Lenten Midweek II

 Video of Service

Lenten Midweek II

Adventures with Elijah: Elijah and the Prophets of Baal

March 4, 2026

Text: 1 Kings 18:20-40; Luke 3:1-22

            Your idols cannot answer your prayers.  They can’t even hear you.  Nor can they do anything for you.  Except lie to you.  Disappoint you.  Make a fool of you.  Kill you.  Damn you.  Because an idol, itself, is nothing.  It has no power.  St. Paul discusses this in 1 Corinthians 8: “we know that ‘an idol has no real existence,’ and that ‘there is no God but one’” (v. 4; ESV).  But there is a power behind the idol, and that is what harms you.  The power is demonic.  St. Paul, again in 1 Corinthians, this time in Chapter 10, tells us that “what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God” (v. 20).  “I do not want you to be participants with demons,” he says.  Good advice. 

            So, we should examine our lives, and identify our idols.  We all have them.  And then we should deny them.  Forsake them.  Topple them.  Root them out.  Repent.

            See how ridiculous they are as you observe the prophets of Baal in our text.  It’s a pretty simple test, isn’t it?  Set up your sacrifices, O idolatrous priests, and the Prophet of the LORD will set up his.  Then you call upon the name of your god, and Elijah will call upon the Name of the LORD.  And the God who answers with fire is the one true God.  What happens?  The prophets of Baal call and cry to their god.  But nobody answers.  No fire.  No voice from heaven.  No response.  So, they limp around, as you’ve undoubtedly seen pagans do.  (I know this is politically incorrect, but think of the Native American rain dance, as just one example.)  They cut themselves, so that the blood gushes out.  Blood is very common in idolatrous ceremonies.  And this points to the power behind the idols.  The demons are thirsty for blood.  Why?  It is a perverted image of the blood of our one true Sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ.  They are mocking Him.  They are mocking our salvation.  Anyway, on and on they go, all day long, these prophets of Baal, and the text says, “No one answered; no one paid attention” (1 Kings 18:29).

            Meanwhile, what is Elijah doing?  Mocking the idol.  “Cry louder.  Maybe he can’t hear you.”  I’m reminded of the profound words once uttered by the Incredible Hulk when he smashed the false god, Loki: “Puny god.”  Indeed, puny god who can’t hear your prayers.  “Hey, maybe he’s musing, lost in thought.  That’s why he can’t hear you.  Or, maybe he's going to the bathroom.  Give him a minute.  Or, perhaps he's out of town.  Or sleeping.  After all, gods like him get tired after a while.”  Elijah is giving us a clue as to one way we can put our idols in their place.  Mock them for what they aren’t.  They aren’t gods.  In fact, they are nothing.  So they can’t help you.  In fact, they can’t do anything.

            Psalm 115 is helpful here: “Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.  They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.  They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.  They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat” (vv. 4-7).  Now, the devastating warning: “Those who make them become like them”… impotent nothings… “so do all who trust in them” (v. 8).

            We become what we worship.  Dear Christian, remember that God made man in His own Image.  And though we lost that Image in sin, in Holy Baptism, God restores it in you.  We become what we worship.  But when you worship idols, what happens?  You exchange the blessed Image for an image of nothing and no one.  And the demons rejoice, because that is what they want for you.  For you to become nothing and no one, and be consigned to an eternity with them in hell. 

            Beloved, don’t become like them.  Identify your idols, and root them out.  “But,” you say, “I don’t worship images of silver and gold.  My idols are less obvious.  So how do I recognize them for what they are?”  You know that an idol is anything you fear, love, or trust more than the Lord your God.  So, ask yourself this question: What is it, in my life, that I’d have a hard time giving up for the sake of Jesus?  In fact, what things do I already refuse to give up for the sake of Jesus?  Where am I breaking His Commandments, and presuming on His mercy, because actually repenting of those things, and giving them up, is more painful than the thought of losing my Lord Jesus?  Whatever those things are, they are what you fear, love, and trust more than the Lord your God.  They are your idols.

            We all, undoubtedly, share many of the same idols.  But it is also true that our idols are particular to our circumstances, vocations, and station in life.  So, when John the Baptist is addressing this with those coming to him for Baptism, he gets specific with people.  “What then shall we do?” (Luke 3:10), they ask.  Well… do you have stuff your neighbor needs?  Don’t hold on to the stuff like it’s your god.  Share it with those who don’t have it.  You tax collectors, stop stealing from people by taking more than you're authorized to take.  You soldiers, stop bullying and extorting the people into giving you money.  Be content with your wages.  Think about yourself in your own vocations and situation.  What would John the Baptist say to you?  Take those idols down.  Confess them.  Drown them, along with your Old Adam, in the blest baptismal waters.  And then what? 

            Put all your faith in God.  Your full fear, love, and trust.  Surrender it all to Him.  Your very self to Him.  Psalm 115, again: “O Israel, trust in the LORD!  He is their help and their shield” (v. 9).  “O Christian, trust in the LORD!  He is YOUR help and YOUR shield.”  And in that trust, call upon Him.

            By the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah has had enough.  He repairs the altar he built for the LORD (apparently destroyed by the Baal worshipers).  And then… and we love this!... he has some bystanders fill four water jars with water and pour them out on the sacrifice and the wood.  How many times?  Three.  And it is a Baptism if there ever was one.  The water soaks everything… runs around the altar and fills up the trench.  And then a beautiful prayer, in the hearing of all, confessing the one true God, the God of Israel, calling upon Him to answer, and by His answer, to turn the hearts of the people. 

            And what happens?  “Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench” (1 Kings 18:38).  And, of course, it is, in the first place, a type of our all-sufficient Sacrifice of Atonement, the Lord Jesus Himself, when the fire of God’s wrath over our sins fell upon Him on the cross, and consumed Him in the death and damnation we deserve.  He took it, for us, in our place.  And then, it is also a type of our Baptism into the death of Christ.  The water.  Three times.  Soaking everything.  The water and the Sacrifice go together.  And we’re in it.  Baptized into it.

            And then, the judgment and death of the idolaters.  It is really a judgment on Baal, but those who worship him become like him.  And so, the slaughter of the prophets.  See in this, not only a warning of the great Judgment coming upon unbelievers on the Last Day, but also what happens to the Old Idolater in you, and all your idols, when you are baptized into Christ.  The Idolater in you dies with Christ, the Sacrifice, in the baptismal flood, along with all sins and idolatrous desires, even as you are raised up a New Creation in Jesus Christ, who is risen from the dead.  That is, even this terrible act of violence in our text is Good News for you.  Gospel.  Because you are freed from the grip of the demons.  You are no longer their captive.  You belong to Jesus Christ.  And Yah is your God.  As in, “Elijah” (My God is Yah!).  And He does answer your prayers.  He pays attention.  He receives the Sacrifice (the Lord Jesus).  And you are saved.

            And what else do you know?  Those who worship Him become like Him.  That is to say, Image restored.  The Image of Christ.  Baptized into Christ, now heaven is open to you.  The Spirit descends on you and remains.  And the Voice of the Father declares to you: You, also, are My beloved son in My Son, Jesus.  And so, with you, I am well-pleased. 

            Don’t worship idols, beloved.  They’re just dumb objects in the service of dumb demons.  Fear, love, and trust in God above all things.  For He loves you.  He will never leave you or forsake you.  And in Him you have life forevermore.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.              

                     

 

Second Sunday in Lent

Video of Service 

Second Sunday in Lent (A)

March 1, 2026

Text: John 3:1-17

            “How can these things be?” (John 3:9; ESV).  We should take Nicodemus and his question seriously.  True, as a teacher of Israel, Nicodemus should have known.  But he did not know.  And neither would we, apart from the Lord’s gracious revelation in His Word.  Why?  Because we are flesh born of flesh.  That is, fallen flesh born of fallen flesh.  And so, as Paul says, we are unable to accept the things of the Spirit of God, and, in fact, we consider them folly, foolishness, unless and until the Spirit brings us to new spiritual birth.  Because the things of the Spirit are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:14), and we are not spiritual (as in, receptive to the things of the Spirit) unless the Spirit undertakes a radical demolition and renovation of our mind, our heart, our soul… our very being; what we call, conversion.  That is, to be born again.  Born from above.

            “How can these things be?”  Nicodemus is confused.  A Pharisee.  A ruler of the Jews.  Nevertheless, a man of the flesh.  He thinks one’s fleshly birth counts for a lot, and is ultimately determinative of his standing before God.  He is, after all, a son of Abraham.  He is a righteous Jew.  A member of the ruling council, the Sanhedrin, he is a meticulous keeper of the Law.  He does the right things.  Associates with the right people… and not with the wrong people.  And he knows Jesus is a teacher come from God.  The wisdom and miracles make that obvious.  But he can’t figure Him out.  We know why.  The things of the Spirit are only spiritually discerned.  But it bothers Nicodemus.  Like a rock in the shoe.  So, he comes for a visit.  Under cloak of darkness, in the middle of the night.  Why?  For fear.  Can’t let anyone see me checking this Guy out.  And, because that is his spiritual condition.  Nicodemus is in the dark.

            But he’s asking the right questions… fundamental questions.  And Jesus is answering.  In fact, before Nicodemus can even ask a question, Jesus obliterates all his theological assumptions with His opening statement: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).  Now, that one’s a head-scratcher, isn’t it?  “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” (v. 4).  I am of the opinion that a man of Nicodemus’ intellectual capacity is not asking the Lord how a grown man can climb back into his mother’s belly to pass through the birth canal a second time.  His hyper-literalism is, rather, a theological response to Jesus.  As if he is saying, “Look, we know, you’re either born into the covenant people, or you’re not.  There is no second birth.  We’re not worried about the Gentiles coming into the covenant.  And we, who are born into that covenant by our natural birth from Mom, just have to stay in it by being circumcised and strictly obeying the Law.”  Sounds like a good Pharisee, doesn’t it?  Also sounds like our own Old Adam. 

            “No,” says Jesus.  “No.  You, Nicodemus, in spite of all of that, cannot enter the Kingdom of God, unless you are born again.  Yes, even you.  Born from above.  Born from God.  Born from the Spirit.  Your genetic pedigree and all your Law-keeping are not good enough.  You are still flesh.  Fallen flesh.  And, therefore, for you to enter into the Kingdom, there must be a fundamental change.  In you.” 

            Our Lord could say the same thing to us.  “You, O fallen man… even you, O Churchgoer, O Missouri Synod Lutheran… you, O defender of family values, O cultural warrior, O scrupulous moral exemplar… you, in spite of all of that, must be born again, born from above.  From God.  From the Spirit.”  That is to say, you must have the new life that comes only in and through this Jesus Christ. 

            And you do.  It is all God’s gracious action.  He gives you this life.  He brings you to this birth.  Graciously.  You don’t earn it.  You don’t merit it.  You don’t decide for it.  You can’t reason your way into it.  You do not do it.  Just as you do not bring yourself to natural birth, or earn being born, or decide to be born.  This birth is a gift of the Holy Spirit.

            “How can these things be?”  You will only believe this if you are a spiritual being, one already born anew, from above.  Otherwise, this will sound like utter foolishness.  But, here’s how… water and the Word.  Water and the Spirit (v. 5).  Holy Baptism.  That is the new birth.  No, Nicodemus, it’s not climbing back into Mom so you can pass through the birth canal a second time.  No, Old Adamic Pharisees, it’s not when you finally get your act together and meticulously keep the Law.  No, dear Christian, it’s not when you make your decision for Jesus and finally, by your own fallen volition, let Him in to your heart.  It happens at the font.  In many cases, you are carried there by your parents and sponsors, and that really shows that this is God’s act of grace.  You had nothing to do with it.  You just laid there in someone’s arms, probably screaming and spitting up and other things we’d expect of sinners.  You were a passive receiver, in other words.  But that is actually true even if you came to Baptism as an adult.  You may have come forward on your own two legs, but that is because the Spirit had already carried you to faith by His Word.

            And that is the answer, too.  The Word.  The Spirit blows in by the preaching of the Word.  Jesus breathes His Spirit into you when you read and hear His holy Word.  And that Spirit captivates you… possesses you.  That is what Jesus is talking about when He says that the wind blows where it wills (v. 8).  The word for wind is the same as the word for Spirit.  The Spirit blows where He wills, and just like the wind, you hear His sound… the sound of the Word, and it is that Word by which the Spirit creates faith in you, and sustains faith in you (which is why you want to be always in the Word, hearing the Word, reading the Word, studying the Word, meditating on the Word, because that is what keeps you in the faith, keeps you in Christ).  You can’t see the wind, but when you hear the sound of it, you know it is windy.  You can’t see the Spirit, but when you hear the Word, you know He is present.  I would be remiss if I didn’t make reference to Article V of our Augsburg Confession in this connection: “So that we may obtain this faith, the ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was instituted.  Through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Spirit is given [John 20:22]. He works faith, when and where it pleases God [John 3:8], in those who hear the good news that God justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ’s sake. This happens not through our own merits, but for Christ’s sake.”[1]

            That we may obtain this faith… God gives the Word and Sacraments… by which the Holy Spirit works faith, where and when He pleases, in those who hear… so that all who believe are justified.  That is our Holy Gospel, isn’t it?  That is everyone’s favorite verse, John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (NKJV).  (The word “begotten” is important to get in there, by the way.  God has many sons.  We are sons of God in Christ.  But Christ is the only begotten Son of God.  So that is my quibble with the ESV for the day.)  But that is how these things can be.  God gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life, or in other words, the Kingdom.  And one comes to believe in Him by this spiritual birth from above, by the Holy Spirit, Water and the Word, Baptism, Preaching.  It is the Good News that God does not condemn the world.  God does not condemn you.  He sent His Son to reconcile the world to Himself.  To reconcile you to Himself.  You have now heard the Good News.  Believe it, and you have it.

            “How can these things be?” (ESV).  Nicodemus was confused.  But something happened that night with Jesus.  He heard the preaching.  The Seed may have taken some time to germinate.  But next we encounter him, in John Chapter 7, he is defending Jesus’ rights to a fair trial before the Council (v. 50).  And near the end of the Gospel, there he is with Joseph of Arimathea, taking our Lord’s body down from the cross, and preparing Him for burial (John 19:39).  At great personal risk, we might add.  In other words, he came to love the Lord.  And so, we may safely assume, he came to believe in Him.  Thus, Nicodemus lives.  Eternally.  And so us.  “How can these things be?”  We know.  Because we’ve been born from above.  Baptized into Christ.  His Word ringing in our ears, a sure indication that the Spirit is present and blowing through.  And there is His body and blood for us to eat and to drink, delivering all the benefits of His death and resurrection for us.  Sins forgiven.  Justified, righteous.  We haven’t eared it.  We didn’t decide for it.  We just believe it, thanks be to God, and so receive it.  We believe God, and it is counted to us as righteousness (Rom. 4:3).  That is how these things can be.  And that is how they are.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.    

 

 

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[1] From "Article V. The Ministry" in The Augsburg Confession, Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, Pocket Edition. © 2005, 2006 Concordia Publishing House.

Source: https://bookofconcord.cph.org/en/augsburg-confession/chief_articles/article_v/     

Lenten Midweek I

 Video of Service

Lenten Midweek I

Adventures with Elijah: Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath

February 25, 2026

Text: 1 Kings 17:8-24; Luke 7:11-17

            Your Lord cares for you.  See how this is illustrated in His loving provision for the Prophet Elijah.  And not only the Prophet, but also the widow of Zarephath, and her son.

            Even before we get to our text, see how He cares for you by sending the Prophet in the first place.  The days were evil.  An evil king, Ahab, and his evil wife, Jezebel, are leading Israel astray.  The Baals.  The Ashtaroth.  Idolatry.  And all the wickedness that goes with that.  The LORD cares for His people, Israel.  And He knows what they need.  Drought.  Famine.  Suffering.  Why?  Not as punishment, but as a call to repentance.  A call back to the one true God.  Their God.  Their LORD, who loves them.  So He sends His man to announce it.  Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe, in Gilead (1 Kings 17:1), this greatest of the Old Testament prophets, appears, seemingly, out of nowhere.  His entrance on the world stage is as full of mystery as his exit in the whirlwind and chariots of fire (2 Kings 2).  His name means, “My God is Yah!”  Not Baal.  Not Asherah.  Not anyone else.  Yah!  And that will be the sum and substance of his preaching, life, and ministry.

            God sends His Prophet to announce disaster to Israel, to call them back to Himself, because He loves them.  And these things are written for your learning (1 Cor. 10:11).  They are written to likewise call you to repentance, to forsake your idols, and return to the one true God.  Your God.  Your Lord.  Who cares for you.  Even suffering is an expression of His love and care.  The devil always has his own nefarious purposes in disaster, of course.  But God has His, and His will and purpose in it is what Jesus says of the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices, or those 18 on whom the tower in Siloam fell: Repent, lest you likewise perish (Luke 13:1-5).  He is chastening you.  His is disciplining you.  Because He loves you (parents who don’t discipline their children are not loving them).  That is your Lord’s care for you.  And that is why He sends the preacher to preach to you.  Law and Gospel.  Sin (and its consequences) and grace in Jesus.  Repentance and faith. 

            But to our text… See how He cares for you in the way He feeds His Prophet.  Elijah is hungry, too.  Because of the drought and famine he announced.  The preacher always suffers with his people.  Especially when the people hate him, as Elijah is hated.  But God does not leave him destitute.  First, there are ravens feeding him, and a little brook from which he drinks.  That happens just prior to our text.  But then, when the brook dries up, and all appears lost and doomed, we hear how God provides.  A widow.  Not even an Israelite.  A Gentile woman from Zarephath (incidentally, the sending of the Prophet to a Gentile is also a picture of God’s care for us, because it foreshadows the sending of Apostles and preachers to us Gentiles!)  Well, some help!  She, herself, is destitute due to the drought and the famine.  She’s gathering sticks.  Has just a handful of flour and a little oil in a jug.  What is her plan?  A little cake for herself and her son, that they may eat of it, and die!  Now the Prophet wants a cake of it first?  Who knows what ran through the woman’s mind?  Probably many conflicting thoughts.  But remember, the LORD tells Elijah that He commanded her (1 Kings 17:9).  And now, the Promise from the mouth of the Prophet: “The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty” (v. 14).  So, she does it.  And what happens?  The LORD keeps His Promise.  As He always does.  He is faithful.  Elijah eats.  The woman eats.  And the boy eats.  For many days.  In devastating drought and famine.  Because the LORD cares for them.  And the LORD cares for you.  You know it.  Who has fed you up to now?  Who has given you each day your daily bread?  Here you are, and you haven’t yet starved.  See how your Lord cares for you. 

            See how He cares for you in the boy’s illness and death.  The woman thinks He does not care.  As we often think when calamity strikes.  And as also often happens, she takes it out on the preacher.  “What have you against me, O man of God?  You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” (v. 18).  Of course, that isn’t the case, and it isn’t the case for you, either.  But it sure feels like it, sometimes, doesn’t it. 

            Behold for a minute, by the way, the preacher’s love for his people.  The lament.  “O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” (v. 20).  The fervent prayer.  “O LORD my God, let this child’s life come into him again” (v. 21).  Elijah, “My God is Yah,” prays his own name: “O LORD my God… Yahweh, my God!”  See, he knows, if there is to be a healing, a miracle, a resurrection from the dead, it will not come from Elijah.  It must come from the LORD.  And Elijah casts it all upon the LORD his God.  And before we get to it, the miracle that is the grand crescendo of our text, see how the LORD cares for the widow, and for you, in this time of grief.  And for the preacher, too.  He hears their cries.  He receives their lament.  “(T)he LORD listened to the voice of Elijah,” the text says (v. 22).  And see how He cares for the boy, and so for you, in death.  “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints” (Ps. 116:15).

            But then, what happens?  As he prays, the Prophet stretches himself upon the child three times…  Now, don’t miss this.  He stretches himself out.  I suppose there is no way to know exactly what that looked like, but I can’t help but think of it as arms outstretched in such a way that Prophet and corpse are incorporated into the sign of the cross.  Cruciform.  And what comes after the cross?  You know. 

            And then, three times.  Like the three days in the tomb.  Like our blessed Triune God.  Like the Name of the Holy Trinity emblazoned on us in Holy Baptism, where we die with Christ, and are raised with Him to new life already now, spirited with His Spirit (the life, the breath comes back into us), sealed for the Day when the Lord will raise our very bodies.  See how your Lord cares for you in the resurrection of the widow’s boy.

            And we see it so clearly, don’t we, in our Holy Gospel tonight (Luke 7:11-17).  Jesus is the Lord who cares for us, now come in our flesh.   And He is the Lord who stops death in its tracks.  Who takes our uncleanness and death into Himself (He “touched the bier” [v. 14]).  Who commands, “Young man, I say to you, arise” (v. 14), and that is just what happens.  The dead man sits up and begins to speak (v. 15), and the Lord… who cares for the young man… and cares for the young man’s mother, a destitute and grief-stricken widow… gives him back to his mother.  See your Lord’s care for you in this episode.  For He will command you to arise one Day, and that very soon.  And you will sit up, and begin to speak.  And then, particularly for all you Christian parents who know the unspeakable grief of your own child’s death… look what joy and hope He gives you by what He did for the widow in Zarephath, and for this widow in our Gospel: He gave her child back to her. 

            Because He is the Son of a widow.  And He died.  And His mother saw it with her own eyes.  But after three days, what?  He rose from the dead.  And He was given back to His mother.  And to us all.  See your Lord’s care for you in the death and resurrection of this Son.  Death defeated.  Your sins forgiven.  Justification and eternal life.  That is how your Lord cares for you.  And now you are an Elijah.  You confess, and you pray, “My God is… not whatever stupid idols I’ve been harboring, but… Yah!...  The Lord who cares for me.”  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                   

First Sunday in Lent

 Video of Service

Ash Wednesday

 Video of Service

Ash Wednesday

February 18, 2026

Text: 2 Cor. 5:20b-6:10

            Preachers are essentially beggars.  That is not a commentary on my salary.  But it is to say, what does a preacher do, but stand in the pulpit and plead?  Plead with sinners?  Plead with you?  Imploring “you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20; ESV)?  That is, stop going your own way.  Stop doing your own thing, thinking your own thoughts.  Stop justifying yourself.  Turn.  Change your mind.  Repent.  “Return to the Lord, your God,” why?... “for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love” (Joel 2:13).  And that fact is embodied in the flesh of Jesus Christ, God’s Son.  Here is what He has done.  “For our sake [God] made him,” namely, our Lord Jesus Christ, “to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).  All your rebellion… all your rejection of God, and His love, and His gracious will for you… all your turning away and running off, as far as you can, from your heavenly Father… all of it, every sin, every transgression, and all guilt, and all shame, all of it… the Lord Jesus took upon Himself, bearing it to the cross.  And for you, and upon you, He leaves His perfect righteousness (His justification), His innocence, His holiness, His life, His Sonship, His inheritance of the very Kingdom of heaven.

            So… have it, beloved.  Please, won’t you have it?  I implore you to come back to the Father who loves you, confessing your sins, covered in Jesus, and possessed by His Spirit.  Now is the time.  This is the day.  The favorable time is always Today.  Right now.  Don’t miss it.  Don’t resist it.  Do not reject it.  God is giving you Himself, and all His gifts.  Freely.  Not because you deserve it, but for the sake of Jesus, who deserves it, and who suffered and died to make it so.  Believe it, and you have it.  Repent and believe the Good News (Mark 1:15).  Confess, and be absolved.  This is the Day of Salvation.  God has listened.  And God helps (2 Cor. 6:2; Is. 49:8).     

            God sends His preachers thus to implore.  And look what Paul says about this Preaching Office.  “We put no obstacle in anyone’s way” (2 Cor. 6:3).  The preacher is to get out of the way, and ever and always and only point to Christ and His saving Word.  But he is to suffer, this preacher (vv. 4-5).  For you.  That you may believe.  As Christ suffered.  For you.  That you may be saved.  The preacher is to bear up, by great endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in calamities, Paul says.  In beatings, imprisonments, and riots (I thank my God that Pastor Taylor and I have not yet had to suffer those things, though many of our brothers in Office have so suffered, and do so suffer, and such is our call, if it comes down to it.  And by the way, such is your call, if it comes down to it, as well).  In labors.  In sleepless nights (I’ve had plenty of those for you).  In hunger.  And then, Paul says, also in faithfulness (vv. 6-7).  Purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit (these are the character traits a preacher must aspire to have, and he can only have them by the gift of the Holy Spirit, though, to be sure, he has them in great weakness, and so must always be repenting and receiving and praying and fostering the gifts).  By genuine love… Your pastors love you, which is why we lose sleep over you, and why we so often, and so deeply, hurt for you.  By truthful speech and the power of God (pure doctrine, Sacraments rightly administered, and, I think we can add here, prayer, and a faith that expects God to do mighty things among you).  With the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left (these weapons aren’t guns or swords, but the whole armor of God…  And you are outfitted with that, too, and you can read about it in Ephesians 6).  Then, notice, faithfulness in whatever the circumstances (vv. 8-10).  Even in the extremes.  Honor and dishonor.  Slander and praise.  Considered imposters, but really, true.  Unknown, yet well known (known, at least, to God, and that is really all that matters).  Dying… remember, the pastor is called to suffer and die… yet behold, we live!  Ah, there’s death and resurrection, right?  The Preaching Office is a Christological Office.  Punished, but not killed.  Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing (I mean, Christ is risen, and He lives, and reigns, and He’ll raise me, so what sorrow can possibly triumph over that?).  As poor, yet making many rich.  As nothing, yet possessing everything.  Do you see, in that description, a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself?  That is the point.  The preacher is not to preach himself (get out of the way, preacher).  But Christ.  Always Christ.  Only Christ.  In his words, in his life, and in his very body.  Christ.  Don’t look at me.  Look at Christ.

            But the preacher begs.  He implores.  He pleads.  On behalf of Christ.  For some reason unknown to me, but known, apparently, to the wise men who put together the lectionary, our Epistle reading starts with the second half of 2 Cor. 5:20.  It seems to me that the first half belongs, though.  And, by the way, you probably know it by heart.  Let me read it in its entirety: “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.  We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”  The preacher preached on that verse at my ordination all those years ago.  So, naturally, I brought it up at his 50^th ordination anniversary.  Because that’s what the Ministry is.  Jesus sends the preacher as His official ambassador, to speak the Words of Jesus, on Jesus’ behalf.  And the Words Jesus speaks through His preachers are Words of pleading: I have come for you.  Come, beloved, to Me.  Come back.  Come back.  Why will you die just to get away from life with Me?  Come to Me and live.  Be forgiven.  Be cleansed.  Be healed.  Be whole.  Let Me take from you all that is deadly, and dead.  Let Me fill you with Myself, and the things of life!

            That is what Lent is all about.  Beloved, lay yourself down at the foot of the cross.  Give up your idols, your greed, and your lust.  Give up your grudges.  They don’t belong to you.  Die to yourself, and so live in Jesus Christ.  In just a few moments, you will be marked on the forehead.  An ashen cross.  What is that about?  The ash of mourning, sorrow, and death.  Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.  That is price of running away from God.  But imposed on you in the shape of a cross.  Because, on the cross, God’s arms are open wide.  To call you back.  To bid you come.  To gather you to Himself.  On the cross, God Himself accomplishes the reconciliation.  His arms are outstretched to receive you into His embrace.  Because, on the cross, God’s Son becomes your sin, and puts it to death in His very body.  On the cross, Jesus sheds His blood to cover you and make you whole.  On the cross, the Lord transforms death.  For now, for those marked by His cross, death is but the portal to life.  “For our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  Preachers are just beggars.  They beg you to believe that, and receive that.  So, beloved… please… have it.  Have it.  Have Him.  Here He is, for you.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

The Transfiguration of Our Lord

 Video of Service

The Transfiguration of Our Lord (A)

February 15, 2026

Text: Matt. 17:1-9

            The Transfiguration of Our Lord is this comprehensive snapshot of our holy faith in its entirety.  Here is what I mean.  There is Jesus as the center and focus of everything else.  It all orbits around the Son.  All eyes are on Him, and all eyes are enlightened by Him.  He is the source of Light.  Everything else reflects light, but the divine Light, the Light that is God, comes from within Him.  (St. Paul says this amazing thing: “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” [2 Cor. 4:6; ESV].  So the Light of light’s Creator shines out of the face of Jesus and enlightens us!  And then we shine, just like the face of Moses, who stood in the presence of that divine Light [2 Cor. 3], and didn’t even realize his face was shining with reflected glory.  That is an incredible thought!  Anyway…)  Our Lord’s face shines like the sun, and even His clothing is white as light (Matt. 17:2), because He is the Light of the world (John 8:12).  And the point of it is, this Man, Jesus of Nazareth, is God.  God in human flesh—Incarnation.

            He is the eternally begotten Son of the Father.  And sure enough, there is the Father, just like at Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan, saying much the same thing: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him” (Matt. 17:5).  Well-pleased with Jesus, and so well-pleased with all of us who are baptized into Jesus.  Baptism.  Justification.  In Christ alone. 

            And, the Word… Listen to Him.  And there is the Spirit.  Now, this time, not in the form of a dove, and so, perhaps, harder to spot.  But not for a good Israelite who knows about the Exodus.  Where is He?  The cloud, enveloping the whole scene.  And so, working in the hearts of His chosen people, the disciples, who are hearing the Words of the Father in the Presence of Jesus.  So, the Trinity, Israel in the wilderness, the Spirit’s enlightening and sanctifying work, and the gathering of the Church around the presence of Jesus.  All of it, right here.

            What else?  Moses and Elijah.  The Law and the Prophets, which is to say, the Hebrew Scriptures, the whole Old Testament.  It’s all about Jesus.  Luke even tells us in his version that they are discussing Jesus’ “exodus,” which is to say, His divine, saving mission, and in particular, His death and resurrection (Luke 9:31).  The whole Old Testament, in every word, by type and prophecy, by providence and preservation of God’s chosen people, is all about the Christ, the Messiah, and it all comes to its fulfillment in this one Man, now radiating God’s glory.

            There is the New Testament, too.  Peter, James, and John.  (You know, come to think of it, Paul wasn’t present at the Transfiguration, for obvious reasons, but He did see this Light, didn’t he, on the Damascus road!)  But so also, we see that these great New Testament figures are here by grace alone.  They don’t deserve this beatific vison.  Peter has just made his big blunder in forbidding the Lord to die on the cross.  Right after his great confession, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16), Jesus has to rebuke him, “Get behind me, Satan,” because he’s hindering Jesus from making the great sacrifice for our sins.  That happens in the Chapter immediately before this.  And James and John, those sons of thunder?  Not much better.  Ready to call down fire from heaven on a Samaritan Village for rejecting Jesus (that’ll show ‘em!) (Luke 9:54), preachers of God’s wrath rather than preachers of the Gospel, not afraid to exploit their own dear mother as they jockey for position on Jesus’ right and left hands when He comes into His Kingdom (little did they know, those seats feature nails and wood and nakedness and shame and darkness and death) (Matt. 20:20 ff; 27:37-38).

            What else?  Peter, yapping.  As usual.  Like us, in our faltering praise.  Yet saying profound things in spite of Himself.  It is good that we are here (17:4).  You bet it is.  Heaven has come down.  God Himself is present.  And so are a couple of saints.  Moses, who died on Mt. Nebo, and is buried God only knows where (literally… God buried him, and nobody else saw the location) (Deut. 34:5-6); and Elijah, taken up into heaven by chariots of fire (2 Kings 2:11).  By the way, notice how the disciples know who these guys are.  I don’t know, maybe introductions were made, but it seems to me we simply recognize one another in heaven.  And, of course, in Jesus, Peter, James, and John, and we are seeing an image of our own future, heavenly, resurrection glory.  Let us make three tents, Peter says.  Let’s celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, the yearly remembrance of, and participation in, YHWH leading His people (by a cloud!) through the wilderness, and into the Promised Land.  On some level it dawns on Peter, “This is it!  This moment is what all of that was about!  It is all fulfilled, here, in Jesus!”  Well, he’s right. 

            It’s just that he’s ahead of himself.  What is this grand vision of the Transfiguration, but a glimpse of the Lord’s divine glory, to prepare these three disciples… and us, who believe in Jesus on account of their Word… for the descent down the mountain, and into Jerusalem… and into our Lord’s Passion, His suffering and death, for us (that is why we have this reading just prior to Lent).  This is preparing us for Calvary.  Preparing us for the cross.  See, it’s undeniable, now, after what has happened on this mountain… This Man is God.  And so, if He dies, that means God dies.  And that is what it takes to rescue us from our sins, from death, and from the power of Satan.  And so, also, it is foreshadowing of what is to come, a picture of the glory Jesus will take up again when He rises from the dead.

            The disciples need this for what they’re about to face.  Betrayal.  At the hands of their own dear friend.  The arrest of their Teacher and Lord.  Their own defection.  Injustice.  Torture.  Crucifixion.  Locked up in the prison of their own paralyzing fear.  In the heat of the moment, they’ll forget what they saw and heard on the holy mountain.  But this is how our God works.  He often gives a gift at one point in your life, that carries and preserves you, imperceptibly, through some deep, dark valley, so that you come out the other side—with wounds and scars, to be sure—but alive and on the way to healing in Christ.  That is what the Transfiguration did for Peter, James, and John as they descended into the darkness of Good Friday.  It kept them… the Lord kept them by means of it… into the Light of Easter morning, and the empty tomb, and the risen Jesus, who said to them, “Peace be with you” (John 20:19).

            You know, it does that for us, too.  Okay, the divine Light doesn’t shine on our optic nerve the way it did for those three, and the booming Voice of the Father doesn’t beat unmeditated upon our ear drums, nor are we enveloped by the Glory Cloud.  You get the difference.  It doesn’t happen to us, visibly, and audibly, the way it happened to them.  But it does happen to us.  Peter, himself, tells us how (2 Peter 1:16-21).  Look, he says… we were eyewitnesses of His majesty when Jesus received honor from the Father, the voice being borne to Him by the Majestic Glory.  We were with Him.  We heard the Voice.  We saw it all happen.  But there is something better… more sure, even… than this spectacular experience, and it is available, not only to us, but you: “the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (v. 19).  You want to see the Light of the Transfiguration?  The divine Light of the light’s Creator, shining from the face of Jesus, enlightening you, and illuminating your path through the wilderness to the Promised Land of eternal life with God?  Go to the Word.  To the Scriptures.  To the preaching.  Go where Jesus Christ is present for you.  Where the Spirit gathers you together, with all His chosen people, your brothers and sisters in Christ, with angels, and archangels, and even the whole company of heaven.  Go where Jesus is at the center of everything.  Listen.  Hear.  See.  Taste.  Because, what Peter, James, and John witnessed in the Transfiguration, is given to you here and now.  Here is the Light.  Here is the Voice.  Here is the Cloud.  And here you are.  And what happens, but Jesus touches you (quite literally), and bids you “Rise, and have no fear” (Matt. 8).  And that is when you lift up your eyes and see no one, and nothing else, but Jesus only.  And when you see Jesus only, then you see all things aright.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.             

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany

Video of Service 

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany (A)

February 8, 2026

Text: Matt. 5:13-20

            Righteousness imputed brings forth righteousness enacted.  That is to say, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and His atoning death for your unrighteousness, and His resurrection, by which the Father declares the whole world, including you, righteous… justified… objective justification, we call it; that which is subjectively received by the individual by faith… that righteousness, credited to your account, given to you by God as a free gift… now works in you, so that you begin to do righteous things.  You begin to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  You begin to love your neighbor as yourself.  You exterminate your idols.  You hold God’s Word and Name sacred.  You pray.  You worship.  You receive the gifts in the Divine Service.  You submit to authority.  You are obedient.  You seek your neighbor’s welfare and prosperity.  You are generous.  You are merciful.  You are forgiving.  You are humble, patient, and kind. 

            Now, you know it is only a beginning.  Imperfect, to be sure.  Plenty of faults and falls along the way.  But it is a beginning.  You don’t trust in it.  Least of all for salvation, or as your righteous standing before God.  That would never work.  For that, you trust in the righteousness of Christ alone.  But you do foster it, this beginning of enacted righteousness.  You do seek to do it.  And that, itself, is a gift of the Holy Spirit.  As long as you have the righteousness from outside of you, from Christ, you ever seek to have righteousness within, manifested in good works.  This is all just another way of saying that justification results in sanctification.  That, though we are saved by faith alone, faith is never alone.  Our Confessions put it this way: “after man has been justified through faith, then a true living faith works by love (Galatians 5:6). Good works always follow justifying faith and are surely found with it—if it is true and living faith [James 2:26]. Faith is never alone, but always has love and hope with it [1 Corinthians 13:13].”[1]

            This is the key to understanding our Holy Gospel.  Jesus says, “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20; ESV).  Well, how are you going to accomplish that, a righteousness exceeding that of those meticulous keepers of the Law, the scribes and Pharisees?  It isn’t by your outward keeping of the Commandments.  That comes later down the line.  Your righteousness is Christ’s perfect and complete keeping of the Law, for you and in your place, credited to your account, imputed to you.  That is your justification, your righteousness (justification and righteousness are synonyms).  And that infinitely exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, who don’t trust in Christ at all.  They reject Him completely, and hold to their own righteous works as sufficient.  See, they don’t believe Isaiah, who tells them that that kind of righteousness is only filthy rags (Is. 64:6).  The only righteousness that avails before God is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, received by faith in Him alone. 

            But if that is the case (and this is the age-old question)… if it is true that works have no place in justification, then… what?  Why do good works?  This is the charge Martin Luther and the Lutherans faced at every turn.  No one will do good works if you preach faith alone.  This is the charge St. Paul himself had to endure.  You Lutherans… You Pauline Christians… teach that nobody has to do any good works, period.  Not true.  Not true.  Paul says, “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  By no means!  How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Rom. 6:2).  Saved apart from works, yes.  But then, works.  They will follow.  And, again, our Confessions clearly teach that, while good works are not necessary for salvation, they are necessary.  They are the fruits of faith.  Living faith will always produce the fruit of good works.

            But again, why do them?  Jesus tells us here.  To be salt and light in the world.  Salt, which preserves and flavors.  Light, which obliterates darkness wherever it shines, exposing danger and evil, showing the way, and revealing all that is good and true and beautiful, which is to say, all that is from God.  “You are the salt of the earth,” Jesus says (Matt. 5:13).  God preserves the world for the sake of His Christians, including future Christians yet to be born or converted.  And His Christians act as a preserving and purifying agent in what would otherwise be the rotting carcass of the world (it’s like salting a side of beef before refrigeration).  Furthermore, Christians flavor the world with the goodness of God, speaking His truth, doing His works, loving with His love. 

            Again, “You are the light of the world,” Jesus says (v. 14).  Like the moon reflecting the light of the sun, Christians reflect the true Light, Jesus Christ.  He is the Source of their light, and they reflect Him as they speak Him forth in His Word, and live in Him by their works.  Why do good works, if you aren’t saved by them?  Because those works are a witness to the world of God’s love for them.  They are the tangible enacting of God’s love for the world.  Beloved, God loves the world through you.  And God loves your neighbor, including your fellow Christians, through you.  God loves you through your neighbor.  This all happens as you live your Christian life in your vocations, your callings.  The old cliché, I think, still holds true: God doesn’t need your good works, but your neighbor does.  And so, what does Jesus say?  “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (v. 16).  Let Christ’s righteousness, imputed to you, shine through in righteousness enacted.

            Now, be warned.  Though your works do not, in any way, contribute to your salvation, they are the evidence of living faith.  And that means the absence of works is evidence of a dead faith.  Do you remember what St. James says?  “(F)aith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17).  So, “if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?  It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet” (Matt. 5:13).  And no one lights a lamp, only to put it under a basket (v. 15).  What would be the good of that?  These are warnings not to become secure and neglect works.  You should never confuse them with your justification.  But you should always look for them as a fruit of your justification.

            And if you have justification in Christ, you have the fruit.  Where there is justification, there, necessarily, is sanctification.  So, do you want more sanctification?  Do you want to do more good works?  Love more truly, and purely?  Forsake your sins?  Live for God?  Do all things for His glory?  Wonderful.  Thank God for those desires.  God grant them all.  What do you do, if that is what you want?  You stay close to Christ and His grace.  You bury yourself in His gifts.  You won’t do it by more Law.  Though it is good and wise, not only does the Law not justify you, it has no power to sanctify you.  More Gospel.  More Jesus for you.  More forgiveness of sins.  More grace.  More mercy.  Because when you have Jesus, you have it all.  And apart from Jesus, you have nothing.  Jesus is everything.  And faith receives Jesus.

            And then faith gets to work.  Here is what Luther says: “O, it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith.  It is impossible for it not to be doing good works incessantly.  It does not ask whether good works are to be done, but before the question is asked, it has already done them, and is constantly doing them.”[2]  Why?  How?  Faith receives the righteousness of Christ.  And that righteousness imputed brings forth righteousness enacted.  Salt made salty.  Light reflected.  God glorified in all things.  That is how it is.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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[1] FC Epitome III:11, https://bookofconcord.cph.org.

[2] Preface to St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, quoted in FC SD IV:10-11, https://bookofconcord.cph.org.