Redeemer Fort Wayne Sermons Podcast: Recent Episodes
Redeemer Fort Wayne
Easter
April 9, 2024
Mark 16:1-8
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024-Easter-Sermon.m4aEaster Sunday
March 31, 2024 A+D
Job 19:23-27
In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Job’s bold confession, “I know that my Redeemer lives,” is one of the most important passages in all of Holy Scripture. His example of where to find comfort in the midst of scoffers is maybe more necessary in our age than it has ever been before.This great confession, “I know that my Redeemer lives” should be on our lips every day.
The book of Job begins with God holding court. He praises Job as righteous. Satan, the accuser, challenges God. He claims that Job does not love Him but only acts like he is righteous in order to manipulate God to get what he wants. Satan says that if God were to let Job suffer and not reward him, then his true character would emerge and it would show how shallow and self-serving Job really is. God accepts the challenge. He hands all that Job has over to Satan and Job’s famous misery begins.
On the surface the question is about justice and suffering. Job is innocent, but he suffers horrific loss. His friends believe that God’s justice means that anyone suffering deserves it. They accuse Job of being wicked because they believe that God punishes the wicked and rewards the righteous. This is the modern idea of reincarnation or karma. According to such teaching you shouldn’t feel sorry for those who suffer because they deserve it and God is getting even with them for what they did in a past life. According to them, you shouldn’t feel sorry for the baby born disfigured and in pain because her mother is drug addict who poisoned her in the womb. That baby deserves it. Can you see what a horrific, satanic doctrine this is? It is judgemental in the worst sense of the term and it poses as wisdom and charity, while claiming that Christianity and its offer of free forgiveness is bigoted and oppressive.
Job hates it. So should we all. Job chafes under their accusations. They are unfair and unreasonable. At times, under this pressure and in his weakness, Job gives in to despair. He is suffering terribly. He finds no comfort from his friends and his theology isn’t holding up. He even curses the day he was born, claiming that God had punished him without cause, and despising God’s most precious gift, life itself.
But while he waffles, sometimes even blasphemes, Job doesn’t lose faith. In the middle of it all, he claims not innocence but hope for and an eager expectation of a Redeemer. He says:
25 For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth;
26 And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God,
27 Whom I shall see for myself,
And my eyes shall behold, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me! (Job 19:25–27 , NKJV)
He is a man of two minds: part of him is angry at the wickedness in this world and is exhausted with pain and sorrow and disappointment at the seeming arbitrary reality of evil. Yet the other part still holds on to the hope that God is good and all powerful and wise. That part, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, knows what is real and eternal. There is a Redeemer, God in the Flesh, the living God as a living Man.
Then a a new friend arrives. He is the a young man Elihu. He is angry with Job because Job justified himself rather than God. He is also angry with Job’s friends because they had condemned Job. Their theology doesn’t simply fail, it is dead wrong. It is not man’s place to condemn men. They should have seen in Job’s sorrows and opportunity for service not a time to feel superior. Elihu explains that God can use suffering to expose pride and take away idols. It is not just punishment. It can be a chastisement, a rebuke and warning, a setting of boundaries to keep His servants safe. God is love and moves purposefully. We cannot see the big picture or comprehend the complexity of the world. The call to faith is not to know all the answers but to believe and trust in God’s goodness. Job is innocent in an outward way. But his heart is not free from sin. He was wrong to claim that he had no iniquity and wrong to speak evil of God.
Finally, God visits Job in the midst of a storm. He mocks Job’s proud assumptions about his capacity to understand the world and justice and calls him to repentance. It is a harsh scene. But what does Job do? He prays:
2 “I know that You can do everything,
And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.
3 You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. . .
6 Therefore I abhor myself,
And repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:2–3, 6, NKJV)
Job repents. And the Lord relents. He restores to Job twice that which he lost: twice the livestock and twice the children. That last part is a bit hard to see at first. With the cows it is as easy as counting heads. He started with 500. They all died. Then he gets a 1000 as replacements, exactly double. With children the math works differently. He started with seven sons and three daughters. They all died. Then he gets not fourteen new sons and six new daughters, but only another seven and three. But that is double. They are not replacements they are additions. The children of Job were raised in the faith. They went to heaven early for their sake and his. Job will see them again. In heaven he will have double the children he had on earth.
So what do we learn? We learn what Job learned: this world is not our home. It is temporary and fickle. Thus saith the Lord: “You shall have no other gods.” We can love our stuff and our lives too much. We can love peace and getting along with our neighbors too much. We can even love our children too much. The hope we have is not in ourselves or our country or our savings account. It is in Our Redeemer who died but who lives. Job learned patience and faith the only way it is ever learned: by the Word of God and suffering. Strength comes by resistance. It is a shocking history, but the Redeemer was with Job every step of the way. He did what He did for Job’s sake and for ours.
We can, and I think we should, see the Book of Job as a trickster tale where God is the trickster and Satan is the fool. Satan sought to destroy Job out of jealousy. His analysis of Job’s weakness wasn’t completely wrong. Job did suffer from pride and that did come from an easy life. But Satan didn’t understand God’s love or perseverance or His commitment to His children. He spoke in court as though God was ignorant of Job’s heart and his weaknesses. Satan reveled in inflicting suffering, but God tricked him into doing unto Job precisely what Job most needed. The suffering didn’t destroy Job’s faith, it distilled and strengthened it. It taught him where to look for comfort. When Job’s idols were removed, even his children, and even before his faith had come to its fullness, he was able to confess a hope that goes beyond the grave: ”I know that My Redeemer lives! I will be redeemed. I will be made alive again because I have a God who lives. He will become a Man like me, my own family, in order to die as ransom price for me and He will live again. I will see Him with my own eyes.”
The outcome was never in doubt. God held Job in His hands the whole time. Satan was duped. He served God’s own purpose and end. It wasn’t to provide wisdom about justice. It was the strengthening of Job’s faith and safeguarding Job from Hell while simultaneously bestowing upon us a great and necessary lesson about faith and God’s providential mercy.
And, of course, this wasn’t the last time that Satan fell for such a trick. Satan entered into Judas and set the Passion in motion. Satan, our accuser, was Christ’s accuser. He was with the priests, the crowds, and Pilate. He was an old friend of Herod and has always loved misusing soldiers for the sake of atrocities. He gets a chance to kill God and he can’t resist. He meant it for evil, but God used it for the highest good. This is the redemption that Job waited for, the only Redeemer who could redeem Him when all else was stripped away. Jesus died on purpose, laid down His own life and then took up again. He lives. And if He lives then Job will stand upon the earth, forgiven, restored, alive. And if Job then also us and our loved ones who have gone before us in the sign of Faith. This is the wisdom that confounds Satan and steals us back from Hell, that fills our hearts with joy and makes the angels sing. It is our rally cry, the beating heart of all our hope, Job’s creed and our confession: “I know that my Redeemer lives.” May it ever be in our hearts and upon our lips.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Lent 6 Palm Sunday
March 24, 2024
Matthew 26:1—27:66
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024-Lent-6-Palm-Sunday-Sermon.m4aPalm Sunday
March 24, 2024 A+D
Psalm 118, St. Matthew 27:25
In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Psalm 118 is at the center of Palm Sunday. It serves as a guide for how to read the Passions. It teaches us to take the wicked words and even blasphemies of all the unbelievers at the trial and crucifixion of Jesus and make them our own. It is a confession of our own culpability, responsibility, and even complicity in the death of Jesus. We are Barabas and cowardly Pilate and the thief who mocked Jesus on the cross. But we also learn to turn those wicked words on their heads and to let them be transformed by grace into the most pious of prayers.
Psalm 118 is the source of the people’s response to Jesus astride the colt. From it they cry: “Hosanna to the Son of David” and “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.” It is a Psalm of thanksgiving and a call to trust in the Lord. The Psalm begins and ends with a call to thanksgiving based on the Lord’s eternal mercy.
1 O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good:
Because his mercy endureth for ever.
The Psalm goes on to explain that it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It exalts in answered prayer. The psalmist is confident in the Lord’s mercy and deliverance. He will not die but live. Men are wicked and bring much suffering upon him, surrounding him like bees, mocking him, even torturing him, but he says:
“The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: What can man do unto me?” and
“The LORD hath chastened me sore: But he hath not given me over unto death.”
The Hosanna and Blessed is He come in the last verses. The King James Version translates the Hebrew word “Hosanna” as “Save now.” Here are the verses in their immediate context:
22 The stone which the builders refused
Is become the head stone of the corner.
23 This is the LORD’s doing;
It is marvellous in our eyes.
24 This is the day which the LORD hath made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
25 Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD:
O LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.
26 Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD:
We have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.
27 God is the LORD, which hath shewed us light:
Bind the sacrifice with cords,
Even unto the horns of the altar.
28 Thou art my God, and I will praise thee:
Thou art my God, I will exalt thee.
29 O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good:
For his mercy endureth for ever.
The Stone which the builders rejected is the Stone that followed them in the wilderness, the Stone from which fresh, clean water flowed. That Stone was Christ, rejected then and rejected now, without honor on the earth which He created and loved. There was never grief like His, never a betrayal so unfounded or unreasonable, never a pain so deep. But He has become the chief stone, the foundation of the Church. The faith of all believers rests on Him. He is still without honor on the earth, but He has reserved for Himself more than Elijah’s 7000. He has set the solitary into His family, has called us by the Gospel, enlightened us with His gifts, sanctified and kept us by His grace. We are not of the earth. We belong to heaven. We should die but will not. Jesus lives and so do and so will we.
Thus we look upon the cross, the rejection of the Christ and His sacrifice, and say:
23 This is the LORD’s doing;
It is marvellous in our eyes.
24 This is the day which the LORD hath made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
And because of that sacrifice, only by that sacrifice, we make a bold demand: Hosanna.
25 Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD:
O LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.
26 Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD:
We have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.
In that euphoria of the Spirit, that holy confidence in God’s good providence, we even command the crucifixion. We say:
Bind the sacrifice with cords,
Even unto the horns of the altar.
28 Thou art my God, and I will praise thee:
Thou art my God, I will exalt thee.
Who is my God? The one bound to the Cross, who is lifted up from the earth to draw all men unto HImself. Blessed is He! He comes in the Name of the Lord. This is the Lord’s doing. It is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made, the day when the sun went dark and water and blood flowed upon the earth outside the city gates. We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Reading the Passion together and making ourselves say things like, “Give us Barabas instead of Jesus” and “crucify Him” and even “let His blood be on us and on our children” is painful. There is a part of us that hates that this happened, that Jesus suffered so. We stand accused by the Law. We are guilty. We have betrayed Him, failed Him, turned away from Him. We repent. We turn back to Him. We love His Word and Law. We love Him. We want to do better.
At the same time, even though those people meant those sentences for evil, there is an irony here beyond description, and that irony is the heart of the Gospel. Consider this: if we asked the Father whether He would have Barabas released or Jesus, what would He say? He would say “Barabas.” He would say this not because He does not love Jesus. He would say it because He loves Barabas. He sent Jesus to redeem the wicked. He believes that He can do it and He is right. The release of Barabas and condemnation of Jesus is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.
The height of this, for me, is when the people cry out: “Let His Blood be upon us and on our children.” In their mouths this is blasphemy. They don’t care if Jesus is innocent. They test God. They are saying that they do not think He can or will do anything to them no matter how many innocent people they will kill as many as they want. We, too, have acted as if God’s Word did not matter and we mattered most.
And yet, in faith, redeemed by Christ, we use the same words, “let His Blood be upon us and on our children” to mean something completely different. We want His innocent Blood upon us because His life is in the Blood. He washes us clean and marks us as His own by His Blood. His Blood is poured over our hearts through our mouths to protect us from the angel of death. We want what He gives in and through His Blood for us and for our children. What we meant for evil, God uses for good. “Let His Blood be upon us and our children” is a prayer of faith. It trusts that the death of Jesus is the Lord’s doing. It is marvelous in our eyes.
Thus the whole Passion, the whole life and ministry of Jesus, and even our own personal stories become holy histories of God’s intervening grace and providence. The outcome was never in doubt. Let all those who fear the Lord say, that His mercy endureth forever.
In +Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Lent 5 Judica
March 26, 2024
John 8:(42-45) 46-59
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024-Lent-5-Judica-Sermon.m4aJudica 2024
March 17, 2024 A+D
Psalm 143
In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Psalm 143 provides the Introit for today. It is built like two sets of stairs. The first goes down into a basement and the second comes back up again. We walk down five steps in confession and prayer. Then we find something that lets us walk up the other side. No surprise here. That something is the grace of God in the Messiah delivered throughout Israel’s history. Then, by that grace, we come up one step for every step we that we walked down.
Listen carefully.
Psalm 143 A Psalm of David.
1Hear my prayer, O Lord, Give ear to my supplications: In thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.
2And enter not into judgment with thy servant: For in thy sight shall no man living be justified.
3For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; He hath smitten my life down to the ground; He hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.
4Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; My heart within me is desolate.
5I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.
6I stretch forth my hands unto thee: My soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.
7Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit faileth: Hide not thy face from me, Lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.
8Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; For in thee do I trust: Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; For I lift up my soul unto thee.
9Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide me.
10Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: Thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.
11Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name’s sake: For thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble.
12And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, And destroy all them that afflict my soul: For I am thy servant.
The 5 steps down lay the problems or descriptions of our sorrows and our guilt. On the first step we cry out that God would hear our prayer and that He would answer us not because we are righteous or faithful but because He is. “Answer me,” we say, “in Thy faithfulness and Thy righteousness.” The next step is the confession that “the enemy has persecuted our souls.” Then we confess our fear. We say: “The enemy has smitten my life down to the ground.” The fourth step is even worse. We say: “The enemy hath made me to dwell in darkness as those long dead,” that is, he has put me into Hell. Finally, we say simply: “My spirit is overwhelmed and my heart is desolate.”
The center, the key thing of the Psalm, that upon which everything else depends,, that which will allow us to begin the ascent is in verses 5 and 6.
I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.
I stretch forth my hands unto thee: My soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land.
This seems out of order. It seems as though we should first say “I stretch out my hands, my soul thirsteth.” That would be the last step, the last description of our actions and needs, a last confession. Then we would say “I remember the days of old, the work of Thy hands.” That way the last step would be stretching forth our hands in prayer and the beginning of the ascent would be the remembrance of God’s mercy and all the good things He has done. But that is not how it goes. Something else going on here.
But before we get there, we should note that there are more problems with our staircase. The ascending correspondence to the descent of repentance isn’t what we expect. It seems as though it should be praise or exclamations of joy. We would expect the corresponding ascending step to “My spirit is overwhelmed and my heart is desolate,” to be something like “My spirit rejoices and my heart is gladdened.” Instead we get “Hear me speedily, O Lord; my spirit faileth.” To the complaint that the enemy has caused me to dwell in darkness we get “Hide not Thy face from me, lest I be like them that go down into the pit,” that is, like them that go to Hell.
These are steps up, but make no mistake: they are hard steps. You’ve got to dig deep. Your thighs will burn. The work of repentance is not done just because we are going up. We belong to Christ. Our sins are forgiven. But this is a slow ascent. To “The enemy has smitten my life down to the ground” we get “Cause me to hear Thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in Thee do I trust: Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; For I lift up my soul unto Thee.” It is getting a bit easier. We can see the rising sun coming over the horizon: it is Jesus out of the grave. We come up out of the pit, climbing toward Easter.
And then to “the enemy hath persecuted my soul” we get “Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies: I flee unto Thee to hide me.” We are almost out, and not just out but almost to the other side. We are passing through Hell on our way to heaven.
Finally we get the correspondence to the initial plea that God hear our prayers. We now pray:
“Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: Thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness. Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name’s sake: For thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble. And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, And destroy all them that afflict my soul: For I am thy servant.” (Psalm 143:10–12, KJV 1900)
That is great. But remember that this whole thing hinges on those center verses. The question is: “Will God let the devil have me? Will He abandon me to Hell? Will I be stuck down here in despair?” The answer to that question is found at the bottom. We’ve finally leveled out and on our way back up when we say: “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.” In that moment we have shifted away from our enemy the devil and toward the gracious history of Our Lord. There we see that we are not alone, that we were never alone, that Jesus, Himself, is with us. He built the steps and descended them with us. It is He who has been cast to the ground and left in the pit by the devil for us so that we would be spared. He stretched forth His hands to be nailed into the posture of prayer that He might bring our prayers to His Father.
Thus has God joined Himself to us, to our cause. He stands in the depths of Hell and says: “I stretch forth my hands unto thee: My soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land.” Since He said it, we can say it too. We can join ourselves to Him, join ourselves to His cross, add our petitions to His prayer. Thus we begin the journey up the staircase to the rising sun of His mercy, not alone, but with Him. He bears the weight. His thighs do the real work. We also find on every step the Father waiting with open arms. He quickens us, that is enlivens and raises us, for His Name’s sake. He brings us out of trouble. His good Spirit has been leading us all along, on the descent as well as the ascent.
The Psalm is short. Lent is almost over for the year. Listen to the Psalm one more time and picture Jesus in the treasury being attacked and slandered by the Jews. That is the descent. Walk down with Him. Do not shrink from His grief or cross. Then see Him graciously guiding Israel through history and you through your life. You’re on your way back up, with Jesus, and soon you will go all the way home.
Psalm 143 A Psalm of David.
1Hear my prayer, O Lord, Give ear to my supplications: In thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness.
2And enter not into judgment with thy servant: For in thy sight shall no man living be justified.
3For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; He hath smitten my life down to the ground; He hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead.
4Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; My heart within me is desolate.
5I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands.
6I stretch forth my hands unto thee: My soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.
7Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit faileth: Hide not thy face from me, Lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.
8Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; For in thee do I trust: Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; For I lift up my soul unto thee.
9Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide me.
10Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: Thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.
11Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name’s sake: For thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble.
12And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, And destroy all them that afflict my soul: For I am thy servant.
In +Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Laetare
March 10, 2024 A+D
St. John 6:1-15
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024-Lent-4-Sermon.m4aIn the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Jesus offers the 5000 eternal life, but they try to seize him for some bread. It is the same mistake that Eve made in the garden. It is the mistake we make every time we sin. We think what we really need is not Jesus and His Law but something material or temporary to make us happy, to take away our pain, or to satisfy us. To our fallen flesh it seems as though Jesus is both holding out on us and getting in our way. He is not.
He has come to give us life and that abundantly, that is to say He has come to give Himself to us and nothing less. His Flesh is our food. His blood is our drink. All who eat His flesh and drink His blood remain in Him and He remains in them. That is eternal. He is the Bread of Life sent for the life of the world. The manna and the loaves in that grassy place could only feed for a day. Then they were passed through the body. They needed no faith to do their work, but neither was their work enduring. They gave no greater reward than a continuance of this temporary state of living death. They didn’t forgive sins. They didn’t create peace. They didn’t give real life. But Jesus is the Bread from Heaven, the Bread of Life. He incorporates the eater into Himself. Whoever feeds on Him lives – not for a day, but for eternity. The eater is brought into the Body of Christ who is life. The eater is changed: the Bread remains the same. This is the Bread which came down from heaven. He who eats this Bread will live forever even though he die.
This should not be a difficult lesson. We want that Bread not just bread to feed the body. We don’t live by bread alone but every Word that proceeds from the Mouth of God. Eternal life in heaven is better than staying alive on this earth for another day. It is a difficult lesson for our fallen flesh and corrupt reason. We must learn and relearn every day until we are transferred to glory. The flesh seeks to avoid pain and gain pleasure. It only believes what it can see or feel. But we believe in Jesus. We believe He is the Bread of Life that takes away our sins and makes us whole.
Faith is essential. Jesus says “I am the Bread of Life” and offers no proof. You don’t have to believe it. You can deny it. Many do. But to those who believe He gives power to become the sons of God.
Do not think that this call is pollyannaish, blind optimism or a vain attempt to name it and claim it, to make it real by an effort of our will and concentration. This isn’t an animated Christmas special where our belief in Santa calls him into reality. Saving Faith is simply the recognition and acceptance of God’s Word. He tells us what is real and what endures and what we can trust. Men and flowers will be forgotten. Bell towers will crumble. Governments will collapse. The weapons of war will decay. The rich will die. Barring the return of Our Lord in glory, our souls will be separated from our bodies. We will face judgment. God’s Word reveals the eternal, pulls back the veneer of this temporary world, and shows us what really matters, while also showing us the heart of the Father in the Son.
Proverbs issues a warning about distinction between reality and our perception in chapter 3. We must repent, learning to rely on His Word and not our passions. The Teacher says:
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.
7 Do not be wise in your own eyes;
Fear the LORD and depart from evil (NKJ).
He continues in chapter 14:
12 There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death (NKJ).
This call to faith is not just a call to certainty about what will be, in an eschatological sense, and already is, in the sense of Proverbs above, but it is also a call to subdue that within of us that is tempted by the false promises of the material world. That is to say that it is also a call to be faithful. This faithfulness is driven by love and faith. It wants to remain with Jesus and be like Jesus. It desires what He gives in His Body and in His Blood. It hangs on every Word that proceeds from His mouth. It trusts that He will give what He says, that He will sustain us through His gifts, that this world is not what matters and there are some things worse than poverty, loneliness, and death. Confident in grace, it seeks to squash the old man and walk on the path of the Spirit as directed by Jesus in His Father’s love.
The Old Man walks by sight. He trusts what he can see, taste, and feel. He figures he is smarter than most other people, has a better sense of how the world works, of common sense and street smarts. He thinks he knows how things “really are.” He is proud that he can see for himself, like Eve before him, what is good for food and capable of making him “wise.” He lives for the moment, which is to say, he lives for himself, grabbing what he can along the way. That is the way of the 5000 who wanted to seize Jesus and put him to work as their personal baker, a bread provider, that they wouldn’t have to work. They didn’t seek a Lord or a Savior but a slave. In contrast to this, faith sees Jesus working in the vineyard much in the way that a young boy sees his father working in the garden and looks around for a shovel, eager to help.
The Bread that is needed, that which is promised by Jesus, is not visible to the human eye. What do we see but words on a page, water in a bowl, bread on a sliver plate? We hear the history, but we cannot touch it. It took place on another continent, in a time that might as well be another planet. We have little in common with those people and their lives. But we do have this: they were dying and needed a Savior. So do we. They behaved badly, foolishly, because of their own pride and wicked desires. So do we.
As cliche as it sounds: Jesus is the answer. He is what we need. He provides a ram in the thicket for Abraham and Isaac. He provides bread and fish for 5000 in the wilderness. He provides the forgiveness won of the cross to us in His risen Body and Blood in the Sacrament. He provides as a father for his children, not out of our worthiness and for any profit to Him, but out of love. He is the Lord who provides, He is in control of history and all of creation. What cannot be bought in the wilderness, 200 denari of bread or the forgiveness of sins, He gives for free to faith. He is the Lord of Life, the Lord of the Living. He gives eternal life to all who believe in Him. Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough to feed so many. All the money in the world and all the strength and power of men would not be enough to rescue us from Hell. But the Body of Jesus, scourged and pierced, is enough. He gives it not only in the wilderness but also in the city, not only to the Jews but also to Gentiles, not only then, but also now, and even forever.
Jesus has come for more than to give us a free meal. He does not hold out on us. He is not in the way. His Law is not a burden but goodness. He comes to give Himself and in Himself, His Life, for us and to us.
In +Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Oculi 2024
March 3, 2024
Luke 11:14-28
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2024-Lent-3-Sermon.m4aIn John’s vision he saw war in heaven. St. Michael and the holy angels fought against Satan and his angels. Satan was defeated and cast down to earth. The war continues. It is fought here among us and we are the prize. Satan is the strong man who guards us with all that He has. His armor could not defend Him from Jesus, the stronger Man. He has been defeated. Jesus death on the cross has undone Him. But Jesus warns us: there are no empty houses, no neutral countries. If you are not with Him, you are against Him. The consequences are eternal.
We live in crazy times. Once again, we are taught that we must guard our hearts and souls by guarding the Word of God. Jesus says: blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
Our opponents live in an upside down world. Listen to what they say in the Temple. They claim Jesus is in league with the devil. They know He helps people, heals and feeds them. They aren’t pleased that He drives off demons, they are annoyed. They are like the Gerasenes who got one of their own back but lost a herd of pigs. That was a fiscal loss. They preferred money and demons to poverty and Jesus. Satan loves to set it up this way. The fastest way to a man’s heart is money, a root of all evil.
The devil is also the one who tells the world that all wars are religious wars. That is total nonsense meant to undermine the goodness of Christianity. Tell me: how was the 2nd Pelponesian war a religious war? How about Alexander’s conquest of Persia? What about the American revolution? It would be closer to the truth to say more wars have been driven by greed or lust for power than by religion.
But our opponents are deluded by demons. They live in an upside down world. In our day, in the schools run by Indiana, on practically every television sitcom or drama they pretend that that boys are girls, that greed is productive, that children should decide for themselves what to learn in school. They claim as scientific fact that which can’t endure the scientific method or be observed. We have doctors whose mission should be to preserve and promote life killing babies and pretending that it is a medical procedure.
How can we remain sane in this insanity? How can we keep the faith? We must read, study, and embrace the Bible. That is how we know what is real.
First all of all we must know the Catechism from the Bible. We must know the apostolic doctrine: that God is One in Three Persons, that the Second Person took on flesh for us and is true God and true Man, crucified and risen.
We must know the proper distinction between Law and Gospel to read the Bible rightly, recognizing that many passages in Holy Scripture show us our sins and show us what God’s will is for our lives. Those passages teach us but they don’t show us salvation directly. Other passages do show us directly. They proclaim God’s love for us, His mercy. They reveal God to us as He wants to be know, showing us our Savior in the Jesus the Messiah.
We must know the Apostolic doctrine also of prayer, Holy Baptism, the Office of the Keys, and the Sacrament of the Altar. In these we know the Gospel which is the power of God unto salvation.
That is enough for salvation, but the Bible has more. In our day, we must also know the order of creation, the three estates, and the doctrine of vocation.
The order of creation is that God made everything according to its kind. This is why we can predict what will happen to a puddle of water when the temperature drops below 32. It will freeze. It is predictable because water is according to its kind. It does not behave the way that rocks do or trees do. All of the animals and humans also have a kind, an order and structure, natural law. God made us male and female. Male and female are complimentary. It was not good when Adam was alone. He needs Eve. Together, with God’s blessing, they become a family and are productive. Men are to be the heads of their houses. Wives are to be subordinate. Children are to obey.
We experience the order of creation in three different estates or hierarchies that God has created: the family, the Church, and the government. The family is the basis of it all. The Church and the government are derived from the family. Thus Job, Melchizedek, and Abraham were able to offer sacrifices before the office of priest was limited to the sons of Aaron in the tribe of Levi. That law got added because of transgressions and because of the complexity of the organization and walking through the desert and then being a nation. So also, originally each patriarch would rule his house. That also got taken away because of sin and complexity. But originally priest and patriarch were the same.
We need to know what the duties and responsibilities of each estate are and where they overlap. Broadly speaking the family’s primary responsibility is procreation, nurture, and education, the church’s is catechesis, the conduct of worship and administration of the sacraments, and evangelism, and the state’s is protection. We should expect there to be governmental overreach.
We should also expect failures in all estates and at every level. But we should not abrogate our duties and responsibilities. We owe the government some of our love, our money, and our sons, but not everything. The government is not God. We owe the Church reverence, tithes, and even obedience, but again, not blindly. The Church is led by fallible men. Pastors can certainly fail. So can voters’ assemblies and conventions. And even the family cna become corrupted and abusive.
So what to do with imperfect families, churches, and country? Insofar as it is possible to suffer and work for good, we should. We should not rebel against a father easily. At the same time we recognize that God is our true Father, that He setteth the solitary into families, that His mother, brothers, and sisters are those who hear the Word of God and keep it. So also He is our great high priest and He is our King. All of the estates are found and perfected in Him. He is the One who begot us, who feeds us, who teaches, forgives, and protects us.
In +Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Lent 2 Reminiscere
March 5, 2024
Matthew 15:21–28
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2024-Lent-2-Reminiscere-Sermon.m4aNO SERMON TEXT
Invocabit
February 17, 2024 A+D
St. Matthew 4:1-11
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2024-Lent-1-Invocabit-Sermon.m4aIn the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’
“It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”
“Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’
Temptation takes place mainly in our minds. It is a battle of words. The devil, the world, and our sinful nature seek to rationalize sin, to convince us that it is valuable, good in some way. This is because all sin begins, in some sense, as covetous idolatry. It is a matter of the will. We have a will that is apart from the Father’s and in crass idolatry we seek to put it first. So it is that the devil comes at Jesus in the desert with words. He overcomes temptation by the Word of God and prayer. He responds to the devil with assertions that are written in the Bible in order to comfort Himself.
The devil tempts Jesus by saying,
“If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
“If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”
“All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”
Rather than getting into a debate, Jesus replies with assertions from the Bible:
“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’
“It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”
“Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’
Then the devil left Him and angels came and ministered to Him.
Apologetics is sometimes helpful for tender consciences. A Christian at university who is struggling to understand how the Bible can withstand scrutiny and the scientific method is often comforted by recognizing that the Bible is rational and doesn’t violate observable, testable science.
But arguing with the devil or our flesh is worse than futile, it is disastrous. Adam’s fatal mistake was to stand by idly and let the devil’s statements to Eve be taken seriously. Jesus doesn’t argue with the devil. He simply makes assertions and that from the Word of God. He does this not to convince the devil but to remind Himself of what is true.
The devil tries to get Jesus to consider His own needs. He says, “Make for yourself some bread.” Jesus doesn’t explain why He won’t. He simply asserts what Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 8. Here is what is trustworthy. Man shall not live by bread alone, but but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. This is open and shut, over and done. There is nothing else to consider. Will this satisfy the devil? Will this impress the world or the academy? Will this be carved in stone in the halls of philosophy or made into a masthead for Facebook and Google? Absolutely not! But it will serve and it will satisfy faith. It will drive off the devil and feed the soul. Jesus quotes the Bible not so much to the devil as He does to Himself. He is the One being tempted and therefore He is the One who needs comfort and strength.
It is much the same with the other temptations. The devil tries to get Jesus to think about what He is missing with the service of angels and the pleasures of this world. Jesus responds with assertions from Deuteronomy 6 “You shall not tempt the Lord your God” and “You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.” He doesn’t get into a debate about the character of angels or the sort of service they provide or whether or not the devil can give him the glory of the world. He simply asserts. He is not particularly clever about it. He is not theologically sophisticated or profound.
Here is part of the point: these are defenses we are all capable of, which He Himself has handed us. Again, this won’t convince the devil that he is wrong. But it will comfort and strengthen faith. The Word serves the tempted.
We also see that Jesus grounds Himself in the written Word. Even in the secular world, written words have power and endurance that spoken words don’t. If you go to court over a contract dispute, what matters most is what is written and not what you claim someone said. A written “to do” list is a powerful productivity device not just because it keeps us from forgetting something, but because it allows us to forget something. I can concentrate on what I am doing and don’t have to try to hold something in my mind because I wrote it down. That gives it endurance. Job longed for the Word of God to be written so that it couldn’t be forgotten, so that it could be passed down.
God doesn’t need the Word written. God doesn’t forget or misremember or twist the things He says. But we do. So we need the Word written. We need an objective standard that we can trust, that we can return to, that is outside of us and not dependent upon our memories, understanding, or current situations.
Temptation and sin are always temporal, always contemporary. They are always about what our fallen flesh and will wants in the moment, right now. Therefore they ever changing like the devil moving from a rocky place to the Temple and then to a mountain. But the Word of God never changes. Temptation feels like an ocean in the moment, but it is all a charade, an illusion. In contrast, the Word is eternal, beautiful, and true. It brushes away the lies of Satan and our flesh like drops of dew in the morning sun. Satan and the old man cannot resist. They slink away. The Word endures.
“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’
“It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”
“Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”
In +Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Quinquagesima
February 19, 2024
Luke 18:31-43
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2024-Quinquagesima-Sermon.m4aNO SERMON TEXT
The Marriage of Azrielle Ritzman and Benjamin Horner on Sexagesima
February 4, 2024
Luke 8:4-15
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2024-Sexagesima-Sermon.m4aIn the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.” (Luke 8:15, NKJV)
We often hear the word “patience” and think of waiting. The Oxford dictionary defines it more broadly. Patience is “the capacity to tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without becoming angry or upset.” What Jesus describes in the parable of the soil is perseverance, endurance, and fortitude in the face of delay, trouble, and suffering. Another name for this virtue is hope.
Faith needs endurance built on hope. We need it. We need it because like the earth in the parable we suffer external attacks from demons that snatch at us and men who seek to trample us. This is a spiritual battle. No one in the Church Militant can escape it. We must trust in God’s Word and promise. We are also attacked from within. We are often our own worst enemies. We do not give the attention that we should to God’s Word and thus lack His nourishment. We shrink from the seriousness of the faith and its call to sacrifice. We also are infected with a selfish desire for pleasure and an unwillingness to suffer that tries to choke out faith. We give up hope and live for the present or sell our souls for a bowl of soup.
Jesus doesn’t only describe four types of hearers who will be exposed on the last day. He also describes the totality of our own experience. Faith cometh by hearing and faith endureth by hearing. Everything is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer. Demons are driven off in this way, and so also are our passions tamed and virtues trained, sins forgiven and faith strengthened. We live by faith. We face and endure, suffer and persevere what we must in hope and confidence that God does not lie and that He is working in and on us.
Jesus is the Sower, but do not think that is all He does, as though He sows and then walks away. He is the Redeemer who has given His life to win us. He is the Advocate who pleads our cause in Himself before His Father. He is our Husband who has loved us to the end. Even before sowing, He chooses the Seed. It is His Word. He also tills the soil. And He weeds, fertilizes, and waters it. On the last day, He Himself will bring the harvest home.
He has chosen the Seed deliberately. His Word does not lie or fail. It does not return to Him void. It is the power of God unto salvation. It changes hearts. It saves. He has likewise prepared the soil, that is, He has tilled your heart. He does this by crosses and sorrows and by the preaching of the Law. He teaches you what is temporary and eternal, what is shameful and your need. Yes, He sows. He preaches the Word by sending prophets and apostles and even angels and gets it all written down. He makes examples of all the saints of old for your benefit. He sends parents and preachers and friends with words in their mouths for your ears. He then weeds and fertilizes, waters and tends by that same Word.
We stand in a long line of believers. God works through means. We are the beneficiaries of sacrifices and generosity and scholarship long forgotten. We often mention those in the Bible. Sometimes we remember and thank God for those martyrs or teachers of the early Church. Maybe more often than we should we name Martin Luther and his generation. But there have been hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of Christians who have seen to the work of the church, writing books, building churches, donating to Bible and mission societies, sending their children to school, and bringing jello to potlucks. All that the Gospel might be preached, that the Good News might go out, that the call to witness would be fulfilled. In this way, by what appears to the eyes of men to be ordinary means and humble humans, Christ has tilled, sowed, weeded, fertilized, and watered. He has done this that you would hear and believe and bear fruit a hundredfold.
What has that to do with Holy Marriage? Marriage is an act of faith. God blesses, sanctifies it through His Word. It will be the most defining cross of your lives. If you cannot tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without becoming angry or upset, if you insist on your way and are ruled by your passions, you will destroy your marriage and do grievous harm to each other and your children. James gives counsel from the Holy Spirit for marriage. He writes:
Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
Holy Marriage, built on and centered in Christ, is the seedbed of patience, of self-denial and self-giving. In it you will learn that love covers a multitude of sins, that humility precedes all virtue, and that peace which passes all understanding beams most brightly when there are few material goods and little esteem from the world. It will not come easily. You have little idea of the suffering and difficulty before you. But God instituted Holy Marriage. It is the clearest reflection of our relationship to Him. He blesses and sanctifies Marriage through His Word. Your crosses and failures, your frustrations and regrets, must be washed in His Blood, must be opportunities for repentance and forgiveness. God’s blessing and promise are on and in marriage. By His Word, you will learn to live in and by forgiveness. You will learn to see more deeply into eternity and to ache for it, which is to say, you will learn to live by faith and you will bear a harvest a hundredfold.
In +Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Septuagesima
St. Matthew 20:1-16
February 5, 2023 A+D
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2023-Trinity-24-Sermon.m4aNO SERMON TEXT
Lent 6 Palm Sunday
April 2, 2023
Matthew 26:1—27:66 or Matthew 27:11–54
NO SERMON TEXT
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/2023-Lent-6-Palm-Sunday-Sermon.m4a
Lent 5 Judica
March 26, 2023
John 8:(42–45) 46–59
NO SERMON TEXT
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/2023-Lent-5-Sermon.m4a
Lent 4 Laetare
March 19, 2023
John 6:1–15
NO SERMON TEXT
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2023-Lent-4-Laetare-Sermon.m4a
Oculi
March 12, 2023 A+D
St. Luke 11:14-28
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2023-Lent-3-Oculi-Sermon.m4aIn the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Lord Jesus Christ has come to rescue us from sin, death, and the devil. He dies for our forgiveness and rises for our justification. He is the Resurrection and the Life. He brings us out of death and to Himself, giving us life everlasting. He is crowned with thorns and nailed to a cross with the accurate epithet, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. There He dethrones Satan, the false prince of this world, and drives both him and his demons from this world. More than a single exorcism, that is the exorcism. Satan is defeated. Death is dead. Jesus is King.
Not much is recorded of either Satan or the demons in the Old Testament. We know that Satan took the form of a serpent in the garden to tempt Adam and that he stood as an accuser of Job. We know from the New Testament about the war in heaven. That is how we know for sure that the serpent was actually Satan and also that Satan and his angels, the demons, were cast down to earth. The New Testament names Satan as the “Prince of this world” and the Gospels record that some people called him Beelzebulb, which refers to him as the head demon. Three times the Old Testament sacrifices to false gods are described as being offered to demons. (Duet 32:17, Psalm 106:37, and 2 Chr 11:15). There are also a few other instances where demons might be involved. There they are described as spirits or as some sort of supernatural being (Judges 9:23-24, Saul and the spirit of Samuel, “Lilith” or “night creature” Is 34:14).
John doesn’t record any instances of demons and not a single exorcism, but Matthew, Mark, and Luke do. It seems that when God became a Man and walked the earth, the demons became more active and obvious. They are clearly evil. They hate humanity nearly as much as they hate God. In the synoptic Gospels and in Acts we see the demons causing pain to humans by violence or by various maladies such as the muteness in today’s Gospel. They afflict some with blindness, torments, and sickness. They also are described as forcing some of those they possess or influence to engage in self-destructive and isolating behaviors. On top of this, they might cause them to go insane, to grind their teeth, to foam at the mouth, and the like.
Jesus helps those suffering from demons by driving the demons out. He does so with very little fuss. He speaks and they leave. He also grants this authority to his apostles. They cast out demons in His Name. Philip and Paul are also recorded as having casting out demons in the book of Acts.
That being said, this was not a large part of Paul’s ministry or of the book of Acts. Paul’s teaching has very little to say about demons. It says nothing about possession or exorcism. He teaches that demons are powerless, a defeated enemy. Unlike false gods, say the likes of Zeus or the god of the Mohammadens, demons are real. And so it is that when false gods are worshiped, it is not that nothing that is worshiped, but rather than demons are worshiped unaware(1 Cor 10:20-21). He also warns about the attempt by demons to lead us into false doctrine (1 Tim 4:1).
The devil is no match for Christ. The battle on the cross was not close. The devil didn’t have a chance. He is a creature. Christ is the Creator. The devil was from the beginning, but Christ is eternal. He existed already in the beginning. He was with God and He is God. The devil is not omnipotent, omniscient, or omnipresent. He can only be in one place at a time. He only knows what he can observe. And He can only do what he is allowed, which isn’t much. He is dangerous to fallen men, but the Bible considers him the consummate fool.
In the Bible, one doesn’t wrestle with the devil, but with God. Think of Christ’s temptation in the wilderness. The devil is defeated with a word and sent away. Jesus’ struggle isn’t to overcome him, that is rather easy. The struggle is to endure the wrath of His Father in order to regain us for Him and for Himself. The devil is a significant, but minor plot point.
Satan and the demons are much subdued in these last days, even more than they were in the Old Testament. Not because they aren’t real but because they have been defeated. They are still real and they are a real threat, and yet, they are rather easily dealt with. They are cast out even as sin is cast out, by the Word of God, the Sacraments, and prayer. The means of casting out are also the means of keeping out. It is not dramatic. It is calm. Jesus speaks and they leave. There is no need for an elaborate ceremony or ritual. The demons should be respected, but not feared. They have no claim on you so long as you abide in Christ. If His Word is in your ears and heart and upon your tongue, they must depart. Their main power is lying and they hate the Truth.
To drive demons away from you and your children, have family devotions. Read the Bible out loud in your home, every day. Come to Church, every week. Hear the Word and receive the sacrament. Come to private confession and absolution at least once a quarter. Turn off the television and put down your phone. Flee from sexual immorality. Nurture the brotherhood. Develop a community of accountability and support with like-minded Christians. Learn to love them in their imperfections, both being helped and encouraged by them and also helping and encouraging. In addition to family devotions, read the Bible privately, and meditate on God’s Word. In these ways, here, by Word and Sacrament, in the mutual consolation of the brethren, with sound doctrine and practice which stand against the lies of demons, the Kingdom of God that has come upon you in Baptism abides. More than the finger of God, the whole hand, arm, and shoulders defend and uphold you along with a host of holy angels. You are a Temple of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Stronger Man and your King. In Him, you are safe.
In +Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Lent 2 Reminiscere
March 5, 2023
Matthew 15:21–28
NO SERMON TEXT
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2023-Lent-2-Reminiscere-Sermon.m4a
Sexagesima
St. Luke 8:4-15
February 12, 2023 A+D
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2023-Sexagesima-Sermon.m4aNO SERMON TEXT
Septuagesima
St. Matthew 20:1-16
February 5, 2023 A+D
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2023-Septuagesima-Sermon.m4aIn the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
This parable teaches the doctrine of grace, issues a warning against envy and self-righteousness, and hints at the Church as a family. We are the people who worked part of the day. We see the thief who was crucified with the Lord waltz into the Kingdom at the 11th hour for free. He never worked. He did not help. He receives the same forgiveness and welcome that we do. He was not our friend in the world. He might have been our enemy, but now he is our brother. We are to rejoice in this because this is grace. We do not want to be sent on our way but want to stay in the vineyard.
There are at least two temptations for us in the 11th hour Christians. The first is that we could think that there is no reason to work ever. We could despise the company of our family for friends in the world. We could become hedonists and lose the faith. An oft repeated quote whose source I do not know says something like: “In all of Holy Scripture there is but one case of deathbed repentance, that of the penitent thief, that no man should despair, but only one, that no man should presume.”
This is an easy error for those less connected to the Church. It is easy to think that fornication or sleeping in on Sunday morning or getting drunk will have no real consequences. We will just show up a few times a year and get right with God. It is absolutely possible to do that, of course, but it is also possible to wait too long. Those who plan to repent at the 11th hour often fall dead at 10:30. Cinderella intended to return home by midnight but lost track of time. Addiction numbs the soul slowly.
Repent. Do not fall for the devil’s false promises. There is no best of both worlds because there is no best in vice and pleasures of the flesh. The good life is a life lived in forgiveness in peace with God and men. Work in the Kingdom, next to your brothers, with your Father, is not toil. It is life itself.
The second is to resent the 11th hour Christians or any who you think didn’t work as hard or as long as you. It is obviously the error of the Pharisees. It is an easy trap for the professionals, those who work for the Church, or for those who volunteer a lot of hours or never miss a service. We might become envious of the thief like the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son or even worse we might think that the Gospel ought to be more discerning, ought to ask something of those it loves, that there should be a reward for our work, and that the saints of God should be more like us. This is the chief warning: do not let your eye be evil because God is good.
The 11th hour Christians teach us about grace. They show us the heart of the Father. This is what the Gospel is and does: it forgives sinners, even the worst of sinners. Jesus paid for all sinners, even for those who don’t benefit from His sacrifice. He died for the most wicked and vile of men. If they would only believe, apart from any works at all, they would be saved, no matter what they have done or how they lived. It is there for them. It is free. Everyone who believes and is baptized, who calls on the Name of the Lord is saved – no matter how tiny the faith or how short its duration. The thief on the cross comes in by grace. So do we all or not at all. For what He gives, cannot be earned or bought. It has never been deserved – not even by the greatest heroes and saints of the faith. It is certainly not earned or deserved by us. We are blessed to be here, to hear the Word, to know God’s love. It is always and only a gift, a mercy, a blessing from God upon beggars.
That brings us to the last point. We want to remain here, in the Kingdom, in faith. We do not want to be sent on our way. There is nothing in the world for us. Christ is all. All things else fade or are destroyed. He and His Word are eternal. His sacrifice is complete and has been accepted by the Father. He is raised for our justification. His grace does not fail or disappoint.
In +Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Transfiguration
January 29, 2023 A+D
St. Matthew 17:1-9
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2023-Transfiguration-Sermon.m4aIn the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
We can understand hope it is that soldiers and priests and governors could disrespect and even physically abuse Christ, Our Lord, when He was in His state of humiliation. His hid His Divinity. As a Man He denied Himself and did not always or fully use His Divine attributes. He made Himself weak and ugly and was despised for it. But on the Mount of Transfiguration, His Divinity was not hidden. His face glowed from within. His clothing shone white as lightening. Moses and Elijah were there with Him, alive, witnessing to His power and Divinity and goodness. Peter, James, and John knew that He was God Almighty. When Moses face had shined on Sinai with reflected glory, men could not bear to look at him and he had to wear a veil. Even when holy angels appear unto men, the men are afraid. But the disciples were not afraid in the presence of this glory and Peter even dared to interrupt Him and suggest a different course of action. This wasn’t because Peter was particularly bad, it was because the Son of Man comes to seek and to save the lost. He does not wield power in the ways of men. For the time being, His grace is subject to abuse. He does not force Himself upon us. His glory is His mercy and His desire is intimacy.
Peter behaves badly. He is responding to the conversation between Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. We know from Luke what they are talking about. They are talking about the Lord’s exodus from this world.
Six days earlier, Peter had made his great confession. “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Then Jesus began to show them that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. And then Peter took Jesus aside and rebuked Him for this. He said, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” Then Jesus said to Peter “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
Then Jesus told all the disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Peter repents and off they go. At the time of the transfiguration, they are on their way to Jerusalem for this very thing. Then Jesus takes Peter, James, and John and gives them a glimpse of His glory. He allows them to see and listen to Moses and Elijah.
And in the midst of this, once again, Peter thinks there is a better way. He interrupts. He tells them they don’t need to go to Jerusalem at all. He knows what is good, not that, not crosses, not suffering, not atoning for the sins of the world and opening heaven to all believers, but them just staying there. It is nice there. It is safe. There is no striking, smiting, or afflicting. Their no wailing or dying. And he, handy guy that he is, will make them each a little shelter.
Now just imagine that your boss calls you down to your office one day and tells you to have a seat. You look around and there is the head of Seal Team Six and Delta Force and the British SAS and they are talking about the best way to infiltrate an enemy line and you interrupt them to tell them that they’re going about it all wrong but you can straighten them out based on a movie you saw. Is that a dumb example? Fine. Make up your own. Think of experts whom you admire in areas where you are not an expert, men who wield the power of presidents and generals and elite athletes. How would you behave if you were allowed to listen to them talk about their profession? You would not act like Peter. What he does is crazy. And he does this not simply with humans or prophets back from the dead or with holy angels but with God Himself. The Glory of Jesus is shining. They see it and know that He is God. When Moses had a mere reflection of this glory on His face after coming down from Sinai, the people couldn’t look at him. He had to put on a veil. But in the presence of God Incarnate, Peter is unafraid and acts the fool.
The Father intervenes. He interrupts the interruption. If we were to translate His rebuke, “this is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him” into colloquial English, we would say “Shut up! This is My Beloved Son, not you. Who do you think you are? I am well-pleased with Him. I like what He is saying. He makes sense. He is respectful and obedient. This is the fulfillment of all the wisdom of the prophets, of everything the angels have waited for, the consolation of Israel. You are an uppity know-it-all who knows nothing and talks when he should listen.”
Peter, James, and John weren’t afraid of the Divinity that transfigured Jesus, but they were afraid of that Cloud and Voice. And then, of course, Jesus reached out in mercy and compassion. He touched them. He told them to rise. They had eyes for no one but Jesus and they followed Him down the mountain and to Jerusalem.
They still had to keep learning this lesson, but for a bit, at least, they got it. At least until the flesh reared up again and they had to be brought back by cock’s crowing and a visit from Jesus in the Upper Room.
But here is the deal with the transfiguration. It shows us more about Jesus than it does about Peter. Peter’s faith was not yet full. He acts like a child, a bit selfish, unaware, but bold, confident in His Father’s house, among His Father’s things. When he gets a bit too bold, goes a bit too far, he gets his hand slapped, like a child playing with his father who calls his father a teasing name that is disrespectful. Jesus allows Peter to push the envelope, to find the edges. He doesn’t endorse irreverence. Peter isn’t His equal, but that is not for lack of affection. The Lord Jesus Christ is patient and kind, gentle and persistent, powerful yet fully aware. He comes to seek and to save at the cost of His own life. Peter is His child. You are His child. Your hand has been slapped a time or two. The Law has called tears out of you. But you are His child. His glory is His mercy. His desire is intimacy. Listen to Him.
In +Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Epiphany 3
St. Matthew 8:1-13
January 22, 2023 A+D
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2023-Epiphany-3-Sermon.m4aIn the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
There are no accounts of Jesus, during His earthly ministry, being asked to help and not helping. But certainly there were believing lepers in Judah who didn’t have the benefit of running into Him at that time. Nonetheless, just like us, they prayed in faith to Him. They asked Him to heal them. It doesn’t seem as though He did. Most of them, if not all of them, died of leprosy, and insofar as they had faith, they went to heaven.
Imagine this scenario: When Jesus had come down from the mountain and great multitudes were following Him, two lepers came and worshiped Him. Both said: “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” To the first, He reached out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Then to the other He said, “I am not willing. Pick up your cross and follow Me. I will heal you on the last day.”
The miracle shows us that Jesus has both the ability to heal and the compassion to do so. This is what our God is like, how He acts, why He took up flesh, but that is not the whole story. His compassion is more comprehensive than simply a desire to alleviate temporary suffering. He wills for more than bodily health. He has come to rescue us from the bondage of death, from the eternal penalty of our sins. He doesn’t always heal our bodies now. Some people die of leprosy. But He will heal us all, completely, on the Last Day. This reality is essential to our faith and is a significant aspect of what it means to live by faith.
On the Last Day Jesus will restore our bodies to what they were meant to be. He will reunite us with our loved ones who have departed in the sign of faith. He will end all sorrow for His children. But we do not know what the immediate future holds. We don’t know if it is good for us to be healed of leprosy or not. Sometimes it isn’t. We do know this. The immediate future holds crosses, and barring Our Lord’s return in glory, a passage through death.
To this end, the hymn of the day is a particularly marvelous light. On a day when we hear of Jesus’ power we might think the best hymn would be something that extols and revels in the Divinity of the Son. This is better. Though it is likely too subtle for many to recognize, this is another demonstration of the catechetical and doctrinal superiority of the history lectionary and Lutheran Chorales. This hymn by Gerhard is a beautiful antidote to triumphalism. It seems to imagine a leper who has been told “No, I am not willing yet. Pick up your cross and follow Me.”
Why should cross and trial grieve me?
Christ is near with His cheer;
Never will He leave me.
Who can rob me of the heaven
That God’s Son for me won
When His life was given?
When life’s troubles rise to meet me.
Though their weight may be great,
They will not defeat me
God, my loving Savior, sends them;
He who knows all my woes
Knows how best to end them.
God gives me my days of gladness,
And I will Trust Him still
When He sends me sadness,
God is good; His love attends me
Day by day, come what may,
Guides me and defends me.
From God’s joy can nothing sever,
For I am His dear lamb,
He my Shepherd ever.
I am His because He gave me
His own blood for my good,
By His death to save me.
Now, in Christ, death cannot slay me
Though it might, day and night,
Trouble and dismay me
Christ has made death a portal
From the strife of this life,
To His joy immortal
Jesus is willing and does heal the leper. He then commands him to keep His involvement a secret. He is to carry out the ceremonial law, going to the priests, showing that he is cleansed, but he is not to tell them who healed him. It could be that part of the reason Jesus tells this guy to be quiet about it is because He doesn’t treat everyone the same. That inequality can be misunderstood by fallen men. Perhaps He doesn’t want those who are denied healing to suffer jealousy and pain from it.
Jesus gives to and heals us in accordance with His Father’s will. He gives us life, immortality, and a clean conscience and then asks us to live by faith. He didn’t take up flesh to give us a shot of morphine. Christianity is not the religion of the lotus eaters. He came to heal us where it matters with a healing that endures. That is His good and gracious will.
Eventually we will see how He used evil and suffering for good. We trust now that it all serves His will and we wait for Him to reveal Himself. For now, for the most part, even in the midst of joy, each and everyone of us must bear his cross. There is no life or faith on this side of glory that is free of pain.
Like the healed leper, the centurion’s servant was healed. He was also given more years on earth. He, too, is now long dead. Maybe you don’t have cancer right now or maybe you’ve recovered from a terrible injury in a way that was almost miraculous. Maybe your heart is strong and your lungs are clean. Maybe you don’t overeat or smoke or drink. You are still going to die. We are all dying. But “Christ has made death a portal From the strife of this life, To His joy immortal.”
Jesus is our example and our guide even in dying, maybe mostly in dying. He asked the Father in the garden to remove the cup and was denied. He had to suffer. He had to die. We have all asked Jesus for healings and mercies and miracles and often time has exposed that such a gift was not His will. He did not will our mothers to live more years on earth. He did not will that we keep our sight and hearing. He did not will that our man win the election or the girl we thought we loved love us back.
David, in his humility and repentance, understands this perfectly when he explains to his servants why he washes his face and goes to the Temple to pray after his son dies. He says: “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who can tell whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me” (2 Sa 12:22–23, NKJ).
The student is not above the Teacher. None of His disciples are free from crosses. Some leprosy is healed, but some remains. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord. Some suffering, for our own good and the good of our neighbors, is needed. We pray for what we do not know because we trust in what He has promised. The Holy Spirit intervenes and prays on our behalf. He often says no, but He does not leave us alone. He touches us in the Sacrament. He comes under our roofs and heals our unworthy souls. He forgives our sins. The son of Bathsheba cannot return to us, but we can and we will go to him. We can and will go where we belong. That is His will and it will be done.
In +Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Epiphany 2
January 16, 2023
John 2:1–11
NO SERMON TEXT
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2023-Epiphany-2-Sermon.m4a
Epiphany 1
January 8, 2023 A+D
St. Luke 2:41-52
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2023-Sermon.m4aIn the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Saints Mary and Joseph supposed that Jesus was on the road with them. They thought that He would follow them. That is a dangerous assumption. We must not assume that Jesus is with us or fall into the arrogance that thinks we are special. Rather we must seek His Kingdom and His grace where He promises to be.
Mary and Joseph lost sight of Jesus’ mission. They didn’t know where He was because they didn’t know what He was or what He came for and perhaps didn’t know either what they were. Jesus was among His Father’s things, conducting His Father’s business, in His Father’s house. He was there because that is where He promised to be. He is the Temple made without hands who fulfills the mission and prophecies of the Temple in Himself.
He sheds His Blood to shield us from the angel of death. He takes our sins into Himself and is exiled into the wilderness to die instead of us. He is consumed, roasted in fire, on the altar of His Father’s wrath in our place. All that culminates on the cross, but it is foretold and delivered in the Temple.
That Temple was not eternal. It required constant repetition. It was unable to be kept purely by fallen men. But we have now an eternal High Priest. He descended to earth and became a Man and then after His resurrection rose to be seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, as a Man, one of us for us. He is our Minister of the sanctuary, the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.
St. Paul writes:
3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer. 4 For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; 5 who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” 6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises (NKJV, Heb 8:1–6).
Again, Paul writes:
Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. (Heb 9:11–15, NKJV).
Thus He abides in the Temple at the tender age of 12. Mary and Joseph should have known this but they got caught up with their friends and relatives. They took Jesus for granted. They supposed that He was with them, rather than striving to be with Him.
It is much the same today. Christ, Our Lord, is still among His Father’s things according to His promise. We must not suppose that He is with us or pretend that He is hard to find or that He doesn’t mind if we wander off and play with idols. Seek first the Kingdom of God. Seek it where He promises to be. Read the Bible not only so that you know where to be but also so that you can recognize Him and your brothers and sisters in Him.
The Temple we worship is not stuck in Jerusalem, nor is He made by the hands of men. The old Temple served its purpose. It pointed the way to Christ even as it delivered Him to those who looked for Him there in faith. Christ is the new Temple. He is not in outer space, but is here, on earth, as a Man, for us in Word and in Sacrament. He speaks in His Word. He reveals Himself to us in both Law and Gospel, speaking words that accuse and instruct and words that heal, reconcile, and restore. He stirs the waters of Holy Baptism and sends the Spirit to make us His living Temples. He claims us as His own and puts His Name upon us. He bestows Divine forgiveness through the Ministry of Absolution. Even though the words are spoken by fallible men, according to His institution they are just as valid and certain as if God spoke them Himself. He comes in His risen Body and Blood into our bodies via our mouths to make us one with Him. This isn’t merely a spiritual activity. It is a bodily activity. It joins us, body and soul, to the One who took up Body and Soul for us. It makes us one flesh with Him and thus makes us His Bride. So also where two or three are gathered in His Name, He is there, hearing our prayers, welcoming and even basking in our praise. He guides and strengthens our confession by His Word.
He is present always and without fail wherever and whenever His doctrine is purely taught and His Sacraments are rightly administered. We don’t worry ourselves about where Christ isn’t present. We just need to know where He is for sure.
We might suppose that He is present in a helpful way in a Bible that is being read by a decent, but unbelieving scholar simply to fulfill an academic requirement. Christ could be present there. He could speak in His Word and bestow His Spirit and faith upon that person. We might suppose that the scholar is misusing the Bible in an outrageous and blasphemous way and therefore that Christ will be merciful to him since we know that He loves him. Maybe He will be.
But Christ doesn’t actually promise to do that. He doesn’t promise be in His Word in that way. While the scholar may not be doing anything inappropriate, if he is not gathered with others, receiving the Word in faith, he is not worshiping Christ. Scripture is not written simply for knowledge or learning. It is written to make us wise unto salvation. The Bible can be read by individual Christians as an act of piety and it should be, but its primary purpose is to be read together and received in faith and praise. So we don’t know if Jesus will be with some scholar according to His grace or not. We can think of other situations that seem decent, that might work, but that don’t have a promise. We don’t condemn such activities. but they don’t comfort or give appropriate confidence. We can’t base our hope on suppositions. We need to be sure.
And we can be sure. If we have pure doctrine and rightly administered Sacraments we can and should have absolute confidence that we are in the company of Jesus. We must read the Bible deeply and carefully. We don’t tell Jesus how to be. We listen to Him tell us. We don’t lead Jesus. We follow Him. We go where He is, for where He is we find forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
In +Jesus’ Name. Amen.
The Circumcision and Name of Jesus
January 1, 2023 A+D
St. Luke 2:21
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2023-Circumcision-and-Name-of-Jesus-Sermon.m4aToday we take up the topic of Jesus and what it means for us.
First off, the circumcision of Jesus is necessary to institute the circumcision of Genesis 17 and also to end it. Circumcision was a covenant in the flesh of Abraham and in his son Isaac from barren Sarah. By him Abraham becomes the father of many nations and Sarah the mother of Kings. This bloody sacrifice seals the covenant. It is a sliver of God’s wrath on the instrument by which the sin of the fathers is passed on to their children. Nothing is cleansed without blood. All the circumcisions of the Old Testament looked forward to Jesus’ circumcision. Their authority to make families and forgive sins is found only in the Blood of Jesus.
Our Lord, Jesus Christ, is born without sin, but He is the flesh of Abraham. He is the restoration of laughter to mankind. He needs no cleansing and did not deserved His Father’s wrath, but He takes it on Himself. He is marked as a sinner by blood, set under the Law, and thereby gives His holiness to all who were circumcised before Him, fulfilling the Law’s requirements for all of them and also ending circumcision. He is the Flesh of Abraham that was promised. He makes Abraham the father of the nations and Sarah the mother of kings. He is the promised One who sits on the throne forever and of whom there is no end.
There is a correspondence in this with the New Testament Sacraments. Jesus’ Baptism institutes and empowers Baptism – giving the blessing “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased” and the Spirit to those who are baptized and believe in His Name. Baptism cleans us by making Him dirty. We are healed by His infection. Jesus’ Baptism begins Baptism much the way that His circumcision ended circumcision. Both are initiatory Sacraments that make a person a part of the family and forgives sins.
Thus does St. Paul write:
11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. (Col 2:11–17.)
You may be thinking that something seems off. Moses is told that circumcision is eternal. How can Jesus end and replace it? Because He is the Lawgiver. It sounds like nonsense, but He is more eternal. He works at a deeper level. It is similar to how His giving of His Blood for us to drink supplants another Law that had been declared to be eternal. His Life is in the Blood. The very reason it was once forbidden, is the reason now why we should drink it. Jesus is Himself the sacrifice, the Temple, and the priesthood. His fulfillment was foretold but could not be imagined. It is fuller than we expected, more generous and kind than we dared to hope. He ends things that couldn’t be ended.
How does this apply to you? First off you should see that Baptism is no small thing. It is works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal life to all who believe Jesus’ Word. Baptism saves and in Baptism Jesus has saved you, sealed you in His grace and marked you as His own. Secondly you should see that Jesus does not institute a new religion divorced from the Old Testament with all its blood and rituals. The New Testament knows nothing fo the modern notion of being spiritual without being religious. It knows nothing of an individualized, personal relationship with Jesus that takes place only in one’s mind or secretly in one’s heart. The New Testament is also bloody and full of rituals. It is not about individuals finding their own unique way, but about becoming a real family, sacrificing oneself for others.
In +Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Advent 4
December 18, 2022 A+D
St. John 1:19-28
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2023-Advent-4-Sermon.m4aIn the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Intro: The priests and Pharisees send men to question John. They want to know who He is, why He is doing what He is doing. John turns it on them. They should be asking questions about eternity, about their sins and the Messiah. What are they doing? How are they preparing for the end? In whom and what are they trusting? John is Voice crying in the wilderness. Their crooked road needs straightening. So does ours.
We are on the path, but drunk with sin, we don’t walk a straight line. We pause and wander off. We are distracted by our children, our employment, our flesh. We don’t always see the urgency. We dawdle. This is dangerous. John comes to call us to repentance, to make sure we get home. The Christmas trees ablaze and set on the trash heap are a vivid reminder of the reality. True preparation for Christmas is repentance and faith.
John says to those who question him: “The Messiah, God-in-the-flesh stands among you, whom you do not know.”
This is shocking to us. How could they not recognize and worship Jesus in their midst?
Jesus is present among us also.
Wherever 2 or 3 are gathered in His Name.
In Word and Sacrament
We are His Temples.
And yet – some try to prepare for Christmas with baking. They skip Church to prepare for Christmas! Others try to get ready for Christmas by going into debt. They overspend, thinking they can buy happiness. Or rather than reading the Bible, they spend hours watching sappy fantasies and even insist that Santa is real – even though some of this can seriously undermine the reality of Jesus Christ.
This is a faith problem. We don’t believe that Jesus is real. We act according to faith not intellect.
Example: I know, intellectually, that sitting and watching TV for hours won’t do me any good. But I don’t really believe it. I watch it anyway because I believe it will somehow give me rest or satisfy something in me. My violation of my reason leaves me feeling bad about myself and dissatisfied.
We are not enough like John. We are self-obsessed. “Who are we? What do men think of us? What does the future hold for us?”
One suggestion: put up crucifixes. Leave a nativity scene up year round. You need reminders that Christ is present and that you belong to Him.
John as example
Follow John. He is obsessed with Christ.
He has left behind material comfort. You don’t have to start eating grasshoppers, but you do need to recognize that how you treat your body is a spiritual reality. Eating, exercising, sleeping – are spiritual activities. They can be positive or negative.
He is unashamed of the Gospel. His ministry is public. Your witness is also public. Do your coworkers know what you believe? Have you kept silent in fear of what they would think of you if they knew? Have you invited them to church? Does your language and your behavior confess Christ or self? You don’t have to dress up in camel’s hair, but what you wear and the words you use and your attention to others are spiritual acts.
Heed the Voice. Be straightened. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, your sins. His presence stands against our sins and calls us to repentance. John is austere, but honest. Christ is present to pluck us out of this current sadness, to redeem us for Himself. He feeds us with His Body in order to straighten us, to prepare us for the end by forgiveness, to purify us that we would stand on the Last Day.
It is almost Christmas. Preparation isn’t in cookie baking and decorating and shopping. Preparation is in repentance and faith. The burning of the Christmas trees in 10 days is a harbinger of what is to come. Cling to the one thing needful. Flee this world. Trust in the Lamb born in poverty for the sake of sacrifice. He takes away your sins and He comes for you.
In +Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Last Sunday of the Church Year Trinity 27
November 20, 2022 A+D
St. Matthew 25: 1-13
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Trinity-22-Sermon.m4ahttps://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Trinity-27-Sermon.m4aIn the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
- Intro: The flesh takes Jesus’ delay as temptation to despair or as a time to indulge the flesh. That is foolish. Godly wisdom believes the Words and promises of Jesus and seeks Him even now where He may be found.
- Foolishness
- Foolishness thinks itself wise. It is impossible for it to be self aware. In the Bible, that which the world thinks wise is actually foolish and vice versa. Thus the foolish virgins are surprised they aren’t let in.
- It is characterized by a desire to live for today. In disregarding morality, it disregards eternity. Thus the foolish virgins have no oil.
- “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (1 Corinthians 1:18–25, NKJV)
- Unnecessary. God could have spared Himself the pain but simply forgetting about sin or offering amnesty. Problem: then God would be unjust.
- It is God’s own fault anyway. Why create us with free will? Why set up a standard that men can’t meet? We didn’t ask to be born. Problem: God’s motives judged. Makes God the author of evil.
- If Jesus died for everyone, then everyone will be saved. Problem: Universalism.
III. The Wise Virgins
- Wisdom hidden in the mystery of our glory.
However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory. The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), 1 Co 2:6–7.
The wise virgins knew the hidden mystery: the Bridegroom doesn’t lie. They didn’t give up hope. They weren’t perfect or without sin, but they had faith.
That which God has ordained before the ages for our glory is the atonement. The Bridegroom loves us.
- The Bridegroom who comes in glory at the end comes now in grace in humble ways. It is a call to faith. The Bridegroom’s announcement is mercy. He wakes them up so they have time to trim their lamps. This is the cry now.
- Those who are wise know they are fools and that they have failed. But they also know that the mercy of God endures forever and that Jesus’ death was not in vain, that their Baptisms are valid.
In +Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Trinity 22
November 13, 2023
Matthew 9:18–26
NO SERMON TEXT
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Trinity-22-Sermon.m4a
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Saturday after Judica St. John 8: 42-59 April 9, 2022 A+D In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. The Greeks who come to Philip represent the Gentile fruit. That fruit comes from … Continue reading →
Lent 5 Judica St. John 8: 42-59 April 3, 2022 A+D In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. On Judica the Church asks us to face the saddest reality of the … Continue reading →
Lent 3 Oculi March 21, 2022 A+D St. Luke 11:14-28 In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. We don’t actually know that much about demons. Pretty much everything that we do … Continue reading →
Lent 2 Reminiscere St. Matthew 15: 21-28 March 13, 2022 A+D In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. In the region of Israel’s ancient enemies, the center of Baal worship, a … Continue reading →
Quinquagesima 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 February 27, 2022 A+D The Holy Marriage of Amelia Joye Garnett and Quinlan James Wall In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Faith, hope, and love have … Continue reading →
Sexagesima February 20, 2022 St. Luke 8:4-15 In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The proper way to read this parable is based on Jesus’ explanation: the seed is the Word … Continue reading →
Septuagesima St. Matthew 20:1-16 February 13, 2022 A+D In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The parable of the vineyard workers minimizes the difference in the hours worked. All who remain … Continue reading →
Epiphany 4
January 30, 2022
St. Matthew 8: 23-27
(modified from February 3, 2019)
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/2022-Sermon.m4a In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Jesus gets in a boat. His disciples follow Him. They are going to the other side. But it isn’t going to be easy. There will be a terrifying storm. They won’t respond perfectly. They will be rebuked: “O you of little faith.” But they continue to follow Jesus. They ask Him for help. They accept His rebuke. He saves them.
Such is the life of faith. It isn’t easy. We aren’t perfect in it, but Jesus hears our prayers. He saves us.
The first lesson is that the prosperity Gospel people are wrong. The Son of Man has no place to lay His head. His goal is not to give you a mansion or earthly success and health. The reward the apostles gain for following Jesus is a storm that terrifies them and threatens to kill them. All but Judas and John will be killed for their faith.
The Greek grammar implies that this storm was not accidental. The Lord willed it. He caused it. It was not incidental that the boat was swamped. Rather that was the purpose of the storm, its intent was to swamp the boat. The disciples panic and Jesus sleeps.
His sleeping indicates that He trusts His Father. He does not panic. God is in control. Thus we get this important little word “Behold” to introduce the whole thing. Our translation strangely translates it as “suddenly.” I don’t know why. It reads: “Behold – there arose a great storm.” Behold means “Look here! Pay attention. This is significant.” This isn’t a coincidence. It is a Divine plot. The Lord is doing something. The plot is that the disciples would pray and be comforted by Christ, not only for the moment but as a preparation for their ministries and as a model for us.
This is the religion of the cross, not of 70 virgins. It is not a diet plan or fitness regime. It is not particularly interested in time management, fiscal responsibility, or anything that the world considers useful and wise. There are, of course, both spiritual and bodily benefits, in this world and the next, for good works and for keeping the Law, but those are corollaries of the goodness of God’s Law. We love them but they are not the center of our religion. The good life upheld by our religion is not success as the world counts success, but is faithfulness lived in the presence of God’s mercy. It is not meant to help us escape storms, so much as weather them with faith. It is not meant to spare us suffering, but to see its purpose.
This storm was calmed. The disciples were delivered. But that was not the end of their suffering. Rather, the storm is typical of their and our suffering. None of them will be bodily assumed into heaven. More sorrows are coming. They will know great sorrow and the shame of failure at the cross. They will eventually be martyred. But they learn, over time, to live by faith. They learn that they are not perishing, that God is with them, that there is more to the storm than meets the eye. So it is also for us.
The second lesson is we should not be afraid of pain or death. The disciples were right to call upon Christ and to arouse Him, but they were wrong to panic. They were not perishing. No one who believes in Jesus perishes. Suffering does not mean you have been abandoned, even when it seems that Jesus is sleeping away, ignoring your prayers. Behold the Lord sends cancer, the secret police to arrest you, a rebellious daughter. The storm is evil, but God sent it. He uses it for good. He is teaching you to live by faith lest you become too comfortable in this world and lose your faith.
Christ became flesh and blood, in need of food and drink and sleep, and made Himself mortal, under the curse of the Law, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver us, who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. The crosses that Christ places upon you, even the sorrows of this broken life and your own failures, are not meant to bind you into slavery. They are meant to show you what slavery is and to teach you that this world is not your home, that you are not perishing. You are more than your sins. You are more than your past. You are more than the circumstances of your life and your achievements. You are baptized. You belong to Christ. He drowns you, to raise you up. He is with you.
Who is this that commands even the wind and waves? It is Christ, the Lord, Creator of all things, a Man, in a boat, with us, on His way to the cross and out of the tomb. God be praised.
In +Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Epiphany 3
January 23, 2022
Luke 4:16–30
NO SERMON TEXT
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/2022-Epiphany-3-Sermon.m4a
Epiphany 2
January 16, 2022
John 2:1–11
NO SERMON TEXT
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/2022-Epiphany-2-Sermon.m4a
First Sunday after Epiphany
January 9, 2022 A+D
St. Luke 2: 41-52
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/2022-Epiphany-1-Sermon.m4a In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The main emphasis of Jesus’ appearance in the Temple when He was 12 is Christological. Luke records this for us because he wants us to know that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity has not become a Man in order to visit earth for His own amusement. He is utterly unlike the pagan gods. He is here on His Father’s business, as one of His Father’s sacrificial things. Despite the fact that He has humbled Himself and does not always and fully His Divine attributes as a Man, already at the age of twelve He knows what He is to be about, what He is for, and how His Father will use Him.
This knowledge might have come by a partial exercise of His Divine powers, but it is more likely that it came about from a careful reading of Holy Scripture and from seeing the Temple in action. Unhindered by sin and selfishness, Jesus could more easily understand God’s Word as given by the prophets. He wasn’t hung up on trying to excuse Himself or find an easy way.
Now, to be sure, there is something of a rebuke of Mary here. She and Joseph neglected Jesus and left Him behind. When she finally finds Him she not only exposes her ignorance of His mission, which He expects she should have known, but she also lashes out at Him, blaming Him for her and Joseph’s pain. His response demonstrates a higher allegiance to His heaven Father and His mission than to Mary and Joseph, but the two relationships are not in competition. The God of the 1st commandment is also the author of the 4th. Jesus is obedient to Mary and Joseph. They are His real, albeit imperfect, parents. Through them His Father provides for Him. It was they who rightly taught Him the Law and brought Him to Jerusalem for Passover.
The fact that He suffers from imperfect, less than all-wise parents, and also that He loves them and they love Him. They are imperfect and sometimes make mistakes based on their own selfishness, but they are not abusive. Jesus does manage to grow in stature and knowledge. That ought to comfort us all. Our parents weren’t perfect either. Neither are we. And even if one of our parents abandoned us or abused us, our Father has provided for us. He had us baptized. We also managed to grow in stature and knowledge and here we are today by grace. The God of the fourth commandment blesses us through the people He places around us even though they aren’t perfect and neither are we. Love covers a multitude of sin. Grace abounds.
My point here is simply that even though the emphasis here is on Jesus’ Divine nature and mission we should not be take that to suggest that Jesus isn’t a real human being or literally the descendent of David through both Mary and Joseph even though He is David’d Lord or even that His Divine nature is more important than His human nature. He is fully and in every way human. Since He is human, He is fit to keep the Law and then be a thing for His Father to sacrifice for the other humans who broke His Law. He is, of course, also true God, in every way equal to the Father and the Spirit. He goes to the cross knowingly and willingly. His human nature makes Him able to keep the Law and to be killed as a sacrifice. His Divine nature makes that sacrifice enough for every man, woman, and child who was ever conceived or will be conceived and enabled Him to finish that payment on the cross completely and then to rise from the dead.
Besides His dedication to His heavenly Father and the mission for which He was sent and His obedience to Mary and Joseph, we might also see in this account include something of Jesus’ willing obedience to the Law, His careful attention to Holy Scripture, and a foreshadowing of His role as Teacher. From all of this, as always, our eyes are drawn to Jesus. St. Mary is a model for our faith. Let us also keep all these things in our hearts.
In +Jesus’ Name. Amen.
The Second Sunday after Christmas
January 2, 2021 A+D (Recycled January 4, 2004)
St. Matthew 2:13-23
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/2022-Christmas-2-Sermon.m4a In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The sons of Jacob stood in Pharaoh’s court. The tyrant demanded Rachel’s son Benjamin. It was a sacrifice with hope. To be sure, the tyrant promised that he would not harm Benjamin, that he would only remove him from his father for while, and, in exchange for this imprisonment of Benjamin he would provide grain for all of them.
They were rightly afraid that the Egyptian ruler would not keep his word. Egypt had became powerful through military aggression. Its leaders were duplicitous, conniving, and greedy; pagans devoted to violent and cruel gods. The man in Egypt was even then holding Simeon. Joseph was long gone. The family had suffered all it could stand. Could Jacob, with his own history of betrayal and deception, bear it? He had no choice. He was desperate. There was no other place to turn. He, his remaining children and grandchildren, were starving.
So Benjamin went down to the land of slavery. The widower deceiver who wrestled with God mourned for three lost sons and one departed wife. But there was a surprise and, of course, you already know it. What men meant for evil, God meant for good. The man in Egypt was non othe than long-lost and betrayed Joseph back from the dead, sold into slavery at the hands of those he loved so that they would be spared starvation and death. He resisted all temptation. He came out of slavery and prison. And he forgave his brothers, recieve them with joy. Who could have seen this turn of events? No one but God alone. Joseph who should have hated his brothers, loved them and reunited his family in a land of plenty. Once he seemed like a tyrant, but time revealed him as a Divine benefactor, full of mercy and kindness.
1900 years later mad Herod drove the promised One out of the promised land and Rachel’s daughters mourned again. Brave and foolish is the pastor who’d stand at the graveside with an under-sized coffin and tell the mothers that was God’s will or that Herod was God’s servant. God’s will was not that those boys die. It was that His Son die instead. That is the Cup that cannot be removed. Death must come. The Law must be fulfilled. Justice must be served.
But not by those boys, those boys are like Joseph and his brothers, they need redeeming and rescue. They aren’t the sacrifice. They are the benefactors. Rather the One who flees in the night at the warning of a dream must return when the time is full not to face Herod’s wrath but His own Father’s wrath. From this, Jesus did not shrink or flee but went to His own martyrdom without making a complaint.
So it is He did not abandon those boys. Even this, fleeing and weakness, was part of His suffering for them. First there was no room in the inn, then there was no room in His country and homeland. He had to live as a refugee. He had to come out of Egypt. He had to cross the Jordan’s storied waters into the land that would put Him to death. He had to humble Himself in weakness and wait like a mortal man for the time appointed by His Father. He could not take matters in His own hands or call down wrath upon His enemies. He had to defeat them by submission and by death. Before glory comes the cross.
But even His own tragedy, Jesus cares for His children. From the cross He provides for His mother. Likewise, He rewards those young Bethlehem martyrs early. He removes them from this suffering plane. They’ll never know heartache or loneliness. They’ll never fail or be ashamed. They’ll never bury a child. Don’t weep for them. Weep for those who survived, who must carry on in the face of sadness and in the uncertainty of this life. I don’t mean weep for the mothers of Bethlehem. They, too, have now come to their reward. They know see how God worked it all our for good. They learned to not hold too tightly to the best things in this world but to wait for true joys in heaven. Their sorrow is done. They have now had more years of perfect bliss with their sons then they’d ever have had on earth. Those mothers are full of joy and do not need your sympathy or tears. Don’t weep for them. Weep for yourselves and learn what they learned.
Be comforted. Jesus lives. This world is fleeting. Do not pray first that your children avoid pain or death or sadness. Pray first and always that they do not depart from their Baptisms. The Son has come up out of Egypt. Whatever you must suffer here, whatever satanic horrors you and they must endure, there will be a reunion in heaven.
At times, Christ, Our Lord, seems like a tyrant to our fallen reason. Time does not heal all wounds, but instead constantly creates new ones. The longer you live, the more dead people you love, the more tragedies you’ve known, the more regrets you have. And yet time will also kneel to God’s providence and mercy. It will eventually reveal that all things work together for good for those who love God. His sacrifice was one of hope. Though we put Him to death, He rose on the 3rd day, coming up out of Hades for us. He has reconciled us to the Father, honored us with His Name, and promised to see us through.
He will not abandon you. He has not forgotten you. You may have to spend a few nights in prison after being falsely accused or even worse after being rightly accused by Potiphar’s wife. You may have to suffer the humiliation of being forgiven by those you betrayed, of having to admit you were wrong, or you may be honored with the opportunity to be betrayed and then to forgive, like Joseph and Steven and Jesus. You may have to bury those you love. You may even outlive children. You may know of famines that have nothing to do with food.
But God is good. He will provide. He knows what He is doing. He is not a tyrant. Nothing is arbitrary. He is a master craftsman and every stroke is precise and necessary. He does what He must to get you where you need to be. He did not fail the boys of Bethlehem. He did not fail Mary on the cross. He did not abandon the apostles at the Ascension. He does what He always does for His children and not of Himself.
So it is that He is with us and He is coming back. He did not die in vain. Nor is He dead. He lives. Herod and Archelaus are both dead. The serpent’s head is crushed. There is nothing left to fear in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, or Rome. There is nothing to fear in Washington or Beijing or St. Louis. The grave has lost its sting. Your freedom abides not in the goodwill of men or the promise of governments or even acceptance in your own family. Your freedom is in Christ. He has purchased and won you. He won’t let you go. And He won’t ask you to endure these hardships forever. You, too, will be called up out of this Egypt and to your true and everlasting home, reunited in a land of plenty.
In +Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Trinity 27
November 21, 2021
Matt 25:1–13
NO SERMON TEXT
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021-Trinity-27-Sermon.m4a
Trinity 26
November 15, 2020 A+D
St. Matthew 25:31-46
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021-Trinity-26-Sermon.m4a 2nd Last Sunday of the Church Year
In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Christ will judge all men on the Last Day. This is taught so clearly in the New Testament and is confessed so boldly in all three of our Creeds, that we have no need to prove that it is real or that it is coming. All Christians expect it. We can, however, learn to respond better to its threats and promises.
In the first place we should fear the Last Day. We should not do so as slaves, but as sons. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We are forgiven and confident in God’s grace.
Part of what we fear is disappointing Our Father. We want to please Him. We are confident in His mercy. We know that the Father has judged the Son as guilty in order to declare us righteous. We are not ashamed of the horror of the cross but we love it. We preach Christ crucified. For that is how God loved the world and made Himself manifest to us. Therefore we know, based on that offering and sacrifice, that we will receive the inheritance that we have not earned, but into which we have been baptized and named. That promise endures. It does not lie. This moves us to act and to take pains to avoid sin, to curb our flesh. We tremble at the thought of Christ’s coming in glory and finding us in the midst of sin.
So it is that we pray: “Kyrie Eleison! Dear heavenly Father, let us not be drunk or engaged in sexual immorality or gossiping when Your return for judgment! Dpare us from our wickedness and the weakness of our flesh! Keep us, by Your Word and Sacrament in the Faith.”
While we fear the Last Day and wish to avoid its terrors, we also lift up our heads in eager expectation. None who believe in Christ shall be lost. Though we have often failed our God and have disappointed Him, we do not waver in our confidence that He loves us as a Father loves His children. He is patient and merciful to us.
We take comfort in the promises in Scripture and also in the many examples of His mercy in the Bible. We are comforted by the example of the woman caught in adultery upon whom Christ would not cast a stone and who was forgiven. We are encouraged by the example of the woman at the well. Christ spoke harshly to her but by those words He reconciled her to Himself and showed His mercy. We are consoled also by the example of the penitent thief who, after a lifetime of sin, was welcomed into paradise. No one shall snatch us out of our Shepherd’s hand.
What He has won for us on the cross, He bestows for free. Our sins, though they were like scarlet, are white as snow. We see in the sheep in the parable of the sheep and goats that they marvel when their good works are praised. None of their sins are mentioned or judged. The faithful are not judged by their works. Christ has already been judged in their place.
Our goal then is to be ever mindful of the Last Day. Forgetfulness of this reality is the mother of false security. The Lord warns us: “Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.” (Luke 21:34–35, NKJV)
Remembrance of the Last Day is the mother of true piety. Jesus says: “When these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:28, NKJV). St. Paul writes that we “who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.” (Romans 8:23, NKJV). He also refers to the day of judgment as the day of redemption, writing in Ephesians 4 that we must not“grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30, NKJV).
The final judgment is driven by God’s justice. Though He is merciful and long-suffering, and though He has reconciled the world to Himself and His Father by His self-sacrifice on the cross, not all have believed in Him. God is not mocked. Those who do not believe in Him, whether they are openly unbelievers or are hypocrites, are condemned already. They will be judged by their works and God’s justice will be public. His saints, you, will be vindicated. The sons of God be revealed. You are children by grace. You will be praised for your good works which show your faith as by a doting Father.
But the wicked, the scoffers, those who walk according to their own lusts shall be put to shame. The day of judgment is the day of perdition for the ungodly even as it is, at the same time, the day of redemption and refreshment for believers. On that day, at last, and as promised, we shall be relieved of temptation and persecution. We will be freed from our sins. The old Adam in us will be put down once and for all.
What a glorious and wonderful day it will be! Let us never lose sight of it, but remain ever mindful of it that our flesh would be curbed and our faith encouraged, that we would learn patience in suffering and find comfort in God’s promises, and lift up our heads in eager anticipation.
In +Jesus’ Name. Amen.
All Saints’ Day
November 1, 2021
Matt 5:1–12
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/2021-All-Saints-Sermon.m4a NO SERMON TEXT
Trinity 20
October 17, 2021
Matt 22:1–14
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2021-Trinity-20-Sermon.m4a NO SERMON TEXT
Trinity 19
October 10, 2021
Matt 9:1–8
https://cyberstones.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2021-Trinity-19-Sermon.m4a NO SERMON TEXT