The Righteousness and Life of the Father's Son

The authority of Jesus and that of St. John the Baptist go together.  So, if the chief priests and elders had answered Jesus’ question, they would already have answered their own.  For St. John was called and sent by God to preach and to baptize, to go before the face of the Lord Jesus, and to prepare the way for Him.  Thus, according to God’s good pleasure, in keeping with the Will of His God and Father, Jesus submitted Himself to St. John’s preaching and Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins — and thereby entered upon His Ministry as the Christ.

In submitting Himself to St. John’s Baptism, Jesus repented.  For what?  For the sins of the world.  For your sins.  He had no sins of His own, but He submitted Himself to St. John’s Baptism that He should bear all the sins from Adam to the end of the world in His own Body to the Cross, in order to make Atonement for all of those sins by the shedding of His own holy and precious Blood; and so that, in His Resurrection from the dead, you and all the world should be justified and saved.

As a priestly son from a priestly house, by his preaching and ministry in the Name of the Lord, and by his Baptism of the Lord Jesus, St. John prepared the Lamb of God for sacrifice.  And in this way Christ Jesus, the Son of God, was sent by His Father from heaven to His crucifixion, death, and burial.  As the Word of God by whom all things are made, He has authority over all of Creation.  But by His Baptism — and by the completion of His Baptism in His Cross and Resurrection — He fulfills all Righteousness for you and for the many, and thereby obtains and receives all authority in heaven and on earth to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins to all the nations, even to the close of the age: To send others in His Name to forgive sins and to save sinners by His Gospel.

It is by that authority that Christ Jesus has called you from sin and death to forgiveness and life.  It is by the authority of His Cross and Resurrection that He calls you to follow Him; to take up His Cross and follow in His footsteps; to live by faith in Him; and to live unto righteousness in Him.

Your own Baptism in the Name of the Lord Jesus has united you with Him in His Cross and in His Resurrection.  By your Baptism into Christ Jesus, you have been anointed with His Life-giving Holy Spirit, so that you are a Christian.  And by your Baptism you have received the adoption of sons, so that you are a son of God in Christ Jesus.  God is your Father, and you are His dear child.

So, the question that Jesus puts to you this morning is, What sort of son are you?  Are you one who means well and says all the right things — “Yes, sir! I’ll do that!” — but then you go your own way and do your own thing?  Do you follow through and do what you have said and promised, or do you just let it go and leave others to pick up your slack and manage your responsibilities?

Are you a child who would really rather do many other things, and yet, in faith you submit to your Father in heaven and bend your will to do His Will?  Do you sacrifice your own desires in order to do what is right and good?  Do you discipline yourself to live according to your Father’s Word?

In Holy Baptism, and by the ongoing catechesis of Christ Jesus, the Lord has called you to follow after Him in faith and love, to live and die according to the Word and Wisdom of God.  For to be and to live as His disciple is to obey all that He has commanded you.  As surely as you are called to believe and trust His promises, so are you also given to keep and obey His commandments.

Do you believe that Christ Jesus is your only Savior from sin and death, and that you have no other hope and no true or lasting life apart from Him?  Do you confess His Cross and Resurrection and acknowledge His authority?  Then submit to Him in faith and obedience.  Trust that whatever He says, whatever He gives you to do, it is true and right and good for you and for your neighbors.

Be not a hearer only but a doer of the Word of Christ.  That is to serve, to suffer, and to sacrifice for His Name’s sake, forsaking every sort of selfishness in exchange for holy faith and holy love, in the confidence that you are a beloved and well-pleasing child of God in Christ Jesus.

Good intentions don’t ever really cut it.  And lip service only, without any follow-through, does no good, either.  Nor will your past performance justify or save you.  The righteous man who turns away from his righteousness to engage in wickedness will die in his sins.  What is called for is not simply “trying hard,” nor “hard work” for its own sake, but a life that is lived in faith and love.

So, what will that life look like — really, concretely, and tangibly?  What will it look like for you to have the same mind as Christ Jesus, who did not cling to His equality with God but made Himself nothing and humbled Himself unto death?  What will it look like for you to have that attitude?  What will it look like for you to have the heart of Christ and the Spirit of Christ Jesus?

As we heard from Jesus last week, as well, the Lord has called you to live and to work within His Vineyard.  Not that you must earn your place or merit His favor by your labors, but because you are a son of God in Christ Jesus.  You are a member of His household and family.  You live and work in the place where He has stationed you, because He has granted you to share in His Life and His Love by His grace, by His Word and Holy Spirit, to the praise and glory of His Holy Name.

Consider what that will look like, and what that will mean, within your own home and family on earth, whether you are a husband and father, a wife and mother, a son or daughter, a brother or sister, an orphan, a widow, childless, or never married.  How shall you live as a child of God in relation to those people He has placed alongside of you and closest to you in this body and life?

What if your response to sin was charity and forgiveness and mercy and compassion?  What if you were always patient and forbearing with your family, friends, and neighbors?  What if you did not respond to anger with more anger, to yelling with more yelling, to hurt with more hurting?  What if you did not return tit for tat, but you were always eager to be reconciled, to repent of your own sins, and to abide in peace?  What would it look like for you to live as Christ Jesus lives for you?

Along the same lines, what about your life within His Church on earth?  What will it mean for your life within this congregation for you to have the heart, mind, and Spirit of your Lord Jesus Christ?

What will you begin to do that you have not been doing?  What will you give and sacrifice that you have not been willing to let go?  How will you exercise forgiveness and love for your neighbors?

If you continue to do wrong and practice wickedness, will you not die in your sins?  Is that not just and right?  Not because the Lord is evil, harsh, or unkind, but because you have thereby rejected His love and mercy and forgiveness, and you have refused to live by faith in His Word.  But if you repent of your sins and practice righteousness, will you not live, just as the Lord has spoken?

As we rightly believe, teach, and confess, the Lord shall come to be our Judge.  With all authority in heaven and on earth, He shall come in power and great glory to judge the living and the dead.  And He will judge you according to your conduct.  He knows your heart, mind, and spirit inside and out.  He knows what you have done wrong and the good that you have failed to do.  He knows that you have had other gods before Him in your thoughts, words, and actions, and that you have not loved your neighbor as yourself, but you have lived as though you were a god unto yourself.

Yet, you actually belong to the Lord.  You are not your own.  You are His creature, and you have been bought with a price, the precious Blood of Christ Jesus.  Your life belongs to Him.  Your body and soul and all that you are and have, all of it is His by right.  You possess it only as a gift.

You are accountable to Him, therefore, whether you acknowledge Him or not.  You are answerable to Him.  And the wages of your sin is death.  “The soul that sins shall die.”  Thus says the Lord.

But the same Lord God also says, “I do not desire the death of anyone who dies.”  Sin and death were not His idea, they are not His fault, and they are not His desire.  He does not desire that you should die, either, but that you should live with Him by His grace alone through faith in His Word.

Repent, therefore, and live.  Turn away from your pursuit of sin and death, and do what is good and right, so that your sin will not be a stumbling block to turn you away from Christ, to crumble and destroy your faith, or to cause harm to your neighbor in his body and life, faith and salvation.

Live as a new man or woman, as a child of God in Christ Jesus.  Learn from Him to live by faith in the Word and promises of God, to bear His Cross in the certain hope of His Resurrection, and to exercise the heart, mind, and Spirit of Christ, which He has given to you in Holy Baptism.

The righteous shall live by faith in the Word of Christ.  The righteous shall live by his faith, and do righteously, and practice justice.  So, the righteous man loves, and the righteous man forgives, as the Lord Jesus Christ does, even at the cost of his body and life; for that is how Christ Jesus uses His authority as the Author of salvation — by and from His own Cross and Resurrection.

It is with that authority that He loves you and forgives you.  And it is by that authority that He has called you to be His disciple, to follow Him through death into Life everlasting.  For He is the Son, the one Son, who has perfectly obeyed His Father’s Will, not for His own benefit, but for yours.  He has gone to work in the Vineyard, to give and spend His Life for the life of the Vineyard.

He is the Son who has not only said “Yes” to His Father, but who has done all that He was given to do in faith and love.  It was not easy, fun, or painless for Him — it was not what His human flesh desired — but He submitted His will as true Man to the Will of His God and Father; He took up the Cup of suffering and death for the sins of the world, though none of those sins were His.

Though He Himself is the one true God, yet, for all of us poor sinners, in order to save us from our own sins, from death and damnation, He humbled Himself, He took on the form of a Servant and all the curse and consequences of sin, and He was obedient unto death, even death on the Cross.

All of this He has done for you, out of His great love for you.  Though you have been disobedient, unfaithful, and lazy, He has done this for you.  Though you are sinful and unclean, He has done this for you.  Though you are covetous and greedy, He has done this for you.  All by His grace.

His faithfulness and obedience have established the way of righteousness for you, which is not by your own works, but by faith in Him, in His Word and His works.  For His Cross and His holy and precious Blood have atoned for all your sins and failings, for all of your faults and weaknesses.

There is nothing that is not forgiven by the death of Jesus Christ, our Lord.  And His Resurrection from the dead has opened the Kingdom of His God and Father to you and to all who believe and are baptized into Him — by way of repentance and faith in His mercy and forgiveness.

He calls you to repentance, not to condemn you, but to save you.  He calls you to repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  He calls you from your sin and death to Life with God in Himself.

As the Son of God who was baptized by St. John in order to fulfill all righteousness — who was crucified for your transgressions and raised for your justification — He has used His authority to call you to repentance and discipleship, to catechize you with His Word unto faith and life in Him, to baptize you with His Name, and to give to you His Spirit, His Sonship, and His own place in the household and family of His God and Father.  So it is that His Righteousness is credited to you.

And already here and now — where His messenger is sent before His face, where His Word is preached, and where His gifts are freely given — here is your Life and your Salvation in the Body of Christ Jesus.  Here you do not die but live.  Here you are saved by the Liturgy of His Gospel.

Here He uses His authority to love you, to serve you, and to clothe you with His Righteousness.  And, as He does not condemn you but forgives you all your sins for His own sake, there is no one else in heaven or on earth who shall be able to condemn you.  Every other mouth has been shut.  It is Christ alone who speaks concerning you before God, and you are forgiven by His Word.

So, then, enter His gates with thanksgiving and come into His courts with praise.  Recline here at His Table with Him — eat and drink from His gracious open hand — and live by His good gifts.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My 20/20/20 Favorite Musical Acts & Artists of All Time (at this time)

Over the past couple years, I've been focusing less on discovering new artists and spending more time savoring the music of those I already know and love. In doing so, I've been taking special note of those musical acts and artists to which I return again and again, and thus narrowing my short list of favorites. I realize that my "short list" might still seem rather long to other listeners, but these are my circle of friends, really; these are my "go-to" companions with whom I get to commiserate, hang out, and have fun, whenever I'm not working, spending time with my family, or sleeping (and often when I am).

In identifying my favorites of all time at this time, I basically ruled out artists with less then ten years and three albums under their belt, even though there are some up-and-coming artists who will likely be among my "all-time" favorites within another five or ten years, if they keep going.

I've listed my favorites here, more or less in the order they presently stand in my appreciation and enjoyment of their music (their overall output), but that ordering is not hard-and-fast, as it changes over time and often depends on my mood and present circumstances, etc. Therefore, rather than numbering this list from 1 to 60, I've divided these artists into three groups of 20, and within each group of 20 I've further grouped them in blocks of ten.

I love to share the things I love with the people I love, my family and friends. And I welcome, in turn, both feedback on my favorites and similar indications of the interests of others. So, have it!

My Top Twenty

• Shinedown
• Joe Bonamassa / Black Country Communion
• Alter Bridge / Tremonti / Myles Kennedy
• Ozzy Osbourne
• Theocracy
• Bon Jovi
• Cody Jinks
• Lori McKenna
• Black Stone Cherry
• Megadeth

• Train
• Tim McGraw
• Volbeat
• Ten (Gary Hughes)
• Led Zeppelin
• Eric Church
• Judas Priest
• Black Sabbath
• Jason Isbell
• Will Hoge

Another Twenty

• Daughtry
• Joe Satriani / (Chickenfoot)
• Matchbox Twenty / Rob Thomas
• Mat Kearney
• Taylor Swift
• Kenny Chesney
• Scorpions
• Van Halen / (Sammy Hagar)
• The Beatles
• Billy Joel

• Black Veil Brides / Andy Black
• U2
• Linkin Park
• Elton John
• Johnny Cash
• 3 Doors Down
• Zac Brown Band
• Slash / Guns ‘n’ Roses
• Black Star Riders / Damon Johnson
• Brian Fallon / Gaslight Anthem

And Twenty More

• Queen
• The Eagles
• Dream Theater
• Iron Maiden
• Saxon
• Simon & Garfunkel / (Paul Simon)
• Switchfoot
• Amaranthe
• Sabaton
• AC/DC

• Brad Paisley
• Uncle Kracker
• Miranda Lambert / Pistol Annies
• Kid Rock
• Jorn
• Dawes
• Def Leppard
• Fleetwood Mac
• Rival Sons
• Metallica

Living by Grace and Working in Love within the Lord’s Vineyard

By what sort of reckoning do you suppose that God owes you a salary?  If you’re going to take that approach and determine what you deserve from the Lord your God, the truth is that the only wage you have earned is death, on account of your sins — your native unbelief — your worship of false gods — your works of self-righteousness — your laziness, selfishness, and greed.

But, thankfully, the Lord is kind and good, He is gracious and merciful, and He does not pay you the wage that you deserve.  He does not subject you to punishment.  He does not throw you to the jailers and hand you over to the torturers.  He does not extract from you the debt you owe to Him.  Instead, according to His grace, in His tender mercy, divine compassion, and steadfast love, He grants to you the forgiveness of all your sins and Life and Salvation with Him in His Kingdom.

He reckons you righteous by His kind generosity, for Jesus’ sake.  And He does all of this before you have done any good works at all!  Indeed, all truly good works flow out of faith in His Gospel, which must then precede and sustain the righteousness by which you live and work before Him. Apart from faith it is impossible to please Him, but there is no faith apart from the Gospel.

If you labor all day long, and if by your work God serves your neighbor, the credit belongs entirely to Him, the Lord your God, and you are still an unworthy servant at best.  There is no day on which you ever do more than what is your duty.  And as often and as long as your heart grumbles against the Landowner and turns away from Him in dissatisfaction, you have earned nothing but death.

The Lord your God does not “owe” you anything.  He does not need anything from you.  He does not need your help.  Everything you have, all that you are, and whatever you are able to do, it is all His gracious gift to you.  It all depends on Him.  So, He does not owe you anything; and yet, He gives you everything — entirely by His grace, that is, by His divine charity.  It is for the sake of His divine and holy Love — that of the Father for His Son in the Holy Spirit — that He does for you and freely gives to you all good things.  In such Love He reveals and gives Himself to you.

And here, in turn, is the fruitful life to which He calls you in peace.  It is a generous sharing of His own Life and His own Love, for He calls you to be His very own, to be like Him.  He calls you, and He sends you, and He gives you work to do within His Vineyard, which is His Kingdom.  Why should you stand idle?  The Lord gives you life, that you might live in faith and love before Him.

He calls you to work within His Vineyard, not because He needs your help, but, again, because He loves you.  For in this way also, you share His Life and His Love.  It belongs to your discipleship, in which you follow after Christ Jesus and learn from Him.  Thus are you transformed by His Word and conformed to His Image and Likeness as the Son of God.  The work that you do at His Word is a bearing of His Cross, that you might die to yourself and live unto righteousness in Him.

He calls you to work within His Kingdom in your own place, within your own office and station.  That is where and how you offer to Him the sacrifice of thanksgiving.  You call upon His Name in holy faith, relying on Him for everything you need. And you return to Him the only thing you have to give, which is thanksgiving for all that He has done and said and given to you in Love.

It is in thanksgiving to the Lord that you pursue your labors in faith and love.  You go to work in the Vineyard in the confidence of Christ Jesus, knowing that you are His and He is yours.  His God and Father is your God and Father.  His Holy Spirit rests upon you and sustains you in all your callings and stations.  And as you are loved by God, so do you love your neighbors in the peace of Christ.  You deal with your fellow servants, not according to what (you think) they deserve, but according to the grace and mercy of the Lord your God, who deals with you by His Holy Gospel.

You live in the Lord’s Vineyard.  That is the first and foremost thing to be considered.  Before you have ever begun to work in His Vineyard, you first of all live in His Vineyard as a branch of the true Vine, Jesus Christ.  It is by His grace alone, through faith in His Gospel, His forgiveness of your sins, that you live with Him in His Kingdom and abide with Him in righteousness forever.

As you belong to His Vineyard, the Lord loves and serves and cares for you by the Ministry of the Gospel, by the labor and service of those whom He calls, ordains, and sends to you in His Name.  That is the Liturgy of His Gospel, the Ministry or Service of God in Christ Jesus.  That is how He first of all cultivates and cares for you, before you are called and sent to serve and care for others.  And, truly, there is no good thing that He withholds from you or fails to do for His Vineyard.

Whatever is needed, whatever His Church requires, the Lord provides.  He does it through men like Peter, James, and John, Matthew and Luke, Barnabas and Paul.  He does it through your own pastors to this present day, and so shall He provide to the close of the age.  For He has never failed to call and send such servants to His Church on earth.  Though they are men of flesh and blood, like yourself, sinners in need of forgiveness who live solely by the grace of God in Christ Jesus, they speak and they serve in His Name, caring for the Vineyard of the Lord with His own Word.

As for them, so also for you, it would be far better to depart from this vale of tears to the nearer presence of Christ Jesus.  Yet, for now, according to the wisdom of God, it is more fruitful that you remain in the flesh and live by faith under the Cross, that you might love and serve your neighbors in the world as agents of the Lord, as instruments of His grace, mercy, and peace in Christ Jesus.

Thus, you also are called and sent, according to your own vocation and station in life.  “Go,” the Lord Jesus says.  “No longer stand idle, but go.  Do this or that in My Vineyard.  Serve where you are able.  Do what I have given you to do.”

Do not worry about the time of day or your season in life, whether it is “early” or “late.”  Do not compare and contrast what you are given — and what you are given to do — with your neighbor’s lot in life.  Do not compete or contest.  But as your Lord says, “Go,” simply do as He says.

If you are a little child in the home, you are given a high and holy calling already in the Fourth Commandment.  When you honor your father and mother, when you love and cherish them and serve and obey them, you please the Lord your God by such behavior, because that is what He has given you to do.  It is not about earning your righteousness and salvation, which are already yours by grace through faith in Christ Jesus.  It is only to serve in the place where God has stationed you.

For each of you, whatever your job may be, whatever your place in life, whatever the time or the season, wherever the Lord has stationed you, do what He has assigned to you.  Take care of your portion of the Vineyard, be it big or small.  Be a servant of Christ to your neighbor.  Do your job.

Work not as a man pleaser, but in the fear, love, and trust of God.  Not as though to gain heaven for yourself, as if you even could.  Do not work for any wages from the Lord, but in thanksgiving for what He has already done and given to you by His grace.  Live and work by faith in His Word, in the confidence that your labors in the Lord are not in vain; for He is the true Vine, and He bears good fruits in you after His own kind — to the glory of God and for the good of your neighbors.

If you are tempted to compare and contrast the burdens and labors of your calling with those of the Lord’s other servants, consider the holy Prophets and Apostles who in most cases were martyred for their faith, who were tortured for their faithful speaking, who were hated by all men, regarded as refuse and rubbish and worse.  Consider the crosses they bore and suffered — in some cases real crosses with real nails.  Consider how they glorified their Lord in their bodies, in life and death.  And rejoice if you are also counted worthy to share in that glory of His holy Cross and Passion.

Bear and carry His Cross within your callings and stations, in relation to your neighbors, in the confidence of the Lord’s Word and promise to you.  He will give you what is good and right, not according to any merit or worthiness in you, but according to His own righteousness and mercy.

You’re not on your own.  You are sustained in holy faith and love — you are sustained in the work to which the Lord has called you — by what the Lord has done for you, first of all — and so also by what He continues to do for you, and say to you, and give to you — all if it by His grace alone.

The truth of the matter is that Christ Jesus, the Lord, the incarnate Son of God, conceived and born of St. Mary, He has borne the whole burden and the full heat of the day on your behalf.  There is not an hour of the day that He has not been working to serve and sustain the entire Vineyard.  On the one hand, He has suffered all the wages of your sin by His own death.  He has been paid in full for all the wrong that you have done, and for all the good that you have failed to do.  On the other hand, He has also borne the fruits of faith and love by His Cross and in His Resurrection.  He has brought forth a plenteous crop of grapes, a rich harvest, by His own hard labor and bloody sweat.

He has done right by His Vineyard throughout the long day and the harsh hours of His Passion.  And even now, as He has risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity, He continues to care for His Vineyard.  He has not left it to fend for itself.  He is not an absentee landlord.

You have heard how He calls and sends workers to cultivate and care for His Vineyard.  So does He call and send pastors to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in His Name — to call you from your sin and death to His Life and Salvation, not by your works, but by faith in His Gospel.

He cares for His entire Vineyard at all times and in all places.  And so does He also care for you, in both body and soul, for this life and for the Life everlasting.  Because He is merciful, generous, and good, He does not neglect even the small things in your body and life here on earth, but He daily and richly provides you with food and clothing, shelter and protection, and all that you need.

So, too, your life in the body — right here, right now — has meaning and purpose, significance, and value in Christ Jesus.  First of all because of the price that He has paid for you.  Not a denarius of gold or silver, but His own holy and precious Blood, His innocent suffering and death — that is what He has given and paid for you — so that is what you and your body and life are worth.

What is more, your life in the body has meaning and purpose and value and significance because of the good work and fruitful labor that Christ Jesus now performs and accomplishes in you, and through you, for the blessing and benefit of your neighbors in the world, and for the support of His Church and Ministry of the Gospel here on earth, to the praise and glory of His Holy Name.

Go about your work, therefore, wherever and whatever it might be — be it big or small, much or little, for many years, or only for a brief season — in the joyous confidence and certain hope of Christ Jesus and His Cross and Resurrection.  It does not really matter at all where you stand in comparison with anybody else.  Everything depends upon the Word of God in Christ, upon His grace and tender mercies, none of which shall fail.  The One who calls you is faithful and just.

Your Savior, Christ Jesus, has pledged Himself to you.  Before He has sent you to work, He has already pledged Himself to you, along with all of His good gifts and benefits.  And He has made you equal — not only to the holy Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs, who labored long and hard ahead of you — but He has made you equal to Himself, the beloved and well-pleasing Son of God.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the almighty and eternal Son of the living God, has named you with His Name, anointed you with His Holy Spirit, and made of you a child of His own God and Father, so that you are an heir of the Kingdom of Heaven.

See here, at His Altar, how He presses into your hand the true Coin of His realm, a Denarius for the eternal Eighth Day.  By and with the Gospel, the forgiveness of all your sins, He gives to you His own holy Body and precious Blood.  With such Treasures as these, freely given to you by the Lord, you lack nothing; for Life and Salvation are yours in Christ Jesus, forever and ever.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Forgiven and Forgiving by the Cross of Jesus Christ

St. Peter has been listening, and he has gotten the point to some extent.  That is what prompts his question.  But either he has not yet perceived the full implications of what he has heard from Jesus, or else, and perhaps more likely, he simply chafes at those implications and so resists them.

Now, you along with St. Peter have also heard (this past Sunday) that greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven is that of humility — dependance and need — like that of a little child.  And those little ones will stumble.  It is inevitable, Jesus says, that there will be stumbling blocks and stumbling.  The little ones will stumble, as you will also stumble.  But you dare not be a cause of stumbling.

Today it is made clear, if it was not already clear, that the causes of stumbling include, not only temptations to sin, but also refusals to forgive and restore the one who has sinned.  To withhold the Gospel from those who repent of their sins is, in fact, the most grievous stumbling block of all.

As Christians, we take sin seriously, as surely as the Lord Himself takes it seriously.  We exercise both self-discipline and church discipline, as the Lord Himself has taught us.  We hear and heed His call to repentance, and we call each other to repentance from within our respective callings.

But the aim of all our dealings — and what the whole life of the Church on earth is all about — is the rescue and reconciliation of those who have been lost, the full and free forgiveness of sins, the restoration of faith, and the fraternal fellowship of life and love in the Body of Christ Jesus.

Therefore, do not despise the little one who stumbles and falls and by God’s grace gets back up.  Do not despise the little one who wanders away and returns to the fold.  Do not despise the little one who sins and repents.  But rejoice with the Lord to receive back and forgive your brother.

Really, such falling and rising are the shape of the Christian life on earth — the shape of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, who died and rose again.  So is it also the shape and significance of your Baptism in His Name, the daily dying to sin, and the daily rising to newness of life.  And if that is what your Baptism means — that every day of your life is one of such dying and rising in and with Christ Jesus — then every day is one of repentance and faith in His forgiveness of sins.

So has the Lord Himself taught you to pray every day in the Our Father for the forgiveness of sins — and likewise to forgive those who sin against you.

That is what the Christian life on earth is like.  That is what it’s all about.  Not so much being “nice” and avoiding conflict and controversy (as the world imagines), but forgiving real sins with real forgiveness.  Therefore, do not ask “how often,” or “how many times,” and do not even keep track or keep score at all.  If there were a score kept in this game, then you have already lost!

But the Lord does not keep score, and He does not keep track.  He does not count your sins against you.  He does not consider how often you have sinned or how many times He has forgiven you.  He simply calls you to repentance and faith in His forgiveness of sins: again and again and again.  For it is not the will of your Father in heaven that you or any of His little ones should perish, but that you should be rescued from sin and death, reconciled to Him in faith, and raised up forever.

Thus do you live by the compassion, grace, and mercy of the Lord, your King, who freely and fully removes your entire debt.  He doesn’t set up a payment plan.  He doesn’t bargain with you or reduce your debt.  He removes it altogether.  He forgives it completely, as though it never were.

Now, as I also pointed out last Sunday, you and your fellow Christians are brothers and sisters of this one Lord Jesus Christ, fellow subjects and servants of this one gracious King.  And all of you alike live by His forgiveness and His love.  It is therefore necessary that you forgive those who trespass against you — as often as they do — just as you depend upon your Lord’s forgiveness.

The necessity of forgiving those who trespass against you is of one piece with your Redemption and with the Gospel of your Lord Jesus Christ, of one piece with His preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of your sins; because there is one and the same forgiveness for you and for all.

There is only that one forgiveness which flows for you and for all from the crucified and risen Body of the one Lord, Jesus Christ, who was crucified for your transgressions and has been raised for your justification.  For God was in Christ reconciling the whole world to Himself, and it is by His Ministry of reconciliation that He has called you to Himself by the Gospel of forgiveness.

As you here come into the presence of this Lord, your King — and as you worship Him, bending your heart, mind, body, and soul before Him, praying to Him, singing His praises, and calling on His Name for mercy and for peace — you are released from all your debts by His forgiveness of your sins.  It is not that you have bought Him off or “stroked His ego” with your worship; but it is truly meet, right, and salutary that you should worship and adore Him, thank, praise, serve, and obey Him, because He forgives you all your sins and saves you from sin and death by His grace.

Accordingly, have mercy on each other.  Not just your own husband or wife, parents or children, but on all of the children of your own dear God and Father in Christ Jesus.  Forgive each other, as your gracious Lord forgives you.  Have mercy on all of your neighbors, even on those who do not know the Lord who loves them and gave Himself for them.  Forgive them for Christ Jesus’ sake, that they might learn to know His mercy and His grace through you, His freely forgiven servant.

What does such forgiveness mean?  What does it look like and entail?  You have no better example than that of the Lord Jesus Himself, who prayed for the forgiveness of those who were nailing Him to the Cross, even as He gave Himself into death as the Sacrifice of Atonement for the sins of the whole world.  You know the love and forgiveness of God in Him, who has mercy and compassion even on you, His unworthy and often unfaithful servant, chief of sinners though you be.

You also have the example of your fellow servants, such as you have heard this morning in the case of the Patriarch St. Joseph, who in faith forgave his brothers, in spite of all they had done.  St. Stephen in the New Testament is another powerful example of forgiveness, as he prayed for those who were stoning him to death, trusting in his merciful and great High Priest, Christ Jesus.

Now, as we learned from Christ Jesus last week, forgiveness does not mean ignoring sin or taking it lightly.  There is the call to repentance and the exercise of discipline for the good of the Body.

Yet, you call your brother to repentance and restore him in a spirit of gentleness, as St. Paul the Apostle expresses it.  You likewise exercise discipline in such a spirit of gentleness and humility, because you recognize and know both your own sins and the gracious forgiveness of your Lord.

That is why you cover your neighbor’s sin and shame as much as you possibly can, as the Lord Jesus has directed.  If your neighbor has sinned, then you first of all go to him privately, so that, if he will hear you and come to repentance, you have won your brother.  And if he will not listen to you, then two or three others go with you to address the sin quietly and patiently, in the hopes that he will repent and be restored to the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.  Even if it finally comes to church discipline and excommunication, the goal remains repentance and forgiveness.

In all of your dealings with all of your neighbors, you are to be always ready, willing, and eager to be reconciled with them, to forgive their sins and do them good, and, in so far as it depends on you, to be at peace with them for Jesus’ sake, in whom God has reconciled the world to Himself.

Forgiveness does not mean that you must remain in harm’s way — aside from what duty requires; for duty does sometimes require that you put yourself in danger, that you suffer hurt and harm, like the soldiers who fight for us, like firefighters and police officers and emergency personnel.  But where duty does not require it, forgiveness does not mean that you must leave yourself in harm’s way and simply take ongoing abuse.  Neither does forgiveness mean that you strike back.  You do not throw back anger at anger.  You do not return hurt for hurt.  You do not seek vengeance for the wrongs that you have suffered.  If need be, you simply remove yourself from the situation.

Forgiveness does not mean that you leave your neighbor’s body and life in the jeopardy of harm and danger, either.  In the same way that governing authorities punish those who have committed crimes — even if they have repented and are fully forgiven before God — likewise, forgiveness does not condone or tolerate the ongoing abuse or neglect of another neighbor.

As surely as love calls the one who is sinning to repentance and faith in the forgiveness of sins, so surely does love also work to guard and protect the one who is being sinned against.

But forgiveness does not seek revenge.  It does not retaliate.  It does not harbor grudges.  It does not keep track of wrongs done, nor does it keep score as to how often such-n-such has happened.  Forgiveness leaves no room for bitterness and resentment to grow and fester in your heart.

Forgiveness does have compassion.  It views weakness with sympathy, as you yourself are weak.  It demonstrates mercy for the frail, the fallible, and the fallen.  It exercises patience, and it is long-suffering.  It turns the other cheek and still does not grow weary of doing good.  It does not say, “This is the seventh time.”  It does not even say, “This is the 490th time — next time watch out.”

Forgiveness rather speaks and acts with gentle kindness for the one who has been neither gentle nor kind.  Forgiveness does not withhold love, but it is always seeking ways to love and serve and care for the neighbor.  Not only does it bear the neighbor’s burdens, but it bears the burden of the neighbor in peace, in the confidence of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus.

You are free to forgive, because you are forgiven.  You are free to forgive, to turn the other cheek, to do good to those who hurt you, because God raised Jesus from the dead — and He raises you.

In short, forgiveness does for your neighbor what your God and Father in heaven does for you by His Son, your Savior, Jesus Christ.  For that whole debt of yours — that huge, insurmountable, unpayable debt of your sins, the curse of your mortality, your death, and your damnation — that huge debt of yours, which you could never have repaid in a thousand lifetimes — the Lord your God has removed from you entirely.  It is all gone.  Not a penny of that debt remains to be paid.

Your Father in heaven has taken that entire burden off your back and laid it squarely on Christ Jesus, His own dearly-beloved Son.  And that is what the Lord Jesus Christ has willingly borne for you in love.  The Father has handed Him over to death, to the torture of His Cross and Passion, to the prison house of Hades, in order to make full restitution on your behalf.  And He has done it.

On account of His Cross and Resurrection, the Lord is patient and long-suffering with you.  He does not grow weary of forgiving your sins and doing you good, again and again and again.  Daily and richly He provides for all your needs of both body and soul.  Indeed, He does not withhold any good thing from you but grants you His own divine Life and eternal Salvation, although for your sins you have deserved nothing but temporal and eternal punishment.  Instead of that, He rewards you with good things, with food and clothing and shelter and love, with family and friends, with His Church on earth, His means of grace, the forgiveness of all of your sins, the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, the waters of His Holy Baptism, and a place at His Table in His House forever.

In mercy and compassion He is always seeking you out, He’s always calling you back home to Himself, He’s always watching and waiting with arms wide open, eager to receive you into His loving embrace — as your dear God and Father, and you His own dear child in Christ Jesus.

And here at the Altar of the same Lord Jesus Christ — with His Body given and His Blood poured out for you and for the many, for the forgiveness of all your sins — He enfolds you in the blessed fellowship — the Holy Communion — of His Body and Bride, the Holy Christian Church.  Thus, with all His saints, with angels and archangels and all the host of heaven, you do not die but live.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The Greatness of the Grace and Glory of God in Christ Jesus

Jesus called the child to Himself, and He put the child in the midst of His disciples.  And so does He also call you to become like a child — to become His disciple — by the humility of repentance.

But first of all, the Son of God Himself became a little Child, not just metaphorically, but in fact.  That is where the Gospel According to St. Matthew begins, and over and over again in those first couple chapters of the Gospel we hear the Lord Jesus described as “the Child.”  For so He was, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Not only that, but, having become true Man, He humbled Himself, taking on the form of a Servant, coming in the likeness of fallen, sinful, mortal flesh.  And He became obedient, unto His sacrificial death upon the Cross for your salvation.

It is precisely by His Cross and in His Resurrection that you are born again as a child of God by way of your Holy Baptism.  Named by Him, adopted by His Father, anointed by His Holy Spirit, you have become a dear little child of God in Christ Jesus.  You are humbled and exalted in Him.  Not just once-upon-a-time, but your Baptism retains an ongoing, daily, and lifelong significance, whereby you die and rise with Christ each day by repentance and faith in His forgiveness of sins.  And thus do you continue to live and abide as a little child of God within His Kingdom of Heaven.

The greatness of such a little child in the Kingdom of Heaven, as Jesus describes in this Holy Gospel, is the greatness of humility in the presence of God.  He’s not talking here about modesty, far less about any false modesty, but about the genuine need and real dependence of a little child.

The fact is that, before God, you and everyone else alike have such dependence and need.  But in the arrogance and pride of your sin, you do not recognize or acknowledge your need for the Lord or your utter dependence on Him.  Thus, you must be called and brought to the humility of a little child by the preaching of repentance and forgiveness of sins in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Little children must also be called and brought to the humility of repentance and faith in order to enter and abide within the Kingdom of Heaven.  But their day-to-day existence and survival in this body and life on earth are an indication of what it means and what it looks like for you or anyone to live as a child of God, regardless of your age, abilities, achievements, or circumstances.  Just as a little child must depend on his father and mother for food and clothing, shelter and protection, discipline and education, so must every Christian depend on the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and upon His Holy Christian Church, for the salvation and eternal life of body and soul.

So, too, the ongoing care that little children need also includes the love and mercy and forgiveness of their parents.  For it is not only the case that little children can do nothing to care for themselves, but they sin against their parents, siblings, and family in all sorts of ways, which increase as they get older.  To continue serving and providing for them requires daily forbearance and forgiveness.

By the same token, to be sure, parents and other authorities, all adults and older children, are no less in need of forgiveness from God and from their neighbors on a daily and ongoing basis.  And to maintain the responsibility of caring for their children requires discipline, correction, training, repentance, and effort.  For none of us, by sinful nature, consistently does what is good and right.

Discipline, correction, and training also belong to the care that children of all ages need from their parents.  They need to be taught the difference between right and wrong, to carry out their duties, to recognize the consequences of their choices, decisions, and actions, and to know how to live, to love and serve their neighbors, to repent of their sins, and to forgive those who sin against them.  Some of this they may learn the hard way, by trial and error, as do we all to a certain extent.  But much of it must be taught, and ideally it should all be taught and exemplified by their own parents.

To live as a little child of God within His Kingdom, likewise, requires His gracious forgiveness of sins and His providential care of both body and soul (for both this life and the Life everlasting) — and also His paternal correction, loving discipline, and patient training in both faith and love.

Within His Kingdom — His Household and Family — you and your brothers and sisters in Christ are all alike in your need for Him and in His grace toward you.  You all have one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father, one Holy Spirit, one Name with which you have been named, and one Gospel of forgiveness, life, and salvation.  As children living in the same Household and having the same Father, born from the same Womb, washed in the same Tub, and eating at the same Table, you are all alike the little children of God, no matter the differences between you.

Therefore, love and care for each other, as your Father in heaven loves and cares for each of you in body and soul, in grace, mercy, and peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  In this fallen and perishing world, that loving care — of God for you, and of His children for each other — centers in the forgiveness of sins.  Indeed, there is nothing more characteristic and definitive of the Church on earth than the forgiveness of sins.  It is the coin of the realm, the economy of God’s Kingdom, to forgive sins, to show mercy, to have compassion, and to love even those who sin against you.

But such forgiveness does not excuse, ignore, or make light of sin.  The world does have that sort of  “forgiveness,” which deals in “second chances,” makes excuses, rationalizes circumstances, and may at times choose to overlook faults or wrongdoing.  But genuine forgiveness does not excuse sin or rationalize its reasons.  It does not ignore sin or take it lightly.  Real forgiveness confronts sin head-on and removes it by the Cross of Christ, by His atoning sacrifice, by way of repentance and faith in His forgiveness of sins, unto newness of life in His Resurrection from the dead.  And it is thus administered and exercised along with the loving discipline of a father for his children.

Which is to say that, in those places where the Lord your God has given you authority over others, or where He has made you responsible for the care of others, there is also a need for discipline — exercised in love and with forgiveness.  I’m not talking about punitive retribution, but about a kind of discipline that seeks to protect and serve the one who is disciplined (and his neighbors, also).

A father disciplines his son, in order to protect his son from harm and danger — and to protect his other children (and other neighbors) from his son.  He thereby teaches and trains his son in the way of life and love.  And he does so in and with the forgiveness of sins.  That is, when he teaches his son to do differently than he has done, it is not because the sin is retained and remembered and is going to be brought back as an accusation in the future.  It is rather that, along with the forgiveness of the sin, the sin will not be permitted to continue ruling and dominating the life of the child.

So, too, the governing authorities are God’s ministers, whereby He does punish sin, He punishes evildoers, in order to protect and serve everyone.  It is in love that He thereby restrains and limits wickedness; not as though He were petty or vindictive, but precisely because wickedness and evil are harmful — in both body and soul — to those who sin and to those who are sinned against.

Think about it.  No parent would stand back and watch a little child reach for an open flame or run toward a busy street and not do or say anything to stop the child.  No, love compels the father or mother to act immediately, to keep the child from mortal harm and danger.  Such obvious things are simply examples and analogies, but they do help to give a sense of why correction, discipline, and the preaching of repentance are so important and so necessary.  If only we took the eternal harm and danger of sin as seriously as the temporal threats of fires and traffic and so forth.

That is why God’s Law must be preached.  Not as though the Law would save you or anyone else, but that the Law of God must do its own proper work of guarding and protecting His children from sin and every evil, and so also driving the lost and erring to the genuine humility of repentance — to recognize their need, their weakness, and the danger they are in — and to rely upon His help.

As a Christian, you do this for yourself, or so you should.  For the Lord has taught you to examine yourself in the light of His Commandments, to acknowledge and confess your sins according to His Word, and to seek out His forgiveness in the Ministry of His Gospel.  You likewise discipline your flesh, your body and life in this world, your words and your actions, in accordance with the Word of the Lord and your own calling and station in life.  Not as though to save yourself, which is neither possible nor necessary, but because you belong to the Lord, your Savior, and His Word is Spirit, Truth, and Life, whereby you live in faith and love within His Household and Family.

Above all, you train and discipline yourself to live and abide in God’s Kingdom, not by your own wisdom, reason, or strength, but by repentance and faith in the Gospel.  And it is in the same spirit and for the same purpose that you call your brother or sister to repentance, so that your brother or sister might also live by the same grace as yourself, in the same Body of Christ Jesus, as a member of the same Household and Family of God, as a beloved child of the same God and Father.

So it is that Christ Jesus has taken His stand with sinners (even you), especially beginning in the Jordan River when He submitted Himself to a Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  He had no sins of His own, but He took His stand with sinners — not to condone sin — but to atone for the sins of the world, and to deliver the world from the bondage and consequences of sin.

And as He was baptized with and for sinners, so does He also eat with Gentiles and tax collectors, with prostitutes, and all manner of sinners, in order to share His fellowship and life with them.  He does not confirm them in their sins or encourage them to continue in their sins.  In His mercy and grace He rather calls them to repentance, to become His disciples, His brothers and sisters, to be and to live as the children of His own God and Father, and to eat with Him at His Table in peace.

Here then is the greatness of Christ Jesus, in which He does all of this for you, as well, and for all people.  For He has become the little Child, and He has lived as the true Man, in holy faith before His God and Father in heaven, and in holy love for all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve.

As a little Child, the Lord of heaven and earth, by whom all things were made, depended on His Mommy, St. Mary, and upon His father on earth, St. Joseph.  He had real human needs, and He depended on His parents to care for Him.  He also honored them, as the Fourth Commandment requires.  He submitted to them in all things, even though He was without sin and they were not.  And He learned from them.  The One who is the very Word and Wisdom of God learned from His human parents, St. Mary and St. Joseph, with all their mortal frailties and weaknesses.

And as He grew, He knew hunger and thirst.  He knew tiredness and fatigue.  He knew heat and cold, hurt and pain.  And finally He knew death, even death upon the Cross, bearing in His Body all the sins of the world and submitting Himself to their consequences and punishment.  He yielded up His Body and Life to the judgment of both church and state, and to the condemnation of God’s holy and righteous Law, trusting that His God and Father in heaven would vindicate Him and raise Him up.  To such an extent did He humble Himself “like a child,” unto His death upon the Cross.

So it is that His Cross and Resurrection are the way of repentance, by which you are born again as a child of God in Christ Jesus, as you are raised up to newness of life in His crucified and risen Body.  This is not only the shape and pattern of your repentance, but the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus are your repentance, into which you are called and brought by His Word and Spirit.

And so it is that real greatness is found in the Cross of Christ Jesus.  Not only because the Cross works humility and repentance in you — in your heart and mind, body and soul — but especially because it is from His Cross and in His Resurrection that He freely and fully forgives your sins.  In calling you to repentance by His Cross, He calls you to receive and to rely on His forgiveness.

The good and gracious will of God is that you should not perish but have everlasting Life — not by your own works, but by His grace through faith in Christ Jesus.  And so it is that He rejoices over your forgiveness, over your recovery and salvation, even more than He would rejoice over the hypothetical ninety-nine who never strayed.  He is happier to save you by His grace than He would be if you could save yourself by your own righteousness.  For this is the greatness and glory of God, that He has mercy upon sinners and saves them for the sake of His own divine Love — that the sons and daughters of affliction should become His own beloved children in Christ Jesus.

In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.