Sermons Church Year 2010-2011

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

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I think that I have chosen a rather odd title for today’s message from Holy Scripture, calling it "Nice Guys Finish Last". And there seems to be a kernel of truth to this old adage. I understand that there may be some actual empirical evidence that the man who is kind, a good listener, does favors, avoids confrontation, gives emotional support, and just generally is nice toward others, may be at some disadvantage when it comes to job opportunities, pay scales, relationships with women, and many other aspects of surviving in our aggressive, dog-eat-dog society.

As strange as it may seem, the nice guy usually seems to come up with the short end of the stick. Doesn’t seem fair. And it probably isn’t.

But if there is one place on earth where the "nice guy" should shine, should come out on top, should receive at least a little recognition, it is in his Church. Here, in God’s House, where love, care, compassion and concern are our watchwords, it would stand to reason that the nicer one is, the better off he is in the earthly temple of the Lord. And the church is full of nice guys and gals.

But according to the Economy of God, and His paradoxical way of accounting, not only is this not the case, where nice guys now finish first, but they actually don’t end up finishing at all. In fact, according to the Word of God, one of the worst things you can possibly be in the Church, is a nice guy. I had better explain.

When it came to godliness and righteousness, you couldn’t find a nicer guy in all of Holy Scripture than Paul, the inspired writer of most the Epistles of the New Testament. After all, he came from the very best stock, a Hebrew, born of the tribe of Benjamin, who was the favored son of Jacob the patriarch, who was later called Israel. This means that Paul was one of God’s chosen People, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a pure bloodline all the way back to Abraham.

So even from his birth, Paul already had kind of a leg up on the competition. He even had Roman citizenship. And on the eighth day of his life he was circumcised according to the Law of God, so we know he had parents who were also obedient to God.

But Paul wasn’t out for mere obedience. He wanted to know it all, and do it all. He was instructed by perhaps the greatest teacher of the Pharisees, Gamaliel, and he surpassed in knowledge and understanding many of his fellows who were even older than he was. Paul was an exemplary student. And he became a model Pharisee himself.

And not just the average Pharisee who would say one thing and do another, Paul actually practiced what he preached, he was the most obedient servant of God there ever was, doing everything, as we say, by the Book. When it came to obedience, Paul was blameless.

And he was even so zealous for his God, so passionate about his religion, that when any new upstart religion would rear its head, Paul took it upon himself to try and crush it. In our day when the Name of God is so trashed and maligned and blasphemed, and we say nothing and take it in stride, Paul was so devoted to his God that no one would dare do that in front of him!

So we can say, in truth, that Paul was perhaps one of the best church members who had ever lived. He was the nicest of the nice. And yet, before the throne of God, on the Last Day when God separates the wheat from the chaff, Paul would be cast into the lake of fire for eternity, and along with him, every other nice guy in God’s Holy Church. And boy, are they going to be surprised.

Because Jesus did not come to earth for the nice guys and gals. He did not come to save the self-righteous. He did not seek the healthy or the pure.

Jesus took on human flesh, and came into the cesspool of humanity, allowed the mistreatment, the abuse, the ridicule, the scorn, the cross and the grave, to rescue the absolute, bottom of the barrel, poorest, and most miserable, sinners. Because those are the only ones He can save.

The nice guy often feels he doesn’t need God or His Church because he’s nice…he doesn’t rob anybody, kill anybody or run around on his wife; he believes, honestly sometimes, that heaven is a reward for those who abstain from just those sins. And then says, concerning the rest of their trespasses "Well, nobody’s perfect!" Now, this nice guy’s punishment is deserved and expected, his condemnation is justified. He will be separated for eternity from the God he never knew.

But, as I said, sometimes the nice guy does make it all the way into church. And, as far as anyone can tell, he loves God. Because he’s always here, he always helps, always gives, always is first to volunteer. If he misses a Sunday we start planning the funeral, because we figure he must be dead, he’s that faithful.

But in the deep recesses of his heart, his terrible little secret, is that he still believes, deep down, that this show of obedience is somehow going to be responsible for his salvation. That at the end of the day, God really knows how many times, and how much. And God figures this into the equation of salvation. God will see how good he was, how nice, and happily reward him with heaven.

But, can you not see, that this is the same heart as Paul, the heart of a Pharisee? And it was only the powerful grace of God that eventually saved the Apostle, by changing him from a Pharisee of Pharisees, into the chief of sinners.

And perhaps the most miraculous change in Paul, was that he was finally able to see things in a new perspective. With a new heart, and new eyes. And do you remember what Paul came to consider about all those things he used to count on? All those works, all that obedience, all that zealousness?

He said it was all garbage. In fact, it was worse than garbage, because it was keeping Paul from receiving the true righteousness of God, a righteousness that is only by faith. As long as Paul held onto his rubbish of works, he didn’t need the grace of God and the cross of Jesus.

But when Paul’s eyes were opened to see his works for what they really were, he wanted nothing more than this righteousness of God, this free grace, this wonderful salvation, and from then on, for the rest of his life, he pursued that righteousness with every molecule in his body. He believed the Word, he clung to the cross of Jesus Christ, as His Savior.

Now, please do not misunderstand me, I am not advocating a casual attitude toward Divine Worship. I think that everyone who calls himself a Christian should be in God’s house on the Lord’s Day. I think we should all be studying His Word in Bible Class. I think we should all be generous and liberal, with the giving of our time, and treasures and talents. And I know we must be kind and forgiving to one another. All these things carry with them special blessings for the People of God.

But I am saying, that we must never think of these things as earning heaven for us, even in the smallest way. Never depend on anything we have done, but only rest our faith upon the shed blood of our Savior. For it is He alone who holds salvation for us, to be taken in the hand by those who need it most…the sinners. That’s you and me.

Once we have stopped thinking of ourselves as nice guys, we can become what God truly wants us to be…forgiven sinners. And then, everything that we do now has a new purpose, and a new goal.

As we read the rest of the Epistle, we see Paul, the forgiven chief of sinners, who hasn’t just stopped doing anything, or is now just sitting around waiting for the Resurrection. Listen to his language:

He says "Now I want to be found in Him, that is, in Christ."

He says "Now I want to know Him, and know the power of the Resurrection"

He even says that now he willing to share in Jesus’ sufferings, which are the persecutions of all who are in Christ.

Paul uses language like "Pressing on toward the goal", and "straining ahead". This is the not the language of a man who’s sleeping in the pew, but of a man who has been so caught up in the wonderful grace of God, that he can think of nothing else, and he wants nothing else.

And it’s the same for us, brothers and sisters. Once we have received the righteousness of God, and we believe that for Jesus’ sake alone, because of His Sacrifice we are one day going to hear that call to go upward, then all the things we used to do because we were nice, we will now do faithfully, because we are the Lord’s. We are in Him, and He in us.

And because of that, we will never finish last, but we will receive the prize of prizes, eternal life in heaven with the God who saved us, and forgave us, for being nice. Amen.

"As is the Tree, so is the Fruit"

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

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

In the very near future I am planning on visiting my old stomping grounds in Kansas, and I have to tell you, I’m just a little nervous. Because I just know that someone is going to find out I’m no longer a Son of the Midwest, born and bred in the broad wheat fields, strolling over the rolling, flat meadows, with my faithful dog Toto at my side. Someone is going to know that I’m different. I’ve changed, if ever so slightly.

Because in the six months of my tenure here, some of you, has begun to rub off on me. So when I get to Kansas, someone’s going to say "Howdy!", and I’m going to respond "Where you at?" They in their cowboy boots, me in my sandals. Or they’ll hear me say "Nawlins" and wonder what language I’m speaking. Or I’ll go out to a fine restaurant, and tie my crawfish bib around my neck and bring my own roll of paper towels…something’s going to give me away, I just know it! Because you can’t hide your roots. Even if they’re new roots.

Last week we heard the great spiritual truth that we are given salvation as a free gift of grace from God, a gift that is apprehended by faith alone. It is this truth that assures us of our Redemption, and the forgiveness of all of our sins. Nothing we do or fail to do adds or subtracts from this great promise. And it is in this promise alone that our roots, the roots of faith are planted. This is a great work of the Holy Spirit, who grants us a re-birth, a regeneration into the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

And so if your roots are planted in that promise, and your faith is created and fed by the powerful, efficacious Word of God, and watered by the Blood of Jesus Christ, does it not stand to reason, that you, also, are going to be different from what you once were? Reborn, Regenerated, Renewed, you’re just not the same as you were before. Something is different.

Because if the root has changed, so will the fruit of the tree also be changed. In other words, if your previous actions were all motivated by the sin power that was in you, when that power is vanquished, and a new power takes it place, doesn’t that new power produce different results? Of course it will.

And these results are also visible. As I said, you really can’t hide your roots for long. As is the root, so is the tree. As is the tree, so is the fruit. And if our roots are in Jesus Christ, if our roots are buried in the good soil of faith, then the fruit of the tree will be pleasing to God, for it is only by faith that anyone can please God.

In other words, when you have been justified by the Spirit of God, then He is also in you and is actively sanctifying you, setting you apart from the sin in the world, making you holy. Giving you power over sin. And I would think that such holiness would be impossible to conceal for any great length of time. Just like its opposite – unholiness. Either condition will eventually reveal itself.

And it is this principle that our Lord God is explaining to the children of Israel, in our Old Testament lesson today. The children of Israel, who put forth the ridiculous charge of the unjustness, the unfairness of God. Now, if it is God who makes the rules of right and wrong, and it is, how could anything He ever did be unfair or unjust? It’s just not possible.

What has happened, is that the people did not want to abide in God’s perfect Law, they did not want to even know His statutes, much less obey them. They wanted to follow their own path. So, in essence, they are complaining that the Creator has any right to rule over them.

The pot has said to the Potter: "I have made myself". It’s a declaration of independence from God. And this is the epitome of sinfulness and unrighteousness. And the appropriate actions follow, for a people that have no God are a law unto only themselves.

The People have made of themselves idols, which God will not abide, and thus they do whatever it is that they want. And then, when their actions are called into question, they say God has no right to dictate to them any standard of holiness. They want their sin. And the soul that sins will die. This is in perfect accord with the Holiness of God.

But our Lord, who does not desire the death of a sinner, knows that they will die, if they continue as they are. And in His mercy and grace, seeks to change those who are rushing headlong into that death. How can He stop this?

By giving them His Law, His judgment. This Word is also powerful and efficacious, in other words, it does what it is supposed to do…cause sinners to fear His wrath.

And God says, "Do good, and you will live, do evil and you will die." And God goes on to declare that He will judge each soul according their ways. And then God gives them this offer of grace, to have a new heart, and a new spirit. This is the means by which they will change from death, into life. Again, it is God doing the work here, Him giving the heart and the spirit.

But this is the place where I have to back up, and state, once again, the eternal spiritual Truth that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone. I have to say it, because many people will look at these verses, and think that our salvation now hinges on our works, what we do.

But this is not true. The principle that our Lord is explaining is the very same I just explained: "As is the tree, so is the fruit". And if you have been redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb, so shall your actions now reflect that redemption. At the end of time, God will be able to point to your actions, and demonstrate your faith, what it was that you believed, either right or wrong.

He will be able to point to the works of love that you have done for your neighbors, or where you have been merciful to another person, or forgiving, and none of this for your personal benefit, in fact, it probably cost you something, but only done because of the love that was created in you.

But it is still not the actions themselves that are saving anybody. But what happens when you are saved, is that your roots are replanted in the good soil of God’s grace, and the result of that planting of God the Holy Spirit, is a good fruit that is born of faith. Never of works of the law.

To give you another way to look at it, I want you to imagine a small grove of only four trees.

The first tree, is the Tree of the Dead. It has no fruit at all, not even any leaves. Its roots are firmly grounded in unbelief. It produces nothing, it gives nothing back. Such a tree, is already dead, as St. James says: "Faith without works, is dead". This tree is firewood waiting to happen.

This tree represents all unbelievers, who know nothing of God, nor desire to know anything. They produce no fruit, because they have no faith, and they have not received grace. This represents all of us, before we were saved, for we were, by nature, the objects of God’s wrath.

The second tree is the Tree of the Pharisees. This tree, as well, is dead, but the interesting thing about it, is that the Pharisees see the branches as just laden down with plenty of fruit. But it’s an imaginary fruit. They see a beautiful, abundantly producing tree, but God sees only the barren branches. All they have produced are the works of the Law, a keeping of their own rules, by which no one will be saved.

This represents anyone who thinks that they have the works that prove their righteousness and their godliness, apart from the saving grace of Jesus as Lord. The Pharisees were going to depend on their works, instead of on the sacrifice of Christ, to show to all that they are acceptable to God. And yet they, also, were dead.

The third tree is the Tree of Despair. These are the poor people who see their need for a Savior, but then look at their trees, to their actions, and see only a pitiful harvest. Their sin is just too great. Their fruit is poor and withered, but they try to correct this, by gluing on the good fruit, or painting the old fruit. This is a hypocritical effort, to try and do things, to try and hide unrighteousness by producing a false fruit. Works, perhaps, but no faith. But it can only fool your neighbors, and never God, who sees to the heart. It is fake fruit on a dead tree.

Which brings us to the Final Tree, the Tree of Life, the only tree that has life. Because of His great love and mercy, God, who desired not your death, has taken your dead tree, pulled it up by the roots, and by His grace alone, planted it in His Son, in His suffering, death and resurrection. God, the Holy Spirit, has kindled the faith in our hearts, and grafted us to the Vine who is Christ, and then He never left us. Now we believe in the forgiveness of our sins, of life everlasting, of joy without end. Now we have a new heart, and a new spirit.

And the effect of God’s creative planting, is the fruit of faith. No tree, that is planted in Christ, will fail to produce the fruit of faith. Not one. While a dead tree may try to manufacture false fruit, there will be no living tree that will not produce fruit. Because our faith is never a dead quality in the heart, but it’s living and active, and it will do the things of God, because God is the source, the power, and the motivation. And as is the tree, so is the fruit.

And the first fruit of faith, is always the Love of God, and the desire of the things of God. His Word, His Sacraments, His People, His Church, His Mission. And with these are all included the fruits of love, peace, joy, patience, gentleness, and so on, which are listed in the Holy Scriptures. We are the ones who pray to God "Make me to know Your paths, and teach me Your Ways".

But, still, all of these actions are not the cause of your salvation, only the result. It was not the fruit that made the tree, but the tree that made the fruit.

Now, beloved, if the tree of your faith is not producing the kind of fruit you think it should be, giving all the glory to God, then your focus doesn’t need to be on improving the quality of the fruit. No, we need to look to the roots themselves, and see if we have been negligent in their nourishment.

Are they still connected to the cross of Jesus, and still holding fast to the Word of Life, the promises of God? If so, well and good. Be patient, and God will produce the fruit He desires. But if not, then do what He said to the children of Israel…turn, and live. Repent, and ask for forgiveness. Receive His free grace.

As He is a God that does not desire anyone’s death, then He can also restore anyone, even now, to return to Him in faith, and freely receive the grace that gives salvation. He can bring you back to His Word, through His Word, back to your baptism, back to your justification, back to Himself as Your God, and Your Savior.

And then, and only then, will the fruits of faith come, fruits that are beneficial to you, and to your neighbor, and fruits that magnify and honor the God in whom your roots are firmly planted.

You are saved by grace alone, through faith alone. The fruit, is just the evidence of what you really and truly believe. Amen.

The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

"Pay What You Owe!"

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

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

As with the man we heard about in Jesus’ parable today, we, too, this morning, have stepped into the presence of a King. After all, Jesus preached this parable in order to serve as a comparison to the kingdom of heaven, and so we must understand its meaning in this context. God is the King, and we are the debtors. And all debtors should fear coming into the presence of the King. Because, as the parable teaches, He is coming to settle accounts.

And as the inspired Epistle to the Romans reminds us, each one of us has account sheet, for which we have to answer. Each of us, will have to give an account of ourselves to God. This is not optional, and certainly not negotiable. What we owe, we owe.

Now, certainly many people have found themselves in similar earthly situations before, this matter of owing, and these can be solved in a number of creative ways. We can cease to answer the door, we take the phone off the hook, we avoid the repossession men when we see them. We also can employ lawyers, file bankruptcy, and seek help from outside sources, in order to avoid our debt payment altogether.

I will go ahead and tell you, that none of that will avail you in this court. You may duck the preacher, you may avoid the Church and the hearing of God’s Judgment for weeks or months or even years at a time, but in the end, all accounts will be settled. What is owed, must be paid in full. You will stand before the King.

And so what does your personal ledger look like? What, do you figure, is the amount of your debt?

After all, this King has given you life and breath itself, a body, soul and spirit. He gave you the ability to work, to feed yourself, and even causes the rain to fall and the food to grow. There is not one thing in your houses that did not come from His hand. Even the house.

But none of this, friends, is chalked up to your debt. All of these blessings come as a free gift from the King. And although one would imagine that we would feel a little grateful, and somewhat appreciative for all of these good things, the King does not hold any of them against you as debt.

But what we did owe Him, was our obedience and our love. And neither of these was freely forthcoming. We are talking about our sin-debt, our transgressions of thought, word and deed, against our Holy and Mighty God. Every sin that you have ever committed, or will ever, and include in that the curse of original Sin, count them up, and are you starting to get some idea, of just how destitute you actually are? How impoverished?

The man in our parable was in just such a situation, owing ten thousand talents, but it didn’t matter if it was ten or ten million, he just didn’t have it. The debt was unpayable. And so is ours, when stacked against our debit account.

And if the world, or even many members of the Church, would just understand and believe this much of Holy Scripture, than that would be such a tremendous accomplishment. We would be started in the right direction.

But of course, we don’t. The world in general does not even believe in the existence of the King, or that there will ever occur such an accounting, and so the debt continues to pile up, gaining compound interest, while they pursue their wickedness.

But, believe it or not, in the Church itself the problem is much more serious.

In Jesus’ time, there were also those who did not believe they had any debt. That their lives were so righteous, especially compared to those around them, that they did not come to the King at all in fear, but in self-righteousness and pride. These are the Pharisees, who need no forgiveness, and therefore, do not receive it.

And there are and were those who do know the staggering amount of their debt. But then they respond like the man in our parable. When they hear the judgment, and rightly fear the King, they think that the answer lies somewhere within their own flesh. Within their own abilities and piety.

The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

"I did it THY WAY!"

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

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

We are a people who love to find shortcuts. An old saying is "Give the hardest job, to the laziest man, and he will find the easiest way to do it!" Short, quick, easy and painless is our ever-constant goal. And that’s not necessarily wrong. Another old saying is: "Don’t work harder…work smarter". But when it comes to godliness and holiness, I don’t merely want the bare minimum daily requirements, the shortcuts to heaven, the basic facts of salvation; I want my cup to runneth over, don’t you? I want to experience the fullness of God, the total manifestation of the Holy Spirit in my life.

The idea that we can ever be satisfied with "just enough holiness to let us squeak through the pearly gates" is a lie of the devil, who wants us to be satisfied with merely the form of godliness, the outward appearance, but none of its real substance. For then we can pretend that our spirituality is whole and functioning well. That our relationship with Jesus is intact.

There always ends up being two ways of doing things: our way, and God’s way. And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out which is always right.

In our Gospel lesson, we see again Peter, the disciple of Jesus, stanch, steadfast, Rock-like Peter, who in the preceding story of Holy Scripture Jesus declared to have the true and only confession of Our Lord as the Son of God.

Well, today in our Gospel, Peter is now given a new title…one which we hope never to have applied to ourselves. Jesus, recognizing the work of the enemy in the rebuke of Peter, turns and calls His beloved disciple "Satan". A son of the devil, a worker of evil.

And this must have crushed poor Peter. After all, in his mind, he was only watching out for the interests of God. Was our dear, gentle Lord, being just a bit hard on this poor man? Do you think God overreacted in this situation?

Not at all, for Peter was indeed speaking Satan’s words, in order to try and confuse the mind, lie to the spirit, and bring eternal death to the soul. And you have to call a spade, a spade. Peter was trying to do God’s work, his way.

Sometimes, in our politically correct world, we fear so much giving offense to anyone, that we will let heresy, false teaching, be publicly spoken, we will let wrong practices be openly followed, and just let it go. But fear does not honor God in any way. It’s not being loving, it’s just being cowardly.

Jesus, however, is under no such political restraints. While Jesus is nothing but love, He also has a plan of salvation that will not be short-circuited by any lies of the devil. And this plan, His way, is our plan, and our way. The only one there is. The only way which promises eternal redemption for our immortal souls.

A acronym that has become common in the language of our generation is called "GPS", global positioning satellite. It’s an ingenious device that lets you know your exact position in the world. In the same way, is God’s holy Word our GPS, our guide when we are lost and wandering. In fact, we can use the same letters,

GPS = God Provides Salvation

God’s Path is Sure

Gospel Preaches a Savior

But GPS is only useful, it only works, if we use it. And use it rightly and wisely, the way that He intends.

In our Gospel lesson, Jesus is teaching the disciples the means He will use to justify sinners. But the idea of suffering and death for this Messiah they loved, was too much for the disciples to bear. There must be another way! Let us think about this awhile, Lord, and we’ll figure something out that doesn’t require so much sacrifice from any of us, especially you! Let us take your idea to committee, bat it around, see of we can’t find an alternative method of salvation.

What about if we all clean up our act? What about if we become really charitable? What if we really try to be obedient to the law? What then, Jesus?

But Jesus knew that the best intentions of Man fall short of the kingdom, because of our sinfulness. We have offended our Holy God, and for that, there must be restitution. There must be a ransom paid. And none of us were willing or able to pay it. And so our dear Lord did it for us.

The Gospel tells us: " From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life."Jesus is speaking of His Passion, His suffering and death, which we know from Holy Scriptures was the most horrible death ever suffered. The mockings, the scourgings, the nails, and the cross. Lifted up to be made a curse for us, for you, for me. On that lonely hill our Lord died as no other man had ever died, to pay for the sins of the whole world.

This was all part of God’s gracious plan of salvation. And it began in His Heart, with His Love, giving us His Son. It was the only way. There were no shortcuts, there was no way the cup could pass from our Savior, and He still remain our Savior.

And so Jesus suffered and died, and the ransom was paid. And on the third day He rose again, on Easter Morning, to show the world that the debt we had to God for our sin was cancelled out, by Jesus’ blood alone. And that all who would receive this gift by faith, would have the glory of life everlasting.

And as our Lord suffered, as our Lord expended His last breath with the immortal words "It is finished",, I think Satan realized his eternal mistake…he let this atoning death take place! What a blunder! What a screw-up! I think he saw his mistake before it happened, and in our Gospel tried to use Peter to get Jesus to avoid it, but that didn’t work. Jesus recognized His enemy, and rebuked him. But now people had forgiveness of all of their sins, now they had a path to God through Jesus, now they were no longer under Satan’s evil power! What was the devil going to do??

But that crafty devil is never without a fall-back position. If he could not prevent the crucifixion from taking place, Jesus dying for sinners, then maybe, just maybe, he can render that death and resurrection useless among men and women and children.

And so, whispering into the minds of men, Satan began preaching "the short cut method of salvation".

And he starts with a great truth of Scripture, as he always does, to mix the truth with a lie, to help people swallow it more easily. He says: "Jesus has done it all". I want you to pay close attention to Jesus’ Word in our Gospel message today, to see how Satan distorts this great and wonderful truth with his lies. See if you recognize any of these:

"Jesus has done it all…so there is no need to have my children baptized…he’ll take them anyway!"

"Jesus has done it all…I don’t need His Holy Supper for salvation and the forgiveness of sins!"

"Jesus has done it all…I don’t need to worship God in His Church, or hear His Words…God has forgiven me all my sins already!"

"Jesus has done it all…I can live any way I want, commit any sin I want, have a deathbed repentance, and sneak in under the door...because Jesus has done it all."

You see how Satan works? Our flesh is so ready to hear these things, because we want what we want. But this isn’t the godliness that God wants for His children, but merely a demonic rationalizing in order that we may keep in our minds the things of Man, not of God.

This is called Gospel Reductionism, and it is the short-cut of the sinful, in order to enable us to quiet our conscience when our flesh wants to be disobedient to God. But listen to what Jesus, the One who has done it all for our salvation, listen to His judgment in regards to people who fall for this lie of the devil. He says: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it."Jesus does not tell us, once we have come into His kingdom through Holy Baptism, through His preached Word, that from now on our lives our pretty much our own, to spend as we please. We were brought into a relationship, a loving, godly relationship that will have nothing to do with sin. This was precisely the reason He sacrificed Himself for us, that we be saved from sin.

Of course God loves you the way you are, but He loves you far too much to leave you that way. As He is the cause of our justification, our being made right with Our Father, so also is He the cause of our sanctification, our Christian walk. The very things that the Apostle Paul listed in our Epistle, are the things that God expects of His saints.

Jesus did do it all, in the matter of our salvation, and He even gives us His Holy Spirit to give us the ability to follow His will, to keep in His grace. To grow in faith.

But if we spurn the offer, if we decide, as so many others have, that we want to save this sinful life, to keep it as our main focus and where we expend all our energy and devotion, well, then it is that life we will eventually lose, and eternal life as well. You cannot say "yes" to this world and to Jesus at the same time. That is another lie of the devil.

Our Lord uses a very logical argument to the world. He says: "What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?"What indeed?

Brothers and Sisters, Your soul is so precious to Jesus that He died, in order that you might be saved. And not saved merely to live with Him forever in heaven, but that you might live for Him and with Him now.

Jesus offers salvation now, today, and also an entirely new life to live.

And for all we know, this will be THE DAY that He comes to restore His kingdom. When He comes with angels in the glory of His Father. The blessed day when He comes for all those who have received Him in faith, during their earthly lives. And what a joy it will be to receive Him for whom we have waited so long!

Friends, the map has been printed in the Holy Scriptures, that Jesus be our leader through the wilderness that is this life, that we not lose our way by attempting to find shortcuts to heaven. The road is narrow. It is difficult. It requires you to carry a cross the whole way, and that way is uphill.

But it is God’s way. And you never go it alone, because Jesus has done it all. He suffered, died, rose again, and now gives you the Holy Spirit. He sustains you in your faith, as you journey with Him toward the blessed goal.

Follow the signs God has set for you, His Word, His Sacraments, and let Him continue to keep you faithful and directed, on the true path of salvation, that Jesus has earned, for which He sacrificed himself, and which He now gives freely to you.

Amen.

"Living The Cruciform Life"

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

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

"Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were dug."

That quote from the prophet Isaiah should really focus our minds today on what we need, as we continue to grow in the grace of God. As God continues to grow His Church on earth.

You and I, we are the pursuers of God’s righteousness, and God graciously guides us in and to that righteousness by His Holy Word. And today that Word today directs us back, back to the Rock from which we were cut, the quarry from which we were hewn. In other words, back to our identity as the Church of God, in Christ Jesus, our Lord. The very same confession of Peter and the disciples, the Rock on which this Church, and the entire church on earth was built, is the same confession we share today: Jesus Christ is Lord!

Think about it…you are part of something so big, and so wonderful, that has been created just for you, and others like you. This Church God has given us is the focal point, our meeting place with our heavenly Father and with each other, a time when we get to put our foot on the threshold of heaven, and just be with our Lord and Savior.

It is a place of encouragement, of learning, of wisdom, but, best of all, of the forgiveness of sins, won for us by Jesus. That is our confession of faith that even the gates of hell cannot prevail against. We need to hear that again and again. The news of our freedom and our salvation never gets old.

A Christian is always in danger of becoming caught up in the secular world, and I don’t just mean work or school, for even work and school can be godly, if we approach it in a godly manner. To be "of the world" is to participate in its sin, lusting after the pleasures that it offers, against the Holy Will of God.

This happened to the Jews who were living among the Gentiles. They were continually falling into sins of the outside pagan world, not holding to the Rock, the clear and unchanging confession of Jesus Christ as Lord. And once you fall away in just a little portion of your life, it makes it that much easier to go further in other areas. So the Jews were willingly displaced from being the Holy Chosen People of God, to the ranks of the unwashed sinners.

The Apostle Paul, by inspiration, admonishes us today in our Epistle lesson, to present ourselves today, before God, Coram Deo, as His living Sacrifices. After all, it is your body that is in contact with the sin of this world, and it is the members of your body that you offer to the sin. Sins of adultery with the eyes. Sins of greed, sins of anger, all of these are acted out in your physical body, through what you say and what you do, though the source of the sins is a heart that is no longer right with God.

Even the things you don’t do that you should, lack of Christian obedience, the inattention to your heavenly Father, the indifference to receiving His gifts, the lack of true worship in your hearts, this is played out, through your body, in the world.

So to be a sacrifice, something is going to have to die. Paul says we offer our bodies as a living slaughter sacrifice. Our bodies are to be presented like those of the old Testament animals, but not like them to be killed, yet so completely like them to be made God’s, that during our whole lives we are as good as dead, when it comes to sin‘s power over us.

It is a complete surrender of our human willfulness, which takes place by means of a death, and a life combined. The sacrificial death Paul has in mind is crucifixion. The death is Jesus’ death, but in Holy Baptism, we participate in His death, and in His rising, we rise again, to live new lives before God, holy lives, and well pleasing to God, our Father.

In such a way, through these Holy and Blessed waters, from the sure foundation of His Word and Sacraments, does Christ plant our feet on the solid foundation, that from there we may venture safely into the wicked and unbelieving world, always remembering the Rock from which we were hewn. That Rock is our anchor, our foundation. We never move from it, unless it moves, and we move with it.

Here’s a good way to think about it: In Old Testament times, a rock tied by a rope was a boat’s anchor. And when the storms hit the small boats, that anchor was not holding them back, but they would toss it in front of the boat, and drag themselves after it.

In the same way do we, when faced with the storms of life, follow Jesus through it, for through it He waits on the other side of the storm. He does not drag us down, and spoil our fun. He is the anchor that keeps us safe, and directed through this seas of life.

In this section, God gives us three admonitions, three things we can do, that will ensure our constant walk, and our growth in grace, and our adherence to His Mission on earth.

The first thing is to present our Bodies before Him, dead to sin, but alive in Christ. This is our spiritual act of worship. We present our bodies before God, in a voluntary act, we surrender all we are, and all we have to God, we commit ourselves totally to Him. Now, why would we do such a thing?

As Holy Scripture tells us, we do it in full view of God’s mercy. When a Christian remembers all that was sacrificed for him or her, by the mercy of God, when we contemplate the cross, and our bloody Savior upon it, when we understand a Father giving up His Son on our behalf, this commitment comes easier to us. In fact, we, by the power of the Holy Spirit that lives inside each person who is saved by grace, we want to give ourselves to God, to plant ourselves upon the Son of God, the Rock, and to live our lives differently than the rest of the world.

Which brings us to the second admonition: Not to conform to the world, but to be transformed, by the renewing of your mind.

This is actually a great and wondrous work that God the Holy Spirit does in us, as He matures us in Christ. As we hear the proclaimed Gospel and as we read the sacred Word, our minds are brought into line with God’s mind, we participate in His nature, and His will, becomes our will. We literally have the mind of Christ.

And then are we able to test and approve of what God’s will really is. The new mind is always wanting to find out and follow God’s will, we want to know what God wants of us, we never disregard God’s will, staying content with our own will.

These are the fundamentals for the sanctification of body and mind in the Christian life. They apply to every one of you, they are without distinction.

But this describes our vertical relationship with God. I like to think of the Christian life as cruciform, in other words, the form of the cross, with our justifying relationship with God represented in the vertical beam of the cross, and the horizontal beam represents our relationship with one another.

And the second part of this passage speaks to this relationship. For a sanctified Christian does not exist within a vacuum. It is not just "he and God" or "she and Jesus"; No, we exist as the "Una Sancta", One Holy Christian Church, and as such, we are connected and committed to one another as well as to God.

It is our love in Christ that is the glue that holds us together. It is our love in Christ that creates our love for one another. To not think of ourselves as more highly than we ought to, but to view ourselves as servants of one another, and together all as servants of the Most Holy God. And we give all we have and are in our lives of service.

Our gifts, the blessings that God has bestowed on us, are not to be reserved for our private use. They are to be put into action, that all the saints of God may be built up, encouraged, supported, and blessed through God acting through you.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, will you be the Church of God? Will you be the light in the darkness by which some soul may be led to the cross of God? Not only in this world, but around the globe? Will you offer yourself today, as a living sacrifice to God, to accomplish His purpose for you on earth? Will you use the gifts that God has given you to serve Him in His Kingdom?

But remember this: No one can do these things that are listed in our Epistle, no one can serve, lead, be generous and merciful, and simultaneously please God, apart from the Rock, who is Jesus Christ. The Rock, from which you, by Baptism, by the Word, by Holy Communion, from which you were cut. Carved out. Created. And it is only by returning the Rock, every day of our lives, that we are able to work in faith, and do the things that God commands us to do.

For us, in our tiny little church, with our tiny little people, with our tiny little budget, we have an enormous Savior, who is God of the universe. He has given us forgiveness of all of our sins, by dying on the cross to take our place.

When we hold this thought in our minds, when we, in faith, cling to the hope of everlasting life, when we daily return to our Baptisms, and thank God that He has called us out of darkness into light, well then, Brothers and Sisters, those works of faith start happening, and keep happening, and we do them joyously and gladly, praising our Heavenly Father, who has done all things for us, and given us all things, and whom we willingly serve, because He is our Father, and we love Him, and we love others, because He first loved us.

God is looking today for men and women, boys and girls, who will say, simply: "Lord Jesus, here I am. Thank you for dying for me, and for rising again. Apart from You, I can do nothing, but I present myself today, a living sacrifice to You, for whatever You are pleased to do through me. Let me die to sin, and live to You. I know I can trust You with the results, and to complete the work You began in me. Amen".

"A Crumb of Grace"

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

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

A small boy was standing in a group of children as they divided up to play a game of kick-ball. First, of course, the more athletic children were chosen. Then the less athletic, but more popular children were chosen. Finally, even all the youngest boys and girls were chosen, and still the boy stood there. Finally, one team captain tells the boy, "O.K., I guess we'll take you".

His older brother, watching from the sidelines, strode out into the field to his brother's side, and said, "You can't let them treat you like this! Let's go!"

The small boy whispered, "I still get to play."

From our earliest memories, we have been taught to stand up for our rights, to have a little self-respect, to defend our honor to the death. We have massaged and nurtured our self-esteem, we have sought to do everything within our power, to move from a position of inferiority, to superiority.

And so we all possess, in our flesh, a well-developed, finely tuned sense of pride. Pride in our abilities and accomplishments, pride in our intelligence and looks, pride in just about everything. In fact, this sense is so well-homed and sensitive, that if ever there is any infringement on our rights, any real or imagined slight or offense to our pride, any time we feel we’re not getting what is owed us, we’re usually pretty quick to respond in anger and indignation. Because we know our rights. We have our pride.

The only time, it seems, we can put any kind of a harness on our pride, some measure of restraint, is when we find that there’s something in this world, that we actually want more. Something that is even more valuable to us, than our pride. And that something would have to be so great, for we are fierce defenders of our pride.

For the small boy, he was willing to forego his pride, merely for a chance to play a game. He became humble, in order to do something he loved.

What would it take for us to forego our pride? For what reason, would we ever humble ourselves? It would have to be for something we want more.

In our Gospel lesson we see a woman come begging for healing for her demon-possessed daughter. Surely someone coming to you would have received more pity, more compassion, for the text says that Jesus would not even talk to her at first. She was making a spectacle of herself, so that even the disciples asked the Lord to send her away. Doesn’t seem like our Lord is giving her any respect.

And to make matters worse, when Jesus finally does speak, she, and her people are compared to nothing more than dogs, and by this we don’t mean the family pets, but the flea-bitten mongrels that infested the streets of the town.

And with each statement, our gentle Lord seems to be hammering on this poor, defenseless, grieving mother, not letting her retain a scrap of her pride. Not letting her keep any of her dignity. And we surely would have been so offended, that we probably would have left the scene in a huff of righteous anger. We might even have gone so far as to scold this poor mother, who allows herself to be treated in such a disrespectful way.

And had the Cannanite woman responded, as we probably would have, she might have kept her worthless self-respect. But this woman wanted something that was far more valuable. She wanted the healing of her daughter, and she realized that this healing was to be found in no one else, except this Rabbi from Galilee. One who she recognized as the Son of David, the Messiah. And for that she was willing to give up her pride, and her daughter received healing…and they both received much more.

Would you hold onto your pride at all costs? Or is there something you want more? And I hope there is.

And that something, is merely a crumb from the table of the Master. A crumb of grace.

Now, most folks will turn their noses up at a crumb, even from God. This is the pride that sees grace as a right, as their due. This is pride that elevates ourselves in our thinking, about how good and righteous we are, a pride that gives all glory to ourselves, for our right living, and none to Almighty God.

It is this pride that destroyed Lucifer, God’s highest angel, it is this pride that cast Adam and Eve from Paradise, it is this pride that caused the Pharisees to forsake and distain the coming of the Messiah in their midst; and it is this pride that will cause many people to miss heaven.

And so it is this pride that God must also destroy in us, through His Holy Word. James 4:6 says: "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble".

And just as Jesus destroyed the pride in the Cannanite woman, so that she could receive grace, so God must also perform this work of mercy in us.

Because really, brothers and sisters, what do we have to stand upon, when we come before the throne of God? It’s not even our own two feet, for we have nothing which did not come as a gift from Him, not our abilities, our intelligence, our health or wealth, not even our own lives.

Could we confess before God that we are worthy of His grace, we who have not kept His Laws, or obeyed His statutes? We, who have not loved Him with our whole hearts, or our neighbors as ourselves?

The penitent Christian, in humility, confesses that we are neither worthy nor deserving of such love, and we claim no merit in ourselves, but we come humbly, as beggars, to take of the crumbs of grace beneath His table. They are that valuable to us.

By one crumb of God’s grace…

…my sins, my terrible sins, are all forgiven.

…all my past iniquities and transgressions are forgotten, cast into the sea of forgetfulness, and remembered no more.

…the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in my heart.

…I am made ready for heaven.

Now that crumb, has become for me more valuable than all the treasures on earth, much less my sinful pride. And for such crumbs I will willingly beg, for I know what they’re worth.

Because I know what they cost.

"On the cross, and at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

And the Father of our Lord answered not a word. Not even a crumb of God's mercy was available to Jesus. And because all Jesus received was silence, damnation from God, we are now God's sheep, brought into the fold as His beloved Children. You, by His grace, now get to play, to be part of His great plan of His Grace, of your salvation.

God sends no one away from Him except those who are full of themselves, and have no room for grace. In Luke 14:11 God says "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

The woman in our lesson today humbled herself before God. We also bow our knee, and bend our necks before His utter glory. Recorded in James 4;10- "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."

God does not leave us as beggars, but lifts us to the position of kings, sons of God, heirs of the throne of grace. Although we would settle for the lowest post in heaven, God does not leave us there. No, He raises us with His Son, because we believe in that Son, We have faith in that Son to save us.

We cannot stand on our pride when we feel slighted by the Lord, or by any member of this church. We cannot be righteously indignant, we cannot be piously offended. We come with nothing in our hands, holding them out by faith, to be filled with redemption. And with that great gift in the offering, I will let nothing, not my pride, my rights, my dignity, nothing at all, come between me and my Lord.

Brothers and Sisters, search your hearts. See if you have been treating God as an equal instead of as Your Lord. For He is so far above us, yet because He thought you so valuable to Him, that He willing made Himself like us, to suffer our sins, to hear the silence of the Father, but then to be exalted to His right Hand to rule over us forever, that at His name, the name of Jesus, every head shall bow, and every knee shall bend.

Let us bend our knees now in total repentance and humility. Let us cast away from us false pride. And let us freely receive the grace, the blessing, that God has for each of us, the blessing of His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Let us feast on the crumbs, that one day we may be seated at the banquet. And let humble ourselves now, so that one day we may hear those blessed words that Jesus said to that mother, and one day to you: "Great is Thy Faith!"

Amen.

"The Testing of Faith"

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

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Every great human achievement that has ever been accomplished by mankind, has been accomplished because of this condition we call "faith". From the climbing of Everest, to the discovery of the North Pole, to the Moon landing itself, all of these things were done, because at one time, somebody believed that they could be done. They had faith.

The dictionary defines "faith" as "confidence or trust in a person or a thing". It goes on the describe faith, and I found this interesting, as "a belief that is not based on proof." In other words, faith does not need hard, physical evidence to exist, faith is merely a state of being, a feeling that may or may not have any basis in reality.

But in all of these earthly accomplishments, did the men or women attempting them have at least a reasonable chance of success? Were there some indications, perhaps, that they could reach the top of Everest, or that there even existed a North Pole? Do you believe those men climbed into the Lunar Shuttle with at least a glimmer of proof that this hunk of metal would actually take them to the moon, and back?

Of course they did. There was some reason for their faith. It was based on science, and upon previous experience, experimentation, and educated conjecture. While it may or may not have been a sure thing, it also wasn’t completely blind. While there may not have been absolute proof, there were at least some strong indications. And they tested their theories, and either proved them right or wrong.

But today we’re going to talk about saving faith, trust in something we cannot see or touch. Something that cannot be quantified or qualified scientifically, but must be accepted without the burden of proof being satisfied. We’re talking about faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior.

In our Gospel lesson, we hear again that famous story of Jesus walking on the water. But in this history, He’s not alone on the waves. One disciple has chosen to step out of a boat, upon whose planks he has always trusted, and then step into water, raging water, that has never once supported his weight, in fact it’s a scientific impossibility!

So Peter’s faith could not have been based upon experiences. He had never walked on water before. His faith could not have been in his abilities or skills. But Peter’s faith was in the Man who was already strolling through those waves. His faith was in the Word of that Man who said simply "Come".

But perhaps, for Peter, Jesus was deserving of a little faith. After all, Peter had been with Jesus for some time now, and Peter had been witness to all of these impossibilities, these miracles that Jesus had been performing. So maybe Jesus was worthy of some trust. So Peter’s faith, such as it was, was based upon his previous relationship with Jesus.

But now has come the hour for Peter’s faith to be tested. For the Lord continually tests our faith in order to strengthen it. And in Peter’s case, he’s already leaving footprints on the water, he already knows it can be done.

But the waves grow larger, the wind blows more fiercely, and Peter does the unthinkable…he takes his eyes off of the object of his faith, Jesus. And he begins to sink.

Here we are taught what is and always shall be the opposite of faith…fear. Fear is the lack of trust, the absence of faith. Both qualities cannot exist in the same person at the same time perfectly, but one must always dominate the other. When confronting Peter, however, Jesus did not have to name his fear as the enemy, but rather Peter’s lack of faith. For it is faith that suppresses fear, it is faith that overcomes fear.

Faith that saves is based not on experience, but on a promise. The promise of grace, that in Jesus Christ, God has forgiven all of your sins, and is going to bring you to heaven when this earthly life is over…but you have no proof. That God is going to take care of you ever day of your life…but again, you have no proof.

Faith is the hand that receives this grace, it believes the Word of God, and then it acts upon it. All faith is followed by actions that are based on that faith. One naturally follows the other.

We pray, because we believe Someone is listening. We ask, because we believe Someone will answer. We worship, because we believe our God is present to receive our worship. We wash an infant in the water, because we believe that God will rescue that child from sin, death, and hell.

So where does this kind of faith come from? The Apostle tells us in our Epistle today, that "faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ".

Saving faith is not a human accomplishment at all, it is simply a gift of the Holy Spirit. It is He who imparts and implants faith in the heart, through His Holy Word, both written on the page, and written in the Waters of Baptism. This is the gift of faith that enables us to believe in a promise, that is not supported by such proof as the world demands, but like a child, just trusts in the One who has promised it.

But while our faith is not based on experiences, but on God’s Word, He will certainly use our experiences of life to strengthen our faith. For although God wants you to have the trusting faith of a child, He does not intend for our faith to remain childish. He wants it to grow and mature.

Once this gift of faith has been given, it is going to continually be tested. For by such tests we gain the experience of faith, we see God working in mighty ways in our lives, and we learn to trust in Him more and more. If faith is never tested, it can never grow. If faith is never tested, then fear shall always be lying right beneath the surface, ready to emerge just when we need our faith the most.

Because how many of us, brothers and sisters, have a tendency to focus more on the storms and waves in our lives, than on the promises of Almighty God? How often do our hearts fear because of the blowing winds, by which I mean all the trials that come upon us in this veil of sorrows, rather than trust in the Lord, who said He would bring us through every trial? I wonder, would our faith sustain us in the water, or would we sink like a stone?

But this is when we need to do exactly what Peter did…we call on the Lord to save us. For above all, we have a God who is strong to save.

And as we call on Him, He will always answer. By such tests God drives our foolish flesh back to Himself, brings us to our knees in prayer, and by such experiences, we also become more and more trusting in our Lord, not necessarily to deliver us from every storm, but to take our hand, and walk with us through it. For He will never leave nor forsake us. This is His promise. This we believe.

Because for Jesus, this is ground has already been covered. Peter’s cry echoed the cry of all of mankind, who were drowning in their sin. Through His incarnation, suffering and death, Jesus has already walked the path that we do, all the way to the end, where He was crucified to deliver us from sin and death.

And even now He knows and understands our fears and our weaknesses. And He has a plan to deliver us from them. It will be by faith in His grace.

Jesus said to His disciples, in the midst of their fear "Take heart, it is I. Don’t be afraid". And in the midst of the storm, we can believe that these Words are also for us, in each and every situation that life may throw at us.

Because Jesus is the Son of God, faithful in everything that He does, fully deserving of our faith. In faith, we take His hand. And He provides the strength for us to hold on.

Our faith is not blind. It’s actually the only faith that really sees. For with it, we behold our God. He is not a ghost. He is not a delusion. He is here, and He is here for you, strong to save, and forever faithful. Trust in Him. Amen.

"The Silent Parable"

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

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

The miracle recorded in our lesson today, is the only miracle of Jesus that was written into all four Holy Gospels. It’s almost the pinnacle event of Jesus’ miracles, intended to teach His disciples, in light of the fact that He would soon be leaving them. They would be on their own, so to speak, and this miracle was meant to instruct these twelve men, who would soon be establishing Jesus’ Church of grace on earth.

Following the death of John the Baptist, Jesus said almost nothing else to the nation of Israel to try and convince them that He was the Messiah. His teaching now, is primarily directed at His disciples, who would soon carry the banner of the crucified and risen Christ to all nations.

Because it would be a mistake of the highest order to see this miracle as nothing more than a history lesson concerning a picnic of fish sandwiches. In Jesus’ miracle, we see not only the power of our Creator God, or only His unending care to provide daily bread for both the just and the unjust, but also many applications for our life in Christ today. In many ways, it is a "silent parable" teaching us, by Jesus’ actions, a multitude of concepts concerning the kingdom of God.

As the text informs us, following John’s death, Jesus withdrew from the people. He’s obviously under a time crunch, and He is intending to instruct His disciples in what they would need. This is His mission. But it seems He can’t really get away, for the crowds are following Him.

And the people , sometimes traveling great distances, come to Jesus, some blind, some deaf, some so crippled they are being carried by their families, children crying in their mother’s arms, some folks coughing their insides out, some with infected sores covering their bodies, a virtual E.R. of suffering and need.

Not to mention the fact that they are all spiritually wounded to death, like sheep without a shepherd. Dying from their sin. They need Jesus’ mercy, His Word of forgiveness and grace.

But to them, Jesus simply explains that He has a higher purpose, and that He really can’t spare the time right now, but if they’ll just be patient, He’ll get back to them as soon as He possibly can.

No, the text says that our Dear Lord had compassion on them. And the compassion of God is a wondrous and marvelous thing. It finds time, when there is no time. It finds resources, when they do not exist. Compassion reaches out to help, and finds that there is always something in the hand to help with.

And how could we, brothers and sisters, we, who are the disciples of the Christ of Compassion, we, who are so blessed to have never once had to wonder where our next meal was coming from, how could we look into the naked face of suffering, in its variety of masks, and calculate that we have less time and fewer resources than did our Master or His first disciples? How could we deafen our ears to their cries, check our day-planners, and determine that we’ll get to them, when we have more time? Or better resources?

To be possessed with Godly compassion is kind of a miracle in itself, for it is a creation of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of Jesus’ disciples. And it simply cannot look the other way. It always responds to suffering and need. In this way, does the Church of God become a real "mercy-place".

But perhaps "how" is the real question. How? And Jesus teaches us this, in the very next part of His silent parable.

The disciples came to Jesus, and seeing this great crowd of probably over 20,000 people, recognized that there was no way they would be able to find enough food to feed everybody. They were able to see the need, they heard the growling stomachs, but their response? "Send them away". Make them somebody else’s problem. And isn’t that a common solution to human misery?

But Jesus’ reply is even more unbelievable! "They need not go away. You give them something to eat."

Not only did Jesus put the responsibility back on the disciples, He also insured that He would be giving them an impossible task. Where in the world, would they find enough food to feed this multitude? Did Jesus know what He was asking?

Absolutely! Jesus gave the disciples this task, in order that they learn where they were to go for help. Not to the local food banks, or to the villages, but to Jesus, Himself. The same lesson for us. We always take it to the Lord in Prayer.

When the disciples were given the command of Jesus to feed the multitude, the first thing they did was take stock. They looked at their personal inventories. And, as far as the text tells us, their cupboards were bare. They had nothing.

And then they looked into the congregation that had gathered around Jesus, and in that congregation, recorded in John’s Gospel, was one little boy whose mother, perhaps, had packed him a lunch. Not enough even to feed one family, but enough for that boy. Now the question is, "would he share his meal with the Master?"

I would have loved to have been there, to see this stewardship in action. Because I can’t see this boy offering Jesus just a tiny portion of his lunch, but just handing it over, and trusting that he, too, would be taken care of. What a lesson from this silent parable, to the Church of God today!

But even with this gracious offering, the disciples were still unable to see past the obvious, into the miraculous. They were only able to see five small loaves, and a couple of measly fish. But Our Lord saw the feast they would provide, and blessed them, passed them out by means of His disciples, and everyone ate, and everyone was satisfied. So much so, that there were actually twelve baskets of food left over. I wonder what the boy took home that day to his family? Such is the power of our Lord to care for His Children.

But in this miracle we see yet another application for Jesus’ disciples. Because the love of God extends far beyond merely the physical needs of the people. More than healing for their bodies, do they need healing for their souls. More than bread for a meal, do they need the Bread of Life who is Jesus. And in His great Compassion, Jesus would also give those who are suffering from the affliction of sin and death, the meal of salvation.

In His dying, the flesh of our Lord became the Bread. And faith is the eating. But for the delivery, the distribution, Jesus looks again to His Church, His disciples.

But once again, it’s a matter of compassion.

When we came here, when we came to foot of the cross, when we arrived at that baptismal font, broken and bleeding in our sin, weak and heavy laden, unable to help ourselves, Jesus said the same thing to us: "You need not depart". Here you will find forgiveness for your sin, healing for your broken heart, a remedy for your guilt and pain, food and strength for the journey, and a salvation that I won for you on the cross. You don’t have to look any farther than here."

And Jesus said to His disciples, recorded in the Gospel of John: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ³⁵By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

And our love for one another shows best, when we, as Jesus’ disciples, reflect the same compassion, the same mercy, and the same graciousness of Our Lord. For the same things you freely received, are the same things that the world needs. And God instructs us: "You give them something to eat". We say "How, Lord?" . And Jesus says: "Bring them to me."

Because our Lord, in His Church, has already made provision for the meal. He has given His Church His Gospel of the forgiveness of sins, His Baptism into the family of faith, and the Banquet of His crucified body and blood. And He has also blessed us with the means of distribution, if only we will use them.

A compassionate heart, a willing tongue, and a generous hand. All these gifts are ours, brothers and sisters, and as we are now His disciples, we shall faithfully follow the direction of our God, and continue, with godly compassion, to feed the multitudes with the Bread of Life, Jesus, our Lord.

Amen.

"The Wheat and the Weeds"

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

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Last week in discussing the parable of the Sower, God revealed to us the beginning of the Kingdom of heaven; how God plants His Holy Word in the hearts of men and women, to create for Himself a blessed and holy people, His Church, who will worship Him in Spirit and in Truth, and one day, be taken to be with Him to live forever in the Kingdom of Glory. This is our everlasting hope and our deepest desire.

But we also discovered the Wicked One, Satan, opposes the spread of the kingdom of God, by snatching the Word, the Seed, away from hearts who hear. But if that is not successful, if the Word actually takes root in men and women’s hearts, if God’s Church is actually established, and people have begun to listen to the Word, to learn, to pray, to worship, to bear good fruit, well, Satan has other ways of trying to destroy the people of God.

So today’s parable is one of warning, and of the reality that we, as God’s People, can’t just stand pat, waiting for the Day of the Lord, secure in our Gospel. We must actively and continually defend that Gospel against the encroaches of the Evil One.

Satan’s tactics are primarily ones of imitation. He plants false Christians, he encourages false growth, and he introduces false doctrines.

In Jesus’ parable today, He tells us that because Satan cannot merely uproot the planting of God, the true Christians, he will instead plant counterfeit Christians in their midst. Now, don’t start casting glances around the sanctuary at one another, because you couldn’t tell anyway.

In this parable the "Seed" is not the Word of God. It represents those hearts, those people who have been converted by His Word. The true believers, saved by grace alone, through faith alone. There are no other kind. These are those people who have received, and who trust the Word of God, and the sacrifice of Jesus, for their salvation.

The "field" in this parable is not the human heart, but Christ Himself tells us that the field is the entire world, all the people, all lost and condemned sinners. And Jesus Himself is the Sower, who sows true believers, by giving His blessed Word, and His gracious Sacraments, in various parts of the world, that these believers might bear fruit for the kingdom. Such fruit of the Spirit should always be evident in the life of a Christian.

But wherever Jesus sows a true Christian, Satan comes and sows a counterfeit. Jesus calls them the "sons of the evil one". It’s interesting to note that these folks are just folks, usual, everyday people. You can’t spot them by looking for telltale horns and a pointed tail. They aren’t shady characters hanging around in back alleys somewhere. These people, sadly enough, walk among God’s people, sharing many of the blessings of God’s People, and yet, tragically, they remain lost and condemned. And so they become tools for Satan, to do his unholy work.

What makes them counterfeit Christians is that they believe a counterfeit Gospel, and oh, do they preach and teach it so convincingly. Of course they do, for Satan is always disguised as an angel of the light, and his false Gospel literally drips with honey and good vibes. It is designed by the Father of Lies himself, to be so persuasive, and so alluring, to trap you like a fly in the web of a deadly spider, and bleed you dry of the Blood of the Lamb that now saves you.

In the letter to the Galatians God warns these people against accepting as true the latest, spiritual trend, when Paul records:"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!"

And then, to make sure the point has hit the mark, Paul repeats this admonition.

So it is simply not true that all religious roads lead to salvation, but only the salvation that is given through Christ, by Grace alone, through faith alone, the only Gospel of God‘s Holy Word, not distorted, not imprecise, not vague, not fuzzy. The pure and holy Gospel. All other roads will end in hell, no matter how well-landscaped the path. No matter how good it makes you feel, or how pleasant the people who proclaim it.

It shouldn’t even surprise you to know that Satan even has a counterfeit church, which is revealed in the Revelation to St. John, where God says "I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan". And at the end of the age, he will produce a counterfeit Christ, whom many will follow to their everlasting condemnation.

We must also stay awake to make sure that Satan’s ministers do not get into the true fellowship and do damage. Peter’s 2^nd letter warns us: "But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves."

It is when God’s people go to sleep that Satan works.

Now, when one hears this parable, this dire warning from our Lord, perhaps our first impulse is one of "search and destroy". But does it sound, in the parable, like God is worried about such weeds? That they will somehow overcome the true Church of God? No, for He explains that all things will be sorted out in His time.

Now, our task is not to pull up the false, but to plant the true. We are not detectives, but evangelists! We are not on a witch hunt, but on a missionary expedition.

But I need to make this absolutely clear, this parable does not refer to church discipline, for God explains this in the 18^th chapter of this same Gospel. The field of which Jesus speaks now is the whole world, one that produces such counterfeits, not the true Church of God. In the Church we must continually oppose Satan and expose his lies, and never allow them to distort the pure Gospel.

But we must also sow the Word of God and bear fruit in the place where He has planted us. We must stop being willfully ignorant of His Word, that we have not the ability to defend it, because we only have a vague idea of what it is!

What will happen to the weeds? God will gather them together and burn them. It is interesting to see that some of this "bundling" is already going on as various religious groups merge and strive for union. Spiritual unity among true Christians is one thing, but religious uniformity among mere professing Christians is quite another. It’s difficult to tell the false from the true today; but at the end of the age, the angels will separate them.

But not yet. Today, wheat and weeds, believers and unbelievers, live side by side in the world. They interact with each other, grow, work, and live in relation to each other. God doesn’t judge the unbelievers and remove them from this world immediately. Their judgment will come at the end of the age.

So, do you have unbelieving friends who would be taken if God’s judgment came upon them today? Jesus is giving time for sinners to repent. That is why He delays His second coming. Jesus is at work to change those weeds into wheat. And the wheat should be involved, not in the judging, but in the evangelizing.

But the greatest work of Jesus was not in this second coming which we all await. It was in His first. Jesus, the Son of God, the Sower of the Seed, became the seed Himself. He took on human flesh, He was the wheat, born of a virgin. In a manger filled with straw, lay the Seed of the Woman, the God-man of eternity.

Thus was His great love to move from the position of Sower, to that of Seed. But it’s even more than that. To save us from our sin, Jesus moved from the position of Seed, to the position of Weed.

He, who had no sin, was made to be sin for us, He made himself the weed in this world, not to lead us away from righteousness and heaven, but to earn for us righteousness and heaven. To take the sin that had grown up in us all, to take it upon Himself, all the way to the cross. He became the one whom God bound and condemned, who suffered the fires of hell on that cross, that by His sacrifice He could water the wheat with His own blood, and produce a harvest of believers for God Almighty.

By His own sacrifice, Jesus planted the crop of believers. And He continues to look to the harvest. His parable today reminds us to hold fast to His Word alone, to always follow that Word, and not be drawn away by the weeds of this world, by false prophets, false Gospels, false churches, or false Christs, who only desire our eternal death.

Forewarned is forearmed. We arm ourselves with the sword of the Spirit, the blessed and holy and sanctifying Word of Truth, to defend ourselves from all adversaries, to protect the field that God has given us to tend. Let us be faithful to that calling, for the sake of the One who is ever faithful to us. Jesus, our Lord.

Amen.

"The Fruitful Christian"

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

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

The 13^th chapter of Matthew records kind of a crisis day in the ministry of our Lord, Jesus. He knew of the growing opposition of the religious leaders that would soon lead to His crucifixion. And this fact He had to explain to his disciples. But their logical question would be, "What is going to happen, therefore to the kingdom about which we have been preaching?" In other words, this new kingdom of grace, will it leave when Jesus leaves?

So Jesus told, recorded in this chapter, 7 interrelated parables concerning the kingdom of heaven. The word "parable" means "to cast alongside". It is a story, or comparison, put alongside something else to help make the lesson clear.

But these are not ordinary parables. Jesus called them "the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven". In the New Testament, a mystery is a spiritual truth that is understood only by divine revelation. It is a "sacred secret" known only to those "on the inside" who learn from the Lord and obey Him.

In this series of parables, Jesus explained the course of the Gospel in the world. If Israel had received Him as King, the blessings would have flowed out from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. But the nation rejected Him, and God had to institute a new program on earth. During this present age, "the kingdom of heaven" is a mixture of true and false, good and bad, as pictured in these parables. It is "Christendom," professing allegiance to the King, and yet containing much that is contrary to the principles of the King.

Jesus did not teach in parables to confuse or condemn the people. Rather, He sought to excite their interest and arouse their curiosity. These parables would give light to those with trusting, searching hearts. But they would bring darkness to the unconcerned and unrepentant.

The seven parables describe for us the spiritual course of "the kingdom of heaven" in this present age. In them we see three stages of spiritual development. Today’s parable does not tell us what the kingdom of heaven is like, but it concerns itself with the beginning of the kingdom.

It begins with the preaching of the Word, the planting of the seed within the hearts of the people.

The seed is God’s Word; the various soils represent different kinds of hearts; and the varied results show the different responses to the Word of God. Jesus explained this parable, so there is no doubt of its meaning.

Why does the Bible compare God’s Word to seed? Because God’s Word is a living thing, and powerful to produce. The Word itself says in Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is living and active." Unlike the words of men, the Word of God has life in it; and that life can be imparted to those who will believe. The truth of God must take root in the heart, be cultivated, and permitted to bear fruit.

What is shocking to hear in this parable is that three fourths of the seed did not bear fruit. If your crops only yielded a fourth of what you planted, you would probably consider that planting season a great failure.

Jesus did not describe an age of great harvest in this parable, but one in which the Word would be rejected. He was not impressed with the "great multitudes" that followed Him, for He knew that most of the people would not receive His Word within their hearts and bear fruit.

And bearing fruit is the purpose of the Seed. That is its only purpose, for without that, it was all pretty much a waste of time, and effort of futility. So let’s concern ourselves today with what the Seed is supposed to produce in us, that we know we are letting it accomplish its purpose in us, for the glory of God.

What Jesus is explaining to us in the parable today is not only the power of the Word of God, but what happens when it goes into the soil.

The differences that Jesus teaches us today are in the soil itself. The soil is the human heart. Man came from the earth, so it is no surprise that Christ compared the human heart to soil. But if the same powerful Word of God is planted in each, why are there different yields, some producing the fruit of the Spirit, while others produce nothing at all? Does it have something to do with us?

We need to understand, first and foremost, that we do nothing to either plant or grow the seed. That is all God’s domain, and we can do nothing to add to the power of the Word of God. But we can do something to impede it power. Not only does hearing affect living, but our living also affects our hearing.

To begin with, soil has great potential. Our hearts can naturally respond to God’s Word. They are made for each other. This does not mean that the heart is by nature spiritual, for the human heart is born in sin, but it does mean that when the seed and the soil get together there can be germination, and there can be fruit.

So the emphasis of this parable is really on the soils. Jesus explains that there are four different kinds of hearts in this world, and He identifies them according to the way they respond to the seed of God’s Word.

The first is the hard heart. Such soil represent the person who does not understand the Word of God. He hears, but he doesn’t comprehend. The seed lies on the surface of the soil, and never sinks in. Satan sees it, and like a bird, swoops down and snatches it away. It is gone!

Understanding must precede spiritual life. To plant seed means that the Word is understood and responded to. For somebody just to say "okay" to a bunch of religious statements is not the same thing as having a spiritual understanding of the truth.

The fault does not lie with the seed, the problem was with the soil. It was too hard. But can a hard heart be changed? Yes, it can be plowed up, and prepared for the seed. The Old Testament prophet Hosea, through inspiration advised us to "Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord"!

Instead of merely arriving at worship, imagine, instead preparing to meet your God at worship. There is a time of preparation, of prayer, of repentance, of a readiness and eagerness to listen. And following the reception of God‘s great gifts, we take the time to contemplate, to discuss as a family, and to meditate upon what you have received. In this way does the Word sink into your hearts.

The next heart that Jesus describes is the shallow heart. The seed sown upon the rocky ground. Now this seed does spring up, but the first thing the plant meets is the sun. The sun in our parable represents the persecution from the world. But the shallow heart, having no root system, cannot live without water, and so dies quickly.

This represents an emotional hearer, who hears the Word, but does not really receive it so that it is rooted in his heart. His response is purely emotional, shallow, and temporary. Jesus is not saying that this man or woman was saved and then lost his or her salvation. He is saying that this person was never saved to begin with! It was a shallow, emotional experience that was only on the surface.

Sun is good for a plant, but in this case the sun destroyed the plant. Persecution is good for God’s child. It tests a person’s faith, proves the reality of his confession, and helps him grow. But all of this is true only if a person is truly born again, and has spiritual roots. Just as the sun helps the plant to draw up water and nourishment from the soil, so suffering and persecution help the true believer trust the Lord and draw on His great resources. But there must be roots. Sunshine will kill a plant with no roots. This explains why some "believers" do not last: Their faith was weak, their understanding was meager, and their faith was not sincere. It is possible to "believe", to have knowledge of the Name of Jesus, and even an intellectual assent to His Word, and yet not be saved. Unless there is fruit in the life, there is not saving faith in the heart.

The problem with a hard heart was a lack of understanding. The problem with the shallow heart was a lack of depth.

This brings us to the third kind of soil and heart: the crowded heart. It is not enough for a gardener to love flowers and fruits. He must also hate the weeds. The third kind of soil described in our Gospel lesson was not clean. It had in it seeds for noxious plants. The sower could not see these foreign seeds, but, of course, they were there. Weeds grow naturally. No farmer has to plant weeds…they come up whether he wants them or not.

The weeds represent the influences from the world that choke the seed, and keep it from bearing fruit. Jesus identified these weeds as "the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches". In theological terms, the person with this in his heart never really repented and turned from his sins. He received the Word, but the soil was infested with other seeds, and when they germinated, the weeds crowded out the good plants. The thorns in this section of the parable represent that which is sinful.

Our Lord knew that many of the people who were in that crowd by the shore were not receiving His Word into their hearts. Some were thinking about food, clothing, and how to pay their bills. Others were worrying about problems in their lives. These weeds were crowding out the good seed, and keeping it from bearing fruit.

The proof of salvation is not listening to the Word, merely sitting in a church pew somewhere. The proof of salvation is not having a quick emotional response to the Word. The proof of salvation is not even cultivating the Word so that it grows in a life.

The proof of salvation is fruit. As Christ said in the 7^th chapter of Matthew: "Ye shall know them, by their fruits".

The last kind of heart is the fruitful heart. The fact that Jesus called this "good ground" does not mean He was saying that these people basically had good hearts. The heart of man is sinful, and apart from the working of God’s grace, it could never receive God’s Word and produce fruit for God’s glory.

This heart is only good in contrast to the other three hearts. It receives the Word, unlike the shallow heart. It understands the Word, unlike the hard heart. And it holds fast to what it receives, unlike the crowded heart. This heart has all of these characteristics, and they lead to fruitfulness.

Those of us who have experienced salvation need to learn from this parable the importance of cultivating in our own hearts and planting the Word. Unless we spend time planting the Word, which is understanding it, and cultivating the Word, which is meditation and praying through the Word, we cannot be fruitful Christians. We must be certain that our soil is free from weeds, plowed up, and ready to receive God’s Word.

If the Christian neglects the cultivation of his heart, the soil will start to deteriorate. The good soil will become crowded soil. The weeds will sap the strength from the soil, and it will become shallow. Then it will become hard. The entire Epistle to the Hebrews was written to warn Christians not to become hard hearted as they hear the Word of God.

The secret of a fruitful heart is a hearing ear. Jesus said "He who has ears, let him hear."

Nineteen times in this chapter of Matthew do we hear the Word "Hear". As Christians we must take care of our spiritual sense of hearing. We must beware of wanting to hear only new and sensational things, which may turn us away from God’s truth, or not to ever stop our ears that we refuse to listen to God’s voice. We need the attitude of young Samuel, when he said "Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth".

Remember the admonitions today: Take care that you hear, take care what you hear, and take care how you hear. And God Himself will produce the fruit of faith in you.

Amen.

The Third Sunday after Pentecost

"The Yoke of Christ"

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

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

On this day in history, July the 3^rd, 2011, we stand between two memorable days that happened more than two centuries ago. On July 2^nd, 1776, the second Continental Congress voted to approve a resolution of Independence, thus legally separating our country from the crown of Great Britain, and two days later, on the 4^th, they signed the famous Declaration of Independence, declaring the reasons for their decision of division.

And just like that, we, as a nation of individuals, were free. Free to pursue our own ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Free to follow our religions, whatever they may be. Freedom from the tyranny of an alien power. Free to cast off the yoke of slavery to an imperial king.

Of course, it was not that easy. Many men and women had to suffer and fight and die in that revolution, and in many battles and wars since, trying to maintain that freedom. We continue, as a country, to fund and supply a standing military force, to protect that freedom. And many are the tombstones and memorials erected in honor and remembrance of their sacrifices.

Our country still recognizes and commemorates them by fireworks, parades, barbeques and picnics, all in celebration of our continuing freedom.

And so now, brothers and sisters, we are free to live, so to speak, as a nation of slaves. And this is not just our nation, but every nation on earth. For while every nation battles to establish sovereignty over a piece of land, or oil and mineral rights, or personal rights, the world largely forgets that we are actively engaged in a two-front war, the other front being the war for our very souls.

Holy Scripture declares, in Ephesians 6 – "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places^".

And of the two fronts, this war is far more serious, for our enemy does not make any formal declaration of war, or even come at us in open battle, but his weapons are far more subtle, more devious, and more dangerous, than any weapon ever devised by the mind of mankind.

All he does, is quietly place a yoke of slavery around your neck, and declare to heaven, to God and all His angels, "This one is mine".

And so there exist a multitude, who tomorrow will go off to celebrate their supposed freedom, all the while wearing this yoke, this collar, this unbearable weight, and never know it. Some people have worn it so long, that they have developed calluses on their souls, their consciences are seared, and they feel not even the weight of the sin and death that they bear.

And you might ask, from your own fiercely independent spirit, "Oh who could be so foolish as to submit to such a yoke? Who could be so insensitive to its weight?"

And the answer, is the entire human race. From Adam, and His fall into sin, we all inherited this yoke from the flesh of our parents, and by reason of our sin, we can never cast it off, regardless of our efforts or our sacrifices. And in this war, everyone is a casualty, and the collateral damage is monumental. The entire world feels and sees the effect of the curse.

But our heavenly Father was not going to accept the declaration of Satan of his dominion and right to rule over us. For His Creation the Father was willing to go to war. And into the battle, He sent His only begotten Son, the Lion of Judah, to wage a war such as the world has never seen.

And Jesus won it, quietly, without fanfare or fireworks, over two thousand years ago, on a wooden cross at Calvary, as His blood dripped from His hands and feet and side. As He hung between heaven and earth, paying for the sin that had made us all slaves. No soldiers at His side driving back the Roman and Jewish garrisons, no angels battling with demons, Jesus won this battle, this war, single-handedly, with a nail piercing each one. His Declaration of our Independence was written in blood, in letters that can never fade away with time. They will be there when heaven and earth pass away.

And as Jesus left the tomb, stepping over the head of the serpent whose head He crushed, He took the Declaration of our freedom to the whole world. Through His disciples. Through His Church Militant. And through His means of grace that He gives us, He continues to preach it to the world.

As each infant we baptize is lifted from the water, Jesus declares to Satan and all of his demons "This one is mine!" And all of the angels and saints in heaven and on earth rejoice that the yoke of sin and death is finally broken.

But, brothers and sisters, we are still engaged in a battle. Although the war has been won, our forgiveness assured, the crafty serpent, while his head has been crushed, is still thrashing around trying to destroy God’s good Recreation, His Church.

But now he engages us only in guerilla warfare. As I said, subtle and devious. For those who are still outside of God’s Church, he continues to feed those poor souls from his own hand, and they eagerly lap up the crumbs of fleshly sins that he allows them to enjoy. As he pretends to let them satisfy their own lust for sin, they become more and more under his power, more and more his servant, his slaves, until he finally leads them down to death, still wearing his yoke.

But for the redeemed souls of Christ’s Church, he must use other tactics, which are far more insidious than simple lusts, and against these tactics, we must be forewarned and forearmed.

And all Satan wants to do, is replace his yoke, to regain his mastery. And he uses three of them, whichever will work best on you. See if you recognize any of them.

The first yoke, by far the simplest, is the yoke of temptation. To be drawn away from Christ by the things of the flesh or the cares of the world. You would wonder who could be so foolish as to fall for such an obvious, childish tactic, but we cannot deny the power of the flesh and the world to tempt us into sin, sometimes even using our assurance of forgiveness as a defense so we can engage in it without fear of consequences.

Jesus said in the 26^th chapter recorded by Matthew: "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

And in the 10^th chapter of the 1^st letter to the Corinthians, He also provides us the promise: "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."

The second yoke, is the yolk of works-righteousness. In these folk, Satan is trying to develop in them a feeling of "Thanks Lord! I have all I need". They see little use in confessing their sins, which are small, or receiving absolution from God. Little need to receive His Supper, or hear His Word, for after all, I’ve done it all before. What Satan is doing, is trying to increase the weight of Jesus’ yoke upon their shoulders, so that instead of fighting for freedom of religion, they begin to fight for freedom from religion, and the things of God. These folk are so good in themselves, that they hardly see the need for a bleeding Savior.

In the 5^th chapter of the letter to church at Galatia, Holy Scriptures warn us: "For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."

So we cannot ever begin to think that our servanthood to Jesus, has become another form of slavery to religion. For then we fall into the trap.

The last yoke, I believe, is the most devious, and that is the yoke of guilt. This yoke the devil tries to place on the backs of those Christians who are still actively engaged in spiritual warfare, and somehow think they are losing the battle! The devil continually points them to the sin that still exists in their flesh, to their failures to love, their inadequate service, to try and get them to despair of their salvation. This is close brother to the yoke of works-righteousness, to get you to believe that you are only fighting with your own strength, or that your salvation somehow depends on you.

And over and against all of these attacks, to you who have felt the weight of any of these yokes, Jesus makes the most gracious invitation ever known to man: "Come to me. Come to me."

Do you recognize your own weakness and inability to remove any of these yokes? Jesus says "Come to me. Let me fight the battle for you."

Are you heavy-laden with despair and guilt? Jesus says "Come to me. Confess your sins. And receive freely the forgiveness I paid for you, my child."

Are you sick of being a slave to sin, to death, to the world and to Satan? Are you battling your own flesh, in your own strength, and are continually being defeated? Jesus offers to replace that yoke, with one of His own. And this yoke, brothers and sisters, is easy, the burden, light. For our dear Lord has borne all the burden on the cross, and now carries us through each battle we must face against our enemy.

As you learn from Him, in His Word, as He feeds you His body and His blood, His food for the fight, Jesus takes the battle upon Himself, and through His Spirit enables you to stand, whereas in our own strength we would always fall.

And knowing that the battle is the Lord’s, we can finally rest in the freedom of Christ. Our Baptism was our Declaration of Independence, and the Cross is now our only banner. And with our hymns of praise, we, as Christ’s soldiers, will forever continue to let that freedom, our freedom in Jesus Christ, ring!

Amen.

Fifth Sunday of Easter

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

Dear Brother and Sisters in Christ; beloved confirmands; Some people believe that life is a journey, a sometimes long, slightly mundane, not too exciting trip from birth to death, with many things happening to you along the way, some good, some not so good. But everybody gets to go through it, as well as they are able.

But I say to you today, that I choose to believe that life itself is an exciting adventure, a great exploration of discovery, of surprise, of revelation and fireworks. It’s an ongoing quest to pursue the unknown, to seek out the meaning of life itself, of who we are, of why we’re here, and of where we’re headed. "To go where no man has gone before", to quote Star Trek.

And not knowing just exactly what’s going to happen to you, is all part of the wonder, the mystery, and the joy of the adventure. You don’t know how long the adventure is going to last, you don’t know what amazing people you’re going to meet along the way, or what fantastic things you will see, or what awesome things you will do.

For example, can you picture, now, what kind of a house, apartment, condo or spaceship you will eventually be living in? What kind of car or hovercraft will you pilot? Do you have any idea what your future spouse looks like? Or how many kids you’re going to have? How about what kind of career you’re going to pursue? Do you know many or any of these things? As I said, an exciting adventure! You’re going to get to find out all these wonderful things.

But I would really be surprised if you told me that you had never once at least thought about some of these things. Most people do, at one time or another. And I suppose if you intend on having this adventure, that along with thinking about the things you want to happen during your life, the goals that you want to accomplish while on earth, that you might also want to give some thought on how you want this adventure to end. Your final goal. Your final destination.

Your Savior, Jesus, also wants you to give this adventure of life some thought as well. Which is why He spoke those blessed words in our Gospel lesson.

Because, believe it or not, some people get so hung up in the doing of this adventure, they get so wrapped up in the cares and concerns of what’s going on in their lives right now, that they never really look that far into the future, and then they miss the truly exciting part of the adventure. And they also miss the goal entirely.

And so, confirmands, there are three bits of advice I want to give you today, as you embark upon your great adventure.

Number one: Know where you’re going.

Number two: Never lose the map.

And Number three: Choose your traveling companions carefully.

First of all, what is the goal of our adventure? And please don’t say it’s to end up in the ground somewhere on a lonely hill in a cemetery. Or to die with the most toys crammed into your house. Those things are not important.

Our goal is nothing less than heaven itself, where the most exciting part of our adventure will begin and never end. As a matter of fact, this entire adventure of life is only getting us ready, getting us prepared for our next great adventure, which will be better than anything we could ever imagine.

We are in hot pursuit of the Kingdom of God. Right now we are in His Kingdom of grace, His Church on earth, but soon we will be in His Kingdom of Glory, His Church in heaven.

But if we get sidetracked during this adventure, if we allow our eyes to lose sight of our eternal goal, then we will never see the next one. You see, being sidetracked, even a little bit, means being changing directions. Getting off the right path. It means changing the goal.

As people get older, and they start to see things they want in this world, sometimes they change directions, and instead of seeking the Kingdom of God, they seek only the things that are desirable for this life.

And while you are to work hard to make your way in this world, it doesn’t mean that you are to worry over money and possessions, as if that was what was really important. Jesus said "Seek first God’s Kingdom, and His righteousness, and all these things, things we need, and even some things we want, will be gathered to you.

God promises to care for you. In fact, since you’re only traveling through this world, it would be best, as I have learned, to pack as lightly as you can, and not worry about getting everything that can be gotten, and falling in love with stuff that will eventually become rust and dust. Remember what’s really important, your God, Your Savior, His Righteousness, your Family, your Friends, in that order. All worry does, is rob of us of the joy that God wants you to have on your adventure. So while we are to be responsible, and do the things that need to be done, we are never to be worried that God won’t take care of us.

And how do you know this? How can you believe this? Because of the map that God gives us, His Holy Scriptures. You have just begun to taste the wonder and excitement of learning to know who Your God is, and what He has done for you, and what He continues to do for you. Each day you open the Bible Jesus speaks to you, through His Holy Spirit, and gives you what you will need for each day.

And I plead with you today, to hang on to that map, and refer to it often. This is a map to keep your feet on a path that Jesus calls narrow, and that Jesus says only a few blessed ones can find. But as you hold to the Word that you have learned and continue to learn, then the Holy Spirit will never let your steps falter. It is that important.

And the final piece of advice I have for you this day, is to choose your traveling companions carefully. Because this makes all the difference. You have been given parents who love you, brothers and sisters who tolerate you, and a whole church full of members who want you to be in heaven with them. These are your traveling companions. These are the people who will continue to pray for you, lift you up, support and encourage you on your adventure.

But the most important traveling companion you choose, will be the One you choose to be your Good Shepherd, your Master. Jesus said that no one can serve two Masters. You will be devoted either to money, to the world, to yourself, to the devil, or to Jesus.

And from what you have been taught, you know that only Jesus will lead you the right way. Keep you on the right path. He has already chosen you, to save you by His grace, to die for your sins, to give you the Holy Spirit, and to lead you every day of your life. And though the adventure may turn hard at times, He will give you the courage, the strength, and the ability to persevere through everything, until you reach your goal. He will never leave you, He will never forsake you. That is His enduring, unbreakable promise.

I have the highest hopes for you, confirmands. That you continue in what you have started. That you make the decision today as you draw so close to Your Lord as you kneel before His Altar, and make your unbreakable vows, and receive His True Body and True Blood, that this is as far away from Him as you ever want to get. Hold Him tightly in faith, knowing that you are saved by His grace, and His grace and mercy shall always be with you.

This is the Great Adventure, it began at your Baptism, it kicks up a great notch today, and the best is yet to come.

Walk in faith, from this day forward, until we see each other again in eternity, with our One Good Shepherd, our One Savior, our One Great Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.

FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY

8:00 A.M.

"The Fullness of Hope"

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

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ: French writer, Alexandre Dumas, once said that all human wisdom can be summed up in two words…wait, and hope. This is also true when it comes to the essence of the Christian life. We are also called, in Christ, to often wait, but to always hope.

There probably isn’t one of us who has not experienced the feeling of disappointment at one time or another. Some plan of yours did not come to fruition, some expectation did not turn out the way you wanted, some hope you had did not come to pass. It happens to us all. But you have to admit that it’s a bitter feeling, one we don’t ever like to feel.

But I would also trust that few, if any of you, have ever experienced the feeling of absolute hopelessness, the absence of any hope itself, for if you had, you would have lost your reason for living. You would see yourself as having nothing at all to look forward to. This brings about a crushing despair, void of any chance of redemption. I pray that none of you ever experiences this feeling.

But this feeling of hopelessness is pretty much what those two disciples, who are dragging their weary bodies back toward the town of Emmaus, are coming awfully close to experiencing. Each step, heavier than the last, talking to each other, discussing recent events, trying to make some sense of it all. "Disappointment" doesn’t even begin to cover what they are feeling.

But I suppose, in our humanness, we can understand it, concerning the circumstances. These were two of Jesus’ disciples, disciples who had perhaps spent much time listening to the Words of Jesus, following Him from place to place, learning from Him, and most importantly, placing their hope in Him.

And their hope was not empty, it was well-founded, for Jesus has been proving His deity, His Godhood, His authority and His power. They had seen Jesus in action.

But now, their Master was crucified. He was dead. And buried. And gone…they didn’t even know where His body was, perhaps stolen, who knows?

Their hope had been snatched out from under them and now what were they going to do? They had nothing left, in which to place their hope. Or so they thought.

One of the ancient Church Fathers once said "It is more serious to lose hope, then to sin". Because the loss of hope, means the loss of faith. It means that you are trusting more in your immediate circumstances, than in the promises of Almighty God, who cares little for what our eyes tell us. He knows what He said.

The two disciples, rather than become discouraged and hopeless because of what had transpired in Jerusalem, would have done much better to wait a while, and to continue in their hope.

But suddenly their miserable little party of two was joined by one other man, who inquired as to what they had been talking about. And Cleopas, who was wondering what kind of a foreigner this could be, who didn’t know anything about what was the talk of all Jerusalem, explained to this uninformed visitor, everything that had happened in the last few days.

And he confessed that the Christ was a prophet, mighty in word and deed before God and before all the people. So far, his assessment is correct. But the most intriguing thing Cleopas said was "But we had hoped that He was to be the One to redeem Israel". "We had hoped". In other words, "But now, that’s not going to happen!" In other words, he has lost his hope.

Brothers and Sisters, this man’s hope, is also our hope. In fact, apart from Jesus, we know there is no hope. But what we see happening in the Emmaus disciples can also happen in us, and we must learn to defend ourselves against it.

We have been called by the Most High God, we have been Baptized into the Most Holy Name, we have received the promised Holy Spirit. And it would be safe to say that all of us have certain expectations, certain hopes concerning our relationship with our Redeemer. It is in these things that we place our hope.

But what if our hope, our expectation does not come to pass? What if our lives are under the cross, and we experience trials, troubles, persecution and the like? What if we don’t have that pervasive feeling of happiness and joy at all times? What if, God forbid, we are allowed to experience disappointment? Does it therefore follow that we should give up our hope?

Absolutely not. We must never allow ourselves to only look at our earthly circumstances, as if the promise of Jesus does not matter. Because Jesus did not come and suffer and die on a cross for us, in order for us to live a defeated, hopeless life. He came to be our Redemption, that we might have abundant life, life to the fullest, and the fullness of hope in Him. He came to make our circumstances irrelevant, when compared to His great promises. This is our inheritance, and we should be enjoying it now!

But maybe we only allow ourselves to have "some" hope, half a hope you might say. We haven’t let ourselves go "All in" because we fear disappointment. We fear that perhaps Jesus won’t live up to our expectations. So we hold something back in our faith. We don’t let ourselves fully believe and trust. And all that does, friends, is have the effect of hamstringing our hope, which ends up being really no hope at all.

Now, perhaps the Emmaus disciples were expecting a sympathetic ear from Jesus, but what they received was His rebuke. He said to them "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!"

And beginning from Moses and the Prophets, Jesus began to teach His disciples, to catechize them, into the understanding that the whole of Holy Scriptures are all about Him. About His Father and Our Father, about His great plan of salvation for all who will place their hope, all their hope, in Jesus Christ.

And this catechesis, changed Jesus’ disciples, from a condition of hopelessness, to suddenly having this Burning within their hearts. It is the Word of God that the Holy Spirit uses as the instrument of our change, from sinful beings without a hope, to children with hearts full of hope. As those who are weak, to those who are strong. As God speaks to you through His Word, this is what gives you this wonderful and blessed condition of spiritual heart-burn, a heart that burns with the hope in all the promises of Jesus.

And so the key to our hope, is always and ever the unchanging Word of God. Our hope is based on something rock-solid, something that cannot be changed or moved. This Word is able to convert souls, from despairing, to triumphant, even 3,000 at a time! Apart from this Word, we have no real hope, no real faith, but with this Word we are given the promise of salvation and life everlasting, and that is the reason for our hope. It is that promise that we cling to, when all other hope is gone.

But Jesus was not finished with His disciples yet. For He has another gift to give them. Another reason for hope. They convince Jesus to stay with them for the evening meal, and up until this time they still don’t know that He the Christ.

But in the breaking of the bread, in this Holy Communion, the Christ becomes known to them. It is the deepest revelation given by the Holy Spirit, to see, by faith, the presence of God in this Supper. And beloved, it is no different for us.

What always follows the catechesis, is the meal. And in this meal we also recognize the true Body and Blood of our Lord, we see His face, forgiving us, blessing us, assuring us, comforting us, sustaining us. And it is the teaching of the Risen Christ, that readies us for the meal of the Risen Christ. As Jesus was present with His disciples, so He is present to us in this meal.

And we receive it with joy, and with renewed hope and encouragement, trusting in all that He has said. We joyfully lift up the cup of salvation, and we call on the Name of the Lord. And we trust that He will always answer.

Following the meal, the Emmaus disciples ran all the way back to Jerusalem, their former disappointment gone, their joy putting wings on their feet, they were so anxious to share this Good News. As we receive the same Christ in the same meal, and in His blessed Word, let your hope be restored, and strengthened. Let your heart be encouraged

And beloved, remember there is no such thing as a hopeless situation, or a hopeless person. For we believe in a sovereign Savior of all hope. And who is always faithful.

So when the trials come upon you, and they will, trust in Jesus Christ, who knows your need. Cling to, and study His Word. Receive His meal. And then, wait a while, and pray to your God who loves you. And always cling to your hope in His promise, a promise that, to God, is already a reality.

Let us trust like that. Amen.

March 16, 2011

"Seventy Times Seven"

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

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Consider one of the last times somebody, maybe one of your kids or your parents or some other family member, they wronged you in some way—and then later they came to you to say, sincerely, that they were sorry. Do you remember how you responded? Now, if you were in a pleasant, tolerant mood did you say something like "Ah, it’s no big deal. Don’t worry about it. You probably didn’t mean to do it."

But what if what they did to you was still stuck in your craw, if you were still angry about it when they said they were sorry? Did you respond with some different words perhaps like: "Well, you should be sorry. Don’t ever do it again." Or, have you ever said to someone, "I’ll forgive you but I don’t want to have anything to do with you ever again."?

This evening, brothers and sisters, I want you to consider just how you forgive, or fail to forgive others, those in your family, those who are friends, those with whom you work.

How often are we tempted at such times to respond with either generic words like "It’s OK" "Don’t worry about it", or else with angry responses? And I want you to ask yourself, "Is this how we want God to respond to us?

In our Gospel lesson, Peter is just starting to realize who Jesus was and why He had come. Just a little while earlier Peter had confessed that Jesus was

"the Christ, the Son of the Living God," but was then rebuked when he tried to convince Jesus not to be a suffering Messiah.

Now Peter realizes that Jesus is all about bringing forgiveness. Peter might even have known that other Jewish rabbis of Jesus’ day were telling their followers that they should forgive people at least three times. So when Peter is speaking to Jesus about the number of times he must forgive another person, he may have thought he was being exorbitant by suggesting seven times for forgiveness.

But Jesus tells him not seven times—you could keep track of that. No, seventy times seven. Or in spiritual math, you forgive and then just keep on forgiving.

Now, this doesn’t mean that we should put ourselves in positions to be repeatedly brutalized by others. If a spouse or parent is abusive, we can and should remove the injured one from the abuse until safety can be assured. Living the Christian life does not mean that we purposely seek to be martyrs for the cause. But it does mean that when we’re sinned against, we seek to forgive and forgive and forgive again—just as our Lord did for us when He gave his life on the cross.

You and I, we can probably imagine how Peter must have felt, so absolutely guilty when he denied his Lord three times outside in the high priest’s courtyard. But how relieved and comforted must he have felt when he later remembered that Jesus said He would forgive without counting—70x7!

And Jesus doesn’t just stop by saying 70x7. He doesn’t just set some arbitrary number as a guide for Christians. What He does, is He emphasizes the importance of forgiveness with a parable—one that I think is perhaps his most important—the parable of the unforgiving servant.

You’ve all heard it, but did you ever notice in the parable that the first servant never actually asks for forgiveness? He owed an exorbitant sum—10,000 talents. Jesus is probably giving an amount that can be compared to our National Debt, more money than any single individual has ever had or owed in the history of the world.

But yet this servant doesn’t ask to be pardoned; he doesn’t ask to have the debt reduced; he doesn’t ask to have it forgiven. No, he says "Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything."

This is unbelievable! He couldn’t pay it back; it wasn’t possible, he couldn’t raise this kind of cash, or sell everything he had and beg, borrow and steal and somehow end up with the payment.

No, he had to be forgiven the debt; he had to be released from it entirely. But he still doesn’t get it. And although this forgiveness was offered freely, this servant did not receive the forgiveness, he did not understand the mercy of his master.

He just couldn’t believe that his debt had been cancelled, because it wasn’t anything he could ever imagine doing himself. And so he was still looking for ways to pay him back. And he goes out hunting, and finds this poor sucker that owed him 100 denarii—several thousand dollars—and thought that this was going to start the process or repayment. His debt was not forgiven, because he could believe it could be forgiven!

And my question to you this evening, brothers and sisters, is this: Have you fully received the pardon, the release from the debt of your sins, that Jesus has given you?

You know, one of the ironies of the Christian faith is that so many people just don’t get it. So many people think that we Christians are just here in church telling each other of all the good things we’ve done, patting ourselves on the back, and talking about how we’ve pleased God with our faithfulness.

But that’s not what the Christian faith is about— it’s all about forgiveness. That’s why we come here together, regularly, faithfully—not to please God with our worship—but to respond to God for his love and forgiveness in Jesus Christ.

It should always awe us, amaze us, when we realize that the Son of God came to earth in human flesh and died on a cross as a sacrifice for our sins and rose again from the dead to show that he had conquered sin and the devil and death itself.

When we realize that we are the servant who owes the master trillions in debt and that He has forgiven us without our even first asking for it…well, that should amaze us day after day, week after week. When we realize the volume of vertical forgiveness we’ve received from our Lord, through our Lord, then you and I, we’re able to forgive horizontally as well, to our family and friends. And, brothers and sisters, even our enemies.

But we also understand that forgiveness often goes through stages of faith development, of new realizations of the immensity of our faith.

When many new believers and young Christians start to trust in Jesus for their eternal salvation, they get so excited, so refreshed at the forgiveness and promises they have received, and they should be.

But then many go through a stage in which they are striving to be worthy of that forgiveness, to live such holy lives that when they fall again into some sinful habit—be it lying or gossiping or disobeying parents or adultery or misusing substances—they can’t believe they did it again, and begin to wonder if they ever were truly a Christian. Then they go through the process of repentance again, and then sometimes are able to, once again, remove the outward sinfulness from their lives.

But then for many maturing Christians there comes a realization that they have even more sins lying under the surface, that only they can see—lusts and greed, anger and hostility—that few others, if any, know of.

It is then that they can, strengthened in God’s Word and sacraments, the ways God’s love and mercy come to us, realize the full extent of their sinfulness, the trillions of sins that we’re burdened with, they become aware of the true depth of their sin, and that it can never be atoned for, by anything we do. It can only be forgiven by the grace of God. And in receiving such forgiveness, they are then truly willing to forgive others.

We think it so hard to forgive, don’t we? In our Old Testament lesson Joseph’s brothers fear that he had not truly forgiven them. They had sold him into slavery as a young man, given him up for dead. They had every reason to fear Joseph’s vengeance. But the LORD worked all things together for good, and after years of hardship, Joseph became the second most powerful man in the land, in all the world.

He had already forgiven his brothers once, years before, but now that their father had died they feared that Joseph’s forgiveness might have been dependent upon pleasing his father.

But it wasn’t. It was sincere, from the heart. Joseph may have still had occasional feelings against his brothers, may have still felt grieved that they had ever done such a thing to him. But his forgiveness was sincere, based not on his own feelings, but on the grace and life he had been granted by his LORD.

Brothers and Sisters, what are you still harboring in your heart, not able to forgive someone else for? Is it against a relative who insulted you at some family event? Is it a friend who manipulated you, or cheated you, or injured you in some way? Is it a member of this church, your family of faith? I ask you, is there sin against you larger than 100 denarii? 1000 denarii?

And how many times have you had to forgive them already? 7, 27, 57 times?

In the first commandment the LORD teaches us not to have idols, false gods that control our lives. The failure to forgive another person, in a distorted fashion, turns that person into an idol, someone so important that they can exercise a negative kind of lordship over our emotions, our consciousness, our decision-making.

The failure to forgive permits the person who has offended us to be more important in establishing who we are, our identity, than is God himself. The Law points out how foolish such idolatry is.

When we refuse to forgive, we count those people as so important that we let them command the attention of our thoughts and feelings. When we refuse to forgive, we show that we have not yet fully understood the sheer staggering amount of forgiveness that we have received.

Just as a person who was inside a building can later see that it rained outside because the sidewalk is still wet and water is running in the street, the world should be able to see that Christ and Christianity are about forgiveness because His followers, you and I, are so willing to forgive others.

When the books of a certain Scottish doctor were examined after his death, it was found that a number of accounts were crossed through with a note: "Forgiven—too poor to pay."

But the physician's wife later decided that these accounts must be paid in full and she proceeded to sue for money. When the case came to court the judge asked but one question. "Is this your husband's handwriting?" When she replied that it was, he responded: "There is no court in the land that can obtain a debt once the word forgiven has been written."

And that is the good news that the Gospel offers us this morning. God’s attitude is "Forgiven—too poor to pay."

Once our huge debt has been cancelled there is no one who can collect on it. God wipes it out of his mind. Let us in faith respond to his great gift of forgiveness. Let us forgive ourselves like that. Let us forgive others like that. Amen.

"Glorify Thy Name!"

April 3, 2011

"Improving Your Spiritual Eyesight"