Household & Heritage Conference - Vespers

 

Household & Heritage Conference

August 9, 2025

Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Rathdrum, Idaho

Text: Joshua 4

            Twelve men, a man from each Tribe.  Twelve stones from the midst of the Jordan.  To be a memorial forever.  A visible, tangible sign.  Of what?  Of God’s saving acts for His people.  In a wonderful rerun of the Red Sea miracle, there is the LORD, present, this time not in a pillar of cloud, but enthroned between the cherubim, seated upon the Mercy Seat, the covering of the Ark of the Covenant.  And the moment the beautiful feet of the priests bearing the holy Ark touch the water, the waters of the Jordan are cut off.  The LORD is holding back all that would hinder the children of Israel from entering the Promised Land.  God’s people pass over on dry ground.  Collect the stones!  Actually, first build a similar monument right there in the midst of the Jordan.  And then collect the stones.  Twelve of them.  And lay them down in the place you lodge tonight

            What is the purpose of a monument, memorial?  What’s it for?  Well, first, it’s so you go look at it and remember… remember the thing it is given to call to mind (it’s right there in the word, “Memorial”… remember).  And in the remembering of the thing, reflect on it.  Meditate upon it.  Let gratitude for the thing thus memorialized be engendered within you.  And then, think what that thing means for you now, and in the future.  Let it give you confidence for the present, and wisdom and courage as you face the future.  That is the first purpose of a memorial: Your own edification.

            Second, that it may do the same for future generations.  When your child looks at the memorial, and asks, “What does this mean?”… ah… now you have the perfect opportunity to teach them about it.  That they may have the same gratitude for the past, and the same confidence, and wisdom, and courage for the present and the future.  You can think about this in terms of holy memorials, like the stones.  But you also know this from, say, the Washington Monument, or the World War II Memorial.  These memorials ground us, who came later, in the struggles and remedies of generations past, and make their struggles, and their remedies, our own.

            And it even works for those who don’t share our history.  Others can come to know about the thing memorialized, by means of the memorial.  Maybe even ask you about it.  So you’ll tell them.  And then, they, too, will come to know and participate in it in some way.  They will come to receive the benefit of it.

            The twelve stones work that way.  They were given for that purpose.  Whenever an Israelite would come to Gilgal, he’d look at the stones, and remember and give thanks for God’s great salvation.  And he’d be steeled for the present and the future in the face of the mighty enemies who stand between him and his inheritance. 

            That is what signs do in the Scriptures.  In the Gospel of John, Jesus’ miracles were called signs.  In Acts, the Apostles performed great signs and wonders (it was actually Jesus working through them).  The memorial of twelve stones was to serve as a sign.  Such signs are not only momentous in and of themselves (I mean, crossing over the flooded waters of the Jordan on dry ground is pretty momentous!).  They also testify to the certainty of God’s Promises for the present and the future.  Specifically, in this case, the Promise of the Land.  But also, and to every generation, THE Promise: The Seed of the woman, the Seed of Abraham, the Son of David, Messiah, who would come to crush the serpent’s head, deliver His Israel from bondage, be the Blessing of the nations, save His people from their sins.

            And in this way, this sign, the twelve stones… this is for you, beloved.  Twelve stones, a stone for each Tribe.  I can’t help but think about the twelve foundation stones of the New Israel, the Twelve Apostles.  Upon their teaching and writing the holy Christian Church is built.  St. Paul agrees: “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord” (Eph. 2:19-20).

            Twelve stones.  You can’t see them with your own eyes (we have no idea where they are, now).  But here they are, memorialized by the Spirit in the Holy Scriptures, so that they may do your work on you.  Thanksgiving for God’s mighty acts of salvation, as you now receive the benefit of them.  Confidence, wisdom, and courage for the present and the future, by virtue of the certainty of God’s Promises (that is to say, faith!).  God has brought you to this moment by His sheer grace and mercy.  He will bring you through this moment, on into eternity, by that same grace and mercy. 

            All the Holy Scriptures are, in this way, a memorial, a sign.  What else?  Holy Baptism (and the LORD, present in the midst of the Jordan, that His people may pass over into the Promise, certainly ought to call to mind Christ’s Baptism in that same Jordan, and our Baptism into Christ!).  Some of you may vividly remember your Baptism, if you were old enough.  But those of us baptized as infants have to remember it by other signs.  So, “Here stands the font before our eyes, Telling how God has received us” (LSB 645:4).  Maybe you were given a baptismal certificate you can hang on your wall, or a candle, or a baptismal shell.  Memorials.  That’s what those things are. 

            What else?  The Supper.  Bread and wine that you can taste, touch, smell.  And, of course, ears that hear our Lord’s Word, that this is no mere bread and wine, but the very body of Christ that suffered and was given into death on the cross for our sins, and is now risen from the dead (resurrection body of God invading us when we eat of it), lives, and reigns.  The very blood of Christ, shed on the cross to make atonement for us, now coursing through our Lord’s resurrection veins, and our veins as we drink of it. 

            What else?  Brothers and sisters in Christ, united in confession, and suffering, and prayer, gathered around the Lord’s gifts.  What else?  There is virtually no end.  The very architecture of the Church is a sign.  Ask yourself, what is prominent here?  What does it mean?  Think about it.  Meditate on it.  Big cross, front and center.  Below it, an altar, where the once-for-all Sacrifice is delivered to us as Sacrament.  Ah, but you can only get to that through the font.  Pulpit and lectern, like an open Bible on either side.  Attention directed up, and toward God, but you, planted deep in the company of others like you, believers in Christ, to form one body of Christ. 

            Now, your children may ask you about this, that, and the other thing, “What does this mean?”  Actually, you should lead them to ask you.  And if they won’t ask, ask for them.  And then answer them.  Your pastor can help you, but remember, as Dr. Luther repeatedly reminds us in the Small Catechism, the head of the family should teach the faith in a simple way to his household.  And this is one of the things a memorial is for.  That you may teach your children, and so catch them up into the story of our Lord’s salvation, so that it becomes their own.  So, do it.  Read and meditate on the Scriptures with your family at home.  Keep the Bible before their eyes and in their ears.  And the Catechism.  And the hymnal.  Put up some crosses and crucifixes and Christian art on your walls.  In every room of your home.  Keep it always in your line of sight.  How about a crucifix in close proximity to your computer screen?  You get why that may be helpful?  Why not listen to hymns, and sing hymns together with your family?  Inundate the senses with the signs. 

            And then, others will come to know, too.  They may even ask you about it.  And you’ll tell them.  You’ll show them the signs, and memorialize our Lord’s great salvation for them.  You’ll tell them about Jesus and His love for them.  His life for them, His death for them, and His resurrection from the dead for them.  How He restores them to the Father and bestows His Holy Spirit in His Means of Grace.  The signs. 

            Just like the stones.  They are for you, and for your children.  And they are for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself (Acts 2:39).  Why?  “(S)o that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever” (Josh. 4:24).  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.        

 

 

 

 

             

 

In Memoriam +Donley Dale Kubasch+

 

In Memoriam +Donley Dale Kubasch+

July 28, 2025

Text: Eph. 2:4-10

            Don is baptized into Christ.  He is united to Christ, immersed in Christ, covered in Christ.  And that is to say, Christ’s death became Don’s death at the font.  And so, Christ’s life became Don’s life at the font.  Don lives, in Christ Jesus, who is risen, and lives.  Where Christ is, Don is.  And as Christ is, so Don will be on that Day when all things come to their fulfillment.  Don will rise from the dead.  Bodily.  And you, beloved, will rise from the dead.  Bodily.  And for you, who are likewise in Christ Jesus, you will see Don again.  With your very eyes.  You will talk with Don again.  You will embrace Don again.  You will live with Don again.  In Christ.  With Christ.  In the presence of Christ, who loves you, and whom you love.  Because you, too, are united to Christ, immersed in Christ, covered in Christ.  Because you are baptized into Christ.

            That is what St. Paul is getting at in our text, the epistle lesson from Ephesians 2.  Hear this, now, again: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:4-6; ESV).  God made us alive together with Christ.  That is what He does for us in Holy Baptism, when He unites us to His beloved Son.  Now, it is all God’s work.  Baptism is not our work for God, it is God’s work for us.  Faith is not our work for God, it is God’s work in us.  Union with Christ is not our work for God, it is Christ’s taking us into Himself.  So, Paul stresses, it is all by grace.  By grace you have been saved.  Because God is rich in mercy toward you.  Because He loves you with a great love.  Even when you were dead in your trespasses and sins, which is precisely what you were apart from Christ… dead.  Spiritually dead, even as you walked around in the flesh.  Incapable of coming to faith in Christ, of uniting yourself to Christ.  If you are to be in Christ, God must do it.  His work.  Grace alone.  So, that’s what He does.

            It’s easy to see in infants who are brought to Baptism, as Don was by his parents, a mere 20 days after his birth into this world (with Pr. Ernst, at St. John Lutheran Church in Hollywood, Minnesota).  What does an infant do at a Baptism?  He doesn’t decide to be baptized.  He doesn’t walk on his own two feet up to the font.  He can’t even confess the faith for himself.  His parents and sponsors have to do that.  If anything, the infant does some rather unbaptismal things.  Probably cries.  Possibly screams.  Certainly squirms.  Maybe spits up, or… other things.  He doesn’t exhibit spiritual life in himself.  Actually, that’s why he’s there.  Because spiritual life has to come from outside of him.  From God.  By grace.  Grace alone.  By grace you have been saved.  God does it by uniting the precious infant to His beloved Son by water and the Word.  New birth.  Adoption into God’s Family.  God’s Name written on the little one, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” 

            You can see how that has to be by grace, apart from the infant’s work.  The same is actually true, though, for adults who come to Christ, and to Holy Baptism, if only we had eyes to see it.  Adults often think they made their own decision to come to Christ, and walked up on their own two legs to be baptized into Him, as though it’s some great work they’ve done for God.  But the truth is, God still did it all in them.  Before you can decide to be in Christ, God has already worked faith in you by His Word.  Before you can walk up on your own two legs to Holy Baptism, the Spirit has already done His work of converting you by His Word.  So, by grace.  Grace alone.  God’s rich mercy.  His great love.  Uniting you to Christ.

            Dead to self, because, as we heard from St. Paul at the beginning of the Service, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Rom. 6:3).  So, Don got his death over with at the font, as a 20-day-old, when he was joined to Christ’s crucifixion.  That really rips the teeth out of physical death, doesn’t it?  And then what?  “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” (v. 4).  So, raised a new creation in Christ.  You don’t even have to wait for heaven for that, because, when Don was a 20-day-old, he was joined to Christ’s resurrection.  His whole earthly life long, Don walked in Christ.  Immersed in Christ.  Covered in Christ.  Faith in Christ.  Baptized into Christ.  Newness of life. 

            That is what Paul is saying in our text, as well.  God raised us up with Christ, who is risen from the dead.  And what else?  Christ ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.  So, by virtue of our baptismal union with Christ, we are seated with Him in the heavenly places.  So, get this… For us, who are baptized into Christ… for Don… death is not so much a leaving here for… somewhere, wherever heaven is.  I suppose there is a sense in which we can say that, so, fine.  But really, our physical death is an unveiling of what has been the reality ever since we were joined to Christ Jesus.  It is the curing of our fleshly blindness.  What we once knew only by faith, we now know by sight.  There is Jesus.  We see Him!  With the Father and the Holy Spirit.  There are the holy angels and the whole heavenly host.  There are our loved ones who died in Christ, yet live in Him.  Oh, and the things we hear!  The New Song.  The Song of Triumph.  The Song of Christ’s Victory over sin, death, and the devil.  You should read about it sometime in the coming days, in Revelation 4 & 5, and take great comfort in the fact that Don now sees this, and hears this.  And soon, you will, too. 

            But that’s not all.  “(S)o that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7).  You know what that is, that showing of immeasurable riches that will happen in the coming ages?  It is the resurrection of the body, and the New Creation, the life of the world to come.  Again, this body will rise.  Don will rise from the dead.  And so will you.  And all who are in Christ will live together in the resurrection world.  You should read about that sometime in the coming days, in Revelation 21 & 22. 

            Now, we don’t deserve this.  Not even Don.  Yes, not even sweet, noble, courageous, loyal, self-giving, self-sacrificing Don.  That’s not how it works.  We’re sinners.  Even the best of us (and Don is one of the best of us, humanly speaking).  We still fall far short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23).  We don’t deserve this salvation and eternal life with God.  But Christ does.  Don is baptized into Christ.  And so, what Paul here writes is true for Don, and it’s true for you: “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” (Eph. 2:8-9).  Christ gives His deserving to Don, and to you, as a free gift, by grace, received through faith in Christ.  And even that is not your doing.  It is God’s.  No boasting, except in what God has done.  What He has done for Don.  What He has done for you. 

            Well, that’s great.  But what about Don’s good works?  He did have them, after all.  Devoted husband, and father, grandfather.  A career of sacrificial service to his nation in the Navy.  Loyal citizen and revered veterinarian in the community of Moscow.  Etc., etc.  (And, of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention what a gift he has been to his Church.)  Those, actually, are also gifts of God’s grace… to Don (it is a great gift to be able to do them)… and through Don, to us.  They are God working in Don.  Listen to Paul: “For we are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (v. 10).  God is the Workman.  We (including Don) are the instruments of God’s work.  And He has prepared the very works we do from eternity.  He prepared for Don, all those great good works our dear friend did for us.  He prepared for us, all the great good works we are given to do.  And (note this… this is very important), we don’t do these good works in order to be saved and go to heaven when we die.  That’s not how it works.  We do them because we are saved.  By Jesus Christ.  By His life, death and resurrection.  His work.  Which is to say, by grace alone.

            Don is baptized into Christ.  And so he is with Christ.  He is safe, and happy… enraptured by the beatific vision of his Savior, the Lamb on the throne.  That is your comfort.  You want to be with Don, there, in the royal court of Christ?   Be with him here, in His Church.  Baptized into Christ.  Listening for, and heeding the voice of your Good Shepherd.  Gathering around the Altar where the Lamb is with His true body and blood, for you, for your forgiveness, life, and salvation.  Gathering with angels and archangels and… what?... All the company of heaven.  That means Don.  Lauding and magnifying Christ’s holy Name… singing the Song!  Heaven comes down, here, in Christ’s Church.  Someday, the veil will be removed from your eyes, and you’ll see it.  But until then, it is just as true.  Where Christ is, there is Don.  Because Don is baptized into Christ.  Beloved, you be there, too.  God grant it, by grace, for Jesus’ sake.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                    

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost (C)

July 27, 2025

Text: Luke 11:1-13

            Why are we so reluctant to pray? 

            Why are we so reluctant, when our Lord Himself teaches us to pray, and gives us the very words to say, the Lord’s Prayer?  The greatest, perfect, all-encompassing prayer?  The prayer our Father loves to hear, and promises to answer?  The prayer Jesus prays with us and for us?  The prayer that speaks to us, as much as it speaks to God, because it is the very Word of God’s Son?

            Why are we so reluctant, when we know how it is among sinful, fallen, frail human friends and neighbors?  Even they respond to our petitions, whether willingly, or reluctantly, whether out of friendship, or perhaps due to our impudence (a word that means “offensively bold,” “shameless” in the making of the request).  If that is true of them, how much more so of our loving and all-merciful God, our Father in heaven?

            Why are we so reluctant, when our Lord promises us that if we ask, it will be given; that when we seek, we will find; that when we knock, it will be opened to us?  After all, we are blood-bought, baptized children of our heavenly Father.  What earthly father, if his son asks for something good, will instead give him something bad?  (Oh, it happens.  I know it happens, but I also know… and you do, too… that that isn’t the rule.  Even most earthly fathers would give their very lives for the sake of their children.)  If even earthly fathers, who are evil… sinful, fallen… know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more will the heavenly Father… … Well, we expect Jesus to say, “give good things to those who ask him,” and that is true enough.  That is the way Jesus says it in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7 (v. 11; ESV).  But here in Luke, in our Holy Gospel, He says, “how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13; emphasis added).  And that is an incredible Promise, because, first of all, you have but to ask the Father for the Holy Spirit, and you have Him.  With all His gifts.  Calling you by the Gospel.  Enlightening you by His Word and Sacraments.  Sanctifying and keeping you with Jesus Christ in the true faith.  Counseling you.  Consoling you.  Advocating for you.  Tending you.  Working in you. 

            And secondly, and relatedly, you know what He is doing for your prayers?  It is what St. Paul teaches us in Romans 8: “we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (v. 26).  That is, the Spirit takes our weak and paltry prayers, and makes them what they ought to be as He brings them before the throne of God.  Our words can’t even begin to express the petitions His groans deliver to our Father. 

            Why are we so reluctant, then?  Laziness, undoubtedly.  The deadly sin of sloth.  Prayer takes effort, at least as a daily habit, a discipline, and old Adam convinces us it just isn’t worth the trouble. 

            Pride, certainly.  I’ll talk to God in a crisis, or when things really get tough.  But, for the most part, I’m doing fine on my own.  I have things, more or less, together and under control.  I can handle it. 

            On the other hand, fear.  What if I don’t do it right?  What if I say the wrong thing?  And He probably doesn’t want to hear from me, anyway.  Who am I to speak to the God of the universe?

            Then, in a strange combination of pride and fear, despair.  I’m too sinful.  God won’t listen to me.  My sins are too big for His mercy.  I know, He loves everybody… everybody else, that is.  But not me.  (It’s this bizarre arrogance that says my sins are even bigger than God can handle!)

            And then, I think it’s simply that we’re just extraordinarily dense.  I mean, I know what a gift prayer is.  I know things go better when I speak with my heavenly Father about the people I love and the things that concern me.  But I just forget.  As many of you know, I’m no stranger to insomnia, and it’s usually because my brain won’t turn off.  Especially the negative cycle.  The worry cycle.  I should know better, but I actually think that if I don’t worry about something obsessively, and solve every problem in my life (and yours) at 2 am, the whole world’s going to fall apart.  Do you ever have that?  It’s a tremendous lack of faith, isn’t it?  It really puts me in the place of God.  And the thing is, I know that, most of the time, if I simply commend it all to God and pray the Lord’s Prayer (you know, the one Jesus gives us, word for word, here in our Holy Gospel), I can usually fall asleep in peace.  But do you think I do that?  Hours I lay there, until it dawns on me.  “Oh, yeah.  I should pray.”  Dense. 

            But more than anything else, I think, our reluctance betrays a negligence in hearing God’s Word and living in His gifts.  You know, prayer is not just us talking to God.  It actually starts with God speaking to us in His Holy Word.  And in that sense, prayer is a two-way conversation.  We learn to speak by listening to our heavenly Father.  Like infants who learn to speak by listening to, and imitating, their parents.  And His Word gives us faith in Him, to know that He loves us, and wants to hear us, and answers us, and always gives what is best for us.  Apart from His Word, we don’t have that faith, so why would we ask Him anything?  See, our faith can only be strong and active as the Spirit comes to us in the Word of our Father, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and in the holy Sacraments (the visible Word). 

            The Spirit… How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?  So… ask Him.  Ask, and you will receive.  Father, grant me Your Holy Spirit, that I may pray, and believe, and so receive.  The Holy Spirit will give you to pray the prayer of the Lord Jesus, on the sure and certain ground of His death on the cross for your sins, and His justifying and life-giving resurrection.  Out with pride.  Away with fear and despair.  New life animating your body, soul, mind, and spirit.  Overcoming laziness and sloth.  Sharpening you where you were dull.  Cutting through the density.  The Spirit will give you to ask for good and godly things.  For yourself, and for your neighbor.  To commend all things to Him.  Always to seek His good and gracious will, for you, and for all.  Always to knock upon His fatherly heart, seeking His mercy and help and grace in Christ Jesus, the Savior.  Knowing that He will open His heart to you, and pour forth His gifts.  Knowing that He will open His Kingdom to you.  That He already has in the riven side of the crucified Son of God. 

            With Promises like those our Lord gives us in this Gospel, why on earth are we so reluctant to pray?  Repent of that.  We ought to commend everything to God in prayer.  Absolutely everything.  Corporately, in the prayer of the Church, praying for the sick and the suffering, the grieving; for the welfare of our congregation, and for the whole Church of God; for our nation; for the world; and for all of our concerns (a building for worship, for example).  And in our individual and family prayers (and you should pray individually, and as families… set aside the time).  Pray formally, as a matter of routine.  And then pray constantly throughout the day.  Pray before you go to work or school in the morning.  Pray for God’s blessing and protection, for you and your loved ones.  Pray that you do good work, that glorifies God, and benefits your neighbor.  Pray for those you know who are in need of God’s help (well, that list is endless, but at least hit some highlights).  Pray for your family.  Never stop praying for your family.  What are the things that are bothering you?  Pray about those things.  Pray for God’s mercy against all the misery in this world (I often pray through the headlines… otherwise the news just buries me in despondency, but prayer commends these things to the only One who can do anything about it all).  Pray before a trip.  Pray before each task.  Pray for each appointment, and for the people with whom you’ll interact.  Why not pray before you have that conversation, or send that email?  If you don’t already, gather the family to pray before each meal.  I have a suspicion that gift is falling by the wayside in too many Chrisian homes.  Whatever the thing is, just pray.  Commend it to God.  Ask His help.  Ask His blessing. 

            And see, it’s not just some drudgery, another obligation to fulfill.  I mean, it is commanded.  You should do this.  If you need to hear this as Law, hear it.  Repent of your indolence in prayer.  But that’s not why you’re doing it.  You’re doing it because of the Gospel Promises Jesus makes to you today.  When you pray, say this prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, because it covers everything you could possibly need to pray about, and your Father… your Father!  God is your Father!... your Father loves to hear it.  Ask, and God will give it.  Seek, and God will give you to find it.  Knock, and God will open up.  Maybe not in the way you wanted… Better, in fact.  Best.  Because He knows. 

            That is why you are praying.  Because God has spoken His prayer into you.  Because He’s breathed into you His Spirit.  Because He is your Father.  Because you are in Christ, His Son (Baptism).  Because Christ, His Son, is in you (the Word, the Supper).

            Why are we so reluctant to pray?  No more of that.  Here, our Lord teaches us just what to say.  Repeat after Him.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.              

                                

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 9C)

July 6, 2025

Text: Luke 10:1-20

            “I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven” (Luke 10:18; ESV).  This is not simply a reference to what happened in the beginning, when the angel, Lucifer, originally created as a holy angel, along with those lesser angels who followed him, rebelled against God and fell from their exalted position.  In our text, Jesus says He saw Satan falling like lightening in response to the preaching of the Gospel.  As the 72 went from village to village, preaching that the Kingdom of God had arrived in the Person of Jesus Christ, it was a full-force attack on Satan’s kingdom.  Every sermon is, in some sense, an exorcism.  Satan loses his influence as God’s Word is proclaimed.  He loses ground.  He loses souls.  People are freed from his tyranny.  Sinners are forgiven.  Temptations are thwarted.  Diseases are healed… in particular, death, as Christ’s resurrection is imparted.  Brokenness is mended.  Hearts are comforted.  Relationships are restored.  And above all else, the preaching of Jesus robs Satan of his ability to accuse you before God.  Because Gospel preaching is Absolution.  It forgives sins, and it imparts the righteousness of Christ to the sinner.  It is your justification before the Father, the objective justification won by Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection, now subjectively applied to you, here and now, in the powerful Word of Christ.

            And so, if preaching does that, well then, this means some very important things in terms of our regard for preachers and for preaching.  It means, first of all, that we should ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest field.  That is, we should pray for more pastors.  We should encourage young men to consider attending the Seminary.  We should support seminarians in their studies financially, and with our prayers.  The Church needs pastors.  The fields are white unto harvest (Cf. John 4:35).  Now, this does not mean that a faithful Christian sermon will always harvest three thousand souls, as Peter’s sermon did on Pentecost (Acts 2:41).  But then, faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ (Rom. 10:17).  And how can they hear unless someone preaches to them?  And how can there be preaching unless someone is sent (Rom. 10:14-15)?  So we pray that the Lord would prepare and send preachers, and we as the people of God call preachers to our congregations, and we support those preachers, that they may preach, and we may hear, and so believe. 

            Now, the support aspect is important.  We must support our preachers, because Jesus does not promise them an easy life.  Quite the opposite.  He promises the 72 that He is sending them out as lambs in the midst of wolves (Luke 10:3).  In case the illustration isn’t obvious, that is a rather perilous situation.  And the point is, preachers must be ready to suffer, and even shed their blood, for the preaching of the One who suffered and shed His blood for them. 

            They are to carry no moneybag or knapsack or extra pair of shoes (v. 4).  This is not to say, dear Lutherans, that clergy take some sort of a vow of poverty.  What it is to say is that the preacher is not to be worried about money or other material concerns.  After all, as we know, you cannot serve two masters.  You cannot serve God and money, Jesus teaches us (Luke 16:13).  The preacher is to serve God.  And, as far as it goes, this applies to every Christian.  But particularly in this sense to the preacher: He is not to carry a moneybag, because he is to trust in the Lord, and he is to rely on the people of God to whom he preaches for his wages and daily bread.  The laborer deserves his wages (10:7).  God provides for His preachers through the generosity of those who hear and believe.  As St. Paul puts it, quoting Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain” (1 Cor. 9:9; 1 Tim. 5:18; Deut. 25:4).  So, as I’m fond of saying, you may call your pastor an ox.  That’s in the Bible.  But you also have to pay him.  That’s in the Bible, too. 

            And the preacher, for his part, is not to go looking around, house to house, town to town, for a better situation, something more comfortable, or more lucrative, less risky, with less pain.  If he enters a house, in the case of the 72… or, let’s say, if he enters a congregation, in the case of a preacher today… he is to announce the Gospel.  He is to preach: “Peace be to this house!” (Luke 10:5).  Divine peace.  Forgiveness of sins.  Shalom: Healing, restoration, wholeness, and the like.  And if a son of peace is there… that is, if there are those present who receive this preaching of the Gospel and believe it, he is to stay put (v. 6).  He is to man his post.  His peace, the peace of the Gospel, is to rest there in that place as the preacher preaches, until the Lord calls the preacher somewhere else.  He is to eat and drink what they provide.  He is to be content with his wages, relying on the people sharing all good things with the one who teaches them the Word, as St. Paul says in our Epistle (Gal. 6:6). 

            Finally, this may be stating the obvious, but it is, nevertheless, the main point of our Holy Gospel this afternoon: If the preaching of Jesus Christ causes Satan to fall like lightening from heaven… If it defeats Satan’s attempts to tear us away from Christ and drag us down to hell with him… then we should eagerly hear such preaching at every opportunity, and believe that this preaching applies to each one of us.

            And if we don’t… Woe!  When a town rejects the 72… when a congregation rejects a faithful preacher… this is serious business.  The preacher is to wipe the dust of the place off his feet as a testimony against them (Luke 10:11).  And now his preaching of the Gospel actually becomes Law to them.  The Gospel is, finally, Law to the devil and those who reject Gospel preaching.  The preacher is to say, “Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near” (v. 11).  That is eschatological language… End Times language.  It is conquest language.  It proclaims to the defeated kingdom that, in the end, God wins.  You may continue in the illusion, for a time, that you are independent of His Kingdom, but on that Day, you, and the very devil, will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:11).  And it will be more bearable on that Day for Sodom than for those who had the Gospel and rejected it (Luke 10:12).  And you remember the fate of Sodom (Gen. 18-19).  In fact, if Tyre and Sidon, those great Gentile, pagan cities, had had the benefit of Jesus’ signs and the preaching of the New Testament, Jesus says they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes (Luke 10:13).  And Capernaum, Jesus’ home base, witness to so many of His sermons and miracles… For their rejection of the preaching, they will not be exalted to heaven, but brought down to Hades (v. 15).  And these words of our Gospel are a reference to the passage from Isaiah that describes the fate of the devil: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! … You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high… But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit” (Is. 14:12-15).  Those who reject the Gospel share in the devil’s eternal destiny.

            Why is Jesus so pointed in His words of condemnation?  Why so blunt, so intolerant of alternative ways?  For the sake of those He is calling to repentance.  It is a dire warning, a matter of eternal life and death.  Those who hear the preaching, hear Jesus Himself, and receive Jesus’ very life.  But those who reject the preachers and their preaching, reject Jesus Himself.  And in so doing, they reject not only Jesus, but the One who sent Him.  And that is the Father.  That is God (Luke 10:16).  If you reject the preaching, you reject God.  It is not a minor matter to reject what Jesus says, what is written in the Bible, what the preacher preaches.  It is rejection of God Himself, and that rejection results in death. 

            So… hear the preaching!  Believe it.  Fear and love God so that you do not despise preaching and God’s Word, but hold it sacred, and gladly hear and learn it.  When you hear preaching in Jesus’ Name, the very demons are subject to it.  And they must flee.  They are cast out.  Satan falls like lightening from heaven.

            Now, the preacher is not to exult in such power as though the demons are subject to his own authority.  That is the reason Jesus redirects the 72.  But they are to rejoice that the demons are subject to the Name of Jesus.  That is, to His authority, His Gospel, His preaching… His Kingdom.  You are to rejoice in this, too, because here you are, receiving this very gift at this very moment.  But this is simply to say, rejoice in the content of the preaching, and what it does in you, the Gospel that robs Satan of his power.  That is, your name, dear Christian, is written in heaven.  It is written in the Book of Life.  It is written in Jesus’ wounds.  You belong to God, holy, and precious.

            And how do you know that?  Jesus sent a preacher to preach it to you.  You believe because you hear.  You hear through the Word of Christ.  That is, the Word of Christ gives you ears to hear.  And it is that Word that I now preach to you.  Jesus died for your sins.  Jesus is risen from the dead.  Jesus forgives your sins and gives you eternal life.  Jesus sent me to preach that.  And when you hear and believe that preaching, Satan falls like lightening from heaven.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.        

 

 

St. Peter and St. Paul, Apostles

St. Peter & St. Paul, Apostles

June 29, 2025

Text: Matt. 16:13-19

            The Feast of Saints Peter and Paul is one of the oldest saints’ days on the Church calendar.  It commemorates the day on which, according to tradition, both Apostles were martyred in Rome.  Same day under Emperor Nero, St. Peter being crucified upside down, St. Paul, beheaded.  That is a powerful thing, the shedding of blood for the confession of Christ… the shedding of blood for the One who shed His blood for our redemption.  The word “martyr,” from the Greek word μάρτυς, literally means “witness.”  St. Peter and St. Paul were martyred for their witness to Jesus Christ, that He is God, the Son of God, who died for the sins of the world, and that He is now risen from the dead, lives, and reigns. 

            The emperor sought to silence them.  But their blood only sealed their ministry this side of the veil.  Behold, they still speak.  This very day, we hear their voices.  Peter, declaring of Jesus that which was revealed to him by the Father, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16; ESV).  Paul, having received the Gospel revelation directly from Jesus, relating the signs and wonders God had done through him and Barnabas among the Gentiles (Acts 15:12).  You can’t actually kill an Apostle.  You can’t actually kill any Christian.  And you certainly can’t silence them.  Because, when you kill them, they just go on living.  And their blood cries out from the ground, a testimony to the One who shed His blood, but lives forevermore. 

            What unlikely candidates they were, though, Peter and Paul.  Right?  Peter, a Galilean fisherman, called, now, to be a fisher of men.  But how often is he shoving his foot in his mouth?  We don’t have it in our text, but right after his great confession of Christ (that confession being the rock upon which Jesus builds His Church), Peter flubs it all up by rebuking Jesus for all this suffering and death talk.  It earns him a rebuke in kind: “Get behind me, Satan!  You are a hindrance to me.  For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (Matt. 16:23).  Or, how about on the Mount of Transfiguration, when Peter wants to build three tents, one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah?  Both Luke and Mark (and Mark was probably recording Peter’s own memoirs) can’t help but commentate that Peter didn’t know what he was talking about (Luke 9:33; Mark 9:6)!  How about the boast, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away… Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you” (Matt. 26:34-35), and, of course, how did that all end up?  Before the cock could crow twice, three times Peter denied his Lord.  And he went out and wept bitterly (v. 75). 

            Good old Peter.  He just can’t win.  He wants to walk on water like Jesus, but when he sees the wind and the waves, he doubts the Lord’s Word, and he sinks, and Jesus has to rescue him (14:29-31) (Boy, if that isn’t enigmatic of what Jesus does for Peter, and for all of us, over and over and over again, I don’t know what is!).  What else?  He wants to verify the empty tomb on Easter morn, but he can’t outrun John, who beats him to the garden (John 20:4).  He wants to see the risen Lord, there, on the shore, but he seems to lose his mind a little, putting on his clothes before jumping in the water, even though the boat is only a little way off (21:7-8).  But Peter loves Jesus.  And Jesus restores Peter.  Three times (one for each denial), “Do you love me?”  And three times, “Feed my lambs… Tend my sheep… Feed my sheep” (vv. 15-19), and a Promise… An odd one, to be sure.  I’ll paraphrase: “You’re gonna stretch out your hands… on the cross!  Just like Me.  You’re gonna be dressed… with the cross!  Just like Me.  You’ll be carried to your death… Just like Me.  And in this way, you’ll glorify God.  Follow Me, Peter.  Follow Me… to the cross!  To death!  And so, to life.”

            And, what about Paul?  Saul, as the Pharisee, and son of Pharisees, was known, according to his Hebrew name?  An up-and-comer among the Jews.  A student of the great Gamaliel.  Standing there, guarding the coats, and approving of Stephen’s stoning (Acts 7:58; 8:1).  Ravaging the Church, entering house after house, dragging off Christians, men and women, to prison (8:3).  On his way to Damascus to do the same, Jesus had to knock him on his keester.  “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?... Who are you, Lord?... I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (9:4-5).  Struck blind for three days (a number I think not insignificant), the Lord restored his sight and baptized him by the hand of a disciple named Ananias (vv. 17-18), so that Paul would now open the eyes of the Gentiles from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, that the Gentiles, too, might receive a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Jesus (26:17-18).

            But Paul had his rough edges, to be sure, even after he became a Christian.  Breaking with Barnabas over poor John Mark’s weakness, not wanting to take with them on their missionary journey, one who had abandoned them when the going got rough (Acts 15:38).  So… broken relationships and impatience with the weaker brother.  Then, a contentious argument with Peter.  Now, Peter was in the wrong, to be sure.  He had previously been eating with Gentiles, but when some men from James came along, suddenly Peter withdrew, so that even Barnabas was led astray.  “I opposed him to his face,” Paul says of the confrontation with Peter, “because he stood condemned... I said to Cephas before them all, ‘If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?’” (Gal. 2:11, 14).  In other words, “Why’d you stop eating with them, Peter?  Just to show off for the Judaizers?  Afraid of what they might think of you?”  Well, Paul was right.  But you can be right without being so… right, you know?  So… combative.  Prickly, maybe, is the word to describe Paul.  Rather difficult, sometimes.  You should know that Paul made up with all of the above.  He speaks warmly of Barnabas and Mark in his letters, and Peter mentions the letters of “our beloved brother Paul” in his second epistle (2 Peter 3:15).  Christians have their differences this side of the veil, it is true.  Saints on earth are still sinful, simul iustus et peccator.  But we must always reconcile.  We must always cover over one another’s sins and weaknesses with love, and bear with each other in patience.  As Paul did for the brothers, and the brothers did for Paul. 

            Look what Jesus did, though, in calling Peter… in calling Paul… to be His disciples.  To be His Apostles… arguably the two greatest Apostles.  Paul speaks from experience when he writes to the Corinthians, “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.  And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’” (1 Cor. 1:27-31).  Do you see the comfort, here, for you?  If God could use such unlikely candidates as Peter and Paul to be His two great Apostles… who, though dead, are still living… and speaking… preaching!... He can use you.  He didn’t make a mistake when He called you to be His own.  He loves you.  He sent His Son to redeem you by His own blood and death.  You are precious to Him. 

            Yes, even you.  Even though you so often put your foot in your mouth, speaking before you think.  Even though you’d rather bypass the cross, and boast in glory.  Even though, when the going gets tough, you deny your Lord to save your own skin.  Jesus loves you.  Jesus restores you.  And He calls you to follow Him and confess Him.

            Yes, even you.  Even though you’ve done some horrendous things to others.  Even to fellow Christians.  Even though you’ve broken relationships and shut weaker brothers and sisters out of your life.  Insisted on your own way.  Been combative.  Prickly.  Difficult. 

            Even you.  Repent of all that, of course.  Humble yourself.  Apologize.  Confess, to God and to your neighbor.  Be absolved.  Be reconciled.  By the power of Christ’s blood, which covers all sin.  But understand, you belong in God’s Kingdom, not because you deserve it, but because Jesus says so.  And He brings it about by His death and resurrection for you.  The day He said, through His disciple (probably a pastor), “I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” He healed you.  He opened your eyes.  He restored you.  “Do you love Me?  Yes, Lord, you know that I love You.”  He called you.  “Follow Me.”  And confess Me.  Confess what My Father has revealed to you.  All the way to death.  For dying, you live.  And confessing, you speak even beyond the grave. 

            It’s a powerful thing, confessing Christ as the Son of the living God, even unto the shedding of blood.  Because God is faithful.  Christ is faithful.  He shed His blood for us.  May He now keep us faithful unto death, like St. Peter, St. Paul, and so to give us the crown of life (Rev. 2:10).  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.