Sermon for 2/28/21: Second Sunday in Lent

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Does God Hear?

Matthew 15:21-28

 

 

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

 

 

Today’s Gospel reading tells us about a faith that would not be turned aside. It was found in the woman of Canaan whose daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit. She heard that Jesus was there and sought Him out. “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely demon-possessed.” Jesus did not answer, but His silence did not silence her. She continued to cry out for help, so much so that the disciples became annoyed. They were tired of hearing her cries and begged Jesus, “Send her away, for she cries out after us.” Jesus answered: “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Knowing that she was meeting with opposition from the disciples, who probably had already told her to leave, and refusing to be discouraged by the Lord’s reply, the woman came up to Him and knelt before Him, “Lord, help me:” three words that have often been on the lips of those who sought the Lord’s help, but perhaps never have they been more earnestly spoken than by this woman. And His answer to her seems completely out of character, doesn’t it? Though she was seeking nothing for herself, only pleading desperately on behalf of her daughter, Jesus said: “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” But as surprising as His answer might seem, the response of this woman was equally astounding: “True, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master’s table.” Jesus was testing this woman almost beyond the point of endurance, and yet, she comes through magnificently. And Jesus finally said to her: “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

 “Have mercy on me, Lord!” “Lord, help me!” These cries are not foreign to any of us. This is the language of suffering, the language of confused and anxious humanity. These words are universal in meaning because they represent a need common to us all. What the Gentile woman said was, in essence, the plea of all the afflicted. It was the plea of Jairus for his daughter, the cry of the centurion for his servant. It is, in substance, what you and I have pleaded before God at the point of a severe need. It is what we have prayed in the face of sickness or before the threat of death. As long as there are sin-sick, frail, and suffering people, this petition for mercy will ascend to the throne of God.

But does it do any good? Does God hear? Does He care? Will He help? Are we just deceiving ourselves when we turn to God for help? If God hears anyone, does He make distinctions among those He hears? Perhaps there is help for others, but must I carry the full weight of my burden? Look at the woman in our text. She was no skeptic. Had she been, she would never have sought help from Jesus. Had she been skeptical, His way of dealing with her would have discouraged her. But she felt that she must make the Lord understand how important her need was. Of course, the Lord had mercy. He heard her plea, and her daughter was healed.

Are we as wise as this Gentile woman who brought her burden to Jesus? We may piously say: “Of course God’s children should seek His help in every trouble;” but then, do we sometimes try to carry our own burdens without a thought of the Lord? To this, Jesus answers: “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” As we share our need with Him, He takes our concerns upon Himself. He who cares for us is the first one, not the last one, to whom we should bring our burdens. For us, as it was for her, our greatest concern is to bring our need, whatever it may be, to God, with the cry, “Lord, help me.”

But His answer may not always be as quick as the one given to the woman in our text. Perhaps it will be necessary to wait a while for an answer. Or it may be that the answer is different from what we expected. His answer may not seem at all miraculous, for it may be that He will lead us to a gradual solution, and in the process we grow in our reliance on Him. Perhaps the help we need is one that God will provide through one of His children on this earth whom He has uniquely equipped for just such a purpose.

As we face the problems and needs of life, we don’t always know just what the best answer may be. But we can be certain that God does. And that is why we pray, “Thy will be done...” It is always best to trust God to determine what shall be done. And if our trials must remain, He will give us the strength to endure them. If the burdens we bear cannot yet be set down, He will give us grace to carry them. Believing this, we can know the certainty of what Paul wrote: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.” And so that we might know that God does care, He feeds us—not with crumbs from the master’s table, but from His own gracious hand. We receive nothing less than His body and blood for the remission of our sins. And, as we receive them in faith, we hear Him say to us and to all our needs and burdens: “Great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” 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 2/24/21: Midweek Lent 1 (Hymns of Lent II)

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On My Heart Imprint Your Image
Ephesians 4:17-24 

 

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

 

            “You should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk…” It is a daunting list of traits St. Paul gives in discussing the Gentiles—and rightly so, for the Gentiles act as those who do not know God. Today we would call them “unbelievers,” but when the Apostle was writing, the people who did not know God included everyone who was not born into the particular race of the descendants of Shem, the son of Noah. Of course, by the time Paul wrote this epistle, the descendants of Shem—the people of Israel—had rejected the promised Messiah, so God provided for Himself a new Israel in those who were baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

           However, if you are being honest with yourself, you must admit that this was your condition, as well, for you were conceived and born into sin. And sometimes—God help you—sometimes you find yourself longing to return to that condition. There’s an old saying: “Ignorance is bliss.” And the Old Adam within you, persistent old sinner that he is, desires to return to that ignorance. Who among you has not desired to give himself over to lewdness, to work uncleanness with greediness? Who among you does not have a pet sin, one you have become comfortable with—maybe it is gossip or slander; greed or gluttony; lechery or pornography; envy or covetousness—this is not an exhaustive list, but it demonstrates how easily you can fall back into a sinful condition.

           For the rest of your life in this world, your old sinful flesh will work cunningly with the devil and the world. The Old Adam within you will use those temptations of lewdness, uncleanness and greediness—or another temptation. On the one hand, he may well try to lure you into one of these sins; on the other hand, if that fails, he will tempt you to put trust in yourself because you’re not particularly susceptible to these sins. Take lewdness, for example; once a matter of shame, provocative clothing is now the fashion of the day. Put that together with the barrage of images on television, billboards, and the internet, and it’s easy to imitate the shame; it’s easy to surrender to lustful thoughts. That’s the old man in you, trying to get you to worship the false god of lust. If you dabble in un-holiness enough, you’ll leave behind the holiness of God. On the other hand, you might not be particularly troubled by sexual temptation; in that case, your Old Adam will tempt you to believe you’re more righteous because of it. He’s trying to get you to believe in yourself because your thoughts are purer than those of your neighbor.

           The Lord bids you to examine yourself and to repent. You may remember the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. The parable tells us that the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh do not want the seed of the Word of God to take root within you. You see, you’re certainly not holy by being lewd or greedy or slanderous; but you’re also not holy by being chaste and generous and honest toward your neighbor. Chastity, generosity, and honesty may well be fruits of holiness, but they are not the cause. The new man does good works through the Holy Spirit who dwells with him, and there is no excuse for believers to indulge in old sins. You have been set free from them.

So what is the cause of holiness? What makes you holy? Rather, Who makes you holy? It is no one else but the holy Son of God, Jesus Christ. He does not make you holy by teaching you to do better, to refine yourself to make yourself pure. Instead, He declares that He has gone to the cross and died for those sins. He forgives you. He removes all the impurity and un-holiness and unrighteousness. His grace makes you holy and righteous. His grace marks you as a new man, a redeemed child of your heavenly Father. And so we pray:

 On my heart imprint Your image,
Blessed Jesus, King of grace,
That life's riches, cares, and pleasures
Never may Your work erase…

 

This is a wonderful prayer at any time, of course, but it is especially appropriate during the season of Lent. As we heard last week, the journey to the cross is a perilous one, and the sinner who travels that path must be prepared for the dangers of that road. No better preparation exists than to be marked with the blood of the Lamb, to bear the sign of the cross upon your forehead and upon your heart to mark you as one redeemed by Christ the crucified. At your baptism, the name of Christ was placed upon you. The image of God, in which you were created, which mankind corrupted in the sinful desire to be like God, was restored by Christ’s sacrifice and placed on you once again in those baptismal waters. Every time you confess your sins, you return to those waters. So now you can confess your Savior, for you bear this clear baptismal inscription:

 

Jesus, crucified for me,
Is my Life, my hope's foundation,
And my glory and salvation!

 

Thanks be to God, who gives you the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! 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 2/21/21: First Sunday in Lent

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“Lead Us Not Into Temptation…”
Matthew 4:1-11

 

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

 

In Holy Scripture, temptation has two basic meanings. The first is that inward prompting or enticement or lure to sin; in other words, it’s an attack on our conscience. It is either the work of the devil, or the world, or our human flesh and its innate tendency to sin—or a combination of any or all three. The second is some trial or affliction, something that involves those circumstances in life that test faith and courage and resolution. Its intention is to make life holy and build Christian character. Both of these can be seen in the account of the temptation of our Lord, for it was the Holy Spirit who drove Jesus into the wilderness. And it was Satan who tempted Him there.

Our Lord Jesus has taught us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation…” We should remember that as we consider that He had Himself been led by the Spirit to go where He would face temptation. His own temptation, stretched over a period of 40 days, was wholly concerned with the choice between right and wrong; between whether or not He would be faithful to His Father in heaven, and carry out the redemptive work that had been given to Him. Can we doubt the seriousness of those 40 days of decisive conflict? The whole issue—the hope of salvation for mankind—hung on their outcome.

We do not know all that took place during those forty days. But we do know that our Lord was very much alone during this entire time of solitude and struggle; alone, that is, except for the presence of Satan, the evil one, the slanderer and liar, the murderer of man and their immortal souls. We are probably not told of all that Jesus had to endure and suffer. His tempting was probably nearly continuous, and was deliberately designed to test His faithfulness to His Father.

The first was the temptation of the flesh. “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” It was designed to undercut our Lord’s loyalty to His Father. He was not to use His divine power merely for self-gratification. Jesus was very hungry, to be sure; this temptation was real. But He resisted by proclaiming the Word of God: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

The second was a temptation of His spirit, and it took place at the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem. Satan appealed to the holiest of books by quoting—or rather, misquoting—the Psalms. This is a most subtle temptation: surely God would not allow His Son to be harmed just as He was setting out on His work of saving mankind. But does even the Son have the right to force the Father’s hand? But, again, the response of Jesus was direct and unconditional: “Again it is written, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” Jesus would not take an easy way out in the face of the looming shadows of the cross.

The third was designed as a bargain. Jesus could choose to be second-in-command to the prince of this world; all He had to do was bow down to Satan. It would certainly be easier than facing death on the cross. But the price of this bargain was open rejection of the will of the Father. To exchange the whole world for that single act of false worship might sound like a fair exchange, and many in our world seem not at all troubled about making it. But if Jesus made that bargain, He would deny His Father’s exclusive and absolute claim on Him and on the saving task He had sent Him to accomplish. Jesus sent the tempter away; He would endure the cross; He would win the victory. Jesus, the Word made flesh, overcame with the Word of God.

Anyone who would believe in Jesus Christ and desire to serve Him with their lives must prepare for these temptations. They will not necessarily come together or even in the same manner in which they came to Jesus. These are the temptations all men face. And these are, likewise, the temptations of the Church. The Church, as the people of God, must be committed to the Word of the Lord, and not just to the bread that feeds our bodies. We must, as the people of God, never test God or  seek to force His hand, but, in all things, pray, “not my will, but Thine be done.”

Of course, it is not the temptation that actually strengthens faith, but God’s grace conveyed to us in the Gospel, through His Word and the Sacraments. And their faithful use is what grants us the strength to withstand and even profit from temptation. And as we more faithfully and frequently use of these instruments of grace, we will all the more relish the forgiveness of sins and the joy of that certainty of eternal life. And it is there that temptation is answered. Christ’s victory over temptation is our victory, and the life and salvation He gained is ours, too! What the Psalmist prayed—and we echoed his words this morning—remains forever true: “I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust.’” 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 2/17/21: Ash Wednesday (Hymns of Lent II)

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Come to Calvary’s Holy Mountain
Isaiah 25:6-8

 

1 Come to Calv'ry's holy mountain,
Sinners, ruined by the fall;
Here a pure and healing fountain
Flows for you, for me, for all,
In a full, perpetual tide,
Opened when our Savior died.

2 Come in poverty and meanness,
Come defiled, without, within;
From infection and uncleanness,
From the leprosy of sin,
Wash your robes and make them white;
Ye shall walk with God in light.

3 Come in sorrow and contrition,
Wounded, impotent, and blind;
Here the guilty, free remission,
Here the troubled, peace may find.
Health this fountain will restore;
They that drink shall thirst no more.

4 They that drink shall live forever;
'Tis a soul-renewing flood.
God is faithful; God will never
Break His covenant of blood,
Signed when our Redeemer died,
Sealed when He was glorified.

 

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

 

          The road to Calvary and the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is not lined with concrete blocks or smooth stones. Certainly it is not paved in gold. In fact, the road is barely a path, and it is uphill all the way. It is overgrown with the betrayal of man against man, snarled with the delusions of the self-righteous and ungodly, the ground made uneven by the weight of the grievous sins of all mankind of all times and places. Walking that road is a perilous journey, because the pall of death hovers over it: the death which, as St. Paul tells us, is “the wages of sin.” The theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was put to death by the Nazis, once wrote, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” It is the truth; to become a Christian, one must die. And that’s what the invitation to Calvary is: it is an invitation to die.

          So this road to Calvary which we travel with our Lord is not one we walk easily, especially because our Lord has also called upon each of us to take up our cross. Hear again the words of the hymn:

 Come in poverty and meanness,
Come defiled, without, within;
From infection and uncleanness,
From the leprosy of sin…

 Come in sorrow and contrition,
Wounded, impotent, and blind…

We do not walk this road with our heads held high. We are “sinners ruined by the fall.” We are weighed down by the burdens we carry. We are obstructed on every step by the temptations of the devil. Satan wants us to take the side paths which lead us away from our Savior and His cross. Weakened as we are by our sin, the temptation to abandon the journey to the cross is a real one. After all, we do not take this pilgrimage as a fun-filled vacation, but as a trip to the hospital, hoping for the cure of our souls. As much as we might need it, no one looks forward to a hospital stay. Having tumors cut away, having kidney stones broken up, having wounds stitched closed: these things are painful, and sometimes it seems as if the cure is worse than the illness.

          And yet, the hospital is exactly the place where the sick and dying person needs to be. It is the place of healing, of medicine, of the skilled application of knowledge which God uses to bring healing to the body. In the same way, the cross is where sinners need to be. It is the place where that poverty and meanness, where that defilement, where the “leprosy of sin” is forever leached from us. It is the place where our blind eyes are opened to see our Lord as the Fulfillment of our salvation. The cross is the place where the sins of the whole world are hung with our Jesus, the One who is our Physician of body and soul.

          And from that cross, from the pierced side of the Lamb of God, flows bloody water. That water washes away our sins in a blessed baptismal flood, cleansing us from our guilt, placing upon us blood-whitened robes of Christ’s righteousness. When Christ invites us to “come and die,” He drowns the Old Adam within us in those waters. He kills the sinner, so that the new man, the baptized child of God, would emerge in new life, so that we may “walk with God in light.”

In the same way, His blood quenches our thirst. It is the medicine of immortality. It brings healing to our souls. And, unlike those foul-tasting elixers which make us gag and wish to spit them out, this is a sweet medicine, one which the child of God delights to taste again and again. It is, indeed, “a soul-renewing flood.”

Health this fountain will restore;
They that drink shall thirst no more.

 

They that drink shall live forever;
'Tis a soul-renewing flood.
God is faithful; God will never
Break His covenant of blood,
Signed when our Redeemer died,
Sealed when He was glorified.

This covenant, this new testament in blood from our Lord Jesus Christ, is a deathbed gift. It is our inheritance, one that cannot be taken or taxed or stolen away from us. You don’t have to work to earn it. You don’t have to be worthy of it. Indeed, you cannot earn it, and there is nothing you yourself can do to make yourself worthy to receive it. It is a free gift from the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. So…

Come to Calv'ry's holy mountain,
Sinners, ruined by the fall;
Here a pure and healing fountain
Flows for you, for me, for all,
In a full, perpetual tide,
Opened when our Savior died.

Yes, “Come to Calvary’s holy mountain.” For “on this mountain…He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces; the rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken. And it will be said in that day: ‘Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.’” 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 2/14/21: Quinquagesima

With services cancelled at both St. Peter and Bethel this weekend due to dangerous wind chills and road conditions, the video will include an invocation, the Introit, the Collect of the Day, the readings, the sermon, and a benediction.

 

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How Blind Are You?
Luke 18:31-43

 

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

 

Bartimaeus was blind. With his physical eyes he could see nothing. It was necessary for him to beg because he could not see to work. He depended on the compassion of others for his daily bread. You can imagine the way he might have looked to the casual passerby; dirty, run down, and unkempt. But then again, maybe he was not so blind after all. Perhaps he “saw” more that day than anyone else. He perceived that a crowd was passing by and asked what the excitement was all about. He got his answer: “Jesus of Nazareth!” And with a flash of spiritual insight, he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” His remarkable spiritual vision was further emphasized by his undaunted persistence. Told by the crowds to be quiet, he cried out all the more: “Son of David, have mercy on me.” Nor does he anticipate merely another handout. But he speaks to Jesus of the greatest desire he knows: “Lord, that I may receive my sight.” Here was a blind man who could see with a God-given vision—a vision the crowd did not have. He could see Jesus in all His merciful love.

Blind Bartimaeus may not have understood everything of the work and purpose of Jesus Christ, but he certainly had greater vision than many others who were following Jesus that day. Oh, they could see Jesus, too. They loved to see His miracles. His oratory held them spellbound. And yet, many of them were completely blind to His real purpose: the salvation of lost sinners. To them He was little more than cheap entertainment. And most of the rest, when they saw how things were really going to be in Jerusalem, also disappeared. Perhaps, some reappeared only to join the blind crowd a few days later shouting: “Crucify Him!”

But even the disciples were quite blind. They should have been able to see much better than Bartimaeus or the crowd, because they had the advantage of hearing Jesus directly. But they could not see how the love of God included Jesus going to Jerusalem to die. They were so close to Him that they could not see what lay behind His going to the cross. And they even felt duty-bound to hinder His move toward Jerusalem, little realizing how dreadfully blind, even demonic, their good intentions were.

How blind are we? Perhaps our vision is limited in ways similar to the types of blindness already mentioned. Maybe it’s a blindness concerned with the love of God only when a major crisis arises; you can really only see Him when there is trouble. And, to be sure, His love will be there, as He has promised. But to see God only then is a kind of spiritual blindness. Still others of us may react in the opposite way. We see the love of God only when things are going well. We worship Him when it is the safe thing to do. And, all the while, we only dimly see our desperate need for the Savior from sin. But as we begin our journey to Jerusalem, do we find it necessary to stifle a bored yawn, overcome with the sameness of it all? Every year, the same truths are related to us in much the same way. Are we blind to that ever fresh and really unique event through which our Lord lived for us in our place? Is it just something that happened years ago with very little significance for us today? Is the cross just so much wood or metal mounted above church altars or at the top of church steeples? There is a blindness there that certainly needs a remedy. If blindness is going to be cured, Jesus is the One to do it.

What kind of sight will Jesus give His people who follow Him today? Will those who are physically blind receive their sight? Perhaps; that is certainly not beyond His power. But—and of this we are certain—He will give real sight and understanding to those who faithfully desire to view once again the full meaning of His journey to Jerusalem, who seek His company as He faithfully bears His cross to Calvary.

In the weeks that lie ahead, the truth of the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ will again confront us. If, in faith, we are willing to see it, He will give us the sight to view with Him the ridicule and injustice He endured, the mockery and brutality of the soldiers, to experience with Him the pain and agony of piercing nails. He will show us the bitter terrors and agony of hell, and all of those things that were done; that we might share in the glory of God’s eternal kingdom; so that, as we shall suffer with Him, we shall also be glorified with Him. May our dear Lord grant us this sight: to see in Him the fulfillment of the love of God. Lord, have mercy upon us, that we, too, may receive our sight. 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 2/7/21: Sexagesima

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Listening and Hearing
Luke 8:4-15

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

 

          

The professional theologians had turned hostile. The Pharisees were ganging up on Him. Jesus had been driven from the synagogues. There had been setbacks and discouragements. His own family had shown misgivings about Him. Small wonder that His disciples and followers began to feel discouraged. Was the Kingdom of God already doomed to failure?

This parable was the answer to such fears. Here was an image from real life, ready for His purpose. Some of the Sower’s seed, Jesus said, fell on the footpath, only for the birds to devour it. Some fell on ground where there was only a thin dusting of soil on top of rock. Up shot the young seeds, but when the sun pierced the shallow soil, the plants soon withered and died. Other seed fell among thorns that choked the life out of the growing shoots. But then, some seed fell on good soil and yielded a good crop, some even a hundred-fold. If, as we are told, tenfold was considered an average crop at that time, then these were bumper crops, a harvest to gladden any farmer’s heart and make him forget his losses.

In the same way, in spite of frustrations and obstacles, the Kingdom of God will reap a harvest that exceeds expectations. As certain soils are unproductive despite the work that is put into them, in the same way, there will be opposition to the Gospel and people will fail to believe. But the Kingdom of God belongs to the realm of the eternal, and so we must keep in view the harvest, not the apparent failures. This parable was intended by Jesus as a call to faith in God. Though we know that the enemies of the Church are many; though all around us there may be empty pews and dwindling congregations and spiritual apathy; however gloomy the outlook for the Church may seem to be, we must learn from Christ that God’s Kingdom succeeds according to His will and good pleasure. The Spirit of God is unceasingly at work in this world of men. He can be trusted to finish His work.

But this was not the only purpose Jesus had in mind when He told this parable. That the various soils are described as they are is no accident. It was a reflection of our Lord’s own experience of preaching the Gospel and His awareness of the need for attentive hearing. And so, this is also a parable about hearing the Gospel, a hearing that moves faith into action. So how do we hear the Gospel? We can choose to listen only with our ears, as often happens in polite conversation. What is heard goes in one ear and quickly out the other, which suggests the seed that fell along the hardened path. Or, we can listen with our minds only, as we might to a great speaker. While he speaks, we are thrilled and, perhaps even for the moment, persuaded by what he says. But then, that persuasion evaporates as quickly as the moisture from the shallow soil. Or we can listen to a passionate appeal for an important cause, maybe even within the Church. But something else gets our attention, and the appeal goes unanswered, like the thorns that choked out the young plants as they began to grow. And finally, there is a message that so grabs hold of our attention that it will not let us go; we hear our own name, we learn that a loved one is desperately ill, or something like this. And we hear not with our ears only, nor only with our minds, but with our whole being; and we act at once, like something that is a matter of life or death. And that is the kind of hearing the Gospel calls for. Momentous issues are at stake; they concern us, and we must listen.

As you think of this parable again, answer these questions for yourself: What kind of soil am I? Am I hard, or shallow, or thorny, or good soil? Of course, you might brush those questions aside: “I am just the way God made me, and there is nothing to be done about it.” But that is a kind of fatalism which is really a denial of the truth of the Gospel. The grace of God changes hearts and lives, and that is undeniable. The real truth is that in each of us there is something of all four soils. And the message of this parable, as it is connected to each soil, has something to say to each of us.

And yet, there is a still deeper meaning here. We who stand on the this side of the cross and resurrection know something many of those who first heard Jesus may not have known. We know who the teller of the parable is. He is the “Word made flesh,” God’s saving purpose embodied in human flesh. And by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in the Word of God, that living Christ still confronts us with His challenge: “Whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” To be sure, such a confession is not within our human power. As Jesus said it was for Peter, it is also revealed to us from above. Not flesh and blood, but only that which is of the Holy Spirit can confess Jesus Christ. But what we do with Jesus and His Gospel is of eternal significance. And how we hear and how we respond, by the direction of the Holy Spirit, is, in the end, what matters eternally. God is faithful. His Holy Spirit will work within us, so that we may hear the Word of God and confess His holy name. 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.