Sermon for 11/26/23: Last Sunday of the Church Year

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Watch and Wait

Matthew 25:1-13

 

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

 

 

Ten virgins pure watch in the dark, surrounded by temptations and dangers in the night. Outwardly they were all clean and undefiled. Nonetheless, these handmaidens of the Lord were overcome. Their flesh was weak. They were seduced by sleep. Their eyes grew heavy, and they gave in. And then came the midnight cry! It caught them unaware. For five of them the oil was all gone, wasted in foolish and vain pursuits. So then came the pleading: “Give us some of your oil!” But there was none to spare, for no one can believe for another. So out went the five foolish virgins into the night, seeking to purchase what can only be given and received. And they returned too late. The door was shut. Therefore, watch! Beware! Repent!

It is hard to stay awake these sleepy days. Peter, James, and John knew how that was when they watched with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Bible tells us that we are in the end times. We have been since our Lord’s death and resurrection. And with each day that passes, the shadows grow longer. Temptation grows stronger deeper in the night. It seems so futile to keep watch. We’ve waited already all our lives, and still He has not come. There are pleasures beckoning to us all around. And no one seems to care if we slip in a few winks, if we go off for a while into the ways of the world. Who can blame us? We are only human, after all. Must we really be so vigilant? Must we suffer all through this long night of days and months and years? Can’t we just have our fun and repent at the end? No, we can’t; that way leads to death. Now is the acceptable time; today is the hour of salvation. Even if our Lord should continue to delay His return, none of us knows when our last hour will come. Repent before it is too late!

For the sake of hope and confidence, notice that all ten of the virgins fell asleep. All of them! All ten were outwardly pure, and yet all ten failed in their vigil. What made five of them wise and the others foolish? The wise still had oil. By the grace of God, and nothing else—despite their weakness and carelessness, despite their arrogance and self-indulgence—they never completely gave up hope. They never stopped believing that He would come. They trimmed their lamps, and whatever oil was left was enough. Their oil had been given by God, and it was sufficient. If our Lord desires when He returns to be greeted by His faithful ones, then He must create them. By the grace God supplied, the five wise virgins were spared the coming wrath and saved.

And so, there is hope, even for you. You have not been so gravely defiled that you cannot be cleansed. Your God has not forgotten you. He brought you here this day for His purpose: to forgive you anew, to restore your purity, to recreate you strong in faith, undefiled, righteous and holy, wise in His ways. The world, of course, scoffs at this true wisdom, calling it foolishness. But it comes from God. And our Lord Jesus Christ is coming back to redeem what He has made and remade. He does all of this for you through His Word. By His Word He creates and restores. He called you by name in Holy Baptism, and you were reborn and made alive in those waters. He speaks this saving Word in the Holy Scriptures, in Holy Absolution, in faithful preaching Word—all in His Church. And He feeds these words made flesh to you in the Holy Supper. All of this He does so that He will be met on the last day with faith and praise and rejoicing, so that His dying and saving work would not be in vain. For, He has not fallen asleep. He does not forget His promise. He still and always loves you.

Concerning, then, the times and seasons, as St. Paul said, you have no need to have these things laid out completely before you. Paul didn’t know them anyway! No man knows the day nor the hour of the Lord’s return. All you need to know is that the day is surely coming. It will come suddenly, unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. God in His great love will steal you away from the darkness, death, and chaos of this fallen world. He will awake you from your traitorous sleep and trim your lamp. You will again be pure and undefiled. For you are not of the night of this world, no matter how sleepy you may feel. You are of the day because you belong to Jesus Christ!

God did not appoint you for wrath, St. Paul said. He appointed His Son for that task in your place, who hung on the cross for you, forsaken of His Father, defiled by death. The dark night of sin and death forever ended when the Dayspring from on high rose and gave eternal light to men. And in His death and resurrection, He gathers you to Himself. He died for you that you would live with Him. And He is returning soon, so that our endless life, face to face with Him, will begin. Therefore, watch and wait! Do not be afraid! Surely He is coming soon! “Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly!” 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 11/23/23: Day of National Thanksgiving

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Remember with Thanksgiving
Deuteronomy 8:1-10

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

 

If you had lived in Old Testament times as a child of devout Hebrew parents, you would have learned very early on to recite the Ten Commandments from memory. As you grew and your thinking matured, perhaps you would have asked the question, “Why?” And your father, recalling other words of Moses, would have recounted for you the story of God’s gracious dealings with your people despite Israel’s failure to be faithful. And then he likely would have closed that conversation with the words of our text: “And you shall remember...the Lord your God.” No words can better describe the significance of Thanksgiving Day.

Remember what the Lord your God has done. Who created this universe? Who made man? Who brought judgment upon Adam and Eve, but, with that, also the promise of a Savior? Who destroyed the corrupt world of Noah’s day but redeemed and kept alive a remnant to replenish the earth? The answer to all of these questions is the same: it is God! And so goes the whole Biblical confession: God judging, God redeeming, God promising—God at work in the world of His creation.

Sign upon sign, wonder upon wonder, grace upon grace, Holy Scripture reveals what God has done. And the faithful people of God, whether Old or New Testament, never tire of recounting these things; it is oyr song of faith! What God has done for His saints of old, He does for us as well. We are, as the Psalmist says, “...the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.” Surely such a witness should bring to our minds God’s work in our world today, and in our lives individually. He judges us, He redeems us, He speaks His promises to us. “Only the fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Only the fool claims that God is not at work for good in this world. The truth is, there is no end to the blessings of grace and goodness our God showers upon us.

So let us recount our many blessings and remember the Lord our God with thanksgiving. He has given His promise of grace and blessing to us, even as He has given it to His people of every time and place. It is for our good when He shows His displeasure with our sin. It is for our healing that He forgives our sins when we turn to Him in repentance. And in His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, God holds out to us that promise of new life, both here and hereafter, as we trust Him with thanksgiving. Each experience of life—each joy and sorrow, each rebuke and reward—is God with us to bless us, and all of this is for our everlasting good.

There is a very old story about a man who complained to his pastor that God had cursed him with an unbearable amount of anguish and sorrow and misfortune. He had come to his pastor for advice that he might be better able to bear those burdens. But his pastor told him, “I cannot help you. Go and see Jacob the water carrier. He has suffered every misfortune and sorrow that can come to a man. Let him help you.” So the man sought out Jacob and explained why the pastor had sent him. After listening to him, Jacob looked at him with amazement and said, “ I can’t understand why the pastor has sent you to me. I have never really suffered any misfortune in all my life.” You see, Jacob’s faith was such that everything in life was a witness to him of God’s wisdom and goodness. That was real thankfulness, a way of thanksgiving we would do well to cultivate.

Each day, let us remember the Lord our God with a thankful life, for it is in a thankful life that faith in God and obedience to His commandments come together. As St. Paul wrote: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” It is our lives the Lord wants—our lives of faith responding to His work in the world and among us. To remember the Lord with thanksgiving without also remembering our neighbor in love is as incompatible as expecting forgiveness from God without forgiving those who sin against us. Only God by His grace can make us this way; only God can enable us to be truly thankful.

And so, on this Thanksgiving Day, if in some simple way we can remember what the Lord our God has done for us, and if we can remember Him with some semblance of thanksgiving, and if we can remember Him and our neighbor with some part of our life, then we are truly blessed. God has been at work in us by His powerful Word of grace, because each and every thankful word or deed finds its source in Jesus Christ and His saving work for us. It is for this—and above all, for our Lord faithfully taking upon Himself all of our sins so that we might be cleansed by the blood of His suffering—that we are thankful. And He will continue to work a faithful thanksgiving in all our hearts and lives, not only today, but also tomorrow, and for all the days of our lives. 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 11/19/23: Twenty-Fourth Sunday After Trinity

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“The Arm of the Lord”

Isaiah 51:9-16

 

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

 

 

The arm of the Lord is a pretty amazing thing. The Father stretches forth His arm as He speaks and creates the heavens and the earth. The Lord reaches down to make a way for Israel to pass through the Red Sea. Jesus reaches out His hand to a dead child and raises her to life again! You can see that, when God moves His almighty arm, amazing things happen. This has not changed over the years. He keeps on stretching forth His arm, even reaching out to bless you this day.

But we need to take a moment to figure out what this strong arm of our God is. The arm of God is not just some metaphor that will cause people to realize that there is a powerful God out there somewhere who really does care about His creatures. Nor is He a stern God, looking down on you with His arms folded and with a scowl on His face, waiting to pounce in judgment on your every action. He is not an uncaring God, watching from a distance, indifferent toward you and your daily needs and ongoing problems. No, your Lord actually reaches out His strong arm, His gracious hand, to bless you in many and various ways.

We also do well to remember that God has two arms for blessing us. With His left hand, He provides for us our daily bread—all that we need for the support of our bodies and our lives here on this earth. He gives you clothing and food. He gives you a home and the means to provide for a family. He provides the weather and governing authorities to protect you. He gives you health and friends and a host of other blessings with His left hand. He blesses you richly each day, often with more than you actually need, so that you may be a blessing to others.

That’s a whole lot that God does with only one hand! And He does all of this with the “lesser” of His two hands, so to speak, for you have a God who is, above all, “right-handed.” His almighty right hand has the power to save you! His right hand bestows those heavenly blessings that last forever! The all-powerful right hand of God is what He uses to forgive your sins, to rescue you from death and Satan, and to grant you everlasting life in paradise with Him!

The right hand of God assures all who hold to His Word that He will, indeed, carry out the promises He has made. God’s people have no need to fear mere men. Your deliverance rests in the hand of the Lord who is your Maker and your Redeemer. It is the right hand of God that offers comfort to those who believe in Him and have His Word in their hearts and on their lips. He has chosen you to be His. He has declared you to be His own. He has given you that message of redemption and righteousness and the promise of a new heaven and a new earth to come. And you, and all who believe this, rest securely in the powerful hand of the Lord. No one will be permitted to steal you from His powerful right hand.

But so often we forget this powerful comfort of God. Perhaps we are intimidated when others ridicule us or when we are threatened with harm. Yet the pages of Holy Scripture and sacred history are filled with the stories of those who have been upheld by the right hand of the Lord, those who were prepared to offer up their lives rather than deny the Lord who had bought them at such a precious price: the price of His own life and blood.

You know about this powerful right hand of God. You confess it in the Creed. It is Jesus, your Savior, who is at the right hand of God! He came down to earth to accomplish what no man before or after ever could. He kept God’s Law perfectly in Your place, earning life in heaven for you and for all who trust in Him. Then He willingly gave up His own glory, instead suffering the death you deserved at His cross, so that by His death you would have eternal life given to you as a free gift!

And the right hand of God continues to act to bless You today! The right hand of God came down to you in the font to cleanse you of your sins in baptism. The right hand of God marks you as one redeemed by Christ the crucified in Holy Absolution. The right hand of God serves you the body and blood of Christ, given into death for the forgiveness of your sins.

And God’s right hand continues to deliver you from death and the devil’s temptations still today. It still marks you with the cross of Jesus Christ, your Savior. It keeps on cleansing you from sin as your baptism brings you daily to repentance. The right hand of God covers you in its shadow to protect and keep you. It is stirred up again and again to help you by His great love for you in Jesus Christ. His strong arm reaches out to lift you up to life again. And that strong arm takes you finally to heaven, will you will hear Him say, “You are my beloved, now and forevermore.” 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 11/12/23: Twenty-Third Sunday After Trinity

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Christians and Authority

Proverbs 8:11-22

 

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

Christians have always been of different minds when it comes to how they should relate to civil governance. If we took a poll, no doubt we would hear a number of different views. Jesus sanctions government in today’s Gospel, but almost as if it is something we just have to put up with. Lutherans have lived and confessed their faith under both democracy and tyranny. The Bible does not mandate any particular governance. But as our elected officials try to violate religious freedom, perhaps we ought to be paying more attention to what our government is doing.

Lutherans actually have a doctrinal and confessional position on the role of civil government. In the Augsburg Confession which, together with the Small Catechism, serves as the foundation of our Lutheran understanding of Holy Scripture, we confess, “Our churches teach that lawful civil regulations are good works of God. They teach that it is right for Christians to hold political office, to serve as judges, to judge matters by imperial laws or other existing laws, to impose just punishments, to engage in just wars, to serve as soldiers, to make legal contracts, to hold property, to take oaths when required by the magistrates, for a man to marry a wife, or a woman to be given in marriage... Therefore, it is necessary for Christians to be obedient to their rulers and laws. The only exception is when they are commanded to sin. Then they ought to obey God rather than men.”

Through Solomon the Lord says, “By Me kings reign...” And Solomon surely knew if anyone did, being a king himself. This is first and fundamental in any proper Christian understanding of the role of civil governance. Those who govern have their office from God and are responsible to Him. What does this mean? According to Solomon, fear of the Lord is fundamental to all of this. And what is fear of the Lord? Solomon says that it is hatred of evil. It is the hatred of pride, arrogance, and evil and perverse speech. It is the desire for justice and truth. How does our national government measure up to these divine standards? Do we get the truth from them? Do we have honest public servants? Are they really working for the good of the nation? These are certainly questions for which all citizens should be concerned.

But perhaps of even greater importance, what is the condition of our culture? Can we really expect a government that is any better than the people? As a nation, how do we treat the defenseless—the unborn and the elderly? As a people, how do we feel about such societal foundation stones as marriage and family, and their corruption by sexual promiscuity and perversion? What do we think about our communities and our neighbors? Is American life characterized by decency and kindness, or have we been overcome by coarseness and cruelty? How these questions are answered matters. Can we really expect more from those who govern us than we are prepared to be ourselves?

Christians cannot stand aside and watch as if what the government does and does not do is no concern to them. Luther said that Christians don’t depend on civil government, but our neighbor does depend on it. Our neighbor needs the protection government provides from the evil designs of those who would hurt them. So we take an interest in these things out of love for our neighbor. It is because we are concerned about our neighbor that Christians seek government that is honest and humble before God, that seeks to serve the citizenry and not themselves. Christians should stay informed, let their voices be heard, and exercise the privilege they have been given to elect our leaders.

But we Christians can do more. St. Paul tells us, “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” This is something we Christians know that others don’t. We have God’s ear. We have access to the throne of eternal grace. We are to pray for all who are in positions of authority—even and especially those we may feel are hostile to the Christian faith. And a justified concern is that government will interfere with the preaching of the Gospel by making the Church’s life more difficult and dangerous. It is a real threat. We may be drawing perilously close to that time when, in spite of the potential consequences, we must obey God rather than men.

Jesus says, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” As Christians we have no desire to interfere with the government, so long as they are doing what God has given them to do. But that means they will leave the Church free to do what she has been given to do, and that is to appeal to the lives and souls of men with that great good news of life and salvation which is only in Jesus Christ.

Government and its leaders are responsible to God. We, too, are responsible to God to pray for, respect, and obey governing authorities insofar as we can do so in faithfulness to the Word of God. Pray for our president, that he will responsibly carry out his office. Pray for those elected to work with him. Pray that ours will be a moral nation, characterized by integrity and honor. And, above all, pray for the opportunity to continue freely giving witness to the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins and salvation in 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 11/5/23: Feast of All Saints (observed)

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With God; With Each Other
Revelation 7:9-17

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

To be a saint is certainly to be blessed. The saints of Bible times were indeed blessed by God in their words and their actions, so that they could be a blessing to the Church and the world. But being blessed isn’t always what we would like to think it is. In the minds of many, the saints are surrounded always by holiness and peace. Religious art has probably contributed a lot to this unrealistic conception of the saints, frequently picturing them with halos. As beautiful as those paintings often are, they tend to give us a skewed vision of genuine saintliness.

Humanly speaking, being blessed isn’t always what it is cracked up to be. We feel blessed when our bellies are full after a good meal, but Jesus says it is blessed to hunger and thirst. Of course, Jesus is speaking of a hunger and thirst for righteousness, but still it is true that many of the saints of God have known severe poverty and need, like their Lord Jesus, who “had no place to lay His head.” We think of powerful people as being blessed, but Jesus declares those who are meek, gentle, and humble to be blessed. We think of a state of well-being and security to be a mark of blessing, but Jesus says that those who are persecuted and even hated for the sake of righteousness are blessed. Perhaps being a blessed saint requires some thought.

To understand the blessings of sainthood, we must consider first Who it is that makes someone a saint. Sainthood starts not with the saint himself or herself, but with God! The salvation of the Church is not in a saint, but in God! Power, glory, wisdom, honor, and might do not belong to the saint either; these are also in God. Likewise, the very blessing of being a saint is in God, and without Him there is nothing saintly in any of us! It is God who declares someone to be a saint. It is God alone who makes you, by faith in Jesus Christ, a holy saint!

But don’t saints do lots of saintly things? Indeed, they do! By their works, Scripture says, we know them to be saints. But the works of holy men and women do not merit them sainthood. That would have it all backwards. It’s not that saints act really holy, and then God responds by making them saints. It is God who chooses them to believe in Him, and through that faith He makes them holy, so that their actions will reflect who they are.

So we are reminded that it is God Himself who makes people into saints. But how does He do that? Many foolishly think that the Lord does this by means of His Law, as though God commands good works from Christians, and by their obedience they become saints. That is simply not true! Your holiness as one of God’s saints does not come from what you do. It comes as a gift of God, not from His law—which He knows you cannot keep—but from His Gospel love in Jesus who suffered and died for you.

You are made saints by Your Savior’s death at the cross. There He became the unholiness of all your sins, received God’s wrath poured out upon His body nailed to the cross, and then died the death you so richly deserved. In this blessed exchange, He gives you the holiness of His own righteousness, given to you in your baptism. Whatever it was you were dressed in as you were brought to the font, you were given there the robe of Christ’s righteousness, the same one the saints in heaven wear for eternity. And what Jesus received in this exchange was your “robe” of sin and shame, the robe that really should serve as your burial shroud.

And since that day, when you became a saint, you have been blessed to worship. But even in worship, the burden is not placed upon you. Yes, you pray and sing praise, give offerings, and bless your gracious God with thanksgiving. That is all true. But you worship in God. German Lutherans had a wonderful term for this: “Gottesdienst,” God’s service to you because you are His in Christ. In this Divine Service He brings you into Himself. The real presence of Jesus is not just in the Sacrament, but in the entire service. He is quite literally here at this moment, gathering you to Himself.

Your Savior, Jesus Christ, was promised as “the Word made flesh to dwell among us.” And He does this most intimately when He invites you to eat and drink of His holy body and blood in His holy Supper. The same Jesus who came in the flesh to die for your salvation is present for you here, making you holy by the forgiveness of sins and the giving of His righteousness to you. He brings here His saving cross and all its benefits to you this day.

And what is more, in this Divine Service He brings you as close as you can come in this life to the faithful who have gone before you. As the Apostle’s Creed eloquently describes it, this is the “communion of saints.” The worship of heaven and earth is joined in one, and for a brief moment the veil that separates the Church in heaven from the Church on earth is pulled aside, revealing that our worship is indeed one and the same, for on both sides of eternity it is the worship of the same God and the same Lamb who gathers all of His sheep around His eternal throne. And so we rejoice and find our hope in those words: “Therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven we laud and magnify Your glorious name, evermore praising You and saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of Sabbath; heaven and earth are full of Your glory.’” That is the song of the Church now; it will be our song forever. In the name of the Father and of the Son (†) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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