Sermon for 8/22/10--Twelfth Sunday After Trinity (LSB 1-year)

Ephphatha—Be Opened!
Mark 7:31-37

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


The Word of God is a powerful thing. In fact, it was powerful enough to bring you here this morning. This is a rich blessing which we have received from our heavenly Father. God’s Word goes in your ear, and then it comes out of your mouth. God speaks to us in His Word, and we speak His Word back to Him. We listen as the Word is read and preached in its truth and purity; and once we’ve heard the Word of God, we respond with thanksgiving, prayer, praise and song. Faith compels us to respond to God’s Word. In fact, as the Apostle Paul tells us, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”

This was the literal truth for the deaf and tongue-tied man who was brought to Jesus in the region of the Decapolis. As you sit here this morning, you can do two things that the man in our text was unable to do before Jesus opened his ears and released his tongue: you can hear the Word, and you can speak and sing praise to God. This man was isolated both from God and from his fellow man: unable to hear, unable to speak intelligibly, unable to comprehend the Word and respond to it. In our Old Testament lesson, Isaiah tells us that one of the signs of the coming of the promised Messiah is that “the deaf shall hear the words of the book”. It should come as no surprise, then, that Jesus not only has the power to heal this man, but that He also has the compassion which compels Him to heal this man. Mark tells us that Jesus “put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched his tongue. Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, 'Ephphatha,' that is, 'Be opened.'" And from that moment, the man could hear and speak plainly.

This is a vicious attack against the power of Satan. The devil would like nothing more than for God’s creation to be unable to receive and respond to God’s Word. The devil would stop up every ear if he could; he would paralyze every tongue. For some, he has been all too successful. After all, we are, by nature, deaf to God. We are, by nature, mute, unable to call upon His name, unable to confess His might and mercy, unable to praise Him. Satan would have us looking selfishly to our own worries, our own thoughts, our own strength. Satan would plug our ears with the garbage of this world: horoscopes and psychic network commercials, the constant drone of those who would have you believe that you can find peace in the things of this world, the deceptions of false teachers who would have you believe that you can make peace with God through ten simple steps. We hasten after these things; yet we are slow to listen to God’s Word, slow to praise Him, slow to call upon the Lord in the day of trouble, slow to glorify Him when He has brought our tribulation to an end. God created us in His image, in perfect righteousness, so that we could hear Him and call upon Him as children call upon their own dear fathers. But since we turned away from Him, since we stopped our ears to Him, since we decided instead to listen to the father of lies, we have become deaf and silent to the Word. We refuse to hear the Word; we cast it away and chase after lies. Even now the Old Adam in us wants nothing to do with the Word of God. He rebels against it! He sticks his own fingers in his ears and makes unintelligible noises to shut out God's Word, like a petulant child who has been told to finish his vegetables. We are comfortable in our sinfulness, comfortable in our silence, comfortable in our isolation from God and our neighbor. Anyone who refuses to acknowledge this sinful condition, anyone who does not regret this isolation from God will not be freed from that condition. They will remain in isolation from God.

To see and know and hear God can only happen through the Word. The Holy Spirit doesn’t work any other way. If our silence before God is to be broken, it must be the Lord who breaks it, just as this man could not open his own ears, just as he could not unleash his own tongue. If we are to proclaim God’s glory, He must first loosen our tongues. And that is precisely what He does. We are bound in the silence of sin as we are carried to the baptismal font. It is only through the faith we receive in Holy Baptism that we first hear the Word, when the Lord touches us with His Word in the water and speaks over us saying, “Ephphatha—be opened!” It is in Holy Baptism that we first receive the ability to hear the Word of God. Before we were baptized we were spiritually deaf and mute. We had no faith to know what that Word of God was, and so we were lost in a deadly silence. But in our baptism we received the Holy Spirit as a free gift. And the Holy Spirit and the faith we receive in Baptism allow us to pray with the psalmist, “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise.” This is a prayer He graciously answers, giving us His holy Word and teaching us to speak it back to Him. There is an apocryphal story in which a lady says to her pastor, “Pastor, the liturgy doesn’t say what I mean.” And then the pastor responds, “Well, dear lady, then you must learn to mean what the liturgy says.” That is precisely what the Holy Spirit does: He guides us to God-pleasing words, words which speak back to God what He has first said to us. That was the meat of the promise we heard in the Old Testament reading: “In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The humble also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For the terrible one is brought to nothing, the scornful one is consumed.”

It is because Satan is indeed consumed and brought to nothing that this man’s tongue was set loose to speak plainly and truthfully about the goodness of the Savior. In fact, it is not just the deaf mute who now speaks; all those who were with him speak out as well. And although Jesus commands them not to tell anyone, they cannot hold it in; they are driven to speak of it. The more He commands them, the more widely they proclaim what He has done. Is that not how it is with the Gospel? It cannot be restrained or bound but proceeds ever onward in the ears and on the lips of His Church, even as it is to this very day with you. Having experienced the awesome wonder of the Lord putting His Word in your ear and setting His very body on your tongue to loosen it, you too confess the Lord far and wide.

God grant, then, that you who have had your ears opened and your tongues set loose by Christ may confess before all the world, with these people in the Gospel reading: “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.” 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.

HYMN: The Mighty Word Goes Forth Today

Wow. It's been a long time since I've posted a hymn. In fact, this is the first one I've even worked on since my Installation in May. I guess it's not a bad thing, though, to be focusing on the flock which the Shepherd has placed in my care. Anyway, any comments or suggestions for improvement are welcome. And if anyone can write a tune which fits the text better than the two I suggested from LSB, don't hesitate to do so!

The Mighty Word Goes Forth Today

1. The mighty Word goes forth today
Into the hearts of men.
It points us to the narrow way
And says, "Return again."
Repent! Be washed in Satan's bane:
That great baptismal flood
Where souls, once black with sin's dark stain,
Are whitened by Christ's blood.

2. The mighty Word of God we preach--
And never preach in vain.
The Spirit through the Word will teach
And earn a harvest gain.
The Word shall guide us on our path,
A lamp unto our feet,
And in our hearts He stays God's wrath,
Revealing grace complete.

3. The Word incarnate dwells with us.
We meet here in His name.
Where two or three are gathered thus
His presence is proclaimed.
Be present at this Table, Lord--
This great and holy Feast:
Your body slain, Your blood outpoured
For greatest and for least.

4. O Word incarnate, Word of life,
According to Your will,
Unite Your Church and end our strife
And all our sorrows still.
We pray You, guide us on our way
As we yet run our race,
Until that great and glorious day
We see You face to face.


(c) Alan Kornacki, Jr.
C M D (86 86 86 86)
Tune: KINGSFOLD (LSB 846) or ALL SAINTS NEW (LSB 661)

Sermon for 8/15/10--The Dormition of St. Mary, Mother of God

Full of Grace
Luke 1: 39-45 (46-55)

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


Today is the day when the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church has chosen to commemorate the death of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The day is called the Feast of the Dormition of Saint Mary, Mother of God. Now, before you go off thinking that your pastor has left Lutheranism for the shelter of the Roman church, let me remind you that although the Lutheran Church does not pray to or worship the saints, we do thank God for them and remember what it is that made each of these people saints. For the moment, let us look past all the heresies and pious opinions that have sprung up around the mother of God. After all, it does us no harm and much good to remember the good and gracious work God has done for and through the Blessed Virgin.

The angel had just appeared to Mary and had revealed to her that she would be the one through whom the Savior of the world would be delivered. Can you imagine? An angel of the Lord has appeared to you and told you that the Messiah promised from the moment that mankind fell into sin will be revealed to the world through you. So what did Mary do? She didn’t call for a press conference. She didn’t stand at the well and brag to all the women who would be coming to carry home the day’s water. Instead she got up and journeyed to visit her pregnant cousin, Elizabeth.

And then a most remarkable thing happened. Before Mary could do anything more than greet her cousin, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaped for joy. As for Elizabeth, she was filled with the Holy Spirit, which is how she knew, without having to be told, that Mary carried in her own womb the Christ. She called Mary and the fruit of her womb “blessed”. And she added, “Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”

The world has two reactions to the blessedness of Mary. The first reaction is to take it too far. They say things about Mary that Scripture doesn’t say. Some of them are pious opinions, some of which Luther and many Lutherans hold to. For example, some believe and teach that Mary was conceived immaculately, which means she was conceived by the Holy Spirit the way Jesus was. Some believe and teach that Mary remained a virgin throughout her life. These are pious opinions which give Mary honor, but they do not have clear backing in Scripture. On the other hand, some believe and teach insidious heresies related to Mary. The worst is that some believe and teach that Mary is co-redemptrix—that is, she, along with Jesus, is Redeemer; that she, along with Jesus, has the power to forgive sin. This is false and perverse, for Scripture clearly teaches that there is no other name in heaven or on earth or under the earth by which we may be saved than the name of Jesus. Such a teaching does not only dishonor Mary, but it attempts to lead the faithful astray.

The other worldly reaction to the blessedness of Mary is to belittle it, to despise it. Since some take the honor of Mary too far, others ignore it. They would say, “The Lord could have chosen anyone to be mother to the Christ. Mary doesn’t deserve special honor for something over which she had no control.” Again, this is insidious and sinful, for Scripture itself teaches us that Mary is blessed. The angel of the Lord told Mary that she is “full of grace” and that “the Lord is with [her]”. The Holy Spirit led Elizabeth to tell Mary that she is “blessed among women”. Mary is the theotokos, the God-bearer, the mother of God. The Church and the world ignore that to their own peril.

Mary, for her part, was humble. She recognized that God had blessed her in a very special way. She believed God, and trusted the Word which the angel brought to her. She stands out as a picture of what happens when God’s Word has its way with someone. Out of the faith she had in God, out of the trust she had for God’s Word, she accepted the will of God as her own, accepting the unbelievable task of carrying the Savior of the world in her womb. She waited patiently and joyfully as the Baby grew in her womb, praising God for the Child and the promises He came to fulfill.

That is why we honor Mary today: she points us to her Son, her Redeemer. Mary did not exalt herself. Instead she points out that God has lifted her out of her lowly estate. She makes clear that God is merciful to those who fear Him. She acknowledges that God has graciously fulfilled the promise He made to Abraham and his children. If Mary had exalted herself for the blessing God gave her, we could not honor her; but her soul magnifies the Lord and rejoices in the promised Messiah. She moves the focus away from herself. She moves the focus to her Son, her Savior, Jesus—who is the completion of the lifting up of the lowly, the realization of the mercy to those who fear God, the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham. The picture of Mary with the Christ in her womb is a picture of the Church, for the Church is not the Church without the presence of Jesus—just as Mary is merely another unmarried pregnant teenager if the child she carries is not the Christ. But in her womb she carried the Son of God, the One conceived by the Holy Spirit, the One born to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

No: Mary is not the co-redeemer with Jesus. She does not answer prayer, nor should we pray to her. She is no goddess. Yet she is a saint. She is a saint because God has exalted her. She is a saint because of the faith she was given. And like Mary, you are a saint, for God has exalted you, lifting you from your sinfulness, covering you with the blood of Jesus the Lamb which forgives your sins. Like Mary, you are a saint, for God has given you faith in the waters of Holy Baptism, faith which clings to the Word, faith which believes that the death of Christ atones for your sins and the sins of the whole world. Like Mary, we are saints; and so we can say without hesitation: “Hail Mary, full of grace: the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed be the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” Today we honor Mary as blessed, for she bore Jesus in her womb. Today, with all generations, we honor Mary, for we are blessed by the fruit of her womb, and her faithful confession continues to point us to Jesus. Thanks be to God that He chose Mary to be the mother of Jesus; for in Mary we can see ourselves, too: both sinner and saint, redeemed servants of God. And like Mary, who we honor this day, our souls magnify the Lord, for He has done great things for us. That’s what this feast day is all about. 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.

Pastoral Theology . . . or something else?

I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. -- II Timothy 4:1-5


During my four-plus years in pastoral exile, I did a lot of reading in, among other things, pastoral theology. Hoping beyond hope that I would receive a Call to again serve a congregation, I wanted to do something that would help me continue to grow as a pastor. I re-read the pastoral theologies of John H. C. Fritz and Mueller/Kraus, the abridged translation of Walther's pastoral theology, "The Practice of Pastoral Theology" by Dr. James Bollhagen (formerly of Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana), the Schuetze/Habeck volume The Shepherd Under Christ (which was a required text when I took Pastoral Ministry at Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary in St. Catharines, Ontario), and even the Pastoral Ministry notes from my seminary days under Pastor Prusha.

One of the things that caught my attention in my reading--and in my interaction with synodical officials--was that so much of what qualifies as pastoral theology goes beyond what Scripture lists as qualifications and duties for men who aspire to the "noble task" of which the Apostle Paul speaks in I Timothy 3. In that sense, pastoral theology has become "pastoral common sense" or even, in some cases, "pastoral opinions" Let me share a couple of examples--though by no means an exhaustive list.

The first example comes out of personal interaction with a district president (now a former district president, a good thing for the sake of the Church) during my exile. He had encouraged me to see a pastoral counselor--or to be more accurate, he required me to see a specific team of ELCA pastoral counselors as a condition of my possible return to parish ministry. The counselors requested the district president's evaluation of my suitability for parish ministry. I could include almost his entire list of concerns as examples of the subjectivity of which I write. But the one that stood out most was when he wrote, "By nature [Rev. Kornacki] is a shy person and somewhat of an introvert. He will not always initiate conversations with members, he does not exert strong leadership, and in behavior he is somewhat passive and follows the line of least resistance." Whether or not he was accurate in his assessment--though how he'd know either way when he never took the time to get to know me or to answer any of the correspondence sent to him or return the phone calls made to him is a mystery--nowhere in Scripture does it list in the qualifications for the Office of the Holy Ministry that a pastor must be naturally outgoing. In fact, the examples of men whom God chose who weren't naturally outgoing in Scripture is not one to be sneezed at--not the least of which was Moses. Anyway, yes, a pastor must be able to interact with his people. Of course he must. But to insist that a pastor constantly seek out and initiate contact, to take the path of most resistance, to constantly lead from the front (especially as an associate pastor under a senior pastor)--that is . . . unrealistic, at best. To question a man's fitness for the Office of the Holy Ministry because he is more skilled with interaction between individuals and small groups than with large crowds is troublesome . . . and quite possibly sinful.

I also encountered this from another district office when I was considering a Call I received while in exile. The district mission executive asked me to take a personality profile test. The district president informed me that he would not have supported my name on a Call list to that congregation, and the district mission executive (after grading my test) promised the congregation which extended the Call to me that the district would not support them if I were to accept the Call, as I didn't have the gifts they felt were appropriate for the situation in which the congregation found itself. That's not why I declined the Call, but it certainly didn't impress me with the pastoral heart of the district in which the congregation was placed.

The second example has to do with the question of whether or not a preacher should use a manuscript while preaching. An online acquaintance of mine recently posted a translation of a snippet from Prof. Fr. Streckfuß in a document titled "The Preparation of the Sermon". He writes:

In our Lutheran Church it was always the principle that the preacher must preach freely, that is, that he should not read. Our Lutheran hearers do not like reading. It is a well known fact that there was once a preacher who read every Sunday, came to one of his hearers, who just read the prophet Isaiah. The preacher asked the man: "What do you make of it?" The man gave his answer: "I prophecy." The preacher said "My dear man, you want to say: 'I read prophecies.' " "Well", replied the hearer, "If you say on Sunday that you preach, when you read, then I can surely say, when I read prophecies, that I prophecy." The preacher took that to heart and from that moment on never again read, but preached. How much our people are taken against reading the sermon, I myself once experienced in a professional manner. A congregation that I served as a vacancy pastor finally appointed a pastor after several failed attempts who was recommended very warmly by the district president. I did not know the pastor personally, but what I had heard of him already also moved me to stand by him as the right man. I mailed the call document and cover letter to him. After about a week I received a letter from the pastor in which he told me that he had the letter; but at the same time he wrote that he, before he would accept the call, the congregation was to reveal something; as an honest man he felt in his conscience obliged. And what was that? He wrote that he could not preach free. Indeed he could speak freely at the altar, but no sermon in the pulpit; he had to read the sermon. He had tried it more often without a manuscript at the ready in the pulpit, but he was stuck almost every time. I should now say this to the congregation. If the congregation would now take him, he was gladly willing to come; but if not, then he would return the call. When I told this to the congregation, they decided unanimously to ask the pastor to return the call because they did not want a "meter reader". It was better to stay vacant one year longer that have a pastor that did not preach free. I reported this to the pastor and he sent the call back.

On a related note, another online acquaintance writing in response related the fact that his homiletics professor, a former district president, kept a set of crutches on his wall for students who required a manuscript to preach. Fritz in his pastoral theology assumes that the pastor memorizes his sermon (p.99), so he never mentions the alternative.

I'm of the opinion that a man who can preach without a manuscript--and I mean, really preach, not just recite a sermon from memory--is truly the recipient of a double blessing from God. My first fieldwork supervisor in seminary could preach for 25 minutes without a manuscript, and he was a compelling Lutheran preacher. The Lord did not bless me in this way. He did, however, bless me with the ability to write the way I speak: in a generally clear, easy to understand manner. Nevertheless, when I get too far from my manuscript, I lose my train of thought. Does it make me a less-skilled preacher? Possibly? Is the use of a manuscript less than ideal? I'll cede the point. Should it be a reason for a congregation to avoid calling a certain pastor? That's up to the calling congregation, of course, though I'd have to wonder what other expectations they'd have of the man they'd eventually Call. Should a man aspiring to the pastoral office be belittled--treated as a pastoral cripple--by a homiletics professor, a mentor, other pastors, because he uses a manuscript? By no means.

Why do we bind the consciences of men who aspire to the preaching office with requirements beyond what Scripture demands? It is an already weighty load. Why do we call into question the ability of the Holy Spirit to adequately equip the men Called to be prophets of the Most High? The Lord of the harvest sends men into the field with a variety of gifts. These various gifts allow them to do a myriad of things, all of them in service to the Kingdom.

Those men whom the Lord calls, He equips as He chooses. Let the Spirit do His work unquestioned and unhindered; and let the men He has called serve as He has equipped them, whatever those tools may be.



[Note: The first ever pastoral theology written by a pastor for a pastor or seminary student is Paul's first letter to Timothy. Chapters 3 and 4 are an excellent introduction to pastoral theology. And of course, Jesus, the Pastor and Shepherd under whom all pastors serve, spoke pastoral theology throughout His earthly ministry.]

Sermon for 8/8/10--Tenth Sunday After Trinity (LSB 1-year)

I'll admit that I struggled with this sermon at first. I had a general idea of where I wanted it to go, but it felt a little like I was preaching to the choir. But thanks be to God for the Spirit's work in wringing Law and Gospel from the fingers of a faltering pastor. (And sometimes the choir needs to be preached to, by the way.)

For Your Peace
Luke 19:41-48

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


It was the beginning of Holy Week. Jesus had just entered the city of Jerusalem to the great acclamation of her people. The people saw this as a triumphal entry. The Pharisees were so disturbed by the crowd’s response to Jesus that they urged Him to rebuke his followers. Yet Jesus, the one who received this adulation, was found to be weeping over the holy city. He wept and said, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”

In the account of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, we see a whole cross-section of the things that did not make for peace. The people of Jerusalem greeted Jesus as a king; but they greeted Him as an earthly king, and Jesus did not come as an earthly king to bring earthly peace. The Pharisees rejected Jesus because they were afraid He would disturb their peace—a false, worldly peace that was based on their self-righteous outward adherence to the Law. Jesus would certainly disturb that kind of peace, for He came to bring that peace “which the world cannot give”. And then we see the buyers and sellers in the Temple court. Of all places where people should have been able to witness to God’s grace and truth, the Temple was the place; but the world had defiled it. The buyers and sellers were in a position to hear the promises made by God through Moses and the prophets; instead they took refuge there. They sold and bought sacrifices to appease the wrath of God. They thought that hiding themselves in the Temple would shield them from God’s anger; after all, surely God would not destroy His own holy place.

And so, Jesus wept. He knew what was to come. He knew God’s wrath toward unbelievers—-and more than that, He knew the means by which the justice of God’s wrath would be delivered. He said, “For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Jesus was exactly correct. At the time of the Passover in the year 70 about 1,000,000 Jews gathered in Jerusalem. During the next five months Jerusalem was totally overcome and destroyed. In fact, they played a part in their own destruction. There were three parties in the city who were jealous of each other and did not trust each other. They destroyed each others' food supplies and homes. Thus the Jews were their own worst enemies. Jerusalem was circled by three strong walls. With great effort and at great expense the Romans conquered wall after wall. Then they went after the Temple. It was burned to the ground August 10, 70 A.D. Then 900,000 Jews were killed, starved or sold as slaves. Only about 100,000 survived. God’s judgment was terrible and righteous. As we learn from the prophet Malachi, “Who can abide the day of His coming, and who can stand when He appears?”

The Church is not immune to the pride and self-sufficiency that distracts from the Word of God. How easily the house of God becomes a den of thieves. How easy it is to lose sight of what it is that makes for your peace. How often do we think God’s Church couldn’t survive without our financial support? How often do we think that we do more for this congregation than this congregation does for us? What brings you to this place today? Is it to be seen? Is it to keep your name on the membership rolls? Being baptized or having your name on the rolls of a congregation is no guarantee of salvation. It’s a simple matter for a baptized child of God to deny that baptism; we do it every time we sin, every time we succumb to the Old Adam in us. We do it every time we allow our self-reliance to distract us from the preaching in the Word and the reception of God’s holy Sacraments. The Church is no refuge for the prideful or the self-righteous man. The history of Jerusalem—especially its destruction—stands as a terrible warning of how those who God has chosen might still be destroyed because of their rejection of God and His gifts. And Jesus weeps over them. Jesus weeps. He weeps because He desires the whole world to be saved. If the people of Jerusalem had only received Jesus as the Messiah He was, if only they had not rejected Him as they had rejected the prophets! If only the baptized child of God would not deny his own need for the body and blood of Jesus; if only the baptized child of God would hunger and thirst for Christ’s righteousness! Do not be deceived: the doors of the church building will not protect the self-righteous from God’s wrath.

The Church is no refuge for sinners who are comfortable in their sinfulness. But the Church is the refuge for sinners who recognize their sinfulness and repent of it, for it is in this house of prayer where we hear the Word of God spoken to us to bring us comfort and that peace which the world cannot give. It is in this place where we receive the holy Word of Absolution spoken to us, spoken by your pastor as from Christ Himself. It is in this place where the lowly, the humbled, the repentant, are raised up in the waters of Holy Baptism and made righteous with the righteousness of Christ, the white robe of righteousness that will shield you from the wrath of God. Just as a few faithful remained in the Temple for Christ to teach daily, there will always be a faithful remnant in this place whenever the Word of truth is preached in its purity. It is that which brings you here this day: the true Word of God preached to the true Children of Israel. And it will continue to be preached here, that you may know the things that make for your peace.

God is faithful. Just as He faithfully fulfilled the promise of the absolute destruction of unrepentant Jerusalem, He faithfully fulfilled the promise of sending One to crush the head of the wily serpent, Satan. Just as the promised death and resurrection of Jesus was fulfilled, so will be fulfilled the promised Day of Judgment, the day when we shall receive the promised inheritance of eternal life. As we wait for that day, the Word will continue to be faithfully preached in this house of prayer, so that you may hear it and learn it and cling to it, rather than having to rely on your own faulty self-righteousness. The Holy Supper will continue to be faithfully administered in this place, so that you may eat and drink of it and live. Here is Jesus Christ, faithfully present in His own body and blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sin, present just as He has promised. Here is the thing that makes for your peace, both now and for all eternity. 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.

That they may know the truth . . .

"And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will." -- II Timothy 2:24-26 (NKJV)

On Tuesday evening, for the first time in nearly eight years, I taught adult catechesis. For those of you unfamiliar with that term, the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines catechesis in this way: "oral instruction of catechumens". To supplement that ever-so-helpful definition, I looked up catechumens, and there we find some clarity: "1 : a convert to Christianity receiving training in doctrine and discipline before baptism; 2 : one receiving instruction in the basic doctrines of Christianity before admission to communicant membership in a church". In this case, the second definition is the more accurate, as the two ladies in class are both baptized.

Eight years is a long time between classes, of course. Nonetheless, other than having to talk more in a two-hour class than I usually talk in a week, last night I found myself settling into a bit of a groove. It certainly helps that I'm working with good materials with which I am highly familiar. The three main texts for our class are the Holy Bible (I'm recommending the New King James Version, since that's what we use in worship here at St. Peter Lutheran Church), Luther's Small Catechism, and Lutheran Service Book, the hymnal released by the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod in 2006. Our curriculum is simple: we read and discuss Luther's Small Catechism through the lens of Scripture. To supplement that curriculum and to ease the catechumens into the worship life of the congregation, we will also be studying the liturgy of the Divine Service as well as the prayer offices Matins and Vespers, using studies which I wrote as part of my seminary studies and streamlined in the course of my ten years as a pastor.

As I am with other aspect of parish ministry, I am excited to again be teaching adult catechesis. It is a joy to again be doing those things I love, those things I have been trained to do. I thank God for the opportunity to again be an undershepherd to a flock of the Lord's sheep. I just hope my throat adjusts to all the talking I'm once again called to do!

If any members of St. Peter or other area Lutherans are interested in a refresher course, join us on Tuesday evening at 6:30 PM. On Tuesday the 10th we will be discussing the First Commandment.

Sermon for 8/1/10--Ninth Sunday After Trinity (LSB 1-year)

Paid in Full
Luke 16:1-9 (10-13)

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


The steward had been entrusted with managing his master’s possessions. It was a position of respect and responsibility, and the rewards for faithful service were often considerable. But, that was about to change. He stood accused of wasting his master’s goods. The master sensed that something was not right. There would be an audit; the books would be opened and examined. With speed and shrewdness, he used the time that remained in his position to cut the debt of others and, thus, make friends with them. He called on each of his master’s debtors and cancelled a portion of their debt. Since he was still in the office of steward, his actions carried with them the weight and promise of his master. Although he did it to look out for himself, although he did it with someone else’s possessions, he was still commended by the master for his cleverness.

What does all of this mean? It doesn’t mean that God is teaching us to be dishonest. He has commanded that we not steal or even covet, but receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. What, then, did Jesus mean when He said, "For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light"? What was His design in saying to His own disciples, "Make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon"? There will come a time, and we all know this, when possessions will become utterly meaningless. They cannot provide for our eternal future. God is concerned about how we use the stewardship He has entrusted to us. As Jesus later said, “If you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches”? His conclusion was that we cannot serve both God and mammon.

If God called for an accounting tomorrow, if the books were opened on your use of what He has entrusted to you, how would you fare? Are you ready for God’s audit? Would there be any grounds for an accusation that you have been wasting God’s gifts? In this place and this time in which you live, with all of the possessions that surround you, and knowing what it takes to make you content, are you ready for the Master to call in His accounts? Let him who stands take heed lest he fall.

If an accounting of our stewardship was required, would we not be in the same fix as that steward? He was focused on providing for himself; aren’t we? He had wasted some of that which His master had entrusted to him; haven’t we? None of that is what Jesus approved of. What Jesus was commending was this steward’s attitude when he recognized his predicament. The point of praise is not that he selfishly looked out for himself, nor that he pulled a fast one before he was removed from office. Rather, Jesus’ point of praise is this steward’s shrewdness, or wisdom, in depending on one thing and one only, and that was the master’s mercy. The steward knew his master and staked everything on the fact that he would be merciful to those whose debts had been cancelled. Would the master honor the cancellation of the debts he made? The steward trusted that he would, and his trust in that mercy was his only provision for the future. The steward was praised for knowing where his hope was found; in the mercy of the master.

The steward staked everything on the belief that his master would honor the words spoken in his name to cancel the debt. And the master did just that! That is the point of the whole parable: the mercy of the Lord. His is the greatness and the power and the glory. It is in His hands to make great and give to all. Both riches and honor come from Him. It is in this light that Jesus then calls for the sons of light, the faithful, to examine their own single-minded devotion to true riches. After all, the sons of the world calculate and plan and expend all kinds of effort for the sake of earthly security—riches that will always fail! Jesus would have us put the things of this world to an everlasting use in love towards our neighbor, making every effort for the sake of the kingdom of God, to bring eternal riches to others—the riches that will not fail!

Those riches are found in the One who speaks these words to His disciples. Those riches are an absolute trust in the mercy of God through the words and the saving work of Jesus Christ. For Jesus Himself was appointed by the Father as Steward of the Father’s grace. Accusations were brought also against Him. He was, after all, accused of blasphemy, the ultimate abuse of God’s name. While none of the charges were true, there did come a day when He was called to give an account of His stewardship. The court was seated, and the books were opened, and what they revealed was a wretched account of stewardship and life. The truth is, every greedy thought of ours, every withholding from God, every sinful desire to have ever more and more of this world’s possessions, every selfish word and action, every one of our sins, was there on the record. The holy Son of God stood accused of it all, and He was as guilty as sin. In fact, He had become sin for us so that, in Him, we might become the righteousness of God.

In His office of Redeemer, Jesus spoke a word of forgiveness to this whole world of sinners. Guilty of our sin, and not His own, He used His last hours to secure our future, not His own. On the cross He sacrificed Himself to make peace for us debtors with God. By His life and death he canceled all that we by our sins deserved. And just as the steward called his master’s debtors one by one, so Jesus calls us personally before Him in Holy Baptism. He calls us to Himself, and says, "How much do you owe? Take your debt, and write ‘canceled’ on it. Your Baptism, after all, is a Baptism into my all-sufficient death. You have been anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit. Do not write a lesser amount; don’t write, ‘paid in part,’ but, ‘paid in full’."

Jesus trusted absolutely in the Father’s mercy for us sinners. He trusted that in speaking words of forgiveness to us, the Father would honor those words completely. Indeed, in sending out apostles and pastors to speak in His name, that same trust is evident. The Master is merciful. The stewards of the mysteries of God are still there in the Savior’s name to cancel the debts owed to the Master. The word of the ones He has sent will be honored absolutely. This is the truth Jesus gives us in this steward who watched out for his own life and well-being. The crucial factor in all of this was the master’s mercy. He trusted that the master would honor the debts canceled in His name.

God strengthen our trust that our debt is canceled by the Word of Christ. He is still the Redeemer. He still speaks words of forgiveness and life. Risen and reigning over God’s kingdom, He continues to take our debt and write "paid in full," that we may be received with the saints into His everlasting home. Thank God for the mercy of the Master! 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 7/25/10--Eighth Sunday After Trinity (LSB 1-year)

Good Fruit and Evil
Matthew 7:15-22

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


If you’ve ever seen “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”, which is the Charlie Brown Halloween special, then you may recall that Linus Van Pelt believes in the Great Pumpkin. On Halloween, as Linus believes, the Great Pumpkin rises from the pumpkin patch he deems to be “the most sincere”, and he flies around, bringing toys to all the good little boys and girls in the world. In hopes of luring the Great Pumpkin to his local pumpkin patch, Linus cries out, “Just look! Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see!” Linus may be sincere, but ultimately he is a false prophet: the Great Pumpkin does not exist. No amount of sincerity can create a Great Pumpkin to rise from the patch.

The Bible has plenty to say about false teachers. False teaching helped bring about the fall into sin, and false teachers have sought to do their work ever since. It began when the serpent said to Eve, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Adam and Eve did eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but the serpent had misled them. Though they did not immediately keel over, these people who were not supposed to be able to die were suddenly subject to illness and injury, suffering, and finally death. This has plagued the Church throughout its history.

False teaching is so dangerous because these false teachers tell us exactly what we want to hear. Paul diagnoses the problem for us in his second letter to Timothy: “They will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” We’re not content to hear the Word of God as Spirit breathed it; we want to pick and choose what suits us. A man says, “Oh, she’s so pretty. So what if we’re both married?” So much for the Sixth Commandment. A woman says, “I’m pregnant, but I don’t want to be.” There goes the Fifth Commandment. Another says, “The Bible calls homosexuality ‘shameless’ and ‘an abomination’; but that’s just the product of a repressive society. We know better today.” Yet another bit of Scripture done away with.

The Church Militant is especially guilty of ignoring the Word of God. In fact, it is in the Church where false preachers do the most damage, because these false teachers claim to be speaking with the authority of Christ. The name of Jesus is a powerful thing, especially in the Church, where we are conditioned to believe what Jesus says and what the Apostles and Epistle writers have written in His name. It’s all too easy to attach the name of Jesus to opinions and pious desires and claim them as the true Word of God. Like Satan, these false teachers attempt to question the Word of God. They ask, “Did God really say what you think He said?” In the name of misguided love, in the name of gender equality, in the name of convenience, they set aside the truth of God’s Word. Yet on the Last Day, the formulators of these opinions will say, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name?” No matter how sincere they are, these are the ravenous wolves in sheep’s clothing, seeking to consume the faithful, to lead them away from the truth, down the broad path that leads to the wide gate of destruction. And why are these false preachers successful in the Church? It’s because they’re saying exactly what we want to hear. We want to believe in a god who will reward a strong faith by making us healthy, wealthy and wise. We want to believe with Joel Osteen that God wants us to be prosperous here on earth. We want to believe that all people are basically good. We want to believe that we can earn our way to heaven. We desperately desire that evil fruit.

We are in that dark time when men will not tolerate the truth of God’s Word. False teachers have been so pervasive that these false teachings are seen as near-universal truth. Believers are misled by these teachings, and the faithless are confirmed in their errors. For these false teachers the Lord has only one response. He says to them, “I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.”

But the Lord doesn’t leave us in the midst of these false teachings without any recourse. He tells us, “You will know [false prophets] by their fruits.” These words of Jesus come near the end of the Sermon on the Mount. Up to this point He had taught His hearers about true righteousness, about faithfulness, prayer, and daily bread. After this he continued to teach the disciples about Scripture, and then He commanded them to baptize and to teach all nations “to observe everything I have commanded you”. He spent three years teaching the disciples how to recognize good fruit, and He commanded them to teach everyone else how to recognize it, too. False teachers are caught in their own web of lies. They have reason to doubt their eternal salvation. But you have been taught the truth. You have been taught by faithful pastors to recognize what is true, what is right, what is profitable for your salvation. You were given faith in your baptism, and that faith clings to the Word of God, allowing you to recognize and shun error, to confess the truth.

As you confess Jesus Christ who has come in the flesh, you do so as one in whom Christ dwells through your baptism, as one who belongs to Him. Because He has made you His own, you don’t seek after the false teachers and their bad fruit. Here in this place you receive the good fruit of the Word preached in its truth and purity. The Holy Supper in which you will soon partake is the best of good fruit, edifying your body and soul; and it feeds faithful sheep.

You know how to recognize the fruits of anyone who claims to be preaching of God. Does his teaching confess Christ as Savior? Does it confess Christ as both God and Man? Does it confess Christ as the One sent in the flesh to bear our sin and be our Savior? Does it confess that Christ died to bear our sins and rose again to bring us newness of life? If so, trust that teaching. Embrace it. Hold fast to it. And if not, then get rid of it. Flee from it. Run the false teacher out of your sanctuary and out of your life. The false teacher has no fruit that is edifying for you. He can only poison you.

Beware of false prophets. Test what they say, and flee from their teachings. Confess the truth as faithful parents, faithful teachers, and faithful pastors have taught it to you. What they have taught you is good fruit and is edifying for your soul. When you stand before Christ on the judgment day, He will recognize that good fruit in you as His own and will not send you away. 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.

A change in the tide

"The time's come: there's a terrific thunder-cloud advancing upon us, a mighty storm is coming to freshen us up." -- Anton Chekhov, Three Sisters

As you probably know by now, I am a pastor in the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod. The LCMS has just finished its triennial convention. For those of you unfamiliar with this process--and blessed are you--the Synodical Convention is where the "business" of the church body is transacted. Synodical officials are elected. Reports are given. Changes are considered.

And to say that changes were made at this Synodical Convention would be an understatement on a level with saying, "The Obama administration has been slow to act during the BP Gulf oil spill crisis." I don't think it an understatement to say that the changes made at the 2010 LCMS Convention will affect American Lutheranism for many years to come.

Let's start with change for the good, namely, the election of Matthew Harrison as Synodical President. For the past 9 years, the Reverend Gerald L. Kieschnick has been President of the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod. President Kieschnick during his tenure has been fond of saying, "This is not your grandfather's Synod," and his decisions during his tenure have reinforced that statement. Early in his tenure, he gave permission for the Atlantic District President, David Benke, to participate in "A Prayer for America", an Oprah Winfrey-organized prayer service in Yankee Stadium in which Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Jews, and others prayed together to their various gods; and Kieschnick refused to discipline him for this blatant syncretism. When pastors and laypeople objected to these actions through signing the document That They May Be One, President Kieschnick considered the signers to be schismatic and sent a memo to the district presidents of the LCMS in which he encouraged the DPs to take action against the signers. It took five years for President Kieschnick to repent of that. Other events, actions and statements from Kieschnick have further led the LCMS away from its theological roots, including his crusade against what he calls "incessant internal purification"--in other words, the desire to continue to keep our doctrine and practice true to Scripture and the confessions. His desire for outreach by whatever means stands at odds with the history of the LCMS, where we have been encouraged to "get it straight" and then "get it out".

The 2010 convention saw the election of the Reverend Matthew Harrison as LCMS President. Pastor Harrison has served as Executive Director of LCMS World Relief and Human Care, the mercy arm of the LCMS, since 2001. He is skilled as an administrator, but more than that, he is a gifted theologian. He knows the Scriptures, the Lutheran Confessions, and the history of the Church--including the history of the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod. When someone speaks about "our grandfather's Synod", Harrison knows what that means. His election as President is a shift away from the mainline Protestant leanings of the past nine years, and it has given hope to those whose concerns have grown over that time. I had hoped Pastor Harrison would win, and with his election and that of other solid confessional Lutherans to positions of leadership in the Synod, I am cautiously optimistic about the future of the LCMS.

And now, the troublesome change, namely, the restructuring of the LCMS. President Kieschnick pushed hard for a restructuring of the LCMS under the guise of cost reduction and building consensus in the LCMS. (Because really, our problems in the LCMS have been about structural inefficiency, not about a departure from the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions.) My concern about restructuring is that it seems to me to be a departure from the traditional LCMS polity of congregational power and a recension of the Treatise on the Power and the Primacy of the Pope. I'm sure there will be those who will say I'm dealing in hyperbole. However, for 470 years, the Lutheran Church has seen the dangers of centralizing the authority of the Church in anyone but Christ Himself. With the passing of Resolution 8-08 and other resolutions from the Synod Structure and Governance Committee, based on the work of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Synod Structure and Governance (also known as the BRTFSSG[HIJKLMNOP]), we have given the President of the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod more authority than anyone in the history of the LCMS has wielded . . . possibly even more than Martin Stephan wielded before he was exiled. Perhaps I am an alarmist. Perhaps I am reading this wrong. But I have a great deal of concern about this. I'm less concerned than I was when I believed that President Kieschnick, the man behind the BRTFSSG[HIJKLMNOP], would be wielding that power, but even with a man I believe to be the right man for the job, I've experienced first-hand how great power can be abused by a synodical bureaucrat. I can only pray that the Lord will preserve the LCMS and President-Elect Harrison from that kind of abuse of power.

And now for one more troublesome note from the LCMS convention: the Red Chair videos. The purpose of the Red Chair videos was to demonstrate the power of forgiveness in the life of the Church. In and of itself, this is a good thing. However, in the practical application of these videos, it can be interpreted that some of the district presidents who spoke in the Red Chair videos have violated their Ordination vows--namely, where they vow never to divulge the sins confessed to them. I have gone to private confession and absolution, and I have done so with a man who is now a district president. The thought that he could possibly have spoken of my sins in front of the Synodical convention was mortifying to me. Even having been given permission by those who confessed to them, they are violating their vows. These sins are no longer to exist. They are to be removed from the penitent as far as the east is from the west. Pastors are never to speak of those sins again. God help all pastors to remain faithful to our Ordination vows.


I will admit that I am hopeful for the future of the LCMS. I believe that President-Elect Harrison will be good for the LCMS and for Lutheran Church throughout the world. That doesn't mean I am without concerns about the future of he LCMS. We have always sought to faithfully confess the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord. We must also be strong to faithfully reject error. Confession of faith and rejection of error: that is the format of our Lutheran Confessions, and that must be our work in the Church today.

"Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better." -- Richard Hooker

Sermon for 7/18/10--Seventh Sunday After Trinity (LSB 1-year)

Miracle Bread
Mark 8:1-9

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


The miracles of Jesus always startle and surprise us. That is because they take us, for a moment, from our world of sin and weakness into the world of the completely divine. And so it is that the miracles of Jesus tell us who He is. If we had no other reason to know that He was the Son of God, the miracles should do that for us. He once told the Pharisees that even if they would not believe His Words, by believing His works they could learn that He was truly the One sent from God.

So often, however, we focus our attention more on what the miracle is or does, which really means that we focus attention on ourselves, for we are the ones who receive the benefits of the miracle. While the substance of a miracle is not unimportant, to be sure, what is even more important is that we never lose sight of the One who does the miracle. The wonder of the miracle itself and the joy it does give us should always direct us to the supreme miracle, that God has taken on human flesh in Jesus Christ, and has come to this world to redeem us and all the world from sin and its horrible consequences.

To help set our eyes on Jesus in this miracle, perhaps it would be good to compare this miracle to an event in Jesus’ life that we may not readily associate with this miracle, and that is His temptation. The purpose for the temptation of Christ was to prepare Him for the ministry He would carry out, one that would be full of temptation and frustration, and would eventually lead to the cross. As you will remember, part of His temptation in the wilderness was physical hunger. For forty days, in the searing heat and the loneliness of the wilderness, He was without food. He endured His temptation in the presence of both the Father in heaven and the great adversary, Satan. Of course, Jesus could have easily satisfied His own hunger. Satan knew this, also, when he tempted Jesus to turn stones to bread. Such a miracle would have shown Jesus to be God, as He truly is, but it would also have thwarted the Father’s will to send redemption to this fallen world.

The way Jesus responded to that part of His temptation tells us something of immense importance when it comes to understanding this miracle of the feeding of the 4000. He told Satan, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” The significance of the miracles of Jesus, whether it be this one or another, goes well beyond the thing that is done. The miracles open before our eyes the divine, the work of God, His power and glory and might, which are always meant for salvation. Whether the miracle is the provision of bread, or the giving of sight, or even the raising of the dead, it is not merely the what that is important, but the who! Who provides bread? Who gives sight to the blind? Who calls the dead to life? It is not bread alone that matters, but every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, endured hunger as a part of His temptation. He did so that He might understand our needs as He feeds us not only daily bread, but also the Bread of Life, Himself, in both Word and Sacrament. His redemptive work was to restore and make whole that which was squandered and broken by our sin.

Those who were the immediate recipients of this miracle were in the midst of a temptation of their own. We have difficulty holding our attention to a service that may last a bit over an hour. Our minds want to wander. "When does golf coverage begin?" "Did I remember to turn of the oven?" "I hope this sermon will be short so I can call Tommy and we can play baseball." Can you imagine being with Jesus for three days in which much of the time was spent simply listening to Him? The supply of food they had brought with them was nearly gone by now. What could be done? To send them away would have been dangerous to them. Many had come a long way. This “desert place,” as it was called, this place of isolation, was a long way from any supplies of food. The disciples ask in their bewilderment, “How can one satisfy these people with bread here in the wilderness?” Surely, the same thoughts were running through the minds of at least some of the others who were there.

Whether or not they recognized it, the disciples were perfectly positioned to receive the greatest benefit from the miracle about to be done. It may sound trite, but it is still true that when things are at their worst, at least as we see them, God is at His best. When we are weak, God is at His strongest. When our need is greatest, God’s provision is at its most abundant. When we are in the presence of Jesus, there is always an answer to every need, to every concern, to every pain, and to every sorrow. Again, what He does is important, but what is even more important is that He is who He is; the eternal Son of the heavenly Father, the One sent to redeem us and all the world from sin, death, and hell, the one who is Himself the answer to every question, the solution to every problem, and the provision for every need. And this One who broke bread with them and satisfied their hunger is the very same One who feeds His Church now.

Our needs, of course, are very great. We are more like those people in the miracle than we may realize. We can be as isolated as they were. Theirs was, of course, a physical isolation, while ours is most often spiritual. We may be surrounded by others, as we are at this moment, and still be isolated. Sin is a wilderness that separates us from God and even, at times, alienates us from each other. We can be surrounded by the goodness of God, both His material and spiritual blessings, and yet have no sense of that goodness. And that is, to be sure, an isolation of the worst kind.

And, like Jesus’ disciples, we find it very hard to see how our needs are going to be met. But, He breaks bread with us. It is of the greatest importance that we keep this order straight. We cannot meet our needs of body or soul. He meets them. He feeds us both in body and soul. We have been taught this in the Lord’s Prayer. Remember Luther’s explanation: “God gives daily bread indeed without our prayer, also to all the wicked; but we pray in this petition that He would lead us to know it, and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving."

Jesus also breaks with us the bread of His own body, His life given for us. Our ears and hearts feed on His Word, and then, as He will again this morning, He gives us His very body, nailed to the cross, and the very blood that flowed from His wounds, all given and shed for the remission of our sins. He feeds us with these until all our needs are met; until we are fully satisfied. Jesus feeds us, and our isolation is over. Jesus feeds us, and our wilderness breaks forth in life and joy. Jesus feeds us, and we see His hand in all of life, and we rest finally in the hope and confidence that He will never fail to meet our every need until He gathers us together in that Paradise of the new heaven and earth. 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 7/11/10--Sixth Sunday After Trinity (LSB 1-year)

Sufficient Righteousness
Matthew 5:17-26

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


“Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” So . . . how much righteousness is enough? When it comes to righteousness is it quantity that is important, or is it quality? Jesus brought in the scribes and Pharisees as an example of the righteousness that will not gain the kingdom of heaven. What did righteousness mean to them? Put simply, it meant performance of duty, and the better the duty was done the closer one came to the kingdom of God. All of this was laid out in a commentary on the Ten Commandments called The Mishnah. Nearly 600 different applications of the commandments of God were discussed in The Mishnah, and the righteous Jew did his very best to keep them all. And yet, that was clearly not enough. “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Luther said that one of the things that troubled him most about the teaching of the Church he was trying to reform was what he called the “monstrous uncertainty.” How much righteousness is enough? Have I been forgiving enough to those who have sinned against me? Have I held my tongue from unkind words in response to those who have been unkind do me? Have I helped my neighbor enough? Have I obeyed my parents enough? When have I done enough of those works which are pleasing to God that I can be certain of my entrance into the kingdom of heaven? What Luther realized, and what every human heart knows, is that the question can never be given a certain answer. If the question of righteousness is a question of quantity, you can never know if you have done enough.

But look at the setting of this text. It is a portion of the Sermon on the Mount. What is the Sermon on the Mount? It is a portrayal of the life of righteousness. It is an account of the way Christians will live. It is a running description of the various attributes that will mark the lives of Christians. How much different is this from the approach of the scribes and Pharisees? Both sound as if righteousness is a matter of doing, a question of quantity. What is the difference?

The difference is found in this statement from Jesus: “Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” Jesus Christ is righteousness in Himself. All righteousness is found in Him. As St. Paul wrote: “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” It was Jesus who came to John the Baptist and insisted that He be baptized by him to fulfill all righteousness.

For Jesus, righteousness was a matter of doing. It was a matter of being born in this world, a helpless Babe in the manger. It was a matter of living out His life according to the will of the Father in heaven, the will to save His human creation, creatures who had gone astray and were now trying to save themselves by every manner of self-righteousness. It was a matter of suffering and dying, both doing what was necessary according to the Law of God, and enduring everything that hateful, evil men would do to Him. It was matter of bearing to the cross the sins of the world, and then resting in the tomb for three days, only to rise again on the morning of the third day. It was matter of ascending to heaven, there to reign over all things for the sake of His Church. In doing all of this He was fulfilling the law and the prophets, and in this way fulfilling all righteousness. And it is this righteousness that He would give us, the righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. It is for us a righteousness not of quantity, for we have done nothing to gain it, but one of quality, for it comes as a gift from the Savior of the world.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, we have a problem with all of this. Our problem is that we rather like the idea that we might have some hand in our own salvation. The truth is, we much prefer to trust ourselves than Jesus. We are not always confident He knows what He is doing; we would much rather keep our own hands on the controls. Even with all the shortcomings we see in our own righteousness, we would rather have that than to entrust our souls to someone else. Even if it means that our righteousness is of our own doing, we seem to find that more appealing than simply receiving the gift of righteousness from someone else. We are rugged individuals; surely we can make it work for us.

And we feel the same way when it comes to others. We cannot possibly see how a gift of righteousness is going to benefit others. If we have unruly children, the way to handle them is to make more rules for them to follow. If something is amiss in the nation, surely the answer is to pass more laws. And even in the Church, there must be some way to get people to be more obedient to God’s Word, to take more seriously the life of the Church. Surely, there is something to be done, more rules and laws and directions that will bring in line what is out of step.

But righteousness is really not a question of what we do; it is a question of who we are. We are not righteous because we do righteous works. We do righteous works because we are righteous through the gift of righteousness from our Savior; the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation which He gives us through faith in Him. The righteousness which comes from Jesus Christ, His gift of Himself and all He has done to save us, is all that we need. Because when we have Him and His righteousness, we have everything! When we have Jesus Christ and His righteousness we have all that is needed. As St. Paul wrote to the Romans: “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” When we have Jesus Christ and His righteousness then what will follow is a righteous life, peace, joy, hope, and all that He would give us in His grace.

How much righteousness is enough? The righteousness of Christ is enough, the righteousness He gives us—the righteousness that was placed on you in Holy Baptism, the righteousness restored to you in the words of Holy Absolution, the righteousness fed to you in the body and blood of Jesus this day. This righteousness is sufficient for you. 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.

The fear of the Lord--the wrong way

When I was younger and a lot more vain than I am now, I used to believe that I was the kind of person in whom famous people could find unqualified friendship. I believed I had no desire to be famous, after all, and believed myself incapable of vanity, so these people could confide in me without the fear that I was using them as a ladder to fame for myself.

I've long since disabused myself of the notion that I'm incapable of vanity. (If you ever find yourself believing that you possess some virtue that makes you particularly ideal as a choice for some role in life, that would be your vanity speaking.) I have more "fame" than I could ever want as a pastor, by the way, as proven by the fact that I've had people stalk me online, trying to find fault with "the man of God." I've also become jaded toward the notion that most celebrities are people with whom I would want to find friendship, were I ever to meet them. There are, however, a few with whom I believe I would enjoy a conversation over the beverage of choice.

One such man is Alan Alda. I've been fascinated by Alda for as long as I can remember. M*A*S*H began its run before I was born, but I remember watching the finale on our old black and white television. Alda's character, Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce, was intriguing, even as young as I was. I certainly didn't understand everything that went on, but even I, callow youth, could tell that Hawkeye was a complex character, and the man who played him made the character believable, no matter how far-fetched the situation seemed. Age has only allowed me to see with more clarity just how rich a character he portrayed, just how brilliant his portrayal.

I recently purchased the two books he has written, his memoirs. I was disappointed, but not terribly surprised, to read that he was no longer a Christian. He had been a practicing Roman Catholic, but He departed from the faith in his twenties. He describes it this way:

I was still going to mass every Sunday, because I believed that if I didn't, I would take a one-way trip to hell. I was twenty-two, and the nuns' words from my adolescence still burned in my ears. I envied people like Arlene and her father, Simon, who seemed not to need to believe what someone else told them they had to believe. Simon was a quiet man with a twinkle in his eye and a stomach that showed a strong belief in food. Hew had a simple rule that covered politicians, clergymen, and insurance salesmen. "They're all a bunch of fakers," he would say with a sweep of his hand that gave them the official brush-off.

I couldn't take the priests so lightly. They had a list of things you could burn for, and once you had heard the word, not believing it was at the top of the list. I didn't want to burn, and I didn't want to take the chance in believing there was no such thing as eternal fire. I kept thinking of what William James said in a gallant attempt to be pragmatic about the unprovable: "Faith is a bet you can't lose." I supposed he meant that if you get to heaven after a life of belief and you find out it isn't actually there, well, nothing lost. I turned that over and over in my mind, until I thought: But what if you spend real time doing things you wouldn't do if there really was no afterlife? What about endless novenas and countless trips to the altar? What about meatless Fridays, and what about people who lock themselves up for life in a monastery? Is that nothing lost?

Still, I was locked in by belief. Every exit was blocked by a sentry in black with a wimple and three nostrils, holding a yardstick.

Then one day, the heavens opened for me.

It was a sunny Sunday morning in spring. I kissed Arlene good-bye and took the train up to Fordham, where there was a little chapel I still went to for mass. There were fifty or sixty people in the pews. We knelt, we stood, we sat, we knelt. In the hundreds of masses I had been to, I never could remember when you were supposed to stand and when you were supposed to kneel, I watched and did what the others did. And when I couldn't figure out which it was they were doing, I put my behind on the seat and my knees on the kneeler and did the all-purpose half kneel.

Then the priest reached the moment when, after consecrating the host and holding it in both hands, he lifts it above his head. I looked at it. I had always looked at it. But this time I noticed that the other people in the chapel were bowing their heads. Maybe I should be bowing my head, I thought. But, no. If you're not supposed to look at it, why is the priest holding it up? We're going to be swallowing it in a minute; why can't we look at it? This led to a train of thought I had never taken before: I wonder how many of these people bowing their heads actually believe that this is the body of Jesus? Do they realize you can't regard it as just a symbol? And suddenly, in that moment, I remembered what the Jesuits had taught me. "No matter what," they said, "you have to follow your conscience." And I thought: I don't know what these other people believe, but if I'm honest with myself, I do not believe the priest is holding anything but the same piece of unleavened bread that it was a few minutes ago. I was like the boy of fourteen again, refusing to rise from the pew, holding stubbornly to his right to think for himself.

And then I remembered a second thing the Jesuits had taught me: If you don't believe in transubstantiation, you're automatically excommunicated.

I'm out, I thought. I didn't quit; they don't want me. They let me go. I'm fired.

A ray of sunlight fell across the chapel, just the way it did in The Song of Bernadette.

It always haunts me when I hear that it is fear that has motivated a soul to practice Christianity. It's not that we have nothing to fear apart from Christ and His Church--indeed, the opposite is true. But if a man does not move from fear to joy, he will find himself questioning God, His grace, His gifts. He will bend beneath the burden of the Law. He will doubt. And then he will break. He will depart--with cynicism, or with that same fear.

It saddens me that this is how Alda experienced the faith. I hope someone has the opportunity someday to speak of the love of God, the joy of faith, the peace of God's gifts. I pray that for him...and for all who have departed in fear or cynicism. I am not vain enough to believe I will be that man. But if God gives me the opportunity, I'd love to try.

If nothing else, I think we could be friends.

[The excerpt above comes from pages 81-82 of Alan Alda's book never have your dog stuffed, (c) 2005, 2006 by Mayflower Productions, Inc.]

Sermon for 7/4/10: Fifth Sunday After Trinity (LSB 1-year)

Do Not Be Afraid
Luke 5:1-11

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

Fear is very powerful. In the midst of crisis or calamity, it seems the only thing stronger than the event itself is the fear experienced by those in the midst of it. When two airplanes struck the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, it was not the airplanes that caused people to jump from the highest floors; rather, it was fear of a fiery and horrible death. For many teens, high school especially is all about fear—fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of loneliness. Right now, there are a lot of people in the Gulf region who are living in fear—maybe not for their lives, but certainly they are worried about what the continuing catastrophe will mean for their livelihood and their future. Fear is, sadly, a regular part of our daily lives, one that can overwhelm our spirits at any moment.

The life of a sinner is a life of fear. Simon, the man we know as Peter, shows us this all too clearly in our text. There he is, living his life the way he always does. He’s a fisherman, and of course he’d be working on his equipment after a long night of labor, no matter how fruitless that labor may have been. Then this Jesus commandeered his boat; and more than that, He told Simon how to do his job. Simon was an experienced fisherman; Jesus was a carpenter and a rabbi. Nevertheless, Simon did as Jesus said. And the results were beyond belief: two boats so full of fish that they were near to sinking. Simon fell to his knees in fear and said, “Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Peter had every right to be afraid, for God has an extensive track record of dealing justly with the sins of his people. He exiled Adam and Eve from the paradise of Eden when they succumbed to temptation. He drowned the world according to its sinfulness, sparing only Noah and his family from death. He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah in fire and brimstone. When the children of Israel spoke against God in the wilderness, He sent fiery serpents among them. And that is just the barest taste of the judgment of God on His rebellious and wayward children. Peter knew all of this; he knew that God is a righteous and holy judge. And through the great miracle he had just witnessed, Peter knew that Jesus was holy as the Father is holy. Peter could not stand in the presence of God.

Could you? Are you righteous before God? Are you sinless? Were Christ to return in glory at this very moment, could you stand before Him and bare your soul to Him and say, “Lord, I am worthy”? No. We could no more stand in the presence of Christ than Peter. The psalmist prays, “If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” No one could truthfully claim to be worthy to stand before God without fear of His righteous judgment. Before the fall, Adam and Eve could look God in the eye without fear. They knew what it was to be at ease with God; but even these two, once they had sinned, knew they would no longer see Him the same way. Adam told God, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” The face of God is too terrible for a sinner to behold, even for Adam and Eve who had already seen it. And we are their heirs, inheritors of their sin. Like Peter, like Adam, we must hide ourselves from His face or beg Him to depart from us. But in asking Him to depart from you, you are shoving away from you the very One who brings you forgiveness. We cannot keep Christ at a distance—indeed, we must not keep Christ at a distance—for a god who is far off is a god who does not care about you. Bette Midler had it wrong: God is not watching you from a distance. Your heart is the temple of the Holy Spirit; God is present here, and He is watching you, and He desperately desires to forgive your sins and remove your fear from you.

When you are weighed down, burdened, stuck in your sin, that is precisely when Jesus says to you, “Do not be afraid.” It is precisely when you believe you are unworthy of God and do not deserve to be in His presence that Christ comes to you and says to you, “Do not be afraid. I forgive you all your sins.” If you are comfortable in your sinfulness, you are not yet ready for this Word of blessed comfort. But when you know you are a poor, miserable sinner; when you know you are not worthy to stand before the holy and righteous God; when you bring all your sinsto the Lord and confess them—sins which you cannot get rid of yourself—it is then that He is gracious and merciful and forgives your sin.

You see, not only did Jesus tell Peter not to be afraid. He also Called Peter to be a fisherman of live people. In other words, He Called Peter to speak the same word of comfort to everyone else that the Lord first spoke to Peter. And after Peter and the other Apostles, He has also Called men to serve as pastors and shepherds of the flock, sinners like yourself, yet they also stand in the place of Christ to announce to you, “Upon this, your confession, I, by virtue of my office as a Called and Ordained servant of the Word, announce the grace of God unto all of you; and in the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins: in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

As the Apostle Paul once wrote, “When I am weak, then I am strong.” When you are weak in sin, it is then that Jesus makes you strong in the Word of forgiveness. As we have already heard, the psalmist prays, “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” But then he continues, “But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I do hope.” When your conscience is weighed down beneath the burden of your sins, it is then that the net of Holy Absolution comes down and pulls you into this boat, the nave, the sanctuary, with Jesus. It is in this boat that you witness Him carrying your sins to the cross, bearing them there for you. It is in this boat that you witness Him dying on that cross the death you deserve. It is in this boat that you witness Him being laid in the tomb, which makes holy the tomb in which you shall rest. And it is in the boat that you witness Him rising from the grave, ensuring that you shall rise from your grave with Him on the last day.

“O Israel, hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is abundant redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.” Jesus is present here: present where two or three are gathered in His name, present in His Word, present in the water of Holy Baptism, present in His own body and blood of the Holy Supper. Jesus is here. Do not be afraid. 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.