GUEST POST: Sermon for 10/9/11--Sixteenth Sunday After Trinity

We at St. Peter Lutheran Church in Campbell Hill, Illinois, were blessed to have as our Mission Speaker the Reverend Paul Philp. Pastor Philp is the Director of Academic Planning and Assessment at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. He spoke to our Bible Class about the seminary, and then he delivered the Word to us in the Divine Service. (For me, especially, the message he preached was timely.)

Pastor Philp does not preach from a manuscript, as I do, but his outline has enough detail to it that even I was able to connect the dots. Thank you, Pastor Philp, for sharing with us the vital message of the Resurrection of Jesus and the resurrection of all flesh!

The Sixteenth Sunday After Trinity (LSB – 1)

“A Funeral Ruined”

St.Luke 7:11-17

October 9, 2011

St. Peter Lutheran Church – Campbell Hill, IL

Intro:  Etiquette!  Every event has a certain etiquette that goes with it.  We all generally know what proper etiquette is, and can easily identify those who do not in a given situation.  They tend to stand out from the crowd rather easily.  Weddings have proper etiquette.  There is proper etiquette for inviting someone to your home, or accepting an invitation to another’s home.  There is proper etiquette for gathering together as a congregation for worship.  And yes, there is a proper etiquette for funerals.  Those in our text seem to know the proper etiquette for a funeral, that is, except for Jesus!

      I.                 Funeral Etiquette

A.    You probably are well familiar with proper funeral etiquette today.

1.      It is generally accepted, even in a more casual society that you dress nicely for a funeral.

2.      Generally there are certain things that you do not say about the deceased – usually only the good things are spoken of.

3.      The family is comforted with the typically almost cliché comments.

4.      You perhaps send a sympathy card, maybe a floral arrangement, or perhaps a donation to a charity of the family’s choosing.

5.      In all circumstances you maintain a sense of dignity and you do not interrupt the proceedings – that would ruin the funeral!

B.     There was funeral etiquette in Nain as well.

1.      The people would gather to comfort the bereaved – in this case a widow who had not lost her only-begotten son.  A widow who would soon be forgotten.

2.      The body would be carried out of the city for burial.

3.      Mourning would take place among the crowd.

4.      The proceedings would be carried out without interruption.

5.      And, no one, except those charged with carrying the body to its final resting place would dare come into contact with the body lest they become unclean.

6.      All generally accepted, understood, and adhered to practices of the day.

7.      For to do otherwise would ruin the funeral!

II.                Jesus’ Funeral Etiquette is different.

A.    Jesus witnesses the circumstances and is filled with compassion.

1.      He is filled with a deep gut wrenching compassion for the widow who has lost her son.

2.      He is filled with the type of compassion that leads to the pouring out of His rich mercy and grace.

3.      Filled with compassion – Jesus acts – and He breaks all the rules of Etiquette.

B.     Jesus stops the funeral.

1.      He interrupts the flow of the funeral procession and stops it at the gate of Nain.

a.       This funeral procession is not proceeding any further.

b.      Jesus stops it dead in its tracks.

c.       Jesus is starting to ruin this funeral.

d.      But Jesus’ funeral etiquette is different.

2.      Jesus demonstrates His compassion for the woman.

a.       He addresses her weeping.

b.      He tells her – “Do not go on weeping!”

(1)   Do not go on weeping?

(2)   Has Jesus totally missed the fact a funeral is in progress?

(3)   Does He not realize that this woman is a widow who has no lost her only son?

(4)   Does He not know that she will now likely be destitute and unable to support herself?

(5)   Do not go on weeping?  Jesus’ words are a tremendous breach of funeral etiquette – He is well on His way to ruining the funeral.

(6)   But Jesus’ funeral etiquette is different.

3.      Jesus touches the bier!

a.       He walks right up to the dead body and touches it.

b.      He enters into the unclean regions of death and touches it.

c.       He makes Himself unclean in the face of death.

d.      Jesus has created a tremendous breach of etiquette.

e.       This funeral is pretty much ruined at this point – too many inappropriate interruptions have transpired.

f.       But Jesus’ funeral etiquette is different.

C.     Jesus performs a miracle.

1.      Jesus speaks.

a.       Not to the widow.

b.      Not to His disciples.

c.       Not to the crowd of mourners.

d.      No, Jesus speaks to the only person at this funeral who no one would expect to hear what He has to say.

e.       Jesus speaks to the dead man!

2.      With a Word – Jesus ruins this funeral!

a.       This funeral is over.

b.      The mourners can go home.

c.       There is no more death.

d.      For with a Word – Jesus raises the dead to life.

e.       “Young man, I say to you, be raised up!”

3.      Jesus Commands Life.

a.       The dead man sits up.

b.      Life is commanded and death retreats.

c.       The funeral is over.

d.      The funeral is ruined with life and resurrection.

e.       The funeral is undone.

f.       Jesus’s funeral etiquette is different!

4.      Jesus does not allow death to reign – He brings resurrection to every funeral He attends!

a.       The funeral here in Nain.

b.      The death of Jairus’ daughter.

c.       The funeral of Lazarus of Bethany.

d.      And most especially – His own funeral!

e.       Jesus does not let death reign – He commands Life and death retreats!

5.      Jesus does what He came to do.

a.       Just a few verses after our text – John’s disciples come to Jesus to ask if He is the Christ – the Messiah.

b.      Jesus response –

(1)   The blind see.

(2)   The lame walk.

(3)   The lepers are cleansed.

(4)   The poor receive the Good News.

(5)   The dead are raised to life!

c.       Jesus ruining of the funeral at Nain – His reversal of death – is proof that He is the very Messiah of God.

d.      While at Nain the widow’s was raised to life – he no doubt died again – Jesus is not done with Life Reining here.  The widow’s son will live again.

(1)   Jesus will touch the uncleanliness of death again.

(2)   When He does – He Himself will become unclean.

(3)   He will take the filth of sin and death upon Himself.

(4)   This time the funeral procession will proceed.

(5)   His bloodied, broken, lifeless body would be carried from the Cross to a rock hewn tomb.

(6)   He would be buried.

(7)   It would appear, as it did at Nain, that another widow’s only son was dead and gone forever.

(8)   But just as the widow at Nain saw her son live again – so also would the widow Mary.

(9)   For Christ who died, has been raised to life.

(10)           Jesus ruined His funeral three days after it took place!

(a)    The burial could not be finished.

(b)   He commanded life – and death retreated.

(c)    He emerged victorious over sin, death, and the devil.

(d)   And unlike the widow’s son at Nain, Jesus did not and will not die again.

(e)    Jesus resurrection ruined not just His funeral, but the funeral of all the faithful.

III.             Jesus changes the funeral etiquette for us.

A.    Like the widow’s son – we will all die.

1.      Like that son, each of us is filled with the unclean filth of sin.

2.      Eventually, that sin will kill us – our life on earth will end.

3.      Our bodies will be carried out of the city for burial.

4.      There will be crowds gathered to mourn our death.

5.      Those gathered there will not expect to see us living again in the midst of our funeral procession, any more than those at Nain expected life in the midst of death.

6.      But life is as certain for us as it was for the widow’s son the day of our text – and even more so.

7.      For you see – your funeral is already over!

B.     You have already died.

1.      You have died.

2.      You have been buried.

3.      In Christ’s tomb.

4.      Drowned in the Word drenched waters of Holy Baptism.

5.      Yes – it is true – there in the font – you died and were buried.

6.      Your funeral procession was on full display for all those gathered around to see.

7.      And just like at Nain – Jesus ruined your funeral!

a.       It was not at a city gate.

b.      Rather it was in the bottom of a watery grave – filled with the filth of your sin that Jesus descended into that sinful uncleanness and spoke a Word of Life.

c.       Jesus commanded Life and death retreated.

d.      Jesus words sounded like this on the lips of your pastor – “I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

e.       Jesus marked you with His cross on your forehead and your heart and commanded Life – His Life.

f.       And death retreated!

8.      For out of that watery grave – Christ has raised you to life in Him.

a.       You will, unless He returns before then, still die a physical death.

b.      But you will NEVER die again – for Christ has raised you in His resurrection.

c.       All that remains in your watery grave is your sin – made clean in the Blood of Christ.

d.      Your tomb is empty just like Jesus’ tomb.

C.     Physical death and your funeral.

1.      Yes – you will die.

2.      It will seem as though death retreated only to strike again at a more opportune time.

3.      It will – as your family stands next to a hole in the ground seem like this time death as won – just like the widow thought at Nain.

4.      But not so – no Christ has already raised you from eternal death.

5.      Your grave is far less of a challenge – Jesus can and will raise you with a Word – just like the widows Son.

6.      For Christ has died – Christ has been raised – and Christ will come again!

7.      When Christ comes again – your funeral – no matter how long in the past will be ruined forever!

8.      For when Christ comes again:

a.       He will stand at your grave.

b.      He will open it with a Word.

c.       He will speak and you will be raised.

d.      He will call out your name and say to you – “I say to you, be raised up.”

e.       And you will be raised up!

D.    For Jesus’ funeral etiquette is different!

1.      Death does not reign at funerals that Jesus attends.

2.      He stops death dead its tracks.

3.      Jesus commands life and death retreats.

4.      On the day of the LORD when Jesus the Christ of God commands Life – death will retreat once and for all – for death stands defeated – Christ is victorious.

5.      Jesus has ruined every funeral including yours – Life reigns.

IV.             So now our funeral etiquette is different.

A.    Gone is the hopeless mourning.

1.      We may weep for a time.

2.      But Christ comes and says to us – “Do not go on weeping”

3.      He comes and commands Life.

B.     Gone are the empty platitudes and cliché comments

1.      We recognize death as the terrible thing that it is.

2.      We recognize that it is not a natural part of life.

3.      We recognize that sin and death have their way for a time.

4.      But in Christ – we do not mourn without hope.

C.     No in the face of death we rejoice.

1.      We rejoice in the Life in Christ.

2.      We rejoice that Christ has commanded life and death has retreated.

3.      We rejoice that Christ is raised and so also will the dead in Christ be raised.

4.      We rejoice because we have already been raised.

D.    With the crowd at Nain we confess:

1.      “A great prophet has been raised up among us.”

2.      “God has visited His people.”

3.      And to the whole world we send the resounding message – Christ is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed!  Alleluia!

Conc:  Every event has proper etiquette.  Funerals have proper etiquette!  The proper etiquette for the Christian funeral – well it looks just like Jesus’ funeral etiquette, because Jesus is there!  He is there having stopped death in its tracks.  He is there having given His body and shed His blood.  He is there having claimed the dead as His own.  Indeed proper funeral etiquette is that Life is Commanded and death retreats and the faithful of God – they enter into eternal life and the Marriage Feast of the Lamb in His Reign which has no end.  As those who have been raised to life, whose funerals have been ruined by Christ, gathered in the Divine Service there is a proper etiquette too – Come to the table of the LORD and receive His Body and His Blood poured out for you His resurrected people!  Death has retreated! Christ has died!  Christ has risen!  Christ will come again!  To Him be the Glory!  Amen!

HYMN: Lord Jesus, Dwelling with Us

The Gospel for the Fourteenth Sunday After Trinity is St. Luke 17:11-17. As I was working on my sermon, I thought about Jesus and how He is the Priest to whom the Samaritan leper shows himself after Jesus heals him. The Samaritan could not have showed himself to the priest in the Temple; as a Samaritan he was unclean by birth. Yet in faith he showed himself to Jesus, the true High Priest. That popped this hymn idea into my head. As research I also delved into Leviticus 14, which explains the ritual for cleansing healed lepers. Here we go . . .

Lord Jesus, Dwelling With Us

1. Lord Jesus, dwelling with us:
Immanuel, Most High,
The Father’s love you give us.
Redemption You bring nigh.
Have mercy, holy Jesus.
Your healing work begin.
From leprosy release us:
The leprosy of sin.

2. O holy Priest, now cleanse us
With sacrificial blood.
From Satan’s wiles defend us.
Defeat his viper brood.
Have mercy, holy Jesus.
In Your great love draw near.
No more can Satan please us.
Our Savior now is here.

3. O Lamb of God, anointed
As offering for sin,
You are the one appointed
Our peace with God to win.
Have mercy, holy Jesus.
Preserve our souls from hell.
“Be free of sin’s diseases;
Your faith has made you well.

4. O Temple for the nations,
In mercy hear our prayer.
Lord, grant Your full salvation
To all whom You draw near.
Have mercy, holy Jesus.
Our thankful hearts we raise.
Your boundless mercy frees us
To sing Your endless praise.


(c) Rev. Alan Kornacki, Jr.
76 76 D
Tune: ANTHES (LSB 527) or EWING (LSB 672)

Sermon for 10/2/11: Fifteenth Sunday After Trinity (LSB 1-year)

Do Not Worry

Matthew 6:24-34

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

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Life is certainly no bed of roses. We have plenty in our lives to cause us concern. And however long the list of worries for tomorrow may be, you don’t have to look past today for enough worry to overwhelm you if you let it. You know it very well. All it takes is one mistake to throw your life into a tailspin. You only have to get drunk and climb behind the wheel one time to wind up in jail for manslaughter. You only have to say one wrong thing at the wrong time or to the wrong person to lose your job or your best friend. One moment of wandering attention is enough to lose a child in a crowd.

But even more than the petty worries about daily life, eternal death hangs over you. Death reveals itself already in your thoughts, words, and deeds, in the things you think to do, and in the things you leave undone. Death is the curse hanging over your heads, and the sin which you know today is the lethal poison which infiltrates you and robs you of all joy, all good, all life. You already know this. You don't need me to remind you. You know your fate in life well enough. But eternal death—eternal damnation—hangs over you like a plague.

In his Large Catechism explanation of the First Commandment, Martin Luther wrote, “What is it to have a god? Or, what is one’s god? Answer: To whatever we look for any good thing and for refuge in every need, that is what is meant by ‘god’. To have a god is nothing else than to trust and believe in him from the heart. . . . To whatever you give your heart and entrust your being, that, I say, is really your God.” Through sin, we have acquired a perverse idea of God, the notion that His nature is to punish and condemn us into eternal death. Indeed, it is true that the very sin which troubles us all every day merits that very fate. But this is not the proper will of God. The proper will of God is to do as He has always done for you—to give you life, and every good thing you need! Do not mistake what I am saying. I am NOT saying that God will not consign to hell unrepentant sinners. This He most certainly does, for He is a righteous and holy God, who will by no means tolerate such corruption and evil. But having said this, the fact is that God does most fervently desire that you live now and forever in His holiness, peace, and joy.

But shouldn’t we worry? Doesn't Jesus point out the sufficiency of today's troubles which afflict your life? Indeed He does. But He also shows us that there is Another One who has not only worried about this trouble, but has actually gone to the heart of it and done something fundamental about it. Jesus points you to the love of God the Father, pointing to the birds and saying, "Your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" God created you; His nature is to love and provide for you.

Even as the Lord your God has not only created but also sustained you in this life, so He also has in Jesus gotten to the root of today's trouble: your sin and death. So valued and treasured are you that the Father has given you His Son, who took off from Himself all His glory and humbled Himself to be born a man. Jesus has in His own body and soul gotten to the root of the very trouble which is sufficient for the day. He, the righteous One, in order to once and for all satisfy the requirement of God's holiness against sin, has taken your sin, become Sin personified for you, and suffered the full measure of wrath. Jesus Himself took upon Himself the trouble of your day into His own death on the cross; and in Christ's death you now live. In His dying the cost of your sin is fully paid, and the will of God against sinners is fully realized. You live, both now and forever.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be concerned about doing your job correctly or that your children are late coming home or that there’s nothing in the cupboard for dinner. God gives you responsibilities in your various vocations, and you are right to want to take care of these concerns. These are not selfish concerns; they are what Father Luther calls “concerns of love”. But even these things, they rest in the Lord’s hands. You commend them to the Lord, and He guides and sustains you.

You, in Jesus, are the Father's delight. In Holy Baptism you have been clothed in Christ’s own righteousness, which adorns you more beautifully than was King Solomon in all his splendor, even more beautifully than the flowers which adorn the field. Don't you know that, through Baptism, you are the most beautiful thing in the world to the Father? And He greatly desires you to adorn His Table, where He would feed you on the most precious Body and Blood of your Savior. This is the meal given for you, for such a feast may only be given by grace. Only your Savior Jesus could ever have earned for you such marvelous, life-giving fare.

Jesus Christ died bearing your sins to the cross, and then He rose from the dead. In Holy Baptism you died with Him and were raised with Him. That is sufficient to cover your worries for today; it is sufficient to cover your worries for tomorrow; it is sufficient to cover your worries for every day of the rest of your life; and, most importantly, it is sufficient for your eternal life. 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 9/25/11: Fourteenth Sunday After Trinity (LSB 1-year)

Jesus the Priest

Luke 17:11-19

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

Thanks to advances in medicine, leprosy is not a disease that we worry about today. That was not always the case. In the ancient world, leprosy was a dreadful disease. To be infected with this disease was to face a grim future that included infection and disfigurement, exclusion from the community, and ultimately death. These lepers lived a life of living death. Their disease cut them off from their families and their communities. They were, according to the Law, unclean and therefore without access to the presence of God. Now these men—one of whom was a Samaritan—were bound together by their affliction. Under ordinary circumstances they would have had nothing to do with each other. The Jews would have considered the Samaritan unclean. But now they are tied together by this common bond.

Luke tells us that as the Lord Jesus made His way through the midst of Samaria and Galilee on his way to Jerusalem, he approaches an unnamed village. And as He approaches that village, these ten lepers standing afar off cry out to Him: "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" They dare not get to close for the law kept them apart less they spread their disease. They were judged to be contagious. They could only cry out from a distance for mercy. They speak their prayer for us mercy for they know themselves to be in need of mercy. Mercy is God withholding from us the wrath and judgment that we deserve. If grace is God giving us the favor that we do not deserve, then mercy is God not giving us the punishment that our sins deserve. Mercy is that divine pity that will not let sin have its way with us and pay us off in death. So just as in the Divine Service, where the Lord Jesus approaches us in His Word, and we cry out in the Kyrie, "Lord, have mercy upon us"; these men implore the same Lord to have mercy. They beg Him not to turn away from them in their need.

Now Jesus answers that prayer in what appears to be a strange sort of way. In effect, He tells these lepers to act as though they were already healed. He says, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." In the Old Testament Book of Leviticus, those who thought that their leprosy was cured were instructed to present themselves to the priests. The priest was to examine the leper and if his leprosy was indeed gone, the priest would perform a rite of purification and cleansing and offer the appointed sacrifice. Leviticus says, "So the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be clean."

So these lepers take Jesus at His word and off they run to the priest. Luke writes, "And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed." Can you imagine their sheer joy as they look down at their hands and arms to discover that the hideous disease is gone? Gone are the things that had characterized their existence as lepers. Luke doesn't tell us how they responded to the healing. No doubt they went to the priests, were examined, declared clean, offered the sacrifices and returned to the their homes full of gratitude that their flesh was restored to health and that they were reunited to family and friends. Luke zeroes in the leper who could not have gone to the temple; he could not be seen by a priest because he was a Samaritan. He was doubly unclean. He was unclean because of his leprosy, but he was also unclean because he was a Samaritan. The temple was off-limits to him.

So what does this Samaritan do? Listen again to the words of our Gospel: "Now one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks." It is not merely that the Samaritan has enough good manners and common civility to return to say "thanks" while the other nine men were self-absorbed and didn't have the decency to express their gratitude to Jesus. Rather, the Samaritan comes to confess that Jesus is God in the flesh, for it is Jesus who has healed him from leprosy and restored him to life.

The Samaritan's worship at the feet of Jesus is a confession that Jesus is the Temple of God; He is the Priest who gives us access to God. The temple was the place where God caused His glory to dwell. Hallowed by His name, the temple was the place where God had located His presence for His people. But now that temple of mortar and stone is fulfilled and replaced by Immanuel, God in the flesh.

In the Old Testament, the temple was the place of sacrifice. The sacrifices were the means that God had appointed for the covering of sins and the cleansing of those who were defiled by their sin. And those sacrifices pointed to Jesus Christ who came in our flesh as the Lamb of God to bear our sin and be our Redeemer. He came without spot or blemish, perfect man and true God to die as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. He is both the priest and victim of sacrifice. By His death, He has blotted out our sin.

The Samaritan ex-leper got it right! He knew where to worship. He fell down at the feet of Jesus glorifying Him and giving thanks for all His benefits. Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Son of God is the place of our worship. Like that leper now cleansed of His leprosy we are where Jesus is. And Jesus is here just as He has promised. He is here in the Baptism that joins us to His death and resurrection. He is here in His words that give us the forgiveness of our sins. He is here with His body and blood to give us the pledge and testament of life and salvation. True worship takes place where God locates Himself, where He puts Himself for us. That's why Christians reject as paganism the old argument that says, "I don't have to come to church to worship God. I can worship God on the golf course." It is not that God is absent from the golf course, but that God has not promised to be there for you, to give you the sure words of salvation in Christ.

The Samaritan's life was restored. It was lived on the strength of all that He had received from Jesus Christ. God grant that blessing for us as well as He draws us week after week in this place to hear His Gospel and eat and drink at His Table; for He will say to you, "Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well." 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.

PARODY: Feel Like Bacon Love

A parody of "Feel Like Making Love" by Bad Company. For Pastor Cwirla.


Bacon, when I think about you,
I think about love.
Bacon, if I live without you,
I live without love.
If I had those hunger pangs
Just like yesterday,
I would fry you in a skillet,
Leave you browning all the way.
Feel like bacon!

Feel like bacon love!
Feel like bacon love!
Feel like bacon love!
Feel like bacon love; do you?


Bacon, when I think about you,
I think about love.
Bacon, can't live without you:
Bacon love!
If I had some scrambled eggs
I'd been fryin',
I would brown some bacon slices--
Sends me flyin'.
Feel like bacon!


(chorus) Feel like bacon love!
Feel like bacon love!
Feel like bacon love!
Feel like bacon love; do you?



If I had those hunger pangs
Just like yesterday,
I would fry you in a skillet,
Leave you browning all the way.
Feel like bacon!


(chorus) Feel like bacon love!
Feel like bacon love!
Feel like bacon love!
Feel like bacon love; do you?

Sermon for 9/18/11: Thirteenth Sunday After Trinity (LSB 1-year)

What Must I Do?

Luke 10:23-37

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

A young lawyer comes to Jesus and asks Him the question, What must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus responds with another question: What is written in the law? What is your reading of it? Now this would be easy to overlook, but we have here a hallmark of the Old Testament faith. Jesus asked the question first of all about the Law. What is written in the Law? And the lawyer knew the answer! He responded, not by saying what he felt was right or wrong; no, he responded by God’s own words from Deuteronomy: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

This lawyer didn’t learn these words on his own. Someone had to teach them to him. His parents. It is the responsibility of the parents to teach and pass on the faith to their children. This lawyer knew the answer to Jesus’ question, and responded with a summary of the 10 Commandments. Now this gives us a little insight into how our Lord wants this done. Passing on God’s Word is something that is active. Children and adults don’t simply learn these things by observing. No, it’s work. It has to be taught, step-by-step, and even word-by-word. Certainly this is a labor of love, because passing on God’s Word is the most important gift that you can ever give someone. But it doesn’t just happen by occasionally talking about it or wishing it will happen.

So we then move to Jesus’ second question: What is your reading of it? In other words, what does the Law mean? Now this is the harder question. In order to answer this question, the lawyer first of all had to know the answer to the first. He had to know the words of the Law. He knew the words, but he didn’t get the meaning. Learning the words without knowing the meaning does no good in the end. The lawyer believed that the point of the Law was that you could keep it. He thought, he firmly believed in his heart, that he could do everything in the Law. He thought he could be perfect. But obviously this is not so. This lawyer was dead in trespasses and sins. He knew the Law, but he didn’t keep it. He worked with the false assumption that keeping the Law was easy. As long as he didn’t kill anyone or cause any real harm, then, so he thought, he had kept the Law.

Now this is how you and I think about the Law by nature. When we think about the Law at all, we think that it is good because it applies to other people. I will teach the Law to my children so that they will behave. Or, I will teach the Law so that it will look like I am a better person. This is the way the Law works in the world. The Law teaches us to behave. It teaches me how to be a better person, so that I can get to heaven, right? Wrong. The Law kills. It teaches us first of all what God’s will is, and then secondly that we cannot keep it. No one can. But we in our arrogance and pride blithely go through life believing that we can do God’s will. Jesus, though, is about to teach us the true nature of Law and Gospel.

How? He tells us a story. A certain man went from Jerusalem down to Jericho and fell among thieves. He is stripped, beaten and left for dead. A priest sees him and goes on the other side, and so does a Levite, another keeper of the Law. The impression you get from the text is that these so-called pious men had more important things to do. The priest had to do his duty in the Temple, the Levite had to keep up with his duties for God as well. They didn’t have time for this man who fell on hard times. But another man came along the road. He was a Samaritan, a outsider and not a part of the chosen people. But he saw this man left for dead and had compassion on him. The word for compassion there is a great one. It means that his guts were moved to help him. He ached to help the man. This Samaritan, this outcast then helps the man, binds up his wounds, pours oil and wine on them, sets him on his own animal, and took him to an inn to care for him. Then this Samaritan says to the innkeeper, Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.

What’s the point of the story? The point of the story is that the lawyer is the man lying half dead beside the road. And so are you. The Law reveals to us that even if we think we can go along life without a care in the road, sin seeks constantly to destroy. And so we really are half-dead, helpless and without hope, left to ourselves. Knowing this, how can I presume to go and do likewise?

But Jesus is the Good Samaritan. Where you and I fail to keep the Law because of sin, Jesus is the one who binds up your wounds, sets you on His animal, the Word of God, and carries you into the Inn of his Church. Jesus does it, because you can’t. No amount of willpower, no amount of work or planning or anything on our part will ever save anyone. You can’t force someone into heaven. But Jesus uses His Word, proclaimed from the pulpit, taught in Bible class and Sunday school and Catechism instruction, and taught by fathers and mothers around the dinner table, and in Christian schools. He uses this word to bring healing and forgiveness. What a treasure! What an opportunity and blessing God gives to us! We are His hands and feet and mouth to pass on his Word. And even though our efforts are incomplete, because of Christ and His work on the cross, God’s Word is taught and carried forth to the ends of the earth.

So no matter how great your sin, no matter how much you have failed to teach God’s Word or to hear it, your sin isn’t too great for the God who saves by His blood. As we heard in Hosea 6, Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. We may not always understand God’s ways, but one thing is certain: you can look at His cross and know that He loves you, and that He will never leave you nor forsake you. And that means there is nothing left for you to do. 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 9/11/11: Twelfth Sunday After Trinity (LSB 1-year)

O Lord, Open My Lips

Mark 7:31-37

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


It is not incorrect to see the working of the devil in our physical troubles. It was through Satan’s temptations that sin entered this world, bringing with it sickness, and pain, and death itself. Such is Satan’s goal, to disrupt and tear down the lives and capacities of those who have been made in the image of God, to cause people trouble in both soul and body. He does this, of course, to turn our hearts away from the Lord. Nevertheless, our Lord uses even Satan’s destructive schemes to accomplish His own righteous purposes. The apostle Paul spoke of how although God wouldn’t take away his physical troubles, He taught Paul through those troubles to trust completely in His grace and power in Christ. In this way, the devil’s attacks are turned upside down so that they move us to hold even more tightly to the Lord’s salvation. Though we may be weak ourselves, yet we are made to be strong in the Lord because our trust is directed even more fervently to His strength and mercy. When Satan attacks us, the Spirit draws us to pray in faith, “Make haste, O God, to deliver me! Make haste to help me, O Lord!”

However, we cannot pray in this way unless the Lord first opens our ears and turns loose our tongues. Like this man in the Gospel, we are by nature deaf and mute towards God. By our sinful nature our ears are closed off toward God. We do not naturally grasp His words or perceive what He says. We do not, by nature, speak God’s language. Jesus often said, “He who has ears, let him hear,” because many listening to Him still did not get what He was saying. And if there is an impediment in our hearing, there is also going to be an impediment in our speaking. Our words will not rightly reflect the Lord’s Words. Our mouths will not properly declare His praise.

The people who brought the man to Jesus did so that He might place His hands on him. Now, you and I need never feel deprived of that personal contact with our Lord. He is the One who consistently provides us with His healing touch, and it is a very literal and physical touch. For He Himself took on our flesh and blood, real eyes and ears and feet and hands, that He might deal with us concretely and on our level. Even now, our Lord comes into contact with us not only according to His divine nature but also according to His bodily human nature. We meet Him face to face in the Supper of His body and blood. He lays His hands on us in Baptism, and in the words of Absolution speaks to us His Word of forgiveness. Indeed, our Lord still attends to His people personally.

Jesus did two things to this man: first, He took his fingers and put them into the deaf man’s ears; second, He spit and touched the man’s tongue with it. He made direct physical contact with this man’s problems, in order to heal him. But, why did Jesus do it in this particular way? What can we learn from His actions? First, in the Scriptures, the “finger of God” is another term for the Holy Spirit. So, when Jesus puts His fingers into the man’s ears, He shows us that it is only by the working of the Holy Spirit that our ears are opened rightly to hear God’s Word. It is only by the Spirit’s power that we are made both able and willing to listen to and believe the Gospel. As Paul said: “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them. But we have received the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.” Jesus opens our ears by His Spirit, the finger of God, that we may hear and hold to His Words of life, as it is written, “Faith comes by hearing.”

Then, too, when Jesus spit and touched the man’s tongue, that is for us a picture of God’s Word being placed in our mouths, that our tongues might be turned loose to sing His praise. The Psalmist prays, “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall declare Your praise.” In Baptism, the Lord puts His name on us, that we may call upon His name in prayer. And the Lord places into our mouths His very own words, that our once muted tongues may sound forth with words of faith – the confessing of the creed, the singing of the church’s hymns, the proclaiming of His marvelous deeds and His life-giving teaching. By first opening our ears to hear His Word rightly, the Lord also opens our mouths to confess our faith rightly. First the ears, then the mouth. Speaking flows from hearing. Christ puts His Words into our ears, and they flow off our tongues back to Him in prayer and praise.

Jesus looked up to heaven, no doubt in prayer. He sighed, and then said to the man, “Ephphatha,” which means, “be opened.” Immediately his ears were opened and his tongue was loosed, and he spoke freely and plainly. And when Jesus said, “Be opened,” He spoke not just to the man’s ears and mouth, but to the whole man, for those words also mean “to be released.” Jesus was releasing this man from Satan’s bondage. This miracle is more than just evidence of Jesus’ power over physical ailments; it is evidence of His triumph over the devil. Jesus’ words shatter the chains by which the evil one binds his victim. Our Lord’s words also shatter the chains that bind and enslave you. He says to you, “Be opened! Be released!” And by water and the Spirit you are set free from the powers of darkness.

But that freedom does not come without a price. As Jesus spoke He sighed; He groaned as One who bore a great burden. And, indeed, He did because He took on Himself all the things that cause us to groan—the pain, the loneliness, the troubles—whatever binds and imprisons us. That He might release us from Satan’s captivity, the Lord put Himself under that captivity. He let Himself be placed into the hands of the powers of darkness, who finally killed Him. There on the cross He made direct contact with our sin, groaning and breathing His last, in our place. However, through that death He was victorious, for He took away the sin that gives Satan his power. And by rising bodily from the grave, He restored the bodies of all the faithful to a life that is whole and immortal and imperishable. That resurrection life will be revealed to us and the whole creation when our Lord returns.

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.

GUEST POST: Tribute and Memorial

A Tribute and Memorial 

To The Victims And Valiant Responders
Of September 11, 2001

September 11, 2011

Thank you for the invitation to lead you in this Tribute and Memorial for the victims and valiant responders of the events that took place 10 years ago today.

I’d like to start by defining our gathering, first in the negative and then in the positive.

First we should know that even though a clergyman is standing before you, this is not a church service.  I am all in favor of church services and highly recommend them and the blessings they confer, but they are best held among people of like faith, and I am certain that many different faiths are represented here today.

Secondly, I sincerely hope that we have not gathered for a national day of self pity, even though the scars will never go away, because that would give great joy to our enemies, and that we must not do.

Nor have we gathered because we necessarily approve of the way this attack against our nation has been handled.  There are some who consider 10 years of indecisive war to be a blundering tragedy in its own right.

But then why are we here?  For noble reasons, indeed!

First to remember the many who died and their survivors who suffered such great loss, to assure them that they are not forgotten.  To let them know that the milk of human kindness swells within us.  If you look around you will see, not virtual reality, but flesh and blood human beings willingly assembled in a show of support for their fellow Americans who were monstrously murdered 10 years ago, and for their spouses and children, their parents and friends who can never forget what was taken from them on that dark and doleful day.

We gather, too, to let the world know that we will always respond when our people are threatened, injured or killed.  Those familiar with Cleveland’s Fire Dispatch procedures know that the first thing the officer says when he picks up the apparatus mic is, “wheels rolling.” He doesn’t first inquire after the religious or political views of the person in distress.  He doesn’t ask: do you have insurance or, how will you be paying for this little visit?  His first words are, “wheels rolling.”  And though the jargon is different for EMS, CPD and all the other outstanding agencies represented here today, the result is the same, when duty calls, we go.

We also convene today in order to pay tribute to those who answered that call 10 years ago, who ran into the peril as everyone else was running out, and who sacrificed so much.  I can testify to the mighty dedication that was elicited from all of you following the attack.  We can all remember what we were doing that day, the moment we first comprehended that war had broken out on our soil.  Our first thoughts went to our loved ones!  But having the vocation we do meant that we had to leave them behind in order to protect and serve others.  And they – in their own breathtaking act of heroism – said to us, go! and we did!  Attending to the work with vigor we did not even know we possessed, standing guard over our city with our own bodies, for no one knew where war would break out next.

We remember the following days: the anthrax, the crazies who came out of the woodwork, the freeway snipers 12 months later.  While others regained a modicum of stability with time we were on the highest possible alert, with no time to think about our own well-being because we did not take this job to be served, but to serve and to expend our lives for the well-being of others.

I can also personally attest to the dedication of the people who operated in Pennsylvania and New York City, our brothers and sisters in the military and safety services, who gave their all to the recovery efforts.  Who breathed in the dust of their fellow human beings 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until finally in July of 2002 the labor was complete – at least as complete as such a thing ever can be.

I witnessed members of agencies from all over this great nation converge on Pennsylvania, and then later on New York City to do their "duty to God and country."  The FBI, ATF, ICE, the National Guard, D-Mort, the airline disaster response teams, myriads of private contractors with the knowledge and equipment to do what needed to be done.  And in addition a mass of selfless, nameless volunteers waiting outside the scenes to offer relief, encouragement, food, drink, clean clothing and to meet every possible need in support of the endeavor. It felt for all the world like the Old America, “the home of the brave” when every American sang from the same score, and what a feeling it was.

And like they did in that by-gone era, many people returned to their faith for solace and for answers.  The clerical collar was like a magnet then.  Everyone wanted to talk, to hear a word of God from Scripture, to begin and end their shifts with prayer so that they might gain spiritual strength in the face of sadness and danger.  It was an uplifting and liberating time when people understood as never before what King David says in the 46th Psalm that, “God is our Refuge and Strength, a very present help in trouble.”

I recall one incident, working third shift at Freshkills, the reconverted garbage dump on Staten Island that was used to sift through all the debris, to search for human remains, evidence, and personal belongings to return to grieving families.  About two in the morning an eagle-eyed detective caught glimpse of a badge going over the edge of the sifter and get lost in the rubble below.  All work ground to a halt and that badge became the focus of an intense search!

When it was found another intense search ensued, this time for the chaplain whose presence was urgently requested because everyone had gathered there, and wanted more than any other thing, to hold an immediate, impromptu funeral service for the fallen Port Authority officer, whose badge would soon be returned to his family.  It’s not the kind of thing they prepare you for in the seminary, but God’s Word did its work that night and for many more, healing the wounded souls of those who jeopardized their lives, their health and their sanity for the love of their fellow man.

Based on such devotion we have also gathered today as Cleveland’s safety forces to re-dedicate ourselves to the same, each according to his God-given vocation.  In this Jesus is the best pattern, who says, “greater love has no man that this that a man lay down his life for his friends, I have called you my friends.”  Following the example of His perfect sacrifice, which brings the forgiveness of sins and redemption to the world, we devote ourselves to the daily task of saving life, relieving affliction and restoring those in danger to normalcy.

I hope, too, that we have come together for one other important purpose: to reclaim the blessings of liberty!  We are not the perpetrators here but in the last ten years we have been treated as if we are, and not just at airports.  We have lost large swaths of our privacy, our freedom of speech our freedom of movement and other important liberties in the name of security, and this is intolerable.

It was Benjamin Franklin who said that: those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.

Lastly we have also assembled on this 10th anniversary in hopes of gaining, by God’s gracious blessing, a degree of closure if possible, the power to move forward if we can.  There is something about the number ten that helps that happen.  That does not mean that we will or should forget, we must not.  But instead, may the events of the past make us ten times stronger, and ten times more resolved, to rise to any future challenge and to meet it with courage.  God grant us the grace to do that; and also to put our wounds behind us; our sorrow behind us, and to know a brighter future.

Thank you for your kind attention.

by: Rev. Dean Kavoruas, Chaplain

Cleveland Emergency Services

FBI – Cleveland Division