Sermon for 11/16/25: Twenty-Second Sunday After Trinity

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What Must We Do?
Micah 6:6-8
 

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

 

It is man’s natural inclination to want to do something to earn God’s favor. By nature, man knows that there’s a problem; by nature, man knows that he’s a sinner. So by nature, man also knows to try and fix the problem; to mend the fracture and make things all better. “With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” Israel certainly knows better. God Himself has made the answers to these questions abundantly clear, again and again and again. This is just stubborn foolishness and stupidity on full display. It’s enough to make God very frustrated and angry!

In the verses before our text, God Himself speaks to Israel, and He’s not happy. Micah gives us the image of a courtroom; God, the prosecuting attorney, questions the criminal defendant Israel. “Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. Hear, O you mountains, the Lord’s complaint, and you strong foundations of the earth; for the Lord has a complaint against His people, and He will contend with Israel. O My people, what have I done to you? And how have I wearied you? Testify against Me.” God then lays out examples from their past where He has delivered them, not because they deserved it or earned it, but because they were poor and miserable. “Exhibit A: ‘I brought you up from the land of Egypt; I redeemed you from the house of bondage.’ Exhibit B: ‘I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam…’ as my voice; I have never forsaken you. Exhibit C: ‘Remember Balak king of Moab.’ Remember how I turned his wicked plans into your blessings. The evidence is clear. Why do you keep doing what you’re doing? Do you not hear Me? Do you not care?”

This is when Israel looks up from their phones and asks Micah, “Man…God sounds angry. What do we need to do to get back in His good graces?” You can almost hear Micah’s eyeroll. “God has already told you. ‘He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?’ What does the Lord require of you but to simply live faithfully; to be just and right; to rebuke sin and praise righteousness? What does the Lord require of you but to love as you’ve already been loved by Him?”

They just didn’t get it. And as we look throughout Scripture, this was a recurring problem. “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What must we do to be saved?” How do we make things right? Ever since the fall into sin in the Garden of Eden, man has been trying to figure out the answer.

Do not look down your noses, because we’re not immune to this foolishness. We think foolish things about God, too. “What can I do to get a little good karma headed in my direction?” “What can I do to get back on God’s good side?” “If I put more in the offering plate, do you think that would win God over?” “How can I know God’s purpose for my life?” “What do I have to do in order to be a good Christian?” “What do I need to do in order to get a little peace and joy in my life?” “Am I going to heaven?” “Why is this happening to me?” “Don’t you care, God? Don’t you see?”

The answer to such foolish questions is simple, and I know you already know it. After all, I’m speaking to a bunch of Christians. You may not like the answer, precisely because it’s so simple, but this is the answer. Look here! Look to the cross of Jesus Christ! “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” Behold! “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son…” In Him and because of Him, it is finished! You are saved by His grace, His mercy, His cross-shaped love. Here is all of God’s wrath against sin; here is God’s love for you. Here is God’s love for the world. Go and share and proclaim this life-giving Word to anyone who is a sinner who Christ loved enough to die for! Go and tell all that Christ has done for you!

It’s that simple! And praise God that it is! May He grant us the wisdom and humility of faith to simply believe Him, hold fast to Him, and proclaim His Truth in all our daily thoughts, words, and deeds. 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.

 

Homily for 11/9/25: Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart

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Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart
Lutheran Service Book hymn 708

 

Today we’re going to spend a few minutes with the hymn Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart. It was written by Martin Schalling, a 16th century Lutheran pastor who was repeatedly kicked out of the churches and cities he was called to serve for daring to be faithful to the Word of God. In this context, as we consider the words of the text, it is even more profound that he was able to make such a bold confession in the face of trial and suffering.

In stanza 1 we confess, “Lord, Thee I love with all my heart.” As we continue on, we acknowledge just how vital it is for us to be in our Lord’s presence. “Earth has no pleasure I would share; Yea, heav’n itself were void and bare if Thou, Lord, wert not near me.” Can you imagine needing the Lord so much that even your most valued possession would be worthless in comparison? But Schalling makes that claim without hesitating, for “Thou art the portion I have sought; Thy precious blood my soul has bought.” So even when it means that he loses his position, his reputation, and even his home, he cries out in faith, and we cry out with him, “Forsake me not! I trust Thy Word.”

The second stanza confesses how good God has been to His people, and we ask Him to train us to confess this truth to all those around us. And then we ask God to keep us faithful in the face of our crosses, even to death: “Let no false doctrine me beguile; let Satan not my soul defile. Give strength and patience unto me to bear my cross and follow Thee.” And the stanza concludes with the cry, “In death Thy comfort still afford,” echoing our Lord’s urging to “be faithful unto death.”

The final stanza is often sung or spoken at the deathbed of a fiathful Christian or at the funeral or committal of the faithful departed. I can’t read the words for you without crying, but these words are a confession and prayer and that both the dying and those who are for a time left behind would be taken to their blessed rest in the arms of their Lord. And as we pointed out last week as we celebrated the Feast of All Saints, this hymn also reminds us that death is not the end. “And then from death awaken me, that these mine eyes with joy may see, O Son of God, Thy glorious face, my Savior and my fount of grace.” We will be awakened from the sleep of death to live in the visible presence of our dear Lord, to praise Him eternally.

Thanks be to God for such a rich hymn to feed and edify our minds and souls. God grant that these words and others like them would be in our hearts and on our lips as we daily carry our crosses.

 

Sermon for 11/2/25: Feast of All SaInts (observed)

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“Who Are These?”
Revelation 7:9-17
 

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

Today we celebrate the Feast of All Saints. We celebrate both the saints in heaven and the saints on earth. We just sang: “O blest communion, fellowship divine, we feebly struggle, they in glory shine; yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine.” As we sing that hymn, we can't help but think of our own loved ones who have lived and died in the faith, who are now praising God with heavenly anthems more beautiful than anything that we dare to imagine. As we sing that hymn, we are reminded that, by God's grace, we will enter into that victory celebration that has no end. For our God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

The Book of Revelation gives us a glimpse of this in the heavenly liturgy. We often hear people talking about the need to be multi-cultural or cross-cultural, because the Church was apparently formed by dead, white, European males. But here in the Book of Revelation, we have genuine multi-cultural worship: those from all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues are joined together in a single liturgy, centered in the Lamb of our salvation, Jesus Christ. They do not come with many different songs; with one accord they chant, “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” And they are joined by angels, the elders, and the four living creatures in worship of the Trinity as the celestial choir sings, “Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever!” They come from everywhere; but their song is singular as they glorify the eternal God who gave His Son to be the Savior of the world.

The liturgy of heaven and earth revolves around the Lamb of God. Christian worship is Christ-centered. He is present here to bless us with His words of pardon and peace. He is here with His body, born of Mary and hung on a cross, to give us His blood-bought gifts of the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. The whole Divine Service points to Him.

The liturgy does not belong to us; it belongs to God as His service to us by means of His Word and Sacraments. Salvation belongs to our God, and He gives it to us here. We do not come here to be entertained, but to be built up in faith. We learn from the saints and angels how to worship God, how to receive His gifts in faith, how to confess Him as the author and finisher of our faith.

Who are these saints? The elder before the throne tells John, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” These are the blessed ones our Lord tells us about: those who recognized their own spiritual poverty; those who mourned over their sin; those who were reviled, persecuted, and slandered for the sake of the Lord and His Gospel. The great tribulation is the life of the Christian under the cross. Saints have no self-made holiness. Their holiness is the blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sin. They wear the white robe of His righteousness that covers their shame with the forgiveness of sins. Through His perfect righteousness they have access to the presence of the living God.

“We feebly struggle, they in glory shine.” But like those who have gone before, we are saints. The blood of the Lamb has atoned for our sin. The white robe of Christ's righteousness is our glorious clothing, given us in our Baptism. The Lamb has won the victory! Death could not hold Him; and because He has risen from the dead, we have the pledge of eternal life. “And when the fight is fierce, the warfare long, steals on the ear the distant triumph song, and hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.”

Our Lord has won the victory. And we are one with Him and with those who have gone before us. The Feast of All Saints gives us a glimpse of that unseen reality. What comfort that is to us who still feebly struggle! We are not alone. As we gather around the Lamb, we are surrounded by the saints who have gone before us and saints who still live on this earth. We are blessed, for by the blood of Jesus we are members of His Church, the communion of saints. And today we join with all the saints of all times and places in their heavenly liturgy. 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.