Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Lebanon, OR
Lent 2 Midweek – March 15, 2017
Text: Luke 11:14-23
The Second Petition
“Thy Kingdom come”
Martin Luther wrote about this petition: “Just as God’s name is holy in itself and yet we pray that it may be holy among us, so also his kingdom comes of itself without our prayer and yet we pray that it may come to us. That is, we ask that it may prevail among us and with us, so that we may be a part of those among whom his name is hallowed and his kingdom flourishes.”[1]
This is a prayer for there to be a Christian Church, for us to be a part of it, and for the reign of God to extend to every place.
A common question to ask is, Where is the Kingdom of God? The Israelites knew where to look—the tabernacle and, later, the Temple. God dwelt upon the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. If you were part of Israel, you were in the Kingdom. After Israel’s unfaithfulness and subsequent exile, the Temple was destroyed. They had a terrible quandary—where is the Kingdom of God to be found if there is no temple? So, they built a second temple (the Book of Ezra details this).
Then several hundred years went by without a prophet, and John the Baptist came preaching, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand!”[2] Suddenly, God’s dwelling place was different, because it was now in the flesh of His Son. The Kingdom of God was no longer located in a place or a nation on earth, but found those who believe that Jesus Christ is God come in the flesh.[3] This Jesus said, “The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.”[4]
The Church, the Kingdom of God, is found where the faithful are gathered around God and His living Word. It’s not a denomination, not a building, not the pope. All of those are of human origin, but the Church is solely the work of the Holy Spirit—“The wind blows where it wishes, you hear its voice but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”[5]
The Kingdom of God is the only place where God is known as Father. Outside the Christian Church—outside this faith, you’re on your own. There is no certainty of grace, no forgiveness, no sure and certain hope of the resurrection, and not even true love for God.
But we pray that this Kingdom of God would come to us, that just as God has made a place where gathers His children, we would be counted among them! “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”[6] So we pray that God would make us like little children. In this, we pray against our “wise” adult ways which would set bounds on His Kingdom and say it only comes to people we approve of. Whenever this happens, it spirals into a convoluted partisan mess.
God has made us Christians by His power, not our decision. His Holy Spirit has called us into this Church by the Gospel.[7] Therefore what makes us genuine Christians is God’s gift of faith. So we pray for ourselves that our minds and hearts would be conformed and submit to God’s holy Word, like little children
And it would be a sad thing is the Church were only us who are alive today. Thankfully, God doesn’t think as narrowly as we do. When we pray for God’s Kingdom to come, it’s also that it many more in the world would be brought in. We pray that people who have never heard of Christ would believe in Him, that those who have forsaken the faith would return, and that each successive generation would proclaim the excellences of God to the next.
All of this would be a dreadfully impossible task if it were left up to human strength and wit. But this is what drives us to fear that the Church is shrinking in the world or becoming obsolete. Human wisdom would say that we need to freshen up the faith and make it “speak” to the new generation. We need to meet the flighty felt needs of those who are presently church members so they decide to keep on coming.
God says to stop right there. Pray for His Kingdom to come, and He will do all this. It may seem impossible, unlikely, and perhaps even unpopular. But we pray in this petition that God would make it so because it’s not too much for Him. His Holy Spirit has the power to convert the erring, confirm the strong, and to build up those who are weak. It all happens through His Word preached in and through His Church.
So this petition is a prayer for the Holy Spirit to work. He has made the Church out of you and me and all who are called from far off. He keeps us in that true faith, and He gathers people of every nation to repent and believe that the Kingdom of God has come near to them.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[1] Large Catechism, III, 50
[2] Matthew 3:2
[3] 1 John 4:2-3
[4] John 4:23
[5] John 3:8
[6] Mark 10:15
[7] Romans 10:14-17
Funeral of Helen M. Vorderstrasse (Luke 23:33, 39-43)
Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Lebanon, OR
Funeral of Helen M. Vorderstrasse + March 15, 2017
Text: Luke 23:33, 39-43
Someone told me this week, “Helen remembers everything she forgot.” Because she has been granted rest from her labors, free from the effects of sin and death, she remembers all that vascular dementia covered over. But, these past 4 years did not define who she was. They were like a shroud, cast over her.
In the words of Ken, she was beautiful—the only daughter in a family of boys, a wife, a mother, a leader, a friend, a servant. This is who she was and this is how we remember her.
She is beautiful because she is still living, no longer with us but with her Lord Jesus Christ. She is with Him in paradise not because of how beautiful a person she was to us, but because the Lord remembered her.
42 And [the criminal] said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Helen wrote in one of her journals, “I have no recollection of anything…Lord, help me.” The Lord answered that prayer. He answered it by remembering what He did in the waters of Baptism on July 23, 1948 when she was baptized in this congregation. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”[1] She was united through faith to her Lord, so that His death was her death, and His resurrection is also hers. And the Lord never forgot that promise and grace which was Helen’s through faith.
Through Baptism, God remembers His mercy.[2] Yet in remembering His mercy, God also forgot: “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people…I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”[3] In Jesus Christ, crucified, dead, and buried, God remembers His mercy and forgets all our sins.
God was faithful to Helen her whole life through. He is faithful in His promises to you, too. In the distractions and mess of daily life, you may have forgotten the Lord who purchased and won you on the cross and claimed you in Holy Baptism. In forgetting what God the Father did, you might think all He can remember are your sins. You may be ashamed that you have forgotten of God. But He remembers His mercy and what He has done for you. God is faithful. God remembers His mercy for all who fear, love, and trust in Him. He remembers the salvation He has wrought for you, the living hope, and the imperishable, unfading inheritance He has laid up for all who hope in Him.[4] He forgets all your sins, because He has taken then from you, and nailed them to the cross.
Therefore, through Christ we are privileged to pray, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And He surely does. Amen.
[1] Romans 6:3-5
[2] Luke 1:72
[3] Jeremiah 31:33-34
[4] 1 Peter 1:3-9
Second Sunday in Lent (John 3:1-17)
Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Lebanon, OR
Second Sunday in Lent + March 12, 2017
Text: John 3:1-17
“For God so loved the world.,.,” (you know it, finish it!) This passage contains one of the most beloved verses in the Bible, the Gospel in a nutshell. Let’s go deeper, though. Hearing these words of Jesus in context opens us up to the full depth of what it means to not perish but have everlasting life, and what that gift cost.
God granting eternal life to all who believe is not to be thought of the way H&R Block advertises tax refund money. God is not holding out on people, waiting for them to unlock the right way to discover everlasting life. The way He gives eternal life to mortal, sinful people is not just a matter of making a change in His records.
Eternal life is a costly gift. We understand that preserving someone’s years is a costly thing. A couple weeks in the hospital is likely to cost more than a family makes in a year. But after all that money is spent, you still only have mortal life.
Instead, the Lord purchased and won eternal life not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death.[1] In order to gain eternal life, He bore rejection by all, the agony of body and soul, the nails, and death. This is what it cost to undo the power of sin and death so that “everyone who believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
How is this gift bestowed? Jesus compares it to the bronze serpent in the wilderness. “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” On Jesus’ part is the bloody agony and death, on our part is the faith which looks to Him. Yet even that believing is God’s work,[2] for no one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again by God.
Then there’s the flip side of eternal life. What would we have if we had no Son of Man on the cross in which to trust? We ought to look back to the account of the bronze serpent in Number 21:5-9:
5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” 6 Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
What came first was the people’s impatience and rebellion against God and His servant, Moses. God gave them what that sin deserved: death. They perished in their sin instead of reaching the Promised Land. Yet, God in His mercy commanded a way of salvation: raise a bronze serpent on a pole and every bitten rebel who looks upon it will live. Though they rebelled, God forgave them and gave them life in the Promised Land.
The same is true for each of us. We are children of Adam and Eve, whose rebellion we heard about last Sunday in Genesis 3. “In the day you eat of it, you shall surely die…My Spirit shall not abide with man forever but his days shall be 120 years…Death spread to all because all sinned.”[3] The bite of the fiery serpent has touched us all, and we deserve temporal and eternal death.
Yet God in His love sent His own Son to be lifted up, nailed to the tree of the cross, that every sinner who looks at Him in faith should not perish—should not die under the wrath of God, should not be condemned to hell with the devil and his angels—but have eternal life.
But for all who refuse to look upon the Son of Man, who turn away from His voice and deny both that they have rebelled and the fiery serpent’s bite, they shall perish. Sure, they may seem to be alive today, going about their business, enjoying family time, eating and drinking. But without faith in the Son of Man, they will surely perish. Their good things will come to an end, and their eternal inheritance will be the fires of hell. “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
But God gives eternal life to all who believe. When you reach 100 years old, it’s a milestone. You get a letter from the President and everyone wonders what your secret was to such a long life. What would you say if you met some of the patriarchs before the Flood? Methusaleh, what’s your secret to such a long life of 969 years? I don’t know, my father Enoch only walked with God for 365 before God took him.[4]
Eternal life is not something we can measure by the standards we know. We need a new way of thinking about eternal life. It’s not just an extension of status quo life as we know it. Maybe that’s a shortcoming of the word “everlasting” as King James English translates it.
Eternal life is a present possession of all who believe. “Whoever believes in Him has eternal life”—not “will have,” but has eternal life. You and I, and all who belong to the Lord through faith have eternal life already.
That means death’s power over us is empty. “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”[5] Because God, who raised Jesus from the dead, has given us eternal life, we live even if we should be taken by God.
That’s why Enoch is significant. We might say he lived only 365 years before God took him, but what does that matter? Whether he lived on earth or with God, he had eternal life.
It’s the same for us when we’re smitten with dreadful illness and even when our bodies succumb to death. What does death matter? It’s an empty shadow. Painful? Yes, but it is powerless over the one who has eternal life. So our prayers for those who are sick are to the end that God preserves them in faith that they keep the gift of eternal life and their Savior’s victory over the grave. The prayer is not necessariy answered by restoration of health, but by keeping them in the true faith until they are delivered from evil and lie down in their grave. Our prayer for those who have wandered from the faith or are in doubt is that they would believe so that they too would not perish, but also have eternal life. Amen.
[1] Small Catechism, Creed, 2nd Article, alluding to 1 Peter 1:18-19
[2] John 6:29
[3] Genesis 2:17, Genesis 6:3, Romans 5:12
[4] Genesis 5:21-24, 27
[5] Psalm 23:4 KJV
Lent I Midweek (Matthew 6:9)
Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Lebanon, OR
Lent I Midweek – March 8, 2017
Text: Matthew 6:9
The First Petition
“Hallowed be Thy Name”
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
There are countless descriptions of the Name of God in Scripture—Alpha and Omega, Blessed and Only Sovereign, Firstborn of the Dead, Immanuel, King of Ages, Lord of Glory, Our Righteousness, The One Mediator, the True Vine.[1] Each of these is holy because they describe the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and His most exalted work.
Now, it seems strange of us to pray that God’s Name be made holy, because that’s what “hallowed” means. After all, God’s Name is holy in itself. God is the I AM, and doesn’t depend on us to make or keep Him holy. This is why you don’t see Christians going around blowing up marketplaces in the name of their God. God would be holy, even if nobody acknowledged that.
But God’s Name isn’t in a shrine up in heaven simply for adoration and greatness for its own sake. God takes His Holy Name and graciously bestows it on His people.
“24 The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
27 “So shall [the sons of Aaron] put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”[2]
God put His same holy Name upon you when He received you in Baptism: “I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matt. 28:19) In the act of redeeming, forgiving, adopting, and renewing fallen human beings, God shows His Name to be true (all the titles above mentioned).
But this prayer is for each of us, that God and His works would be glorified by us and through us. It’s a prayer that God would be manifest in the Church. We who bear the Name of God are the very ones who are called to display God to the world which is turned away from Him. Thus, St. Paul writes,
“I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:1-3)
The Name of God sets us apart as people who are to reflect Him. But how often we fail in this! Our sinful flesh turns us from humility to intractable pride. Gentleness is replaced with brute force. Patience is fine as long as God works on our time table. Instead of bearing with one another, each chooses his own way and writes off those who disagree.
So we must pray God, who made us His own, to give us grace.[3] We pray that He would blot out our ungodliness and give us His Holy Spirit to live lives which are according to the image of Christ. That means no longer thinking or acting like the unholy people of the world.
A holy people are humble and reverent before God. They don’t complain about how God treats them—whether he sends them momentary good or evil, because He has sworn eternal good despite what we deserve. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”[4]
A holy people are gentle toward others. They don’t try to force their own way because God in heaven knows how best to order the world and because even against those who are evil God can quickly bring down even the mighty. “He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.”[5]
A holy people are patient. Even when they see the wicked prosper, the terrorists gain ground, the LGBT movement infiltrates the schools—they entrust these things to God’s longsuffering toward wayward sinners. He knows how well to bring sinners to repentance and to deliver over His hardened enemies to their lusts.[6]
This is what it looks like, with God’s help, to rightly bear the holy Name of God. So we pray not to add to God’s holiness, but that the glory, riches, and power of God would be shown to the world through us.
This happens not just with holy lives, but also through the pure preaching of God’s Word. To pray for His Name to be hallowed is to pray against false doctrine and to support faithful ministers of the Word. It’s only through the truth of the Gospel that we know of God’s Name and receive it on our foreheads and in our hearts. God’s Name will continue to be holy, but thanks be to God that Name has come down to dwell among us, that Jesus shed His blood for us, and that He has received us as His own people.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[1] Rev. 22:13, 1 Tim. 6:15, Rev. 1:5, Matt. 1:23, 1 Tim. 1:17, 1 Cor. 2:8, 1 Cor. 1:30, 1 Tim. 2:5, John 15:1
[2] Numbers 6:24-27
[3] Deuteronomy 9:4-7
[4] Romans 8:32
[5] Luke 1:52, also sung in the Magnificat after the sermon.
[6] Romans 1:24-25
The Ever-Effective Weapon Against the Devil (Matthew 4:1-11)
Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Lebanon, OR
First Sunday in Lent + March 5, 2017
Text: Matthew 4:1-11
Doctors who fight infections are all too aware that having just one weapon isn’t enough. Viruses and bacteria each respond differently to medication. Sometimes a strain comes along that refuses to respond to treatment. Then, newer, stronger, and more innovative means must be developed.
But this is never the case with the Word of the Lord! Thanks be to God for that! His Word always accomplishes its intended result (Isaiah 55:11). The chief spiritual enemy we have is the devil. But no matter how cunning he is, he will never grow resistant to God’s Word. The Word will always cause the devil to flee, as we hear today in the Temptation of Christ.
Context is important for the Temptation. In all three synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the Jesus’ temptation comes immediately after His Baptism where He is declared to be the Son of God. Satan comes not to congratulate Him or bow down before Him, but to try to make Jesus fall like he had made the first man and woman fall. The Serpent had gotten all mankind to fall by appealing to their reason—“sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned,”[1] The tempter instead chooses instead to appeal to Jesus’ divinity—command these stones to become bread, throw yourself down, and gain the glory of the kingdoms of the world. Do it for your own glory, and don’t trouble yourself with this human race. They won’t appreciate what you do for them much anyway. But Jesus, the Son of God, wouldn’t have it that way. “if many died through one man’s [Adam’s] trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.”[2] The devil was not successful in making Jesus fall, and that victory is given to all who are in Him.
The devil tempted Jesus because He is the Son of God, and he cannot stand to have a child of God not be condemned to sin and death. Satan likewise tempts everyone else who is a son of God through faith.[3] “Woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”[4] It’s not much comfort right now, but one way you can know for certain that you have a true faith in Christ is that you will be assaulted by the devil.
The devil is a truly powerful enemy over humanity. It may be—even as children of God with the gift of the Holy Spirit—that we don’t notice the devil overtly. In our weakness, we probably won’t be able to put our finger on the temptation the way Jesus does in the Gospel. Nevertheless, the effect of the devil’s work is still evident. Just like many diseases are identified by their symptoms, the devil’s temptations can be seen by their resulting sin.
The Tempter draws the Lord’s children away from the Word—the only medicine that can heal them and drive Satan away. You might hear someone say they had a falling out with people at church. Yet, when the end result is them not hearing the Word you know who’s really behind it, causing those emotional wounds to fester.
When your children’s future seems like such a noble goal that you would rather see them at tournaments where scouts are than in the Divine Service where Jesus is, remember that Satan promised Jesus the kingdoms of the world and all their glory.
One of the devil’s favorite tricks is to convince you that you’re so strong in your faith that you can leave any kind of Bible study or devotions behind. You got confirmed, so you don’t need to pick up a Bible again, right? Trouble is, there’s no end to the things he can convince you to believe when you only think you know what God’s Word says.
The devil’s tactics have not changed from the time of Adam and Eve, to the Temptation of Christ, to this very day. He is still the same evil angel who aims at the destruction of all who cling to God by faith. But just the same as that hasn’t changed, God’s Word is still the antidote against his temptation. St. John tells us, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.”[5] The work of the devil is seen in doubt and unbelief, robbing us of the salvation which Christ brought into the world for sinners. But in His birth, His Baptism, and yes, His temptation, Christ destroys the works of the devil.
He destroyed them that day by overcoming where Adam and Eve had fallen, and standing in our place as the faithful and holy one. He won the victory for all who believe through His innocent suffering and death, breaking the sting of sin and the power of death. He continues to overcome through the Holy Spirit in you, bringing that Almighty, life-giving Word to your mind and heart.
It’s not that you’ll be inoculated by a single dose of the Word of God, but in each temptation the Lord will show you His power to save you even in your filthy weakness. Mark how the Lord responded to Adam and Eve: He didn’t tell them they would do better next time, but that He alone would save them: “He will bruise your head and you shall bruise His heel.”[6]
So it is true for you as well, as a dearly beloved, baptized child of God. The devil is strong, but the Word within you is stronger—“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.”[7] Arm yourself with that Word. We can’t praise the Lord enough for how accessible His Word is to us now. Study it, meditate on it, learn it by heart. Study your catechism. It may seem like the very basics, but it is the very Word which sends the devil running. You will be blessed, not because you can suddenly go toe-to-toe with Satan, but because he will flee from you when you have God’s Word guarding your heart. May He grant such a victory even to us, through Jesus our Lord. Amen!
[1] Romans 5:12
[2] Romans 5:15
[3] Galatians 3:26
[4] Revelation 14:12
[5] 1 John 3:8
[6] Genesis 3:15
[7] Romans 10:8
Ash Wednesday (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21)
Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Lebanon, OR
Ash Wednesday + March 1, 2017
Text: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
The Introduction
“Our Father, who art in heaven”
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
During this penitential season, we will turn our eyes to something which is integral to our life as Christians: prayer. You heard Jesus’ instructions in the Gospel about what prayer should not be, namely where it should not be aimed. In these midweek Lenten services, we will go through, petition by petition, and learn from Jesus how to pray.
These first words, sometimes called the introduction, Our Father who art in heaven, teach us about the basis for all prayer. Before any words come out of our mouth or heart, we should know who we’re asking.
It’s plain to all people who acknowledge the existence of God that God is eternal, almighty, and even the creator of the universe. But that knowledge alone is not comfort. God may be almighty, but if He isn’t happy with you that immediately becomes a frightful thought. But through Jesus Christ, God the Father becomes your Father. As Jesus told Mary after His resurrection, “I am returning to My Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” (John 20:17)
So, God is almighty, eternal, and so forth, but best of all, He is also for you. Through the certainty of your Baptism, God has made Himself your Father. “In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:26-27). Out of love God took the initiative to adopt you as His dear child in Baptism. He does not renege on His Word, so when you go to Him, it is as a beloved child. That means when we go to God, we don’t have to bend His ear or get enough people behind us also praying. God’s heart is moved by His love for His children.
This also takes the guesswork out of whether God will hear us when we go to Him in prayer. Prayer is not the same as wishing or hoping into a void. God our Father invites us to come to Him with our needs and hurts, our joys and thanksgiving. “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” (Ps. 50:15)
Even though Jesus advises that we each go into our room and pray in secret, He also says that prayer is very communal. Even with the opening words, “our Father,” we are reminded that it is not us against the world, or even “me and Jesus.” As children of the heavenly Father, we are part of a whole body of believers. Within this Body, we are all children calling upon the same Father, none of us better than another and none of our prayers “more effective” than another’s. Someone once wrote, “The weak should know that God is no less their Father than the Father of Mary, John the Baptist, and Paul.”[1]
As members of this Body, we also direct prayers not just to our personal needs but the needs of the whole family of God—even of the whole world. If God is our Father, we are surrounded by many brothers and sisters. So in teaching us to pray to God, our Lord also teaches us to love and care for one another.
With the words, “who art in heaven,” it’s important to know why Jesus adds this. Later in Matthew 23, Jesus tells us, “Call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven” (v. 9). Our Father in heaven is one of a kind and to be distinguished from any earthly father. He is above all other fathers in majesty, so we owe Him the greatest reverence of all—more than we show our own family and even all rulers of this world.
God the Father is also above all in power, so we approach Him not hoping He can do something, but knowing He can do all things. The prayers we bring to Him will not overwhelm Him, even though we ask for the salvation of the world, for Him to provide for each person, and for deliverance from all the deadly evils which surround humanity. He is Almighty to save in any and every disaster that befalls us in our life, or in the wider world. Nothing slips His notice, and nothing is beyond His loving work.
When we hear that God is in heaven, we might think that’s far away. But, heaven is simply God’s dwelling place, not a matter of distance or how far we have to travel to reach Him. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Ps. 46:1) Even though He dwells in unapproachable light, remember that He willingly sent His Son to share our flesh and now He is our Advocate. That’s why another psalm says, “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on Him in truth” (Ps. 145:8).
“Our Father who art in heaven” teaches us about God adopting us by grace in Holy Baptism, they teach us that God wants to hear every desperate cry, and that He wants us to trust in Him to preserve all His children through the ills of this life until we receive our inheritance of eternal life.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[1] Martin Chemnitz, The Lord’s Prayer
The Transfiguration of Our Lord (2 Peter 1:16-21)
Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Lebanon, OR
The Transfiguration of Our Lord + February 26, 2017
Text: 2 Peter 1:16-21
On the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James, and John have a great experience. They saw Jesus transfigured before their very eyes, so that “his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.” They saw Moses and Elijah speaking with Him, and heard the voice of the Father from the glory cloud. Incredible!
But they did not do what people do today and write a book about their personal experience—Jesus is For Real or I Saw His Glory! And they also didn’t write a book about how you too can have a mountaintop experience and see Jesus—Six Days to See Jesus, or In the Cloud: How to Listen to the Majestic Glory.[1]
This is what Peter wrote about the Transfiguration:
16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” 18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. 19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed[2], to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts
Peter doesn’t base his testimony on high and holy experiences. He doesn’t base it on feelings of euphoria that he felt as the cloud covered them. He certainly doesn’t suggest that believers should strive to attain the stature to be with Jesus in a way that others are not.
Instead, Peter points to the prophetic Word, the Scriptures—“to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place.” In this way, the religion of Jesus is open to all equally—men and women, infants to elderly, new believers and those raised in the faith. You don’t need to be Muhammad in a cave, Buddha under a Bodhi tree, or sense a “burning in your bosom” (Mormons). Don’t believe the Gospel on the basis of something in you; believe the Gospel on account of God who doesn’t lie and His Word which is true. “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him.” Hear His voice and follow Him. The mark of a Christian is one who listens to God’s Word and believes what it says about Jesus Christ.
Many times we find ourselves looking for God apart from His Word. Why does God let evils befall us? Why doesn’t He shake our indifferent loved ones out of their unbelief? If I could just feel God’s presence or have some sign from Him then I would be comforted! Maybe if I worship God through ornate rituals I’ll grow closer to Him. Martin Luther had a phrase for this. When you look for God outside of His Word, what you find is that God hides Himself. The so-called “hidden God” is not a comforting one, because there you find only a holy and mighty judge. If you look for God in your emotions or reason or transcendent experiences, you are effectively building a Tower of Babel, making your own high mountain with which to commune with God. But God will only reveal Himself through His Word, because He is the one who comes down from heaven—not the other way around.
If the Gospel were only open to those who had a certain mystical experience, it would truly be a sad thing. This is what drives people to question their faith when they’re told they must speak in tongues to know they’ve been “baptized by the Holy Spirit.”[3] This is what causes people to think they haven’t been with God if they can’t feel it in worship. This is not Christianity; it is the devil’s church where the ancient serpent teaches people to look inside and despise the prophetic Word of God.
Jesus had an important message for Thomas when He said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”[4] In that way, Jesus is encouraging all His brothers and sisters to be blind to what their eyes see. Like blind people, the primary sense for our faith is hearing. We find God in His Word—listen to Him, listen to the prophetic Word. The flip side of that is don’t put your trust in your personal experience, because God does not promise to be there.
Truly, the experience of the Transfiguration was important for Peter, James, and John. It was necessary for them to see it and bear witness that it happened. But as Peter explains, “We have the prophetic Word more fully confirmed.” The experience only confirmed what the Scriptures had said—that Jesus was indeed the Son of God, “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily”[5] and that He is the one whom Moses and the Prophets spoke.[6]
In the same way, the different experiences you have may differ from other Christians, but all of them ought to more fully confirm what the Scriptures say. If you look up at the cross at church and suddenly it hits you, “That was for me!” Praise God because that is what the Scriptures say. If you are moved to tears or filled with joy at one of the hymns we sing, all glory to God because it confirms what the Word of God says to you. If you come through to the other side of a time of deep anguish and pain, instead of looking for what steps or sayings helped you along the way, give glory to the God who wasn’t lying when He said, “I will never leave you or forsake you” and “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you.”[7] In your testimony about Jesus, it’s not so much about sharing what Jesus has done in your life as your life being confirmation of what the Bible already said to be true.
With the devil and our sinful nature always trying to lure us into glorifying man instead of God, it’s a good thing Peter didn’t write a book about his experiences. Someone might try and make him the first pope.[8] But Peter won’t have it, because it isn’t about him or James or John. It’s about Jesus, and the testimony that comes to each of us in the prophetic Word. That is the lamp which shines in the darkness of the world and the darkness of our hearts, so that with Peter, James, John and every believer, we may truly see Jesus. Amen.
μῦθος – narrative, more often than not false (especially with σεσοφισμένοις before it)
γνωρίζω – to make known (cf. Hebrew YDA, Ex. 24:12)
ἐξακολουθέω – Follow, pursue
the power and coming – Power and appearance (Parousia)
ἐπόπται γενηθέντες – We became eyewitnesses
μεγαλειότης – majesty (cf. Luke 9:43, while the crowds are marveling at the exorcism, Jesus tells them about His suffering and death)
We were with Him on the holy mountain – some religions of the world set apart the leader. Muhammad was in the cave and heard from the angel. Buddha his moment of enlightenment as he sat under the Bodhi tree.
But Peter and the other Apostles do not set themselves apart. We have something firm, reliable, and certain: The prophetic Word
To which you do well to pay attention to – the religion of Jesus is not one of mountain-top personal experiences. (quote from American Christianity on Mysticism) It is for all people alike and comes through the Word.
His certain Word speaks to each of us, where as a mystical experiences are personal and vary. Say we were to find God in an experience, each person would find their own version of God (like the Blind Men and Elephant metaphor of Indian origin).
But God is One and our Lord is true, and that is what He gives us in His Word. We dare not venture beyond His Word unless we want to lose our certainty.
The dark place is our hearts and the world.
Peter, James, and John all saw it. There were witnesses to back up each other’s story. It truly happened. Moreover, their testimony is recorded in three Gospels.
[1] There is something called the Gospel of Peter, but it was not written by Peter and it claims that Jesus felt no pain during his passion and that his divinity left his bodily “shell” before death (similar to the Quran’s claim about Jesus’ death).
[2] English Standard Version, 2016 edition. Previous editions had: “we have something more sure—the prophetic word…” The Greek βεβαιότερον (bebaioteron) could be substantive (we have something more certain) or descriptive (the prophetic word [which is] more fully confirmed).
[3] The teaching of the Pentecostal churches, see also the movie “Jesus Camp”
[4] John 20:29
[5] Colossians 2:9
[6] Deuteronomy 18:18, 2 Samuel 7:12-14, Isaiah 52:13—53:11
[7] Joshua 1:9, Psalm 55:22
[8] The Roman church did.
Balancing the Scales with Grace (Matthew 5:38-48)
Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Lebanon, OR
Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany + February 19, 2017
Text: Matthew 5:38-48
It’s the way of justice, the way of accounting, and the way of nature. An eye for an eye, reconcile every transaction, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. That’s fine for crime and punishment, economics, and science, but not fine when it comes to God.
In the Kingdom of Heaven, throw out all of your learning and experience of how things should balance. Quit trying to keep track of what goes into which column. It just doesn’t fit.
Here’s what happens when we do try to make the scales balance:
We think God blesses us because of our obedience. When I go to church, everything just seems to go better! That’s true as far the benefit of receiving the Word and Sacrament, but God is not looking to your faithfulness as reason to bless you. Remember the catechism, “All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me.”[1] Or even better in the words of our Lord, “He makes his son rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
The other half of that is we ask, “What did I do to deserve this?” when things go bad. We try to connect a broken down car, a rebellious child, or severe pain with some dark secret God has found out. If God indeed renders back to a person according to what we deserve, woe to us! As the psalmist cries, “If you should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?”[2] Or for that matter, if God is putting out eyes, who could see?! The Psalmist continues, “But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.”[3]
Rather than giving us what we deserve, this is how God handles our sins. Look back to the Introit we prayed at the beginning of service:
“The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.” (Psalm 103:8-10)
Instead of scales, when it comes to the Kingdom of heaven, we should picture the beam of the cross. Are you looking for things to measure up? The cross is where God settles up with humanity: “In Christ God reconciled the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them.”[4] That’s where God brought all things to bear. All human sin met all God’s wrath and the end tabulation was mercy for God’s enemies, even more than that—adoption as children with a heavenly inheritance.
But because God has quelled His wrath and canceled your debt, He is neither out to reward you for your Christian walk nor search you out as a fraud. Instead, He has become your heavenly Father through Jesus Christ. What makes Him a Father is that He begets children—Jesus in fact and you through faith. You have become a child of God, and that means more than being reconciled. It means learning the ways of Your Father.
Living in the midst of a generation that demands its rights be respected and its personal whims be catered to, that is not the way of children of God: “Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you…Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Why? Because for God, He has set aside what people deserve and replaced it with the grace of the cross. Out of the world, He has made a Kingdom of people whose worthiness doesn’t add up and who know a God whose abundant kindness is lavished on even His enemies.
By virtue of your Baptism, the cross which marked you as one redeemed by Christ the crucified also marks you as one who sacrifices for those who may not even fully appreciate it. The cross marks you as one for whom it doesn’t add up. It doesn’t make rational, worldly sense to not retaliate, to do good to bullies, to give to wretched beggars who can never pay you back.
Someone once wrote, “You cannot comprehend the deepest love God has for you until you realize that he has the same love for the person or people you most despise.”[5] It’s true because that’s the love with which God loved you, and continues to bless you with all these undeserved benefits—“who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”[6]
Rejoice and live as God’s children, seeing the world not through the eyes of justice but through the mercy of the cross. He has even made you perfect before your Father in heaven, through Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior. Amen.
[1] Luther’s Small Catechism, Creed, 1st Article (http://catechism.cph.org/en/creed.html)
[2] Psalm 130:3
[3] Psalm 130:4
[4] 2 Corinthians 5:19
[5] Attributed to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, but source is unverified.
[6] Psalm 103:3-5
St. Valentine (Circuit Winkel) (Matthew 5:38-48)
Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Lebanon, OR
St. Valentine (Circuit Winkel) + February 14, 2017
Text: Matthew 5:38-48
We know what we’ve heard about Valentine’s Day since we were kids. It’s about love. But as with most things of God which the world gets a hold of, it gets turned into a human parody of the real thing.
The legend of St. Valentine is an example of a lot of “fake news” (as they’re calling it lately). It’s based on a story about a martyr with very little detail other than he confessed Christ before the Emperor and was killed for it. It is also said that he healed his jailer’s daughter, resulting in he and his household believing in the Lord and being saved. As for valentine notes, romantic love, and buying chocolates, these are all inventions of at least a century later. But I doubt that Cupid will be standing in the unemployment line any time soon.
If the legend of the healing of St. Valentine’s jailer is true, it’s a beautiful example of what Jesus says in the Gospel, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” That he would show compassion even to those who are about to carry out his death sentence! What an example to follow!
What an example for pastors to follow! When I was about to leave for seminary, Pastor Carl Fischer (of blessed memory) sat down with me to impart the single most important lesson he could from his many years of service. He said, “Love your people.” That was it, but there’s a lot in those words. I couldn’t really appreciate that wisdom until after completing seminary and being bestowed with the yoke of the Lord.
Yet those words weren’t just Pastor Fischer’s, gleaned from years of experience. They were the Lord’s words, and they are the Lord’s words to each of us.
Certainly You, Lord, were an example to us of how to love—bearing shame, punishment, and anguish all for things you didn’t do. How you prayed from the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do!”[1] And it’s not even that your example of compassion made them realize the evil of what they were doing!
Yet You did it all out of true love—the kind of love which would sacrifice all for the ungrateful and cold, for even your enemies that never cease their hostility!
But how can we follow Your example, Lord? It’s too much for lowly sinners, men of dust to achieve. We don’t have it in us to bear reproach for your name and keep praying for the very people who insult You and walk away from you because of personal preferences or sins they don’t want to leave behind. We don’t have the patience to wait for them to be converted and see the error of their ways and to apologize. We would rather surround ourselves with friends and brothers than to seek out those who refuse to even talk to us.
Yet in spite of our weakness, You have made your Son to rise upon us who are evil. You have declared to us through the mouth of a sinner, “Your sins are forgiven.” You have displayed that love which transcends heaven and earth even to us. Though we are unworthy to have you come under our roof, You graciously visit us in this place with your Body and Blood! You have made us an example—as recipients of Your love. We have known the example of Your love personally!
You have made us sons of our Father who is in heaven, and You create in us a clean heart and renew in us the joy of Your salvation.[2] It’s Your love, Lord, not ours. You put it in our hearts, and daily renew it. Only through You can we love your people—not as our weak flesh would love, but with that love which has brought even your worst enemies peace and eternal salvation. Amen.
[1] Luke 23:34
[2] Psalm 51
Humanity Recreated in Christ (Matthew 5:21-37)
Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Lebanon, OR
Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany + February 12, 2017
Text: Matthew 5:21-37
Since Jesus said, “I have come not to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill them,”[1] we are called as Christians to take a whole new look at the Old Testament because, since the Christ came, it’s no longer possible to rightly understand what God was saying unless we now see it through Jesus.
It’s enriching to look back on the Old Testament and see Christ foreshadowed—the true Passover Lamb being God’s own Son to save from death (1 Cor. 5:7), the serpent on a pole prefiguring Christ on the cross (John 3:14-15), or the flood imagery now fulfilled in the waters of Holy Baptism (1 Pet. 3:20-21). It’s truly beautiful to see how God was at work in these places and others, and how in His Son the salvation wasn’t just for the Israelites, but for “everyone who believes in Him.” (John 3:15) In the words of the Apostle in Colossians 2, “These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”[2]
But a more challenging task is to see how the Ten Commandments are fulfilled in Christ. Nevertheless, the Law is exactly where our Lord takes us after this revolutionary statement about the Scriptures.
To be sure, there are some misguided attempts to reinterpret the Ten Commandments. One is to say that, because the Law is fulfilled by Jesus, it gives us permission to be law-less. “You have heard it was said you shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you, God didn’t know how much same-sex couples love each other and have committed, monogamous relationships. Now go love whomever you feel like.
Another attempt to understand Christ and the Law is to say that He intensified the severity of the Law so that we ought to go hacking off limbs and immediately excommunicating anyone who has been divorced.
No, to rightly understand Christ fulfilling the Law, we have to see Jesus alone as the Son of God, Jesus alone as the Son of Man, and Jesus alone as Israel. Starting with Jesus Christ, God establishes a new ethic for mankind.
This is what the new ethic looks like:
- Men should not have wrath toward each other. Instead, they should come together reconciled because God Himself reconciled even His enemies to Himself.
- Adultery and divorce are unthinkable because marriage is a reflection of the faithful and everlasting union between God and His Church.
- Oaths are unnecessary for people who reflect the God in whom there is no variation or deceit.[3] Besides, the future is fully in God’s hands, isn’t it?
This ethic is altogether good. But it’s also beyond our reach. The interpretation of the Law cannot be adapted to fit the sinful Old Man. There’s no reform school or boot camp you can send Old Adam to make him into the person the Lord describes here. He can only be dealt with by the jailer, the butcher, and the devil.[4] In short, the best thing that can happen to the old nature is for it to die.
When the Law is reexamined through Christ, it is not merely about outward action; it requires a new heart. This new heart begins in Jesus, the Man free of sin, who needed no Law to rebuke Him. Yet, God also promised through the Prophet Ezekiel that this would happen not just for His Son, but for all His people:
19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.[5]
This is what happens in you through Baptism. There in the font, God begins a transformation in you. Think of it as a heart transplant that takes your whole life to complete. When you are baptized into Christ, God takes away your old heart, the heart of stone that refuses to change, and it dies with Christ. You are raised with Christ and given a new heart, a heart of flesh the way God always made flesh to be. For the rest of your baptized, believing life, He is at work in you so that you are renewed after the image of your Creator—the image of Christ.
So, it’s not about changing our outlook or working harder to be more moral people. We need more than a rulebook, as Paul points out in Galatians 3: “if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.”[6] We need righteousness, and that comes through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The real difference is found in God’s work in everyone who is rooted in Christ by faith.
Now listen to these words as words that are fulfilled in Him and words that are fulfilled in you through faith:
Anger
21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
Lust
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Divorce
31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Oaths
33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.
To Christ, who is our righteousness, be all the praise and glory. Amen.
[1] Matthew 5:17
[2] Colossians 2:17; said after Paul discusses the relationship between circumcision and Baptism, as well as food laws (vv. 11-16)
[3] Romans 5:9-10; Ephesians 5:31-32; James 1:17
[4] Verses 25, 29-30, 37 (see footnote on “evil”)
[5] Ezekiel 11:19-20
[6] Galatians 3:21