A Pastoral Approach: Recent Episodes
Rev. Lewis Polzin
This site features podcasts of sermons and Bible studies from Pastor Lewis Polzin of St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a congregation of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. Please feel free to leave any comments or critiques on the blog.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on December 18, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Matthew 1:18-25. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on December 11, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Matthew 11:2-15. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on December 4, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Matthew 3:1-12. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on November 27, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Isaiah 2:1-5. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on November 23, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on 1 Timothy 2:1-4. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on November 20, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 23:27-42. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on November 13, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 21:5-28. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on November 6, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on 1 John 3:1-3. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on October 30, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on John 8:31-36. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on October 16, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 18:1-8. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on October 9, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Ruth 1:1-19a. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on October 2, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 17:1-10. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on September 18, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on John 12:20-33. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on September 11, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on 1 Timothy 1:5-17. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on September 4, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 14:25-35. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on August 28, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 14:1-14. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on August 21, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 13:22-30. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on August 14, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 12:49-56. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on August 7, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 12:22-34. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on July 31, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 12:13-21. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on July 24, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 11:1-13. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on July 17, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 10:25-37. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on July 10, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 10:25-37. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on July 3, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Galatians 6:1-10, 14-18. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on June 26, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on 1 Kings 19:9-21. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.The text this morning is from the First Book of the Kings, the 19th chapter:
There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” And the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death. Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him.
Thus far the text.My dear friends in Christ, 49 years. In 1973, the Supreme Court made the horrible decision to put into law a command that every state, regardless of its citizens, would have to allow abortion. And this didn’t just say that it would have to be 12 weeks or 20 weeks, but Roe v. Wade codified abortion for any moment of pregnancy, right up until that baby was actually born. It took 49 years of work from the pro-life community, one of which many of you have been members, but it was finally decreed that Roe was undone as of this last Friday. And praise God. As of January of this year, 63, 459, 781 babies have been aborted since Roe v. Wade was passed. A holocaust, a genocide of 63 million babies was the cost of this law. 63 million babies were sacrificed at the altar of Molech, the ancient god that demanded the sacrificial death of infants. 63 million babies. It wasn’t worth it. I worked in the pro-life community for a time. My family has a long history of working there. Many of you, through your work with A Place of Refuge, and in other places, have been a part of this. We’ve prayed, we’ve lobbied, we’ve begged. We’ve supported mothers and families, and taught men to be fathers. And, finally, after 49 years, we have the right, again, to keep abortion out of our state. Our work begins now, though. We still must support mothers and fathers and babies and children. We must keep standing for life, not just against abortion. It’s not enough to make abortion unthinkable, we, the Church, must work to 1, bring people to repentant faith in Christ Jesus, and 2, support families as best we can to give them a fighting chance in this world. I can only imagine what it must have felt like 49 years ago. Faithful Christians woke up that day and realized that their own home was now sanctioning the murder of the unborn. How alone they must have felt. And since then, too. How alone they must have felt for years, fighting against the culture, fighting for the law, fighting for what was right, even while your tax dollars were spent subsidizing abortion, even while people firebombed pregnancy resource clinics, while you’ve been slandered and demonized for not wanting people to murder their babies. You feel alone. This is not an uncommon thing. Elijah felt this way. Elijah thought that he was the last faithful person in all of Israel, that everyone else had either been killed by Jezebel and her minions or had bowed down to Baal. He had been running for what seemed like ages. He was afraid. He wasn’t just afraid for his life, but he feared what the Lord would do to Israel for their unfaithfulness. He feared for everything and he felt alone. Elijah finds a cave to hide in and rest. And God comes to Elijah through His word and asks him what he is doing there. Elijah knows he’s in the wrong. He’s feared for too much and hasn’t left it in God’s hands. Worse, he’s run from his duty of preaching the Word to those who need to hear it. So Elijah prevaricates: Oh, uh, I’ve been very jealous for you, everyone has gone astray, and I’m the only prophet left, and I just ran to make sure you had at least one prophet left. But that’s not what God was looking for. Elijah felt alone, and he acted alone, so alone he stood on the mountain. He saw the wind shake the mountain apart. He saw the earthquake topple stones. He saw the fire burn up everything around him. And there he was, standing alone like the sole tree that survives a windstorm when everything else has been knocked down. He was alone there. I think sometimes it’s normal to feel alone. You never are, for God is always with you, but it’s normal to feel that way. Loneliness leads to fear: what if no one loves me, what if I’m never happy, what if I’m alone forever? This, of course, leads to sin because we don’t trust God. And so we should pray. We pray so that we never feel alone, for when we speak the word of God, we know He is with us. He surrounds us with the voice of His Scriptures and we can rejoice, for we are never left alone, but always have Christ near us and in us. Elijah must’ve been praying right then because he was alone, himself only spared. It wasn’t Jezebel taking the prophets down; it was God destroying field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea, they all disappeared and Elijah was standing alone. And the word of God came to him in a still small voice, a low whisper, and asked again, What are you doing here, Elijah? Now Elijah sees. He sees that he has been protected by God. He sees that he has been guided by God. And though he gives the same answer, now, it is predicated on the fear of the Lord, not fear of Jezebel, fear of the sword, the fear of loneliness. Now he sees that it is God only should he fear, and Him alone. For all those who have fought for the lives of the unborn, you have fought well. And now that the Lord has used this Supreme Court to strike down an unjust law, we stand and see that no matter what happens, no matter if people attack us, besmirch us, vandalize or destroy this building, it is God alone we should fear, for only He can do marvelous things. He alone can transform the hearts of those who are violent. He alone can change the minds of those set to murder their children. He alone can restore the family to a place of prominence and rightness. He alone can bring fathers back to their children. He alone can strengthen a marriage. He alone can preserve those who live lives of celibacy and singleness. He alone can do marvelous things, and He alone should we fear for His marvelous works. We have put our hope, then, in a God who is greater than violence, angry words, or death. We have put our hope in a God who has conquered death in Jesus Christ. We have put our hope in a God who gives to us the forgiveness of sins so that we might live an everlasting life like His own. God comes to you this day in a still small voice, a low whisper. He doesn’t come with angry words. He doesn’t come screaming for his rights. He doesn’t come with graffiti. He doesn’t come tearing down every institution. He comes with His Word, just as He did with Elijah. He comes surrounding you with His word, speaking His forgiveness, speaking His promises over you. You are not alone, for the Lord is with you. You are not alone. You have been called here by the very Word of God, and this Word accompanies you each and every moment of your lives until, like Elijah, you are taken to the bosom of Jesus. You are not alone; you are with Christ and He is with you, always. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on June 19, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 8:26-39. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on June 12, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on John 8:48-59. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on May 29, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on John 17:20-26. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on May 22, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Acts 1:1-11. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on May 15, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Acts 11:1-18. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on May 8, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Acts 20:17-35. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on May 1, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Acts 9:1-22. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on April 24, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Acts 5:12-32. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on April 10, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on the Palm Sunday texts. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on April 3, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 20:9-20. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on March 27, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on March 20, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 13:1-9. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on March 19, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on 1 Peter 2:2-10 for the LWML Heart to Heart: Sisters of All Nations event. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from Peter’s first letter, the second chapter:
Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
It is a joy and a privilege to be here among you today, to bring God’s Word to you through the liturgy, through the sermon, through prayer. There is nothing else that we should rather do than join together around God’s Word. This is what binds us together. This is what makes us one. This is what brings us to the joy of enteral life, walking boldly forward, hand in hand, to see the face of Jesus. Whatever else we do today, this is the best part. This is what Jesus tells Martha is the one thing necessary, that we sit at His feet and receive all that He would give us.
And He gives us everything through His Word. It is by His authority that the Word never returns to Him void. It always accomplishes His purpose, spurred on by the testimony of the Holy Spirit, leading us into all knowledge and truth. It is by His authority that the Word brings us life. It is by His authority that the Word brings us salvation. It is by His authority that the Word brings us forgiveness.
To know this is that pure spiritual milk of which Paul speaks. The knowledge of Christ and His authority, His power for you, is the sweet milk of salvation for the soul. It is that which will grow you into full maturity. The knowledge that God the Father sent His Son to die for you, to forgive yours sins, to give you His righteousness, to grant you eternal life is that wonderful news that commends the Christian into a Christian life and a life with one another.
We live in the glory of God that we are constantly seeking what He desires for us to do. And I can tell you what that is: it is to turn to Him for all that we need in this body and life. And He gives that to you here and every time you gather around His Word.
His Word is not just a thing, but it is the living, God-breathed message of Jesus Christ for you. It is living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword. That living and active Word brings you Jesus, the cornerstone of faith and the stumbling block for those who reject Him.
We reject Christ in so many ways. We trust in our leaders and government to bring the peace which surpasses all understanding. We choose to harbor the secret sins we commit in our hearts that no one would know, rather than to confess them and be forgiven. We ignore our duties to our neighbors, our friends, our family members. We think ignorant thoughts, hold to silly opinions, focus on outward accoutrements. In doing this, we make ourselves higher than God and His ways. We seek our glory and not His. We give up our role as a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession. We are closer to the idols of our hearts than the Lord of the heavens.
Yet, we are called to more. As a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, we are set apart, holy to the Lord, to bring His Good News of Jesus Christ to the nations. And this is seen in this congregation today. Though we have different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different contexts, different priorities, we are the one body of Christ, coming together for a singular purpose this day: to sing to the Lord for all of His glory, to sing to the Lord for all of His goodness, to sing to the Lord for His steadfast love endures forever. We rejoice with the earth, with the heavens, with the seas, with the fields, with the trees that He will redeem us all in His judgment over the nations.
This beautiful tapestry we see in this church today is a pure symbol of who Christ is, what He’s done, and to whom He’s done it. That we can come together as one prefigures the earth and the heavens and all that is in them crying out for joy together on that Last Day that our Lord is good and has vindicated our faith in Him by raising us from the dead.
Until that day, we are being built together into a spiritual house of living stones that we might bring the sacrifice of praise due our Lord. He joins us together into His body to bring you honor. In His the glorious humanity of His sacrifice for you upon the cross, the Father honored Him to raise His body from the dead. If it is true that we are being built into the spiritual house He so desires to see, with Christ as the cornerstone, you share in the honor the Father has bestowed the Son. Because He is honored, you are honored. Because He is honored, you are His people. Because He is honored, you are receiving mercy.
You are made a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession to proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. As the body of Christ, His people, we gather together as one people, to sing of His glory. This pure spiritual milk that brings us here, this understanding of who Christ is and what He’s done strengthens us in life together, for we have tasted it and we’ve tasted indeed that the Lord is good. His doctrine is life. His salvation is hope. His forgiveness is marvelous light. He has the power, the authority to give these things to you, and He does. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on March 13, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 13:31-35. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on March 6, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 4:1-13. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on February 27, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Deuteronomy 34:1-12. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from Deuteronomy, the 34th chapter:
Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the Valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. And the Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the Word of the Lord, and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day. Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated. And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses. And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
This is one of these weird accounts that in scripture, we know that there were two authors writing. The first was Moses and the second is Joshua, because Moses, in the middle of this passage, dies. How can Moses write the end of the story, especially how can Moses know that no other prophet has arisen like Moses in all of Israel if Moses dead. We have these two authors, Moses and Joshua ,two men who were appointed as prophet and as judge over Israel to men, to lead people to and into the promised land, and of these two men, there would be no one greater for many, many years, at least not in terms of the leadership.
We know that Jesus is actually the fulfillment of the prophet, the one that no one has risen arisen like Moses until Jesus. But what about their leadership? Joshua certainly was a leader on par with the leadership of Moses. At least it seems that the people rebelled against Joshua a little bit less than they rebelled against Moses and all of his ways. Between the two them, until David, there could be seen to no greater leader than these two men.
But with these two, we have a problem. We have kind of a big problem actually, because we see it through Moses's life and we see it after Joshua's death: that Israel, as the book of Judges is wont to say, her people did what was right in their own eyes. You see, they had been moving, at least for the last 40 years, to a land called Israel, named after, of course, Israel, Jacob, who the Pharaoh did not know. The Pharaoh did not know Joseph. The Pharaoh did not know Israel. He probably had no idea how all of Israel came into the land of Egypt, except that they were there as slaves. Yet, Moses took his people out by God's power and delivered them from the hands of Pharaoh, and by their own disobedience, they were forced to wander through the desert until all the people of the generation that was willfully defiant against God and against Moses had died out.
Moses was not immune to this defiance. Of course, we know that God told him to speak to the rock that water would come out, but Moses, in his anger, struck the rock. And because of that disobedience, God promised he would not enter the promised land. We think that that's maybe an overreaction, but it's not, because Paul tells us that the rock that traveled with them that gave them this water was Christ. Moses then struck Christ, the Son of God. The picture of Moses striking Christ is so tied to the crucifixion, and that was obviously the greatest disobedience ever. Moses, in that same spirit, broke the will and the Law of God by doing this. And so Moses even seemed to do what was right in his own eyes.
Joshua seems to be a little bit more holy in his life than Moses. Moses had been a murderer, he didn’t circumcise his son, so the angel of the Lord was trying to kill him, Moses was too lenient on his brother in his idolatry, Moses was prone to anger and overreaction, made excuses for himself, like he was a stutterer. Moses was not exactly a paragon of virtue. But Joshua, one of the faithful spies to go and search out the land of Israel, that promised land, seems a bit more holy, and yet, despite all of the wonderful things that Joshua did in leading the people Israel into the promised land, the people only gave him lip service. He wasn't the leader that I think everybody had needed. After all, the people went off and worshiped different gods, they fell prey to the temptations of the flesh, when it came to the people that were living among them, they did not obey God. When He said to strike them all down, well, they didn't quite do that, or to destroy all the plunder, well, they didn't quite you do that either.
And that's okay. These are problems because they are failures in leadership; to not have people do the things that you're leading them into, that is a failure of leadership. Certainly it's a failure of the people, but Moses and Joshua, we know we'e sinners. It's no surprise then, that the things that they did were sinful. That's why Jesus is kind of a surprise for us. A prophet above all prophets. No one expects a prop above all prophets to be sinless. And yet Jesus was.
Moses was able to see all of Israel, all the promised land that God had promised to give to his beloved people, that the land in which he would bring forth the line of the Messiah. Moses was given to see all of that. And still Moses could not live righteously, could not live in a holy way. Joshua was to take the people Israel into that promised land to destroy the people there, and still, he could not live in a righteous way. He could not live a holy life by his own merit. But both of these men show us something greater because they point us to Jesus. They show us that, yes, they were sinners, but there is redemption for such sinners as these, they show us that there is a way that they will enter the promised land, not a land of this earth, but a land of the earth that is to come.
You know, Moses had been taken up on the mountain a couple of times to stand in God's presence. And I heard it said, and I like it, and I can't prove it, but I'm going to share with you one theory, which is one of these times that Moses went up on the mountain with God, that he was somehow taken in that moment into the future to stand with Jesus and Elijah at Jesus's transfiguration. Because God is certainly eternal, He can bend the rules of space and time. And it seems that, well, at least in one of these instances, Moses had a very clear vision of heaven, and heaven is very clearly defined in the scriptures as the presence of Jesus. So is it possible he was taken to the transfiguration while he was alive? Sure. Although, is it possible that Moses was taken from heaven and given to Jesus to tell him about the exodus which Luke calls Jesus's departure, His death, which was to come in Jerusalem? Yeah, that's possible too. So, we don't really know either one, but we do know Moses was given amazing visions of what would happen, not just that the Israel of God would enter into this promised land, but that they would enter into the promised land of eternal rest. Moses was given that and he tried his best to teach his people, do not rely on your own power, but rely on God.
You might think that that's weird considering that Moses has been seen as the great Law giver. I mean, after all, all 613 commandments from God that people had to obey came right out of Moses's mouth to the people. But the point of the Law isn't to say, just do this and you'll live. That that's part of it. But the point of the Law was to show Israel that they couldn't do this. Every so often they would realize they had broken the Law, but, more often than not, the response of Israel was, All that the Lord has said, we shall do. Oops. They made vows before their God that they could not follow through.
Now, Elijah. We don't have any readings about him in our pericopes for today, but Elijah is another prophet. And certainly one of the greatest prophets ever to live, somehow less than Moses and Jesus, and yet still greater, it seems than almost all the prophets. Now Isaiah is probably my favorite prophet, but that's just because his writing is so beautiful. Elijah had almost as tough a time with Israel as Moses had because all of Israel was trying to kill him. It's kind of weird how that happened. There were still the faithful remnant, but we see in Elijah's story how he's bemoaning the fact that he's all alone, they killed all of his brother prophets, and the people don't support him. I mean, it even came to the point that he had to be fed by ravens instead of other faithful people, but still, Elijah knew what it was to be a failure, just like Moses and just like Joshua and still somehow Moses and Elijah were brought to stand with Jesus at perhaps the clearest moment in all of Jesus's earthly life, up until the resurrection, of his divinity, his being the Son of God. How is it that these two imperfect men could stand with God in all of his glory and not be destroyed? We’ll come back to that in a minute.
How is it that we're here? We're called, certainly, as children of God, but we are called by his Word to be in this place. And if we take his Word seriously, then all the commandments that Moses gave to the people of Israel stand also for us, because God's Word is true always and forever. Let's take 10 of those commandments that we know so well. The other 603, we don't know as well, and they don’t all apply because we aren’t the people of ancient Israel, but the 10 commandments that we know so well, we know we don't stand up the 10 commandments. They tell us, do these things and you'll live. And we don’t. We not only fail in our leadership, we fail in our ability to follow after our Leader. We don't treat God as though He is the only God. We certainly don't honor the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. We misuse His name all of the time. We don't obey the authorities that are over us. As much as we might argue with the things that they do do, we should honor our government every single moment. We hate people in our hearts and, by doing so, we murder them. We lust after people and so commit adultery. We steal, we lie, we don't assume the best thing about people when they sin or when they do something, and we just automatically jump into assuming the worst. We covet what we do not have. We covet who we do not have.
There is no commandment of God that is presented before us, that we say, This, at least, I have kept. And yet we're called before God into this holy place. This is a holy place because the Word of God is read and meditated upon and the Sacraments are delivered here every time we gather together. We’re called to this place and if God is truly here, we expect him to strike us down dead. We expect to be like Moses, to not be allowed into the promised land. We expect to be like Joshua and have our friends and our family and our people around us, who we love, betray us at every moment because they just can't help themselves. And because of that, we expect God to strike us dead here, too. But He doesn't. Instead, He welcomes us in this place. He brings us into His loving embrace through Word and Sacrament. He enters into you through your ears and through your eyes as you read, through your mouth as you receive Christ’s body and blood in his holy Sacrament, and for all this, you expect to die.
I mean, Moses died out in the wilderness because he struck a rock. You, a sinner, chew and drink the body and blood of Christ. It seems to be almost worse in some way, and still you're not struck down, but you're given life. You're given forgiveness. You're given salvation and you're given the promise of a land that is greater than any kingdom of this world. For all your sins, you are given the glory of God. How is this possible? It is possible in the same way that Moses and Elijah stood with their divine Lord in that moment. It’s possible in the way that Peter and James and John were enveloped by the cloud of God and hearing his voice did not die. It's possible because the Son of God, the great prophet, priest, and king over all people, died to forgive your sins. He died to take your unrighteousness away from you and to give you everlasting life. He died so that you might have the righteousness of God put upon you, so that, not only is your sin taken away, but life and goodness and holiness and righteousness and everything that is a good gift from God is given to you.
And you have that as a sure and certain thing, not some imaginary declarative statement that it’s just kinda like I lived righteously. No, you have been given the real and forensic, legal, righteousness of Christ. It belonged to Him and now it’s yours. You are counted righteous. You know you're a sinner, but you have all of the righteousness of Jesus. And so if you look in the mirror, you're going to see the Law standing as your accuser and saying, you don't deserve any of this, but Jesus doesn't look in the mirror at you. He sees you with his own two eyes in light of his glory, the glory that He had as He was hung up on that cross. And He says, You are righteous. It's not just a wink wink nudge nudge. We can say something is something else and it doesn’t make it true. We can say it’s snowing three feet today, and it’s not. That's not the kind of declaration that Jesus puts on you. He says, It is snowing three feet today, and by his Word, His command, it would snow. But instead of just something silly like that, He says, You are a righteous child of God. I love you. I welcome you into my presence forever and ever and ever. And it is a real and true thing, that by His Word, the entire universe, including your sinful flesh, bends to His will, and you are made righteous.
That's what the transfiguration is truly about. It is to show you the glory that Jesus has as the Son of God, the glory that is found in His crucifixion, and the glory that is given to you this day and every day as His beloved baptized child of God. That's what the transfiguration is about. So, it doesn't matter if you're like Moses and Joshua and you’re failures in leadership. It doesn't matter if you are like the people of Israel who failed to follow in the footsteps of God. It doesn't matter if you're like Peter, who puts his foot in his mouth at every single circumstance. God has declared you righteous by the blood of Jesus.
And instead of striking you dead, he heaps life and life and life upon you. By the forgiveness of your sins, we are empowered to turn from our wicked ways and trust in the righteousness He gives to us. Every time you remember Christ and His Word, and you remember your Baptism and you receive his Sacrament in the Supper, every time, every moment, every second that you remember that you belong to Him, He gives you more of Himself. Jesus in His transfiguration shows that He is the beloved divine Son of God, being of the same substance of the Father. He is God himself. And if He can accept people in His midst like Moses and like Elijah, like Peter and James and John, and if He can be in heaven with all the saints who are now in their glory, He can also be with you. He promises to be with you now and always, and you know that He can fulfill that promise because He shows you that He is divine. And if He is divine, there is nothing He cannot do, including saving our sorry selves.
So be like Moses, be the failure, be like Joshua, be the failure, and know that your Lord has brought you here this day, not to look at your failure, but to forgive it and to give to you every good gift under heaven, forgiveness, life, and salvation, the good gifts of God. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached on the occasion of the Funeral of +Phyllis G. Bohlmann+, February 26, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Isaiah 29:17-24. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.The text today is from the prophet Isaiah, the 29th chapter:
Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest? In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. For the ruthless shall come to nothing and the scoffer cease, and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off, who by a word make a man out to be an offender, and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right. Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall no more be ashamed, no more shall his face grow pale. For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction.”
Thus far the text.Dear Mel, family, and my dear friends in Christ, God, through the prophet Isaiah, was not pleased with His people, Israel. And still, He gives them hope. He tells them of the wonders He will do for them. But, most importantly, He gives them a picture of the world which is to come, a world that Phyllis had hope for, a world we have hope for, also. This world will be so thick with fruit for the picking that it will be as difficult to get through as a forest in the middle of the summer. Bodies will be healed; the dear will hear, the blind will see. Those too meek to speak for themselves will be lifted up above all and those who had too little will be given everything. It’s a beautiful picture Isaiah writes for us. But the people had been far from God, honoring Him with their lips, but not their hearts. And so they feared the Lord. Phyllis had her feet in two camps. On one side, she was the sinner, the one who deserved the wrath of the Lord, but on the other, she had been made a saint in Christ, an inheritor of every good thing He promised her. Phyllis, the sweet, kind woman, who cared so much for everyone, who always had a pleasant word, who loved her husband so deeply, was a sinner in the eyes of God. We know this, for the promise of the Law to those who break it is death. And so, Phyllis, asleep in the Lord, was a sinner. But, Phyllis is asleep. She is waiting. Her story is not done. She was made a saint in Christ. She was the ruthless one, the scoffer, the one who did evil, the offender before God, but she was taken from these things and brought into the marvelous light of the Lord. Phyllis knew the hope of Jesus Christ crucified and risen for her, thus she would no longer be ashamed before the face of God. She is not ashamed now, either, standing in the presence of her God, waiting for the day of resurrection. She stands vindicated before the Lord, knowing that her hope was not in vain, that her sin had been taken away from, that the Lord Jesus had given her His righteousness. Phyllis is the work of the hands of God. From the dust He formed, shaped her, gave her breath, gave her life. And to the dust He called her again, but not forever. Phyllis sanctified the name of the Holy One of Jacob, the Holy One of Israel. She, by her life, by her witness, by her blessed death, and by the life which is to come blesses the name of God. We look at her and we see Christ crucified. We look at her and we see Christ risen. We look at her and we see Christ ascended. We look at her and we wait for Christ returned. We look at her and we see Jesus. You see, our Lord blessed Phyllis so that He might be blessed. And so He is. He looks upon her and upon you with His love, and He promises her and He promises you the wonders of the world to come, the world in which all things are made new. It’s no secret that the last two years have been so hard for Phyllis and Mel, with the surgeries and the sicknesses and the COVID, and now death. But this is but a blip in the span of eternity. This is nowhere near the end of the joys that come to those who believe in Jesus. Phyllis will be raised from death, never to need a surgery again, never to hunger again as she did in her last days. She will be made whole, she will be fed by the Lord, she will bless Him even as He brings her joy. And we shall be with her. Phyllis received the Lord’s body and blood in her last days. She prayed. She confessed the faith. She knew her end. She knew the Lord redeemed her from the pit, forgave her sins, and was welcoming her into His loving arms. And so it should be also for us, that we should share this same hope, keeping our eyes fixed on the day of our Lord’s coming, when we shall finally understand all things and live righteously even as He is righteous. The Lord sees our sin, as He saw Phyllis’, but this did not stop the love He would show her by sending His Son to die for her. Jesus did this that God would love her forever and ever. And so He does. And so He loves you, that you would see Him also in faith, that you would be made whole, that you would live in a world gone right, that you will live with Phyllis and all who love Him forever and ever. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on February 20, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 6:27-38. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on February 13, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Jeremiah 17:5-8. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Prophet Jeremiah, the 17th chapter:
Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
It's an interesting juxtaposition we have with Jeremiah and our Gospel lesson from Luke, where we have in Luke, a somewhat familiar thing where Jesus is preaching what we normally call the beatitudes. Luke has a different emphasis than Matthew. While Matthew records all of Jesus’ sayings, Luke's ideas certainly portrays the woes that Jesus speaks. And so we have in Jesus's sermon, in his beatitudes, this idea that there are those who believe in him and those who do not believe in him. As you look at them, it’s not that being rich is necessarily bad. It's when you trust in your riches, as opposed to trusting in God, that's a woe. It’s not bad to have food to eat, but when you make satisfying your belly your god, this is idolatry. It’s okay to not be weeping, but to seek out distraction to the point of letting it take over your life, this shows a lack of devotion to God. It’s not bad to be praised, but to seek adulation, to do everything to be noticed like some kind of Instagram influencer, notoriety is your god.
Luke has woes in his beatitudes. That doesn’t mean that Matthew missed them but that Luke wants you to hear them. A woe is like a condemnation. I know it’s an outdated word for today. A woe is the opposite of the benediction. The Lord bless you and keep; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord look upon you with his favor and give you peace. That’s a benediction, a good word. It’s a statement of fact. It’s not a wish. It’s not just hope. The Lord will do these things because it’s his benediction.
But the woes are something else. They also are facts, they will happen. The woes are a malediction, a bad word. They indicate that the Lord is doing this very troubling thing upon those who will not make him their God but seek out the gods of the world. There is no consolation from God when the woe is pronounced, because the woe leads to death, just like the prophets who were condemned under the Law of God.
Jeremiah is the same. He warns us of the woes to come. Cursed is the man who trusts in man. That's very much the same thing of speaking woe upon somebody. It’s not just to know that a person is cursed, but it’s a pronouncement of it, it’s a condemnation, it’s a damning someone to hell. And who is cursed? The man who trusts in man.
A man who trusts in man doesn’t realize that their trust only goes so far as life. But death comes for all. You put your hope in somebody, you love somebody, someone who’s dear to you., someone you trust, someone that's close to you, someone that looks like you, someone that acts and behaves like you. The problem is man is always going to let you down. And if you do that, it's kind of like a shrub that grows up in the desert. A shrub in the desert has to access to water. Sure, it might rain for a hot minute, but the water disappears and no roots can form. So, when the heat and the sun come down on the shrub, it dries up and it tumbles away. Think of the old Westerns, where these tumbleweeds blow through town. This shrub had held on for dear life, gasping for breath, but the wind takes it away and all it is is a nuisance.
We put our trust in another person, the one who looks to us to be God, but never quite is, and we do this all the time. We do this with our parents. I mean, that's where we all start out as children. We look to our parents as if they are gods to us. They provide for our needs. We fear them because they can punish us and we love them because of who they are and what they do for us. But, your parent is always going to let you down. I can't tell you the number of times that I've let down. My two kids, just in the six years that I've been entrusted with them, know what that’s like. I can’t tell you the number of times that I do the wrong thing or say the wrong thing and completely break their spirits, or where I get mad at them for no reason except something that's going on in my own personal life or stresses. And that just weighs on them. And they don't know why dad is angry. They put their trust in me to protect them and I let them down. It's very easy.
If that becomes habitual without teaching them the right thing to do, which is to put your trust only in the Lord, which is to have me repent and teach them what forgiveness is and how we're made right in Christ, if you don't do that, you end up with bitter children who look at their parents and, and say, well, I'm not going to mess up my kids the way that you messed me up. No, that's probably true. They're probably not going to mess up their kids the way that their parents messed them up. They're going to mess up their kids in whole new, different ways because they're putting their trust in man, even themselves. And they make themselves out in that moment to be God, as if they are the arbiters of what is good and right and true.
We see this in the world today, don’t we, these people who say, put your trust in man, or put your trust in science that man comes up with, or put your trust in all these different agendas that are thrown at us, put your trust in politicians, put your trust in all these political ideologies, put your trust in whatever it is. It is going to let you down somewhere, a person is going to do something wrong, say something wrong, have a secret revealed about them that, well, it's just going to rub you the wrong way. If you put your trust in the person and that's what ends up happening, your trust is going to be completely destroyed. You're going to dry up and you're going to wander through this world with no life in you whatsoever. You're just going to be a nuisance. You're just going to be in the way. You're just going to be blowing in the wind.
But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. That's a big difference, because when you put your trust in God, you all of a sudden begin to realize that you're putting your trust in God because of God. You're putting your trust in God because of what he's done for you. You're putting your trust in God because of who he is to you. And you're putting your trust in him because he himself is trust.
Trust is an interesting word in the Greek. It's the word pistis, which we often translate as faith. Faith and trust are very much the same thing. Our trust, our faith is in the Lord because our faith comes from and is, in fact, the Lord’s. You do not have faith that you've created in him. It's been given to you. You cannot rely on faith that you can somehow make within yourself. It must be trusted from outside of you, because if it's something that you create, if it's something that you can come up with, then it's dependent upon you, just as if you put your trust in man. But when we put our trust in the Lord, when we put our faith in the Lord, when we recognize that everything that we have in this life, is from the Lord, then we grow. As this world moves us towards everlasting life, if we come to realize that that is from the Lord and our life is the Lord, and he is our only hope, our only trust, then, then we grow up, not as shrubs that can't find water, but as trees that find themselves next to a river.
We’ve all heard the phrase that something is like drinking water from a fire hose. That's what it was for us in seminary. When our professors would teach us in class, it was like drinking water from a fire hose. You can get sips. You just can't get it all. And that's what it is to be in the Lord. The water races by you. You can't get everything, but there you find a sure foundation in that water. There you are provided for all of the time. There you are given everything that you need and more. In rivers, not only is there water, but there's new dirt, which means new nutrients, a way for you to grow up and have life and have it abundantly. Rivers flood, rivers retract and that's good because it brings new life to all of the vegetation that grows in and around it. This is what the Egyptians would look forward to every year when the Nile would flood. It would come up and fill its land with all kinds of nutrients that would come from down river. And then it would recede so that everything could grow.
And we are so much like that. If you are trusting in the Lord where the water races over you, more than you can even bear, and as it retracts and recedes, you find that you have everything that you need for life. You have food and you've got drink. You've got life itself coming from God. This is what it is to put your trust in the Lord. After all. this Lord is Jesus Christ, the one who hung upon a tree for you, the one who took your sins to himself so that you wouldn't have to bear them yourself. And as he takes your sin from you and puts it upon the cross, you find that you are now free to flourish. There is no malediction for you. There is no malevolent disease for you. The people gathered to hear Jesus, heard his word and were healed. So, too, are you healed unto everlasting life.
You are given every good gift even as all the evil in you is taken away. As sin and death are taken from you and placed on the cross, you are left free to flourish, free to life with the bad stuff of life and sin coming to you. This is the reason for the death of Christ, that you would have life. That's what Paul is saying. That if Christ is not raised from the dead, then your faith is in vain, your trust in the Lord is in vain. But, because Jesus is raised from the dead, you too will be raised from the dead. And if Jesus has life, then you have life because of him, because of the cross, because of what he's done for you.
And then, when the hardships of this world come upon you, when drought comes, we can look at that, not as a forsaking of love, but as a time to teach us to wait to know that the Lord will indeed still come, the water will still be provided. We can bear up under a drought. We can bear up under the scorching heat because the Lord has shown us that he is good and will provide everything that we need. It's true. The world is going to come at us with everything that it has. It is going to try to burn us to a crisp, and why? Because it sees that it can do that to a whole bunch of people who put their trust, not in God, but in man. So, the world thinks it can do the same thing to us, but it can’t.
The world, it doesn't see the river that flows in and through us, the world does not see how the word of God is pushing into us and bringing us life so that even if they were to chop us down and make us nothing, it's still can't take away the life that we have in Christ. The world is going to hit us with everything and we will endure because what we have is greater than the world, what we have is greater than the drought that it wants to give us. The world can’t make a drought when the Lord has given rivers of living and abundant water.
So put your trust in the Lord, look to his word, look to his sacraments, see how he feeds you, see how he nourishes you, see how he waters you and gives you everything that you need in this place and even more as you go out. And know that this, what you have now is merely a foretaste of that life which is to come. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on February 6, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Isaiah 6:1-8. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on January 30, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Jeremiah 1:4-19. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on January 23, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 4:16-20. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. Luke, the fourth chapter:
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious Words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘ “Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’ ” And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Do you notice today that our readings centered around the idea of the Word? Now, not necessarily the Epistle reading, although that’s going to come back a little bit here. But, the Old Testament and then the Gospel lesson, did you notice that this was centered around the Word of God? Let me put the Old Testament in context for you: the Israelites had been taken into captivity in Babylon, they're all in exile. And finally they were allowed to return and they started to rebuild the walls and they started to rebuild the temple. Those are the first things that were done in all of Jerusalem. What they discovered as they started rebuilding the temple was a copy of God’s Word. Now you might think, well, you know what, what's the big deal with that? The big deal was, when they were taken into exile, they couldn't take it with them. And it's not like people had copies of the Bible at home and they stuffed it in their bags and took it off into Babylon. They lost the Word of God. And the only way that they were taught the Word of God had been directly from the Levites, the priestly tribe who were teaching the people, which is good.
You should teach the people the Word of God. That's kind of what pastors do today. We not only read the Word of God to you, but then, just like they did here, they read it and then clearly gave the sense of that Word so that you can know what the Word of God is saying without question. Well, the Levites were forced to do that all the time that they were an exile, but they didn't have the Word of God written down in front of them. And as they were excavating the temple to rebuild it, they found the Scriptures.
That's pretty cool. No wonder then the people wept. That's really what that's all about. Not because they heard the law of God and it was convicting them, though, hopefully, and most certainly, it was doing that, but they wept because they had not heard the Word of God read in so long and there were people there living who had never once heard the Word. So you can imagine the people were overjoyed, not out of grief, where they weeping, but out of joy.
And then we have in our Gospel lesson Jesus reading the Word. Notice what had been set up in our Old Testament lesson in Nehemiah, they kind of showed the way that the synagogues worked, someone got up and read the lesson and everybody stood as they would read. And they would remain standing as the Word of God was taught. That's why Jesus would sit. That was actually a very common pose for teachers, as the teacher would sit down and all the students would stand up and around him. And so you can almost even imagine the little boy, Jesus, 12 years old, sitting in the temple, just sitting down, leaning his back against the columns while he's teaching all of these old rabbis the Word of God. And they're standing around him, listening to him. It's a sign of respect because that one teaches with authority.
And so Jesus having learned this, even at the tender age of 12, comes back into a synagogue in his own hometown, the one that he grew up in. He reads and sits down. Now, it was pretty common. Almost anybody could read. It didn't necessarily have to be the rabbi. It often was somebody who was given an honored place. Maybe somebody who was very wealthy, someone who had given huge gifts, someone who is taking care of the poor and all of a sudden, you've got this rabbi who's making news all through the land of Israel. He comes back and you go, he's gotta be our reader for today. And so Jesus was handed the scroll of Isaiah and it's very common. They would read probably not all of Isaiah because that's a very, very long book, but probably a big old section of it. And what does Jesus do? He unrolls the scroll to the very place that prophesies about the Messiah and the people think, Well, this Jesus is going to be teaching us about the coming Christ, this Messiah.
And so he reads, The Spirit of God is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. This is all about the Messiah and Jesus, you can almost hear, just as I did, is putting the emphasis on the Word me. He has sent me. He has given me, he has put it in my hands to do this. He rolls up the scroll and he sits back down. That's the equivalent today of the mic drop, right? I mean, you've kind of seen these, probably heard of these, maybe in these, you know, musical battles, usually some kind of rap battle. The guy dropped some lyrics that insults the other person that they're battling against and just holds the mic and drops it on the ground. It's a statement. It's something to say, beat that.
And so Jesus now rolls the scroll and sits back down and he says, Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Now there's no question: Jesus is claiming to be the Messiah. Jesus says, Today, as you heard me read this, this has been fulfilled. This is done. You don't need to look for someone who's going to do this. I just did it. It's pretty incredible statement. Jesus is saying this Word of God that you've had for generations was all about me, and everyone in that moment looked at this guy and all spoke well of him. They marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth.
So you’ve got to imagine there was probably more teaching than just this, but Jesus was doing really well. People were buying what he was selling, but Jesus, knowing the heart of man and perhaps even using his divinity in this moment to see into their hearts, to see into their minds, knew exactly what was going to happen next because this Messiah that they had been waiting for, well, they hoped he was going to set all things right. Right? I mean, if you were a Jewish person in the first century, living under Roman rule, your idea of the Messiah was well, pretty much like whatever political party says their candidate for president is going to be for the nation. If you don't elect this guy, then the whole nation is going to go to pot. I mean, we've heard it in the news even recently, right? If you don't pass this law, your rights are going to be completely trampled on, your vote is not going to count at all. Therefore, make sure your Senator knows not to filibuster or to filibuster or whatever it that either party is telling you to do.
Well, Jesus knows. He knows that they want him to be some kind of political Messiah, some savior of the nation. Now he is the savior of the nation. Kind of like what we sing in our advent hymn, Savior of the Nations Come. But he's not the savior of the nation like a president would save the nation by passing some good policies or even the destroyer of a nation passing bad policies. That's not what Jesus is about. He is literally coming to save the nation of Israel, to bring them back to their God that they had wandered so far from, to make up for everything that they had done, to do it right, and to take from them all the evil that was in their hearts and to give them all of the righteousness that God would give to them. That's what he was there for, but that's not what they wanted.
And so Jesus says, No doubt you're going to quote to me the proverb physician heal thyself, which not a bad proverb, right? But what he's going to point out is they see him as part of themselves. They want him to count himself as one of them, so that when he sees their problems, he’ll do what one does when they see a cut, feel sick, get injured. They want him to heal them. He’s Joseph’s son, he’s from Nazareth, we watched him grow up. So, look at us and show us that you do the deeds that match the beautiful words you preached.
Jesus looks at them and says, well, here's the deal. You're going to say that but the reality is, when you realize what I'm all about, you are going to reject me because no prophet has any honor in his own hometown. When I was training to be a pastor, people in my home congregation I think were more than half serious about calling me back there. And I can tell you that made me really uncomfortable, not because I didn't love the people there, I did, but because these people had seen me grow up. I mean, literally, in the narthex of our church, there's pictures of our history. And there's a picture of me with this really stupid bowl cut that I had in the nineties, parted right down the middle, of course this was when I had hair, and I've got another kid in a headlock. We're just goofing around in a youth group thing, but how do you think that would go, your pastor on the wall, putting another kid in a headlock? How long do you think it would be before somebody came up to me and said, Well, you can't say this kind of thing after all, I watched you, or, Well, you know, pastor, I know you're kind of saying this, but it's not going to work for me after all. I know kind of who you are.
Now, Jesus didn't have this where he did stupid things as a kid because he didn't do that. But you can imagine that people are going to look at him and think, well, what kind of authority does he have? I mean, after all I saw him, when he was a baby, I saw him when he was a kid, I know more than him. I'm older than him. Certainly, I've gotta be wiser than him. And so, Jesus says no prophet has any honor in his own hometown. He's right. In fact, they're going to prove that he's right, because all he's doing is preaching the Word and what happens because of their hardness of heart? There was nothing that he could or even would do for these people who had gathered. They heard the Word of God and they didn't rejoice over the hearing of it. They heard the Word of God and thought, all right, what can we get out of him? And because of that, there was nothing he could do.
Now, that doesn't mean that God didn't want to save them. Certainly he did. He was going to forgive their sins. He died for these people. However, it was true that out of their hardness of heart, because of the lack of faith, there was no sign, there was no miracle that he could do other than to preach the Word. And they became enraged, and so much so that they took this man that they had watched grow up as a boy to a cliff to stone him. That's what stoning was back then; you take a person to a cliff, you throw them off the cliff so that their body is broken and then you find the biggest rocks you can find and see who can hit the mark the best. That was stoning. Most people didn't survive that.
And this is what they were going to do to Joseph's son. This is what they were going to do to Mary's son. You better believe that as he's in this synagogue, his mom is there with beaming with pride. They're going to do this to her. Of course, they're going to do it to her, right? Didn't they do it to Jesus in Jerusalem? As he set his face toward the cross, didn't they, in front of Mary, take her son, strip him naked, pierce him onto some wood, lift him up and watch him die, mocking him as he did? Of course, but it wasn't yet his time. And so, Jesus, using the power of his divinity, did not let them kill him then. He let them wait to kill him later.
So what does this have to do with us? Well, I've already mentioned one aspect of this, where we look at this political stuff that's out there. And we think if only we could get a Republican in office, if only we can get a Democrat in office, if only we can get everybody vaccinated, if only everybody would fight against the vaccines, if only if only if only if only, then everything would be fine. How stupid are we? How stupid are we? It's even worse, I think, though, when we look at God and we think, All right, what can I get out of you?
Which one of us haven't bargained with God? God, if you'll only do this, then I will do this. If you only heal this person then I will dedicate myself to you. If you only show me a sign, then I will dedicate myself to you. If you only provide for me in this circumstance, then I will dedicate myself to you. And even if you bargained with God, and he gave you what you were asking for, how's your end of that bargain holding up? I mean, the thing is, we look at God still today, just as they looked at the Messiah back then, as a God who’s going to bring us out of all of our troubles, the guy who's going to give us the desires of our hearts, the guy who's going to take care of our needs.
I mean, it's true. God is going to give you exactly what you need. But what you think you need is very different than what you need. And so, we look at God and we say, All right, you're going to give me this stuff, without realizing that God does what he wants to do. You see, we don't get to boss God around. That's what these people of Nazareth didn't realize. They don't get to tell Jesus what to do. They don't get to say, heal us. They don't get to say, make us well. They don't get to say, restore our reputation. They don't get to say, you're going to do this or else. They don't even get to say when it is that Jesus dies. Jesus takes all of that away from them, all of it.
And so it is that Jesus does what he wants. He leaves them. And he goes on in the rest of his ministry until finally it becomes time for him to lay his life down. No one takes my life from me, He says, unless first I lay it down. His time. His means. His way.
We so often think that it's on us. It's our time. The means we want. The way we want. That's not how God works. God gives us what he wants and what he wants is to give us what we need. He takes care of us in so many ways. I mean, the fact that our hearts are still beating, the fact that we still have air to breathe, the fact that most of us have food on our tables, I’m guessing all of us have food on our tables, the fact that all of us have the home to go to, the fact that all of us had some kind of transportation to get here to hear the Word of God, the fact that we have friends, the fact that we have family, I mean, all of these things, God gives these to us. They're all gifts from him.
With all his goodness given to us, with all of it in our laps, we can now hear this Word from Jesus: you are forgiven for all these horrible expectations you have of God, for all these weird expectations you have of Jesus. He died to forgive that sin of yours. He died to turn your heart from what you can get into what he is giving you. And he gives you a lot.
Last week, we talked very much about the Supper, how he comes to us in his body and blood and how he puts his Word of promise with this Supper. But he puts it ,not just in the supper, He's put it in the waters of baptism and he's put it in the Word itself, where when the Word is preached or the Word is read, when the Word is taught, the Word actually does something to you, which is to give faith, to convict you of your sins, and ultimately to forgive you of those sins, to show you that you are beloved of God and that you indeed have been saved through the cross of Christ.
The Word does something to you. It's not just something that happens around you, but something that happens to you, something that happens in you, that Jesus is working on you, that he is passing through you to point you to himself. That's what the Word of God does. It takes your hard heart, it takes your selfish thoughts, and it turns you to thoughts of God and of others.
And so now it is that we approach God, not in all of these things that he can do that we want him to do, but we look to God first and we recognize what it is that he has done for us to us and in us and with us. And in this, we find that the Word of God has done exactly what he has promised to do.
Hear again the words from Isaiah and think of where you sit in this: the spirit of the Lord is upon Jesus because he has anointed Jesus to proclaim the good news to the poor. He has sent Jesus to proclaim liberty to the captives and the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Now I'll show you where you find yourself. The spirit of the Lord is upon Christ and his Word because he has anointed this Word to proclaim the good news to you who are poor. He has sent Jesus to proclaim liberty to you who are captive to sin, to recover the sight of you who are blinded by sin and unbelief, to set at liberty you who are oppressed by sin, death, and the devil, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor upon you who struggle, you who doubt, you who sin.
If I can be so bold, I'll say in the Words of Jesus today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing, your hearing, for indeed Christ has done these things to you. He has freed you by his Word through that yoke of oppression, those chains of slavery that bind us down into sin and death and the devil. And he has given us life. He has given us the favor of God. He has given us liberty and freedom and the recovery of sight. We will look to him who died upon the cross and be brought back out of our selfish ambition into a life of service and thankfulness. This Word of God is fulfilled in your hearing today. Hear it, believe it, let your hearts be turned. Look to God and repent, and find today and every day, the forgiveness of sins from Christ upon that cross, the one who laid his life down for you, that you might be with him forever. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on January 16, 2022 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on John 2:1-11. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. John, the 2nd chapter:
On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Jesus is the bridegroom of the Church. Men, I think, get a little uncomfortable thinking about this, especially today when this would seem to imply that we're married to another man, but let's put your minds at ease. The Church is seen as a collective as the bride of Christ. You are not individually married to him, but you are married to him through the Church. And it gets a little confusing, of course, because you talk about the one body and then, of course, you think of consummation in the marriage, where the man and the woman know each other intimately and become one flesh.
And here's the deal. Jesus is the bridegroom; we are the bride. And he does consummate his relationship with the Church, not through that sexual act that we are aware of in terms of marriage, but in the intimate act, the heavenly act of making us part of himself. And he does that first through the Word. That Word then is attached to His means of grace, and so, for most of us, it came to us first through the waters of Baptism. Then it comes to us, not just the reading, preaching, and studying of the Word, but also through the Sacrament of the Altar. First the Word gives us faith, then it gives us strength. It brings to the day of everlasting life, when we find our life in the body of Jesus Christ. This is much more intimate than what a husband and wife share with one another.
This is the way that Christ brings his Church from all times and all places into himself to be one with her forever. Theologians call this the mystical union. And there's a whole lot that we could talk there. I mean, you could probably have an entire series of sermons on each aspect of what the mystical union actually composes, but it is enough to say that mystically, which is not magically, but mystically, mysteriously, Christ uses his Word and his sacraments to join together with you forever.
So, understanding that Christ is the bridegroom, let’s ask here, from the text, who is the master of the feast speaking to when he tastes the good wine? Now, if you follow along in the story, you want to go, well, he's speaking to the bridegroom of this wedding. But I've got to tell you, John is one smart cookie, and he loves what we call double entendres, where he says one thing and means two things by it. For instance, when Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night and asks all these questions as a secret believer in Jesus, Jesus says,You must be born again to enter the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus says, What, am I supposed to crawl back up into my mother that I might come out of her again? But the word Jesus says, the word John uses in Greek is anothen, which means two things: to born again and to be born from above. These two things are both tied into that one single word. And John is using that word to portray this reality in such a way that Nicodemus would get it and still have to seek it by faith, but that you, having now been enlightened by the Spirit, would understand all of it. So when John is telling you about this first miracle that Jesus performs, he's not intending you just to look at the idea that, well, Jesus did this nice thing with water and wine and that's great, but instead that you see Jesus, as we just sang, is the guest and the host, he is both. We sometimes say the host and the meal; Jesus is both of these things for you.
So, when the master of the feast tastes this wine and he goes to the bridegroom and he says, You know, everybody gets everyone drunk on the good stuff first and then when they run out of that, then they don't notice the bad stuff. But you you've saved the good stuff for last. You know, I don't drink very much anymore, just with all my diet stuff, but I enjoyed beer. I liked a good beer, but the honest truth is it doesn't matter how bad the beer is. If you can get down two swigs of it, you generally can drink the rest of it. The master of this feast has been brought the good wine. And now, having tasted it, he realized the stuff that usually was good was mere swill compared to what he had now in his cup. There has never been a wine like this before. Never had any palate tasted anything like this. But there is a wine like this now.
And that's what we have here today in front of us. Granted, Jesus hasn't turned water for purification into wine in front of us, but he has taken the wine that we humbly bring to this place and he has made it greater than what it is by attaching his Word to it. And by his very Word, which you'll conspicuously see is absent in the text, in front of us, all of a sudden it is greater than anything that you've ever had. Now, granted, we don't have money coming out the wazoo; we can't afford the very best wine. We bring that which is humble, that which is very much like the water that's in these purification jars. And yet Jesus makes it magnificent by bringing us his blood in this place.
Notice though, in the reading for today, Jesus, doesn't speak a word over it. He doesn't say poof and there it is. He doesn't wave his hands. He doesn't do anything, but by the very power of his being God, the water knows what to do. The water becomes wine in such a way, and we'll never understand how this can be, but it's like Jesus is commanding all of the universe and the universe bends to his will, whether the universe hears it or not.
But here, in the Supper, the will of Christ is not just inside of him. His will is in your ears. You hear the Word because he's attached a promise to this Supper, that every time we have it, there is something amazing going on here, every time. I mean, I would challenge you all go home, go out to Menards or Home Depot, buy one of those big buckets that catches the rainwater, start filling that thing up and wait and see how long it takes for that water to become wine. It won't happen, right? I mean, could it happen? Sure. Are we expecting it to happen? Of course not. And as long as you wait, it probably never would become wine. You have no promise attached to that, but you have a promise here. You have a promise by the guest, by the host, by the meal himself that, here, this is something greater than what you can see, here is the sweet wine in which comes to you the blood of Christ, here is the sweet bread, if we can call it bread, that brings with it the body of Christ. His Word of promise is here, not in some miracle that he performs.
John uses a word here that it doesn't really mean miracle. John uses the word semeron, which means sign. Miracles are those breaking of the natural wall to let the supernatural in. But this thing that Jesus does is more than a miracle, it’s a sign. What's a sign do? It tells you something, right? You see a stop sign, you stop. You see the green light, you go. You see a yellow sign with kids running on it with a little ball in front of it, you know that children are going to be around, possibly at play, and you should watch out for them. A sign tells you what to do. The sign that Jesus performs in this first miracle, this first thing is to point to him as the coming, as the promised, Messiah. All the people there should have seen that sign and believed and it's likely that didn't happen because they weren’t reading the sign. It was private. But you see the sign performed here in the Supper, it’s public, it’s in front of everyone, and so you believe that this Jesus has come for you.
In our lives, as we struggle with our sin, as we struggle with faith, with doubt, with not understanding everything, not believing things, we might cry with the hurting father of the young boy afflicted with a demon, Lord, I believe; help my unbelief. It might be a ton of different things that have brought us to this very moment, whatever it may be. But you can be comforted for this sign here is for you because Jesus speaks. And he speaks his Word of promise to you with this Supper, that your sins are forgiven and that you will be strengthened to see the day of resurrection.
He uses these humble gifts that we've brought to the church. It used to be that the Church would actually bring bread and wine into the church. That was what the offertory was for. You know, that song that we sing before or after the offering? That was when all the gifts would be brought up, not just for the church in terms of our offering, our money, but also it's when the bread and the wine would be brought up to be used for communion. That was the place that that would happen. Nowadays, what we do is we give our offering and the church goes out and buys the bread and the wine, but there are still churches that do this. These are just humble gifts though, that you've given to this place and Christ attaches his Word to your gift to promise you that there is something greater here for you.
It's very easy to forget what the Supper is. It is. It's easy to take this for granted, but this is here that every time we gather together in this kind of way, around his Word, we also gather around his Sacrament so that we know that Jesus is for you, that he has come to you, that he has saved you, that he forgives you, and that he has promised you something greater than all of these things that we're going through: everlasting life.
We don’t just have an ephemeral faith, one that you can’t pin down, something that’s little more than a feeling. You can have faith in your ears and in your eyes and on your tongues. You have faith that everything that your Jesus has come to you and has given you what he’s promised. And this Supper is a down payment on the idea that everything even will have a greater fulfillment. The Supper is a mere taste of the feast to come. It’s like the good wine served before the water-made-wine wine. You can have faith because you’ve been given a substantive thing to hold on to.We can see his promises are true here, where he said, this is my body and this is my blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.
That's what this is all about. That's a mystical way in which Christ comes to you and speaks to you. Jesus doesn't speak to the bride groom in the story. He speaks to you instead through his Word and Sacrament. Christ is the bridegroom, and this is a wedding feast. This is greater than anything else we can eat or drink this day or any day, because this is greater than food alone. But this is food that leads to everlasting life. You only get that if you are a part of the bride, the Church, and you only get that if the bride has been taken by the bridegroom. This is how we are joined with Christ.
So, turn your eyes to Christ, my friends, and be like the disciples, believe in him, who has given you this gift so you may know that Christ is for you, that Christ is with you, and, in a very real way, even today, Christ is in you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on January 9, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Romans 6:1-11. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on December 26, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Colossians 3:12-17. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from Paul’s letter to the Colossians, the third chapter:
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
It is the First Sunday of Christmas, and, if you’ve been here the last two days, you know that, as always, we’ve focused heavily on the incarnation of Christ. After all, that’s what we are celebrating, that we can see our God face-to-face in the person of Jesus and that we’re invited to do so. We’re not like Moses, who wasn’t allowed to see God’s face lest he die. We’re not like Jacob, who wrestled with God, not knowing it was Him, and then feared, when he found out, that he would die. We’re not like Gideon who talked with God and then freaked out in his weakness because he ought to have died. No, we are invited to gaze upon the lovely face of Christ and see God there. We’re given a face, an image, to look at and to love. We’re given Jesus.
The fact that our Lord has taken on human flesh is something I think we so often blast right past. This is God from before all worlds. Jesus is the Son of God, eternally begotten. That doesn’t mean He was created, but that He has always been the Son to the Father. He has always been and always will be. This is the mighty God who speaks and the universe and all that is beyond it bends to His command. This is He who has been in communion with God forever, and yet, at one point in time, decided to make a people for Himself and so created not just a garden but a planet, and not just a planet but a solar system, and not just a solar system but a galaxy, and not just a galaxy but a universe, and not just a universe but the heavens beyond all comprehension. All things came into being by His Word, Let there be, and all things bent to obey, all so that He, Jesus, would make a people that He would love. That He would make you.
This is the God who is greater than all things, and yet knew that His people would rebel. So, before He ever spoke the first light into existence, He made up His mind that, no matter their rebellion, He would love them, and He would love them as a dearest friend, to lay down His life for them. This is God. God cannot die. God is spirit. God has not a body. God cannot be killed by that which is less than Him. But, He knew that He would come to save the people He made, and, to do that, He would die, for salvation could only come through the shedding of blood. So, He made the earth and the heavens and all that is in them, and, as He knew, Adam and Eve rebelled against Him and plunged all that He had made for them into decay and despair. All the beauty of creation was made for Adam and Eve and their descendants, and they didn’t care. They wanted to make creation in their image. And they got what they wanted. All of creation would be made in the sinful image of man, subject to corruption and death. They had taken the image of God in which they were created and drove it into dust and destruction.
And yet, the Lord knew this would happen and had already planned to redeem Adam and Eve and all their descendants back from sin, death, and the devil, those evil taskmasters who would preside over a mass of obscenity. While we would have, perhaps, hoped He would come in such a way that all may see Him, He came in the way that He had desired for His people to live: humbly and in service. Hence, while the Messiah was hoped to have come in strength and with a sword, He came otherwise. He humbled Himself so far, from the mighty God of all creation to be placed into human flesh and to be put into the womb of a woman. He would come into this life as all life does, through blood and tears. He who created Eve in His own image now took the image of Eve from His mother, Mary. He who is mighty beyond all ken became completely dependent upon the breast of His mother. He who spoke creation into being now spoke through the cries of a baby, cries of dirty diapers and hunger and surprise.
This child we think of today grew in wisdom and stature, in every way identifying with His beloved people, except that He was without sin. He did all things well, obeying the Law that He might exchange His obedience with our disobedience that we might be saved and He condemned. And so, the boy became a man, and laid down His life at the hands of the Romans and the Jews that He might die for all people, all of His beloved, His chosen, and rose from the dead that those who believe in Him might have life and have it eternally. By this, you know that your sins, your disobedience, your contribution to the decay and destruction of His creation, have been taken away from you and, instead, you have been given the robes of righteousness that have won for you everlasting life.
In this knowledge of the incarnation then, Paul writes to the church at Colossae, instructions for life together, life which imitates our beloved Lord. Now that you know you are chosen, now that you know you are holy and beloved of God, live like Christ. Put on compassion, as Christ had compassion over His fallen creation. Put on kindness, as Christ has befriended you. Put on humility, as He deigned to lower Himself into the flesh of man, to make Himself a little lower than He was for a time. Put on meekness, as Christ never assumed His Lordship over His people as He lived among us. Put on patience, as Christ bore up under the yolk of those who were over Him, bearing their scorn and shame. We imitate Christ in His life that His life might be seen by all, though Christ is not with us bodily. We bear the life of Christ into the world, first by the Word and our sharing of it, and then by His works.
We endure other people, no matter who they are or what they’ve done. We forgive one another, no matter who they are or what they’ve done. We love one another, no matter who they are or what they’ve done. For Christ has bound us all together in His Church, that we might be a beautiful tapestry, more beautiful than Joseph’s many-colored coat, more beautiful than Christ’s robe woven together in one piece, more beautiful than your favorite Christmas outfit. He has put us into harmony with one another, not that any part is more important than another but that all of us, playing our part, sing in concert together to make a concerto beyond all music.
Most of all, Christ has called us together in one body, His body. He has called all of us to Himself in the very body He assumed from Mary. He has made us members of one another. He has made us members of Himself, with Him as the head. He has made us one that we might live in peace, moving and breathing and having our being in Him. In Him, we are made righteous. In Him, we are made thankful. In Him, we are made rich by His Word. In Him, we are one together.
The mystery of the incarnation is one which we should ponder, and now that Christ is risen and ascended to the right hand of the Father, we also should ponder, wonder, at Christ’s bringing us into the mystery, being made one in Him. In Christ, we are part of His mysterious, mystical body in that we speak His Word and do His work in the world. There is not one person who is living, has lived, or will live that Christ has not died for. There is not one person who doesn’t matter to Him. Thus, we bear with one another to teach us to bear with those still in the world.
While the world does not see the mystery of Christmas and rejoice that our Lord would wish to be with us, we, by our very act of being here, teach them that there is something greater than opening presents on Christmas morning, listening to 24/7 “Christmas music” on the radio, big feasts, friends, and family. There is more to Christmas than just what the world has to offer; there is Christ, come for us in His body to save all people, and come again today in Word and Sacrament.
You have come together in the one body of Christ today to receive the forgiveness He won for you upon the cross. Do so. Receive it by His absolution, His word of forgiveness. Receive it through Baptism, which you remember daily in drowning your hard-hearted Old Adam and finding the New Adam, Jesus Christ, rising in you. Receive it through the Supper, by which that very body and blood which came out of Mary, which lived perfectly, and was crucified, died, buried, and was resurrected for you, come to you to strengthen your faith and deliver you to the day of everlasting life. You have come together in the incarnate body of Christ that you may be His own. You are. You have been chosen. You have been made holy. You have been blessed with the very presence of Jesus, the God from all eternity who saw fit to make you, that you may be with Him forever and ever. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
This Christmas Day sermon is taken from and based on Concordia Publishing House's series, "Symbols of Salvation" for Advent and Christmas, preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on December 25, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from our readings this day:
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
The familiar words of the Christmas Gospel are almost as if it is invite us to imagine a story in which the Caesar was the ruler of a large land, and, one day, decided that he wanted to take an accounting of all the people who lived there. So he sent out a message that all people should go to the homes of their fathers… it sounds like a fairy tale. But, it’s not. In fact, it’s so much not a fairy tale, it’s history. It’s a true story. It’s a real Caesar, it’s a real town of Bethlehem, it’s a real Mary and a real Jospeh and a real journey. Christmas is that special time that we start to believe in fairy tales and magic, but when that feeling starts to creep into the Biblical message, well, we have a problem. Unfortunately, for the rest of the world, they treat it all like a fairy tale… Once upon a time… But, Christmas isn’t a legend or fable. It’s a true, accurate, factual event in Israel two thousand years ago.
Christmas is not some kind of escape into a galaxy far, far away. It’s about our real escape from sin, death, and the devil. It’s about the Son of God breaking into His creation. It’s about Him taking on the flesh of those whom He loved and buying us back from our enemies. It’s about Him coming down from heaven, being formed in His mother’s womb, taking on the form of a servant. It’s about the real, physical, touchable, seeable Jesus Christ. He is the love of God walking among His people. He became like us that we might become like Him.
Everything our Lord did, every way He came, is to undo what we have done to His creation. Christ was born among the animals that we might be rescued from having become like animals–fighting for strength and dominance, seeking to silence the hunger pangs of our bellies, following our basest instincts and desires. He put God in the middle of the cows and the sheep that His sheep might be redeemed. He put Himself in a feeding trough that we might eat and drink Him in His Supper. He slept among the beasts that He would set us free from the beastly power of death. He became like us that we might become like Him.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the son of Mary, came to us to undo what we had done. Adam plunged creation into sin, Jesus, the New Adam, brings it out and makes it righteous. He came to redeem women and men, white and black and tan and everyone in between. He came to remake the world into everything it lost. He came that all might be made new in Him. His taking on of the flesh permeates and penetrates all of creation, making it holy again, making it sacred and good in His sight. He took on flesh that He might be with us, and that He might be one of us.
He became one of us so that He could be judged by the Law. He was accountable to it, just as you are, only He would be perfect. He would obey. He would lead a humble life, full of wisdom and knowledge, bent to the will of God, perfectly fulfilling all things, that His shameful death at the hands of sinners would atone for you. He would die in your place, that you might live in His place.
The wooden manger would be traded for a wooden cross. The swaddling cloths He was laid in would be traded for grave clothes. The frankincense and myrrh of the Wise Men would be traded for myrrh and aloes to rub down His dead, stinking body. Yet, He would come down from the cross. He would rise from the grave. He would live again, reinvigorated that His flesh would not see corruption. He became like us to reverse all that has been done to us.
We suffer, we die, we stink, we sin. But, in the death and resurrection of Christ, we conquer, we live, we rejoice, we are holy. The Son of God was born among us and shed His blood to be our ransom from sin, death, and the devil. He is our substitute in death and our leader in life. Only this child, this God-baby, laid in a manger, now risen from the dead, can bring us salvation, and so he has. He became like us to give us all that He has.
This is no fairy tale. This is no myth. This is Good News. This is the true Gospel. This is real hope. The angels told the shepherds this hope: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” This is hope. God is among us. God is with us. Christ the Savior is born. Christ the Lord has come. Light has come into the world and has scattered the darkness. Jesus is born in Bethlehem, Jesus, our King. Rejoice greatly, you His Israel, rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion. Unto you, the Christ is born. He is for you. He is with you. He is your God and your Lord.
It’s an amazing thing that the angels rejoiced over the Lord’s birth. They rejoiced, not because God was doing something, anything, but because God was redeeming you. They rejoiced because God, in Jesus’ birth, was bringing all of creation back together, back to holiness, back to righteousness, back to Eden. They rejoiced for peace was coming to the world through Christ, and that peace would be yours.
The shepherds rejoiced for they, the lowliest, the most disregarded of all society, were welcomed, were given the place of honor, the first meeting with God to His face. They ran and spread the Good News the angels brought them, the Good News they saw with their own eyes. The lambs they tended would no longer be put to death in sacrifice for sins, for the Lamb of God had finally arrived.
And now, you are rejoicing this day, for your Lord has come. You rejoice for the Lord who was laid in a manger is now laid before you on the altar that you might eat and drink of Him. You rejoice for the Lord who was surrounded by the animals is now surrounded by sinners that He has redeemed. You rejoice for the one who was brought to this world through birth waters of His mother has made you new, given you new birth, in the waters of Baptism. This is no fiction. It’s no made-up story. This is real. Word and Sacrament, Christ the Lord, death and resurrection and the Resurrection which is to come, is all real. It’s all real and it’s all for you. It’s all true and it is the only Truth that matters: The Lord Jesus Christ is born in Bethlehem to save you from your sins. And so He has. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on December 24, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on our Christmas Eve readings. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this evening is from our readings this day:
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.
And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Our Lord is born this night. This night, a night thousands of years in the making is just like any other night. There is nothing special about this night. Sure, it’s beautiful. Yes, we’ll be with family and friends. Of course, we’ll receive and give gifts. It seems magical, but this is a night just like every other that has come before it. But still, this night we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that He is not truly born this night but that we celebrate it. Instead, we act like the Israelites of old, who, every Passover, would recount the story of the Exodus from Egypt to traverse across the dry land in the middle of sea as if it were truly happening to them.
The children would ask their parents the reason for eating with their shoes on, the reason for the unleavened bread, the reason for the blood on the door, the reason for the lamb. And parents and grandparents would recount the story as if the Exodus were coming that night. And, of course, for them, it really was is if it were happening, as if their deliverance were truly coming from the Lord. And so it is for us, that our children gather around and ask us, why the presents, why the lights, why the long church service, why the singing, why Jesus.
For us, Christmas is a time that happens again and again. Our Lord came once, but we relive that miraculous event with hope and joy, knowing that the Son of God came down from heaven and took on human flesh. We relive the events: Mary and Joseph finding shelter in a stable, Mary giving birth, laying her newborn son in a cattle trough, casting their eyes on His beautiful face, the angels visiting the shepherds, the shepherds worshipping Jesus and telling others all about the Son of God and the son of Mary. We relive them, we try to transport us as if we were the innkeeper, the shepherds, the angels, the star, even Mary and Joseph. Yet, it is not enough.
Christmas is not enough. Christmas is the start of our salvation. In fact, it is that our salvation began in a garden, where the Messiah was promised to come of the seed of woman. From Adam and Eve’s disastrous sin, God provided a way and He orchestrated history through His people, Israel, to bring that Messiah to His people. And that Messiah would be long-awaited. They had looked for thousands of years, and finally, the Son of God took on the very flesh that he had formed from the dust. He didn’t just do this so that it would make a nice story. He took on flesh so that the tender, supple flesh of an infant could be pierced through with nails, beaten and whipped with leather cords, cut open with thorns, spit upon, hair ripped out, and finally die. Salvation truly began on Christmas so that it could be finished that Good Friday.
We celebrate Christmas like a birthday, but, really, it’s like the beginning of the end. It’s like a funeral that lasts decades. Yet, just like funerals in this life, we don’t look at this child and grieve, but we look at His birth, knowing that He came to die, with joy. We don’t grieve at funerals as those without hope, but we fix our eyes on the hope of Jesus, that our loved ones are in His arms and they will rise again from the dead. We don’t look upon the blessed, infant face of Jesus and grieve for the pain our sin will cause Him upon the cross, but we fix our eyes on Him just as He fixed His eyes upon the cross. He knew why He would come. He knew what He would suffer. He knew that he would die. And He came in joy. He came in love. He came in peace.
The love of God brought your Jesus to this world that He might, even in His baby body, take on your infirmities and carry them to the cross to redeem them. He looked upon you from heaven and had compassion over you, so that He came to bring you out of your sin and into His marvelous light. He saw your grief in this life, your sin, your sorrow, your pain, your loneliness, your depression, your anger, your persecution, and He came to buy you back from all of these and to deliver you into righteousness, joy, life, companionship, happiness, peace, and victory over the grave. By His coming in the flesh, by His death, by his resurrection, you are delivered into life eternal and life filled with joy.
This night is no different than any other, and yet it still bears forth the Son of God to you. He comes, no longer a baby, but through His Word, through the water of Baptism, through the Supper. He comes and we sing, we pray, we love, we rejoice, we give gifts in His name. This night is no different and still we celebrate for our Lord has redeemed you out of the pit and has given you the gift of Himself. And if you have Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, you have everything. This night, you have received all that was ever promised to you. That is why we celebrate; that is why we remember. Our Lord has come and He will come again in glory and judgment to bring you to Himself forever, to bring you all that He won on the cross and from the grave, to bring you peace and love, and it all begins this night, this Christmas. Turn your eyes, turn your hearts, turn your minds to the face of the infant Son and see your redemption drawing nigh, for you are delivered this night. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on December 19, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 1:39-45. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
This Advent Midweek sermon is taken from and based on Concordia Publishing House's series, "Symbols of Salvation" for Advent and Christmas. You may play the audio of the sermon here or by clicking the post's title.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on December 12, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 7:18-28. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
This Advent Midweek sermon is taken from and based on Concordia Publishing House's series, "Symbols of Salvation" for Advent and Christmas. You may play the audio of the sermon here or by clicking the post's title.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on December 5, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Luke 3:1-20. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
This Advent Midweek sermon is taken from and based on Concordia Publishing House's series, "Symbols of Salvation" for Advent and Christmas. You may play the audio of the sermon here or by clicking the post's title.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on November 21, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Mark 13:24-37. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. Mark, the 13th chapter:
“But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Have you ever thought about this, that the Son of Man doesn't know the day that he's coming back? I find that that's a confusing thing for people, but you have to realize Jesus being both God and man did not always make use of his divinity. In fact, this should be a comfort for you, that he was so focused on the task at hand, which was going toward his own crucifixion to win for you your salvation, that he wasn't focused on what was going to happen in the future. He was focused on what he was focused on, which is to achieve that forgiveness of sins to give to you everlasting life.
I mean, that's really what this entire passage is actually about: him giving you everlasting life. This is all right on the heels of last week's Gospel lesson, where Jesus told us all about the earthquakes and the wars and the rumors of wars and the famines and how all of these things will be the beginning of the birth pains. And in those days, he continues, then after that tribulation, after all the birth pangs are there, well, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall out of the heavens and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. It's almost as if all of these birth pangs are leading up to that final push. And when the final push of labor begins, the entire universe folds in on itself. And then finally our Lord returns.
Now, it is really interesting to me too, that he talks about the sun and the stars and the moon. If you know, John's Revelation, you know the saying: “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” There is no more sun, for the Son is the light of the world. The S O N son will be the light of the world. There's no need for the sun to give its light. There's no need for a sun to waste its fuel and shine out from the darkness and give light to the world. Instead, the Son of Man, who has returned from heaven to live among his people, will be the light of the entire universe. Think about that for a moment.
If we know our science, we know that the light we see in the stars above seem to be coming from a great distance away, as far as we can tell. The further away a star is from the earth, the longer it takes for its light to get here. And it seems over time as light passes. Thus, if a star is 93 million miles away, the lights that we are receiving is 93 million years old. Now I don't believe that the universe is actually that old. I believe that God created the stars in the sky and just sent their light to this earth, to illuminate us all the time, to remind us always of his word, which will not pass away. The lights will go out, but the word of God remains forever. I think God is able to do that bots. There is something to be said for that science that tells us the light that we're getting is 93 million years old.
I'd like you to consider for a moment what this means, that when Christ comes back, and he is the light of the world, he is the light of the universe, he is shining out into the cosmos. And if you were standing on a distant star, you'd be seeing his light coming to you. And the time that it would take to get to you, it's pretty incredible that he's dwelling with his people for all of these millions and billions and trillions and quadrillions of years. His light will reach across the galaxies and it will never end for all eternity. He promises you that kind of light and that kind of life. That's an amazing thing.
Now, I don't know if that means that Jesus walking around on the earth is going to be just beaming, as he was in his transfiguration. It's certainly possible, but whatever it is, Jesus is enough. That's what we need to take from this. The sun will be darkened. The moon will not give its light and the stars will fall out of the heavens and Jesus will be enough. Notice he does not leave you without light. Once this happens, at once, he says, they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. Jesus returns to his earth just as he left.
That's kind of interesting knowing especially that Jesus has not ascended into heaven when he is telling his apostles this. As he's giving this message to his apostles, Jesus knows how he is going to be leaving them. After those 40 days are completed after his resurrection, he knows that he'll be ascending to the right hand of his Father in the clouds. And those clouds will one day part and our Lord will return. And in that moment, then the angels will be sent out to gather all of us, his elect, his chosen, from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. The angels will gather us together and we will accompany our Lord and we will live in his glory and power and light, forever and ever.
It's an interesting thing. I really wish that Jesus would access his divinity a little bit more here to give us a bit more information. I would love to know a date. I would love to know exactly when it is that our Lord is coming, but this is the thing, isn't it? He commands us to stay awake. I think if Jesus had given us a date, if he’d given us a sure and definitive sign, When this happens, wait five minutes and there I come, he knows if he gave us that kind of thing, we would grow lazy and complacent. Instead he tells us stay awake.
Now I don't know about you, but I am a night owl. My wife and I used to go to bed at the same time. It was always something, having her fall asleep and I’d still be reading or watching a show. And that was lovely. But right around the time that she got pregnant with Ava, she started going to bed at about seven o'clock. And I said, no. And so I stayed up later and this actually fed into my night owlness. The hours I’d go to bed got later and later. Now, it’s just whenever I start to feel tired. So, I’ll go into our dark room, crawl into bed, lay my head down, and fall asleep. Sometimes that's 10 o'clock and sometimes that's 11 o'clock and sometimes it's one o'clock in the morning, but that hour comes when I just can't stay awake anymore.
And yet the Lord tells us stay awake. Now, I don't know that he means that you're supposed to stay up 24/7. I think that would be a little bit ridiculous. Certainly if anyone could do it, it would be Jesus, but we know even he would retire back to his own home and sleep. Then h gets started on the next day we are created for rest. Jesus does not mean just stay awake all the time. Pop those caffeine pills, drink the espresso. If he did, that would be kind of dangerous for us. But his stay awake means to be prepared. Just as the master goes out of town on a journey and he leaves his home and he puts his servants in charge of the house, each to go about their own work, because they never know when he's coming back, so also does he give us this charge.
He's going, he's ascending to the right hand of the Father. We cannot see him bodily. I mean, we know that he's with us in Word and Sacrament. We know that when I'm speaking the words of Absolution, we should be seeing Jesus. We know that when you're receiving the Lord's Supper from my hand, you should be seeing Jesus as the host of that meal and the meal itself. But he has gone bodily from our eyes. And in that time, he's given us our work to do, and the sun rises and we begin our work and the sun sets and we end our work and we rest. The Sabbath day comes yet again and we rest. We go about our work, just like these servants. It's not like the master would demand that they work 24 hours a day. After all, Jesus lives in age without electricity. 24/7 work would have been impossible and incomprehensible.
People couldn’t work when the sun went down. You can’t see. We have night time stuff now because of the miracle of electricity. Someone figured out how to harness electric power and make it light things up. You’d get up in the morning, work hard from sunrise to sundown, and you’d eat and go to bed. And why? Because you can't see.
Notice this, the sun goes out, the moon stops its light, the stars fall from the sky. And in that time you do not work anymore. I went for a walk this week at about seven o'clock that night. Ava was home sick all day and I was with her, and Liz got home and I gave Ava over to her and I said, look, I've got to get some exercise in. And so I went out for this walk and the moon was lighting my way. I barely needed my flashlight. The only time I turned it on was when a car was approaching, just so they didn't run me over. But I saw by the light of the moon and by the stars exactly where I was going. And I walked through forest and park and I walked up hills and down fields. And I found my way by the light of the moon. Imagine if the moon had not shined, imagine if you had no electricity, no battery, no power to see, you know, that the time then is there to rest.
And that's what Jesus is telling us, the day is coming when he will return. And he, being our light, will first indicate to us that our rest has been achieved and we can put our rest in him by turning out all the lights in the universe. And thus, when he comes and he is our light, we go to him for life. And we know that we can work and do our business in his light and never have to fear of the dark coming again for us.
You see the Lord, we talked last week, is tarrying. He is waiting to gather all of the people who are written in the Book of Life. And this is out of his mercy, and out of his mercy, too, he is leading this world into darkness. I know that seems counterintuitive to what our Jesus is doing, but as the world grows darker and darker, and this, as we prepare to enter our Advent season, as the world grows darker, we await his second coming, because we know that when the dark is finally achieved, then we will have our rest. Until then we stay awake in the Lord.
Until then, we go about our business, and you saw what that business was in Jude, did you not? Jude had a wonderful list of things, and I'm going to read them all to you here: build yourselves up in your most holy faith, Edify one another. He says, pray in the Holy Spirit. That doesn't mean as the charismatics take it to mean that you pray in some kind of weird language that no one understands, but you pray in the fact that you are a baptized child of God, approaching your Father as a beloved child would their beloved father. The Holy Spirit has given you faith to pray. And so pray in the Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God, hear his Word, receive his Sacrament, wait for the mercy of your Lord Jesus Christ that leads you to eternal life. Have mercy on those who doubt. Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others, show mercy with fear; that mercy which fears fears the Lord, it is the beginning of wisdom. Hate the garment stained by the flesh. Hate this world, hate exactly what it has done to you and what it is doing to others, dragging them into the pit of hell. This is the work that we do to stay awake because we know that this world is wearing out like a garment, it’s wearing out and it's wearing thin. And as it wears out and wears thin, the darkness begins to take it over.
And yet as the darkness comes, know that your Lord also is coming. Jesus says, From the fig tree, learn the lesson. Ancient Israel did not have a 365 day calendar. They operated by a lunar calendar; roughly every 28 days was a new month. And so, the calendar always kind of varied. However long the year might be, you might be in one month and all of a sudden winter happens and you might be in another month the next year and there's winter happening. And so it wasn't always sure when winter actually would come, it wasn't always sure when spring and summer and fall would happen, you had to look to what nature was telling you. He says when the fig tree begins to sprout its leaves, you know that the summer is near; it's growing in such a way to soak up all of the light that it can to prepare itself, to produce the fruit for the harvest and, finally then, to rest in the dark of the winter and to come back to life in the spring. So, too, should you look, not just at nature, but everything that we have in this world, so that we see the darkness coming in. And we know that our time of rest in Christ is coming.
We are in the midst of the theological summer, even as we are approaching the eschatological days of winter; we are out there, producing our work. We're out there giving fruit for this world to eat, to receive, but soon the winter is coming and there we bundle up, we sit by our fires and we wait. We wait because our Lord's promise is sure. And in fact, during the Advent season, this is what it is all about. Advent means coming and, sure, Advent seems like, well, let's have a couple of weeks to get up to Christmas day. That's not it. Advent is there for you to see and to know that your Lord is coming soon. And if he is coming soon, then your rest also is coming.
But until then, stay awake, be about the business of the master, work as a servant in his fields and in his house until he returns, because he is coming back to take ownership of all of it, but know that your work is not in vain. Your work is there to bring you to the day of rest, that rest where Jesus Christ will bring you up out of your grave and will give to you life everlasting, where you will live in his light and his joy and his glory and his power forever. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on November 14, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Mark 13:1-13. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. Mark, the 13th chapter:
And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?” And Jesus began to say to them, “See that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains. “But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
We are now fully in this time of pre-Advent, and I've told you this before, but I'll say it again, it used to be in the ancient church that advent was seven weeks long, just like Lent. Advent and lent were actually seen as the same season, just happening at different times and with a different culmination, Advent with the culmination of Christ's incarnation, and, of course, Lent with the culmination of his crucifixion and resurrection. So, accordingly the readings that we have today and next week are going to be a little bit more dark. They take a turn toward the end, as the day grows darker. And even now, as daylight savings has ended, well, we know what it is to grow darker in this world. After all, who doesn't love to see a sunset at three o’clock? But it is that the Christian should be on guard for these things because our Lord tells us that the day is drawing near, the days are coming to a close.
You kind of feel a little bit bad for the apostles. After all, after hearing Jesus's words in our gospel reading today, you've got to expect that they kind of thought that the end would be coming soon. And as they were tortured, as their backs were flayed open, as they were boiled alive, as they were crucified upside down, as they were cut and maimed and run through with the sword, you have to believe that they were saying, Any time would be fine now, Jesus.
And yet he tarries. And it's not that different today. After all Christians all over the world are going through the very same thing that the apostles would go through. Even we here in this country, even again in relative comfort and ease, see how the world is difficult and dangerous. We see how things play us. The sicknesses that we deal with, the grief that we bear, the financial burdens we encounter. All these things are weighing on us. And our cry, as it is with the entire church, is How long, O Lord. The martyrs teach us this. It's appropriate to talk about them following after All Saints Sunday, where the martyrs under the altar of God, as they await the Lord's return, cry out, How long, O Lord until you take your vengeance. We hope it's soon. I hope he comes back very soon. After all, it's been awhile. It's been a long time. And yet it is in his mercy that he waits. It's not because he's forgotten about us. It's not because he's stopped caring. It's not because he wants us to go through all these trials and tribulations and he gets some joy out of watching it. But it's out of his mercy, because the longer our Lord waits, the longer it is that we have to reach others with the very good news of Jesus Christ, that he has died to take away the sins of the world.
Isn't that what our Epistle lesson was telling us, that our Lord offered once for all the sacrifice of all sins and after doing so, sat down at the right hand of God until all of his enemies would be put under his feet? He waits, he waits. He waits for all people whose names are written in the book of life. That's what Daniel tells us. He's waiting. And we sit here and we go, yeah, I'm waiting too. And I want it to be done. I'm waiting. I can't tell you how many times I've cried out for the Lord to return. And I don't know how many more times in my life I will cry out. I literally don't have that number. I don't know when my end will be, nor do you. We don't know when we will die in this life. We don't know when our Lord will return. If we're still living, we wait.
That's hard. It's hard. Peter and James and John and Andrew, they hear Jesus saying, The temple is going to be torn down, not one stone on top of the other. And they're going, Wow, that's really scary. They love that temple. They grew up in that temple. So, they come to Jesus and they're like, All right, I know you can't tell everybody, but you can tell us. I mean, we’re your buddies. We’re your close friends. Tell us when these things going to happen. It says Jesus began to say to them. And I think, when you see this, this happens a few times in the gospel lessons where Jesus begins to teach, or Jesus begins to say, and I think the implication is not that he wasn't able to say these things, but he wasn't able to reach them at this time. He wasn't able to teach them fully about what it is that he's actually saying.
And what does he say? There's going to be many people who come in my name. And I think that's some people who are claiming themselves to be Jesus Christ. And we certainly have those people. I think of David Koresh with the massacre at Waco. I think of Reverend Moon with the cult of the Moonies. I mean, they all claim to be Jesus, but I think too, it's people who are claiming to represent him and do it wrongly. After all it is your pastor who stands in front of you week in and week out and he says, In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all of your sins. Now, you can trust that because that’s in Christ’s Word. I am claiming, in the name of Jesus, to stand before you and be able to do this, because this is what Jesus has said, but there are some who claim to be in the stead of Jesus who speak things that don't belong in the Scriptures. So you've got these people who start these heretical groups, these cults, who claim to be coming in the name of the Lord, and when that happens, you know that the time is approaching.
You're gonna hear wars and rumors of wars. I mean, we just ended probably one of the longest wars in American history, much less the history of the world, where we warred against an enemy that really couldn't be conquered. More of that, and we know our Lord is coming. But he says, when you hear these things, when you see these things happening, don't be alarmed; the end isn't yet. In fact, the time for alarm is coming because there's going to be earthquakes and there's going to be famines and kingdoms are going to rise up against kingdoms. And these are just the beginnings of the birth pains.
If this is the beginning of the birth pang, can you imagine what it's going to be like as he approaches? Many of you probably have, and, if you've not dealt with this yourself, as I have not dealt with this myself, I certainly watched it happen. The beginnings of those birth pains are super fun, right? When Liz went into labor with Eli, when her water broke, we went to Subway. Nothing was too bad yet and we wanted to get her some food before we went to the hospital because she wouldn’t be allowed to eat until it was all over. So, we ate and enjoyed it and we got ready. We went to the hospital and we waited. The labor wasn’t too bad for a while, though it certainly wasn’t exactly fun, but then it got worse and worse until finally, finally it was time to push and that hurt. I mean, she had the epidural and everything, and I think it still hurt.
All this terrible stuff that Jesus says is going to happen is just the beginning of the birth pains. It’s just the trip to Subway. Earthquakes, wars, heresies. That's the beginning. What's it going to be like at the end? If these are the minor contractions, then what is going to be thrown at us when the labor of the world is nearing its end?
It ain't gonna be pretty. It's not going to be pretty. In fact, it's going to get so bad that they're going to deliver you over to councils and they're going to take you into the synagogues. Maybe not you into the synagogue, but certainly the apostles into the synagogues. And you'll stand before governors and kings for Jesus’ sake and be witnesses to them. And you’ll be beaten. You’ll be murdered. You’ll be crucified. They’re going to bring you to trial. They're going to deliver you over. It's going to be bad. The world is going to grow darker and darker and darker.
So, what hope is there? Where do you put your hope? When a world grows darker like this, where’s your hope go? I mean, we actually have a name for what happens to us during the season called SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder, where people start getting a little bit blue because of how dark it is and they don't see the green. Some people have posited that's why the idea of bringing evergreens into the house during the Christmas and Advent seasons, that's part of what helps alleviate some of that. I don't know about you. I've been listening to Christmas music since the beginning of October. Makes you feel good after a while, right?
What do you do when the world goes dark? Where's your hope? How do you persevere? It's simple enough to say that our hope is, of course, in Christ; we can say that. How do you feel that? How did you know that? How do you make that part of who you are, of your life, of your experience? I can't say I have all the answers for you. I wish I did. I wish I could say that things are easy. I can tell you certain things: be in church, remember your baptism, come to the Sacrament of the Altar, receive the forgiveness of your sins, be strengthened in the faith. Those are the good things, but how does that become personal for you? That's an answer that really only you and your God have between you, the faith that he's given you will be nourished by these things. Will you grasp on to it? Will you hold onto it as you stand before the kings and the governors in the synagogues and the councils? Is it going to be enough for you? Because the reality is, I don't know if it's really enough for anybody, because if it's dependent on all this stuff that I have to do, if it's dependent on me getting my butt into church every week, it makes it hard. If this is on my power, on my authority, my responsibility, then I think I’m not going to have much hope at all.
I confessed to my class that I was teaching this week, even as a pastor, there are days when I come to work and I stand in front of the congregation and I go through the service. And all of a sudden I looked down in the bulletin and I think, how did I get to this point? You know what I mean? Like when you're driving down the road and all of a sudden you're at a whole other spot down the highway, and you're like, I don't remember the last three miles. I hope I was paying attention and didn't run anybody off the road. And you kind of feel like that sometimes as a pastor, leading a service where all of a sudden you don’t know where you're at in the service and how you got there. And you're just hoping that you didn't say anything really stupid in the meantime. Your heart's not completely in it. And if it's that way for a pastor, I know that it's that way for parishioners. If it's dependent on us to build our hope, to make us feel good, to rely on our own strength to say, oh yeah, I'm a Christian and Christ will see me through, then we don't have hope.
But instead, if we do what Jesus says, to not be anxious about these things, I think that's a better option. Sure. We notice the world getting darker, but don’t be anxious. Sure. You're going to feel the earthquake, but don't be anxious. Yes. You're going to be taken before all of these people and you're going to have to give an account, but don't be anxious. And why? Because you are baptized. The Holy Spirit, who came to you in your Baptism, will guide you into all that you need to know and all that you need to say. There’s your hope. It’s not on you; it’s on God, and that’s okay. He will give you what you need. He calls you. He motivates you to receive His gifts. He brings you to where you need to be. He gives you hope. You don’t have to create it on your own; don’t be anxious, He’s got you in his hands.
It might be that your children betray you. It might be that you've betrayed your children. It might be that they betrayed their kids. Who knows. It might get really bad for you. This life, there is no promise of happiness. There's no God wants you to be happy, healthy, wealthy and wise. That's not it. This life, God desires for you to turn your eyes to the crucified and risen one. And he's going to do that because he's given you the gift of the Spirit and that's the Spirit's job. The Spirit’s only desire is to turn your eyes to Jesus. And he's going to do that.
Don't be anxious. Don't worry about the things that are going to happen in this world. Yes. The temples will fall. Yes. The churches will tumble. Yes. The world is going to hell in a handbag, but don't be anxious. The Lord is sitting at the right hand of the Father. He has written your name in the book of life. And even if the day comes, when you are under the altar of God, crying out with all the martyrs around you, saying, How long, O Lord, the answer is soon. It may not be as our eyes are open in this life. But the answer is soon.
Yes. The Lord is waiting. Yes, he's tarrying. But remember, it is out of his mercy that he does so. And if it's out of his mercy that he is waiting to come back to reshape this earth into what exactly what he wants it to be, if he's waiting to come and take you up out of your grave, there is no need for you to be anxious. When Christ has mercy, you can know all things have been made well. You know that the forgiveness of sins has been offered for you. You know that, if he has had mercy on you, then all things are under his rule and under his reign. He has no need to do any more. And neither do you. Don't be anxious. The Spirit will guide you into all that you need to know, all that you need to say. Our Lord has his own confidence in the means that he has given to this church, his Word and His Sacraments–his word will do what he says it will do, create faith in those who hear it, and His Sacraments will strengthen your faith and guide you into everlasting life. The one who endures until the end will be saved. The one who closes their eyes in death to see the cross will be saved. The one whose eyes are pointed to the sky to see where their Lord is coming back from will be saved. And that’s you. Do not be anxious, but put your hope in Christ, for he has given you here today all that you need to endure. In Jesus' name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on November 7, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Matthew 5:1-12. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, the fifth chapter:
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
This list of beatitudes that we have in front of us has often been said that it is the attitude that Christians need to be, right? The attitude that you need to have? And I don't think that that's good. I don't think it's good. Jesus points all of these wonderful things, the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the hungry and thirsty for righteousness, the merciful, the pure at heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted, and he doesn’t say say that you are blessed if you work at being these. He says that those who are these things are blessed. There’s a stative quality in what Jesus is saying, that this is what people are.
Now, you might read through them and think, Well, that’s not me. I’m not poor in spirit or meek. I’m pretty full of myself. I’m not merciful or a peacemaker. I thrive on chaos. Or maybe you think, I’m not mourning, for I know the hope I have. I’m not hungry or thirsty for righteousness. I know how to get it. Or maybe it’s, I’m not pure in heart. I know my sins. I know I’m bad. I’m not persecuted. I often think I am when people make life difficult, but I’m not really persecuted yet. Me, Lewis, I’m not these things, and neither are you.
Except… except for the fact that Jesus, in his death upon the cross, has declared you to be righteous. We talked about this last week for Reformation Day. This righteousness of God is not some fake righteousness. It's not something where God and you will look at each other with a wink, wink, nudge, nudge. It's a real righteousness. When Jesus says you are righteous, He really means it. He's given to you not your own righteousness, but his righteousness. And it changes you.
You might say, Well, that sounds good, pastor. Wouldn't that be lovely? I'm still a sinner. And I know I don't match up to these things. After all pastor, you just said that you didn't match up to these things. What hope is there for me? Well, while it's true that, in this life, we do struggle against our sinful flesh until the day that we die, the fact is that God sees you as one of his righteous children; he says you're righteous. And thus you are. And that righteousness that he's given to you from the cross, it does these things to you. It bespeaks these things of you and that's good.
And so you may not think that you are poor in spirit or that you are one of the mourners or that you are one of the meek or that you hunger or thirst for righteousness or that you're merciful or that you're pure at heart or that you're a peacemaker, but God says you are. That stative quality that's here in these beatitudes is true of you right now.
Now you may not be able to figure out all the ways that you can do these things, but if you have been converted by Christ, if you have been strengthened in the faith, if you've been given all of the gifts of God in this church or any other church that you've been a part of, then you have these things because you are of that Christian faith and that faith that God has given to you is perfect. It will not let you down. That faith is in you. And it is continually constantly converting you, turning you away from your sinful heart and turning you towards the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we fix our eyes more and more and more upon him, we begin to see more and more and more of these things in ourselves because we look more and more like him, the one who these beatitudes truly describe. Jesus is the fulfillment of all these things. He gives them to you. And so you are all of them.
Let’s consider each one. Poor in spirit. I've had some people, and I won't say where or who, but who tell me they don't like it when we confess the words, I a poor, miserable sinner…They don't like those words, poor and miserable, because they go, well, I'm happy. God's given me joy. I say, yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about, but I've seen you. I know that you are a poor, miserable sinner. I know how your life really is. In truth, it is only those who confess, only those who have come to the knowledge that they are poor and miserable sinners, that can be saved. You have to be broken by the law to see that this is true, and then, in faith, you repent. And when you do, you see that you are poor in spirit, and, if that's true, then yours is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn. This is appropriate on All Saints’ Day, that we think of our mourning. You know, this is the second All Saints’ Day now that I've been without my father, and all through this week as this day has drawn closer, I miss my dad more and more and more. It's funny how grief works. I think many of you have experienced this yourselves, where that grief doesn't just go away over time, it ebbs and flows and some days are better than others. And this week for me has not been a good one, at least not in my mourning, but that's good because if I had no love in my heart, I would not mourn. The love I have for him makes me miss him, and still I do not mourn as one without hope. The mourning and loss is real, but we know it’s only for a time. The day of comfort is coming when Christ will come and take away that grief and that sorrow and that pain from you in the day of the resurrection.
Blessed are the meek. I don't know why, but whenever I hear the word meek, I think of like a little mouse peeking out of its little hidey hole in the baseboard, looking out to see if the cat’s around that he might come out and finally steal something. And I think that's actually not a bad picture of what's happening. I don't know where that image came from, but I think it's a good one, that we kind of look around cautiously and we see, is there anything, just a crumb that God has provided to us that we might live yet another day? And as we look, we find that God provides for us all of our needs. And that's a wonderful picture. Out of his provision, he will give you not just what you need to survive, but the entire earth will bend to our wills, giving us what we want and command. We will never go hungry, but instead we will feast at the table of the Lord for eternity. We will inherit the earth and all of her bounty. Even as we're looking forward to Thanksgiving, where they're saying this Thanksgiving is going to be the most expensive holiday in memory, and that some of our Thanksgiving dinners might be a little bit more meager than they have been in past years.Yet still we can see how our Lord provides and, in this, give thanks to him gor bringing forth the fruit of the earth that he might take care of us.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Now it's easy to get this confused with the world's pursuit of justice, because often what the world wants to do is get vengeance. That's what it's looking for. Just consider cancel culture. It's a big thing today. Someone has said or has done the wrong thing. And that person has tried to try to cancel that person out of existence, like they don't even exist. That's the justice of this world. But here, this righteousness that we are to hunger and thirst for is the righteousness of God, the thing that he demands of us. And what does the righteousness of God look like but to obey the 10 commandments. We seek to live according to them and we know that it would be better if everyone in the world did, too. We want this, because that’s what the heart of faith inspires in us. That desire, the righteousness of God even, has been given to you. And we continue to mirror that in our lives. After all, if we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we will be satisfied. It is enough for you to go to bed at the end of the day and say, I have done all that I can according to your law, forgive me for when I have fallen. And even if you go to bed hungry, you can go to bed satisfied because our Lord says, this is what I desire of you.
Blessed are the merciful. Mercy is a wonderful word. I often say, grace is the getting of things that you don't deserve, but mercy is not getting the things that you do deserve. So in the mercy of God, we do not earn his wrath. We do not earn his hell. We do not earn anything evil from God's hand, because he has had mercy upon you. You will not be forsaken, because of his mercy. And so it is for us that as we look to God as our example, we also are merciful. That means that when another sins against us, when they do the wrong thing, we say, I shall have mercy. I shall forgive. As I have been forgiven, I will not hold this sin against you that it might be a testimony against you to send you to hell, but I will forgive what you have done. What a blessed thing. This sounds like the Lord’s prayer. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. This means that we are asking God to forgive us in the very way that we forgive others. What a scary thought that is, that we would hold something against someone. God wouldn’t do that to you, withholding his mercy, why should we to others? Thus, when we forgive we know that we are forgiven, and receive his mercy all the more.
Blessed are the pure in heart. Now, this is an interesting one, of course, because again, we try and we look at ourselves with honest eyes and we say, no, I'm a sinner. I know that I'm not pure in heart. The desires of my heart are evil. And yet still Christ has declared you to be clean. He has washed you in the blood of the lamb. And if that's the case, it is as if the angel has flown to you and taken your entire body and pressed it against that burning coal that he pressed against Isaiah's lips to make his lips clean. So also has he made you your body, your soul, your being clean, thus also then your heart is pure, spotless. You are just like the lambs that were offered up in the temple, just like the Lamb that was offered up on the cross. To be made now clean, just like Christ, you have been counted as a child off God.
Blessed are the peacemakers. Now you look around and you go, well, I'm not always good at that. I know when I get that juicy tidbit of gossip, I love that. I revel when the world is coming against other people, I love seeing people get their just desserts. In fact, I love to even be a part of it. But if we are to be after the will of God, we make peace with our brothers, our sisters, just as the Lord has made peace with God for us. Have you seen this image? It's not often a very good image. It's used inappropriately most of the time, where God is on one cliff and man is on another cliff and the only way to bridge that divide is the cross. It comes down and rests between them and then the man runs over to God. And that’s not good. Instead, the cross comes between God and man and Jesus runs over to the man, picks him up, and drags him over to the God side of the divide. That’s what we should have in mind, and that’s what it is to make peace, leaving everything you are and have behind to bring the righteousness of God, the mercy of God to anyone who needs it.
Blessed are the persecuted. I like this. It's not enough that we're facing bad stuff. It's when we are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, meaning that we take the stand on Jesus's account, right? Because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Notice this is the same as the poor in spirit; you get the same thing. This is the same result because, when you are poor in spirit, you will be persecuted for the sake of Christ. When you are poor in spirit, the world will come at you. Now, granted, here in America, we've lived in relative comfort and stability. Most people have been accepting of Christians. I think the tide is turning in this a little bit. And yet still the world comes after you. Maybe not through all the work of the people around you, but certainly by the world's devices. And it chases you. And it tries to make you follow in its ways. But when you are poor in spirit, when you were persecuted by the world, you know that the kingdom of heaven is yours, for even persecution leads to death. And there you walk through the doors of death and into everlasting life.
Now notice, too, then Jesus flips the script. Blessed are those, blessed are those, blessed are those, blessed are those, blessed are you. He says in verse 11, blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. He is not only just repeating verse 10, but now he's making it very personal that you would know that all of these beatitudes are about you. Whether you think you match up to these unattainable goals or not, Jesus says, this is about you. You know this is about you. And in this, in all of this, as you are poor, as you are mourning, as you are meek, as you are hungry, as you are merciful and pure in heart, as you're a peacemaker, as you are persecuted, rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven. After all, everybody who's come before you, all the prophets who brought forth the word of God, they all were killed. We should expect nothing less.
Now this text is wonderful for All Saints’ Day, because it reminds us that we are saints in Jesus Christ. He has made us holy by the blood of the Lamb. That's what the word saint means, holy; you are one of the saints of Christ. You are one of those coming out of the great tribulation. Your holiness is from Christ and it is all of these things. You are one of the saints of Christ. You and all those that we remember in our hearts, all of those who have died in the faith, you and they are saints in Christ. You are a sinner. You struggle against that sinful flesh day in and day out, but you've come to this place. You've come to hear of the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. You've come to receive the strengthening of faith. You've come to have your eyes turned to Jesus in everything that you see and think and say, and so you are one of his saints. And so this day, even as we celebrate All Saints’ Day, we celebrate you, too.
We certainly are going to remember those faithful departed, but we're celebrating you, too. I'm not saying that you're going to die this year. You might; I don't know. I'm no prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet. But this is a day where we celebrate what Christ has done in you, that he has made you all of these things. You do not need to work to attain them, but they have been attained for you through the perfect obedience of Christ and delivered to you by his blood. So take confidence, my friends, these are not attitudes that you need to seek after. They are yours. They have already been given to you. All that is left now is to see that our Lord is blessing you through each of them. You are blessed, dear saints, and your reward is great in heaven. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on October 31, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Romans 3:19-28. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from Paul’s Letter to the Romans, the third chapter:
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
The righteousness of God. This is the phrase that gave Luther the most trouble prior to the Reformation. Now let's do a little bit of a history here. Luther, you know, was a monk, an Augustinian monk. The Augustinians were focused greatly on the knowledge of God and the teaching of that knowledge; it was an educational order. And so it was important for Luther to well know a whole lot about the doctrines of the church and to teach them to the people. As he studied and worked, he became greatly troubled by this phrase, the righteousness of God. It comes up in quite a few places through the Scriptures. The church had taught this righteousness of God is the thing that we are to seek, the thing that we try to grow into, the thing that we attain by showing God our good works. By the end of our life, we are to be righteous as God is righteous. The problem for Luther was that, well, he wasn't attaining that, he was having difficulty. He was so focused on being righteous and he realized it wasn’t just his deeds that showed he was righteous, but how he completed those deeds, the motivation and the execution.
And so when Luther was assigned things like scrubbing the bricks that made up the hallway, he wouldn't take the big boar bristle brush. He would take the small brush and he would scrub in between all the grout and in the cracks and in the gaps in the stone and work to get all of the dirt out. Still, he wasn't satisfied. His work was lacking in his mind. He thought the problem was how it translated from his mind to his body, so he tried to discipline his body so that there were no more temptations, there were no more stray thoughts. He thought that if he can get his body under control, then maybe his mind would follow, that his inclinations, his desires would be tending toward God and not toward the sin that inhabited his heart. And so he would go back to his little dorm room and he would grab his flagelater and he would whip his back until it hurt and it was bloody. It wasn't enough. He began to realize that his heart was the problem. And so he started confessing every single thing that he could imagine, because he knew that, according to church teaching, if he went into his death with unconfessed, unforgiven, unabsolved, impenitent sin, he would be consigned to spend time in purgatory. And so he went to his father confessor, Johann Staupitz, and he would confess every single little thing, every stray thought, every stray feeling, every stray emotion, not to mention all the other stuff that he would do, like that one brick that he just couldn't get everything out of or the one time he didn't feel like he whipped himself enough. It got so bad that Staupitz actually looked at Luther one day and said, Come back when you have something interesting to confess.
Staupitz knew Luther was troubled. So Staupitz assigned Luther to Wittenberg. He had a teaching position open at the university and a preaching position open in St. Mary's church. And so he said, Luther, get your mind off of yourself and onto something and someone else, and sent him to Wittenberg to teach. And Luther began to teach. Now, Luther was a pretty decent scholar, but it wasn’t like he was able to really study the Scriptures up to that point. You must remember that the Bible, at that time, was not exactly available for everybody to pick up and start reading. The printing press had really just been invented and Bibles were coming off of it left and right, but they still weren't as ubiquitous as we find them today. I myself, I think have at least seven different copies of just the ESV translation in my office, not to mention all the other copies of other translations. Luther was lucky if he was able to get just a single book out of the Scriptures. And on top of that, the books were written in Latin, not the original Hebrew or Greek. Now, if you knew Latin like Luther did, it was fine, but it wasn’t the original. So he learned the languages and got into those copies, too.
But really, he began learning even as he was teaching. And as he was learning, he was teaching things like the book of Genesis. And he saw a whole lot of God in Genesis, a wrathful God that would pour out his wrath on the nations, even going so far as to destroy the entire world in a flood. Then he was preaching in the New Testament, teaching Galatians and Romans. And he started getting an inkling that maybe everything that he knew about this righteousness of God wasn't exactly right. The righteousness of God is what he had been told was something that he was supposed to achieve in this life, something that he was supposed to strive for. But, well, Paul gave him pause.
Paul talks about it in Romans chapter three, this righteousness of God. And he talks about it as if God is the one who makes us righteous, not the one who demands that we be righteous. Well, we all know kind of how the story goes. Luther gets ticked off at Johann Tetzel, who's preaching and teaching about indulgences and trying to sell people into salvation and Luther posts the 95 theses, which really is just a Roman Catholic document and wasn’t Lutheran at all. That’s why we celebrate on October 31st, because that's when he put that up on St. Mary’s door, but that's not really the Reformation–it may have been the spark that ignited the fire, but the fire caught on when Luther caught on to the righteousness of God and how it comes to him as a free gift through Jesus Christ. After all, Paul tells us that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
Now, Luther would look at this as a Roman Catholic and go, Yes, yes, Paul, the law is what holds us accountable to God. Thus, we must fulfill the law in our works. Sounds good. And in a way it's true. After all, doesn't God tell us if you obey all that is within the law, you shall live. Luther knew this to be true. And so he tried and failed because he was a sinner. He knew that before God, his mouth was stopped because of being accountable to God means I have no defense. Now you can try to justify yourself before God, but good luck with that. You'll get into heaven over the cold dead body of Jesus, which of course we know is neither cold nor dead, but Luther knew that if this was true, there was no hope for him. To be accountable to God by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight.
Luther read this and was in terror. He read this and knew that he indeed had no chance of getting into eternal life life with Christ because his works of the law were woefully lacking, there was always more that he could do. I mean, the monks were dedicated to doing the works of the law. They set everything aside, even family and obligations to go into monasteries, because this was seen as a good work that would propel you straight into heaven. Luther did this; he went against his father's wishes to be a lawyer. His father, a simple miner and no lord, had paid for his way through law school so that in their old age, Luther could take care of old Hans and Margarethe. So Hans set the money aside, but Luther entered into the church, entered to become a monk. It was more holy than even obeying your father and your mother. And now faced with the demand of the righteousness of God, Luther knew that he had disobeyed his father and mother. He broke the law. He still had disobedience in his heart and on his hands because he knew what his sin was.
After all, doesn't Paul say, I did not know what it was to covet until I heard the law that says do not covet. And thus, I coveted all the more. Luther knew that all the law was increased when he heard it; every time he heard, Honor God, he realized he did not honor God and his heart did not want to honor God all the more. Every time he heard, Honor your father and mother, he knew that he had not honored his father and mother and so he desired not to honor them even more. Every time he heard, Do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not covet, he knew that his heart increased his trespass. And so there was no standing before God.
And so this righteousness of God was out of reach until he realized that the righteousness of God, as Paul says, has been manifested apart from the law although the law and the prophets do bear witness to it. They had testified that the righteousness of God was coming. The righteousness of God was there for all of the people. The righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. I believe, said Luther, I rest my hope in Jesus. Do I then have this righteousness of God? He got to ask this question of his students. And his students loved him for this because they saw a professor who was struggling to understand the word of God. And as he struggled to understand it, so also did they struggle as he worked through it, so also did they work through it as he held fast to the word. So, too, would they hold fast to the word. And they began to disseminate his teachings out into the world. And the struggle became real.
This righteousness of God that comes through faith in Jesus Christ, is Luther's and it is yours for you have faith in Christ. You look to the one who was crucified upon the cross. You look to the one who is resurrected out of the grave. You look to the one who has ascended at the right hand of God the Father, and looks at you, not as a judge, who's going to hold you to account for all of the evil that you've done, but instead is the one who has born all the punishment of God, His wrath poured down upon him on that cross and who says, No, you will not bear up under the judgment of God. You instead have my righteousness. Christ and his final word from the cross, tetelestai, It is finished, declares you to be righteous. And this is not some kind of fake righteousness where you walk around and you go, Well, Lord, I know that I'm a sinner, but you think I'm righteous. Well, let's just keep that arrangement between the two of us. This righteousness is a real righteousness for when the Lord speaks, things happen. When the Lord says, let there be light, there is light. When the Lord says, let there be earth, there is earth. When the Lord says, let the earth bring forth vegetation, it does. When the Lord says, let the earth bring forth the beast of the field, it does. When the Lord speaks, the universe complies. So, when he speaks to you that you are a righteous child of God, you truly are, but not by your works, by the Lord's works. The Lord Jesus Christ’s works.
You are righteous. He has completed all things. All things have been obeyed by him. He has fulfilled the law and gives that righteousness to you. And you know that that's true because Christ died. The law says, if you live perfectly, you shall live. Christ did this. He lived perfectly. There is no way that he should have died upon that cross unless the righteousness that he had earned is given away to you. And thus, he dies in peace. But of course we know that's not all. The rest of the story, thank you, Paul Harvey, is that Christ is vindicated in his death. And he’s raised from the dead, bringing you into life, everlasting with him. He is the righteousness of God. He is the thing delivered to you by faith. He is the one that points you to the fact that you have been saved.
You belong to God. And as Luther discovered this, he proclaimed it from his classroom. He proclaimed it from his pulpit. He declared it in front of councils, in diets, in front of the emperors and popes and said, No, the righteousness of God is a free gift given to me by Jesus Christ. And you may take my life, but you will never take away the freedom that I have in Christ Jesus, the freedom of salvation, the freedom to know that, yes, I am a sinner, but my propitiation, the greatest bulwark against the flood of God's wrath, is Jesus Christ. And you cannot take him from me.
Jesus, his righteousness is here. He gives it to you in his word, through his absolution, through the sacraments. The righteousness of God comes to you in these things. Luther held fast to this. And so, too, should you, so that you may see that God is passing over your sins for he has already poured his wrath upon his son who took your sin to himself and looks at you with his favor and his grace because you have this righteousness of God. There is no cause for us to work for our salvation. There is no cause to judge our works or others’ works and see how far we’ve gone or how far we’ve fallen. We should know that, yes, we are all just poor, miserable sinners. And yet, we all have been given the gift of Christ's righteousness. All of us are poor, miserable sinners. And all of us have been given the grace to know that we are saved. That salvation that comes to us through the blood of Jesus Christ. We have been given this today.
We give thanks for Martin Luther. We give thanks for this doctrine that he brought back into the church. We give thanks that we indeed have been saved and that we may know for certain that we shall see our Lord face to face. We know that in that day we will not stand before him facing his wrath, facing his judgment unto hell, but, instead, we'll be welcomed into the place, the rest that has been prepared for us since before the foundation of the world.
Imagine, if you will, not knowing this, the horror that must come across as you discover that the law is good and God demands our obedience to the law. Imagine that just for a moment, that is what we should feel. We should know that we are sinners. We should know in our hearts that we have only earned God's condemnation, but now in Christ, by faith, we also know that one is justified apart from the works of the law, not because of us, but because of Jesus. May we all have the strength to apprehend that this day, that you have been saved through the blood of Christ poured out for you and that you indeed are welcomed into life everlasting, never more to worry, never more to suffer, never more to be put to shame, but to know that Christ Jesus is yours now and forever. The righteousness of God is yours this day and always. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached on the occasion of the Funeral of +Gloria Jane Tonn+, October 29, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on selected verses from John 14. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this day is from the Gospel according to St. John, the 14th chapter:
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
Thus far the text.
Mike, Stephanie, family, and my dear friends in Christ,
I’ve mentioned it to a few of you, but there are not many times a pastor finds himself speechless. The morning Stephanie called me to tell me that Gloria had fallen asleep in Jesus was one of them. How could it be Gloria? I mean no offense, but there are other people that make a whole lot more sense to go before her. And I have found that many of you have thought and felt the same way. How could it be Gloria? Gloria, so full of life, so full of comfort, so full of Jesus; it doesn’t make sense. I think I managed to say some of the right words to Stephanie and Mike when they came to meet with me, but it’s still troubling. After all, if Gloria can be taken to her Lord, ain’t nobody safe. Am I next? Are you?
Let not your hearts be troubled, our Lord says. And so we should not. But that’s easier said than done. Still, remember that Gloria spent so many years teaching you, her students, this. She encouraged you, her friends in this. She stood by you in life and reminded you, edified you, exhorted you to remember this. And I know that because she even did that for me.
Gloria had a faith of which all of us could be envious. She believed. If ever there was a believer, it goes St. Paul, St. Peter, Gloria, the rest of the apostles, and we all fall in down the line there. She believed in God. She trusted in Christ. And this wasn’t of her own doing, but it was God’s gift to her. He gave her the faith that she shared with all of us and He gave her the talents to do it in a way that reached to each and every person she touched. He did it. Give God the glory for Gloria, because, man, He knew what He was doing with her. And so did she. She used her gifts for all of us, to teach, to tend to the business of the Church, to prepare the Supper for us to receive in this place, to lift you up, to make us laugh, to point us to our Savior.
Gloria’s faith endures. Let not your hearts be troubled. Gloria is at peace and, because of her good work, by faith in Christ, you will be at peace someday, too. She is with her Lord, seeing His face, living for now in the place prepared for her, and awaiting His return and hers to this earth to live forever with Him and with us. And yet, Gloria is still here. She’s right there, in that urn. That’s Gloria. It’s not just her body; it’s her. Death has made it so that she in two places at once, here with us now and soon in the ground and with her Savior. Don’t let that scare you; she is not suffering but is at peace, and soon, very soon, we pray, she’ll be at rest when this body is raised from the ground and is joined together with her soul, with her, again to live forever in the light of Christ.
Death is in front us, and it awaits us, too. We are gathered here because of death, we are called to this place because of death. And seeing the effect of death, we know that we will soon be called into it as well. It’s what awaits us. If it can take Gloria, it can take us. It’s the wages of sin. It’s how we know that Gloria was indeed a sinner.
We’re sinners, too. We know this. We’ve grown older, some of us creakier. We get sick. We suffer. We grieve. We die. We’re sinners. And still, let not your hearts be troubled. Rejoice, believers. Rejoice always, and give thanks in every circumstance, for you are not in darkness. You do not lack the knowledge of what it is to be saved. The faith that clings to Christ is here for you; grasp it, hold on to it. You have been ministered to by Jesus Himself who tells you, just as He did Gloria, that, in Him, in His death, your sins are forgiven. He tells you that He has died for you, to save you, and He rose from dead that you might have eternal life. Isn’t this what Gloria has been telling you for years? Isn’t this what she was pointing you towards? Or did she waste her time and energy? All her work was done that those who gather in this place would receive the forgiveness of Christ through the Word, through Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. All her work was done that those who came under her care would receive eternal life in Christ’s name.
Gloria knew the way to God, and she taught it to you. Gloria knew the way, and His name is Jesus. He will not leave you as orphans, wandering alone, but will come to you, and He has come to you this day even through the reading and preaching of His Word. He will not let you struggle and falter and fail, but will guide you just as His Father commands. He is the way and the truth and life, and He is calling to you this day to follow Him, to learn from Him, to live in Him. What a glorious calling we have, that our stronghold, our fortress is Christ who protects and brings to us all that we need.
It’s more than appropriate we are having this funeral Reformation Day weekend, a day we have set aside to give thanks to God for protecting His Word, guarding it and us, letting us see the free salvation won for us by Jesus Christ, because this is what Gloria was all about. She was a Reformation Christian, one who knew that all she had was a gift from the Lord, one who knew that she would live again, one who knew that she was not forsaken by God but beloved by Him. This is what she was about, and it is what we are about, too.
We have peace with God in Christ Jesus. We have peace and reconciliation with the Father, and that gives us the peace that passes all understanding. We have peace with God through the death and resurrection of Christ and thus we do not let our hearts be troubled, but we rejoice. Is it sad that Gloria has died? Yes! Of course it is. We grieve, but not as those without hope. We grieve because we aren’t with her now, but we will be again. And even while we grieve, we rejoice. We give thanks. We honor God with our lips and our hearts for all that He has done for us and for Gloria.
Let not your hearts be troubled. If you have been given the gift of faith, you need not fear. You will be taken care of, you, even if you die as you leave this place, will be taken into the fortress of your God, Jesus Christ, the bulwark never failing. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. The Lord has saved you and He will one day bring you from the ground, just as He will Gloria. The Holy Spirit guided her in life, and now guards her in death even to the day of Resurrection. May He do the same for you as He did Gloria, that you would live lives of faithful service, that you would share Christ in your work, that you would endure until the final, unexpected day, and guard you as you await the day that you will be be raised from the dead to live with Gloria and all the saints of Christ Jesus.
Let not your hearts be troubled. Her race is won. She is safe over the finish line. Let not your hearts be troubled, and be not afraid, for your Lord is seeing you safely there, too. Let not your hearts be troubled, but rejoice, give thanks, for your Lord is come and He will guard you in safety until you reach the shores of salvation. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on October 24, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Mark 10:46-52. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. Mark, the 10th chapter:
And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. That is the cry of the beggar, Bartimaeus. You may not have seen it the first time through, but names are important. You’ve got Bartimaeus. Now, interestingly, we're not given his first name. We're actually only given his last name, Bartimaeus. Bar in Aramaic means son, and Timaeus, the indicates the name of his father. Bartimaeus means son of Timaeus. And you can see, it's mentioned twice. Mark mentioned this twice, and really there's only one reason that the gospel writers include the names of such people: so that people can go back and find these people and ask them the question, what happened to you? Did it happen in this way? And the person can confirm the story. Yes, Jesus, the Son of David, did have mercy on me and restored my sight.
It's an incredible thing. This son of Timaeus, this blind man from birth, was able to get his sight and it didn't just happen. It only happened because he cried out for mercy. If you notice throughout all of the gospels, whenever somebody approaches Jesus and asks for mercy, he stops. You can imagine that Jesus walked everywhere and was always encountering people. At least some of those people, whether it be lack of faith, not in God’s will or timing, didn’t receive what they were asking for. But, Jesus always stops when there's a cry for mercy. This son of Timaeus cries out to this Jesus. And do you notice what he calls him? Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.
The son of Timaeus cries to the Son of David. Word of Jesus had begun to spread throughout the countryside. Jesus, this itinerant rabbi, this wandering teacher ,has now come to Jericho. Jesus, the son of Joseph, had come. After all, Jesus’ last name isn’t Christ. That’s his title. Jesus, the Christ might actually be more appropriate. Jesus’ last name would be Baryoseph or Barjoseph, son of Joseph. Now, you would expect that Bartimaeus would cry out Jesus, son of Joseph, have mercy on me, but Bartimaeus knows something that many of the people did not because Bartimaeus, having been blind from birth, had to rely very much on his hearing. And faith comes by hearing the Word of God, and in the preaching of God's word, he learned of the coming Messiah and Bartimaeus had faith in him.
So, when he began to hear of this itinerant rabbi, you know that he figured out that this Jesus was the actual Messiah, the one who has come to have mercy on Israel and to save them. Now, it may not be that Bartimaeus had a complete understanding of everything that the Messiah would save him from, but he knew this Jesus was the Messiah, which is why he calls him Son of David. After all, it would be from David's line that one would come to sit on the throne of Israel. And we know that Jesus, being of the flesh of Mary, who was in the line of David, and having been adopted by Joseph, who was in the line of David, Jesus, the son of Joseph, is now the Son of David. The line is complete. The prophecy is fulfilled and Bartimaeus, having to rely only on his hearing, knew the Word and knew this.
So he cries out to the Messiah the only cry that truly matters, Have mercy on me, and if Jesus stopped and said, I do have mercy on you, your sins are forgiven, that would have been enough. But instead, Jesus stops, hearing the call of Bartimaeus, and says, Call him, let him come to me.
You can almost imagine how the apostles hear this word and think back to when Jesus welcomed the children into their midst, do not hinder these little ones for to such as these belongs the kingdom of God. After all, everybody had tried to shut Bartimaeus up. They had told him to be quiet. You're bothering the teacher. You're bothering us. You're bothering everybody. You're a beggar. We just don't even want you around. And Jesus says, Call him, or, in other words, To one such as this beggar belongs the kingdom of God.
They stop and collect Bartimaeus, leading him by the arm to the teacher saying, Take heart, get up. He's calling you. What an amazing thing, that Jesus, when he says, Call him, was even saying more than is written down. I don't think that Jesus just said, Call him. I think he looked at this blind beggar and said, Call Bartimaeus to me, because when you call somebody, you use their name.
Jesus has power, after all, even to know the names of those around him. Do you not remember Zaccheus? You know, the wee little man, a wee little man was he, he climbed up in a Sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. And as the savior passed that way, he looked up in the tree, and he said, Zaccheus, you come down for I'm going to your house today. Remember that children's song is actually based on a real story where Jesus looks up at this small, tiny man hiding in a tree that he might see over the crowd just to get a glimpse of Jesus and Jesus, using his divine power, calls out the name of Zaccheus and says, Hey, you, Zaccheus, come to me. I'm going with you. And so it is for Bartimaeus, that Jesus would call him even by name, Son of Timaeus. come to the Son of David, that I may have mercy on you.
And he does. And Jesus goes beyond this even to say, what would you have me do for you. Here you can hear the how God said to King Solomon, Ask me for whatever you wish and I shall do it for you. And Solomon says, Lord, give me the wisdom to rule your country. And God says, because you have not asked for riches or wealth or anything else, I shall give this to you. And all these things that you have not asked for are yours also. You can find Jesus saying, Because you've asked me for mercy, I shall give you this. And all these things that you did not first ask for, I will give you. And Bartimaeus is immediately healed here. I imagine the scales falling off his eyes like Paul, the whites of those blind eyes falling away, giving rise to the most beautiful blue or green or brown eyes that you've ever seen, eyes that have never before seen anything, taking in absolutely everything. But the first thing is the sight of his savior, his Messiah, his Son of David, who has had mercy on him, and finding in that face the beloved son of God.
Jesus looks at him and he says, Go your way. Your faith has made you well. Immediately, Bartimaeus recovers his sight and he goes his way. But what is his way? His way is in the way of his master. His way is following after Jesus. This is a beautiful story, a wonderful thing in which we see the juxtaposition of the sinner, the blind man and the Messiah who has mercy on him. And so it is for us, that we who are great sinners are born blind. We cannot see the righteousness of God. It alludes us. The beauty of God escapes us. Everything around us is darkness and not light. And yet we hear the word of God: it's been preached to us, it’s been read to us, we sing it, we pray it, we meditate upon it. And finally Jesus is presented to us and we cry out with one voice, Jesus son of David have mercy on me, a sinner.
And he does. He has welcomed you into his kingdom by baptizing you in the water, which cleanses you from all of your sins. And, even more, then says, What more would you have me do for you, inviting us to pray to him, to come to him with all of our supplications, and the answer in Jesus Christ to our prayers is always yes and amen. And Jesus will give you all things that you ask him for, for he has had mercy on you. It may not be in our time, like it was for Bartimaeus, but the day is coming when your youth, when your vigor is restored, when your health is given back to you, when your grief and your sorrow and your pain are taken away, because we have seen our Jesus take these things already to himself upon the cross, he has crucified these things. He has shed his blood. He has had his body given over into death that you would have mercy given to you, mercy you cannot gain for yourself but is given as a free gift. Righteousness you cannot do, justification, salvation you cannot win, but Jesus gives you these things in his mercy and says, What more would you have me do for you?
We find that Jesus calls us even by our names. There is no better example of that than baptism. The old tradition is a good one. It’s not one that many of us have followed, I think, where you hide the child's name until they're baptized. No one knows it outside of the parents, not the government, not the siblings, not the grandparents, no one knows the child's name. And the first time that name is called to that child is when the pastor, after having asked the name, names that child… do you remember in the baptismal liturgy? How is this child to be named? Lewis Robert Polzin. And the pastor reaches out, like Pastor Potratz down at Pilgrim did for me, he reaches out his hand and he puts his hand upon me and he reaches out with another to grasp the water and begins to pour it upon my head. And he says, Lewis Robert Polzin, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And we know this is not just the pastor doing this, but the pastor being in the stead and by the command of Jesus Christ, it is as if Jesus himself is doing this, calling you by your name in your baptism. I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus calls out the name of Bartimaeus and he calls out your name, too. The Son of David has taken notice of you despite your sin, despite your blindness. And he has brought to you his mercy and his justice and his reconciliation with God. You have been freed from the sin that blinds you to the righteousness of God, to the beauty of God; open your eyes this day, for you have been made well to see the face of your God and Savior Jesus, the Son of David, who has had mercy on you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on October 17, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Mark 10:23-31. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. Mark, the 10th chapter:
And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Mark 10, verse 23 picks up right after last week's reading where the rich young man comes to Jesus and says, Lord, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus looking at him, loved him, and said, Obey the law. And the man said, Lord, all the commandments I have kept from my youth, and Jesus looks at him and says, Then one thing you have left to do, sell all that you have, give it to the poor, and come follow me. And the young man goes away sad because he had great possessions.
Today, we find out Jesus continues his teaching to his apostles. He continues this teaching saying how difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter into the kingdom of God. We have to admit that in America, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, all of us are more wealthy than any of the apostles gathered here in our text. We are even more wealthy than anything Jesus had. We are probably even more wealthy than the young man in the text. That should frighten us quite a bit because, if we have great wealth, Jesus says it will be difficult for us to enter into the kingdom of God.
Now, this passage has been abused in so many ways. Jesus here is not speaking about the evils of wealth or the evils of possessions. That's not what he's saying at all. Instead, what he's truly saying, if you see what he's teaching here, is wealth so often gets in the way of you following him. After all, what happened to this young man? He goes away sad. I mean, Jesus said, Come follow me. If I were this man, I would have fought Jesus. Why do I have to do that? Where is that in the Law? I would have put up a fight. But the young man goes away, not even bothering to argue, because he loves his wealth more than eternal life.
The end of this man’s story doesn’t happen here; it’s actually a pleasant end, passed down in Church tradition. This young man was named John Mark, and he did go and sell all his possessions. The only thing he left to himself was a small loincloth. He went and followed Jesus, even into the Garden of Gethsemane, where, scared, he ran off, leaving the loincloth behind. However, he would come back and follow after Peter as he went preaching throughout the land, writing down everything Peter said, and putting it all in a book, a book we call the Gospel of St. Mark.
John Mark was affected by the law preached by Jesus that day. He was affected by it and he followed through. Jesus said, Give up your love of your wealth and come and follow me. And John Mark did. Jesus, however does not say that to us today. Jesus is nowhere speaking to any of you saying, Give up everything that you own, sell it, give it to the poor, and come and follow me. He said that to a particular man in a particular instance. But, what Jesus does say to us is that, if we have wealth, it is difficult, and later on says almost impossible, for a person to enter into the kingdom of God. In fact, he says it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a person with great possessions to enter the kingdom of heaven.
I don't know about you, but I have enough difficulty getting a thread through the eye of a needle, much less a camel. So imagine that it is impossible to do. You cannot get a camel through the eye of a needle. It just doesn't work. And if we are looking to be saved and we have things that stand between us and the salvation of God, if we have other God's, other idols of our making, then we can not enter the kingdom of God.
And that is a truism. It is again a scary thought because we must be honest. We must hear the word of God and admit readily to ourselves that we have broken each and every single one of the commandments, which truly is a breaking of the first commandment, that you shall have no other gods aside from this one, true God; you can have no other God before him. He will abide no other false god in his presence, but instead will strike them down and their worshipers, sending them to the place prepared for the devil and his angels.
That is terrifying because now Jesus is saying that if this is true for you, if you have a false God, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. We know we know what the law is there to do. It's there to show us what we are to do, what we are not to do. It is there to show us who we are as sinners. And it shows us that, in fact, we are so depraved that no matter how hard we try, we cannot achieve righteousness and righteousness is what is required to go into the kingdom of heaven. You cannot enter the kingdom of heaven as a sinner. There is no sin allowed in the presence of God. So what do we do?
Well, we can be like this rich young man and go away sad. We're looking not just at our possessions, but at our desires, at our inclinations, at all of the ways that we live in this world, we can look at all these things and we can go away sad because there's nothing else for us to do. Or like the disciples, we can sit there and wonder at the words of Jesus and question who then can be saved. You have to wonder if the disciples are sitting around at this moment, You know, I've got that fishing business up in Galilee. Is Jesus saying I gotta sell that? You know, my father is a priest and we stand to inherit when he dies a little bit of money. Are we also now excluded from entering the kingdom of God? I mean, we've been following after Jesus for the better part of a year, at least now, are we going to enter the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus says, well, it's easier for camel to go through the eye of a needle than for you to come in.
It's easy for us to jump straight into the Gospel because we all know what the end result is. It is that promise of God, despite your sinfulness: you will enter the kingdom of heaven. Don't jump there yet. Sit in this accusation of the law, sit and wonder how is it that no matter how hard I work, I can't gain the righteousness that I owe to God. What am I supposed to do after all? If you are sitting here as an apostle this day, as Jesus would speak to them, you have not seen the cross. You have not seen the resurrection. You have not seen the Ascension. You have not seen the coming of the spirit on Pentecost, declaring all things and all people clean in Jesus Christ. You sit here dirty and that's enough, because if you can sit there for a moment and say, I am filthy, my works are, before the eyes of God, worse than the most disgusting things that clean up the most disgusting things, right? Those rags, those towels that you use to clean up the dog vomit. My works are worse than that. That's where Jesus needs you first. That's the accusation of the law spitting at you and saying, you are disgusting. The question then is, who then shall be saved? The question then is how Lord, may I be saved? How, Lord, may I enter this kingdom of heaven that you preach about? How, Lord, may I go to the place that you've prepared for me, that you've promised to me?
Jesus says to you, that according to the work and striving of man, it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. This is another instance of where I love Peter because Peter is an absolute idiot. Peter opens his big fat mouth and shoves that size 14 foot in there and says, Well, Lord, we've left everything behind. We've done exactly what you've asked. And this shows that Peter is a wonderful exerciser of missing the point. The point is not leave it all behind. The point is that God has saved you in Jesus Christ, that God uses the most horrible thing ever concocted to kill somebody to bring you to life. And on top of that, by the very death and resurrection of Jesus, he promises you that whatever it is that you do give up in this world, whether it is land, whether it is family, whether it is friends, whether it is your possessions, whether it is your honor, whether it is your good reputation, whether it is the entire world thinking well of you, he promises, you will gain it back a hundred fold in this life, with persecution, and even more so in the life to come.
When we do give up that which is in the way of us following after Jesus, when we give up the idols of our heart in repentance, when we find the forgiveness of sins, we expect the persecution to come, we expect the world to hate us. Persecution will come for us because we will not look like the world. We steadfastly refuse to bow the knee to what the world demands. Still, no matter what it is that we give up, we gain it back. But we do it through this persecution. Jesus is calling this good. Persecution, the judgment of this world, is a gift from God. You may not see it as a gift, but Jesus calls it a gift. And by faith we trust in this. By faith, we accept this as a promise of Christ, that the persecution that he sends to us is a gift leading us into everlasting life. And there, in that life, is persecution no longer, but only the benefit of God in absolutely everything that we do.
When we give up the idols, the false gods, the things that stand in the way of us looking to the one, true God and his salvation, when we repent of our sins, we find the forgiveness of God, which is better than anything that you could possibly imagine giving up. If you had to walk through the streets of Milwaukee naked and freezing in the middle of the chilliest winter, you can imagine you still have more than anyone else in this world because you have the forgiveness of Jesus Christ.
And you have the promise of everlasting life. Peter doesn't get it yet, but he will. When he sees his Jesus standing in that room after the resurrection, and he says, to Thomas, put your hand in my side, put your hand here, touch me and see that I live, Peter begins finally to understand what it is that Jesus has done for him, because Jesus speaks to him and says, Peace be with you. In the death and resurrection of Chris, there is peace. And when we are able then to repent of our sins, there's peace because there we have Jesus, and where Jesus is, there is always peace.
All of the people in this world who put themselves first, all of the people who gain all the wealth of the world and put themselves first, we find them last, not entering the kingdom of God for the gates are closed to them. This is not because they have stuff, wealth, but because they have not Jesus. Again, you can abuse this passage and say, well, be poor. Give it all up. Just follow Jesus. Instead, Jesus isn't saying, get rid of all of your wealth. He's saying don't let the wealth that you have stand in the way of me bringing my peace to you. And that is a marvelous picture because Jesus is speaking that very thing to you today, that you will enter into the kingdom of God, not by your works, which are impossible, but by the work of God, upon the cross, all things are possible, even your salvation. And you have this promise from Jesus Christ this day, and you have this promise forever. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on October 10, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Hebrews 3:12-19. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Epistle to the Hebrews, the third chapter:
Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
The idea that we can fall from the grace of God is something that many people today try to debate about. But the author here is clear: it’s possible. It’s a difficult thing to hear because we must all always be on our guard. It's very easy to do this. It is so easy for David. It was as simple as seeing something that led him astray, leading him to fall out of grace and lead him into the clutches of hell. Just seeing Bathsheba bathing on that roof was enough for sin to well up inside him, enough for him to commit adultery, enough to commit murder and to try to cover it all up before the eyes of God and before the nation of Israel. It’s easy for those 2 million Israelites who walked out of Egypt. They had been led by the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire by night, walking through the parted red sea, having manna provided and quail provided in the wilderness, having water come for them out of a rock that walked around with them. And yet still they fell from grace, hardening their hearts, turning away from the God who had done great miracles around them.
Even in our Gospel lesson, we find this man who comes up to Jesus and asks, What must I do to be saved? And Jesus says, Do the law. And he says, I've done the law. And Jesus loved this man who, by the way, we think actually is the author, Mark, writing himself in to show how such a man can be saved without giving himself acclaim. And Jesus says to him, after he loves him, Go and sell all your possessions, give it all to the poor and then come and follow me and you will have eternal life. And the young man went away sad, because that meant a lot of things would be changing for him. It was easy for him to harden his heart in that very moment and to look more to his possessions than the one true God who stood before him.
For us, it’s easy. We haven’t seen the miracles. We haven’t seen the incarnated Jesus. When was the last time any of us saw a pillar of cloud or a pillar of fire that would lead us through the water? When were any of us provided for, mystically by God, where food just appeared on our table in the middle of the night? So, how much, how much easier must it be for us to harden our hearts and to fall from the faith than for those who witnessed the great acts of God? Apparently it is not any easier, nor is it more difficult for us to do this. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews knows this. And he says, be on guard.
This is written not that long after Jesus ascended into heaven, and the author here knows from the very beginning of the Church, even for the people who saw and heard Jesus or saw and heard the people that Jesus taught, that it is going to be easy for people to turn away from God, to turn their hearts towards sin, for them to fall out of grace and then into the clutches of hell, just like David. And so the author admonishes us to keep watch over one another, exhort one another day by day. How are we doing with that?
Sometimes I think about our congregation, what it is that we are supposed to do. We have been joined together in this place to exhort one another toward good works, to exhort one another to stay out of sin, to exhort one another that we might look to the gospel of Jesus Christ and find the free forgiveness given from the cross. That's our duty. How have we been doing with that? This has been especially difficult, I think, in the time of the pandemic, where we really couldn’t join together, and we’ve gotten in a rut of staying there, even with relaxed protocols. Certainly as we've learned more and more about the virus and as more and more of us have become vaccinated and more and more of us have gotten used to all the hygienic things that we do to keep ourselves safe, we’ve been able to return to this place with no issues. But it's still hard. It's like a distrust has entered into the populace and we look around at everybody and we think, Well, how dirty are you? How gross are you? Can I go near you? Can I touch you? Can I love you? Can I even talk to you?
But I wonder about the church here, despite the pandemic. Think back. When was the last time that we had an honest discussion about the things that are going on in our lives and the things that we're dealing with, the sins that plague us and the forgiveness that we find? And when was the last time we exhorted one another toward these good works? I think for some of us, it’s been a long time. And I don't think it's a recent thing. And I don't think it's even a generational thing. I think it's been going on for a long, long time.
Now, if you have a family or you've grown up in a family, you certainly know exactly what this is like when all of a sudden, one of your siblings or your spouse or your mom and dad do something wrong, and everyone knows it. It brings about some kind of family discussion. Everyone knows the issues, and even after it’s been settled, it’s still talked about, even if it’s the guise of a joke. And that’s not a bad thing, is it? It reminds you of what happened but how people can return to grace in the family.
So it is for the congregation, too.You've got to face the sin that's in front of you so that you can deal with it and move into that which is right. The congregation is supposed to be that. In fact, the congregation is a congregation. It's a group of people that God has chosen to put in a singular place that we might be a family together. And so it's good that we talk about these things even amongst ourselves and whoever it is that wrote Hebrews tells us this exhort one another every day.
Now, even if you were not to confront the sin that other people were committing, how are we doing with exhorting people to just say, Look to Jesus, or to say, Turn from evil and turn to the good. It’s hard, for sure. But I think it’s a good practice, and I think it is because the Bible tells us to do it. It's something that we're going to have to work on and something that we all have to work on. It's why I tell people that, Well, if your heart is still beating inside your chest, you still have work to do in the church. You don't get out of it. There's always something that you must be doing, whether it's to pray for the brothers and sisters, whether it's to actually do work within the church, whether you are the chief exhorter of the congregation. Your work may change over the years but the author of this book to the Hebrews tells us that we should do one thing over everything else, exhort one another day by day. This is our every day work. And it's hard if we don't know one another. So I'd encourage you that if there's people that you don't know well, get to know them so that you can do this for them.
The author says we do it as long as the day is called today. The day comes, the day goes, you sleep, you wake up, it’s a new day. You can’t functionally talk to anyone while you’re asleep, so do it during the day, because you never know when sleep may come, whether it is the sleep of the night or the sleep of death, exhort one another, as long as it is called today. Every time you open your eyes, it is now today. And you must go forward in that. This is an every day kind of thing, because, if we share in Christ, if we exhort one another to look to the cross to find that forgiveness of sins that he has so richly promised us if we are holding fast and him, we're holding fast to the original confidence that he's given, that we are his children, that we are brothers and sisters of one another and that we have been blessed by God to go into that promised land.
It wasn't true that all of the Israelites would go into the promised land. In fact, everybody in that generation had to die off before God would allow any person to walk into the promised land now led by Joshua. Even Moses, their preeminent prophet of all prophets, the prophet by which every prophet is judged, he wasn't even allowed to go in for, they had hardened their hearts against God. They had disobeyed in every way that you could possibly imagine.
But for you, God has promised that you will see his promised land. It's not some land that we are sojourning to in this life, where we're all walking along and God is guiding us by his pillars every day. We're not walking into some place to take it over and kill all the inhabitants there that we might have the land of milk and honey, but it's a land that has already been won for you by Jesus Christ.
Your bodies may fall in this life, but the promise is still true. Sure and true. That promise that was given to you in your baptism. The promise that everlasting life is yours in Jesus Christ. This is what we exhort one another in. This is what we have to exhort one another in, because it is so easy, especially in this world today, to forget this, it is so easy to make Christianity the last thing that matters. I was teaching my students over at Concordia this week and was telling them that Christianity is about centering our lives on God and everything else falls into place. Whether it’s the money we give to God, which is first from our income and not the last morsels of the month, or whether it’s how we spend out time and attention, we make God first and foremost because He is preeminent. And when we do this, we find great joy, for our lives are fulfilled in following Christ, and we can give this same fulfillment and joy to others as we guide them in the same way.
When we don’t do this, when God is last or least in our lives, it’s easy to get hung up on the things we do as something that makes us righteous, something that earns the favor of God. And that’s not the way the cross works. For people focused this way, there is no hope of salvation. You though have the hope of salvation. You have been reentered on Christ in your Baptism. You have been strengthened through eating his body and drinking his blood in the Supper. You have been forgiven and set free to follow after the one who has redeemed you. You will enter into that promised land, not a land of this temporal world, but an eternal land, a land of life that goes beyond anything we could imagine, a land of perfection, a land without death, a land without grief or sorrow or shame or pride, a land that is centered around Jesus Christ and the worship of him.
The world is going to attack you and try to take your eyes off Christ. It is going to work to get you to fall away from faith. But, in the Church, strengthen by God and through the exhortation of the brotherhood, we remain strong, with our faces firmly set toward the promise of what is to come. Still, we don’t always know what to do or say. We need to be shown what is the good thing to do in this place. We need the Word preached rightly and the Sacraments administered properly. Only when these are done can we truly know how we are to exhort one another. As we study the scriptures together, as God's word is preached to you, as you're strengthened through the sacraments, you find the strength to do this. You find the knowledge and the wisdom to do this, to help others along their path, because these are the people that will stand next to you in the life which is to come.
These people who are around you, even now, are those who will stand with you before Jesus Christ, giving praise to the one who has redeemed us out of this world and into his marvelous light. This is why we exhort one another so that we would leave unbelief behind and grasp on to that thing that is delivered to us by faith, which is the promise of Christ for you.
Our Lord has indeed redeemed you, and you will see him and stand with him on the last day. Even through this life, as we approach that day and pray for it's coming, we know all of this is true for our Lord has himself risen from the dead and has shown us that this is coming for us. Hold fast to this, my friends, that you may leave unbelief behind and, instead, hold fast to him in faith. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on October 3, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Hebrews 2:1-13. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Epistle to the Hebrews, the second chapter:
Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.”
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Angels are always one of these things that, I think, capture the fascination of people. And honestly, it's because the angels are really weird. They are so different from us. They are in some ways lower than us and in some ways higher than us. And because of that, I think we have a tendency to look at them and wonder at them. Now you have to understand, angels are created as pure spiritual beings, just as God is spirit. They have no physical form, though they seem to be able to manifest a physical form for a time. But angels are weird. After all, in the Scriptures, some angels are depicted as having eyes that cover every square inch of their bodies. There are some angels with six wings; with two they fly, with two they cover their face, and with two they cover their feet. There are angels with four faces on their heads, a lion, an ox, an eagle, and a man. There is an angel that even looks like a giant spinning disc up in the heavens. Angels are strange and weird. There are angels who also just inspire fear wherever they appear. This last Wednesday was the Feast of St. Michael and all Angels, and so you can imagine Michael, the great angelic general of all the heavenly armies, having a giant sword in his hand as he throws Satan and his devils out of heaven and into the pit. We see Gabriel appearing to Zechariah and Mary, to tell each of them of the baby about to be born to them, both times having to tell them not to be afraid because of his appearance. Incidentally, all the angels that appeared to the shepherds at Jesus’ birth had to tell them not to be afraid, too. Incidentally, there are no angels in the Scriptures that look like those chubby little babies we see everywhere. That was just someone’s imagination running wild, I think.
Angels are pretty incredible and scary and fascinating. So much so, in fact, that it became a huge philosophical argument as to how many angels could dance on a head of a pin. The answer to that is, of course, no one knows. And anyone who has time to consider that probably has too much time on their hands. And for everything we find fascinating about them, I think it’s because they’re just so different. They are only spiritual beings. We are created as spiritual beings, but we are also created as physical beings. We are not just spirit. We are not just a soul and we're not even a soul with a body. We are soul and body, body and soul. These things are interconnected to our entire being; we shouldn’t be split up. And angels aren't like that. They aren’t and that’s good because their spiritual nature allows them to the jobs assigned to them by God.
One job is to surround us. Right now, though you cannot see them, they are all around us. All of the time they're guarding us. They are protecting us. They're watching over us in so many ways. That's their main job, actually. I mean, there are angels who are part of the choir of heaven and they sing praise to God at all times. But the angels who are here on earth, their job is to watch over you. The Scriptures even tell us very plainly that we have, at least what's known as, a guardian angel, someone who's been assigned directly to you. And yes, that means that they watch all of the good things that you do. And it might seem a little creepy, but they watch over all of the evil things that you do as well. They know the sin that you commit, but they rejoice in so many ways, especially when you come to God, repenting of your sin and you find the forgiveness of that sin in Jesus Christ. Angels are watching over you. Those times that you're in the car and you missed another one by a couple inches, well, it could be that an angel was watching over you. The Scriptures even tell us to welcome the stranger in our midst because unawares, you may be entertaining angels.
So, the author of Hebrews, and we don’t know for sure who wrote it, but I tend to think it was not Paul, but whoever it was wrote this passage and he specifically mentions that Jesus was created in his flesh, not in his divinity, but in his flesh, to be a little lower than the angels. Jesus was made to be God in flesh, and that’s an incredible thing, but what does it mean that he’s lower than the angels. Flesh is bound. Flesh is not that which is spiritual. Jesus took humanity for himself and bound himself to it forever, including being subject to our many issues, like death.
But then the author writes that we need to pay attention to this message of Jesus, the message of the Gospel, since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution. This is one of those confusing passages, because you have to ask, when did the angels declare a message? Well, I've already mentioned three times that they've done that; once to Mary, once Zachariah, and once to the shepherds out in the field. Do not fear, your son will prepare the way of the Lord and call people to repentance. Do not fear, your son is the Messiah and will call all to salvation by repentance. Do not fear, the peace of God is now born in Bethlehem. I think that is the message of the angels that is being declared. Here we find in those very simple words that God is at peace with mankind, that he does not count us as his enemies, but instead is bringing the salvation of mankind as testified in Genesis chapter three, that the seed of Eve will crush the devil's head even as he bruises his heel. We find the fulfillment in this declaration that peace with God is here at last and peace with God looks like the forgiveness of sins. Peace with God, looks like wiping out the transgressions of mankind. Peace with God means that Jesus Christ is here for you.
And now he has sent his Holy Spirit into your heart that you might believe and access this peace that he gives to you by grace through faith. This indeed is the message of the angels, but if we neglect such a great salvation, who shall escape the judgment, the wrath of God? Not one, not one who turns away from our Lord will escape his wrath. And in fact, the writer of the Hebrews even says that, right, when he talks about the suffering of Christ, so that by the grace of God, Jesus might taste death for everyone? The author is talking of Jesus here, dying for everyone. And, while many will be saved, many is not all. Some will not be saved. And why would that be? It's certainly no fault of God, for he sent his son to die for each and every single person who has lived, who is living, and whoever shall live, but yet, so many, so many reject this good news of Jesus Christ. So many turn from the truth that is evident in all things in this world, that there is a God and that God has revealed himself in Jesus Christ. They turn from this, they reject this, and instead ask to be judged according to their works and not according to the righteousness of Christ. And for this, we grieve and we plead with God to have mercy on them and to send his Spirit to them once again, to bring them into the saving fold of the church, for indeed, our Lord was made a little lower than the angels for this purpose, because if Jesus had come as pure spirit, he could not have died.
A spirit has not flesh and blood. An angel has not flesh and blood as we have. And the divinity has not flesh and blood like we have until he takes upon himself human flesh, bringing humanity into the Godhead forever. What an amazing mystery this is, that, for some reason, he decided that this would be the way that he would redeem you out of your sin, that he decided that he would use his flesh and lay it down at the foot of the cross for you, that his blood shed into this earth would redeem you. What a great mystery this is. This is an even greater mystery than the angels. But I think we’ve gotten used to it. We’ve lost the wonder and mystery of the incarnation, of the death and resurrection of Christ. We so often take it for granted because Jesus is like us, and, ooh, look at the pretty things with wings. Snap out of it. This is the most amazing thing to have ever happened and the Scriptures tell us even that the angels marvel at this mystery, looking at you with wonder, that one like you could be redeemed, that one like you, that you were just who God had in mind for redemption, that he died just for you.
It is an amazing thing that our Lord has chosen for you to be counted among the righteous. And you are, you are one of the brothers of Christ according to his flesh, for you have been raised into the flesh of Jesus Christ out of your baptism. You have been made a child of God. You, indeed, are an inheritor of all of the good things that have come to you through the death of Christ. You inherit not just this world, but you inherit also the world to come, the world without end, the world remade. God desires that this world be yours in the death and resurrection of the Christ. Our Lord Jesus has seen fit to take on flesh, just like you, to be counted as one just like you, to be counted as chief among sinners, that you might be counted as Kings and Queens of righteousness.
What an amazing thing it is that the one who makes you holy and the one who is completely holy himself, has been made like you. He is not ashamed in any way of you, but instead looks at you with great pride. And he intends to glorify you in the age to come. My friends in this life, you will continue to be glorified. You will continue to be sanctified by God the Holy Spirit. It may not look like it in this world for we do not yet see everything put into subjection to him; all these things are hidden from your eyes, but may known to you by faith. You absolutely may trust that our Lord is doing exactly what he has set out to do, which is to redeem you out of this world, to be brought into his marvelous light, that you may be joined with him in his flesh forever.
Take heart, my friends, that, even as you endure in this life, your Lord has endured the suffering that you endure to this day. And if he has redeemed your life, if he has set you free from this world, if he has relieved your suffering and pain by his good news, by his death and resurrection, then you also shall be redeemed to open your eyes into the world which is to come, to open your eyes out of your grave and to see your Lord face to face where you shall live forever with him in bliss and joy. Now, seeing in fulfillment all things in subjection to him now and forevermore, we rejoice in the one who is like us and has brought us to himself. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on September 26, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on James 5. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Epistle of James, the fifth chapter:
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you. Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Our passage today is confusing, because it is so severe, but there is so much hope. And they don’t stand alone. James corresponds so well with our Old Testament and Gospel texts, too. Let’s look at Numbers first. Moses is getting beaten down so God anoints 70 elders to help him out. These elders would prophesy, forth tell God’s Word. And there are two elders who, for whatever reason, didn’t go with the other 68 and prophesied in the camp. Joshua got concerned for Moses, that his reputation, that his countenance would be damaged in all of this. But, what Moses realizes is that God is the one causing them to do this. They were chosen by God to serve. In the same way, men started casting out demons by the apostles, and John saw it. They weren’t part of the in-crowd, and John got worried, I think, both for Jesus and himself. They don’t belong to the disciples. Stop them. But Jesus plainly says that he will not stop them, because if they’re against him, if they’re not against this group of men, then they are for them.
The Spirit of God rests upon who he will. It's true. We don't really choose who the Spirit of God rests on. In fact, none of us who are gathered here really had any choice in who were gathered here tonight with. The Spirit of God has rested on all of us and has chosen us and has brought us even to this place at this time, to hear the Word of God.
Of course, the way the Spirit rests on us is different. Eldad and Medad prophesied the Word in the camp. The men near Jesus cast out demons. We are called by the Spirit to believe in Jesus and to spread his Word to the world. You don’t get to have the download, you don’t hear God’s voice speak in your ear. He’s said everything he needs to in his Word. Our job is to believe and call others to believe, our job is to repent and be forgiven. That’s what the Spirit resting upon you looks like today. Every step of the way, the Spirit of God is the one who motivates you to come here week after week and to hear the Word of God and to receive our Lord's Supper. The Spirit of God uses you. And if John saw you today, he would thank God for you because he learned his lesson, that, though we are separated by eons, we are for Christ and not against him.
What has all of that to do with James? Come now, you rich. Weep and howl. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth eaten. This is not a good thing. James, you have to remember, is going through his epistle and he's showing people that yes, it is true, you have been freed from the condemnation of the law in terms of your salvation. Jesus Christ has saved you by his obedience to the law and not your own yet. Still, do not neglect your Christian duty, do not neglect the works that God has appointed for you from before the foundation of the world. These people cheat and defraud. Apparently, not much changes in two thousand years. James is condemning these people, calling them rotten to the core.
Now you might think, Well, all right. James is not talking to me because I am obviously not rich. I don’t defraud people. I don’t cheat them out of their money. But, there is something here for us. There are ways that we can use the gifts that God has given us to serve his people and in the ways that God has appointed for us, and there are ways we squander these gifts.
We talk about, from time to time, our time and our talents and our abilities and how we supposed to use those for God and his kingdom. Well, how are we doing with that? I mean, God has blessed you with so much. And even if we were to be the ones who are starving in this country, and I thank God, that's the case for most of us, we are wealthy beyond wealthy in comparison to the entire history of the world. And even if James was speaking not just about money, God has given you those talents and abilities that you've honed and that are just somehow innate to you. You using them. Are you using them to honor God? Are you using them to take care of the people that God has put into your midst?
I remember when social media was just starting up and, when I looked around the office in which I worked, the number of people who were checking that rather than entering their data, clearing the checks, and making calls grew exponentially overnight. We wasted our employers’ time and money. We wasted the ability to serve with what we were trained to do. We do this all the time in all of the ways that we kind of work around what God has given to us. We don't steward rightly the things that he's given us; we use them for our purposes and our greed and our satisfaction. And that becomes a really dangerous thing. And if that's the case, then James is absolutely speaking to us in this where he's saying your riches are rotted. Your garments are moth eaten. And not only that, that corrosion is going to be evidence against you. That corrosion is going to eat your flesh like fire.
James is serious. James isn't lying in here. This is exactly what awaits for the person who abuses and disuses what God has given them. You lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence and you have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter and you've even condemned the righteous, the innocent person. We should hear that and be a little scared. And we should think immediately, have I done this? And I think you have to answer, yes, but James, doesn't leave this here.
James knows that this is all of us. He knows that this is the way that we operate in this world. A long as we're in this world, we are going to struggle against that sinful flesh. And if we're struggling against the sinful flesh, that means that sometimes the sinful flesh gets its way. And we recognize that we shouldn't be doing that, that we don't want to do that. That there are better things out there, but the struggle is real, right?
I always say that there's grace in the struggle. If someone is struggling with something, struggling with the sin in their lives, struggling with some understanding of God's Word, that means that there is a battle happening between that sinful flesh and that Spirited flesh, a struggle between the Old Sinful Adam and the New Adam that Christ created in you. If a struggle is there, that's actually a really good thing. I worry for the people who don't struggle. I worry for the Christian who is complacent. I worry for the Christian who doesn't see anything wrong with them. I worry for the Christian that doesn't see how their sin is affecting themselves and those around them. If there’s no struggle, then they have forsaken the path of righteousness because now they are complacent in their work and they think, Nope, the battle is won. I'm done. I don't have to do anything.
And while it's true, you don't do anything to earn your salvation, there’s nothing required from you for that, there is absolutely work required of you from God to live for God and for your neighbor. And so we best be about it. That includes fighting against the sin that reigns in our hearts, pushing it down, avoiding it and trying to put good work in place of what our heart is calling us to, which is evil work.
And that is a hard thing to do. But if the struggle is there, the good news is that New Adam is working exactly the way that it should. The New Adam is trying to lead you into righteousness, into truth, into perfection, into purity. And if that's the case, then you may know that the grace of God is there for you because you're struggling.
None of us can be perfect. If we're honest with ourselves, none of us are good enough. And so, we need to struggle. And James tells us to be patient. I mean, it's kind of a weird turn. He goes from condemning these people, who've done these evil things. And now he says, be patient, and not just be patient, but he says, be patient, brothers. He just condemned these brothers. And now he says, be patient, brothers.
In Christian parlance, not everyone is a brother. A brother is only one who holds to the truth that Christ died for them, people who have repented and been forgiven: Christians. James has condemned us in our sin, and then he turns around and calls us brothers, brothers of Christ. This is good because now it shows us that yes, the condemnation is absolutely there for us when we are complacent in our sin. When we give into that evil, we are showing ourselves to be great sinners. And yet we must be patient until the coming of the Lord. And James is telling us, then, these things will be with you until the Lord finally comes and resurrects your body. He will grant you then the perfection that you have longed for in this life. Be patient, just like a farmer waits for the fruits of the earth to come forth; be patient until the fruit of Christ comes forth from the earth. And that fruit of Christ is you.
Christ will make you come out of the ground like a plant bearing fruit a hundred times. What you could otherwise even think of doing? Establish your heart, he says, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Don't grumble. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. He's looking at this. And he's saying guys, it's time for us to turn. It's time for us to live as Christians. It's time for us to live in the righteous paths of the Lord. And if we're not doing that, there's a problem. But you, if you are a brother of Christ, be patient don't give in to sin.
And now here's where James ties in to what we heard in our Old Testament and in our Gospel lesson. Take for example, as those who are suffering and patient, the prophets who spoken the name of the Lord. You’ve got Job. And if you've ever read the book of Job, you would know that Joe, even though he is counted as a righteous man is full of sin. If you look at how Job finally gives into the proddings of the three friends who gather around him in his suffering as God and Satan take everything away from him, his riches, his children, his animals, and finally his health, Job finally succumbs and begins to try to justify God according to human intervention and not to give God his due. Job then shows that, yes, he is a righteous man, but what a sinner he is. And that's pretty rough. In fact, God even calls Job before him. God is silent through most of the book of Job, but near the end, God calls Job before him and tells him to stand before him like a man.You don't say that to someone who's doing everything right? You say that to someone who has sinned. You say that to someone who needs correction and yet what does Job end up confessing but the name of God. And having faith in God, having a repentant faith in God, he's restored to the righteousness that has been granted to him. And in fact, even so doing, gets two fold back of everything that he lost.
What a wonderful example that is that even as Job was patient in his suffering, even as a sinner, there was something greater for him coming. Of course, we know that Job still died. Job's been dead a long, long time. And yet still, he will rise up out of the ground, along with you, and give praise to God with his voice for Job's Words is still stand today. “Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.” And the Redeemer will. And, so, too, will Job.
The prophets, the ones that prophesied in the camp of Moses, were an example of this suffering because they were denounced. The people of Israel were grumbling against Moses. Now they would grumble against the 70 elders that Moses had chosen out of the people of Israel so Moses didn't have to bear all the grumbling of the 2 million-some people that were there. Now it was spread among the 70. These men would suffer, too. And in their suffering, they would give into their sin because they're just men. They're not the Messiah; they're just men. And so they would give in. And so, too, would the men who would start casting demons out of the people around John, around the apostles, around Jesus, and still, even in their sin, they would still be counted among the righteous. They would also be saved. They would be mocked and ridiculed, persecuted, and cast out, and they'd die. All these people, all these prophets, were sinners one and all. And they would do marvelous things, but James’ condemnation would stand for them. Yet, they would repent in faith and find the forgiveness of sins and the hope of the resurrection.
That's the end for us, too. We are called to righteousness. We may not be the prophets going out in the camp, but we are illuminated by the Spirit. We have him dwelling with us. We have been anointed by him to share the Word of God. We should expect then that persecution would come. We would expect then that mockings and beatings and all of these things will come, just as they came for the prophets of old. And like them, we should expect that we will give in to sin and we will fall. We will fail our Lord.
But your call is to be patient. Wait for the day of the Lord. Be repentant because you've got to live each and every day until our Lord comes back or until he takes you to himself. That's the life of the Christian. And so, even as we give in to sin, we must be patient because we know the day is coming when that sin will be fully taken away from us, and it will be taken away from you because you've been claimed as one of Christ's own brothers. You are one for whom Christ died. You are one who has been declared righteous by the blood shed upon this earth. You've been claimed, you've been owned, and indeed you will be restored. Don't give in to the sin that sits in your hearts. But instead with patience, wait diligently for the Lord, repenting of your sin, and finding the forgiveness won for you from the cross, that you might see the day of resurrection. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on September 19, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on James 3:13-4:10. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Epistle of James, the third and fourth chapters:
Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Jealousy, quarrels, anger, bitterness, all of these things belong to the spirit of the age and not the Spirit that is Holy. Jesus actually goes even so far to say this in Gospel lesson, where he rebukes the apostles for arguing amongst themselves, Who's the greatest among all of us. We know a little bit of that conversation from the Gospel of Matthew, where James and John get their mom to ask Jesus to elevate them, to let them sit at his right and left hand. Of course, we know who sits at Jesus's right and left hand, because, when he comes into his kingdom, as she asked him, those places were for the two thieves, the robbers, the brigands that the Romans crucified along with Jesus. As Jesus reigned from the cross, those places weren’t for the apostles to have. And Jesus teaches them in such a way that he says it is the least among you who is the greatest. He takes a little child and he uses him as an object lesson. This child, someone that no one would pay attention to, someone, in fact, that can be annoying and underfoot when you have them around you, someone who's always begging you for stuff, this is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, because that child knows nothing of producing for themselves. They know no self-reliance, no independence. That child knows that it is dependent upon everyone else to fill all of its needs.
James says this, too, wisdom that comes down from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. Now these are all good things and they show us that wisdom is the wisdom that humbles itself. Wisdom is the thing that turns joy into mourning. Wisdom is the thing that tells us that we need clean hands. Wisdom is a thing that cries out that we must draw near to God. Wisdom is the thing that says humble yourself before the Lord.
And we should do this. We should do it more often than we even think. And when we humble ourselves, we’re not looking in our humility to be exalted, but our Lord does exalt us in our humility, not because we have shown God by our works how great and awesome we are, but because we've shown God how wretched we are, how depraved we are, how sinful we are. But our Lord does not leave us in our sin. He does not leave us in our wretchedness or depravity. Instead, he exalts us to the very place where Christ is, to stand by him as he rules and reigns over all things, to stand around his throne as the saints and the angels in heaven cry out, holy holy, holy. You will be exalted in this humility. If you have wisdom to do it, you see there is much in wisdom that we must pursue.
The thing to remember about James, and we haven't preached on him yet this year, but the thing to remember about James is that he is not opposed to Paul. Paul says that grace that comes through faith and that is good. It's a gift. It's a free gift. You've done nothing to earn it. James says, you say that you have faith. I say, I'll show you my faith by my works. These two ideas are not opposed to one another. We know that works will not save us, but we know that if we have faith, which saves us, we will have works. We must, in fact, as Christians have works. These don't mean that these are the super good works that we do, like the missionaries who are called to the foreign fields, all the people who give everything they have and sell it for the poor, like John Mark did. These are not those works that we're talking about. Those are good things for sure, but the Christian has works that we really almost disregard, but our Lord holds them in the highest esteem and calls them good. Things like helping a friend, talking to a parent as they work through issues in their aging, changing the diaper of a baby, changing, well, anything on an adult, picking up after your dog when it goes out in the lawn, taking care of your house, taking care of your yard, these are all good works that the Christian has, because, in them, not only do we show that we are caring for the people that God has put into our path, but we also are caring for the gifts that he's given us to steward creation.
All of these, my friends, are good works. And James says that if you have faith, you have these works. They are accounted to you as good. You might say, ah, it's something I got to do. Well, obligation does not determine whether or not something is good. What is good is what is done and you have done good works. But the greatest work of all, James is indicating is to have wisdom, and wisdom, which comes through faith, wisdom, which puts you in your place, exercises prudence and charity in all things.
We don't want to be quarreling with one another. We don't want fights and divisions among each other. These things are to be avoided like the plague. And we all know what it's like now to avoid the plague. We need to avoid all of the things that would lead us into sin because they will light a fire in our hearts. The desires that arise within my heart, the desires that are in my heart, are horrendous. And if wisdom doesn’t extinguish them, I get into all sorts of trouble. Jesus says that it's not what goes into you that makes you unclean, but what comes out of you. And I can tell you that what comes out of my heart, and I can tell you that what comes out of your heart, is disgusting. And what comes out of your heart, guides your tongue, and it guides your life like the rudder on a ship. It guides your passions and desires. That’s what causes divisions. Think about this for a moment. How do you feel when someone says something bad about you? If you've ever been on the job somewhere and someone blames you for when something goes wrong, it gets kind of upsetting. I can tell you that when someone critiques me, when someone says something bad about how I’ve taught or preached or prepared or worked, it sits on me the entire week. And why is that? Why do these things bug us? When people talk poorly about us or our work, why do these things bother us? It's because deep inside, we have the desire to control everything around us. We desire to be God, and when someone says something, reveals something bad, they’re sinning against who we think the best God is: us.
We have to work to put this down in the Christian life. And maybe we don't talk about this enough. I think we should. The Christian life is about taming ourselves. It's about putting our bodies in submission. That doesn't mean like Luther sitting in his cell, we take our little whip and flagellate our backs until we're bleeding, trying to get our sins out of us, trying to say my I'm in control of my body and not my body in control of me. But instead, to see that the desires of our hearts, which are the wrong things, need to be transformed. And they are being transformed in Jesus Christ. When we look to him, we find that our desires can take a back seat because we are now seeking the things of Christ.
James goes on to say, you want but don’t ask so you don’t receive. You don’t ask for peace and wisdom; you try to make it yourself and it always fails. And those things you do ask for, you ask wrongly, and you don’t receive, because what you ask for is according to your passions. You ask for stuff that isn’t related to this wisdom, you ask for things that are contrary to wisdom, you ask for things that are not given according to the will of God, and you don’t get it. It’s not to say that, in prayer, you shouldn’t ask for your wants or needs, but to understand that your passions cannot drive your heart. Your heart belongs to Christ. So, you should ask, with a heart that is not my own, what should I ask for? What should I seek?
And I can tell you, it's what we ask in the Lord's Prayer: for God's name to be hallowed, for his kingdom to come, for his will to be done, that we might have daily bread to survive that we might bring his message to all people, that our sins might be forgive, and that we would forgive the sins of those who sin against us, that we would be led out of temptation and not given over into evil. These things are what our Lord tells us we should be desiring. These things are what we should be asking for. And I can tell you that, in this prayer, if Jesus has taught you to pray it, and he has, then you know that the answer to this prayer is always yes and amen. By these things, praying these things, looking to these things, we declare that wisdom is running the show. We see that wisdom is giving a wonderful demonstration of exactly what it should be doing, which is to humble ourselves before the Lord and before our neighbor, and to ask for the things that our hearts should be desiring.
Even if our hearts aren't totally there, we know that this is our goal as Christians. We know that this is our goal, but what if we don't reach it? What if we fall short? What if we are, as James says, like the world and at enmity with God? What if we are coming up against God and butting heads all of the time, because we don't like what he says, or we don't like what he tells us we should want, or we don't like any of ways that he shows himself in this world? Then the answer to that, my friends is to humble yourself, to give yourself over to the Crucified One, to say, Lord, my desires are not what they should be, my desires have not been turned to you, my desires have not been to seek the will of my neighbor. Humble yourself and ask for forgiveness, and, my friends, it will always come. Repentance always breeds forgiveness. There is no way that your repentance will not work to bring to you the forgiveness that has been won for you by Christ upon his cross; it's yours.
I know that this is a struggle and you may hear this and you go, All right, so if my desires aren't there, am I truly a Christian? And I would say, if you can go before your Lord calling him Lord and saying, I know that I am not worthy, then my friends, you are indeed of Christ. You belong to him. You belong in his kingdom. He has claimed you as his own. And he has given you the promise that no matter what else happens to you in this life, whether you see the answer to these prayers immediately or not, he will answer them in the day of his resurrection.
He will bring his promises to fruition in your glorified bodies, because he was crucified and raised himself from the dead. He has promised this also to you. And because he is raised from the dead, you know that all of his promises are true. All of them will come to pass in his time, including the gift of wisdom. Our Lord is the only one who is perfectly wise in this world at any time. We are all sinners. We have all fallen short of the glory of God. We all deserve punishment, damnation, hell forever. But our Lord is better than hell. Our Lord has saved you out of his love. Our Lord has put his name on you in your baptism. There is no need to wonder who is the greatest amongst ourselves, because we all will face the very same end. We all will stand with the martyrs and the apostles and all of the saints as our Jesus comes back into this world, remaking it as he desires to see it, remaking it as it was intended to be–dependent on his righteousness, his mercy, his grace, his peace.
Wisdom is pure. It's clean. Wisdom is peaceable. It lives in harmony with all others. It's gentle. It's not harsh. It's not wicked. It's not like a sharp tongue. It's open to reason to see another side of things to see from someone else's perspective. It's impartial, taking no sides. It is sincere. It’s full of mercy and grace. It's full of that idea that we have that mercy, that same forgiveness that's been shown to us on others. And you have been granted and you will be granted wisdom. You show it in your good works. It is not just an act, but it is what our Lord has given you. And you can stand firm then knowing that the wisdom you demonstrate is all a gift from Jesus. It's all a gift because he was wise and he grants it to you.
My friends, do not worry about the works that you do, do not worry about who is greatest, and who's doing the most, just go out and do what our Lord has called you to do and know that, in these things, he's giving you the strength to do them, not because you're earning anything, not because you're pleasing him, but because it pleases him to save you. That is how we respond to our Lord. It's how we respond to our neighbor. And we find that these things come from the true wisdom from on high, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Turn your eyes to him, humble yourselves, and you will find that he has granted you his wisdom that you may live in his righteousness. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on September 12, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Mark 9:14-29. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. Mark, the 9th chapter:
And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
The faithless generation. You know, Jesus seems exasperated by these people that are around him. I mean, they have been coming to him for absolutely everything, haven’t they? They have looked for miracle after miracle, sign after sign, the scribes and the Pharisees are testing him, he has been approached by even the demons and Jesus has met all of these challenges very, very well. So well, in fact, that he must be something special. He's not just a man. Of course, we know that he's God. Now that wasn't completely revealed to the people. There are those, some of the faith that did see that, but, throughout Mark, Jesus does something very interesting when he does these miracles, these signs. More often than not, he looks at the people that he's healed, that he's cleansed, that he's made whole, that he's cast a demon out of, and he tells them, Don't say anything to anybody.
This is what theologians have called the messianic secret. It's just a fancy way of saying Jesus wants to keep everything secret, especially about him being Messiah. Why that is a lot of people have speculated and there's a whole lot of theories, but I think the most convincing one is not that Jesus was saying, well, you go be quiet about this, don’t tell anybody, wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Then they would go and spread the word. I don't think that's what it was. It's that Jesus was telling them, Don’t go and say anything to anybody about what's happened to you because if they do, they're going to get distracted by the fact that there's a miracle, that there's a sign, and not that I'm the Messiah, not that I was the one sent by God. And mixed with that, It's not yet my time.
Jesus would have to get through his whole ministry. He'd have to go through those three years before finally he set his face, as Isaiah says, like flint towards Jerusalem, toward the cross which he would carry to the hill of Golgotha and die for the sins of the world, including your own. Jesus wasn't ready yet because the Father's time had not yet been appointed, but it doesn't seem to stop Jesus. You probably imagine that if Jesus really wanted people to believe, he should let the word spread that he's the Messiah that he can do great things. And he's done marvelous things for all of the people who've come to him. He's made blind men see, deaf men hear, lame men walk and leap. He's cast demons out of people, he's cleansed people from their discharge of blood. He’s even raised the dead. You would think that he'd want that to spread. You'd think that if he did that, people might start to see, but Jesus isn't that bread king. We've talked about that a lot over the course of the last three, four months, this bread king, this king who gives people what they want, what they're desiring. And the meaning of it really is found in the phrase, bread king, a king who just gives you bread to eat, satisfying your belly.
Now, this kind of king, Jesus doesn’t want to be. When Jesus fed the 5,000 men and all their families with bread and fish, they wanted to make Jesus into a bread king, one who just gives them what they want. And you kind of think, all right, fine. So they're thinking that he's a bread king, but he could correct people, right? He could teach them. But they have been taught. They’ve been given the word, they’ve got what they need to understand, and still their eyes are shut. Every time he sits down and teaches somebody, he's teaching them about him being the Messiah. He's pointing to the fact that he's going to save the world. Even with all of that, the people still have no faith. They walk away. Think of in John 6, where Jesus says, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. And what happens? The people walk away because they have no faith. They are not eating the flesh of Christ. They are not drinking the blood of Christ and they walk away. So many leave that Jesus, kind of almost despondent, looks at his apostles and asks, Are you also going to leave me? Peter has a good confession, Lord, to whom shall we gp?You have the words of eternal life. But the people are not understanding.
And so we catch up with Jesus as the crowds are approaching him. And they're arguing with the scribes. The scribes are kind of this weird group of men who write down the scriptures, that's their job. And the scriptures then get disseminated out into all the different synagogues. And they did wonderful work because a lot of their work we think has been passed down to us. We're still finding fragments of the stuff that they wrote. But the scribes, to me, it seems, were heavily influenced by the Sadducees. And the Sadducees were an interesting group of people, even among the Jews, who denied the spiritual, they denied the fact that there were angels, they denied the fact that there were demons, they even denied the resurrection. And so the scribes are there and they're arguing with this crowd and Jesus walks into them and says, What are you arguing about, guys?
A lone man speaks up. And he says, I brought my son to be healed from this demon, my son to be healed by your apostles. And they can't do it. We can guess that the scribes are saying there’s nothing to be done because there are no demons, and the man is saying there are and one is in his son, and the crowd are debating and they’re berating the apostles of Jesus because they haven’t been able to cast out this demon. The man is at a loss. He asks Jesus to do it.
Jesus, you can just kind of imagine, looks at the man, and he's looking at the crowd, and he's looking at the scribes with his mouth just open, right? The guy came to him with a faith that said, I need something. Now, interestingly, the man leaves with a faith that's greater than that. Think of last week, where we talked about the Syrophoenician woman who came to Jesus, asking that her daughter would be healed of the demon and how she came with this type of weak faith. And after her first encounter with Jesus, the first word that he said to her, she repented. She answered with an air of repentance and admitted that Jesus, what he called her, that she was a dog, was true. She had no standing. She wasn't supposed to be allowed into the house of Israel. She's worse than the worst. And so she responded, yes, Lord. But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall off the master's table. She had a repentant faith by the end of her encounter with Jesus, and we, I have sincere confidence, will meet her in the resurrection and get to ask her what that was like to talk to Jesus in this way.
This man comes in the same way. He has a weak faith, a faith that this guy can give him what he wants, but not much else. And Jesus is exasperated. He calls this man and everyone around him a faithless generation. How long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? And Jesus is looking at these people thinking, this is insane. You know the scriptures; you know exactly what has happened in them. You should know everything in that points to me. I am the coming Messiah; you should have faith in the one who does cast out the demons. I mean, it's so clear throughout all the scripture. This is what he's come to do.
So they bring this boy to Jesus, this exasperated Jesus, and the boy’s laying there and convulsing, right? The demon is convulsing him, trying to throw him into the fire. You can kind of see it happening. And Jesus says, how long has this been happening? The guy says, well, since childhood, of course. And then he says, awkwardly, If you can help me, please have compassion and do something. And again, Jesus is exasperated. If I can? It’s like, What do you mean? Can I do anything? Of course, I can do anything. I mean, you might think that this guy has this and this crowd kind of has this faith that this kind of thing can happen. And you see that kind of going on. But again, if you put that in light of the bread king, well, that starts to make a little bit more sense.
Jesus just looks at him and confronts the man, not even looking at his son, You have no faith. If I can do anything? All things are possible for the one who believes. With this, Jesus is showing this man that he does not have the faith to believe. Now you would kind of expect that Jesus would say, All things are possible with God. But remember the messianic secret. Jesus is not not saying that they're not possible with God, but he's specifically pointing to the person who believes, because the one who believes, comes to God, hoping and putting their strength of expectation in the request.
It's not a, well, if you can, Lord do this; it's a Lord, this is what I want, this is what I need. And if it be your will, please do this. In this kind of request, we admit that Christ, that God, has the power to do the thing that we're asking and Christ will give us that thing that we're asking for. Of course, we know it may not be now, but in the hope of the resurrection to come, it will be done. This is especially in regards to our bodies or the bodies of the people around us or the suffering that we endure, the persecution that the church is facing. In all these things, we ask for compassion from God. But we do it with a strength of expectation. Lord, stop the persecution of your church. Lord help those who are sick and struggling. Heal them in their bodies of their diseases. Lord, help me, I’m suffering. I'm sorrowful. I'm distressed. I'm depressed. I am perplexed in every way. Lord heal me, make me whole.
We don't go to Jesus with weak prayers. We go to him with strong prayer. Not because we think that God is going to somehow bow to our strength, but because we have hope in the God, who's able to do these things. One thing always to remember is taught by Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is not the will of the person asking that makes the difference. It is the God who chooses to do so. Who chooses what's going to happen? Always God. Jesus prayed, If it be your will, Lord, let this cup pass from me. Jesus prays in the garden, Yet, not my will, but your will be done. And so also, our prayers as we go before our Father should be strong yet humble, confessing, if it'd be your will let this be done.
The fascinating thing revealed by the scriptures is that God’s will is that his people be made whole. God's will is that his people will not suffer. God's will is that we not be persecuted. Even so, sometimes he withholds his hand, not forever, but for a time. It may be a day, a week, a month, and might even be to the end of our lives. But, when we close our eyes to this life and open them into the next, when we see our Jesus face to face, as he carries us up out of our graves, as he puts our souls together with our bodies and cleanses us from all of our infirmities, all of our sicknesses, all of our suffering, and eliminates the persecution of the church endures in this world, there, the believer finds that all of the promises of God are yes and amen in Jesus Christ. All that we’ve asked has been granted.
Jesus looked at the generation that was there with him and called them faithless; how much more so today. All things are possible for the one who believes, well, how are we doing with belief today? To me, it's certainly seems like even us Christians have forgotten that God can do the miraculous. We Christians do not come to God with prayers of strength, but we come to him with weak prayers asking, well, Lord, I just need this. Or I just need this. And you know, if you're able to do it, just give me this. There’s nothing wrong with asking God for what you need and for what you want, but do it with the expectation that God will hear your prayer and will answer it. And he'll give you what he needs, what you need in his time. In this way, our Lord demonstrates that our faith should be in the one who is stronger than the world. Our faith should be in he who has overcome the world.
We don’t demand of God, we don't ask that our will be done, because we're not capable of overcoming the world. James tells us we can't even tame our own tongue. What chance do we have against the entire world as it comes at us with all of its sin and depravity? We don't have a chance of standing up or conquering anything. If we can’t conquer the world, can we really make such demands of God that we tell him to bow to our wills? We have failed in every way imaginable, and we have fallen in to sin. We have given in to temptation and followed the desires of our hearts. Where has that gotten us?
That's why we need repentance. And that's why in repentance, we always find forgiveness, because we don't have a chance. As our hearts are turned away from our sin, as we find that we are relying on the faith that has been granted to us by the Holy Spirit, as we see God as our Savior, not because we could do it ourselves but he did it pretty good, but because he is the only one who can accomplish our salvation, and through his death we are redeemed from sin, we find that he freely forgives all of us. Form the cross on which he died, he declares you righteous, forgiven, and he turns your eyes to what he will accomplish for you in your death, namely that he will raise you to everlasting life.
So, in this repentant faith, we don't put our hope in what we want, in what we need. We put our faith in the one who can provide what we want, who can provide what we need. And you see how this works. When we do this, it's not that we have a promise that God is going to say, All right, yeah, let's do this right now. Although sometimes we do hope for that, we put our hope in that God will answer our prayer in the days which are to come, and specifically that last day that we look forward to in the resurrection of the dead.
When we have a weak faith, when we come to God and we're asking for stuff because we’ve put our hope in that stuff, like this man put his hope in the the healing of his boy but not in the messiah, we need to consider, are we asking him according to our hearts, are we asking him according to the weakness of our flesh, or are we asking him according to the faith that he has granted to us by the Holy Spirit? Are we coming in prayer to him who has given us the faith to believe, or are we coming to him with the strength of ourselves?
This might feel strange to talk about because, honestly, I don’t think the Church has paid a lot of attention to this over the last generations, but we must have the strength to pray. Prayer is so important to the Christian life, not only to give thanks to God, not only to adore God and all of his virtue and all of his attributes; certainly it is for these things. But, chiefly, we come to God, confessing our sin, confessing who we are, so that, ultimately, we may ask of him what it is that is on our hearts, that we ask of him what is in our souls, that we ask of him to heal the weak flesh, either of ourselves or of our neighbors. That's what prayer is supposed to do, to demonstrate to others, and to ourselves, who our God is. Our prayer is not there to please God. In fact, we don't pray to please God. Certainly, prayer does please God, when we come to him with his word, when we are centered around that, when we receive the gifts that he would have to give us. He is pleased when we pray to him centered and surrounded by these things. But we don't pray to please God; we pray at his invitation. He invites us to speak to him as our Father, that we might know that our God is able to fulfill our prayers. That is why all of the answers to the promises of Christ are yes and amen. Yes, it shall be so. Yes, I will heal your body. Yes, I will remove your suffering. Yes, I will raise you and all those who believe in me from the dead unto life everlasting Our Lord is good and gracious and he does fulfill his promise in these things. We have no need to fear because, just like this man who responded to Jesus's admonition in faith, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief, so also do we now respond with repentant faith. And there we see that we are weak, but the gift of faith granted to you is strong, for it is from the Lord, and he is good, gracious, and he will help your unbelief and give you the strength of faith to endure until the end.
It may be that your needs are met, just like this man's need was met for his boy. And it may be that you have to wait. Maybe, in this life, you never see the fulfillment of that need met. But, as you go to our Lord in prayer, I guarantee you that you will begin to see how weak you are and how strong he is. As your life centers around the one who has the strength to raise himself from the dead after three days, just as he promised, you will also find the repentant faith to believe that he will raise you from the grave as well. And he will make you whole in him, to be like him forever. Never again will you come to Jesus as a bread king, but you will see him as the Messiah revealed before the entire world. And you, along with all people, will bow down and worship, for you will see that your faith has not been in vain, but put into the one who fulfills his promises. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on September 5, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Mark 7:24-30. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. Mark, the seventh chapter:
And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
It's easy for us to look at this passage today and go, all right, these are great miracles. Jesus cast a demon out of a little girl from miles away. And on top of that, he even heals a deaf and a mute man, something that had never been done before. Oh, the way he does that is actually really interesting where he grabs on and spits and sighs and we kind of go, all right, what's Jesus doing here? And the very simple answer to that is we don't know. So we aren't going to have a sermon on that, but it's easy for us to be distracted by these miracles and not see what's actually going on because the miracles are indeed great.
John tells us in his gospel that all the miracles that Jesus does are actually signs. They're ways of pointing to the fact that he's the Messiah. And certainly we could spend a lot of time looking at these miracles and saying, how are these pointing to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah. And maybe we can another sermon, but instead we need to consider the area about which this is written because Mark is coming at us with a very specific knowledge to say that Jesus is in the region of Tyre and Sidon and even more in the, Decapolis, meaning the 10 cities, an area of Gentiles.
Now you must understand that, to the Jew, the Gentiles are anybody who's not Jewish. Well, they're almost as bad as Samaritans. It doesn't matter what they actually believe. What matters is the fact that they're not Jewish. They're not Israelites by birth. Now, certainly there are converts among the Jews and we even see them in the Book of Acts that all of these people from all over the world come together in the city of Jerusalem at Pentecost, and God the Holy Spirit comes down on the apostles and speaks in all of their languages through those apostles so that they might hear the good news of Jesus Christ. We know that there are converts to Judaism, get that, but for the Jews to be among the Gentiles, it was not kosher.
Think for a moment about the parable of the prodigal son who says to his father, I wish you were dead, just give me the money and I'll be done with you. He runs off and he lives however he wants. And he finds himself having spent all of his money, not being able to find a home or food anywhere. He finds himself working in the sties, working with the pigs. Now you can take from that, he's working, not with Jews, but he's working Gentiles, debasing himself so far as to live among the pigs. That would have been a big no-no in Judaism back then; certainly, it would be still even today in Judaism, because they follow that thing that we've talked about the last few weeks, the Tradition of the Elders, which not only says, according to the law of God, you shall not eat anything of the cloven hooves, which would include pig, but the Tradition of the Elders would say you shouldn't even be around them. The prodigal son debased himself, he made himself unclean ceremonially by living with the pigs.
And so the older brother, knowing where this younger brother was, when the younger brother comes back on the horizon to beg of his father by saying, Bring me back into your household, just as a servant, because I've sinned against you. It's his way of worming his way back in, the older brother knows. And he says, Let's not have anything to do with this. And the father says, No, this is my beloved son. He was once lost to me. He was dead to me, but now he's found. What a wonderful picture that is of God, certainly, but you see the father was weird, just like our Father is a little weird where he welcomes in everybody to his family. But the father here was weird, especially to bring back an unclean person into his household. That would have been unheard of in Jewish circles. And so is that, as Jesus is in this region of Tyre and Sidon and in the Decapolis, this is weird.
Now you might ask what's he doing there? Well, as it happened, there were Jews living in these areas. The Jews had been spread out across the face of the planet in the Diaspora back when Babylon had taken them into captivity. They didn't all stay in Babylon, but they couldn't stay in Israel. And ever since then, Jews who had to make a living sold and traded with people in these areas. They would have certainly looked down upon the Gentiles, but they were there nonetheless.
Jesus made his way there to preach the good news, even to these people. This should be for us a really comforting thought, that Jesus finds his people wherever they are to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to them. There is no way that Jesus is going to let his people rot wherever they're at. Even if it's a place that you don't expect, Jesus will always find his people. But he’s still around these Gentiles, and now there’s this Syrophoenician woman. If you know anything about your ancient history, Syrophoenician means that she was probably from area of Syria, which was a much bigger area even than it is today, and Phoenicia, which is that Babylonian side of things. She was not just a woman who was a Gentile, but she was descended from the oppressors of Israel, the very people who destroyed the temple of God and took the people into captivity. She was the worst of the worst. She was disgusting. She was nasty. No good Jew would ever be caught dead dealing with someone like her.
But this is a mother. This is a mother whose daughter is ill, and not just ill, but possessed by a demon. It was a demon. And no good comes from demon possession; they’re almost always going to end in death. And we expect that because we know that the effect of sin is death. Not just death at the end, that last day, when we breathe our last and our heart stops and our brain stops firing-that's death, certainly. But every day that we have until that moment is a day of death. We expect sickness, we expect breakage. We expect horrible things to come to us because that's the effect of sin all leading us to that day. It's like death is chasing us each and every day of our lives. Trying to get us with his scythe and bring us to where he is. And every day that we don't die is a mercy from God. Even if we're dealing with all of this stuff in our lives, it’s still a gift.
But this is a mother looking at her daughter and grieving over this, how do I help her? What can I do? I would give up everything, even my own life in order to heal her, to have my little girl made well again. She hears of this Jesus, this Jesus who's coming to her region, this Jesus who's coming to her land, this Jesus who would have nothing to do with her, if only he knew who she was. And of course we know Jesus knows. And so she comes and she says, help me, help my daughter, give her back to me. She comes to him as someone who's heard of the miracles that he does and knows that he can do a miracle for her, too.
Maybe she thought he was a bread king, a king who just gives the people what they want or need. But, by the end of Jesus’ first response, that weak faith she had worked itself out to true faith in the Messiah of the world. But of course we know mostly about this woman because Jesus seems to insult her. He calls her a dog. Now I think too much is often made of this, that he calls her a dog. But it's true. I mean, calling anyone, especially in the ancient world, an animal name, it's not a good thing. Think of, you brood of vipers, you brood of serpents, it's along those lines. And dogs, well, they just were not had in Israelite homes. Do you know where your dog has been? I don't even know where my dog has been this week. We went for a walk this earlier in the week and I swear she walked through so much junk that there really is no way that I should have let her back in my house. She was on stones and bugs and sniffed at everything the other animals had left behind. She walked in it. And the dogs of Jesus’ day would have walked not just in what the animals left, but even what humans threw out into the street (there were no sewers then). You wouldn’t let a dog in to live with you.
But, Jesus calls her a dog, a big insult. But we know Jesus. He’s not just working to insult the woman, but to make a point to say, I've come the children of Israel. They need to eat everything first. Jesus doesn't say that all those who are outside of Israel don't get something. He's saying the children of Israel, they need to eat first. And this woman responds back to him, Yes, Lord. But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall off of the table. Jesus hears this and he immediately knows something that you and I may have missed: this woman, while she's certainly a Syrophoenician woman, is a child of God because she has repented. She knows who she is. She knows that she's a dog. She knows that she's worse than a dog. She knows that she is so filthy and disgusting and gross and nasty because of who she is because she's a sinner. And she responds to Jesus with that. Jesus says, Because of this statement of yours, because you've come to me in repentant faith, because you are indeed a child of Israel, what you've asked for will be done for you. She showed that the people of Israel are composed of more than just those who are circumcised and those who come from them. She is one who's responding with a circumcised heart. She's responding with faith. And she knew in this moment that even if Jesus still said no, that, because of her faith, she would go back and teach to her daughter so that she would be saved, maybe not in this life, but saved when that moment of death finally catches up to her. And for her daughter, that would be soon.
But she finds that her request is granted. Now again, it's easy to just focus on the great miracle. She got what she wanted. Jesus did an amazing thing, but we miss out if we look just at that. We miss the fact that Jesus has pointed out something very real to us. We are called to be the children of God, not because we come from those who are circumcised, but because we come with a circumcised heart and all of us then can belong to God as his sons. Whether you've got female parts or male parts, God calls you his son because you are an inheritor of the kingdom of God. To be a son of God is to be one who has all that he has, to inherit everything that he would give you. And that inheritance comes through death, not your death, but the death of Christ. For if he dies, he gives to you all that is his own, his righteousness and his salvation. They're yours.
Now we sang for our opening hymn today a hymn that reminds us of this. It reminds us that we belong to God and every single person we see is a person for whom Christ died. Today, we live in an age of racism. Racism is alive and well. Racism is rightly defined as one race thinking less of another one race based on who they are, the traits that they've inherited. It’s judging people based on how they look, not who they are. For a long time in America's history, we have understand a lot of our racism was from the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant groups toward others. For instance, racism was directed towards the Africans who would come over from Africa those who had come from the Caribbean, those who have darker skin who had come from South America, the Irish as they came over, the Chinese as they came over, the Japanese as they came over. I mean, even into the 1940s, we were still throwing people of color into internment camps in this country.
What a shame it is that even our children have not heard of this, that even into the 1980s, where North Americans, not just the US, but also Canada, took children of Native American descent and threw them into boarding schools. They were stolen away from their families and they died from disease and neglect and starvation. And we don't teach that.
But today we're facing racism still. While we've worked to try to correct this in the hearts of so many, it still persists. We all see the news. We know that this is the case. We know it's still here, but we also know that, very popularly right now, racism is on the rise again. And it comes in the form of what's called critical race theory or cultural marxism. They’re not quite the same thing, but they are very related. You may have heard some of this on the news, where everybody is defined according to their own different makeups. Basically you are decided by one group to be less than another group. It actually even goes down to discriminate against the individual. As a white male, who is in love with a woman, specifically, my wife, and as a Christian, I would be at the low end of the totem pole. According to these theories, I should be the least listened to in all of culture. In fact, it’s not even that people shouldn’t listen to me, but that I should not have any influence on anything ever.
Now, aside from the fact that I’m a pastor, not preaching my Word by God’s Word, generally people probably shouldn’t listen to me. I’m not an expert on a lot. Most of the time, I just do my best, and sometimes it falls short. When it’s God’s Word, it doesn’t matter who’s teaching it as long as it’s right. But, I am judged incompetent in everything according to these theories.
Now, if you're a white woman, you should be listened to a little less than anybody else, but still more than a white man. And it goes all the way up until you're finally a trans woman, whether that is a man becoming a woman or a woman becoming a man, who happens to be African American, and who is interested in the opposite gender of whatever the gender is that you've chosen, and is Muslim, too. That’s like the holy grail for these folks. It’s not just in society, it’s being actively taught in schools and universities, in public assistance, in the military. And it’s awful. It’s not awful because people are judging me, that’s fine; I’d give up all my rights as a Christian to win a single person. It’s awful because it encourages us to judge others based on their appearance, based on their traits, and not the content of their character. We should grieve at this as Christians. I don't say this to get on some political pulpit and say, well, only you like these politicians who are going to fight against this. That's not my point. The point is, what are we as Christians being encouraged to look at, how should we think of others, and does that correspond to what God's Word says or not?
Jesus went into the region of Tye and Sidon. Jesus went into the Decapolis of the Gentiles. Jesus healed those who were not of Israel. Jesus tells us that all people have been died for by him, if only they would have the faith to believe. And as Christians, we are to open our eyes to the fact that our Lord has redeemed creation and he has made us all beautiful from the very outset. We might be the ugliest person we know, and that's perfectly fine. We may have the weirdest skin color of our society and that's perfectly fine. But all of us human beings have been made in the image of God. We bear the creator’s own image. Can we really say that there is any person that is more or less worth the love of God? No.
I mean, we have had racism for so long, and we have tried to get rid of it. But it’s back, because Satan loves to divide people, and race and gender and these things are so easy to use. But Jesus blows these divisions out of the water by healing this little girl. He shows us that every person is beloved by God, not because there's anything in them that makes them worthy, but because God has declared them worthy in the death of the first perfect human being, Jesus Christ. Every person is one for whom Christ died; how can we ever hold to an idea that devalues another based on their characteristics? Whether they’re a day old in the womb of their mother or 117 years old and dying from dementia, every person is valuable, every person is loved, and every person equal in the eyes of God, able to be taught the Word that they might believe in Christ.
And for you, Christ has redeemed you. The world is going to tell you that this is the dumbest thing, that Christ has made us all one in him, and that, because you’re a Christian, you should be cast out of society. But, even if you do deal with the persecution that is coming, even if you should be sentenced to death, the fact is that the Lord has redeemed you. He has chosen you, he has died for you, rose for you. He has forgiven your sins and welcomes you to everlasting life. He strengthens you with his Word and Sacrament. He guides you in the paths of righteousness.
You don't have to be from a certain nation. You don't have to be from the certain race or certain people. You have been made in the image of God. And you have had the Savior die for your sins. That will never go away from you. No matter what else anyone tells you, it is yours now and forever. In the name of Jesus, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on August 29, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Mark 7:4-23. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. Mark, the seventh chapter:
And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Thus far the text.My dear friends in Christ, Jesus gives an unusual sermon to the ears of the people this day. He tells the people that it isn’t what goes into a person that makes them unclean, but what comes out of them. The people had been gathered around Him and probably thought hat they would hear the law, as it was so wonderfully given in Moses. And they probably thought they could have obeyed it, too. They thought if they just avoided certain things, they’d be fine. If they didn’t let it into their bodies, they’d be clean. But that’s not what Jesus says to them. Jesus gives the right understanding of the Law to them, that it was to point to Him, and how Jesus would save people from their sins. But, they had forgotten the right way to hear the Law, and perhaps began to think that it was up to them not to break the Law and to see themselves. Now, we don’t often think of this today because the law that Jesus is mostly hitting here has to do with the ceremonial law. The ceremonial laws guided the religion of Israel while the tabernacle and the temple still stood among them. But, with these gone, and, most importantly, with the work of Christ finished, these have no bearing on us. The ceremonial law, God tells us through Moses, were to set the Israelites apart from the nations. Other nations didn’t do the things that the Israelites did, and when they look to the people of Israel, their response would be to ask about the God who was near to them. It set them apart so that others would flock to God. These could be as simple as men not cutting the corners of their beards. Men were to grow out their hair on the ringlets on the sides. They were to keep the word of God and phylacteries right on their foreheads and on their arms. They did strange things. They also were not allowed to eat animals of cloven hooves. So, things like the pig would not be okay. They were not to eat shellfish. So shrimp and crab and lobster. I mean, they were missing out, but those were not okay to eat. They were not allowed to eat meat that was boiled in the milk of its mother. So, a goat kid could not be boiled in the milk of that kid's mother; that was just not allowed. And if you did that, it would make you ceremonially unclean. You couldn't go before God and offer your sacrifices until you had been made clean again. And God set this law up for that reason to make people wonder at the people of Israel. You might wonder then, is Jesus contradicting the Law? Is Jesus going against the God of the Old Testament? Of course not! They’re the same God. Jesus is the one who gave the Law to Moses. So, in figuring this out, we have to ask what He’s doing. Should we be following these things? Is it the shrimp that makes me unclean? Or is it the reason why I'm eating the shrimp that makes me unclean? Is it the delicious hamburger with cheese on it that makes me unclean? Or is it the reason I'm eating the hamburger with cheese that makes me unclean? We know that it’s the reason behind our breaking of the Law, that’s the unclean thing. And what is that reason? Simply, it’s sin. I mean, if we look into our own hearts and we say, all right, why is it that I break the law with all this lists that Jesus gives to us in our text today? Why is it that I have evil thoughts or sexual immorality or a desire to thieve from someone or to commit murder or adultery, or have coveting or wickedness or deceit or sensuality or envy or slander or pride or foolishness in my heart? These are all evil things. Why do I have them? Of course, the answer is sin. Sin has been with us since Adam and Eve plunged all of creation into it. And it's something that we inherit from our parents. It's not something that we can just get out of. It's something that's been given to us. It's something that must be taken away from the one who is offending God. And certainly as Christians, we know that God does take these things away. And still we struggle in this life against our sinful flesh. As long as we live, we are decaying into death because of the sin that dwells in our bodies. But why is it that I give into these things? One is that I think that I'm smarter than God. And I know better what I need than He does. I mean, aren't we all guilty of this? We don't trust God. And the situations that we're in, we seek out our own desires. We seek out our own wills. We seek out what we want when we want it. And if we don't get it, we're upset. Instead of saying, God, you will provide for me exactly what I need. And blessed be the name of the Lord, whether you give or you takeaway. Could be that we just see something and we want it and we just give into our heart of flesh. That's a huge reason. There’s so much out that that is good to the eye, and so, we see it, we want it, we try to take it. Of course, the idea with all of this is that we think we’re our own God. We think we know better than God. If we know better, then we are better. We are the God of God. And that's a big problem too, isn't it? It could just be that we fall into temptation. It could be that people are tempting us and we just want to go with the flow. We don't want to stand out from the crowd. We don't want to stick out like that sore thumb, which by the way, if you've ever had a sore thumb, you know exactly how that sticks out. Because standing out from the crowd hurts. When we don't look like what other people look like, it hurts. When we don't follow after what other people follow, it hurts. I mean, when we're standing around the water cooler at work and we're talking about all the stuff that's going on in our lives, and someone mentioned that they watch some show, the next thing we want to do is we want to go watch it, too. You see, there's a whole lot of reasons why we end up seeking these things and why these things come out of our hearts. And the ultimate reality is we're just damnable sinners. I wish that I could say that in a way that would strike everybody to the core. I think we’ve lost some of the fear of God in this way. To say that we’re sinners should carry the wright of the accusation, but it doesn’t seem to. So, take me at my word that the reality is we really are just damnable sinners. We deserve to go to hell. That's where we belong. I mean, Jesus, in our sinful flesh, calls our father Satan and it's true. We would rather follow after the ways of Satan, because they're just more fun. We get what we want. We get whatever we want whenever we want. We don't have to answer to God. We answer to ourselves. And I mean, life actually goes pretty well for people who don't have God. I mean, if we look at the lives of all the unbelievers who forsake God, on the whole, they're not bad. They're not hard, but they're not bad in most cases. That’s what we deserve. It really is. We seek after our own ways, we go our own way. And we have no excuse, no excuse with everything that we do and everything that we think and everything that we say; we are looking at God and saying, Condemn me, and without Him, without Christ, He does. I mean, this is the amazing thing about God, is that He gives us exactly what it is that we ask.When we stand before Him on the last day, we will say, Judge me by my righteousness, and God will say, Okay, sure, go into the place that was prepared for the devil and his angels, or we'll say, Please judge me by Christ, by Christ’s righteousness and have mercy upon me on me, and God will say, Okay. I mean, that's kind of a no brainer. And you’d think that everybody standing before God would plead the mercy of Christ. But the thing to remember is that as sinners, we are so self-deluded that without the illumination of the Holy Spirit, we're going to say, I was pretty good. I did alright. I did okay. Put me on the scale, God, and see where I end up. And when we do that, we miss the fact that the smallest sin that we commit is worthy of the worst hell. And it doesn't matter how much you try to do to make up for that one sin. It doesn't, it's never going to work. One sin committed and the only way that that's ever going to work for you is if that sin is taken away from you and put it on someone else. And that's exactly what Christ has done. In fact, that was the way it was for Israel, even as they worshiped in the tabernacle, even as they worshiped in the temple, that not only would they make the sacrifices for the forgiveness of their sins, but every year the priest would take a goat and he would wave his hands over the goat and all of the sins from all of the people were transferred into that goat. And that goat was sent out into the wilderness to die. This is where we get the phrase scape goat. That goat is the way that the sins of the people would be taken away. Well, not really. The goat couldn’t really bear the sins, but Jesus could and the goat was pointing them to Jesus. None of the sacrifices on their own could ever take any sin away. Everything was always in light of the sacrifice that Christ would make. And it was the same with the goat. It was to point the people to the fact that their sins would be taken. It was a very real absolution, but it was always in light of Christ and the people should have remembered this. They should have, but they forgot. And the disciples even forgot it. And they come to Jesus and they say, All right, so tell us about what you meant, because we don't get it. And Jesus says to them, are you also without understanding? Now, we know that the understanding that we need here is actual wisdom. And if we know our Scriptures at all, true wisdom through the Scriptures is referred to as Christ. And that is an analogy of faith. So, if you have faith, you will understand what Jesus says here. And if you don't have faith, you will miss it completely. It's not what goes into you that ends up defiling you but it's what comes out of you, because that's based in the reason why you're defiling yourself and breaking the commandments of God. And Jesus does eliminate these laws not because Jesus and God the Father are somehow contradicting one another, but because these ceremonial laws that had been laid before the people of Israel were there for a time. They were there while the people were looking forward to the sacrifice of the Christ. And now that it's come, they could see these laws for what they were: always pointing to Christ. We don’t obey those ceremonial laws, and even the ones we have now, the laws that guide us through our lives, we don’t do them to save ourselves, or to win our righteousness, but because we are free to obey them. We don’t fear the Lord for all of His goodness toward us. He has finished it all. Even though it is that you deserve hell, your Lord has seen fit to take that smallest sin away from you, that smallest one up into your greatest one. And instead of making you now work for your righteousness, He gives you His own righteousness that you may rely on that. And as you work and live in this life, anything you do then is a good work. And it is counted to you as a glory that is in heaven, not for your salvation, but for your glorification. What goes into your body is not what defiles you, but what comes out of your body. And in the same way, it's not what you do in this life any more as a Christian that defiles you, but it's what comes out of you. You have been illuminated by God the Holy Spirit to have faith in Christ. And you know that this is what you should now want to do, go out and live according to God's word. You should want this, you should want to obey, not because it's going to save you but because God's word is residing in you and now anything that goes into you is going to pass through that word and come out clean. That's what Jesus promises you. On the other hand, if you’re trying to do this all yourself, you're under the law. And anything then that goes into you passes through that law and all your works and it comes out filthy. But if you are in God, if you're in Christ, all that which goes into you comes out of you and it comes out clean. It’s true that the things of this world may not be redeemed. I think for instance, of all of the evil things that we see on TV or in movies, or we listen to on the radio or in talk radio, all these things can go into us and it may not be redeemable, but they're no longer there to defile you. Now you have the wisdom which comes by faith, the wisdom to know what is true and what is false. And you can hear these things and reject them according to the word of God. You know that what the world has to offer for you is not going to be good. And still, you can hear these things and know that the word of God stands against them. Is it not true, Christian, that you know what is right and you know what is wrong and you want to do what is right? It's because you have the understanding. It's because you have the faith that Jesus is talking about here today. You know Him who is wisdom. You know Christ and He resides in you forever. And even though it's true that we deserve nothing, but hell, He gives us nothing but mercy, because of His great love for us. Because we have faith in him, we have no fear of what is to come. We have nothing to fear of what Christ is going to say to us on that last day, because we'll stand before him and we will say, Dear Lord, grant me your mercy and look to your righteousness. I am your humble servant. And He will say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter into the rest prepared for you by your master, Me. And we will have great joy in that day, for all of the promises of Christ in that day will come true. And we will see that we are no longer defiled, but that we have been made glorious as He is glorious. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on August 22, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Mark 7:1-13. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. Mark, the 7th chapter:
Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the Tradition of the Elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the Tradition of the Elders, but eat with defiled hands?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your Father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles Father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his Father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban” ’ (that is, given to God)— then you no longer permit him to do anything for his Father or mother, thus making void the Word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Today, we hear Jesus's Words against the Pharisees and the Words are good reminders for us that we should not be setting up anything that stands in the way of the commandments of God, at least nothing certainly that would give us the impression that we could keep the commandments of God for our own salvation. You see, this is what was happening with the Pharisees. They taught from a book called the Tradition of the Elders. That should be capitalized in our reading, the T of tradition, the E of elders. This Tradition of the Elders was supposed to have been handed down from the elders that accompanied Moses up onto Mount Sinai, where he received the Law of God. Now at Mount Sinai, Moses received 613 commandments from God that the people of Israel were to follow. And, as the Pharisees taught, this Tradition of the Elders contained many more commandments, from not God, but of men, that gave the impression that you could keep the commandments of God.
Imagine it this way. God says honor the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. We hear that and we know that we set aside time to hear God’s Word and meditate upon it, to hear His preaching. But the Tradition of the Elders would say something like you may not walk more than one mile. You may not do any work on the day that is called the Sabbath day. You may not do such and such a thing. It wasn’t about how to honor God, but how to prevent yourself from breaking the Law. It’s how the Tradition of the Elders would work. It’s all about you. And you would go, well, I've not walked more than a mile, except of course, to go to the synagogue to hear the Word of God. I've not done any work. Therefore I must have kept that third commandment. I must have honored the Sabbath day by keeping it holy in my heart. And thus, God must be pleased.
Or let’s think about one of the commandments that has to do with the cleansing of the priests, a little lesser known one. Well, the tradition of the Pharisees came forward and said, well, it's not just the priests who should do such things, but all the people. And in fact, not just themselves, but all things. I mean, they have the washing of hands in the Tradition of the Elders. Now that's not the washing of hands that we've become so accustomed to, especially over these last, what, 20 months, right? You have to use soap and water, you have to do it for 20 seconds, otherwise it's not really a washing of the hands. Instead, the Pharisees would do is take one fist and one palm, dip their fist in water, and rub it together. And that was considered the washing of the hands. I mean, I don't know exactly what they did with the pots and the vessels and all the dining couches. Certainly we know that they did not like dunk them under the water, but they must have washed them in some way, right. To wipe it in water, probably again with the hand, in some way. Instead, it would make sense that they say, let us present ourselves rightly before God, giving Him thanks and praise for all that He has given to us. But, that would be about honoring God, and not themselves, and so it wasn’t the focus.
Now, the Pharisees and some of the scribes who'd come down from Jerusalem, were sitting there with Jesus and they watched as His disciples didn't obey the Tradition of the Elders. Instead, the disciples about their business and began to eat. Besides the fact that this is the commandments of men, there is another passage that gives us a bit of what the Pharisees would expect. The disciples of John come to Jesus and ask why His disciples do not fast unlike them and the Pharisees. Jesus looks at them and it says, Well, they can't fast while the bridegroom is with them, but soon the bridegroom will be going and they will fast. Jesus tells them that fasting is for the time when the party is over, or when you’re looking for, hoping for something greater. And since there is nothing greater than Jesus, the disciples couldn’t, wouldn’t want to fast.
The Pharisees would have expected this answer, that Jesus was placing Himself above the Tradition, just as He had before. But, now, Jesus doesn’t say that they’re not washing because He’s here. Instead, He blows them out of the water by telling them they were those who were prophesied by Isaiah as the people who honors God with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him. In vain you worship God, teaching as doctrines, the commandments of men. So Jesus, doesn't just say, look, the Tradition of the Elders is fine. Wait till I'm gone, there'll be doing it. He says, the Tradition of the Elders is not even close to what God would have you do. He’s completely eradicated the Tradition. He’s taken away their hope of obedience to the Law, He’s taken away their self-righteousness.
You can imagine the consternation on the faces of those people gathered around Jesus. This Tradition, after all, guided their lives. If there was anything for them to do in their daily lives, it was from this Tradition and now Jesus has set it afire. You know, what would really help the Pharisees? What we Lutherans are really very, quite good at in our preaching? A proper distinction between Law and Gospel. Now, they didn’t get this because they thought they could obey the Law and God would be pleased. They couldn’t see the inordinate way they needed the Gospel, the forgiveness of sins for the depth of their depravity. When they thought about the Messiah, it wasn’t as the one who would reconcile them to God, but the one who would meet their earthly needs.They thought the Messiah would come in some kind of way to rescue them, to redeem them from the Romans or from slavery or from any of the things that plagued them. They didn't really totally understand, these Pharisees, that the Messiah would come to save them from their sins.
If they understood that, then they would probably have a better distinction here. Let's talk about this for a second, this proper distinction between Law and Gospel. Now I can go on for a long time on this. In fact, our first president of our Synod, CFW Walter went on for 39 evening lectures as he preached on this to his students at the seminary in St. Louis. I won't go that long. That's okay. The Law is given to us in three ways. It's useful in three ways. The first use is as a curb, which is to say this far, you shall go and no further. The second function is as a mirror, wherein the Law shows us our sin. And the third function is as a guide. Now the guide is useful only for Christians; those who do not believe in Christ have no understanding of the Law as a guide because it is only as a Christian, now having been redeemed out of our sinful state, that we look to God and we say, what now shall we do? And God says, look at my Law, do this. And we obey that Law then as Christians, without fear, because he's already saved us.
The Gospel contains no demands of God. The Gospel are the promises of God, promises of life and forgiveness and salvation, the promise of everlasting life. The promise of redemption, the promise of rescue, the promise of resurrection. The Gospel contains all of the promises, which in Christ, are yes and amen. To confuse these two, you end up in a whole lot of different errors. And that is actually what happens most of the time, where we mingle the Law and the Gospel, or sometimes we eliminate one or the other. Sadly, we probably know some church bodies out there that have essentially eliminated from their teaching the Gospel. If you’re going to be a Christian, you must just obey the Law in this way that we’re teaching you all the time. And if you don't, you better start doubting your salvation, get right with Jesus and get back to obeying the Law. Think of some of the groups with prohibitions against alcohol, or, even worse, infant Baptism.
Sadly, there are also some groups out there that basically abandoned the Law and say, whatever you want is fine with God. We see that in a lot of liberal Protestantism today, we see that in a lot of, what are called, Gospel-reductionist churches. We see it even in a church that bears the name Lutheran, in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. They've abandoned the Law of God and have said that the only Law that we shall obey is the one of love. And thus, if it is loving, we will do it or we will allow it. Now, that sounds nice. But the problem is, when you do that, and abandon the Law of God, you start to live in your own way and you judge yourself by your own standard of righteousness and not God’s. After all, that is what our world demands of us today, is it not? The world demands that we live according to its righteousness and not God's. And thus, when we sit and we say, well, I cannot do such and such, or I will not do such and such, I will not bow my knee to say that a man can be a woman or a woman a man, or that a man can lay with another man or a woman a woman, that life in the womb doesn’t matter, that those fleeing from oppression and terror don’t matter, or that I am a racist simply because of the color of my skin and not the content of my character, the world looks at you and says, then what use are you? And we say, truly, I'm of no use, not on my own, but in Christ I've been redeemed. And they will mock you and they will laugh at you and they will scorn you in all these ways, because you are holding to this proper distinction between Law and Gospel, and teaching the truth of God. You cannot bend the knee to the commandments of men when you are bowing your head before the Lord; there is no righteousness found for you there.
In truth, you know what you've done to transgress the Law. You know the desires of your hearts, the Words of your hands, the fleetingness of your minds. You know that you are worse than the Pharisees. You know you deserve only the scorn of God. Yet, you should also know that your Christ has redeemed you from your sin. And you know, now having been redeemed that you should go out and live in such a way that the righteousness of God shines through you. God shines His glory into this world through you, because you are redeemed, reflecting Christ. And when you know this, you are on your way to grasping this proper distinction.
But, the Pharisees had no understanding of this. And in fact, all they could do was pile law upon Law. And as they did it, they came to believe that they could obey the Law, that they could keep God's commandments. Now, if you could keep God's commandments, you would have no need of Jesus. In fact, this goes back to the garden. At the very beginning, Adam and Eve were created to live in that garden and in perfection forever. God created them knowing that would choose to fall into sin, but He gave them time to live under their own righteousness. All they had to do was to obey God, right? Not to eat of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden was all that was required. If they had done it, they would live forever according to their own righteousness. That's all they had to do. And yet, Eve stood there, deceived by the serpent, believing herself to be her own God, to make her own rules, and she took that fruit and ate of it. And don't think that Adam wasn't complicit in this. He was standing right next to Eve. He should have corrected her. He should have dismissed the serpent away from her, but instead he let the serpent speak the lies that come from the pit of hell, encouraged his wife by his silence to eat of the fruit. And when he was offered that fruit, he ate of it himself. God created them to live according to their righteousness and they failed.
And there the true plan of God was revealed, not that they would live by their own righteousness, but that they would depend on another. This true plan of God would be prophesied in God's condemnation of Eve and the serpent, that He would send the Messiah out of Eve’s seed that Messiah would bruise the serpent's head even as the serpent bruised His heel and Eve hoped in this. Eve knew that she was a fallen sinner. You can imagine what it must have been for Eve to feel in her body sin entering into her. As she bit into that fruit, she could feel sin infecting every piece of her down to her very soul. Shem who had once lived in righteousness, could feel sin now taking over. And so she had to put her hope in that promised Messiah. She had to; that's why, when she gave birth to her firstborn, Cain, she didn’t say, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord, but, I have gotten a man, the Lord. She understood that the Messiah would be God. And she had put her hope in this Messiah thinking that it was her son, but even her hopes were dashed as Cain raised his hand against Abel and slaughtered him, burying him under the ground. God even had to come down and call Cain out on his great sin, the first murder. Eve knew in her body that she had this sin, and it infected everything, but the day will come when Eve will know, and you will know, when out of your graves your body is brought up and you feel the sin leaving your body, never to return. The aches and pains and griefs and sorrows of this life will leave you because our Lord has promised that He will raise your bodies as His body and make you glorious.
That's a wonderful, wonderful promise of God. But the Pharisees did not look at that with hope. They looked instead at their own righteousness. Eve knew she could no longer be righteous. The Pharisees thought they could be righteous. If Eve had no hope, what was the hope of the Pharisees? Well, the hope still would be Jesus. The hope of the Pharisees is still Jesus. Even if they could not see it with their own eyes, their hope of the Messiah was still Him. We know some did turn from their wicked ways and look to the crucified one, the resurrected one, for their redemption. That's a beautiful picture, that even the most hard-hearted sinner can turn from their wicked ways and see their Lord.
And so it is for us that as we understand who we are before the face of God, wicked sinners who deserve nothing but hell, that we would see our Jesus and know that He has redeemed us, that He has brought us up out of the pit and into His marvelous light forever. You see, our Lord takes our hardened hearts and softens them. He takes our lips and, instead of just giving Him lip service, He purifies them with the coal of His absolution, and lets our lips then praise Him, and takes that heart, which is far from Him, and brings it close to Him by giving Himself to you. After all, is He not going to put Himself into your body today? And as He passes down your gullet, goes past your heart, He is right there. And so we find that as He brings our lips to praise Him, in our heart to worship Him, we find that we do gather around His Word and Sacrament and we gather around His doctrines.
Now, the church has a peculiar way of doing things. But, it’s not on the same level as the tradition of the Pharisees. For instance, I wouldn’t ask anyone not ordained to preach the sermon or to offer the forgiveness of sins to the entire congregation, or even to consecrate the elements. We have an order of worship that we follow, one that the whole Church has access to. We have colors for the church year, prayers we offer in different seasons, even certain ways we move or position our bodies at different times through the service. We have a peculiar way of doing things in the church. Now these are the traditions of men, but informed by the Word of God. The difference between these and the Tradition of the Elders is that we don't do these things in order to save ourselves. We do these things because God is a God of order and goodness, and it is right that we order our lives and worship in this way. In our hymn of the day, you sang a line about Luther and his catechism. It’s the only time Luther is mentioned by name in our hymnody. But, don’t think we just blindly follow after Luther there. Don’t think we put him on the same pedestal as Jesus. As Luther taught God's Word, we bow the knee to the Word. We don't just follow Luther because he was an incredible man, though certainly he was; we follow Luther when he taught the Word of God rightly. We don't follow him because he's perfect. He's not. We call ourselves Lutheran because of the way that he taught the doctrines of God and the freedom they contain. We don’t follow his traditions, or any traditions, in order to save ourselves, but because the one we have are useful in demonstrating that we have been saved in Christ. Thus, we gladly call ourselves Lutheran because we hold certainly and steadfastly to that Gospel, to that promise of Christ, that He has redeemed us. That is the joy of being this kind of Christian, that we find all things have been done for us.
There is no man and no man’s teaching we need to obey except the God who is man, Jesus Christ. And we obey Him, not because we fear His judgment, but we obey Him in love because of the judgment that was pronounced upon Him by His Father. It is that our Jesus has saved you, my friends. And He has brought you close to Himself. He has softened your hearts to receive His Word and so also to receive His Sacrament. Do so this day with joy and with gladness for your Lord has redeemed you and given to you a righteousness that surpasses anything we can earn in this world, His own. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on August 15, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on John 6:51-69. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on August 8, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on John 6:35-51. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.The text this morning is from the Gospel according to John, the 6th chapter:
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
Thus far the text.My dear friends in Christ, Jesus last week revealed Himself to be the fulfillment of the promise of manna from heaven, that He is the bread of life, and that whoever comes to Him shall not hunger nor thirst. That coming isn’t a finding of Him out in the wilderness or inside your own feelings, but that coming to Him is a believing in Him, a gift of faith given by God Himself. You cannot come to Jesus on your own; you must be drawn, and drawn by His Word, drawn by His promises. And so it is that you have gathered here once more, drawn by our Lord, that you might receive Him by faith. The people gathered around Jesus were not drawn by faith, but by the satisfaction of their bellies. They come because Jesus fed them in the wilderness. But you have come because He has fed you at a table set before your enemies. He satisfied their hunger, but He has given you that which satisfies forever. The feeding of the 5,000 wasn’t about some miraculous thing that Jesus could do, but rather that it pointed to Jesus as the fulfillment of the promise that the Father would feed His people on the bread from heaven, which is Jesus Himself. And so, Jesus gives the world Himself. Willingly He went to the cross. Willingly He laid His life down. Willingly, He gives for the entire world His flesh, that we might eat of Him and have life. He follows the will of the Father in all of this. The Father has sent His Son just as He sent manna and quail into the Israelite camp. He sends what we need in order to be fed, in order that we might live, in order that we might give thanks to God for His provision. After all, it pleases God to receive our sacrifice of thanks and praise for all that He has done for us. It pleases God to hear us recognize His gifts. And He has given us so much, hasn’t He? Every material thing we have is from the hand of God, and still He gives us more. Yet, the Lord is not satisfied in giving us the material things of this world. It is true that we shall inherit it all, but He doesn’t stop with the material. He gives us that which lasts forever. He gives us that which goes beyond the material. He gives us His Son, the divine Son of God who takes on human flesh that He might give us His divinity. Not that we become God if we are in Jesus, but that we become more and more like God. We look more and more like Christ. Because He has taken humanity into Himself, Christ has bound Himself to His creation forever, and thus, in His death, promises to redeem us all. He hasn’t taken part of humanity, He’s taken it all. It’s not like He condemns people with certain ear shapes, or height, or nationality, or gender. He takes all of what it is to be human into Himself. When He then lays His life down, it is humanity that He is redeeming. He stands in for you and all creation in His death, because He is you, He is one of us. When He dies, it is enough to satisfy the payment for sin, and so He redeems you and all humanity. Of course, we know that only those who believe in Him will have eternal life, but the call to believe in Him is for every person. There is not one for whom Christ did not die; all belong to Him. Yet, for those who believe in Him, by the power of the Spirit, Christ will raise us up on the last day. Interestingly, the Jews who heard Christ say this weren’t offended at His doing the Father’s will; they were offended that He called Himself the bread come down from heaven. They thought two things, first that He was lying as His father, Joseph, and mother, Mary, were well knows. The second is that Jesus was claiming that the manna wasn’t enough. For the Jews, they held the story of the manna in highest regard, that their God took care of them, their people, by this miraculous incursion into creation. That Jesus would say it was only a sign for what would come in Himself, it was an affront. It’s like if the Suns decided the NBA trophy was theirs because they are the ones the Bucks had to play against. It’s like if the Vikings claimed every Lombardi trophy was theirs because the Packers had to beat them every year. Jesus offended them by telling them that He was the fulfillment of the sign. But it didn’t bother Jesus. Jesus knew they were rejecting Him. They had been warned for centuries in the Word of God what was to be. They should have known that the prophets had told them that the Messiah was coming, and when He did, He would teach them all things. What would the Messiah have to teach them if their history was enough? Instead, their Messiah would have to show them how all the law and the Prophets were about Him. And this was a great offense because Jesus was calling them ignorant unbelievers. And so they were. These unbelievers wanted Jesus to feed them so they weren’t hungry. They wanted Him to feed them so they could live with no issues, with no work. But, they refused to see how Jesus would do that, by giving His flesh for the life of the world. They refused to understand Him. They refused to listen, and next week, we’ll hear how they walk away from Jesus, almost cursing His name. But it is not so for you. Jesus has called you, He has drawn you to this place that you might believe in Him. And here, He feeds you with His Word and Sacrament. He gives you Himself through the hearing of His Word, through the forgiveness of sins, through listening to Him, through meditating upon Him and His work for you. And He gives you Himself by washing you in the waters of Baptism, that you might have a clean conscience before Him, that you might have faith in Him. And He gives you Himself by feeding you through His flesh and blood, that you might be forgiven of all your sins and that you would be strengthened until that day that He raises you from the dead. The food He gave the Jews in the wilderness satisfied them for a time, but the food you receive here in your mouths and in your ears goes into your bones, and preserves you like salt, even though you rot away in the ground. He gives you something greater than food which lasts through the night. He gives you food that lasts through your death. The food you eat today ensures that you shall not die. It is true that, unless Jesus returns first, you shall enter into your grave and await the day of resurrection. But, if you are in Christ, you have already died once and that is enough. In your Baptism, you are buried into His death. After all, the death He died is for you. In His humanity, His death was for you. And you are raised to new life in Him in the same sacrament. You have already died once. You will not die again. You have already died once to sin, just as Christ died for the world. You will not die in that punishment again. Instead, you shall sleep. You will fall asleep in Christ, waiting for Him to wake you at His return. The image is a beautiful one, that we close our eyes in this life and open them in the next. It’s as easy as falling asleep in the dark and awaking with the morning light. And what joy we will have when our faith in Christ is vindicated that day. All that we trusted in has come true. All that we believed is true. All of God’s promises in Christ are yes and amen. We will find that He has preserved us forever, and that we shall die no more. We shall find that He has been with us always, and we will never be apart from Him.And all this because He laid His life down for you. All of this because He took your humanity to Himself. All of this because He bore the punishment that brought you peace. All of this because He gives you Himself that you might be forgiven, that you might be strengthened, that you might believe in Him forever and ever. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on August 1, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on John 6:22-35. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on July 25, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Mark 6:46-56. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. Mark, the sixth chapter:
Immediately He madeHis disciples get into the boat and go beforeHim to the other side, to Bethsaida, while He dismissed the crowd. And after He had taken leave of them, He went up on the mountain to pray. And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and He was alone on the land. And He saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, but when they sawHim walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, for they all sawHim and were terrified. But immediately He spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” And He got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored to the shore. And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognizedHim and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard He was. And wherever He came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and imploredHim that they might touch even the fringe ofHis garment. And as many as touched it were made well.
Thus far the text.My dear friends in Christ, This a passage that I have preached about many times and yet it is something that I just cannot ignore when it comes. I mean, there's so much good to see out of the Genesis passage and out of the Ephesians passage, but this is incredible. I like it. One of the main reasons is because, if you know Greek, it is very clear as to what Jesus is saying; he's not telling the disciples in the boat that, It is I. He says, Take heart. I am, do not be afraid. Jesus here claims the name of God for Himself. In Greek, it’s ego eimi. In Hebrew it’s Yahweh. In English, it’s I Am. So when Jesus says I am, He’s saying, I'm God. Don't be afraid. I'm God, I got this. Now you would think that the disciples, who have been through storms with Jesus before, storms where Jesus was sleeping and they wokeHim up and He calmed the the wind and the waves, you’d think that they would know that all will be fine. Except you have to remember that in this windstorm, Jesus isn't with them right away. Our passage today follows after last week's reading, which is the feeding of the 5,000, which we really know is the feeding of many, many thousands, right? Enough that 200 denarii worth of bread. 200 years worth of work, would not have paid to feed them all. After this, Jesus sends the disciples away. He makes them get into the boat and go before him. And presumably this is because Jesus desires then to pray, right? It says He went up onto the mountain to do just that. We’ve talked about this before, that, anytime you see a mountain, something holy is about to happen. And the holy thing that happens is not that Jesus walks on the water. It’s not that He calms the wind. Those are certainly miracles, but the point of this passage isn’t that. The holy thing that happens is that He, God, sees the boat even while it is in the middle of the sea. Remember the sea of Galilee is no small lake. It's pretty large. I'm not saying it's Lake Michigan, large, but it's pretty large. And a boat can easily be los as you're looking down from a mountain into the sea of Galilee. Add in the wind and the waves surrounding the disciples, and it’s easy to miss the boat. That boat is tiny and small. And when you think about it, we are tiny and small. Who are we that God should take notice of us? When you have a God who created the heavens and the earth, He must be greater than all things that He created. The common child's question comes up. How big is God, daddy? Is He bigger than you? Yes. Is He bigger than Pa Pa (because grandpa's taller than I am)? Yes. Is He bigger than our house? Yes. Is He bigger than the clouds? Yes. And we can go, as adults, ad infinitum, right? Is He bigger than the sun? Is He bigger than the solar system, bigger than the galaxy? The galaxies, is He bigger than the universe? Yes. God is bigger, greater than all these things. And yet He hasHis eye on you. He has taken notice of you. And, in the text, Jesus, God, is able to look down onHis disciples and see that they're struggling against the wind, and He has compassion on them. Leaving the mountain, He comes down to where they are in the midst of the storm. This, not only, is a actual event that happened, but it is the same kind of thing that happened when Jesus ,being God, leftHis place in heaven to come down and be among the people in the midst of our storms, in the midst of all the pain and strife. As we go through all of our struggles, He comes to us as we are. And yet, like the disciples, we do not understand. They thought that He was some type of phantasm. I think that's a better word than ghost, right? Because ghost today carries a whole lot of baggage. We think about some kind of disembodied spirit from someone who has unfinished business in the world. That wasn’t a thought for the people back then. They didn’t see ghosts as the souls of people, but rather a ghost, a phantasm was a real spiritual being. They lived in a world where spirits and phantasms are active. And in fact, it's the same world that we live in right now; spirits are active all around us. And it's just, we tend to deny the phantasms and spirits, the demons, the angels, those things that have fallen from God and those things that still serve him. We don't see them. The disciples did. And so they thought, walking through the middle of this lake, they saw a phantasm, because when you see a man standing out in the middle of the water, you're going to freak out just a little bit. And so they thought, Well, this must be some type of spirit, it certainly can not be anything that we know. But instead Jesus, a real man with a real body, looks at them and says, Take heart. I am. Do not be afraid. And so, too, when we see Jesus, we see the mystery of the God-man, the God who has taken humanity into himself, who is bound Himself with humanity forever, that He might advocate for you before the father. And, as we don’t understand this, we must confess I don't understand why is it that you care for me? Why is it that you love me? Why is it that you would lay down your life for me. And He looks at you and He says, Take heart. I am, I am the Lord. I am taking care of you. I am loving you. I have laid down my life for you to forgive your sins and to bring you to eternal life with me forever. Do not be afraid. And when they hear this, we find that their hearts were hard and they did not understand. Mark says that about the loaves. Now, if you had been here on Sunday and some of you were, I think you would have heard this idea that the loaves are God's unmerited grace toward us. Remember Jesus takes the fish and the loaves from the people and distributes them out. In that sermon, we talked about how some has thought of the number five as, God's righteousness, God's grace, and the number two is something that is divided, right? And so if you think of Jesus taking these five loaves and two fish, we're talking about Israel, wandering in a desolate place, away from the righteousness, the redemption of Christ, the redemption of God. And yet when all is broken and distributed and taken back up into the baskets to give to the poor, how much is left but 12 baskets full, 12 being the number of the Church, meaning that when Christ appears, He takes that, which is broken and brings back the Church. And these disciples, at this time, did not understand this saying, they did not understand about the loaves. They had hardened their hearts because they were more concerned about the Jesus who could provide for their physical needs at this moment than the Jesus who would provide forever for their spiritual needs. They did not understand Jesus in this moment, but Jesus would enlighten their eyes and enlightened their hearts by the power ofHis Spirit, just as He has you, so that they could see the true Jesus.And I think there's something to be said that, when you see the true Jesus, there is nothing that you're going to do to turn away from Him. You will endure, having been given the gift of faith. After all, you follow in the Apostles’ footsteps. They are you in this story, and you will live a life like theirs. For His sake, for the sake of Him who loves us, the Church has endured in the midst of persecution and beatings and shipwrecks, and all the kinds of things that the apostles faced. The disciples never once denied their God for us. And neither shall you. You might think this is harder for you because you’ve never seen Jesus with your eyes, and only believe in Him by faith. And yet the scriptures say that by faith, the angels look at you and ponder at you that you believe in Jesus though you have not seen him. You hope in what you have not seen. And this is a great and marvelous thing. In fact, the prophets longed to see the day in which you live, for you have it better than they, for now you live in the day of Christ's redemption. And so when we look at this passage, we can say, of course, this is Jesus. Of course, he's God, of course He will save the disciples, but we forget that He does these things also for us. We trust in him, but we have not seen Him with our eyes. And so we forget that Jesus can do, will do these things also for us. HeHow is it that Jesus will call them the storms in our lives? How is it that Jesus will eliminate the struggles that we face? How is it that Jesus will come to be with us? We don't know all of the answers, because certainly we pray for a temporal delivery, and sometimes it seems Jesus waits on that, but we must trust that He will deliver us. After all, the disciples still had to struggle against the wind, did they not? It's not as if they never struggled. Jesus will deliver you, but to deliver you, you must go through the struggle. There has to be something from which to deliver you. And, honestly, it might be that, Jesus, to eliminate your temporal struggles is waiting for you to die. Because, honestly, that is a great way to eliminate anything that you have to go through for, to live is Christ, but to die is gain. Could it be that He actually does remove these obstacles from your life through some miraculous intervention? Sure. However it may happen, our Lord does desire to take away your struggle. He does desire to take away your burden. I mean, think of Noah having gone through the most horrific death scene in all of creation, in all of creation's history, Noah comes out on the other side, He comes out, saved through the ark. This is a very good lesson for us because the scriptures say that Noah's ark is not there to be a nice little children's story where we draw nice, pretty little animals, right? But instead we should envision all of the dead, right? And corpses around the ark as the world floods. And yet we are those who are saved through the ark because the ark actually points us to Baptism, the ark points to how God has indeed saved us. I think of Noah going through all of this awful stuff and coming out the other side and seeing this rainbow up in the sky and going, what is is that? Because of course He had never seen one before. And now God tells Him, This is a sign of the covenant that I will never destroy again this world by water. And in fact, all flesh has no reason to fear me, but reasons to love me. All of creation is to look to their Lord, who can save them through all of these things. And yet, while the world rejects our Jesus, you do not. You have, again, been enlightened by faith, through the power of the Spirit, to see your Jesus in all the ways that He has delivered you, in all the ways that He will deliver you. He is going to do this for you. Though it may through death, which doesn’t seem like the most fun way to say God’s deliverance is coming, He will do it. It's how God works. Death is nothing in this life to you, but a portal to which you are taken to your Jesus. It is a portal through which you leave the trials and tribulations of this awful, sin-filled world behind and you enter into what is the beginning of your rest in Him. You are welcomed into this by Baptism. You are welcomed into this by faith. You are strengthened in this by the Supper. You hold fast to your Jesus, and now, recognizing Him, seeing the God-man in front of you, seeing Him by the eyes of faith, even if it is not the eyes of your head, you recognize Him and you run to Him. just as all those people recognize Him on the shore of and ran to Him and ran out to the ends of the neighboring towns and brought all of the sick and all of those who needed Him, wherever Jesus was, they brought them. So too, do we. Maybe you are sick. And so you bring yourself to Jesus. And maybe you know those who are sick and you bring them to Jesus, whether by actually bringing them into the church or by reaching out to Jesus by prayer and saying, Lord, bless this one, bless this dear child of yours, bring them to health, bring them to faith. See, you've been given something great. You've been given the knowledge of Jesus through faith informed by all of the accounts that are in the scriptures. They're all true, but they're not there just so that you know a good history, but that you also can see what it is that you are to do in response to the good news of your Jesus Christ saving you from all the things that plague you. You can see everything that you are to do, to run to Him, to cling to Him, and bring others to Him. God has seen you in your struggles, and He shall save you, He has saved you, and He will save you. Through His death, He has brought Himself to you, and through His resurrection, He brings you to Himself forever. He has seen you, noticed you, loved you, and you are forgiven, you are saved. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on July 18, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Mark 6:33-44. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on July 11, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Mark 6:14-29. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. Mark, the 6th chapter:
King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some said, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.” But others said, “He is Elijah.” And others said, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.” For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. For when Herodias’s daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.” And he vowed to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.” And she went out and said to her mother, “For what should I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.” And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
We have nothing to fear from the world, although the world has much to fear from us. It's true. The world should be very afraid of us, even though it's not. The world should be very afraid of us because we have Christ, who is Lord of all, dwelling within us. And the Lord has promised that he will take his recompense against this world for what they do to His saints. And so when the world sees us, they should see the Christ who has vowed to avenge his saints in this place. But the world doesn't fear us. And that is because the world is very dumb.
It's true. The world does not know what it should know and rejects what it should hold dear. But you have not. The fact that you are here today testifies to the fact that you have within you this Christ, this Christ who will protect you in all things. And that is a very good thing for you because, though we should fear Christ for he is the one who is the judge of the living and the dead, He has promised to have mercy upon you. And so, while we fear him as the judge, we have no fear of judgment. There's a big difference there.
To fear judgment is to think, well, maybe Christ will send me to hell. Maybe I haven't done enough. And the answer to this, of course we know, is you have not done enough, but your Lord has promised not to send you to the place that you deserve, the place that's prepared for the devil and his angels, but has instead promised to welcome you into his kingdom. Not because you've done anything, but because he has done everything.
If you were to fear the judgment of Christ, well, you would at least know what the world does not, but it would show that you have a very weak faith, if you had faith at all. Instead as Christians, we don't fear the judgment. We know that we will be called on the last day to stand before Christ. And he shall declare us righteous, again, not because of the work that we do, but because of the work that he has done for you. Every saint has this hope. Every saint from Adam and Eve, all the way through David, all the way through Amos, all the way through until today has this hope. Now it may not be that every saint was able to testify that the name Jesus is the one that would be given to the Messiah, but from the very beginning, this has always been the hope, that the Lord would come and redeem his own. Every saint, every one, including you, and even John had this hope.
I know sometimes we seem to give John a little bit of a bad rap as he's in prison, right? Herod has imprisoned him. And we don't know all of the reasons why, except of course, that John was preaching against his marriage to his brother’s wife, Herodias. And I know that's always a little weird: Herod married to Herodias, but there it is. And John, languishing in prison sends his disciples to Jesus to say, are you the Christ or should we seek another? And we think, well, maybe John is losing a little bit of his faith here. The other theory of course, is that John is letting his disciples find out for themselves that Jesus is the Christ. It might be a mixture of both. But, I would tell you that John’s faith, as the last prophet of the old Testament is unshakeable. He knows that his Messiah has come and that this Messiah is the Lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world. John's faith was in this.
You see an example of the world then today, as we look at Herod, who kind of, sort of, maybe feared God, but not really. Herod feared the judgment of God more than he feared God himself. You see Herod is a little bit of a mixed bag. We've talked about this before, that Herod is of mixed lineage. He had a little bit of the Gentile in his Jewishness. And for that reason, that is one of the reasons that he was set above all the Jews. Herod the Great, his father, would have been set over all these things as king, even though, of course, he wasn't really a king, because Caesar is king, but that he was given power and authority over this area. He was seen as somebody who, well, he's Jewish enough to rule, but not Jewish enough to rebel. So, Rome enjoyed having this guy in power, but the Jews hated it and couldn’t do anything about it.
And so here he is sitting here in his throne room and seeking all this wisdom of God. He's really no better than the Greeks in this way, seeking all the wisdom that he can attain, to find out what it is that God would demand of him. And really all that he needed to do was to listen to the word of God, which John preached. This is why Herod enjoyed John's preaching even though he was greatly perplexed by it. Herod thought himself a man of faith and but he had no fear in the one who could destroy his soul and his body in hell; he didn’t understand the preaching of John. But then John is murdered. And so, when Herod heard of this Jesus coming onto the scene, he thought back to this man who, he beheaded. John was dead, but he hears of Jesus and he thinks John has come back from the dead. Think about that for a moment. John knew his Scriptures. He was a prophet. And as a man of God, John was preaching about the one who would die and return to life. And so, Herod, who despised God and didn’t know the Scriptures, thought that it must be John who's come back to judge him.
I love the picture of Herod in Andrew Lloyd Weber’s, Jesus Christ Superstar. Of course, the musical is wildly blasphemous, but this is something that I think Weber got close to right. Herod is depicted as this flamboyant character, always getting what he wants, raucously enjoying his power. And we see this play out today, and we see it in Jesus’ trial before His crucifixion. Herod’s basically throwing a party in front of this man who comes to him bound and tied and beaten. But he knows of this Jesus, and since He’s not John, since Herod would have expected John to take recompense on him, Herod had no fear. He might’ve looked at Jesus’ face and studied it, thinking, Do I see John there? Do I see the Baptizer in you? Are you him? No. He’s not. And so he begs of this miracle worker that he would do a sign. If you'll only do these things, I'll set you free. Herod might’ve feared God’s judgment, but he certainly didn’t fear God.
John told him well enough, you're going to go to hell unless you repent of the sin. And Herod should have repented, but he feared his new wife, his sister-in-law and wife, more than God. Herod throws John in prison, and you have to believe John never stopped preaching, maybe not even to Herod himself. It kind of reminds you of Paul, as he would be taken into prison and he would preach to everyone around him, and many would be converted. But John couldn't convert Herod. He was interesting, but he was perplexing.
So it comes to be that Herod throws this great party. And his stepdaughter Salome is dancing. Now we actually know Salome's name from other sources. It's not in the biblical record. It's in the record of Josephus. Josephus was a wonderful historian, but he was a traitor to the Jewish faith. He went over to the Roman side and was giving an account of Israel for the Romans to basically be propaganda, to show why it was okay to kill all of the Jews. Salome would go on to do horrible things, and to think, it all could have begun in this party. Salome is dancing for Herod and all of his leaders and all the leaders throughout Galilee. Salome’s dancing wasn’t for the faint of heart. The implication is that it wasn’t exactly ballet. It's more like what we would call stripping. I mean, give the girl a pole and she would have been on it in the middle of the room. And the idea here is Herod, being drunk, received his stepdaughter into his lap and she got him a little excited. And in his drunken stupor, he decided to say a really, really dumb thing. He would have given away half of his kingdom, at least if it was in his power to do so, to this girl who got him excited, but that's not what Salome asked for. Instead, she goes to her mother, Herodias, who is so incensed at the Baptizer that she says, I want his head on a platter. How grizzly that must have been. You kind of wonder how long she would have kept the head of John the Baptizer. Probably quite a while, just rotting there in the corner of the throne room as a reminder that, you can be about God, but you can't stand in the way of my power. She asks for the Baptist's head and she gets it. John the Baptizer, in true faith, gave his life as a martyr of Christ.
Because the world didn't fear God, the world is dumb. The World doesn't know what it should fear. Instead it fears that which confronts its own power. The world is going to persecute us. That's the way that it goes. The world is going to come against you, Christian, because the world doesn't fear the one who is in you like it should. If the world knew who lived inside of you, the world would bow down in worship, not to you, of course, but to the one who lives in you. The world would fear you. It would elevate you above all things. It would try to put on a show, at the very least, to say, don't judge me too harshly, God, see how I'm treating your children. But the world is dumb. The world is going to come at you with everything that it has. The world is going to make sure, instead of listening to you, that it disqualifies you even from speaking. It’s going to come to you. It's going to lill you. It may do this figuratively though what we’ve been calling cancel culture. But through most of the history of the world, the world has actually killed the saints of God in that very real sense. And in fact, even today, when the world comes up against Christians, the majority of them are murdered, murdered for the sake of Christ. In fact, there is more martyring of the saints today than there has been at any point in history. I think of the suffering church in China, I think of the suffering church in some African nations, that any time someone is proclaimed as a Christian, they face death immediately because the world cannot stand a threat to its power.
Make no mistake you are a threat because you will not bow down and worship what the world tells you to worship. You are a threat. We see that in Amos today, as Amos is preaching against the nation of Israel, where God says, I will no more pass by Israel. The idea there is of the Passover, right, when the angel of death passes over the children of God. But now God will no longer pass over them. Instead, he will send his angel death to kill them. And, in fact, make it so that Jeroboam himself will die. Jeroboam in fear says, get out of here. Maybe if you're not preaching here, I'll be okay. But Jeroboam would be judged as evil, no matter where Amos went. Amos, to his credit, went on to preach up at the more faithful nation, Judah. He did God’s will and was willing to lay his life down for it. And we see the same thing, of course, in John the Baptizer, the one who is preaching Christ, the one who will lay his life down for all things for the sake of Christ. It’s really not going to be all that different for you, I believe. I've said this before, too, that we in America, or at least we, the Western world, are entering a time when we are post-Christianity, and the Christian Church does not matter as much to the world. The world is growing emboldened in their stand against the church. The world is growing more emboldened in their stand against you. They will come for you. They will demand your obedience to them. But you, Christian, cannot give in. You, Christian, are held to the plumb line.
You know what a plumb line is. A plumb line is basically a string that is straight. It's held up in one place so that you can build up a house against that, nice and straight each corner. You are being built into the house of God, you are being built against this plumb line. And that plumb line is Jesus the Christ. You will be held to that standard because you are a member of this house of God, the body of Christ through all space and time. You have within you, by faith, the courage to stand against the world and make a confession of Christ. When the world comes to you and tells you to renounce your God, you have the strength of faith within you to say, I shall not. The ancient saint, Polycarp, when faced with death, cried out, “86 years have I have served him, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?” Still, the fire was prepared and he was roasted to death. This faith to endure is in you, too. Your Lord will protect you, not from death, because we know that that is the wages of sin, but from eternal death, which is the wages of the judgment against those who are unrighteous. The Lord instead has promised to you, just as he promised Amos, just as he promised to John the Baptizer, eternal life through Christ.
Because Christ is risen from the dead, you shall live forever with him. Again, you are shown to have faith because you are here gathered around his Word and his Sacraments and our Lord will not leave you nor shall he forsake you. John, even here in his death, was not left by Christ. Jesus may not have been in the prison with him bodily, but God is always with those who love him. God will protect you and guard you in all things. When Christ returns, John the Baptizer, his head wherever it is in all this world, will be joined together with his body. And that mouth that once was silenced by the ax will speak forth the testimony of Christ. And so it will be for you, that our Lord will return to you life forever that you may be with him.
How can we do less than make the good confession. Our Lord has brought you into his salvation and we are called then to give testimony to him forever. The world will hate you for this because the world does not understand what it is that you have within you. It does not understand the hope of life that you have because the world is dumb, but you, my friends have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit. You, ,y friends, have been brought to faith by him who gives you the gift of forgiveness and life and salvation. And you have that promise of Jesus now and forever. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on July 4, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Mark 6:1-13. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. Mark, the sixth chapter:
He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching. And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
A prophet is not without honor, except in his own hometown and among his relatives and in his own household. We don't really talk a lot about the pastoral office, but we should. What is it that parishioners owe to their pastors? It's a big question. Isn't it? We should honor our pastors. God has set them over us that they might guide us in the ways of God. And for that, and for their office, we should hold our pastors in the highest esteem. I know I do those pastors who are there for m.e Certainly we owe obedience to our pastors, that when he speaks from the pulpit, according to the word of God, we should obey. And we trust them, too.We know that when the pastor speaks the absolution, we trust it. We trust that we are forgiven. When he delivers to us the sacrament, we trust that he is acting in the place of Jesus, in the stead of Christ. When it comes to the pastor of a church, parishioners owe them their honor, obedience, and trust. We know that the main reason behind this is because the pastor is the person that God has put into the pulpit, And we look at our pastor the way that God would have us. He has set the example.
Sadly, it doesn't always go that way in every church, in every place. And I'm not talking about anything here, of course, but it is that pastors actually today are among the least trusted professions. Now you might think, oh, well, that doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, but it's true. According to a Gallup poll done just three years ago, pastors are the 12th least trustworthy profession in our society. Hey, you can hardly blame the people can you, when you have pastors who are bilking people out of their money, when you've got pastors, like we talked about last week, who are telling you that while you won't get sick or diseased if only you have enough faith, pastors who groom and then sleep with their parishioners, pastors who abuse the sheep in their church, lording it over them, like some kind of dictator. It is no surprise then that pastors have become among the least trustworthy in all the nation.
It's amazing. I was just thinking about this the other day. When I went out on my vicarage, I would wear my collar like this and I wasn't really used to it. I didn't really like it a whole lot back then. I still don't really honestly like it all that much now, but it is my uniform so I still wear it. But you know, I would be driving on the roads of Missouri. And if you've ever driven in Missouri, especially St. Louis, it is just insane. You think Chicago's bad? St. Louis is worse because, in Missouri, they don't require that anybody take driver's education. So, everybody does what they want to do. And so you're driving along this road and I'm in my collar and I'm not going super fast, probably five miles over, along the line of what is normally the speed of traffic. And I realize I'm pretty much the fastest person on the road. This was just 10 years ago. I realized I was the fastest person on the road because when people would move to overtake me, they would lean over in their windows to flip me off because I was not going as fast as them, realize I was wearing the collar, stomp on their brakes like I was the police, and slowly creep up behind me. Today, I just get flipped the bird. It's how it goes.
Pastors just aren't seen to be trustworthy in our society today. And that is a shame. It's a big shame. I can tell you that I, as a pastor, try to be faithful. That is the promise that I made to you in my installation. That is the one thing that I've promised you: that in all things, I would be faithful to the word of God, that I would not lead people astray, that I would be with the people where they need to be. Sometimes I'm good at that. Sometimes I fail at that. And when I fail, I certainly need to repent of that. I ask your forgiveness if it's ever been you that I’ve failed personally. But here's the thing: when it comes to the pastor-parishioner relationship, there is a mutual trust between the two. I trust that my parishioners are going to tell me what's going on in their lives. I trust that. They should tell me that when they go into the hospital (guess how well that's going). I trust that my parishioners are living according to the word of God. And certainly as I visit with people and I discover that these things may not be, these are sins, that they must be called out. And my parishioners need to trust in me that I'm a man above reproach. That I am not one of those who is going to preach falsely. I'm not one of those who's going to hold up my own power and my own position as something to Lord it over people, but someone who ministers, according to the word of God.
Jesus was such a minister. Now you have to imagine Jesus, his family, his brothers and sisters, probably grew up hearing all of the stories about Jesus' birth. And, you gotta imagine, too, that when it comes to family disputes, no one was ever able to blame anything on Jesus. Right? Who hit first? Well, Jesus hit me… Well, come on, Joses, we know that's just not true. Who left the lights on? Well, Jesus left the lamps going when he went out. Come on, James, that's just not true. Who didn't watch the animals? Well, Jesus didn't want to do it. Judas, you know Jesus doesn’t sin. That’s not true. Mary and Joseph both would have known that their firstborn did not sin, and the kids would’ve tried to blame him anyway, but it never would have worked. You have to believe it's probably a bit of a Joseph situation, where his brothers and sisters looked at Jesus and were jealous of him. Now don't get me wrong, in the story of Joseph from Genesis, you've got Joseph, who certainly was prophesied to be a great man, but he really wasn't very humble when he told his brothers and his father and his mother about all the dreams that he was having and how they would bow down to him, and so you can kind of understand how it was that they got jealous of Joseph and Jesus. In his case, Jesus was humble. I don't think that he wandered around saying, well, you know, I'm God, you better listen to me. Instead, he would live in his family, love his mother and father and brothers and sisters to the very end, and still, even in that love that they would honestly doubt that he was the Messiah. And we know that they doubted that he was the Messiah. In fact, they were not converted, most of them, until after his resurrection and ascension. We know that James, his brother who became the Bishop over Jerusalem, didn't believe in Jesus, even though he was with him through his whole ministry, and eventually was counted sort of among the apostles, he was not converted until Jesus finally rose from the dead.
Even in Jesus's love that he had for all people, he was not respected and so much so that people sought to murder him. And so they did. You can imagine, then, that his brothers and sisters probably had a little bit of this going on in their hearts. After all does not Jesus say that if you hate your brother, you have committed murder against him? You have to think that they're feeling that. And so, Jesus, being the minister and the minister of ministers, probably was not well-respected in his own family. What about even his relatives? His aunts, his uncles, his cousins. The only one we know for sure, other than Mary and Elizabeth and Zechariah, who believed in him, was John the Baptist. Elizabeth and Zechariah were probably long dead by the time Jesus started his public ministry. But John the Baptist certainly believed, pointing to him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And Mary, certainly as she went about these things, treasured all these things in her heart, but you can even see in certain circumstances through the New Testament, how she was carried along by the wishes and demands of her children, how she would call Jesus back to them because everybody thought he had gone crazy. And so Mary, even knowing that he is the Son of God was even lead astray on occasion.
But Jesus, even among his own relatives is not honored as a prophet and Jesus in his own hometown, well, you can see the questions that they ask,. Where did this man get these things? What kind of wisdom does he have? How is he able to do these mighty works? Isn't this the son of the carpenter, the son of Mary, and his brother, James and Joseph and Judas and Simon, are they not all with us? We watched this kid grow up. We watched him struggle to learn, to be a carpenter. We know he didn't go to the rabbinical schools. How is it that he is so smart teaching things? Who does he think he is to give us commands? Jesus was not respected in his own hometown or among his relatives or even in his own family. And so it is that pastors, who are what we would today call prophets according to what the biblical standard of what a prophet is, even they are not always respected.
It was when I entered the ministry, that a couple people from my home congregation told me, well, you know, now we can call you back to be our pastor. And I can tell you that I became a little weird, a little uncomfortable about that statement, because the thought of going back to my home congregation and ministering to the people who watched me grow up was a little scary. Literally, in the narthex, in the area that recounts the history of the congregation, there’s a picture of me with a kid in a headlock. That would have been a little awkward as the pastor,.
But it's true. The prophet is not well-respected. And why is that? What is a prophet to do? What is a pastor to do? A prophet is not one who just predicts the future. That's some of the work that a prophet could potentially do, although most of the time in the Scriptures that doesn't happen. A prophet instead speaks the Word of God to the people. Now you say, well, pastor the prophets in the Old Testament, they heard directly from God, and that's absolutely true, but Hebrews tell us that in the former days, God spoke to his people through the prophets, but now in these latter days, God has spoken to us by his Son. And so it is that I need no new word from God to speak to you, but instead speak to you from the Word that has been delivered, the same Word preached the same over the course of the last 2000 years. The prophet merely forth tells the word of God.
That's my job. That is all that my job really truly is. And yeah, we get suckered into a whole lot of other kinds of things: worrying about the money of the congregation, cleaning up vomit in the hallways from the kids during the school year, cleaning up vomit sometimes from the teachers during the school year, getting sucked into yard work, and all the things of the church. And that's perfectly fine, but that's not my job. The job that you have brought me here to do is to study the Word of God, to pray, and to preach God's Word to you. I’m here to bring the gifts of the Church to you.
Now, if you look at our Lutheran confessions, specifically the Augsburg Confession, the church is the place where the gospel is rightly preached and the sacraments are properly administered. And so it is that the church gathers around the pastor, not because I have some indelible character that was given to me in my ordination. I am a sinner. In fact, I am the worst sinner that I know. If you knew the things that I could do, or that I could think, you would probably would be quite ashamed and you would go, thank goodness, I'm not like him. Although, if you were honest with yourself, you probably would be looking at the things that you do and you think, well, at least pastor's not as bad as me. We always know that we are the worst sinner that we know. But, it is that the pastor is the center of the congregation, not because he's so much better, because that's not true, but because the congregation has entrusted to the pastor the very gifts that were given to the Church by Jesus Christ, the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. We call this the Office of the Keys, where, in one hand, the key is there to forgive the sins, to loose the sins from the people that they might also be loosed in heaven. And with the other hand, to retain the sins of the people, should they not repent of them and to then bind those sins to them here and in heaven. Now, that’s a very dangerous thing, but it is the churches all across time and space have entrusted to usually one man that Office of the Keys and the Church then gathers around the Office of the Keys, for there the sins are forgiven of the people and they are retained to the people who do not repent.
That is what we are to be about. It's kind of a scary thought when you think about it, that there is a man among you who has the power of God put on him, not in him, but on him. And he can bind and loose the sins of the people. I sometimes think we would be better off in all the churches if we were to exercise that binding key a little more. I think if churches actually did exercise things like excommunication, which is to say, you're not welcome in here until you repent and if you do not repent, you will go to hell, or what we would call the minor ban, which is you really need to not be at the Supper until you're repenting, we’d be so much better off. You can kind of tell why we would use those different things for different reasons. If we used those more, if we exercised those more, maybe the Church would look a little bit less like the world, maybe the divorce rate within the Church wouldn't be so close to what the world's divorce rate is. Maybe it would be that our people would not live in sin, not living as married couples before they're married. Maybe it would be that churches would actually preach the word of God and all of its truth and its purity. And maybe it would be that we could finally cast out the heretics from among us who claim to be Christian.
But a prophet has no honor in his home hometown and among his relatives and among his own family. People don’t listen to pastors any more. It seems that it's harder and harder to do this. And again, you cannot blame all of the people in the church, but certainly I would hope that you could see the trends of the church over, let’s say even, the last 150 years, that we have forgotten the church, that we've forgotten the pastor, and the pastor is left only to try anything to get people in the the door. They’ll even sacrifice God's word. Doesn't really make it worth it, does it? You also note it was Jesus, the preeminent prophet of all of the prophets, even as he preached truth and purity and love, people walked away from him. They left him, even to the point where Jesus looked at his apostles and said, will you also leave me? And Peter then has his wonderful confession of faith, Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Peter makes the confession of the church. Peter makes that confession and we even incorporate that into our liturgy here. We sing it in divine service setting four, we actually sing, Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, alleluia.
This is what the church is to be about because it is within the bounds of the church. It has put within the people forgiveness, life, and salvation to be distributed to all who have need to hear of the mercy of God, for them to hear the death of Christ for them. But we would be remiss to think that this would not be for us. And so I tell you very plainly that these gifts have been given to you, the church. You have given the stewardship of them to me in order to administer them to the people. And so I tell you today that your Lord Jesus Christ, the one who was rejected among men, the one to whom God turned his back on the cross, has come to this earth to live for you, to die for you, and to welcome you into eternal life, by forgiving your sins and giving you the righteousness of God that you do not need to depend upon your works, but you see that Christ has done it all. All for you. For you. There is no better news than to be reminded of this week in and week out because it is that we, as the church, will always need to hear it.
Last week, Sunday, we had 10 people in our Sunday morning service. I can literally tell you the number of people who remarked on it, and probably even me guilty among them, that it was a low attendance Sunday. It's getting horrible. People just aren't coming to church anymore, Pastor. That’s true. But I would tell you this, that our Lord has not lost one person who belongs to his church. The church never shrinks. The church only ever grows. Now, it might be that there are people within our church, within our congregation, who are not Christians. We don't know that. So, we trust that the people who are always in the Lord's care will receive it in this place, and we have to trust this because we need it for ourselves. We need to know that our Lord will never leave us nor forsake us, because this is true. You’re not alone. The Lord is not forsaken you in any way. He is with you in all things. He has been with you since the moment you were conceived and he will be with you to the moment that you die. And he will be with you forever in the resurrection of the dead.
The Lord makes the church grow. And it may be that congregations open and close. I have reminded you many times of this, that of all the congregations listed in the New Testament, all of them, except maybe two, are closed. All of them have shut their doors over the millennia. The only two, by the way, that remain the one in Ethiopia, which was started by the Ethiopian eunuch, and the one in Antioch. Those two churches continue on; the rest of them have all shut their doors. Is it that your Lord does not care for these churches? Does that mean your Lord does not care for you? No. No matter what it may be we are going as a church, even now in this season of change, looking at potential partnerships with other congregations, whatever it may be that our Lord has in store for us, whether we join together with another church, whether we merge with another church, whether we have a dual parish with another church, or we close our doors to SPI forever, your Lord takes care of you and he will not leave you nor shall he forsake you.
He has given to you his word that you may lean upon him in every trial and tribulation. He has given to you his Word to be faithfully preached in all of the churches. And he has given to you his Sacraments, which deliver the wonderful gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation to you in a very tangible way. And he has not given these gifts just to this congregation, but he has given them to his Church. You will find these gifts no matter where you go, whether you are called away because of a job, whether you're called away because of the circumstances of life, whether it is that the church shuts these doors and you're forced to find a new congregation, these gifts belong to you. They belong to the church and they are yours. Our Lord will not leave you nor will he forsake you.
It may be that the prophet has no honor in his own hometown or among his relatives or among his family. But our Lord honors you. He has given you honor, just as you owe him honor. He honors you by inviting you here to listen to him. As he teaches, we listen to him as he comes to us out of his Word. We listen to him as he comes out of us in our prayers. We listen to him as our hymnody teaches us of our Jesus. We listen to him when our pastor teaches us and preaches about this good news of Jesus Christ for you, for the forgiveness of your sins, of the life everlasting. He honors us with that invitation, and we discover that we are honoring him. Our Lord has that honor.
Amazingly, you are greater than Jesus's hometown, and you are greater than his relatives and you’re greater than his family. When his family comes to collect him, he looks at the crowds and asks, who are my mother and my brothers? I tell you the truth, whoever does the will of God, meaning whoever listens to me, they are my mother and my brothers and my sisters. You are counted even more highly than Jesus's family because you belong to him by faith. And if this is true, then the honor that you have for Jesus is good, for you this day have been led to this place. You have been led to confess your sins and, in repentant prayer, it is leading you even to have Jesus put into your mouth this day, that you may feel the forgiveness of God within you forever.
Our Lord may be without honor in so many places, and just as much his representatives, but he is not without honor here in his church. He loves this congregation, he loves this people, He loves you, and so we honor him, trust him, obey him, when he tells us that we will be with him forever. Trust in our Lord. Trust in the honor that you have in him, because our Lord has lifted you also to a place of honor, and you shall see it when he raises you to life eternal. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on June 27, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Mark 4:25-41. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. Mark, the fifth chapter:
And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’ ” And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
This is the story of the two daughters. One, the daughter of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, and the other, the daughter of God. Both daughters had something horrible happening to them. The first of course, Jairus’ daughter had fallen ill. And as we know, she died. The second daughter had something probably even worse happening to her. She was bleeding for so many years that she was unclean, she could not participate in the life of the church. She was cut off from all of her people, from her family, from her friends, and even from her God. These two daughters could not be more different. One comes to Jesus on her own volition, and we see her begging out for Jesus and Jesus, out of the goodness of his heart, grants her what she wants. The second daughter is essentially brought to Jesus, having no real understanding of what's going on around her and also is healed of her disease.
Now, for both of these daughters, the ultimate cause behind what they were suffering was sin, because sin makes you die. That is the wages of sin, right? Death is the wages of sin and their ultimate affliction then wasn't some disease that was in their body. It wasn't something that afflicted them from the outside, but it was something that afflicted them from their hearts.
Let’s look at this second daughter, the daughter of God, who came to Jesus, begging that he would heal her, thinking that he would heal her. This daughter had a flow of blood. It wasn't just some cut on her skin. It wasn't just some laceration there. This is the womanly flow of blood. And if you remember all of your 613 commandments out of the Old Testament, a woman who had the flow of blood was to be set outside the camp until it was done. I don’t think we can imagine this today, that, when you get your time of the month, you can't see my family for however long it may last. If it were to happen, you might think that you're ostracized, although there are probably a whole bunch of women who would sit out there with you. But God commands that when this would happen, the woman couldn't be around other people because that flow would make her ceremonially unclean. God said, when a woman has her period, she is ceremonially unclean. That's kind of a weird thing. You might think that God is punishing women for something that they really have no control over. But I think if we understand God's Word rightly, and I think that we do, this is to point to Jesus and what Jesus is going to do in taking away sin, because a woman who has her period, it means that, within her, there is no life. There is no life growing in her womb.
You know how it works. And if you don't, I'll explain it. Biologically, a woman has two ovaries, and in those ovaries, there are thousands and thousands of eggs that she is born with. And when those ovaries finally reach maturity in her pubescence, she ends up releasing an egg, usually one at a time and travels from the ovary down the fallopian tube and embeds itself in the uterine wall. And if the seed of man has gone into her, and that egg has been fertilized in the fallopian tube, when it makes its way to the uterus it finds life. It finds the nourishment. The cells divide and divide, and 40 weeks later, a baby comes out of this woman. And this is a wonderful thing.
You have to remember that every Israelite woman looked forward to life coming from her womb because that life would bring forth the Messiah. At least that was the hope. Remember all the way back to Eve. After she sinned, she gave birth to Cain. And she said, well, it's translated in English, With the help of the Lord, I have gotten a man. Right? But really what she is saying there is, I have had a man, the Lord. Cain opened her womb and Eve had hoped that this would be the Messiah. And of course, we all know how it turned out for the first son of Eve that he became a murderer of his brother. Fratricide is the first human death in all of creation. Cain murdered his brother, Abel. You must imagine Eve's disappointment there, to see that her Messiah murdered her son.
Every woman from then on, every Israelite woman who knew of this promise, looked forward to the time that a son would open her womb and that she would give birth to the Messiah. When the woman was set outside the camp, this meant the Messiah was not in her. And she would grieve. This time outside the camp gave her time to do just that. It gave her time away from her family and responsibilities so that she could focus, not on the fact that she caused no life in her to come., but it was not yet the time for the Messiah. When she was done, then she would present herself back to the tabernacle or back to the priests in the temple and she would be declared clean and she would come back in and live among her family until the next time of the month came around or she was pregnant.
And just so you don’t think this was unfair to women alone, this also was required every time a man would spill his seed on the ground, meaning every time that his seed was not cast into his wife, let the hearer understand, he was also to be put outside of the camp.
So, this woman had now been having her time of the month for 12 straight years. 12 long years. Can you imagine what it was like? I think to some extent or another, we all know what it's like to have that time for a few days, whether by experience or by watching our loved ones. You know it's coming on you know that’s it really just kind of awful. This woman had it, not just for a week, not just for a month, but for 12 long years. She was cut off again from her family, from her friends, and even from her God; she couldn't go to the temple. She couldn’t go to make the sacrifices. She couldn't do anything that she needed to do according to the Law of God. And so she grieved. She grieved not only for the fact that she could not bear the Messiah, but she grieved for the fact that she could not even be right with God.
Until one day she heard the news of the Messiah. This man, Jesus, had been wandering around all the countryside, healing diseases, raising people from the dead teaching marvelous things, certainly doing signs that only the Messiah of God could do. And, in faith, she knew him immediately to be the Messiah. And so she set off to see him. She set off thinking, If only I could touch just the smallest bit of his garment I would be healed. Jesus, being a good Jew, wore a robe that had tassels at the bottom. I don't know completely the purpose of the tassels, except that it did set the Jews apart from anybody else in that world. And that was probably enough for God to say, do this. And so Jesus, with these tassels hanging off the bottom of his robe, was walking among the people.
For this woman, it’s not the hem of his garment she’s thinking about, it’s just the smallest bit of one of those tassels at the bottom of his robe. If I can just grab one of those things, one little thread, I'll be healed. And so she set off and found Jesus and pushed her way through the crowd. And you have to imagine if people found out that she was there, they would have killed her. If people found out what she had been dealing with and that she had been making them ceremonially unclean by touching them with her disease, oh, you can imagine the fear, the anger, the murder that would arise in their hearts.
But by faith, she came before her Jesus. And she knew that he would take her and make her clean. And if he could make her clean, then it didn't matter what else she did to the other people because she would be made well. And if she's made well, they would be made well. It wasn't out of a lack of concern for people that she thought this, but it was for the benefit of faith as she knew what the end result would be to touch Jesus. And certainly Jesus then, being God, knew that she was there. He knew that she reached out and touch the smallest tassel. He felt the power go out of him. I don't know what that means. I don't think any of us know what that means. I don't know how you can feel the power of God go out of you, but Jesus did. And he said, who touched me? The disciples looked at him and, laughing, they said, Jesus, everybody, everyone's touching you. And he's asking, who's touching me. Jesus, knowing what had happened, looked for his daughter, found her, and you can imagine, as she's groveling on the ground, he grabs her chin and lifts her eyes skyward to look into his face. And he says, Daughter, your faith has made you well.
This is a beautiful picture, that this woman who had suffered so much, who had been separated from her God for so long, was finally made clean and saw her God, not just in the temple, but face to face. And he looked at her and it was as if he were saying, I know you've suffered. I know you suffered for a long time. But you've suffered in order to bring you to this day that I would make you well and that your story would be told for millennia to show who I am, that I am the God who heals you. And I'm the God who brings you back into the congregation.
The second daughter, some disease had taken her over and she died. A 12 year old girl, a life cut short. It's a stark contrast, really, when you compare her to the first daughter: the first daughter was of the age that she was having her times of the month. I think it's mentioned here that this girl was 12 years old to set her apart from this other daughter, that she wasn't even having these things. She wasn't a woman. She was a girl and sin took her. There is not one who escapes sin in this life. She died, the hope of her father, the heart of her mother. She was taken away. She was dead. There was nothing there for her. There was no hope. There was no physician who could heal her. There was nothing. You can't heal dead people.
But Jesus, being God says, She's not dead. She's merely asleep. Notice Jesus is mocked for this. And he's walking by people who are hired to mourn this girl. This was common practice back then. When someone would die, you hire mourners, people who weep and wail and make such a show over it. I don't know why. I wish I knew what started that tradition, but that was the tradition. Most of these people there were hired to be there. Notice it was just her mother and her father and three disciples and Jesus that he allowed to go in and see this girl.
When Jesus arrives, he tells them to put these mourners out. You can imagine, I don't think this is Jesus saying, all right, everybody, get out. I got stuff to do. I think this is Jesus taking a whip and turning over the tables for the money changers kind of getting them out. I think Jesus was ticked off getting them out. Jesus. When he saw the death of his friend Lazarus, what does it say? He wept. He wasn’t weeping that Lazarus has gone. He's weeping that death is happening. Jesus is mad at death. You've taken another one. Get out.
Jesus cast them out and he goes up, and you can imagine Jesus doing the same thing, taking this little girl's chin and lifting her face to see his, he says, Talitha kumi, little girl, I say to you arise, little girl, daughter of Jairus. Get up out of your bed. And the little girl opens her eyes, has no idea what's going on, and goes about her life. Notice the first thing that happens to her, get her something to eat. What a wonderful picture that is. Do you notice to the parallel to this? The first thing that, after Jesus rises from the dead, he asks for something to eat. A stark contrast, obviously between humanity and God–humanity cannot raise ourselves from death. God can raise himself from death. But the first thing Jesus asks for is for something to eat. I see you have some fish. Can you make them for me? I see this girl has been raised from the dead. Let's give her something.
For us today, this is a very wonderful picture of what happens in the church. We are dead. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. We are unclean. We should be cast out of the presence of God being sinful. We should be nowhere near God for he will not abide sin in his presence. But, with the love of a father, God takes your face and says, Kiddo, your faith has made you well, get up, arise, and have something to eat. The Lord's supper is here and it's here that we would eat our God who will make us well.
These pictures, aren't there for us to say, Well, if we seek Jesus out with enough faith, Jesus will heal our diseases, will heal our infirmities. There are preachers out there who will tell you that. There are preachers who, through this pandemic said if you get COVID-19 it's because you didn't have enough faith. And I say to them, damn you. And I say that with all sincerity and truth, because that teaching is a damnable lie from the pit of hell. But I would say to you, this picture is here to show you, One, that God will make you clean and Two, that God will raise you from the dead. These two promises found in these two daughters are bound up in God's Word and in his Sacraments.
It’s weird to think of eating the Word, but it's true. John 6, remember: Jesus tells them, unless you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, you have not life in you. Jesus is not specifically talking about the Lord's supper, though. I think we can make some really good parallels there to the Supper but he’s not talking about the Supper because Jesus hadn’t instituted the Lord's supper by John 6. So Jesus must be referring to something else. He's talking about eating his Word. Remember John in Revelation eats the little scroll, eats God's word. It's a spiritual picture that God's Word goes in us. And it strengthens us. So by his Word, we eat of God and by his Sacrament we of God. The Sacraments are simply the Word put with tangible things. We eat of God.
And why? What do I say when you leave the altar? The body and blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, strengthen and preserve you, body and soul, unto life everlasting. This food, which one of our ancient fathers called the medicine of immortality, will strengthen your bodies until life everlasting. We know it strengthens our souls, but it strengthens your bodies, too. Oh, you may say pastor, I've gotten older. I've been communing for a long time. I feel the creaks in my body as I get up out of the bed, and as I get up out of the chair. I get sick. I get diseased. And I'm going to die, Pastor. But this does strengthen your body. This is real food and real drink, which does strengthen your body in this life. This real food and real drink, which are also the body and blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, goes into your body, which will be preserved by the Holy Spirit until the day of our Lord. It strengthens you body and soul and keeps you for his return.
These things go into your body to say, This one is mine. This flesh, this blood goes into your body that Jesus says, Now you have life in you, not the life of this world, which is going to end, but the life of eternality, which shall never end, that this food and this drink strengthens you in your body that you will bodily receive everlasting life. And it strengthens your soul that you will spiritually receive everlasting life. What a blessing it is that our Jesus has taken you and has asked to see you in this holy place, that he looks at your face from that altar, from that Word, from that font, and he says, You are my beloved son, you are my beloved daughter, you are my beloved child, and in me, I am well pleased with you. Eat, drink, and be filled unto life everlasting.
You are your God's beloved child. He has made you one with his Son and he will deliver to you exactly what it is that you need, which is not the things of this world, but life which lasts forever. And he has seen fit to give it to you. Through his precious Word and Sacrament, his means of grace, while it may be that you cannot reach out and grab Jesus' tassel, Jesus still comes to find you and touches you, literally, sitting upon your tongue and upon your teeth and going into your body, cleanses you from all of your sin and makes you well so that you may live forever with him by faith.
This is our Jesus who loves you so much that he has brought you everlasting life. He has brought you cleansing. He has brought you back from death. And through his death, he has defeated your death forever. You, by faith, are made well in this place, at this altar. And you are made well by Jesus. And in his name, we say, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on June 20, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Mark 4:25-41. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. Mark, the fourth chapter:
On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Thus far the text.My dear friends in Christ, Who is this, then that even wind and sea obey him? Well, we know the answer to this, don't we. We know the end of the story. We know that Jesus is the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, begotten before all creation, always existing and always shall exist, the one who took on human flesh to bear your sins and to be your savior. We know that this is the end of the story. Of course, all things would obey him. He created all things. Why wouldn't they obey him? In fact, God, who I believe is the second person of the Trinity, speaks to Job in the Old Testament lesson and we find that God has some very harsh words for Job, relying on this very creative act. You know, I always ask the question: is there any false doctrine found in holy scripture? And of course the answer that everybody gives is, No, except of course there is. If you you were to read Job, you would know that not only Job's friends have really bad doctrine, but his false friends lead him into bad doctrine, as well. And so, as Job begins to think, well, there must be something that I did to deserve all this punishment that God has wrought on me, to take away all my possessions, to take away my children, to make me suffer in the flesh. There must be something that God is punishing me for. And of course we know that the thing that Job is suffering through is, of course, called sin, but Job here presumes to speak for God. And so God, Jesus, comes down out of heaven and speaks to him and basically says, Stand up, gird yourselves like the warrior that you should be and take what's coming to you. Were you there when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, you should know this who laid the foundations there, who laid the plumb line, who put all the cornerstones in. And Job's answer, of course would be, I do not know, except that it is you, Lord. Now, we see then that God is the one who created all things. He is the one who set all things into motion, all things into order. And he is the one who still preserves them. So we know that the question the apostles ask, Who is this, then that even the wind and the sea obey him. The answer is the very God who created all things. But they didn't know. You have to remember, they didn't know, not fully. Perhaps hey have an inkling. And if they had listened to Jesus' teaching, and if they knew the scriptures as well as Christ himself did, they would know that he was the Messiah. They would know that he was God sent to them But they don't know that yet. It wouldn't be until after the resurrection that they fully realized everything that was going on. They should have known, but they didn’t. They should have known that Jesus could do these things. But they didn’t. They should've known that Jesus would not be as concerned with what was happening around them as with what was happening in them. But they didn’t. You see, the disciples really were in no danger. Mark is the only gospel writer who tells us in this account that Jesus was asleep on a cushion. It’s kind of a funny little thing. Why would that be anywhere near important to mention? Well, the fact that Jesus was asleep, of course we know that means that Jesus was pretty secure in what would happen to him. The fact that he's asleep on a cushion, well, that means he's going to sleep even harder than the rest. He's not going to be lulled into a sense of insecurity. He's not going to be struggling against the night, but instead he curls up on the cushion of the boat and falls asleep. Jesus knows nothing is going to happen to him. And nothing's going to happen to the apostles who are with him, not even all those who are in other boats. Why? Because when Jesus is present, we are safe and secure. When the God who created all things and controls all things is present, we are safe and secure. And the apostles should have known this. After all, how many times did the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the chief priests come down out of Jerusalem to confront all of them and they walk away, being turned back by Jesus's words and teaching? How often did they face danger from demons and from all the people who would do Jesus ill and they still found their safety? Jesus well provides a measure of safety and security that no one can really anticipate. And this is true for us. We don't want to make too much of an analogy out of this, but when the wind and the waves of this world struggle against us, and when we find ourselves hurting and fearing, we know that our Jesus is with us. We are safe and secure. It doesn't mean that the water doesn't splash into the boat, the wind doesn't struggle against us, the storm doesn't make it hard, but that Jesus being with us tells us we are always in his hands. And so it is that even as we are gathered together, we know that we are safe and secure in the hands of God. There is in fact nothing now that will happen to us that we should fear. Even if the roof should cave in on us, even if a fire should surround this building, even if riots and tumult take over our entire area, if we were to die today, we would know that we are safe and secure in the arms of Jesus. There's something interesting that happens in this, when Jesus rebuked the wind and the waves, it says that the wind ceased and there was a great calm. If you were to take a glass of water and shake it back and forth, real hard, of course the water would splash out, right? What happens if you stop and you just set that glass down? Does the water stop shaking right then? No, the water keeps going, doesn't it? It goes back and forth. Eventually it finds its equilibrium. But as soon as Jesus rebukes the wind and the waves, it says the winds ceased, there was no more blowing, and there was a great calm, meaning that the water became perfectly still in that moment. Now, this is in the Sea of Galilee. And if you know anything about the Sea of Galilee, it is a lake that is surrounded by high hills. And when storms would move in, the storm would move the water back and forth, causing huge waves that would rock from one side of the lake to the other. It still does this today, actually. Even if the storm were to pass, the lake would shake for hours on end. But Jesus speaking out to the wind and the waves said, Peace, which really means be quiet, Be still. And they immediately obey. Who is this then that the wind and the waves obey Him? What are the wind and the waves for you? The tumult that goes on in our nation today? Is it the tumult that goes on in your own family? Weakness, death, disease? Is it the things that bother us in terms of life and living? Your finances, your house? Are you going to make ends meet? How are you going to keep things up? Where are you going to go when you finally get old enough that you need help? There are so many things that can bother us. Know then that your Jesus can speak even to these things. And He speaks Peace. Yet, even if he were to allow the storms of life to continue around us, he speaks this peace into your hearts. He speaks that you should have faith in him, that you should have peace. You may stand before God, like Job, making accusations. Lord, you promised to take care of me. Lord, you promised to take care of her. Lord, you promised to be with me always. And your Lord stands in front of you and says, Be quiet, be still, have peace, have security. And when your Lord speaks to you from his Word, this is exactly what you should have. And when our Lord fills you with his Supper, this piece is exactly what you should have. And when the Lord reminds you of your Baptism, this peace is what you should should have. Have you no faith? Of course you have faith. It has been granted to you as a gift by the Holy Spirit to believe in your Jesus unto everlasting life. Have faith in him that when he speaks peace to you, you have it. That is why that word is so important all throughout our liturgy. Have you ever noticed that the many times that Jesus speaks peace to you in our divine service? Have you noticed the many times that he speaks his comfort to you? It comes in his invocation. It comes even as I elevate the host and elevate the cup, and I would say, The peace of the Lord be with you always. And it comes even in his benediction, that here is the peace and comfort of God. And if you leave this place not quieted, not in peace, perhaps it is that your faith is placed in things that are not God, but of yourself. You do have the faith to receive his word, the faith, to receive his peace. Trust in his peace, trust in his comfort. Trust that even he who created the wind and the waves and can cause them to stop can do this even for you, not just with the things of this world, but with all the desires of your heart, he can speak peace to you. And he does speak it today. And he speaks it to you. Every time we gather together, every time we hear his word, every time we gather around the sacraments, that peace is yours because your Jesus speaks it to you. And you know He is the one who can do all these things for you because you’ve seen that he is the man who said that he will murdered and that he will raise himself up on the third day. And so he has, if he can do this, imagine what he will do for you in the resurrection of the dead. Our Lord speaks peace to you this day Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him? He is the Son of God, crucified and risen for you, the one who has forgiven your sins and rescued you from death, and he brings you his peace. In the name of Jesus, amen. Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on June 13, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Mark 4:26-34 You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on June 6, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Mark 3:20-35. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. Mark, the third chapter:
Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.” And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house. “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— for they were saying, “He has an unclean Spirit.” And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”
Thus far the text.My dear friends in Christ, This passage contains the question I most often have gotten from youth groups. I don't hear it as much from adults anymore, but I hear it a lot from the youth. Hopefully that means that you adults have been well catechized, but just in case, we'll cover it again. What is the unforgivable sin? Have I committed the unforgivable sin? It's a question that can sit in the minds of many, many who get confused about their salvation; they wonder if Jesus’ sacrifice truly is for them. But the unforgivable sin is a very simple thing and it is something we often just overlook by getting too complicated This sin isn't theft or adultery. It's not murder or hatred. It's not lust or anything like this. The unforgivable sin is actually a sin against what Jesus calls the greatest commandment-to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Jesus calls this unforgivable sin the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. What does this mean? We must first ask the question, what is it that the Holy Spirit does? Because if we are to blaspheme him, we are blaspheming God, and, well, it might be good for us to know what this means. The Holy Spirit, we typically ascribed to him the contents of the third article of the creed, right? I believe in the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. And, if you were paying attention, you would find, right at the center of the article, the forgiveness of sins. Our Lord, the Holy Spirit tells us that he has come to forgive us our sins. He does this through the blood of Jesus. Of course, we know that the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was good and it is the thing that forgives our sins. It is the action that reconciles us to the Father, but the Holy Spirit delivers to you the forgiveness of sins. He is the one who brings it to you, not just on the day of your baptism, but constantly bringing to you the forgiveness of sin every time you repent. The Holy Spirit will deliver to you the forgiveness won for you from the cross. And so it is that the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is to reject that thing that our Lord has won, to reject his forgiveness, to reject your entrance into the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom, to which you belong. And there are some who reject the Holy Spirit, reject Jesus Christ, reject the Father. We just had last week the celebration of the Holy Trinity. And we studied what it was to believe in the Trinity. And it is this: to believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. They have all worked in you to provide for you your salvation, the Father sending the Son, the Son dying for you and sending the Spirit, the Spirit then delivering to you that which the Son has won. In this, we find we can reject this Spirit by rejecting any one of the persons of the Trinity, and, in doing so, we reject the forgiveness of sins that was won, we reject eternal life. We reject the resurrection of the dead. In reality, even if you should reject it, Christ still died for all people, and to reject Him is to condemn yourself. He died for all people, even unbelievers, but they will not receive him. So the one who will not believe will not receive. The one who does not knock, he shall not be answered. The forgiveness of sins is all that the Holy Spirit is about. And if we are to blaspheme him, we are to reject his gifts. We find ourselves then in this state, are we rejecting the work of the Spirit? Are we blaspheming him and his work? I have to tell you that, if you are asking that question, the answer is most likely no, because to the one who rejects God, they won't care. If they blasphemed the Spirit, they don't care. If they've not received the forgiveness of sins, they don't care. If they don’t live the way that God would have us do, what Jesus says is the will of God, they don't care. But to the one who asks, have I blasphemed the Holy Spirit? Have I committed the unforgivable sin? The answer is very likely no. And if you are asking it today, the answer is for you. No, you have not committed this sin. You have come to the church this day to hear of the good news of Jesus Christ for you, to receive in your mouth Jesus and all that he has to offer you, to be strengthened unto everlasting life. And so you shall be, you will be welcomed into the kingdom of God because Jesus has given you his gifts. And he has given you his Spirit. We know that the Spirit is working in us because we see it in our baptisms. And we see it by the fact that we're constantly seeking out the promises of Jesus, and in him the promises of God are all yes and amen. How can Jesus do such marvelous things? How can he forgive us? How can he bring us to the very end and give us eternal life? Well, Jesus has always been met with derision and doubt, hasn't he? We see even in our passage today, that the scribes came down out of Jerusalem. They come to Jesus and are trying to tell the crowd, no, no, Jesus. He is possessed by Beelzebub, the lord of the flies, otherwise known as Satan, the prince of demons. They say Jesus casts out the demons. Don't listen to him. He is using the power of Satan to do it. You know, I don't know if you've ever done this before. I remember when I was in the fourth grade, a friend had a Ouija board and we knew, I don't know why, but we knew that it was wrong to use the Ouija board. It was an instinctual thing. So we took the Ouija board out back to the side of the house where no one could see out the windows and see us. We took the Ouija board and we laid it on top of the dumpster that we had. And, I don't remember what question we asked it, but we asked a question and the thing started moving, you know that little arrow thing that points to different words or different letters. I don't know, I still don't know if it was my friend, Jon, moving that little arrow or if it was a demon. I do remember though, after using that Ouija board, I just felt strange, like I had delved into some realm of which I had no experience. And I think it is the same for anybody who uses these occultic practices. I will say it was still kind of a high to use that thing, that horrible evil thing, you kind of get a little bit of a rush when you do it. And I think people can become addicted to that kind of rush. They seek after that again and again and again. And I think that's why people are into things like healing crystals and horoscopes and astrology, and even magic. I think people do it is because they feel good in doing it. And despite the weird feeling that may come with it, your conscience can get dead to that. The people gathered around Jesus though, listening to the scribes, were likely faced with that feeling to one extent or another, at least I should say the opposite of the feeling. When you accuse someone of doing things according to the devil, well, you would expect that there would be some darkness there, but instead the people gathered around Jesus sought him out time and time and time again, all throughout his ministry. Jesus attracted people because of his signs and wonders and his message, even seeing the largest crowd around Jesus was probably at least 15,000 people. Jesus fed the 5,000 men. It says that those were the men, not counting the women and the children. You can imagine 15 to 25, maybe even 40,000 people gathered around Jesus eating those five loaves and two fish. Jesus didn't have the feeling, the air of the demonic, and that might be enough for me and you, but still Jesus didn't just let it go at a feeling. He looked at them and said, how can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom will fall. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will fall. I remember the first time I realized what Jesus was kind of saying here: I walked into a church in Perry County, Missouri, the birthplace of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod here in America. And this church was a very simple plain church, a country church, but it had weird red bars hanging between the walls over the congregation, about 15 feet off the pews. I was looking at them and wondering what would possess them to put such an ugly thing in this church? You can kind of imagine that as these bars were there, they were plastered in from the outside and the rust that would start growing on the bars ate its way into the building and just kind of sat on the bar. The iron was all rusted, but that bar had a very specific purpose. And that was to keep the walls from separating out from one another. Because if the walls had done that, the whole church would fall down. These bars kept the church standing. You'll still see it in a lot of churches today. If they don't want to tear down the building, they'll put these supports in and they hold the house together. What Jesus is saying is that if the house is divided against itself, if the walls are separating and falling down to the sides, the entire thing will cave in. And so if Satan is using his power to cast out the demons that are doing the work of the devil, then his entire house would fall. In Genesis three, we find God cursing the serpent. It was some very good news for us that he will put enmity between the serpent and the seed of mankind. The devil and mankind will hate each other. It's true. We often try to masquerade what we're doing outside of the devil, right? Even the evil things that are done in the name of the devil, things like those occultic practices that we find, or even the evils in our society like abortion, we hide it away from the devil. Usually we don't want to ascribe to him what he's doing. The devil is always going to do what he wants to do in this world. But if he's doing something that works against himself, he's not going to accomplish his purposes. If he's going to blow up an abortion clinic to stop abortions, the devil, isn't really going to do that. Instead, that came up in the mind of a sinful man and he carried out the action. If the devil did it, he’d be working at cross purposes. The devil is always going to agree with himself. His demons are going to follow his lead. That is what we know. So Jesus does not leave it with this feeling of, Ooh, did you feel that chill or, oh, don't you feel weird. Instead Jesus teaches that the devil is never going to work against himself. And indeed people knew Jesus was casting out the demons. Think of the man who was chained up in the graveyard. And the demon was cast out of him and the man was normal again and even asked to follow after Jesus. Well, the people knew he was casting these out. How could the devil do such a thing and fight against himself? It wouldn't work. Instead, what Jesus reveals is that he has gone into the devil's house, and though the devil seems insurmountable, Jesus has gone in and bound him up and is plundering from the devil all of that belongs to him. Yes, the devil is the strong man and, in this case, Jesus is the thief, but he's only taking back what is his own-His children. Jesus sets us free so that we might indeed receive the Holy Spirit and not an unclean spirit. Jesus wants us to be filled with the Holy Spirit because when we are the unclean spirits cannot fill us. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we will come to where Jesus has promised to be, the place where his word is read and preached, and his sacraments are delivered. Rightly, we will find Jesus in the church. And that's because we're filled with the right Spirit. The Holy Spirit, the unclean spirits have been cast out of us and the Holy Spirit has come in. It used to be in the baptismal rite of the church, that we would do a mini exorcism of all who had come to the font. And the pastor would shout at the person being baptized, out you unclean spirit and make room for the Holy Spirit. It’s still an option today, but generally we don't do that anymore. It's a little confusing, I think, for some who may not know all of this teaching, but this is what would happen. We would cast out the evil spirits and have the Holy Spirit put into that person, bringing them to faith, bringing them to salvation, and bringing them into the very kingdom of God. You see it is that when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we're not going to be inhabited by the unclean spirits who are going to push us to do the evil things. Instead, we find that even though we are filled with the Holy Spirit, it is our sinful flesh that turns our thoughts to sin. We will struggle against our flesh as long as we live; and still the Holy Spirit is still with us. As long as we are continuing to turn to Christ and his work for you, you will find the forgiveness won through the life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God. But, even though this is true, it is also true that you choose sin because you're sinners and you will fight this as long as you draw breath. Yet, the Holy Spirit will continue to work in you, to turn you to the forgiveness of your sins, to salvation, to life everlasting so that you may apprehend Jesus with your own two eyes. In fact, Jesus, even calls you something very special. He calls you his mother and his brother and his sister because you're doing the will of God. The will of God, of course, we know is to do the right thing according to the law. But the will of God, too, is to turn from your sin, to repent of your sin, and to find the forgiveness of your sins. And in this we find we are Christ's own family. There is no better news than this. You have not committed this unforgivable sin, especially as you are here this day. You know that the forgiveness of sins is for you. Find it in the crucified Jesus Christ, the one who died to take your sins away, the one who died to give you his righteousness, and the one who rose from the dead to give you the promise of life everlasting. And in Jesus, we find the promises of God are yes and amen. And we find an advocate, one who fights with us against the devil and all of his works and all of his ways, we find our salvation in him and we find it delivered by the Holy Spirit. Trust in him this day, my friends, and you will find the forgiveness of sins. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on May 30, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Acts 2-14a, 22-36. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Acts of the Apostles, the 2nd chapter:
But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them… “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, “ ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’ “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’ Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
It is a wonderful thing to celebrate the Trinity. It is good that we always remember the triune name in which we gather, the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and for a very practical purpose. I'm going to encourage you once again, that when we hear this name of the Trinity, we remember our baptisms. And usually, when we see it in the hymnal, when we see that little sign of the cross, it's good to make the sign of the cross, to remember that you are baptized in this triune name. Don’t forget that this mark belongs to the Church, not to the Roman Catholic church, not to the Anglican church, not to the Lutheran church, but to the Church. It is a good thing for us to remember our baptisms in this way; we are baptized in the name of the triune God, but we make the sign of the cross because it reminds us of who the Trinity is pointing us towards. And that of course is Jesus. Jesus Christ is the way that we see the Trinity.
Now, if you've read your Bibles, and I would encourage you to do so, if you never have made your way through the whole Bible, you'll notice that from Genesis all the way through Malachi, we don't see the entire Trinity as we know it today. And that's not because the Trinity is an invention of the church and it's not because the Trinity is really only there when Jesus comes. The Trinity is involved all throughout the Scriptures. But we don't see the three persons of the Trinity as clearly as we do for the first time when Jesus is baptized in the Jordan river. You remember, Jesus goes down into the waters and the Spirit descends on him, just as a dove descends on him. This doesn’t mean that the Spirit was in the form of a dove, but that he descended on him as a dove would. And you should be reminded here of the dove from Noah's Ark, descending out upon the earth and grasping onto that peaceful olive branch to tell everybody that all is well now in the world. That's how the Spirit descends on Jesus. And then of course, we see the Father in his speaking, and there are only a couple of places in all of scripture that it is the person of the Father who speaks. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased. The next time the Father speaks is at Jesus's transfiguration. This is my beloved Son, listen to him.
So we see the Spirit, descending on Jesus to show us that peace is here. And we see the Father speaking from heaven, pointing us to Jesus. The Trinity is really all about Jesus, but why is it that we don't see it through the Old Testament? We have clues of course, let us make man in our own image. We have plural pronouns and things like this all over the place. We see Jesus in the Gospel lesson, as he says, we came from the Father. That's the Royal We, certainly. Right?. We are not amused? But this is what Jesus means by this, this Royal We referring to really the entirety of God, which is the Trinity. Why don't we see him clearly throughout the Old Testament? Well, that's because the Scriptures are revealed progressively until Christ. The Scriptures come to us slowly until Christ, meaning that, as God interacts with his creation, he reveals a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more about himself until finally Jesus appears on the scene. And even then in Jesus's Ascension into heaven, we find that the Spirit guides us into all truth.
We've talked about this in the past weeks, that since the Reformation, we have an easier time seeing how it is that the Spirit guides us into truth, reclaiming the truth that is in the Scriptures for the church. The Trinity is there from the very beginning, but that we would not be ready to see it or to hear it until Jesus. It's weird to think of the Trinity as an it. The Trinity isn’t really an it; it’s a Him. But, the concept of the Trinity is so far beyond us that any pronoun doesn’t really work. And yet it is that God has revealed himself to be. God has revealed himself to be a plurality. Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. And yet again, let us make man in our own image. You have to think who's God speaking to? Certainly not to mankind, certainly not to the animals that he's created, but if the Lord is one and the Lord is speaking to himself, there must be something there. And so it is that the church came up with a word, a made up word, the Trinity. This simply means three in one, tri meaning three and unity meaning oneness. It’s how we describe exactly who it is that God has revealed himself to be.
Now God could have revealed himself to be six persons, if he were six persons, in one God or nine persons in one God. If you want to listen to Benny Hinn, the arch heretic, the one who’s all about the name it and claim it theology, each Trinity is a Trinity in and of himself. That's all heresy. Of course, God has revealed himself to be three persons in one God, three persons in terms of the personalities of Himself, but one God in his substance. It’s so confusing, and it doesn’t seem that the Athanasian Creed makes it any easier, although it is what the church has tried to put down so that we could try to make. Personalities we can understand, and substance, we can understand the substance of something, but something that is one substance yet being three personalities is hard to fathom. It’s philosophical, and that’s not something we spend a lot of time on, but even if we did, the Trinity is hard.
It is enough to say that the Trinity is a mystery. Why God didn't reveal it completely from the very beginning, we don't know the answer to that. I would argue that it's possible that the Israelites would have been led to believe that God is three gods somehow, kind of like the gods of all the nations around them, but that would just be speculation on my part. What we do know is that the Trinity always is, always has been, and always shall be revealed in Jesus Christ. That's an amazing thing. Jesus is the one who helps us see the Trinity.
You see, it's not just enough to give it lip service, but the Christian Church has always confessed that you must believe in the Trinity in order to be saved. You can't just believe in Jesus as a good man or as a prophet, or even as God, but you must believe in God the Father, and in God the Son, and in God the Holy Spirit. It is in Jesus that we're able to see the Trinity for the first time because the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit will always point you to Jesus.
You could say that the Old Testament is a way that we see the Father working throughout all of his creation. Although certainly we do know that anytime God interacted with his creation through the Old Testament, whether that'd be the angel of the Lord, whether it be the burning Bush, whether it be the pillar of fire, the pillar of cloud, the angels that appear to Abraham, the angels that appeared even to Lot, we see Jesus interacting with his creation, that is, the Son of God, before he took on human flesh, interacting with his creation. But in a way you could say the Old Testament is certainly about what God the Father did in starting creation and giving us all these wonderful things and being the one who gave us the law that we do not measure up to. Still, the Old Testament is always going to be pointing you to Jesus for Jesus is the Son of God, the Son of God, incarnate in human flesh, the Son of God who came to live, to die, to resurrect, and ascend for you. The Son of God who forgives you your sins, the Son of God who will welcome you into eternal life forever. This Son of God is the one that the whole Old Testament is pointing you to.
The New Testament then, being fully inspired by the Spirit, as He did the Old Testament, points you back to Jesus. We see how the Spirit is working in the Church all through Acts and through all the Epistles, and all of it is to point you back to Jesus. Peter and Paul and John and all the writers are constantly turning your eyes to see Jesus what Jesus did, what he taught, and how he would have us now live.
We see the Trinity in every page of the Scriptures if we only have the eyes of faith to apprehend him. And certainly we do, we do, because the faith that has been given to you in your baptism is a Trinitarian faith. This is to say that faith is not a creation of yours, nor it is of faith that needs to be built up by your own knowledge. The faith that is given to you in your baptism is perfect. It is because it is a gift from God himself, and no gift of God is less than perfect. And so faith is given to you by God, that faith must, by necessity, believe in the Trinity. The faith given to you in baptism is a Trinitarian faith, because it is given to you by a Trinitarian God. And so, in your heart of hearts, now baptized into the faith, you know that God is a Trinity.
But, why does this matter? Now you could say, we look at the creed. We give the first article to God the Father, in terms of his creation. And we give the second article of the Creed to the Son in terms of his redemption. And we give the third article of the creed to the Spirit in terms of his sanctification. But certainly the Son and the Spirit are involved in the creation. And certainly the Father and the Spirit are involved in our redemption. And certainly the Father and the Son are involved in our sanctification. Why is it that we divide these things up? Why does it even matter?
Because God says it does. And that's enough, is it not? If God says that this is who I am, should we not worship him in spirit and in truth? If God says this is who I am, should we not desire to know him fully? If this is who God says that I am should we not believe his word? Trust him, hold fast to him, learn from him, learn of him in every way that we possibly can. You see it is not enough just to believe in God.
People who believe who believe in some God are not going to be saved because people who believe in some God, well, they may have different ideas about God. You could be like the Mormon God, where what man is, God once was, and who God is, man can become, believing that Jesus is a son of God, sons including Lucifer, where Jesus and Lucifer fought over how to redeem creation and the holy heavenly council chose Jesus's plan, and Lucifer got mad, and that's why Jesus and the devil are are fighting at each other, right? Or we could believe in a Hindu god who wants people to bring him offerings. Or a Muslim god who wants people to kill others for his name.
See, it's not enough just to believe in God, right? I mean, we even have a civil god, do we not? God bless America. What God? The Trinitarian God, of course. We know he’s the only God, and yet, that’s not who most people are referring to, I don’t think. We have In God We Trust on our money, on our buildings. We sing it in songs. But, the civil god is not the same as the Trinitarian one, the civil god just wants us to be moral people.
You see, it's not enough just to have God. We must have God as he has revealed himself. And in no way, nowhere in creation is the one true God put out there except as we see him in the Scriptures. No other religion on the face of the earth has a triune God, three persons and one God. There are plenty of religions that have three gods. There are plenty of religions that have one God, but there's no religion out there but Christianity that has the true God, three persons and one God.
This doctrine is a hard thing to swallow for the world, and how could it not be when it’s impossible for us to understand. Muslims accused us of being tritheists, meaning that we have three gods. Modalists, who believe that there is only one person of God who manifests himself in three modes depending on how he feels at any given time, they kind of accuse us of being tritheists. There are plenty of monotheistic religions that would do this to us. And there are plenty of polytheistic religions that would say, well, you can't just have the one god. We even see Paul going into Athens and he looks around and he sees all these other God's and he points out their multiple gods, but he tells them of the one true God. You've got all these gods. You're very spiritual. You've got all these gods around you, but I see you have a statue here to the unknown God. Let me make it clear to you who this unknown God is. This unknown God is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. And in fact he is the only true God, your gods are nothing. Your gods are made up at best, and at worst, your gods are demons. But this God, the unknown God to you, has made himself known through his Son. Paul used that argument. We can use the argument too.
God has made himself known through his Son. And so it is that Peter preaches in Israel, in Jerusalem, that Pentecost day, about this God, the God who welcomes God to sit next to him. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord said to my Lord. If you know anything about how the Hebrew Scriptures were written, the word Lord is often substituted for the name of God, Yahweh. They were afraid to misuse the name of God, so the Jews would, instead of saying the name of God, substitute the word Lord in there. When we see the word Lord throughout the New Testament, you should understand that this is referring back to the name of God. So, Yahweh said to Yahweh sit at my right hand. What is he? Schizophrenic? No, instead there must be something more going on.
And could David be writing about himself in this way? I saw the Lord always before me. He did not abandon me to my soul to Hades, nor did he let his holy one, David, see corruption? No, David is dead. And Peter even points out, we know where his grave is. While that's been lost to history now, Peter is literally pointing to the grave of David right there. You want to see David? Open this up. We'll find his bones. If he’s there, God let his holy one see corruption. Instead of himself, David is writing about something greater. David is not the holy one. Even though it is a descendant of David who would sit on the throne, David is not holy. Not in the way that God is holy. Only God is holy; Jesus is holy.
You see it all ties in. This is all revealed to us. And especially on that Pentecost day, you've got to imagine Peter standing up there, preaching by the Holy Spirit, seeing the Spirit being poured out on all the people. The Holy Spirit is showing up as tongues of fire above their heads. The Holy Spirit is preaching about Jesus. You got to see the Trinity here, because certainly Peter's talking about God, the Trinitarian God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And after he preaches, do you know what the people say? They are cut to the quick, after hearing about the fact that they are the ones who crucified Jesus, and they ask Peter, what now shall we do? Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. And what baptism is it? The baptism that Jesus left to his church before he ascended to the right hand of the Father, the baptism of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
It is all Trinitarian, my friends. If we are to be saved, we must believe in this Trinitarian. God, there's no way around it. And as much as the world doesn't want to believe it, as much as the world will mock us for these beliefs and believe me, they do and they will, we must hold fast to the faith. And still we know there will be days coming when we will be challenged, and we will be tempted not to believe in this God. We know that many of our brothers and sisters of the faith have fallen into the different camps that do not believe in a Trinitarian God. Their religion is not a Christian religion, but we pray they don’t know enough about what their church teaches to be condemned. They fallen for the heresies that are out there in the world, the heresies that teach that God can somehow be manipulated by you, or the heresies that are teach that God is really just one person, or the heresies that teach you that God is three gods. These heresies that are out there are enough to damn someone and we will be tempted to believe something different and we'll be tempted to be damned.
And that is because our flesh is weak. Our flesh wants to take the easy way out. Our flesh wants to make sense of God. After all don't we do this when we try to give an analogy to serve as the Trinity. God is like water, right? Where water is liquid, but it can also be gas and it it can also be solid. Well, that's nothing but modalism, because water can't be solid, liquid, and gas all at the same time. Or God is like a four-leaf clover, where each person is a part of that one clover, but you have three parts making the whole. Well, that's what a friend of mine likes to call partialism, which really isn't a doctrine at all. But, still, God is not divided into three parts, but he is three persons. There are so many analogies out there and all of them fall short. We want to make sense of God. We want to depend on our reason and our knowledge and our understanding. And we can’t, because God doesn't make sense. But he doesn’t need to. God doesn’t make sense but he’s revealed himself to us in this way.
My friends, God always has been and God always shall be. You can’t comprehend this because you always had a beginning and cannot comprehend a God who has always been. You cannot comprehend of anything that is before creation because you are creation itself. And so it is, that if we must be saved, we must be enlightened by the Holy Spirit. And we must trust that God is who he says that he is. And when we can't or when we don't, we turn back to God and we say, Lord, Forgive me for trying to explain the divine mystery of your presence among us. Lord, forgive me for trying to explain the divine mystery of your person. Lord, forgive me for trying to explain the divine mystery of the holy Trinity, forgive me for this and for all my sins.
And you know what? The Father, as he hears you, will point you to his Son and to his cross. And the Spirit, as he hears you, will point you to the Son of God and to his cross. And the Son of God, when he hears you, will open his arms and embrace you and say you are my beloved child. Child, well done, believe in me. And I shall see you on the other side of the resurrection. And so we shall. We shall see Jesus and in Him, we have the fullness of the Trinity, we have all of God in the divine mystery. We shall see him and be with God forever. In the name of God, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on May 23, 2021 at Christ Our King Lutheran Church in Saline, MI, on Ezekiel 34:11-16, on the occasion of the installation of Rev. Joseph Polzin. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this day is from the prophet Ezekiel, the 34th chapter:
“For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.
Thus far the text.
Dear Saints of Christ Our King, Joseph, guests, family, friends, and my dear friends in Christ,
It is a sincere honor to be invited to preach the Word to you this day, and I’m so glad to do it, especially on the occasion of this installation. It’s a joy to have my very brother as a brother pastor. I helped ordain and install him in his last call, and it’s wonderful to see him take this call, following where the Lord would have him. And, while Joseph lacks the magnificent beard of his brother, he makes up for it in many ways, like his very fine head of hair. You will love him very much, and he will love you.
To the text, God does not mince words through the prophet Ezekiel: the flock of Israel is messed up. The shepherds of Israel had led the sheep astray. These men that God had placed over them, the priests and the so-called prophets, had taken God’s people and scattered them, driving them to despair, to seek after false gods, to just walk away. They were starved by these men, not by lack of physical food, but of doctrine, of the substance of life. Well, not everyone was starved; there were some who became so puffed up with pride and knowledge that they abused the other sheep, doing to them only what they saw their shepherds doing.
What a deplorable, miserable condition this is. This is not the way it is to be. This is not how God wants His sheep treated. But, when a shepherd begins to think of himself too highly, when he begins to think that he is the source of the answers to life, the universe, and everything, he will abuse the sheep by taking them away from God’s care, and when sheep are out from under God’s care, only misery can await.
Now, this is something that people don’t like to hear, but it is something that is absolutely true: the shepherds take care of the sheep by feeding them right doctrine and surrounding them with right practices. If God demands perfection from how we live, perfection according to His Law, and we know we don’t measure up, why would we think He would demand less than absolute truth and purity when it comes to His Word and how He desires we study it, learn from it, believe, teach, and confess it? God doesn’t feed us with pizza and ice cream. He doesn’t feed us with experience and happiness. He feeds His sheep with what He’s promised will fill them into all eternity: forgiveness, life, and salvation, which come through Word and Sacrament. These are where He’s placed His promises. But, some so-called shepherds don’t care, or they lose the plot. They are the ones that God will destroy and reduce to ruin. They are of no use to the sheep except to lead them astray. God permits them for a time, that His sheep may turn back to Him, that He may go and find them, but the day is coming when God will destroy these weak men and His sheep will only ever follow Him.
Most of the time, shepherds are hired hands, especially back when Ezekiel wrote down God’s Word. There was the owner of the flock, and you could certainly call him the shepherd, and then there were those who were hired to take care of the sheep, who could become shepherds, undershepherds. It seems that there are times when these hired hands become more than just employees. They become family, trained by the owner of the sheep to be shepherds themselves.
Throughout all of Scripture, this shepherd-sheep motif plays out and is used to point us to understand our relationship to Christ, the Good Shepherd. He watches us and oversees us in all things. Christ reveals, too, that He has hired undershepherds to work with Him. Of course we know that these undershepherds, well, they are our pastors today, aren’t they? These men are your pastors. They are not simply hired hands who will run at the first sign of trouble but men who fall at the feet of Jesus to learn from Him, to do things as He does them. Your new pastor, Joseph, is one such man.
Joseph has been trained, instructed, examined, and now you have called him to be your pastor. His job is the lowest position in the Church, serving all whenever you have need; He is your servant. And his job is the highest calling in the Church, not that he is more special than anyone, but that he is held to a stricter judgment than anyone else here; He is your guide and deserves your respect. He is the man whom Jesus has called, through you, the congregation, to serve the sheep in this place. And you need Joseph. Joseph will be used in this place to fulfill the prophesy of Ezekiel. God is using him to seek out the flock. God is using him to rescue the sheep. God is using him to feed his beloved people. And that’s you.
Lutheran theology is amazing. Over and above most other churches we see, we understand that the pastor is a means that God uses. So, Christ really is doing the seeking as the Good Shepherd, and Joseph is merely a tool in the hand of God to do it. And, more than this, Jesus provides what you need, and what you need is Christ. So, He places Himself in the Word, in the Sacrament; as we are often fond of saying, though you see Joseph, it Christ who is both the host and the meal, it is Christ who baptizes you. And so, Joseph has been called to serve the people here at Christ Our King, to seek you when you go astray, to rescue you from the darkness, to feed you with God’s Word and Sacraments, to keep you safe, to give you rest, to comfort you, to strengthen you, and to keep those who would abuse you at bay.
And Joseph, you better do this. You have a holy and earnest call from God through this congregation. This is no simple thing. As pastors, we are under strict judgment to follow our Lord’s commands especially when it comes to His sheep. It does not go well for those who would abuse the sheep or lead them astray. You must be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of Lord. And this is hard to do, to balance this with the life God has called you to outside your work as a pastor–to your family, your wife, Jennie, your children, Miles, Freddie, Jane, and Kate, to your friends and family. But you must. And you can’t. Joseph, you will not be perfect as a pastor, as a husband, as one who is loved. Believe me. We grew up in the same house, I know this. You are a sinner, Joseph, but do not fear, for Christ came to redeem sinners.
When you fail, be quick to confess your sin. When you falter, be quick to ask for help. But, most of all, be steadfast and immovable. Don’t fudge on your doctrine. Don’t compromise on your confession. Be faithful to the Lord Jesus because He tells us that, when we are steadfast and immovable, we can have confidence that our labor is not in vain. We are doing the Lord’s work when we hold fast to Him, and He is always, always quick to forgive when we ever think of letting go. This is your work, the work of the shepherd, and it sets the example for God’s sheep. And when this doesn’t work the way we know it should, when you sin, confess it and be forgiven in Christ.
And to the saints of Christ Our King, you are God’s sheep. You are those whom Christ has called, those for whom Christ has come to live, die, resurrect, and ascend. You are beloved of God, so much so that He has sent to you a pastor, a shepherd, to guide you in the Word and to deliver the Sacraments. You are the sheep of God, the Church in this very place. When you gather, the saints and angels of heaven rejoice and sing and pray with you. You are bound up to them right here. You are the visible manifestation of the whole Church in heaven and on earth, right here, and you are called to righteousness, to proclaim God’s glory. But you can’t. You need your guide, your undershepherd to bring you back to the paths of righteousness. You need your pastor to forgive your sins and bring to you all the promises of Christ. And your pastor will do this; forgiveness will spew from his mouth because that’s his job.
But, you have another task. You are to live according to God’s Word, but you are also to hold your pastor to account. He is to preach the Word rightly and deliver the Sacraments properly. Hold him to that because that’s how God feeds you. When you don’t hold a pastor to the fire, we have a tendency to get lazy, to start fudging on doctrine and practice, to abuse the sheep. So how do you do this? You listen to him. You pay attention, especially when he’s preaching. No sleeping in church unless you’re a baby or very, very old. Always compare what he says to the Word of God, which means that you need to know it and be studying it as he does. But it also means that you need to make use of him. If you’re in the hospital or have a surgery scheduled, let him know. If you’re struggling, schedule an appointment. If you have a question, pull him aside. If you have an announcement, never ever tell your pastor anything you want him to remember before or after a service–he will forget and there is nothing you will be able to do about it–but write it down and put it in his church mailbox. Most of all, love him and his family. Support them as Joseph serves you. By this, you will help Joseph build that relationship with you that you may hold him to God’s Word just as he will you.
And you will fail in this, believe me: you will get lazy, you will get angry at him for something he does or says, you’ll get offended when he doesn’t do something the way you think it should be done. When you fail, be quick to repent. Go to him and tell him you’re sorry. Let him absolve you; that’s his job. Let him preach Jesus and Him crucified for you to you. Repent, be forgiven, hug it out, and start afresh. Hold him accountable again, and let him hold you accountable to Christ, too.
The shepherds of Israel would not do this with God’s people. They held His Word for themselves. They beat the sheep and abused them. They took glory in the power and prestige they were given. And thus they were destroyed. And some of the sheep were lost. But, you have among you your servant, Joseph. He will serve you and guide you. He will feed you and protect you. He will comfort you and love you. He is responsible directly to Christ, and he knows this.
Joseph, be this to them. Be the good undershepherd Christ has called you to be. Protect these people, love them. This congregation will be to you as the most precious jewel, never to be forsaken. And when you love them in this way, feeding Christ Our King with Word and Sacrament, your people will love you, too.
All of you remember that it never goes well when the sheep are rabid and attack the shepherd, and it never goes well when the shepherd starts beating the sheep. This is how people fall away from the faith. This is how we chase after false gods, whether it’s other religions’ gods, whether we worship our own opinions or sense of self as gods, whether it’s that we think we know best and that is our god. But Christ will call you back. You belong to Him. You are a member of His flock. You are His people. And He will call you back to Himself. He will seek you out among the rocks. He will bash in the heads of wolves trying to get you. He will climb the mountains and descend the valleys, all to get where you are. This is why He came, that through His work, through His death, He would be found to be wherever it is that you are for He knows you and what you are tempted by and what you deal with. He knows you and He knows your sin, and He took it all to Himself as He was crucified on the cross for your salvation. He took your sin, and He did that by finding you out.
Christ has sought you and found you, and washed you clean from all your sin. He took that sin to the cross, that He might be the one who is sacrificed and not you. He went there that He might fall to His death, and, by doing so, protect you from the pit. He took the punishment that is yours, Joseph, that is yours, leaders of Christ Our King, that is yours, members of Christ Our King, that is yours, friends and visitors. He took the blame for falling away, for forsaking God, for abusing His Word, for chasing after false doctrine, He took it all, and He died. God forsook Him for your sin, so that you might live and have peace. And then God raised Jesus on the third day that He might be the Shepherd over you forever, never to die again, but to guard you in all your comings-in and goings-out, to be with you forever, even to the end of the age. Christ has brought to you forgiveness and righteousness in His death, and life and comfort in His resurrection. And they are yours, and they’re given to you, friends, through your pastor as he brings Christ’s Word and Sacraments to you.
Your pastor is Christ’s man. And you are Christ’s sheep. You need each other, and today, you are joined together in a call from God, a divine call. It is a call of love, a call of forgiveness, a call to life together. It is a call to shepherd the sheep, and to be shepherded by a good man. Today, you, Joseph, and you, Christ Our King, begin your journey together, seeking the face of God, listening to His voice, and receiving all that He has promised to give you. Jesus shall save you, He has saved you. May it be so today. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on May 19, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on John 15:26–27; 16:4b–15. You may play the audio of the sermon here
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on May 16, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on John 17:11-19. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump.Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to St. John, the 17th chapter:
And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Since this is the Last Sunday of Easter, He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! Jesus Christ is risen. And now he is ascended on high for you. We've talked about this in years past, that we often skip over the ascension and its importance for us. But the reality is the ascension is perhaps one of the most important things that Jesus did. Certainly his life, death, and resurrection were necessary, and those are all vitally important, but, if we had to rank Jesus’ actions, his ascension ranks over things like his miracles and his teachings, because it is from the ascension that we find that his miracles, his signs, his wonders, and his teachings find their fulfillment. If it were not for the ascension, Christ could do absolutely nothing. And nothing he gave to us would matter because it is in the ascension that Christ ascends to his Father and sits down at the right hand of God. And from there, he rules and reigns over all creation until everything is put under his feet and he returns upon the last day to make all things, including you in your very bodies, new.
The ascension is integral to our faith because it is in the ascension that our Lord sends to us the Holy Spirit, something that we'll celebrate next time we gather together, the day of Pentecost. The Spirit descends on the people in day of Pentecost and rests upon their heads and enables them to speak languages that they hadn't ever understood until that point, and that's a good thing, but the Spirit now dwells in you. He doesn't sit up on your head like a tongue of fire, but instead has chosen to reside in you by water and the word. And it is through the ascension that the Spirit is sent. So it is that the ascension of Jesus Christ is necessary for us and for our faith, it is necessary for our salvation.
We find Jesus tonight praying in the garden before his crucifixion to his Father and to our Father. And this is very important that you understand this, that God the Father is our Father because he is Jesus's Father. He is not our Father by our nature. It is true that he created us. It is true that within the Trinity, his name, his title is Father, but Jesus makes it very clear that we, according to our corrupted natures have a Father. And that Father is Satan. Satan would be our Father. He would tell us what to do with where to go and how to be. And if we were to listen to him and we are wont to listen to him, then life actually would be pretty good. We would all agree. We'd all be ordered in just the right categories. But we would not have Father who would save us, but a Father who instead would damn us along with himself. So it is that our corrupted natures have this being as our Father, but Christ here tonight prays to our Father. He makes it clear that we are belonging to God the Father, and we belong to him because Christ is in us and we are in Christ.
It is because we are in Christ, that he is now our Father for, we have been born again. That phrase gets misused very, very often. It comes from John 3. There Jesus tells us that we must be born again. Well, in John, and I've told you this before, I’ll tell it to you again, John loves his double entendres because that word born again in the Greek, anothen, does not just mean to be born again, but to be born from above. And so it is true that you have been born from above. Not that you sprang out of the womb of God and found your way upon this earth (your mothers might have something to say about that), but that your birth comes from the one who is above all things, the one whose name is higher than all names, the only name in all of heaven and earth by which we must be saved, Jesus, the Christ. You have been born again, and you have been born from above. You belong to God. And as much as you struggle against your sinful flesh in this life, this truth is always true, that God has made himself to be your Father. He has brought you into himself. He has adopted you as sons and daughters, as heirs of the living Christ.
And that is a beautiful and glorious thing. Take heart in this. Jesus says very clearly in his prayer, he has not lost one that the Father has given to him. And if you belong to Christ, then he has never, ever, ever lost you. Certainly we know that we can reject our faith. We can, if you will, spring out of the hand of God that holds us tight, right? Imagine God as a father holding the hand of his child as they walk down the street. If the child rips his hand away, is it the father who caused the child to be hit by a car? Of course it's not. The father will have fought against his child running away, but it’s still on the kid. And that is but a small picture of how we walk with God. He holds us and sustains us. Sometimes, we buck against him and try to run away, but he brings us back, and this is nowhere better shown than this morning as you are gathered here today to hear God's word, to receive his sacrament. He has guided you here, and you have not fought him but have listened to him.
It is clear beyond all clarity that God is your Father. And he brings you back to himself. You may try to rip your hand away from him, but he brings you back to himself through your repentance and through his forgiveness. He is your Father and he will not lose you. Of course, Jesus says he did lose one, one who ran away from him. He indicates Judas, which really is kind of an interesting thing for us because by losing one, it must mean that Judas did at one point, belong to Christ. Judas then serves as the example: do not to take it upon yourself to dole out your punishment. See, Judas was so upset over what he had done to Jesus, that he went and hung himself. But the reality is, is if Judas had repented, he would have found the forgiveness of God. As soon as that rope burst his bowels out from inside of him, as we read an Acts today, perhaps he was sorry. But we know that Judas was prophesied to forsake the faith that he had in Jesus Christ and betray him over to the hands of sinful men. But Judas, in this forsaking of the faith, turned away from repentance and turned to his own punishment, thinking it would be enough. But we can’t do that. We can’t punish ourselves. We are not our own judges.
Don't punish yourself for all that you've done. If you look at your life, if you look at your choices, if you look at your heart, if you look at your mind, you know that you are a great and grievous sinner. To punish yourself over these things is not within the purview of your being. But instead your ultimate end is in God's hands. And what does God tell you? Not that he will punish you, not that he has it out for you, but that he will redeem you from the pit. And so he has.
And this is a fascinating thought as well, that Christ has brought us up out of the pit. He has brought us up out of the world and still yet, while we sit in this life, we are in the world. We did belong to the world, but now we belong to Christ. And yet we are still in this world. What a confusing thing this must be for some, that to live is Christ and to die is gain. And you go, all right, I'd rather get out of the world than be in it. But keep this in mind: our Lord has kept you in this world for one very real purpose, that you might live out the will of God.
Did you notice in our epistle lesson that John said whoever prays according to the will of God may be confident that he has what he prays for? Have you thought about this? When we are in Christ, we pray according to the will of God and it is necessary then, that as we live in this world, we look at what the will of God is. And what is the will of God? That you love him and that you love your neighbor as yourself. When we pray according to these things, we may have the confidence that we will get, whatever it is that we need. And what is it that we need? Forgiveness, life, and salvation. I don’t mean that you earn your way to Christ by your love of God or your love of your neighbor, but that, as we’ve discussed in weeks prior, as you do the will go God you discover your salvation by seeing it play out through your works.
And when we are living according to his will, we will find forgiveness, life, and salvation, not in our works, but in God’s promises, in His word and sacrament. There is forgiveness, life, and salvation. There we know we belong to God. There we find the strength to persevere in this sin-filled world. There we find the strength to endure. And there again, we know that we belong to God.
You wouldn't need forgiveness if you were not still in this world, but it delights God to forgive you your sins. You don't need forgiveness when you die to go to be with Jesus, you don't need forgiveness when you rise from your graves and there you live forever in Christ in his eternal glory, but you need forgiveness now. God has kept you in this world that he might forgive you your sins. God has kept you in this world so that you might bring other people to have their sins forgiven as well.
You see the ascension ties into all of our doctrines in life. It ties into evangelism. It ties into ministry. It ties into the word and sacraments and the efficacy of those two things. It ties into literally every piece of the Christian life. Most specifically, for us today, it ties into the idea that you are a child of God because your Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father. And that doesn't mean that God the Father has a right hand. God the Father doesn't have a right hand. God is Spirit; spirits don't have hands. Jesus does because he has bound up humanity in his divinity forever. But that right hand of God is a seat of power and Christ there is seated at the right hand of God. If he's got all the power in all of the cosmos, he uses it to make you his own. He uses it to bring you into himself. He uses it to place himself into you. And so you are bound up together with Christ. You are his brother. You are his sister. You are a child of God, forsaking this world, seeking out your Father’s loving face, forsaking all others for the sake of Christ, who turns you back to the world with a heart that has been kneaded, you know, like bread, a heart that has been softened to love those around you. You forsake everything for the love of Christ. And the love of Christ turns you back to this world. It's true.
My friends, our Jesus Christ is risen, not just from the dead, but now he is risen on high into all eternity. And this should bring us great joy and assurance, for here we find our belonging in him. We find our identity in him. We find our sanctification in him, our being made holy in him, all because he is risen and ascended. He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on May 9, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on 1 John 5:1-8. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump.Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.The text this morning is from John’s first epistle, the fifth chapter:
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.
Thus far the text.My dear friends in Christ, He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! He is risen and we actually pick up this with the continuous reading from last week. If you recall, last week, we were talking about abiding in Christ and Christ abiding in us that we would bear the good fruit and into the world. And we talked about the good fruit being the works that we do in love and service to our neighbors. It makes sense then that John would continue this. It is no surprise that our epistle lesson picks up from last week, just as our Gospel lesson does, and it makes sense that it is John who wrote both passages. He tells us that if we are to bear the good fruit, it looks like loving those who are of God. Now John makes it very clear: anyone, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Now as a Lutheran, sometimes this rankles me a little bit, I wonder at people who have these different denominational beliefs and I've often wondered how far is too far? How far, how much can you believe that's different than what the scripture speaks and still have it be okay. And John answers this for us. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Now, granted, I want doctrinal purity. God wants doctrinal purity. He wants us to be right in what we believe, in what we teach, and in what we confess. And we should never stop working for that. But everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And so the Holy Spirit, through John, tells us that is enough. It's enough. I told you last week, it's true, I like to argue with Calvinists on Twitter. I don't know why; it's just kind of fun to rankle them every so often. And the goal isn’t just to rankle them, but to push them into understanding what it is that we believe and hopefully then, the understanding that this is what they should also believe. However, it must be done in love and not out of a position of hatred or anger or jealousy or anything like this. If we are to believe that Jesus is the Christ, that is enough. That's enough for us to be saved. It's enough for us to be called brothers and sisters, one of another. And this is especially poignant in our day and age today when we had so many, at least what the world seems to be saying, so many divisions, especially, lately, racial divisions. Now, if you've been with me for any time whatsoever, you know that I believe that race is a complete lie. We are all one race, and specifically the human race, or the race that stems from Adam and Eve, a race that stems from Noah. Yes, it's true. We have our cultural differences, but we are all of one human race. The world wants us to judge people by what they look like, but John tells us what it is by which we should judge someone: do they believe that Jesus is the Christ? That's it. That's it. Now again, it's good to acknowledge the differences that we have, if they’re real, and some divisions are indeed real. But, it’s not something by which we judge their worth. Instead, even as we acknowledge the differences between you and another person, probably completely within a cultural context, we are to first acknowledge if a person is a believer. Now, this doesn’t mean we serve a person less, but it gives us a whole new realm of responsibility toward a brother or sister. For if they believe Jesus is the Christ, they are born of God just as you are. Don’t let the divisions divide you wrongly. It is enough to say that Jesus is the Christ. And what does that mean? That Jesus is the Messiah, because that's what Christ means (Christ is the Greek word for the Hebrew Messiah) and all it means is the anointed one, the anointed one of God. Christ was anointed, as Peter says in Acts today, in his baptism where God sent the Holy Spirit and power upon Jesus. It was a glorious day when Jesus went down into John's baptism, and his anointing was seen by all. He took for himself that which was given, the role and title of Messiah. So, what is it to believe that he's the Messiah, that he's anointed? That he came into human flesh, that he lived a perfect life, that he died to forgive the sins of the world, that he rose again on the third day for our justification, and that he is ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father almighty. And as we confess in the creed, from thence he will come to judge the living and the dead. This is enough. That is what it is to believe that Christ is the Messiah. That's good. And if someone believes this, we should hold onto it because everyone then who loves Jesus, because he's the Christ, will love the Father. And so everyone who loves the Father then must love those who are also of the Father. That is the fruit that we bear. Now, it doesn't mean that we don't do good deeds to those who don't believe that Jesus is the Christ; we do, but we don't love them in the same way, do we? There is a difference between the church and the world. There is a difference between those who believe in Christ and the world. Sometimes it is enough to say that what you're holding onto is going to send you to hell and unless you repent, that's it, and then to wash your hands of them and to walk away, as Christ says, if a town does not accept you, then wipe the dust off of your feet at them and leave them. If they will not accept that I have sent you to them, then wipe off the dust. And so it must be with the world, that we do this as well. But when it comes to a brother or a sister of the faith, it's not enough just to leave them and do whatever. Our call is to stand by them, to support them, to uplift them in prayer, and to even uplift them, if they need you to, to literally pick them up off the ground. I’ve had to help some saints, even in this church, stand after service, and I know you have, too. That’s a good deed. Now, certainly, if somebody falls outside, you don't look at them and say, Well, do you believe in Jesus? And if you don't, I'm going to walk away. That's not okay. But certainly it is a good thing when we do it inside the church, or for our brothers and sisters. And it is even more a good deed, to lift up an errant brother or sister, one who has maybe different ideas than what the scripture says, or one who is in a sin that they are having a hard time getting over, or, God forbid, one who is in a sin that they refuse to repent of. When they believe that Jesus is the Christ, we are not called to leave them behind in the dust, but to pick them up in love just as our Father has loved us by sending his Son. We love our neighbors by sending ourselves to them and serving them in whatever capacity that it may be necessary for them to benefit from. It's a big deal. When we talk about what it looks like to live as a Christian, this is a big deal. We have a different relationship one with another than even we do with one in the world. But we bear this fruit because we belong to God. And so we look for those that we can serve. John says, by this, we know we love the children of God, that we love God and obey his commandments. Of course we know what these commandments are. If you're going to sum them all up, they are to love God with all of your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. You would not do evil to yourself, would you? Of course not. And so it is that we should not do evil to our neighbors. We sit here and think of all the ways that we failed in this. At least we should. I do. When we compare ourselves to the law of God, we find that the law accuses us in our sin. It tells us that we are not worthy of any of the love of God. We cannot match up to the demands of the law. So what are we to do, because if we are to be loving God, we are to be loving our neighbors. John makes it clear. And you want to know that you love God? You’re going to see what you do in terms of obeying his commandments. Well, how many of us are doing okay with that? That answer is none. So what is our only recourse? Our only recourse is to fall at the feet of Jesus, beg for his forgiveness, to repent of our sins, to despise them as much as we would the worst person in the world, even more. And when we do this, we find that our Lord Jesus is quick to forgive, for where repentance is forgiveness always, always immediately follows. It is as if you're getting the words out of your mouth and Christ picks you up and says, my son, my daughter, I forgive you before you can say a word. It's like the prodigal son, and you all remember this story of Jesus. The son begins to starve and is miserable, and so he sets his mind to return to his father’s home, not as a son, but as a slave. And as he goes back to his Father, he thinks, the servants in my father's house eat well. I know what I'll do. I'll go back and say, Father, I sinned against heaven and against you, please, please let me do something to serve you. And as he's walking his way back, the father sees him from a long way off, and begins to run to him. He runs to his son, grabs him around the neck and screams in his ear, I forgive you and I love you. This is the picture of our Jesus, for if we believe that Jesus is the Christ, we know that this is what he will do and has done because the Christ is the one who forgives our sins. The Christ is the one who welcomes us into his family. The Christ is the one who saves Israel, the nation that we've been grafted into. See, if you believe that Jesus is the Christ, you do believe that Christ will forgive your sins. And this is a wonderful and glorious thing, but he doesn't forgive you your sins so that you can go back and keep on doing evil. He forgives you your sins that you should leave them behind and work now toward the good. It’s very clear, isn't it? John is wonderful in this that he brings all this out. We can't just sit back and say, Eh, it doesn't matter what I'll do. I can go forward and do whatever I want. Instead, the Lord tells us what it is that we will do. We will love God. And we will love the children of God by obeying his commandments. Because, when we're in Christ, we find that the commandments, even as far as they're going to accuse us, and they're going to accuse us all the way to hell, the law, the commands of Christ, John says are not burdensome. Well, I disagree. At least I do according to my sinful flesh. Our struggle against the sinful flesh is real and it’s hard. To sit there and say, well, I must honor God in all things, I must always keep the Sabbath, I must not misuse his name, I shouldn't commit adultery, I shouldn't ever lust, I shouldn't ever kill, which is to hate my brother in my heart, I should've ever steal, I should never lie, I shouldn't ever want something that belongs to someone else, is hard. To sit there and say, according to my self, my flesh, I can't do that is right. But, in Christ, being indwelt by the Spirit, I know have the power to avoid these sins, and I also know I am not always going to do that. No, because I will battle with my sinful flesh as long as I live, I will fall into sin again and again. But even as I battle, there is forgiveness there, for Christ sees who I am in him. I am his beloved child. I'm his beloved brother. And so he tells me, according to his Spirit who lives in me and lives in you, that these commands are not burdensome, because when we have been converted, when we believe that Jesus is the Christ, we should want to do these commands. We should want to follow after them. And if we do not want that, then maybe we need to have a good, hard conversation with pastor about, well, do we really think that we're a Christian now? And if not, maybe we need to get some real work done. Sadly, no one's taken me up on that offer, but it's still there. I think this idea though, that as we go out and we love others by the law, and this because we love God, we're going to help and serve others through love. This is something for us that makes a lot of sense because all of us here have been converted. All of us do believe that Jesus is the Christ and in the love of God, we want to do good to our neighbor. This is the victory that we have, that desire that's in us to do good to our neighbor. And why do we have that victory? Because that victory comes to us by faith. And how does faith come to us? It comes because Jesus is the Christ, right? Remember, again, especially as we're approaching this day of the Ascension that Jesus says it is good, that he leaves us to go to be with his Father, because then he's going to send the Holy Spirit to us. And the Holy Spirit, by faith, will guide us into all truth. And so it is true then that if the Holy Spirit dwells in you, by the promise of baptism, then you have faith in you. And if you have faith in you, you have the victory over sin, death, and the devil that Christ won for you. You don't have to struggle against these things. You don't even have to struggle against the law,; go and do the good that God empowers you to do. And again, will you always do this? No, yet it is that our Lord says, I forgive you. That is the wonderful thing about being a Christian. We are a church of sinners. We are a church of great sinners, but we are a church of sinners who have been greatly forgiven. How do you know this? John says it's by the water and the blood. You know what he means by this? Certainly it means by the very water and blood that poured out of the side of Jesu when the soldier pierced him, right? When he was peierced, the spear entered his lung and the water that had built up there as Jesus drowned to death on the cross, that water poured out, along with any of the blood that he had been aspirating, right? Cause as he's breathing out this blood, he's also breathing it in and, by his wounds, it pours out into the world. I saw a picture once of this, that what John's really getting at in these pictures, is Jesus hanging on the cross, which by the way, is a wonderful image. We never should forget that Jesus hung on the cross. I love full crosses. I love crucifixes because we should always remember that what it is that Jesus did on that cross. Certainly, the empty cross reminds us that Jesus came down and rested in the tomb in death, and that Jesus has risen from the dead, but the full cross reminds us of why it is that Jesus rose from the dead. And so, this picture was Jesus on the cross and he had a wound in his side. Out of this wound flowed the water and the blood, and the water was flowing into the baptismal font and the blood was flowing into the cup that we share in Holy Communion. And so it is that John, a big fan of double entendres, both in his gospel and in his epistle lessons, we find that John means not just by the water and the blood that came out of his side, which John witnessed as the only apostle to see the crucifixion, that Jesus really did die and that Jesus rose again, but that the water of baptism and the blood of the supper testify to you that Jesus is the Christ. And how does he do this? How is this testified to you? By sending you the Spirit so you know that Jesus is the Christ, that you have the victory over sin, death, and the devil, that you know that you've been forgiven all of your sins. Because the very water and blood that flowed from Jesus have come to you in baptism and in the supper, you have faith in this Christ. And in fact, if you want even more proof to know that the Spirit is alive in you, you may see that you want to do the good things that Jesus has for you.These things, water, blood, and Spirit, testify to you. Do you want to know if Jesus is the Christ? Do you want to know if you've been forgiven? Do you want to know if you can live in Christ and that on the last day, he'll raise you up from the dead and that you will live with him forever? Then look to the gifts of the church, look to your baptism and remember it, that you were baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And remember that you've been at the alter, you have received Jesus in your mouth. And remember too, that you can see it even in the works that you do, because they're done out of love for God. And because you love God, you'll love your neighbor. See these three things. John says the water, the blood, and the Spirit testify, indeed, that you have the victory over sin, death, and the devil because Jesus was victorious over sin, death, and the devil. And this is true always and forever because Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! In Jesus’ name, amen. Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on May 2, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on John 15:1-8. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump.Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.The text this morning is from Gospel according to St. John, the 15th chapter:
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
Thus far the text.My dear friends in Christ, He is risen! He has risen, indeed. Alleluia! And because he's risen, you can abide in him and, because he's risen, he can and does abide in us. Now, what does that mean? In looking at all of these different things, all these different texts from today, I really want to preach on all of them, but I don't think that you'll give me the time to do that. So I had to choose the Gospel lesson and that's perfectly fine because everything else is supporting that gospel. It's a beautiful thing. Normally, after Easter, the Church’s tradition is to read her way through the book of Acts. And, often, it doesn’t always line up completely with what we find in our Gospel lesson, but we find today, it actually ties in very well. The Spirit speaking to Philip motivates him to go out into the desert and sit with this Ethiopian eunuch and teach him all about Jesus. And John picks this up in his epistle lesson, where he talks about abiding in Christ, because Christ is the love of God. By the way, if anybody ever throws at you, and this is a common refrain from today, God is love, you should be prepared to respond to it. They’ll tell you God is love, therefore you've got to love anyone. You can't show any discrimination whatsoever towards anyone or the life choices that they make, because you say your God is love. And we can say that is true. God is love, but God is not this ephemeral love that's out there. God is love in that He sent his son Jesus Christ. By this, we know that God loved the world, that the son of God took on human flesh and came to die to save sinners, of whom I am the chief. That's what God is love means because God is love in the life, death, and now resurrection of Jesus Christ. That was very tempting to preach on, as well. But, let’s look at a different theme. We know that Jesus can abide in us because Jesus is the son of God. He is God himself. And he has all power and authority. And because he's promised that he shall be with us to the very end of the age, we know that his word is truth. We might even say his word is gospel truth. And that truth tells us that he is with us. Now, the question is how, how? I got to tell you, I was teaching the third article of the creed to the school students this week. And it's so exciting to teach through that. It's wonderful to teach about the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus, because that's the heart and soul of Christianity. But if it's not for the third article of the creed, we have no life because the third article of the creed is all about what the Holy Spirit is doing in you and through you, what the Holy Spirit gives you through his church, the means by which you will be saved, the word, baptism, and the Lord's Supper. And through those means you find then the the joining of the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the dead, the life everlasting. Because you have these things from the Spirit, you may know that Christ abides in you. And so when we ask, how is it that Christ can abide in us and we in Christ? we see very plainly, it is by the power of the Spirit. We're getting very close to the Ascension of our Lord; it's coming up in just a couple of weeks. And Jesus tells us that it is good, that he leaves us. And we ask, what? Wouldn't it be great, again, just to have Jesus bodily present with you all the time? And that day is coming when you will, but it's good that he leaves us for now, because now he sends us the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit guides us into all truth. The Holy Spirit gives us the foretaste of the feast to come. He creates in us a desire for what is coming next, something where we can look at this world, that's going to come after Jesus returns and we can know what it's like, never to have to deal with this world again. I started a diet in the last week and I intend to be on it for quite a while because I need to lose a little bit of weight. I got a little paunch here, just a little one, and, you know, I got to tell you it's going pretty good, but I know what I'm missing. You know, I see what my kids are eating. I made them spaghetti this week, my mom's spaghetti. And when I make that, I can just look at it and thing, that’s my mom's spaghetti. Delicious. Or for dessert. The kids get these blast pops if they eat all their dinner and you think, oh, what I wouldn't give for a lick of that. Ava has little chocolate M&Ms in the cabinet that we were using for when she was potty training, and you look at that, you open the cabinet, cause you're supposed to go find fruit and veggies, and that's good, but you'd see the candy. And, you know, that's what you want. It's kind of the same thing. By seeing what we have in baptism, by seeing what we have in the word preached to us and delivered to us, and seeing what we have in the Lord's Supper, this is this picture of what we can have. This is not the full extent of what Christ has for you. It is the picture of what is to come and soon you'll be able to indulge in what is to come. But it's fascinating because in these simple means, these shadows of what we will have in Christ, Christ comes to you through the word preached, Christ comes to you through the word delivered. Through baptism, Christ comes to you. Through the word put in his Supper, Christ comes to you. And if Christ is coming to you, He brings you into himself. Have you ever heard of a Newtonian liquid? It’s where you mix cornstarch and water and it’s a liquid, you can pour it, but if you slap it, it’s a solid. It just encompasses whatever’s around it, brings it in, covers it and nothing can penetrate it. Christ is kind of like this Newtonian liquid. Think of it as if he touches you, he brings you into himself, he's wraps himself around you and he brings you into himself. Now you're still you, you're still exactly who God has intended you to be in him. But you are now in Christ and he pours into your crevices and he is now in you and we are together with him forever, never to be separated. Christ is, in this way, given to us through his word, through his sacraments. And he's given to us because the Spirit promises to work through his means. Christ says in our gospel lesson that he is the vine and we are the branches. Now, I'm sure you don’t, but I argue with Calvinists online all the time. And they always say, because they hate the fact that we have a theology of the Lord's Supper like we do, they don’t like where we say the bread is Jesus's body and the wine is his blood. They look at the text of Scripture and they say, well, Jesus is holding the bread, and he says, this is his body. But he doesn't mean that ,because in other places, he says things like I am the door, or I am the vine. You're not saying that Jesus is literally a vine. Are you? And I would say to them, no, I'm not saying Jesus is a vine. I'm saying he is the vine. He is not just a vine. He is the vine. Jesus is not just a door. Jesus is the door. And, in this, we find when Jesus is the vine, we have life in him and his love forever. If you've never really been to a vineyard before, you may not know exactly the picture is here, but you can imagine the vines coming up out of the ground, being wrapped around all of the different fences that in the vineyard. And from that vine, fruit comes forth on the branches, for the vine is that which sustains life. It so happens that vintners will put branches into those vines; they’ll cut a little and they'll put the branch in. And sure enough, if they’re tended rightly, that branch grows up, and out of that branch then is the fruit, wonderful grapes that make wonderful wine. And Jesus says for you then if you are the branch to his vine, if you abide in him and he in you, then you will demonstrate exactly what it is that Christ would have for you to do. And you will get, have what he intends for you to have. So let's think about this for a moment. If Christ wants us to do things because we're in him, if he wants us to bear fruit, well, the scriptures talk very plainly about what this is. It is the good works that we are going to do. Now I would encourage you. Don't go out and seek these super good works that are out there. I wouldn't encourage some of saints to take off for Africa and go do some mission work. That may or may not be within your purview. It could be, but it may not be. You might be a little past your prime to do such a thing, right? But, you serve your wife, your husband. You serve your kids, your friends. You serve your neighbors. You serve your church family. In all the different ways that you seve, you are doing the good works that Christ would have for you. In doing all of these things. you find that you are producing good works, because if it were just you alone, these works would not be enough. In fact, your works without Christ damn you. I know that's kind of weird, but when I became a father, this became something very real to me. When I had my kids, I realized that changing their diapers was a chore. I didn't like it. Does anyone like changing diapers? You never know what's going to happen. I mean, there's actually an entire industry built around this. Little cups that you can cover them with so you don't get anything on you. Baskets that you can put the diaper in that'll hold the smell in. All this kind of stuff. No one likes to change diapers. But when I became a father and I started having to do this, I realized that what I'm doing is necessary for my children. If I don't change them, they are going to sit in their filth. They are going to get infected. They will get sick and they will die. And so by me changing their diaper, I'm doing a good work. Now that's not a super good work. It's not like it makes me a mother Teresa or anything like that. But certainly as we look at it, that is what my neighbor, my son, my daughter, needed right then. And there was no question. That's what they needed. And I'm sure you've experienced the same. These works that we do that are sometimes just kind of miserable. Those are wonderful works. The works that you do, that you even enjoy, those are wonderful works. But without Christ, if you have not Christ, those works, as wonderful as they may be for a neighbor, serve to damn a person because the work is never done perfectly. It's never done with the right intention. And even if it were, it's still done with sin, infected hands and minds and mouths, and in this way, your works would serve to condemn you to hell. But it is with Christ, when he abides in you and you and him, you bear much fruit. You bear the works that he intends for you to do. And I can tell you then if you're doing these works, you must have then no fear, because if you are in Christ, you are doing good works. And if you're doing the good works, they're kind of an evidence after the fact that you belong to Jesus. If you're doing them because you're a Christian, they’re evidence after the fact. We are never look to our faith and say, have I done enough good works? And if I haven't, then I must not have faith. That's not the point. The point is, as a Christian, you can look at your works and say, God is blessing me. And these good works even will serve as a crown for you in the resurrection which is to come; Jesus Christ will bless you for the good works that you will do. We don't talk about it often in the church, but we should. The idea of different levels of heaven or levels of reward from Jesus, it's true. You will be rewarded according to your deeds when Jesus returns. It's not that you will be saved more than another person. Every person who is in Jesus will be saved, but by our good works, as we are stirred to good works toward her neighbor, Christ will reward them and all of earth and heaven will see that reward. And we will give glory to God for all of the rewards. I mean, I compare myself to my father all the time, and I will never match up to that man. I can never be like him. I try, but I will never be as kind. I will never be as loving. I will never be as knowledgeable. I will never save as many lives as he did. And when I get to the resurrection and Jesus Christ puts a crowd on him that's 80 miles high and he puts a crown on me that's 20 miles high, I will look at that and I will give glory to God that my father did these wonderful things. And I will not look at my 20 mile crown and say, well, I wish I had more, or I wish that he had less, but we will give glory to God because we all bear the fruit that goes into that wine. We will all bear the grapes that provide the sustenance of life, if you will. And that's a wonderful blessing. The vine that bears 10 grapes is no better or worse than the vine that bears a hundred, for they're all part of the wine that God is making, putting all of together to serve our neighbors until the end of the world arrives. That's a blessing as we consider that we don't have to worry about are we good enough? Are we smart enough? And gosh darn it, do people like us? Jesus likes you because Jesus is love. And Jesus more than likes you; He loves you so, that even when you were a sinful enemy of God, he would come to give up his life for you, to be resurrected for you, and even to ascend on high for you so that you may know exactly what it is that is coming for you: a life that is better than now, a life that is filled with the glory of God, a life that is filled, even with your glory before Jesus. The Holy Spirit has bound you together with Christ forever. The Holy Spirit has put him in you and he has put you in him. And he does this, again, by his word and his sacraments. We would be remiss if we ignore his word and sacraments, because this is the way that we know that Christ is in us. And then when we look at our good works, we can say, I do know that I do these works in the name of Christ and on his behalf. And because of that, he will look at me and say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. We are his disciples, my friends, not because we can look at our works and say, Oh, how good am I? But we look at our works and we say, how good is Jesus. That's the difference between and us and the world. The world will preach to you its own morality. If you notice today in the world, it has a morality, all of its own. It has a morality that you must abide by and it's a shifting and changing morality. And if you don't match up, if you don't measure up, if you don't do exactly what they want in that moment and even anticipate what they will want in the next moment, then they will put you down. And the time is coming, my friends, when the persecution of Christianity throughout this world will be so intense that it will be hard for us to endure, but endure, we will. The world is going to teach according to its word and its its law, but its word is not the word of Christ. We will stand in the word of Christ and we will endure no matter what comes. And we can know that because we are in Christ and Christ is in us by his word and by his sacraments. As long as we are grounded in this, as long as we desire these things, then Christ indeed will show us that our works will stand. And so shall we stand, on the last day, when Christ returns from heaven, when he comes and makes everything new, he will come to your grave, He will bid you out of it, and greet you with a loving face and loving arms for he is the love of God personified. And you will see him in your own flesh and there you will live with him forever in his glory, even as he glorifies You. He is, in this way, the vine who gives you life, for you now live in his love. Let us hold fast to him this day for he is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! In the name of Jesus, amen. Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on April 25, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on John 10:11-18. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from John’s first epistle, the third chapter:
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! And Jesus tells us today that he has the authority to raise himself up from the dead. Now, this is kind of a strange thing. Why would someone need authority to raise himself from the dead, and beyond that, why would Jesus, who is God himself, need authority from the Father to raise himself up from the dead?
You know, I have worked in jobs, and perhaps you have as well, where you are given a whole lot of responsibility but no authority. You have been given a whole lot of things to do, but not the power to carry them out, not being able to actually do the things you have been asked to do. It's really a fascinating thing, isn’t it, to be stuck in that kind of position, because you sit there and you just wonder, what are they thinking in giving this to me? Why would they do this to me? It's like setting you up for failure, isn’t it?
Now, Jesus obviously has responsibility. His job is to come to this earth, to live a perfect life, to die for you, to be resurrected for you. That's a lot of responsibility. I mean, if you think about it, Jesus, just even in his humanity, had a lot of responsibility. He had to obey the law perfectly. He had to be tempted in every way that you are and still overcome it. He had to grow in wisdom and in stature, the scriptures say. That means he had to learn just like we learn all that God would say in his word and all the things that we have to learn about this earth, all the things that we have to do on a daily basis. He had a lot of responsibility and he carried that out to the nth degree. He did it perfectly.
But when you consider that according to his divinity, what it is that he was responsible for doing, which was set before the foundation of the world, that he would come and die and live for you, well, that's a lot of responsibility too. It's a responsibility that I don't think we can comprehend. It's a responsibility that I don't think any of us would be able to even get close to. It's a responsibility that if we even tried, we would fail from the outset. Still it's not just responsibility, but he had the authority to do these things as well. He had the authority to come and take on the flesh of Mary and be born into this world. He had the authority to grow up as a young boy. He had the authority to become a man. He had the authority to learn from Joseph to become a carpenter. He had the authority to go out and begin his teaching ministry. He had the authority to do miracles, signs, to show that he indeed is the Messiah, God in human flesh. He had the authority to go to the cross, to lay his life down, and he had the authority to raise himself up again. When we think of the times, when we lack authority, we find ourselves powerless. But when we consider that Jesus Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth, we find him to be the powerful one, the one with the most power.
And, in fact, it is a very attribute of God that Jesus would be omnipotent. That's your big Latin word for the day. We all know it. It means all powerful. Jesus is all powerful because he has the authority of God. Now that is a marvelous thing. And how does he use that authority? He gives it all up. He gives up everything to bring you into his fold.
Today actually is the celebration of Good Shepherd Sunday. It always falls right in the middle of Easter, that fourth Sunday of Easter. When we look at Jesus, the shepherd and we, the sheep, now we would be remiss, f course, if we didn't mention that sheep are very, very dumb. In fact, sheep have tiny, tiny brains. I think I've told you this before. Their brains are so small. How small are they? Their brains are so small that you could easily crush them in your hands. These sheep are dumb creatures. And yet it is that our shepherd takes care of us.
Now think about this for a moment. In what circumstance would you be willing to lay your life down for somebody? If you saw someone being beaten on the street, would you go and take their place? What if that person was your spouse? What if that person was a friend? What if that person was your child? What if that person was your worst enemy? Would you do it then? And you see, that's what we find when we consider our Jesus, that while we were yet enemies of God, he came and laid his life down for us.
If you think of the whole shepherding concept, you have shepherds who would take their sheep out into the wilderness, out into the countryside. It’s not really like today, where farms dot the landscape, and they’re all penned in and everything seems safe. Back then, you’d take them out onto the hills and mountains. These are sheep that would have to go out and they'd have to find grass to eat. And it would be that the shepherd would take them out overnight, sometimes even for a few days to make sure that the sheep had what they needed. And the shepherd's job was to make sure that those sheep were safe, because when you are out in open pasture, you never know what's going to come. Could be that a wolf comes into their midst and starts picking off the sheep. It could be a lion would come in and begin picking them off. A bear could come in and pick them off. Even a robber could come in and take the sheep. If the shepherd lets down his guard, even for a moment, it seems that the enemy would strike at that time. You ever noticed that in your own life, the minute you let down your guard, something bad happens to you and you look back and go, I should have been prepared for that? The shepherd must be prepared at every turn. And in fact, to be prepared, the shepherd, not only brings with him all the food that he needs, but carries in his hands a rod and a staff.
We find in Psalm 23, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me, right? What is a rod? And what is a staff? A rod is never to be used on the sheep. In fact, the sheep would see that rod and know that this is a good thing that the shepherd has. This rod is what protects the sheep from the intruder. This rod beats the wolf over the head. This rod kills the lion by striking its heart through its ribs. With this rod, God strikes down the thief and the robber. The staff, however, is a comfort for the sheep, for the staff. is used on the sheep that has wavered. The staff is used for the sheep that gets too close to the edge. The staff is used on the sheep that gets caught up in the water and begins to drown. The staff is the shepherd's crook. And it goes in and grabs the sheep around the neck, or it grabs him by the foot and brings him back. I don't think shepherds back in Jesus's day used border collies to herd sheep; it was all up to them. So, imagine rods and staffs being a great comfort to the sheep; they are there to protect them. They're there to keep them safe.
So, with all these ideas swimming around in our heads now, all these things are going on and Jesus calls himself the good shepherd. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd will lay his life down, down for the sheep. So as you're considering this, with all these things, we imagine Jesus as the shepherd, leading all of us out to pasture, to feed. And of course your first thought about the feed should be towards the Lord’s Supper But the shepherd brings us out to feed and there we are set upon by the enemy, whether it's a wolf or a lion or a robber or all these things.
What is our enemy but the devil himself? The good shepherd lays his life down for the sheep, and, in striking the thief, bruises his heel, and the shepherd dies. What happens to the sheep? They're left behind with no shepherd. The shepherd dies. Who's there to protect them? The shepherd dies. The sheep become wayward. Look what happened after Jesus died: his apostles scattered and only, finally, where they gathered into that upper room, where they waited in fear for what would be coming for them next, would they come tighter.
But our good shepherd does not stay dead for long. He has the authority to lay his life down and to pick it back up again. The shepherd’s struck down by the thieves. The shepherd’s struck in the heel by the serpent, but the serpent has his head crushed to bits. The shepherd comes to life and protects his sheep and speaks to them, Peace, peace be with you. Jesus says to the apostles gathered in that upper room, peace be with you. He says to you, peace be with you. And that peace is that Jesus has the authority to lay his life down and to pick it back up again. The shepherd who can do this has great power and he uses it to guard you and keep you in all your ways.
It would not be possible for God to die unless Jesus had the power to do it. Have you considered this? You can kill a man. You can go out and do it right now if you want to. It’s a heinous sin. Don't do it. But you could do it. But how do you kill God? How do you strike him dead? The only way to do this is if God lets himself be killed. Jesus has the power to let himself be murdered on the cross for your sake. Jesus has the power then to bring himself back to life, being justified, being vindicated by the father and his sacrifice, he comes back to life and scares the many away.
It happens that the enemy prowls around like a roaring lion seeking one whom he may devour. But the shepherd is always there to scare the enemy away because the shepherd will never die again. Having tasted death once was enough for him. And so it is, too, that we taste death once and that is enough for us. However, it is not in the death that we look at at the end of our lives. That's merely sleep.
My friends, you have been killed already. You have already been dead and have been raised to life. Our shepherd and his death and resurrection brings to you his death and resurrection in a way that you would never expect, a way that is there to bring you into his fold, a way that brings his entire fold, this other fold that Jesus talks about, it brings you into his one fold. And that is through baptism, where, in that water, you face death. And there you die. As the water washes over you that is the first death. And yet it is but a moment and you come roaring back to life as only a sheep can. It's an amazing thing when you think about this, that we are baptized into his death and we are baptized also into his life. You have faced death once and persevered because your Jesus has the authority to raise you from the dead.
And so he has, and still yet a greater day is coming when you will see your resurrection, even more glorious than what you found in the font, that resurrection where you will see your Jesus face to face as you come up out of your graves. This is the authority of the shepherd to lay his life down for you, his wayward sheep, that he may bring you back into his fold forever. What better news is this, that our Jesus, our good shepherd, is going to comfort you with his rod and his staff, with his baptism and his supper, with his word, with his absolution, with life, forgiveness, and salvation forever. There is no greater thing than this. Look to your good shepherd, my friends, for he is risen. He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on April 18, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on 1 John 3:1-7 You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from John’s First Epistle, the third chapter:
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! See what kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called children of God. And so we are. It is an amazing thing that God calls you his child, for indeed, there was a time when we were not reconciled to the father. And Jesus rightly says of us, says of those who have no faith in him, that we are not children of God, but children of Satan, children of the devil. It is true that, as children of the devil, our corrupted nature desires to sin. We love to sin. I'd like you just to think within your own head, I don't need examples, certainly, but think of the sins that you commit, think of those pet sins that keep bothering you throughout all of your life, and when you do them or when you're tempted to do them, you know that there is a feeling of, well, goodness, that arises within you.
As you're thinking about them, it could be that they lead to some type of physical pleasure. It could be that they lead into some kind of emotional pleasure. It could be the pleasure of putting somebody down instead of seeing yourself below them, it could be anything. And I think if we are truly honest, we would look at our sin and say, it is absolutely true that I feel good when I sin. And that is because according to our corrupted nature, we are children of Satan. And because we are children of Satan, then we rejoice in our sins for we are doing the works of our father. After all, Satan's work is to lead you away from God.
You know, it was said once in a world without God, in a world where the devil ruled everything, everything would be in order, everybody would go to church on Sunday, everybody would pay attention in school, but still there would be nothing but sin reigning in our hearts. It's not that the devil doesn't love order. He does, but that he loves order according to his word and not according to the word of God. In fact, it would be that the devil would come to us and order everything greatly against us, greatly in his favor, greatly so that all things would be to his benefit. If we are to listen to him, if we are to listen to our natures, this is what we would discover. We would discover that we want to do the evil things, but thanks be to God that through the blood of Jesus Christ, we have been redeemed. And in his blood, we find that we are called the children of God, we are born of God.
It is a great and wonderful thing that our God has made us one with Jesus Christ. There are a couple of different images that actually pop up in the scriptures for this: one is that marital image that Christ is the bride groom and the church is his bride. And what do a bride groom and bride do, but consummate their marriage. And while we're certainly not talking about that physical interaction that a husband and wife would have when it comes to Jesus, we are certainly talking about a way in which we are bonded with Jesus and become one flesh with him. Other ways in which the scriptures speak: when we are baptized, we are buried into his death and when we then come up out of the water we are risen in his life. And in this way we are in Christ.
It's true too, that the scriptures talk about the Holy spirit coming to us and indwelling us, and, in this, bringing to us Jesus. And thus, we become a temple of the Holy spirit where God dwells in you. And if God dwells in you, you also then dwell in God. And John here says the same. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Right? And in this way, the world does not know us, it is because we abide in him. And if we are abiding in him, then we will eschew, we will avoid the things that would lead us into sin.
Now, again, being honest with ourselves, how good are we at this? How good are we at avoiding sin? After all, is it not easy to harbor hate in our hearts? Is it not easy to fall into gossip or lust? Or if we were to think if I just take this thing, no one's really going to notice, right? Even a small thing. And I tell the kids this and the school, even taking something as small as a paper clip makes you a thief in the eyes of God. It's true. All of our sins are so great. But even if we were to commit just one sin, it would be enough to damn us. But again, we are children of God.
So how can John call us children of God if we know that our hearts want to sin? Well, it's very clear. John makes a very clear statement that everyone who makes a practice of sinning, and I think we could even read this, not just a practice of sinning, but everyone who practices sinning, thus practices lawlessness. Think of a hobby or a habit that you have and think about how often it took you to practice that hobby, that habit to become adept at it. I don't know about you, but for me, the first thing that pops into my head is my pipe smoking, where I take a pipe, and it took me a while to figure out how to put the tobacco into the pipe in just the right way and pack it in its different layers to make sure that all of it would go down evenly as I'm smoking in just the right manner. Otherwise you end up with a really sour mouth. You could end up with a really hot pipe. You could end up with the pipe burning out too early. It just all depends. It took me a while to figure out how to do this. And I had to keep practicing and I’ve got to say, it's a joyful practice, right? That habit of just getting something right, is long and hard, but the end result is a joy.
Now think about it in terms of sin. If we are to abide in sin, if we're going to abide in lawlessness, if we are going to practice sin, it is the same thing. If we continually work to figure out ways that we can sin, and you still can, because in this life, you will fight against that corrupted nature that you have. But if we are working to practice sin, if we're working to get good at it, this is what John is talking about. That if we are practicing at sin, we have no life in Christ, for indeed, what we're doing is we are putting our life in lawlessness. And if we're putting our life in lawlessness, we are literally putting our life, we are putting our abode, we are dwelling in Satan. Now that should be a very clear message for us. Don't do it.
That might be easier said than done, but I will tell you the truth that the scriptures make no demand upon you that you cannot accomplish that by the power of Jesus Christ. By the Holy spirit dwelling inside of you, you have been given the power to not sin. Now, that does not erase your sinful nature, that does not erase that temptation to sin, that does not even give or address the fact that you want to give into that sin. But there is an idea in scripture that, illuminated by Christ, as we go forth in our lives, we make the choice to sin or to not sin. Having Christ, you’ve been freed from sin. Having been freed from that slavery by Christ, by his all atoning death, you may now choose to sin or not.
We know that the unbelieving world has no choice. They've not been freed from their slavery to sin. Indeed, they are slaves and will never know it, but you know what it is that you have been freed from. You know what it is that Christ has set you free from. You know that you have left sin behind and have been claimed by Christ. And armed with that knowledge, you may go forward and choose to live righteously. Now you don't do this to win your salvation. You don't do this to make yourself holy, you do this because you are a child of God. God loves you and claims you as his own. You now want to, as a Christian, do the things that God would want you to do. And what are those things? Well, we know very simply, if we want to sum it all up, we are to love God and we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. Notice who's missing from this: ourselves. We are not to love ourself as we do God. We are not to love ourselves as we would our neighbors. In fact, we put ourselves at the very last. You’ve heard the acronym, JOY, perhaps? As the Christian life goes on and we look to whom we are to serve first. It is Jesus, then others, and then, finally, ourselves, yourself. That's where the Y comes in. And I think that's not a bad way to look at how it is that we are to live in our Christian life. We put God first, we obey God rather than man, but then we obey man. And in that way, we, in obedience to God, can look at our fellow man and say, how is it that I may serve you this day?
And as we go forward then, and being busy serving both God and man, we will not even have time to sin. If we are constantly putting others before ourselves, you just won't have the time to do the bad stuff. In fact, I think we've noticed that, through this pandemic, there has been a rise in lawlessness. Look at the news, follow all of this. And why would that be? It is because we have had so much time to ourselves. We've had so much time on our hands, not serving others, but have been locked inside of our homes that finally, that sin pushes us to break free and pushes everything into lawlessness and enjoy.
Then, as we see this pandemic ending, I would posit we will start to see a little bit of sanity restored to the world. Maybe not completely, because we know that this world belongs to its father, Satan, but still, it should be that as we go forward, we'll start seeing some of this civic lawfulness. But the Christian, always, pandemic or not, should be busy with the business of serving others.
We see this in the apostles. As we looked at the book of Acts today, they serve the man who is lame by performing a miracle, not by their power, but by the power of Christ. And then preaching to the crowds that had gathered around them marveling at these things, they said, put your trust in Christ, turn again, repent that you might indeed be saved. They were too busy with the business of others to worry about themselves. In fact, as they went about this, we know the end of the apostles, that all but John died being persecuted, martyred for the faith. They put others before themselves, served as a living example, even today, for us to follow.
And it is what we saw in our gospel lesson, that Jesus would come and speaks peace to those who are gathered. In fact, all that he did, was for their benefit, even when he demanded that they give him some fish to eat, that was for their benefit, not his own. After all, does Jesus need to eat now that he has resurrected from the dead. Of course he does not. He has been making full use now of his divine nature. However, he eats not for his own sake, but that they may know that he is truly raised from the dead, not just a spiritual resurrection, but a physical resurrection in which his spirit dwells in him forever. Jesus concerned himself with the needs of others and, again, serves as an example for us.
Jesus Christ is our example to follow and we should say, I want to be like him for he is my bride groom. I want to be like him for, he is my Lord. I want to do the things he's doing because he is my God. And so it is, my friends, that as Christians, as children of God, we busy ourselves with the things of necessity for others, and, in Christ, because we live in Him, we will find these works pleasing.
God, because you have been baptized, caused you to hear his word preached to you, caused you to believe that the supper comes to you and you trust that it is Jesus, his true body and his true blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. He caused that faith to dwell in you faith and now you may do the things of God. And what does that look like? Serving your neighbor. And when we do that, we can see that we are truly in Christ for, we don't do it for our glory, we don't do it for our benefit. We do it because we love those that God has put into our lives. Whoever practices righteousness, they are righteous because Jesus Christ is righteous, right? Whoever practices righteousness, but not by their own righteousness, they are righteous because Christ has declared it to be so. And when God speaks, it will indeed happen.
Hope in our Lord, my friends. And when we do this, you make yourself pure. Again, this is not by your work, but by your hope, which is placed in Jesus Christ, in his resurrection from the dead. And in that resurrection, you find that you have been made pure. And now you may do the pure things. It's kind of like when you take a glass of water and filter it out. If you've got a glass of water with mud, all mixed into it and, and you put a filter underneath it and you pour it into a bowl and you do it again, you know, you get rid of the mud, you do it again, you get rid of the mud, you do it again. You get rid of the mud. Eventually you will find that you have a clean glass of water. And so it is with Christ, that he is the filter by which we see this world. He is the thing through which all our good deeds are poured. And as this happens, we become pure and pure by the strength of his spirit who sanctifies us in holy living in this life, getting us ready for the life to come. My friends, you are the children of God for Jesus Christ has come to die for you. He was raised from the dead for you. And now he is ascended at the right hand of the father for you, bringing to you all of the righteousness that you need, all of his righteousness by which you are saved Trust in him, my friends for he is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.