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.

Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost

Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 23B)

October 13, 2024

Text: Mark 10:17-22

            “No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18; ESV).  So if Jesus is good, He must be more than simply a “Good Teacher” (v. 17).  From the rich young man’s own mouth comes the unwitting confession.  Jesus is good.  Therefore Jesus is God.  Not simply a teacher of ethics and moral philosophy.  Not simply an example of how to live your life, in every situation asking the question, “What would Jesus do?”  No mere prophet or religious guru.  He is God.  Therefore, He alone is good.

            But the rich young man thinks he may be a candidate for the title, as well.  When he asks, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (v. 17), he is really looking for an endorsement from Jesus that he is good enough to have merited his way to heaven and resurrection.  Never mind the absurdity of earning an inheritance.  The rich man asks a Law question, so Jesus gives him a Law answer.  You want to be a good person by your own efforts and merit?  You know the Commandments.  Let’s start with the so-called “easy” ones, the Second Table of the Law, the Commandments in relation to the neighbor (v. 19).  “Do not murder.”  Okay, got it.  Haven’t killed anyone lately.  “Do not commit adultery.”  No problem.  Cheating on my wife would be unthinkable.  “Do not steal.”  Check.  I always pay for everything.  “Do not bear false witness.”  Truth is my number one virtue.  “Do not defraud.”  Alright, I expected Him to say “Do not Covet,” but I suppose defrauding is the outward manifestation of coveting, and it is important to be honest in all our business dealings.  Which I am.  Check.  “Honor your father and mother.”  Listed last for emphasis.  No problem.  Sure, I had my rebellious thoughts as a teenager, but I never acted on them.  And yes, when I had a chance to give some corban, money dedicated to God, I took what I might have given my parents for their support and care, and gave it instead to a holier cause, but surely they understand, and, after all, God will take care of them if they, like me, are holy enough, and surely God is more impressed with my pious offering than He would be with more mundane parental care.  But I always treat Mom and Dad with deference and respect.  Very important.  Check.  “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth” (10:20), from the time of my bar mitzvah at the beginning of my teenage years, when I became, literally, a Son of the Commandments, and God began to hold me responsible for my own holiness. 

            Now, you Lutherans need to give this young man a break with your Lutheranism.  You’ve heard Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5), and you’ve attended a Lutheran Catechism class, so you know the problem with the young man’s self-righteous assertions.  Keeping the Commandments is not just a matter of outward behavior, but of the heart.  He who even hates his brother, or wishes or does any harm, is guilty of murder, whether he kills him or not.  He who merely looks at a woman with lustful intent has committed adultery with her in his heart, whether he acts on it or not.  Thus the Commandments are broken, and we all do it.  All true enough.  You’re absolutely right.  Good job.  You pass your Catechism exam. 

            But the young man does have a point.  He has outwardly, and scrupulously, kept these Commandments of the Second Table.  And that is a good thing.  And as a result, everyone says of him, that he is a good man.  We speak the same way about people who live up to high moral principles.  And we should, humanly speaking, because it encourages people to do what is right, and not do what is wrong, and that benefits us all. 

            The young man has every reason to believe, or so he thinks, that he has also kept the First Table of the Law, the Commandments in relation to God.  He only worships the God of Israel.  Idols are abhorrent to him.  He doesn’t misuse God’s Name, because he doesn’t even say it.  When he is reading the Scriptures, where the text says “YHWH,” I AM, he substitutes “Adonai,” LORD.  And the Sabbath.  Never, ever, for any reason, does he do any work.  He attends synagogue service, and then goes home and eats what has been prepared the night before.

            But Jesus is good, and therefore God, and therefore knows what the young man does not know about himself.  For all his abhorrence for idols fashioned of wood and stone, the young man has an idol made of silver and gold and the trappings of comfort and luxury.  His wealth.  His possessions.  His stuff.  Mammon.

            So looking at him with intense, divine, saving love, Jesus essentially says to him: “If you want to be good by keeping the Commandments, I’ll grant you that you’ve kept all those we’ve talked about from the Second Table (though you may want to read my comments in the forthcoming Gospel of Matthew when that book is released, wherein I will show you that you really haven’t kept those Commandments to God’s standard, from your heart).  What I really want to get at now is a matter of the First Commandment.  ‘You shall have no other gods.’  You should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.  But you, my dear child, love and trust something else.  And it must be dealt with.  The idol must be toppled and excised from your life.  So ‘go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me’ (Mark 10:21).” 

            The issue is not that the young man hadn’t been generous to God and to the poor previous to this.  I’m sure he had.  He’s just the kind of person who would put large sums of money into the Temple treasury (Luke 21:1), and toss a few more spare coins to the beggars on the street (Matt. 6:1 ff).  The issue isn’t what he’s given.  The issue is what he’s kept.  And why he’s kept it.  Because he loves it for what it does for him.  He trusts it to provide for all his needs and desires.  And above all, he fears losing it.  Because then he would be destitute.  And that is why he goes away sad.  He cannot do it.  He cannot give up his god.  As it turns out, he is not good.  So when it comes to his own doing, he has no hope of gaining eternal life.

            So also with your doing.  You know you cannot gain eternal life by it.  You know the Commandments.  And you know that, even if you have kept them outwardly, keeping them really is a matter of the heart, and you know the disposition of your heart in light of all those Commandments.  And really, the Word of Christ in our text hits you, also, right where it hit the young man.  It is not that it is wrong to have money or possessions (more on wealth next week).  But for now, suffice it to say, Abraham and David were both rich men for their time and place, and yet Abraham was a friend of God, and David was a man after God’s own heart.  Money, itself, is a good gift of God, as are many of the things money can buy, and more importantly, the good things money can do for your neighbor.  It is the love of money that is the root of all kinds of evils (1 Tim. 6:10).  In any case, Jesus has not commanded you to sell all you have and give it all away to the poor.  But then, what if he did?  Could you do it?  And if you did, isn’t it true that you would still walk away sad, like the rich young man?  You love and trust your money, too, the pernicious idol, Mammon.  And you fear losing it as much as the rich young man did.  So you, also, are not good.  And even if you keep a pristine outward moral life, you will never inherit eternal life by your doing of the Law.

            But the Gospel has been implicit from Jesus’ first words in this text.  Let’s make it explicit.  “No one is good except God alone.”  Jesus is God.  Jesus is good.  And it is by His goodness that you inherit eternal life.  He knows the Commandments.  He never murdered, never hurt or harmed his neighbor in his body, but helped and supported him in every physical need, healing the sick and injured, feeding the hungry, raising the dead.  He never committed adultery, but lived a sexually pure and decent life in all that He said and did.  And ever faithful to His Bride, the Church, He restored adulterers and prostitutes, sinners and the unclean to Communion with God, eating and drinking with them, as He does to this very day at the holy Altar.  He did not steal.  As a carpenter, He would have always been at the improving and protecting His neighbor’s possessions and income.  And He is the gracious Giver of all that you have.  He did not bear false witness, but always spoke truthfully.  He did not defraud anyone.  And as to His parents, we know that the Boy Jesus was submissive to them as He increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:51-52). 

            With regard to the First Table, Jesus feared, loved, and trusted His Father above all things, ever seeking to fulfill the Father’s will to save us.  He did not misuse the Name of God.  He bore it and revealed it for our salvation.  And He not only fulfilled the Sabbath, He is the Sabbath’s fulfillment.  He is our Sabbath rest from the endless striving to win salvation and eternal life by our goodness, by our fulfilling the Law.  He is our forgiveness and redemption.

            And all of His keeping of God’s Law, He did not for His own benefit.  He who gave us the Law, was made subject to the Law, for our sakes, and for our salvation.  He fulfilled it.  He did it for us.  We are baptized into Christ.  And all His perfect keeping of the Law, outwardly and inwardly, is credited to our account.  And all of our breaking of the Law, outwardly and inwardly, has been atoned for in His flesh, in His blood and death on the cross.  And all of His perfect righteousness is given to us as a gift in the Gospel and Sacraments.  Our sins are forgiven. 

            And that is how we inherit eternal life.  Not by our doing, but by His.  Ask a Law question, and you get a Law answer.  This is what you must do, and do perfectly, to merit eternal life.  And you haven’t, so you can’t.  You’re doomed.  But Jesus has a better way, the Gospel way, His way.  As Martin Luther wrote, “The law says, ‘do this,’ and it is never done.  Grace,” that is, the Gospel, “says, ‘believe in this,’ and everything is already done” (Heidelberg Disputation, Thesis 26, LW 31:41). 

            We have a good God, who became man, taking on our flesh, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.  Jesus is the One who gave up all He had and bestowed it on us poor, miserable sinners, who have nothing of our own.  He looks upon us with intense, divine, saving love.  He has done all in our place, and given us His goodness, His righteousness, as a gift.  He died for our sins.  He is risen from the dead.  This is grace, God’s unmerited favor bestowed upon us for Christ’s sake.  Believe in this, and you will not only inherit eternal life… you have it already.  Now, resting in this, that Jesus has done all for you, for your forgiveness, life, and salvation, go love your neighbor by keeping the Commandments, because that is what your neighbor needs.  And look not to Mammon, to your works, or to any other god to provide for you.  Jesus is good.  He is the one true God, with the Father, and the Holy Spirit.  And He alone will do it.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  

 

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 22 B)

October 6, 2024

Text: Mark 10:2-16

            Marriage is God’s gift to us.  Children are God’s gift to us.  Even to those who are unmarried.  Even to those who do not have children.  Marriage is the primary building block of society.  Stable marriages make for stable societies.  Fruitful marriages make for stable and fruitful societies.  And, in particular, fruitful marriages grounded in Christ and His Word make for stable societies.  Rob society of any of those three things, and you have an unstable society (and I think we know that all too well).  And this is to say, what our Lord here teaches about marriage, about divorce, and about children, applies to every one of us, whatever our vocation and station in life: married, single, widowed… yes, divorced… parents, children, grandparents, grandchildren, and those who don’t have children.  We all have a stake in this.  Satan hates marriage, and Satan hates children… why?  Not only because he doesn’t want us to enjoy stability, or to enjoy anything, really, although that’s true enough.  But because marriage is a picture of Christ and His holy Bride, the Church.  And precisely because marriage is fruitful… children come from marriage, and the ideal context for childrearing is married parents.  He hates chastity, which is to say, sexuality reserved for marriage, celibacy and virginity among the unmarried, and he especially hates virginity because he hates the Virgin Mary and the One born of her.  And he hates children, which is why he deludes us into slaughtering them by the millions, because he hates THE CHILD, our Lord Jesus Christ.  This is why the devil’s attacks so often, and so intensely, involve sexuality and the sanctity of life.  So there is teaching here for every one of us, Law and Gospel.  This afternoon, our Lord teaches us about marriage, about divorce, and about the gift of children.

            God instituted marriage in the Garden of Eden, before the fall into sin.  “It is not good that the man should be alone,” He says.  Therefore, “I will make him a helper fit for him” (Gen. 2:18; ESV).  Marriage is God’s design.  Therefore, He determines its parameters and its purpose.  We don’t get to redesign it.  And His purpose is for our good.  We human beings are created for communion.  And in the context of marriage, communion at the most intimate level.  Man and woman, male and female… yes, the sexes are designed by God; our sex is determined by God, not by us… created by God to correspond to one another, to fit together… physically, to be sure, but also mentally, emotionally, spiritually (men and women are different, as it patently obvious to all of us), to complement one another (our differences fill in each other’s gaps).  And in this way, when man and wife live together in love and fidelity, we are given to realize most fully the three purposes for which God gives marriage: Companionship (man is no longer alone), intimacy (on many levels, but in particular, marriage as the only proper context for God’s gift of sex), and procreation (“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it,” steward it [Gen. 1:28], which is still God’s blessing and command, by the way, which is why we should keep having children and not worry about the myth of overpopulation… more on that in another sermon at another time). 

            Jesus takes us back to that primal moment in the Garden in our Holy Gospel.  Adam in a deep sleep.  Eve formed from Adam’s side.  God bringing Eve to Adam, marching her down the aisle, so to speak.  Giving man and wife to one another.  He still does that in the rite of Holy Matrimony.  And Adam’s exclamation: “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (2:23).  And then God’s declaration, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (v. 24).  No longer two, Jesus says, but one.  One flesh.  And we know from St. Paul, in Ephesians Chapter 5 (vv. 22-33), that this is all a grand picture, a sacred icon, of the nuptials of Christ and His Church.  Christ, who gave Himself into death for His Bride, that He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of water and the word (Baptism).  The Church, us, submitting to Christ, being clothed by Him in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, holy and without blemish.  Husbands ought to love their wives as Christ loved the Church.  Wives ought to submit to their husbands as the Church submits to Christ, which is to say, receive the husband’s self-sacrificial providence, protection, and leadership.

            Divorce ruins all of this.  Which is why it is such a big deal to God.  Now, let me say right off the bat to those of you who have been divorced, and those of you affected by divorce (and I don’t believe there is a one of us who hasn’t been affected by divorce on some level).  Divorce is not the unforgiveable sin.  And I’m not picking on you.  Nor am I looking down on you from some high and mighty pulpit where I’m immune from such things.  Quite the contrary.  God loves you.  God forgives you and those you love all your sins, including the sin of divorce.  And if you are still dealing with the fall-out from a divorce, or from your own unrepented sin, or as one who has suffered the sins of an ex-spouse, or somebody else, I urge you to talk with me.  There is healing.  I know this is a sensitive topic, and it is hard to hear for many.  But I think we can agree, can we not, that divorce is always evidence of brokenness, that it is the breaking of God’s design and good will for us, and that it is, therefore, sin.  And Jesus talks about it, here, and so we have to talk about it here, that we may hear the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27).

            Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?  No.  Jesus directs the Pharisees to Moses.  What did Moses command you?  They don’t actually answer that question.  “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away” (Mark 10:4).  Yes, he allowed it, as a provision of Israel’s civil law, but he did not command it.  And the only reason he allowed it is because of Israel’s hardness of heart.  And that is why we have divorce laws today.  Wherever there is divorce, there is a hardness of heart on at least somebody’s part.  What Moses commanded, though, are the words of our Old Testament reading, Genesis 2, which we have from the pen of Moses: The two become one.  And stay one.  Male and female.  Man and wife.  That is God’s design.  Therefore, Jesus says, “What God has joined together, let not man separate” (Mark 10:9). 

            We should say, here, that there are two reasons why a Christian may, biblically, seek a divorce.  The first is adultery.  The spouse who did not commit adultery may seek a divorce from the one who did (the one who did, by the way, must not… it’s up to the one sinned against).  Jesus gives us this exception in Matthew 19, which is Matthew’s version of our Holy Gospel today.  The second is what we call malicious desertion.  That is, when one spouse leaves, the deserted spouse may obtain a divorce.  St. Paul addresses this in 1 Cor. 7.  Now, I say may.  It is never the case that someone must seek a divorce, and it is always better when the marriage can be reconciled.  And it often can, I’ve seen it.  But understand, even under these exceptions, divorce is always brokenness, and so we must pray and work against it.

            That’s why, if you are experiencing troubles in your marriage, you should come talk to your pastor right away, before it’s too late.  I have worked with many couples.  I’ve been privileged to witness miraculous reconciliations.  Now, I’ve also encountered the hardness of heart Jesus talks about.  There have been times I’m sitting there with a couple, and it strikes me that I’m the only one in the room (aside from our Lord Jesus and His holy angels) who wants to save the marriage.  Christ have mercy.  (He does.)  But you know what the answer is, to the conflict in every one of those cases?  Repentance.  Starting with honest self-examination.  Not blaming the other person, but taking one’s own responsibility for one’s own wrongs (most often, there really is no innocent party in marital conflict… If you’re a husband or wife, even in a healthy marriage, you know that.  We’re really good at sinning against each other).  Confession.  To God.  To one another.  And Absolution.  The forgiveness of all your sins for the sake of Jesus Christ, who died for you, and who is risen for you, and who loves you.  Absolution from God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Mutual Absolution between spouses.  I’ve seen it.  There is nothing more healing. 

            Well, we can’t end without saying something about children.  You know the story well.  People (probably the parents) are bringing children to Jesus, that He might touch them, which is to say, bless them.  The disciples rebuke them.  “Our Master is far too important to be bothered by your dirty, snotty, smelly, noisy kids.”  Oh, those disciples are so dense.  And it earns them our Lord’s indignation.  “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14).  Beloved, bring your children to Jesus.  Bring the children of others to Jesus.  Do not hinder them.  Bring your children to Baptism.  If the Kingdom of God belongs to them, then you can be sure they believe and receive the benefits of Baptism.  Encourage others to bring their children to Baptism.  Bring your to Church.  Teach them to participate.  Bring them to Sunday School.  Teach them about Jesus.  Read them the Bible stories.  Pray for them.  Pray with them.  Raise them in the faith.  Bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Eph. 6:4).  You know what to do.  Receive the children in His Name.  Jesus loves the children.  Your children.  The children of this Church.  Don’t you dare deny them access to Him.  Don’t you dare suggest they don’t belong here.  Jesus will have words for you like He had for His disciples.  But take great comfort in that.  First, because you know He loves your kids even more than you do.  Second, because if He loves the dirty, the snotty, the smelly, and the noisy, well… He loves you.  And you become as a child in His presence, thus receiving His help and salvation, His Kingdom.

            Jesus is the Faithful Spouse.  He will never leave you or forsake you (Heb. 13:5).  He will not fail you.  He forgives your unfaithfulness.  He heals your brokenness.  He alone can heal our marriages and our society.  He loves us.  He loves the children.  All the way to the cross and back.  And so He pours out His gifts.  All thanks and praise be to Him, our loving Bridegroom.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.