Church, enlightening you with His gifts in Word and Sacrament, sanctifying you, and keeping you with Jesus Christ in the one true faith…  Now that all of that is the case, you (you all, whom He has gathered here) are given to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world (vv. 13-14).  This has concrete consequences for the way you live your Christian life here and now.  It is true, the Law always accuses, but it doesn’t only accuse.  We must receive the Law both ways, as it comes to us.  For the Law is also the revelation of the life God wills for us in His Kingdom.  And that life is beautiful.  It is the way things should be, and were created to be.  It is the way you should be, and were created to be, and are being created anew to be.  Christ has won for you the forgiveness of sins, righteousness, salvation, life, and all that comes with it.  Now, having received all of this by faith, you are given to live in faithfulness to your faithful Lord. 

            This means that you regard your neighbor’s life as precious and holy.  “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder’” (v. 21; ESV).  But you know that this is not merely a command not to shed the blood and extinguish the life of another human being.  It is not even merely a command not to perpetrate physical violence against your neighbor.  Jesus makes clear that the Commandments are not merely a matter of outward observance.  They also apply to your words and to the thoughts of your heart.  We confess that we sin against God in “thought, word, and deed.”  When you are angry with your brother, such that you despise him in your heart, bear ill will toward him, think less of him than you do yourself… when you do not love him as yourself… you are guilty of murder.  You have broken the Fifth Commandment.  You have sinned in thoughts.  When those thoughts bubble over into words, such as when you insult your brother, or call him a “fool,” or… well, you can think of the names you call him and the things you say of him… you are guilty of murder and liable to judgment and the hell of fire.  You have sinned in your words.  From the same mouth that blesses our Lord and Father comes cursing.  “My brothers, these things ought not to be so” (James 3:9-10). 

            So… Repent.  Confess.  Be absolved.  Your Lord Jesus died for your murderous sins of thought, word, and deed.  You are free!  Now, go fear and love God so that you do not hurt or harm your neighbor in his body, or embitter his life by your words and actions, or think evil of him and despise him in your heart, but help and support him in every physical need, speak well of him and encourage him (and here we are touching on the Eighth Commandment), and love him as you love yourself.  Love him with the love of Christ, the love that forgives him and bears with him, the love that regards him, and the life God has given him, as precious and sacred, created in God’s image, and redeemed by Christ the Crucified. 

            Now, when you come before the altar of God, for Sacrament or sacrifice, to receive the Lord’s body and blood, or to pray, and you there remember that your brother has something against you, it is a matter of first importance, as one redeemed by Christ the Crucified, as one whom God has forgiven all your sins, that you go and be reconciled to your brother.  Jesus does not say, “when you remember that you have something against your brother.”  That, you deal with in the Lord’s Prayer, which you always pray before you come to the altar, wherein you not only pray that God would forgive you your trespasses, but announce that you hereby and in this moment forgive anyone who has trespassed against you.  You know that having been forgiven your unimaginable and hell-meriting debt to God, you cannot possibly hold your neighbor’s sins against him.  There is no room for grudges at the Lord’s altar.  So that is taken care of in the Fifth Petition as you pray it.  But when you have sinned against your brother, it is imperative that you run to him, confess your sin, and be forgiven and reconciled, so that you can come to the altar together with a good conscience.

            Have you failed to do that?  Have you held on to grudges in your heart, and neglected to take responsibility for the sins you’ve committed against brothers and sisters in Christ?  Repent.  Confess.  Be absolved.  You are free!  Now, extend the peace your Lord Jesus speaks upon you and into you, to your neighbor, forgiving as you have been forgiven by God, and asking forgiveness from, and seeking reconciliation with, the neighbor against whom you have sinned.  This is God’s will for you under the Fifth Commandment.

            So also, you should regard your neighbor’s body and sexuality as precious and holy.  “You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery’” (Matt. 5:27), and that is absolutely true, but you know that this is not merely a matter of not cheating on your spouse by sexual intercourse with another, fornication (which is sex before marriage), cohabitation (that’s living together outside of marriage), promiscuity, or sexual perversion.  To be sure, you must not engage in these wicked deeds that treat your neighbor’s body as an object for your own fleshly pleasure.  Isn’t it ironic (and tragic!) that we call these illicit activities “love” when they are anything but?  Sex is holy, a precious gift from God, to be enjoyed within the sacred context of Holy Matrimony.  It unites husband and wife as one flesh.  And its natural result is children.  Not always, but when God gives them.  This is the way in which we are given to participate in God’s creative act.  Let’s not call it reproduction, as so many do (this isn’t an assembly line, and children are not a commodity), but procreation.  In this way, within Holy Marriage, between one man and one woman who are committed to one another, exclusively, for life, a commitment sealed by sacred vows, with witnesses… in this way, sex is kept holy.  Your body, your spouse’s (or future spouse’s) body, is kept holy.  Your neighbor’s body, your neighbor’s spouse’s (or future spouse’s) body, is kept holy.  The sanctity of the human body is upheld.  Where you have sinned sexually, repent, confess, be absolved.  You are free!  Now, go fear and love God so that you live a sexually pure and decent life in what you say and do, and husband and wife love and honor one another. 

            But again, it is not merely a matter of outward keeping of this Commandment.  You should not even look at a person of the opposite sex with lustful intent.  That is adultery in your heart, a sin of thought.  The stray glance.  The feasting of the eyes on one who is not your spouse.  Movies and television programs that sexually objectify bodies.  And here we must say a word about pornography.  There is no redeeming quality in pornography.  So do not believe that satanic lie.  It is simply and entirely evil.  It is a special tactic of the devil in which he bends our minds to think of human bodies as beastly flesh, sacks of meat, or again, objects to be exploited for our own fleshly pleasure.  It is a direct demonic attack on the incarnation of our Lord, who took an earthly body, conceived and born of the Virgin Mary, God in human flesh.  And it is a direct demonic attack on the sanctity of our own bodies, made in the image of God, redeemed by Christ’s bodily crucifixion and resurrection.  When you allow yourself to be captivated by pornography, you are dabbling in the things of demons.  But there is freedom, beloved.  Come to your pastor.  I won’t be surprised, and I won’t think less of you.  Come and confess.  Be absolved.  I will walk with you in the struggle.  And you will know that the demons have no claim over you, for you have been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ.  You belong to Him.

            See, though, how the lust of the heart leads to the fascination of the eye, and finally to the deed of the hand?  Now, it is true, it would be better to tear out your eye or cut off your hand than to be cast into hell.  But you know that blind men also lust, and maimed men also sin.  Were you to mutilate your body (which, let’s be clear, you should not do), you know you’d still be a sinner.  This is why Christ has redeemed you, body and soul, your eyes, your hands, your mind, and your heart.  He took on human eyes and hands and a mind and heart to redeem these very things.  But do think about this a moment.  If what Jesus says is true of eyes and hands and cutting them off, it is certainly true of televisions, internet, and smart phones.  Or many other things.  There is no sin in using these tools as gifts from God, but when they lead you into sin, it is better to cast them away than to go to hell with them in your cold, dead grasp.  Here is wisdom.  Think on it. 

            Finally, Jesus warns us not to take hasty oaths.  And no, you can’t make the oath less serious by swearing by lesser things than God, like heaven, earth, the Holy City, or your own head.  Now, there are times you should take an oath, like in marriage, or in court, for political office, or as you do at Baptism and Confirmation.  But you should not swear in inconsequential matters, and you certainly should not swear in matters of deception.  Instead, let the Christian’s yes be yes, and your no, no (James 5:12).  Keep your word toward your neighbor.  We Christians know that words are sacred.  We live by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God, the Gospel Promise of our life and salvation in Christ, the Word who became flesh for us, who is Truth Incarnate.  So our words should be sacred and truthful, as are His Words.  Where you have taken a hasty oath, broken a promise, betrayed a confidence, spoken deception or evil, or perpetrated any other sin of the tongue… repent!  Confess.  Be absolved.  You are free!  Now, go fear and love God so that you put away falsehood, and each speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another (Eph. 4:25). 

            Now, if only there were time, we would read the rest of Matthew 5 and our Lord’s sermon about turning the other cheek, giving to the one who begs, and loving our enemies, but alas, we can’t do everything at once.  I simply commend it to your own reading and meditation this week.  But here is the life your Lord wants for you, a life lived in holiness and peace, and in sacred love and unity with one another.  A life of joy, redeemed and blessed. 

            For this reason, that we may have this life, God sent His Son.  Jesus did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it, and bring us to the fulness of it.  He does so in His human body, bearing our anger and insults and violent assaults, our lusts and impurities and sexual unfaithfulness, our hasty oaths and false testimonies and every sin of the tongue… our every sin… he bears them in His holy body, giving Himself to be murdered by us on the cross.  To make atonement for all our sins.  And rising again on the Third Day in His holy body, He gives us new life and His own righteousness in place of our sins.  He washes us clean and marks us by His cross to be His own.  And He breathes His Spirit into us, and puts His body and blood into us.  He is our faithful Bridegroom, who will never divorce or forsake His Bride.  That is why, beloved, you can be salt, and you can be light, and you can live already now in the new life of God’s Kingdom.  That life is beautiful.  It is the way things were created to be.  And that life is God’s gift to you here and now in Christ Jesus.  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 (A)

February 5, 2023

Text: Matt. 5:13-20

            “You are the salt of the earth” (Matt. 5:13; ESV).  The sacrifices of the Old Testament were to be seasoned with salt (Lev. 2:13).  Salt was a central ingredient in the recipe for incense to be burned on the incense altar (Ex. 30:35).  It was also an important component of table fellowship.  When one wanted to enter into a covenant of peace and communion with another, the parties sat down to a meal together, and passed the salt between them.  It was a covenant of salt.  The sacrifices of God are salted, and the priests eat of those salted sacrifices, thus God says of it, that it is “a covenant of salt forever before the LORD for you and for your offspring with you” (Num. 18:19).  The priests represent the whole children of Israel.  And all the children of Israel eat the sacrifice at the Passover, so God’s covenant of salt is with all Israel.  Salt, therefore, symbolizes permanence, faithfulness.  Salt preserves.  In the days before refrigeration, meat was salted for storage.  And salt, of course, flavors.  As Job says, “Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt” (Job 6:6)?  So when Jesus says, “You,” as in y’all (it’s a 2^nd person plural pronoun), Y’all, my disciples, the Church, “are the salt of the earth,” what does that mean? 

            Or, how about this one?  “You” (again, y’all, the Church) “are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14).  Like the sacred lamp inside the Holy Place (Ex. 25-26), apart from which there would be utter darkness, fueled by the oil of beaten olives, the holy oil also used for anointing, christening, and as a symbol of the Holy Spirit.  Then, too, in ancient Israelite dwellings, which mostly consisted of one large room, the whole place could be enlightened by the little flame of a lamp.  Light dispels the darkness.  It gives sight to all within the circle of its radiance.  It exposes threats to be avoided, and messes and maladies that must be set aright.  But it also brings joy and warmth and the freedom to move about and engage in activities.  What does it mean that y’all, Jesus’ disciples, His Church, are the light of the world? 

            What is the salt?  What is the light?  The rabbis believed salt was analogous to the Torah, God’s Word.  St. Paul says, “Let your speech be always gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person” (Col. 4:6).  That is, let your speech be seasoned with God’s Word.  It is your Christian confession.  It is the preaching of the Church.  “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God,” says Paul, “to present your bodies as a living sacrifice to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom. 12:1).  Salted sacrifices.  You, who have entered an eternal covenant of salt with God as you feast on the Sacrifice He lays out for you on His altar, become one with that Sacrifice, and offer yourselves as sacrifices, in life and in death.  To do what?  Speak God’s Word.  Confess Jesus Christ.  Serve Him by serving your neighbor.  In doing this, you salt the world, preserving it (the reason our Lord delays His coming is so that the Gospel may be preached, and more people thereby come to faith in Christ), and flavoring it (true joy, enduring and eternal joy, can never come from the things that the world offers, or Satan proffers, but from the Gospel alone, that our Lord Jesus has reconciled us to God, and gives us eternal and abundant life). 

            And what about light?  It is the same thing.  It is the proclamation of the Gospel and works of love done for the good of the neighbor.  Jesus Christ is the Light of the world (John 8:12), the Light no darkness can overcome (John 1:5).  “(A)t one time you were darkness,” Paul says, “but now you are light in the Lord” (Eph. 5:8).  You are baptized into Christ, immersed in His Light.  By hearing and learning His Word, you dwell in the circle of His radiance.  And the Light is in you.  You eat it and drink it.  The oil of the Anointed One, Jesus, is on you, and in you, the Holy Spirit, who fuels the flame so that it shines bright.  Your Christian confession, your proclaiming the Lord’s death until He comes (1 Cor. 11:26), good works done in mercy and love, these shine, not your own light, but the Light that is Jesus Christ into all the darkness of this world, dispelling it, exposing demonic threats and calling to repentance over the sinful messes we make and maladies with which we are infected, bringing the joy and warmth and freedom of sins forgiven to all who will come into the Light. 

            Now, this is profoundly good.  Christians should do good works.  Words (confession, preaching).  Deeds (love, mercy).  After all, what good is salt that isn’t salty?  What good is light that is smothered by a basket?  (Hide it under a bushel?  No!  … as you love to sing in your favorite hymn.) 

            But don’t for a moment think that your righteousness consists in your salty and illuminating good works.  Because that method of justification, that righteousness, is, at best, the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.  And your righteousness must exceed theirs, or you’ll never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. 

            Of course, the scribes and Pharisees are really good at good works.  You’ll never beat them at their own game.  If righteousness by their best efforts still falls short, you haven’t got a prayer.  You will never reach God’s perfect and exacting standards by your doing.  Thank God, your righteousness does not consist in that.  Your righteousness, your justification, consists in Jesus Christ alone. 

            Now, He doesn’t justify you by abolishing the Law, whether we mean by the word “Law,” the whole Old Testament (which is what Jesus means in our text, the Law and the Prophets [Matt. 5:17]), or the moral Law of the Ten Commandments contained within the Old Testament.  The Law shall not perish, not one iota or dot, not one jot or tittle, not one yod or hook of the beautiful Hebrew text.  Jesus doesn’t abolish the Law.  He fulfills it.  That’s just the point.  He fulfills all the types and prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures (the whole Old Testament, the whole Bible, is about Him, and gives us Him!).  And He fulfills all of God’s demands.  He does the Law perfectly.  This is what we call in theology, His active righteousness.  This, beloved (Jesus’ righteous fulfillment of God’s Law), is credited to us.  And He takes all of our failure to fulfill the Law, all our sin, all our darkness, all our breaking of the covenant of salt, upon Himself, and makes atonement for it by His death on the cross.  He covers it with His blood.  He is salted with the fire of God’s wrath.  He suffers it, what we call in theology, His passive righteousness.  All in our place.  Our righteousness is not our works.  Our righteousness is Jesus Christ, and Him alone.  And that far exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.  Jesus comes to us, to give us His righteousness, in His Word and Sacraments.  We receive Him and His righteousness by faith.  We do not do works of salt and light in order to become righteous.  We do works of salt and light because we are righteous on account of Christ.  Or, as Paul so memorably puts it, “by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:8-10).  Christ is your righteousness.  You are righteous by grace through faith in Him.  Now go be salty and shine His Light.

            Pass the salt.  Speak His Word, and so bring others into the Lord’s salt covenant.  And don’t, by the way, relax any of His commandments to “make it easier” for others to come in.  The Greek word for “relax” comes from the same root as the word for “abolish”… when you relax God’s Word, you actually abolish it!  That is what the Church is doing in so many places where we conform to the world, capitulating on life issues, and sexual issues, soft-pedaling the Commandments, trying not to offend by our confession of Christ, tailoring our message so that it is acceptable to the unbelieving world.  Wherever we are guilty of that, let us repent.  And wherever our brothers and sisters in other denominations are guilty of that, let us shine the Light of God’s Word upon them and call them to repentance.  Abolishing God’s Word is un-saltiness.  It is the stuff of darkness.  We are to make disciples of all nations by baptizing them and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever the Lord has commanded (Matt. 28:19-20).  Anything less, and anything other, leads the nations, not to life, but to eternal death.  Proclaim Christ and His Word faithfully, as He has given us His Word in Holy Scripture.  We do not come proclaiming the wisdom of the world, but the foolishness of God, our crucified and risen Lord.  We know nothing among those to whom we preach but “Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). 

            And then, works of love and mercy.  Living sacrifices, seasoned with salt.  What God says to us in the Prophet Isaiah:  Loose the bonds of wickedness.  Repent of your sins and forgive those who sin against you.  Relieve oppression.  Share your bread with the hungry.  Give shelter to the homeless.  Clothe the naked.  There many ways to do these things… But do them!  Have mercy, dear brothers and sisters.  Have mercy.  And in this way, “your light” (the Light of Jesus) “shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing” (the healing of Jesus) “shall spring up speedily; your righteousness” (that’s Jesus) “shall go before you; the glory of the LORD” (again, Jesus) “shall be your rear guard” (Is. 58:8).  Christ before you, Christ behind you, Christ all around you, you shining Christ.  Or, as Jesus Himself says it in our Holy Gospel, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16).

            The LORD has made an eternal covenant of salt with you.  Come and eat of His Sacrifice, the Lord Jesus, that you may be salty.  The LORD has poured out the oil of His Spirit upon you.  The Light is now in you.  Let that Light burn bright.  And know that your righteousness exceeds that of the most scrupulous scribe or Pharisee.  For your righteousness is Jesus Christ.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.