Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 28B)

November 17, 2024

Text: Mark 13:1-13

            The signs of the End are not yet the End.  They are but the beginning of the birth pains.  Contractions indicate the beginning of labor, but there is an ordeal to be endured before the child is born.  So also, the signs of the End indicate that we are in the End Times.  We’ve been in the End Times since our risen Lord ascended into heaven with the Promise He would return to judge the living and the dead.  But the signs themselves are ordeals to be endured between now and His reappearing.  Jesus warns us beforehand, lest we be led astray… lest we fail to watch and pray… lest we lose heart in the midst of the promised trials and tribulations.

            What are the signs?  Well, the Temple prophecy has already been fulfilled.  AD 70: The Roman siege of Jerusalem, the devastation of the Holy City, the annihilation of the Temple.  Not one stone left upon another.  All of them thrown down.  Simply the consequence of Israel’s rejection of her Lord.  False christs… those coming in the Name of Jesus, saying of themselves, “I AM”?  Yes, we have plenty of those.  And along with them, the false teachers who claim they can predict the day and hour of the Lord’s return.  Jesus specifically says that only His Father knows that (Mark 13:32).  Wars and rumors of wars?  Nation against nation, and kingdom against kingdom?  We’ve had a lot of that these days.  And we always have.  Reminders, always, each of them, of God’s impending Judgment.  “This must take place, but the end is not yet” (v. 7; ESV).  Earthquakes?  Famines?  Every natural disaster preaches the Eschaton.  That is to say, the Last Things.  Paul says it this way: “the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” (Rom. 8:22) as it waits for the revealing of the sons of God (v. 19).

            So also, there are ordeals to be endured personally.  Jesus prophesies precisely what the Apostles and the first Christians will endure in the Book of Acts.  Being delivered over to councils, the Sanhedrin.  Beatings in the synagogues.  Testifying to Christ before governors and kings.  These things happened.  Remember the Apostles in Acts 5 (apparently all Twelve of them!), arrested and tried before the High Priest and the Council and Senate of the people, beaten and commanded no longer to preach in this Name (the Name of Jesus).  And they left the prison “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name” (Acts 5:41).  And then they kept on preaching.  Openly.  Because they knew that, before the End, the Gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations.  Remember Paul’s sufferings.  Beaten.  Stoned (essentially to death, but he got up again, miraculously, and kept preaching).  Imprisoned.  He testified before governors and kings (Felix, Festus, Agrippa), as his Lord had done before him (Pilate, Herod).  And we know he was taken in custody to Rome, where he eventually suffered martyrdom. 

            Families torn apart over the Name of Jesus.  These are the signs.  Brother against brother.  Father against child.  Child against father.  You all know stories of this very thing.  Perhaps you’ve suffered it yourself.  Rejection on the part of loved ones because of your faith in Christ.  You will be hated by all for My Name’s sake, Jesus says.  Yes, we all know about that.  And you may suffer the other trials the Apostles and the first Christians suffered on account of your faith, the beatings, the imprisonments, death.  Yes, it could happen.  It happens now, in many places, to our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We’ve been lulled into a false sense of security here in America, but we are not immune.  These are the signs.  The End is not yet, but the End is coming.  Jesus is coming.  He is coming soon. 

            And when we encounter the signs, beloved, we are not to despair.  We are to take them as confirmation of all that our Lord teaches us in the Scriptures.  These signs are reminders to stay alert, be on your guard, be prepared.  And above all, keep your ears on the Promise of the Lord Jesus Christ: “the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Mark 13:13). 

            How do we endure?  Well, perhaps most practically, don’t get distracted.  So many things in life, even though they are blessings in themselves, take our eyes off of the reality… these are perilous times… take our eyes off of Jesus, our only help, now, and in the Day of Judgment, who is coming soon.  You know the things that distract you from Him.  Politics.  Your job.  The busy-ness of life in the modern world.  Hypnotic glowing screens everywhere you turn, and in your very pocket.  Etc., etc.  Again, fine and good things as far as they go, but you get wrapped up in them, and allow them to become the main thing in your life, excuses to turn your ears away from Jesus, to not go to Church (or, as the writer to the Hebrews says in our Epistle, neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, 10:25)… You make them idols.  Repent of that, and look up at the One who was crucified for you, who is risen for you, and who is with you always, that you may endure. 

            Help your children to look up, to be vigilant, to interpret the signs.  Jesus is coming.  Teach them that.  Bring them here.  And teach them, here, how to participate in the full life of Christ’s holy people, as we endure the signs and await our Lord’s appearance.  This is actually a lot easier than we think, guys.  But we do have to do it.  Show them where we are in the hymnal.  Show them the words, even before they can read.  Teach them the words, here and at home, so that they know them by heart.  Have them say the words with the congregation (and with your family at home), starting with the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer.  Help them to listen.  Tell them (especially when they get loud), “listen to the pastor.  He’s telling us about Jesus.”  Teach them when to stand and when to sit.  Bring them to Sunday School.  Teach them to tithe (have them put a little money in the offering plate when it comes by).  Set an example by your own words and actions.  Speak joyfully and positively to them about your Church.  These may seem like mundane things (and they are), but they have eternal consequences.  Because you are helping them to be ready for the End.  You are equipping them to endure, come what may, until that day.

            Help one another to look up.  Always be pointing one another to Jesus.  Away from the distractions.  To Jesus.  Help each other to hear and learn the Words of Jesus, because these are the Words that will carry you through the ordeals to be endured.  When you stand before governors and kings, or hostile family members, or the judge in some lawsuit because you didn’t use the right pronouns, you don’t have to be anxious what you will say.  The Spirit will give you the words to say.  Because He already has.  The Scriptures.  The Liturgy.  The Creed.  The words you know by heart, and that you are teaching your children to know by heart.  Just faithfully confess what you know and believe.  And then endure, whatever happens.  Endure by the strength of those Words of Jesus, by the Holy Spirit who is in those words, knowing that the one who endures to the End will be saved. 

            And don’t let the ordeals themselves distract you from keeping your eyes, and ears, on Jesus.  That is so easy to do.  Watching the evening news is an exercise in despair.  What man does to man.  The lies.  The agendas.  The violence.  The murder.  The wars.  Creation itself subjected to futility by our sin (you know, hurricanes and destructive storms, fires, yes, earthquakes, famines, drought).  Don’t let Satan and his acolytes in the world convince you this is evidence of some sort of meaninglessness: a meaningless end to a meaningless life in a meaningless world.  That is called nihilism, and it is the hopelessness in which so many people increasingly live and die in this world.  But you know better than that.  You have a Lord who was crucified, but who is risen from the dead.  So you know how this works.  These evil things are signs that the labor is about to end.  Endure for just a little while longer.  The pain will cease.  Joy will come.  Jesus is coming.  And then, He will raise all the dead, and give eternal life to you and all believers in Christ.

            In fact, that is, finally, the ultimate sign.  Never mind the earthly Temple.  “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” Jesus says (John 2:19).  You know that He was speaking about the Temple of His Body (v. 21).  He is the Temple.  His flesh is the dwelling place of God with man.  His flesh is the place of sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.  His flesh is the Sacrifice.  They destroyed this Temple… we destroyed this Temple by our sins (crucified, dead and buried)… and in three days He raised it up again.  For our forgiveness, life, and salvation.  And that is the pattern.  So as we see death on this side off the veil… false teachers, wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, famines, persecutions… we understand that this is the Good Friday to our Easter.  Christ has died.  Christ is risen.  We are dying.  But He will raise us.  On that glorious Day when He comes again.  Until then, be on your guard.  Read the signs.  Look up, believe, and rejoice.  Jesus is coming.  The End is near.  And the one who endures to the End will be saved.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.   

        

Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 27B)

November 10, 2024

Text: Mark 12:38-44

            As he made his way into the building, little Jack Gulseth showed me the shiny new dime he’d found.  “Wow, you’re rich!” I exclaimed.  The Gulseths, as you know, had come to our capital campaign kick-off dinner.  It was a beautiful night, wasn’t it?  Made all the sweeter by the presence of our guests, friends from our mother Church, Messiah, Seattle, the circuit visitor and his dear wife, and the Gulseth Family from Concordia, a fitting expression of the healing and goodwill between our two congregations.  At any rate, as the evening was coming to a close, Pastor Gulseth appeared at my side, wielding the dime.  “Jack listened very carefully to the devotion and the speeches,” he said, “and he took them to heart.  And I want you to know, it is very important to Jack that you accept his dime as a donation to your capital campaign.”  Five years old!  It may have been the most touching moment of a very touching night.  And I immediately thought of our text.  Though Jack lives on the providence of his parents, it is nevertheless true: He gave all he had.  That’s faith!  And God will bless it.  God does not count money as we do.  He does mightier things by the pennies of widows and the dimes of children, given in faith, than we can even begin to imagine.

            Now, I think we’re too hard on all the other people putting money into the offering box.  Especially the rich people.  Thank God for them.  Of course, as I said at the dinner, in God’s economy, there is no such thing as a small gift, at least not when given sacrificially and cheerfully, for, as Paul says, “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7; ESV).  I suppose a small gift in God’s economy is one given begrudgingly or miserly, whatever the amount.  But I think we can all agree, thank God for what are, humanly speaking, big gifts, as well.  Realistically, we need them, and you’ve given them.  Out of your abundance (and thank God for your abundance), you’ve given some of it, as did the people at the Temple that day in our text. 

            But the widow gave more than all of them, and that is something to give us pause.  Not that she gave more money.  Two copper coins.  Maybe they make a penny by today’s standards.  Why, then, does the Lord praise her?  Because proportionately she put in more than all the others?  True.  True enough.  She did, and that is good.  But do you think… not that most of us knows what anyone else gives, and where that stands in proportion to our various and variable incomes… but do you think that God declares you more righteous than your neighbor because you give a bigger proportion of your income than he does?  And do you ever stop to think that, if that is true, that would mean He declares others of your neighbors more righteous than you, because they give a larger proportion of their incomes than you do?  Just stop it.  That’s not what this is about.

            Why, then, does the Lord praise her?  He says, “she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all that she had to live on” (Mark 12:44).  And see, now our Lord’s sermon, like any good stewardship sermon (and therefore unlike most stewardship sermons), redirects our eyes from the amount put in, to the miraculous, God-given faith, the fruit of which is the sacrificial giving.  The point is this: In faith, the woman didn’t just give God two copper coins.  She didn’t just give God her whole income.  She gave God her life.  All of her.  The whole of her.  All she had.  All she is.  Trusting that He who gave it all to her in the first place, her life and all she had, would continue to provide for her, continue to give to her, continue to pour forth His all for her.

            And what makes this all the more remarkable, is that, though she appears here in the New Testament, she’s really an Old Testament believer.  Right?  We find her in the Temple, making her Temple contribution.  And that is to say, she is still looking forward to Messiah’s coming.  Trusting in the Christ who, as far as she knows, is yet to come.  She hasn’t yet seen the fulfillment of the Old Testament Promises (though that fulfillment is sitting off to the side watching her).  Yet she believes, she trusts, with her whole life… all she has to live on… that those Promises are true.

            And in giving everything, her whole life, in sacrifice… she is a prophetic picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, and His giving His all, His whole life, in sacrifice on the cross, for the forgiveness of our sins.  She is the Church.  This is what we get to be in our giving.  Icons of Christ.  Picturing for one another, and for the whole world, the redemptive sacrifice of Christ for us.  “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9).

            And there is another thing we learn from her.  She knows this, perhaps only implicitly, but here is wisdom to carry in your heart your whole life long: Whatever you keep back from God, in the end, you lose.  But whatever you give up to God, surrender to God for His purposes, you keep eternally.  And, in fact, as we heard recently, you are rewarded a hundredfold.  It is as Pastor Elliott preached to us at the dinner… On your death bed, you won’t be thinking about how much money is in the bank.  All of that will cease to matter.  You can’t take it with you, as the old saying goes.  But what will follow you are the people for whom God has used you to bring them to faith in Christ, or strengthen their faith, encourage their faith, sustain their faith.  Through your words.  Your example.  Your prayers.  Yes, your offering.  Think about little Jack’s words about his dime.  Think of his example to us.  Undoubtedly, his prayers.  Think of that mighty little dime doing the work of God’s Kingdom.  More than a mere 10 cents, I can tell you, will follow Jack into heaven.  More than two copper coins will follow the widow.  We will follow them.  Our children will follow them.  All those impacted by the Gospel ministry of this congregation will follow them.  These are the true riches.  Surrendering all, including their very selves, Jack and the widow have unimaginable treasure in heaven.  Because it is as Jesus says in another place in the Gospel: “whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35). 

            What is the pride of the scribes against which Jesus warns us at the beginning of our Holy Gospel, but the holding back of something (in this case, honor) for the self, and from God?  Right?  “Look at me.  Give me the place of honor in the congregation and at the feast.  Listen to my long and eloquent prayers.  And widows?  Give all you have to live on to me.”  The scribes, for the most part, like pastors today, lived on the offerings of the people.  Nothing wrong with that, as far as it goes.  You shall not muzzle the ox while it is treading grain, and all that (1 Cor. 9:9; 1 Tim. 5:18; Deut. 25:4).  But these widow’s needed charity from the scribes, not the other way around.  This is a warning to the clergy.  To the Apostles, who were in attendance at Jesus’ discourse.  To the Christian pastors.  But also, beloved, to every well-respected and pious Christian.  Don’t make it about you.  Don’t revel in the honor others bestow upon you.  Direct it away from you.  Toward Christ.  Don’t hold back the honor due to God for yourself.  He must increase.  You must decrease.  You are nothing.  He is everything.  Give even that.  All of you.  Your whole life.  St. Peter says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you” (1 Peter 5:6).

            Now, if you are hearing this sermon as an admonition to put more money in the plate, you haven’t heard a word I’ve said.  But if you are hearing this as an admonition to lose yourself in Christ, who loves you, and gave Himself for you, all that He is, and all that He has, into humiliation and death for your salvation… that’s it!  That’s it!  You’ve got it!  Because to lose yourself entirely in Him, is to find yourself as you were always meant to be!  As God created you to be!  To take up your cross and die in that way, that is really to live!  In Him, the One who died for you, and who is risen from the dead.  That’s the widow.  That’s little Jack.  That’s you joined to Christ in the blest baptismal waters.  Crucified with Him.  Raised with Him.  We saw it again this afternoon, praise God.  God gave you all that you are and have in the first place.  It all belongs to Him.  God redeemed all that you are and have by the blood and death of Jesus Christ.  Now it belongs to Him doubly.  He is not going to forsake you now!  Quite the contrary.  “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32).  You know the answer to that. 

            Beloved, rejoice in the self-sacrifice, the whole burnt offering, of our Lord Jesus Christ for you.  And then, be like the widow.  Be like Jack.  Which is to say, live in it.  Live in that sacrifice.  Embrace it.  Own it.  Be the picture of it in your own life of generosity and sacrifice.  Absolutely trusting that having Christ, you have everything.  In the end, you lack nothing.  Not even one shiny little dime.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                                

All Saints' Day (Observed)

All Saints’ Day (Observed)

November 3, 2024

Text: Matt. 5:1-12

            “And I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’  ‘Blessed indeed,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!’” (Rev. 14:13; ESV).

            Our Lord calls “Blessed” what we, at least according to our fallen human nature, would consider a curse.  The beatitudes of the Bible are often counter-intuitive.  We would say, “Blessed are those who are rich!”  Not only in spirit, but in money, in things.  In beautiful homes, and with well-funded retirements.  And, yes, rich in spirit, which is to say, rich in works, rich in personal righteousness.   The poor in spirit are blessed?  Those who have nothing in themselves, who bring nothing to the table before God, before the Church?  Yes, those very ones, says Jesus.

            We would say, “Blessed are those who have nothing to mourn over; those who have power, and know how to use it; those who are filled, and fulfilled.”  But those who mourn, the meek, those hungering and thirsting after righteousness?  They are blessed?  Yes, says Jesus.  Those very ones. 

            And we get that the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers should be blessed.  Those sound like very blessed character traits.  But it so often seems so futile.  You can be merciful toward others, but where does it get you?  Your mercy is taken for granted.  Your forgiving those who sin against you, who aren’t even sorry.  Your generosity toward those who aren’t even thankful, and who misuse your gifts.  Then, meekness?  What is that, anyway?  The best definition I’ve read is that someone who is meek, is someone who has the power to do something, and doesn’t.  The Josephs of Holy Scripture are the picture of meekness.  Joseph in the Old Testament had the power to punish his brothers for selling him down the river, but ultimately, he didn’t.  He forgave them and provided for them.  Jospeh in the New Testament, the adoptive father of our Lord, had the power, not only to divorce Mary when she was found to be pregnant, but to stone her to death.  But he didn’t.  He protected her, and provided for her, and for her Son.  Meekness.  Admirable.  Blessed.  But who can do it?  And when you do, it can sure heap an awful lot of misery on oneself.  And peacemaking?  The fruit of mercy and meekness.  But good luck.  It’s a lot of work, a lot of frustration, and who is to say, in the end, whether it will be successful? 

            And, last but not least, we would say, “Blessed are those who do not suffer pain and rejection, much less beatings, imprisonments, the loss of all earthly goods… death.”  Quite the contrary, says our Lord.  Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.  Blessed are you when you are reviled, persecuted, and slandered for Jesus’ sake.  It’s strange, to say the least.  The Beatitudes have confounded Christians for centuries.  (Beatitude, by the way, simply means blessed.)  But we count them precious, because we sense their profundity, and we know our Lord’s Words, here, are doing something, making things happen, acting upon us as we hear them.  Our Lord opens His mouth to speak His creative Word, the Word that brings forth out of nothing (ex nihilo) all that is, visible and invisible.  And so, upon us, His Word is an act of re-creation.  New creation.  It puts to death our old conception of what it means to be blessed.  And it conceives within us the true blessedness.

            But it isn’t easy for us to comprehend.  The Beatitudes are not platitudes.  They are not simple.  And so there are some misconceptions to untangle.  Particularly when it comes to why the poor in spirit, those who mourn, those hungering and thirsting, etc., are blessed.  The first misconception to get over is this idea that poverty… specifically financial poverty… is a virtue in itself.  Our society loves that one, but it isn’t what the text says, nor does it say it anywhere in the Bible.  As it happens, though in Luke Jesus pronounces the poor blessed (Luke 6:20, and that is important for those who are financially poor to hear… they are not something less in the eyes of God than those who have been blessed with material wealth), here in Matthew, Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matt. 5:3; emphasis added).  And that is to say, those who make no claims to merit or worthiness before God.

            Now, the rest of the Beatitudes are really an unpacking of that first one.  One who mourns his own sin, and that of others, the state of the world under sin’s curse, injustice, death and its attendant suffering… that one is poor in spirit.  One who is meek, who does not use his power to oppress, that one is poor in spirit.  And so on.  You get the picture. 

            Now, it is not the poverty itself that is the blessedness.  It is not the hungering and thirsting after righteousness, or the persecution, that is the blessedness.  It is rather what God, by grace, gives to the one in that state.  The Kingdom of heaven.  Comfort.  The very earth (think, here, New Creation).  Satisfaction, mercy, the beatific vision of God, divine sonship.  This is why you can rejoice and be glad in your poverty of spirit, even under intense persecution, because that kind of suffering simply means your reward is coming.  Jesus is coming to deliver you and to give you all that He here promises.  Yes, rejoice.  Because you are blessed, indeed. 

            And understand, these aren’t rewards that you earn.  That would be the opposite of poor in spirit, wouldn’t it?  These are rewards given by and on account of Christ to those who are baptized into Him.  Who have suffered for and with Him.  Who have died to themselves, and so received their life in Him, and who will receive the resurrection of their body in Him.

            And that leads us to the beatitude I quoted at the beginning of this sermon from Revelation 14, and it really is the focus of our mediation on this All Saints’ Day.  As counter-intuitive as it may be… as much as we think of death as the ultimate evil (well, it is… St. Paul calls it “the last enemy to be destroyed” [1 Cor. 15:26]… Death is never a friend, and we were not created to die.  We were created for life eternal with God!)… Nevertheless, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord!”  Yes, blessed!  Why?  Because they rest from their labors, their poverty of spirit, all the things described in the Beatitudes.  And their deeds do follow them.  No, this isn’t works righteousness.  In Christ, all their sins are forgiven, so their wicked deeds, their sins, don’t follow them.  But all of Christ’s perfect fulfillment of the Law in their place, as well as the good deeds the Spirit has wrought through them, cleansed of all impurity, bright and shining as stars, the works prepared by God beforehand that the saints should walk in them (Eph. 2:10)… these do follow them…  Their poverty of spirit.  Their meekness and mercy and peacemaking.  Their sufferings.  These do follow them, and receive their consolation.  So as you think about your loved ones who have died and are now in heaven with Jesus, think of that.  They are blessed.  They are comforted.  They are satisfied with Christ’s own righteousness.  They see God.  Think of that, beloved, and be comforted.

            But there is yet one more key to understanding the Beatitudes in our text, and really, all beatitudes in Holy Scripture.  And it is THE point.  The Beatitudes are not, first or foremost, descriptions of us suffering the cross in this world for Christ.  They are, above all, descriptions of Christ suffering the cross for this world, and for us.  Christ, true God, the eternal Son of the Father, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but gave it all up (Phil. 2:6-7) to become poor in spirit (and literally poor!) for us, and for our salvation.  He mourned our lost estate, wept over Jerusalem, at some point (though it is not recorded in Scripture) grieved over the death of His dad, Jospeh, and wept at the tomb of His dear friend, Lazarus.  He is meek… He has the power to send us all to hell, body and soul, for all eternity, but instead, He comes to save us.  Hungering and thirsting for our righteousness, He gives us His own, and credits it to our account.  Not only merciful… He is Mercy Incarnate, shedding His precious blood, dying on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, and to give us eternal riches, eternal life.  He is the Pure in Heart… sinless, righteous, holy.  He is the Peacemaker… reconciling us with God, reconciling us with one another (Christians, dear redeemed of God, we have no business being at enmity with each other.  If you have an issue with any person in this assembly, go and be reconciled right now, in the Name of Jesus Christ).  He is THE Persecuted One.  All the way to Calvary.  All the way to the cross.

            And so He dies.  And He rests from His labor.  Rests in the tomb.  Sabbath.  And His deeds do follow Him.  And so, on the Third Day, He rises.  And so, He is Blessed.  And we are blessed, and we will rise, in Him.

            Jesus is our Beatitude.  Our Beatitude is always and only in Jesus.  And that is why those we commemorated this afternoon, and all the blessed dead, really are not dead.  They live.  And they gather with us around the Altar, with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.  Behold, a Host arrayed in white.  God wipes away their tears.  They have come out of the great tribulation.  We feebly struggle yet for a little while, but they in glory shine.  And all of us are blessed.  Because we are in Jesus.  One holy Christian and apostolic Church, gathered around the throne of God, and of the Lamb.

            The Beatitudes are counter-intuitive, but so is the very Gospel.  Jesus died, and behold, He lives.  We die in Jesus, and so we live in Him.  Blessed are you who believe this.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                   

Reformation Day (Observed)

Reformation Day (Observed)

500^th Anniversary of Luther’s Translation of the Psalter

October 27, 2024

Text: Psalm 46

            The Year of Our Lord Fifteen Hundred and Twenty-four, 500 years ago, the Lutheran Reformation of the Holy Christian Church was in full swing.  And among any number of momentous events, this was the year Dr. Luther published his translation of the Psalter.  Never underestimate the importance of the Psalter, the Psalms, in Lutheran theology.  Luther loved the Psalms, and even prior to his breakthrough on the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, Luther maintained a steady diet of the Psalms.  He memorized the Psalms, sang them daily as a child in school and as a friar in the monastery.  Luther was immersed in the Psalms, as we should be, the hymnal and prayerbook of the Bible, so foundational to the biblical Lutheran theology of which we are heirs and stewards.

            Psalm 46 is of particular note to us, because it was this Psalm Dr. Luther poetically paraphrased in “the battle hymn of the Reformation,” “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” (LSB 656/657).  What a tremendous Psalm for our meditation in these times, especially as we anticipate another contentious election and all the accompanying civil unrest and strife such an election entails; in the life of our congregation, as we ride the roller coaster of capital campaigns, potential properties, high hopes, anxieties, and disappointments, and hopefully soon, the right property, at the right price, at the right time; in our families and individual lives, with all our joys and sorrows, triumphs and challenges, medical issues, family relations… whatever it may be.  “God is our refuge and strength,” we sing and confess with the Sons of Korah, “a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling” (vv. 1-3; ESV).  Even when the bottom falls out from under us, and all is crisis and chaos, Christ’s Church confidently sings: We will not fear.  We will not fear… though the wrong people are in power and threaten to damage and destroy all that we hold dear.  Or, the right people are in power, and turn out not to be so right, after all.  We will not fear… though there doesn’t seem to be enough money for the buildings that aren’t available anyway, and we can’t seem to agree on what we need, or what we could afford, even if they were.  We will not fear… though the marriage is in trouble, or the cancer is back, or the kids are making a grave mistake, and we know how it’s going to turn out for them, and all we can do is close our eyes and pray.  We will not fear.

            Of course, we do fear, and that is why we need to sing this Psalm.  Because in this Psalm, the Holy Spirit teaches us why, come what may, we need never fear:  The LORD is with us.  He dwells with us.  He makes His habitation with us.  And that is to say, Christ Jesus, Immanuel (God with us!), God in our human flesh.  “Ask ye, Who is this?  Jesus Christ it is,” as we sing in Dr. Luther’s hymnic version (LSB 656:2).  He fights our battles (“Of Sabaoth Lord.”  That means, “Lord of Hosts,” or “Lord of Armies”).  He defeats our enemies, sin, death, the devil and his demonic hoard.  He delivers us from their tyranny, and brings us into His own Kingdom.  He does it by His innocent suffering and death on the cross for us, and His victorious and lifegiving resurrection from the dead for us.  “And there’s none other God; He holds the field forever.”  So He is our Mighty Fortress, and that is why we need never fear.

            Now ponder this sublime image painted in the center of our Psalm.  Within this protective Fortress (the Fortress that is God Himself), God establishes His Holy City, the New Jerusalem, the Holy Christian Church.  And there is a River, there (Ps. 46:4).  Now, there is no great river in earthly Jerusalem (there are springs, and there are wadis, but no river), so the Psalm must be singing of something else.  And what is that?  What is the River whose streams make glad the city of God?  The River is the Holy Spirit, whose Source is in the Father, through the heart of the Son, filling the hearts of all believers in Christ (John 7:38).  He flows forth in the preaching of the Gospel, and in the Means of Grace, in Baptism, Absolution, the Supper.  That is to say, He is flowing forth now, water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, giving drink to God’s chosen people (Is. 43:20), to you, O City of God, and through you, to all to whom you confess Jesus Christ and the life and salvation that come from Him alone. 

            This River is pictured throughout the Scriptures.  We can think here of the River flowing out of Eden in the beginning, splitting into four, to water the face of the earth (Gen. 2:10).  We can think of the River in Ezekiel (47), flowing from the Temple of God, now ankle-deep, now knee-deep, now waist-deep, now unpassable… on each bank, trees, whose fruit is for food, and whose leaves are for healing.  We think of Jesus, and the River of blood and water flowing from His pierced side (John 19:34).  And we think of the fulfillment of all of this in Revelation (22), the River of the Water of Life, bright as Crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.  Again, on either side of the River, the Tree of Life, with its twelve kinds of fruit, each in its season, and its leaves for the healing of the nations.  This is what is going on, right here, right now, in this preaching. 

            It makes you glad, doesn’t it?  It is the cause of your rejoicing, and the driving away of your fear.  Because you believe it, and receive it.  You are enlivened by it… by Him… this Spirit of God.  It causes the kingdoms of this world to totter and fall.  That is why the powers that be are so afraid of God’s Word, His Kingdom, His Church.  They don’t want His Lordship.  They don’t want to be under Him.  The nations rage.  The earth melts.  But you… as we sing in Psalm 1, blessed are you, because your delight is in the Law of the LORD, His Torah, His Word, upon which you meditate day and night.  And so you are like a tree planted by streams of water, by the River, yielding fruit in season (good works), whose leaf does not wither (health, wholeness, life!).  You are here, attending to the preaching, because your delight is in this very thing.

            Now, as a result… simply come and behold the works of the LORD (Ps. 46:8).  He brings desolations on the earth, mighty acts of judgment.  He makes wars cease (v. 9).  He alone brings peace, and so, we should pray to Him for peace, in our own nation, and among the nations of the earth (we’re all worried about the fallout of this election, and we’re all worried about World War III, and some would say we’re already in it… this should drive us, not to worry, but to prayer!).  He breaks our weapons and burns our chariots, echoes of swords beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks (Is. 2:4).  And so, at the end of the day, what should we do?  “Be still, and know that I am God,” says your Lord (Ps. 46:10).  Still yourself.  Let God be God.  You just rest yourself in the protection of your Mighty Fortress.  And exalt His Name.  He will be exalted, anyhow.  The Day is coming when every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:10-11).  For the kingdoms of this world, it will be an agonizing experience of Judgment.  But for holy believers among the nations of the earth, for you, who already bow and confess, it will be your Day of vindication.

            Beloved, “The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress” (Ps. 46:11).  With us.  Immanuel.  This Psalm is about Jesus.  Well… the secret is, all of them are.  And for that reason, five hundred years ago, Pastor Luther translated the Psalter into German for his flock.  We sing with him (in our case, mostly in English), and with all of our fathers and mothers in the faith, and with our brothers and sisters throughout the world, in many tongues.  And so, the River flows, and we will not fear.  Remember that, whatever happens November 5^th.  Remember that, whatever happens at voters this afternoon.  Remember that, whatever you are going through in your own life and in your household.  “God is our refuge and strength,” a very present Help.  Present not simply in your mind or in your heart.  Present here, now, in the audible Voice of His Word, and on the Altar, in His true body and blood.  Be still and know that.  And greet Him here and now, singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16).  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                 

 

Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost

Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 24B)

October 20, 2024

Text: Mark 10:23-31

            Money is not the source of your life.  That is the lie Satan tells you.  And you’re pretty easy to convince.  You may grasp intellectually that this cannot be true.  But you too often act as though it is.  You look to money, riches, to provide for you, protect you, help you in times of trouble, give you joy, and enable you to live a full and fulfilled life.  But do you see the position to which you’ve elevated money?  You’ve made it an idol.  You’ve made it your god.  Again, let’s call it by its true name, Mammon.  And it works exactly as Satan intends it.  It shuts out from you the true Source of your life, the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the true riches He delights to pour out upon you: Eternal life with Him in His Kingdom, the forgiveness of sins, the wiping away of guilt and shame and pain and tears, the resurrection of the body, and true and eternal wholeness, peace, and joy.  Money can’t buy that!  And that is precisely the point Jesus was making to the rich young man when He told him to “go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven” (Mark 10:21; ESV).  And that is precisely the point He is making to His disciples in our text, and to us as He preaches this Gospel this afternoon: “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” (v. 23).  Mammon makes a very poor God.  And if you fashion it as your god, it will rob you of the one true God. 

            The disciples are amazed at this.  Not because they think money makes a wonderful deity.  But because the Jews believed that, at least among the chosen people of God, material wealth was a sign of God’s favor, a reward for a life well-lived according to the Law.  Poverty was a punishment for sin.  And so, if anybody can be assured a place in the Kingdom of God, surely this rich young man, who has kept the Commandments from his youth, as attested by God’s giving him such vast wealth and possessions, will be counted among them.  And if he can’t make it, well then… “who can be saved?” (v. 26). 

            And before you wag your head at this silly notion of the disciples that the rich are better off before God than the poor, stop and think a minute.  Isn’t it true that we tend to think the same way?  I look around the room and I see people, none of whom I would consider “rich” by today’s standards (maybe I just don’t know), but nonetheless more materially comfortable and secure than the rich young man, or even kings in the ancient world.  And we all say of it, “I am blessed by God,” and we are, that is right.  We should recognize that all that we have comes from God, and give thanks to Him for it.  But then we look at someone in poverty (which, again, is a relative term… There is a vast difference between a poor person in America today, and a poor person in the ancient world, or even this very moment in many other places), and what do we say, or at least think?  They are poor because of their own sin.  Drugs.  Alcohol.  Unwilling to work.  Scamming the system.  Unwed pregnancy.  … Which may be true!  As so much of the wisdom in Proverbs teaches, bad choices do lead to bad outcomes, and good choices do lead to good outcomes.  Not always, but generally speaking.  Then again, our assumption may not be true.  Perhaps the person is poor because of sickness, or tragedy, or because someone else has cheated them.  We are forever breaking the 8^th Commandment with regard to the poor, assuming the worst, assuming we know the cause of the poverty.  And notice that we actually start to think about this as, God has blessed me because I’ve lived well according to the Law, and He hasn’t blessed them, because they haven’t.  Be careful.  God may soon disabuse us of this thinking by leveling us all in economic collapse, or catastrophic war, or disaster.  And, on the other hand, it is quite possible that you may be thrust into abject poverty precisely for your righteous actions.  Remember, the world hates Christ and His Christians.  And it will punish you for being faithful.  The cost of following Jesus may just be the loss of earthly goods.  So repent of such thinking.

            Truth be told, as a matter of the First Commandment, Mammon is an idol of the rich and the poor and everyone in between.  Think about it.  Wherever you fall on the spectrum of wealth, isn’t it true that you actually think most of your problems and inconveniences could be solved with just a little more money?  Just a bit.  Just enough.  I’m not being greedy, here.  But it’s never enough!  The poor man thinks money will solve his every difficulty.  The rich man always needs just a little bit more to be secure.  And every last lovin’ one of us who fall somewhere in between believe we’d be better off if we had just a little more.  And when we get a little more, thanks be to God, but we need just a little more.

            This is a certain indication that Mammon has become your idol.  To expose this, Jesus changes, mid-course in our Gospel, how He speaks about the difficulty of entering the Kingdom of God.  First He says it will be difficult for the rich.  Then He simply says it will be difficult, period.  “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God!” (v. 24).  Because Mammon is an idol to all.  For those with wealth, easier for a camel, proverbially the largest animal in Hebrew thought, to go through the eye of a needle, proverbially the smallest opening in Hebrew thought.  For those without wealth, or who think they are without wealth?  Not any easier.  And the disciples get it.  Not just difficult… Impossible!  Yes, absolutely impossible to be saved.  Now we’ve really arrived at the point.  Salvation is impossible! … With man.  Even the richest.  Even the greatest.  Even every last lovin’ one of us.  Impossible for us by our own merits or resources to enter the Kingdom of God.

            But not impossible for God.  “For all things are possible with God” (v. 27).  See, if you are to be saved, you cannot do it.  God must do it.  And so He does.  Remember, Jesus is the Young Man with all the eternal riches in His possession, very God of very God, the eternal Son of the Father, who gives it all up all the way to the death of the cross, gives it all up FOR US,  gives it all up TO US, that we poor, destitute, sinners may have it all, the very Kingdom of God, eternal life and blessedness.  Money, silver and gold, can’t buy that.  Jesus pays with His holy, precious blood, and His innocent suffering and death.  So if you’re counting on money to provide for you, protect you, help you in times of trouble, give you joy, and enable you to live a full and fulfilled life, then Friend, you’re betting on the wrong horse.  Jesus is the God who does all that.  Jesus alone, with the Father, and the Holy Spirit.  “And there’s none other God.”  If you can’t keep that straight, better to give it all away.  Certainly an important spiritual discipline to give a lot of it away, to the poor, to your neighbor, to preach the Gospel.  So that you keep money in its place.  As a gift of God, but most certainly not God.  This is actually why God gives you any wealth in the first place.  Not to hoard up for a rainy day, in case the Father forsakes you and you have to count on money to catch you when you fall.  No, to give.  To help.  To be a blessing.  To put to work for your neighbor, and for God.

            By grace, Peter and the others knew that money doesn’t save.  Only Jesus does.  He is not speaking pridefully when he says, “See, we have left everything and followed you” (v. 28).  It is a statement of fact, and it implies a question… What about us?  Salvation is impossible with man, but possible with God.  Where do we stand?  Now and then?  Because the fishing business is severely understaffed since we left the boats, and there isn’t much money in the bank.  Are we okay, here?

            You’re more than okay, Peter.  You have the true riches.  Jesus assures Peter and the Apostles that “there is no one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time… and in the age to come,” yes, “eternal life” (vv. 29-30).  This means all those who make sacrifices for the sake of the Kingdom, like so many of my brother pastors whom I so admire, who unlike me, left big houses and high paying jobs to go to seminary, spent their savings on school, gave up their luxuries, just to become poor preachers of the Gospel and tend their little part of the flock; like so many of our brothers and sisters throughout history, and throughout the world at this very moment, who suffer persecution, the confiscation of their goods, rejection by their loved ones, imprisonment, beatings, death, simply because they are baptized, or because they are found in a Church, or because they own a Bible; like the saints of old, like these very Apostles, all of whom (with possibly one exception) suffered a martyr’s death; like the prophets who came before them and were rejected by the very people for whom God sent them.  They “loved not their lives even unto death” (Rev. 12:11). 

            And like you.  Yes, even you.  Oh, I know you struggle to forsake your idols.  Truth be told, so did Peter and the Apostles.  But like them, by grace, you know that money doesn’t save you.  Nor does anything else, or anyone else, but your Lord Jesus Christ who loves you, who died for you, who is risen and lives for you.  And you do give generously for the good of your neighbor, to aid the poor, and to preach the Gospel.  It is the Spirit of the living God who works this in you.  And you do suffer (perhaps in much milder form) rejection on the part of those who think you’re silly to believe all this Jesus Christ and Bible stuff, who even think that must mean you are hateful and bigoted and ignorant, and that you should be cancelled.  Some of you suffer sharp rejection from your own family members for the sake of Christ, and there is nothing mild about that.  I know Christians right here in America who have even lost their livelihoods for their faithfulness to Christ.  And while, at the moment, we enjoy some measure of religious freedom in our country, we must know this freedom is fading.  Christianity is no longer favored by the state or the culture.  We must be prepared to give it all up, our wealth, our possessions, our comfortable lives.  And you are.  You are prepared.  Weakly.  Reluctantly.  But you are.  And you will in the time of trial, God strengthening you and helping you, as He promises He will.  For all things are possible with God. 

            So Jesus’ Promise here is for you, as well.  A hundredfold now in this life.  And in the age to come eternal life.  But what could He possibly mean by the “hundredfold”?  If it is taken away, and you die destitute, how has Jesus kept that Promise?  Well, what house does He give you a hundredfold but the holy Church, here and throughout the world?  And what brothers and sisters and mothers and children times a hundred, but the new Family of God in Christ, consisting of those who hear the Word of God and keep it?  And lands?  Each new land where the Gospel is preached, a foretaste of that great Day when the whole Land, the whole earth, will belong to Christ and His people, in the New Creation.  In other words, it is the very Kingdom of God.  Though, note, you don’t receive new fathers a hundredfold.  Because you have one Father, even God your heavenly Father.  And He is all the Father you need. 

            Salvation is impossible with man.  You can’t purchase it with earthly riches.  But then, it isn’t that kind of Kingdom.  This Kingdom is given to you as a gift, by grace.  Not because of your wealth, or your worthiness, your works, or anything in you.  Because of Jesus.  Because He died for you.  Because He is risen.  Rich or poor or in between, whatever wealth or possessions you have here and now are entirely beside the point.  Even faced with the loss of all things, having Christ, you have it all.  You are rich beyond measure.  Money is not your life.  Thanks be to God, Christ is.  And here He is this morning, to give you all His riches in His Word and Sacrament; in fact, to give you Himself.  Satan is a liar.  Wealth is but a tool.  Jesus Christ is all in all.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.