Sermon for 1/22/17: Third Sunday After the Epiphany

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The Powerful Word

Matthew 8:1-13

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

This morning we heard the accounts of Naaman and the Centurion. There is much that is similar between the two. They are both Gentiles. They are both in the military. They are both officers, in charge of many men, but they are also accustomed to receiving orders. And they both face a problem outside their control: Naaman has leprosy; the Centurion has dying servant.

Imagine what it is like for these two men. They are used to getting things done. They are used to giving orders and having those orders obeyed. That is the way their lives work. Yet now, here they sit, out of control. They are unable to solve their problems. And these aren’t just your usual, run-of-the-mill problems. These are life and death problems. They face these problems because they are cannot get out of these messes on their own.

Have you been there? Have you ever had a stage in your life where things are sailing along great and you feel like you have everything under control? Then something happens: a death, unforeseen debt, family or marital problems, or even worse. These things can sneak up on you, and suddenly you’re not in control. That is the Law having its way with you. In this fallen world, things just don’t work the way you want them to work. No amount of positive attitude or even plain hard work can change that fact. The truth is, you are not in control of your life.

The Law confronted both Naaman and the Centurion, but their reactions are completely different. One of them reacts in faith in the healing Word of God, and the other responds in unbelief at how God works in the world. Naaman couldn’t imagine that God would use water from the polluted Jordan river to wash away his leprosy and make him clean. Why would Israel’s God not use the water from the sparkling rivers in Syria? But God had promised through Elisha to cleanse Naaman using the waters of the Jordan and no other. That was the promise of God—take it or leave it. At first, Naaman left it. He rejected God’s promise of healing. His pride just couldn’t handle the truth of the Word of God. But after careful teaching and patient begging on the part of his own slaves, Naaman relented and was led into the Jordan. And, lo and behold, he was made clean; his skin was like a brand new baby’s skin. It didn’t make sense on the surface. It was just ordinary water. But because God’s promise was attached to it, it was no longer just water, but a life giving water, full of grace and every blessing from God.

The centurion, on the other hand, recognized his inability to help his servant. But even more than that, he recognized that Jesus could heal his servant. In simple terms, the Centurion had faith. He trusted that if Jesus would say the word, it would be enough. His servant would be healed. Faith trusts the Word of God, whatever that Word claims. If your faith points to Jesus Christ, you will never be disappointed.

St. Paul wrote, “The just shall live by faith.” Living by faith means continually putting your trust in Jesus Christ, who forgives your sins. Only God can give you the faith of the Centurion. And He gives you faith by His Word and Sacraments. Because of God’s Word and command, what looks like ordinary water is, in fact, the very life giving water of life. What looks like simple bread and wine is, in fact, the very body and blood of Jesus Christ, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. And what sounds like simple words, “I forgive you all your sins,” are in fact the very words by which God forgives your sins and creates and sustains faith in you.

Believe it, for that is what God promises in His Word. That is the power of the Gospel. That is the power of your salvation, through His Word and Spirit alone. So now you can confess with faith, “O Lord, I am not worthy. But only speak a word, and my [soul] shall be cleaned.” In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.

Sermon for 1/15/17: Second Sunday After the Epiphany

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Power and Mercy

John 2:1-12

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen. 

So often we focus on the power of the miracle our Lord performed at the wedding in Cana. But there’s another aspect: the great mercy our Lord shows for the people He has come to save, even in dealing with something so simple as a wine shortage at a wedding. We must take both the power and the mercy into account as we examine this text.

Jesus came to fulfill the Law. He began that fulfillment with His circumcision in the Temple and His baptism in the Jordan River. Then He continued that work with His first miracle of changing water into wine. Notice what He uses: the purification jars of the Jews—water pots of the law. He has them filled with water, and from them He produces the finest wine. Here we are reminded that the Law was given to be fulfilled by our Lord Jesus Christ because we could not keep it. Just as Mary could not make things better for the bridal party by herself, we cannot do ourselves any good by our attempts to keep the Commandments.

But some people seem to think that we can keep the Law. There are preachers who say, “God wouldn't have given us His commandments if we couldn't keep them.” But that contradicts St. Paul who says in Galatians chapter three that the Law was given to show us our sin. When Jesus has those jars filled with ordinary water and turns that water into wine, He's teaching us that He has come to do what we could not: He has come to keep the Law. He has come to perfectly love God. He has come to perfectly love His neighbor. And He did both…perfectly.

And what is the result of His perfect fulfillment of the Law? The wedding guests drank and were merry! They found themselves at the best ever open bar at a wedding! This miracle is a picture of what our Lord really does for us by dying for our sins: He fulfills the Law. He perfectly loves the Father by being obedient even unto death on the cross. He perfectly loves His neighbor by bearing our sins to His own death: a death He did not deserve, a death He died for us. And we drink in that perfect love, that perfect salvation, in the holy Sacrament, where in the wine we drink the very blood of Christ.

The miracle of Jesus turning the water into wine is also a reminder that what Christ has done on the cross of Calvary is also about how He treats His holy Bride, the One Holy Christian and Apostolic Church. Just as Cana’s wedding reception took the bridal party from ordinary water to the finest wine in celebration of their marriage, so Christ's church is made alive in the waters of Holy Baptism, and then she celebrates that He has redeemed her through His body and blood in the Holy Supper. Remember this: you are the Bride of Christ. You are the ones for whom He gave His life. You are the ones for whom He turned the jars of God's Law into a saving and refreshing drink of grace, even as He Himself fulfilled that Law.

This is the first of the signs that Jesus did, and it points to Him as the true Savior and Bridegroom of the Church. And just as this miracle pointed forward to the institution of the Lord’s Supper where we receive the finest wine of Christ’s blood along with His body, both the miracle and the Holy Supper are a foretaste of the eternal wedding feast prepared for all those who approach the Lord with faith in His Word, His works, and His promises. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always.  Amen. 

Sermon for 1/8/17: The Baptism of Our Lord

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Soaked in Sin

Matthew 3:13-17

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament prophets, baptizes Jesus and the Spirit Himself descends upon Him while the Father expresses His pleasure. It is the anointing of the Lord. In the watery boundary that separates the wilderness from the Promised Land, Jesus is chosen and marked as the Messiah, the Anointed One. There He takes the sins of the world upon Himself. On the cross He will overcome them. The Father is well pleased in Him because the sacrifice is work of the Messiah, the will of the Father, the fruit of the Spirit.

The baptism, and indeed the entire identity of the Christian, flows out of this. By baptism the believer is joined to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is the significant thing. Do you not know that you were baptized into Christ’s death? Although these things are important, the central thing is not faith, ritual, the water, the Word, or the believer. The central thing is always the grace of God that steps in and rescues man out of death through the Messiah. When you were baptized into this faith, you put on Christ. You have been forever joined to His death and resurrection. You are anointed, marked and named by Him. Christ is the key thing.

“Repent and be baptized,” says John. To repent means to acknowledge that God is right and confess that His judgment is true when He says that we are all sinners worthy of death. Repent: confess that God is right and you are wrong. Then be baptized. Receive the forgiveness of sins. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit will dwell in you. Faith is certainly part of the equation, but the emphasis is on work God does in baptism and the promised presence of the Holy Trinity for the believer. The faith which receives these gracious gifts is itself a gift. It is not as though we come before God with an empty sack and then He fills it. We come empty handed. He gives us the sack. Then He fills it.

When Christ was drowned in baptism, heaven opened. When He died on the cross, graves were opened and dead men lived. The Father is pleased because satisfaction has been made. The sins of a thousand worlds have been drowned and destroyed in Christ’s baptism. Baptism is a washing, but more than that, it is a drowning, and a death. Our sin and rebellion are a deadly problem. They destroy life. They kill families. They murder innocence and purity. They require an extreme solution. And so great is God’s love, so great His desire to forgive, that He sacrifices His own Son in our place. Nothing will stop Him. Satan will not win. God will rejoin humanity to Himself without violating His own Law. He will intervene and make us His. So pleased is the Father with the Son that He and the Spirit promise to be present with all who are baptized into Christ.

And Christ Himself is the baptizer. Although this glorious revelation does not now occur visibly, as it did at that time on the Jordan, nonetheless it is what occurs. That is the promise. Christ is the baptizer whether He is seen or not. The Father blesses with His Word. The Spirit makes the heart His temple. And that is why St. Paul can’t even remember who he baptized, because he never really baptized anyone. Christ did it all.

All of this means that the Baptism of Our Lord is the beginning of the great exchange. Christ is not washed clean; He soaks in our sins. He takes all our filth upon Himself and leaves the water sparkling clean for us. Our sins wash off of us and onto Him. His holiness covers us and we are clean. The Father will not forsake us. He will not send us to a cross. We will not pay for our sins. Heaven is opened. The Father is well-pleased with us. We are made children and heirs by grace. His Name is upon us. Our graves will open. We will follow the Lord Jesus out of death and to Our Father’s home. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always.  Amen.

Sermon for 1/1/17: The Sunday After Christmas

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Promised and Fulfilled

Luke 2:21-40

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen. 

Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the temple to be circumcised and named. While there, they encountered Simeon and Anna. Jesus was brought to the temple in fulfillment of the Law of Moses. God prescribed in His Law that the firstborn is to be consecrated to Him, so His people would remember that He has saved them. He delivered them in a mighty way from their bondage to the Egyptians. And what’s more, He will deliver all His people of all time from the bondage of sin and into His promised heaven.

Jesus certainly didn't need to be purified; He's without sin. But Joseph and Mary obeyed the Law of God nonetheless, bringing Jesus into the temple. As He did with everything else, Jesus perfectly obeyed the Law of God, something we have not done and cannot do. In this way Jesus came to be our Savior, and even as an infant, He was doing the work of saving us. Because of His righteousness before the Father, we are made holy and acceptable in His sight.

While they were at the temple, the Holy Family encountered Simeon. A prophecy had been given to Simeon. “It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.” And when Simeon held Jesus in his arms, he sang a song of thankfulness to God for revealing the salvation of the world to him in the person of the Christ child. The words he spoke were preserved by the Holy Spirit for the sake of the Church. Simeon spoke for us, and we will join our voices to his this very day when, like Simeon, we hold the Savior of the world—Simeon in his arms, and us in our mouths as we receive the very body and blood of Christ. After all, this promise given to Simeon is also God's promise to us. We too may depart in peace according the Word of the Lord, for in receiving the bread and wine combined with Christ's very Word, our eyes have seen His salvation. He breaks the bonds which sin and guilt hold on us. He strikes down our enemy, Satan, in the body and blood that was given and shed at Calvary—a gift He offers you today.

What does this mean for us? It means that, as we begin this new year, we can see what lies ahead of us—not only for this new year, but what God has prepared for us eternally. We see the love God has shown us in sending His Son for our salvation. Sinners that we are, we need that continual reminder that God loves us in Christ, because the old Adam within us is God’s enemy. We need to return here constantly: this year and in the years to come. We need to return to our Baptism, where that Old Adam is drowned and dies, and where the new man, the child of God and heir of heaven, emerges to new life. We need to continue to receive God's love as He delivers it to us in the Supper Christ prepares for us.

At the last hour of our life we will say with Simeon, “Let your servant depart in peace.” God always fulfills His Word. We don't know when our last hour will be. It may come in this new year; it may be far off. But whatever His holy will is, we will depart in peace. The Sacraments, the gifts of God, have touched our lips. His Word has filled our ears. And because of those gifts, praises to God spring forth from our lips.

We don't know who we will run across in the new year—many old faces are likely, and we will also probably encounter some new ones. All people need to hear. All people need to know what caused Simeon to rejoice, what caused Mary and Joseph to marvel, what Anna delighted to share with others. God grant us all the joy in receiving the consolation of sins forgiven as we receive the Christ, and joy as we tell everyone what He has done. In the name of the Father and of the (+) Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

            

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always.  Amen.

Sermon for 12/25/16: The Nativity of Our Lord

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Light in the Darkness

John 1:1-14

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen. 

In the beginning of his Gospel, St. John gives us all the high religious talk about the Word. The Word is there in the beginning. Through the Word all things were made. Nothing that is made was made apart from the Word. In the Word is light. The Word’s light is the life of men. Can you get any more obscure and lofty than that? St. John was a fisherman, and usually the language in his Gospel is simple. But he goes all philosophical in this text, describing Jesus as would the wisest scholar.

He saves all the low talk for you and me. After all, we, the people for whom He came, reject the Word. We, the people for whom He came, love the darkness. We don’t know the Word. We do not receive Him. The Word is way up there: lofty, eternal, luminescent, with all of God’s glory and majesty. And we are way down on the earth in the sludge of our sins, our darkness, and our death. If that is how your Christmas ends—with high-sounding religious talk about God and low-sounding talk about you—then you will remain lost in your sins. There’s no “Joy to the World” for you!

But John continues. He keeps unwrapping the Word for us. The true Light was in the world. Wait a second! How could the Word, with all its heavenly glory, be in the world? That’s incomprehensible! No, that’s Christmas! The Word becomes flesh! He makes His dwelling place, He pitches His tent, among us. God who is eternal, infinite, from the beginning, and has no end, takes on our flesh to save us. He lives the life the Law requires of us. He suffers and is crucified for our rejection of His Word and Law. He takes on our flesh to redeem our flesh.

His Light shines in our darkness. Darkness is a formidable enemy for us. Though we find it terrifying, we love the darkness. We love those things that go bump in the night, those things that make us scream like little girls. We love the monster under the bed. Even if it means our death, we love the darkness so much that we let it overcome us. But unlike us, our Lord Jesus Christ is not overcome. He overcomes the darkness by His death! This is the glory of God, which John knew so well, having seen our transfigured Lord in blinding glory upon the mountaintop. It is the glory of incarnate Lord Jesus who sheds His blood for us. The Word is not far away in the clouds of heaven. No, He is near to us—indeed, He is here with us, for He has come and taken on our flesh! He’s resting in the arms of the Virgin. He’s enthroned in the manger. He grew up, and He was God even on the Cross.

This morning, the same Word, Emmanuel, God in the flesh, is making His dwelling place among us here on the altar, giving us His Supper. Take and eat His Body; take and drink His Blood. He is present in and under the bread and wine for the forgiveness of your sins and the strengthening of your faith. Whoever eats the flesh of the Son of Man has life, and you, too, shall see His glory. In the name of the Father and of the Son (†) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always.  Amen.