The Lord Himself Visits You in Grace, Mercy, and Peace

Rejoice in the Lord your God.  Give thanks to Him for all His gifts and benefits, and praise His Holy Name.  Sing to Him with peace and joy and gladness all your days.  Glorify and honor Him, worship and adore Him with heart, mind, body, and soul, because He has had mercy upon you.

The Lord your God, the holy and almighty One, here comes to visit and abide with you in love.  As He once dwelt among His people Israel with His grace and His glory — by the way and means of His Tabernacle in the wilderness, and then within His Temple in Jerusalem — in the Ark of the Covenant and upon the Mercy Seat — so does the same Lord, Yahweh Sabaoth, now come to you and tabernacle with you in His own Body of flesh and blood, conceived within the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Word and Spirit of God, in order to be your Savior and your God.

He comes by His Word and with His Holy Spirit, with all His grace and glory, in His true divinity and His true humanity, in both body and soul, hidden within the womb of His Church on earth.  And by His coming and His presence, by His gracious visitation, this house made with human hands is a priestly house, where you are met by God, and sanctified, and given life with Him.

The incarnate Son of God, Christ Jesus, comes to be with you, in order to bring you to His God and Father in and with Himself.  That is the goal and purpose for which He has created and redeemed you, and for which the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies you — and the whole Christian Church on earth — by the Ministry of the Gospel of the same Lord Jesus Christ.

By His mighty arm and outstretched hand He raises you up from poverty and weakness to wealth and strength, from humility and shame to glory and honor, from hunger and fear to contentment and full satisfaction, and from weariness and sorrow to perfect peace and Sabbath rest in Him.

The same Lord Jesus Christ defeats all your enemies and defends you from them.  He rescues you from every evil and brings you out of danger into eternal safety and security within the Kingdom of God.  He does not accuse you and condemn you, but He freely and fully forgives all your sins.  He does not punish or destroy you, as you have deserved, but He delivers you from out of death and raises you up from the dust of the earth in glory.  He recreates you in His Image for newness of life with Him, not only in your soul and spirit, but in your body, also, just like His own.

In Christ Jesus you are anointed and filled with the Holy Spirit, and you are bound to God the Father — as He is bound to you — by an everlasting Covenant, in a divine and holy Communion.

So it is that God, the Father Almighty, has spoken to you by His Son; and in remembrance of this mercy, He acts to do all of these good things for you, and to give you all of these great things in the Body of His Christ, conceived and born of St. Mary.  The One who promises is faithful, and He will do it.  Blessed are you, therefore, when you trust and rely upon His sure and certain Word.

It is by faith in His Word — by the Sound of His Voice — by the preaching of Christ Jesus — and not yet by sight or experience — that you are blessed by the presence of Christ and made brand new in Him.  So it was for St. Mary and St. Elizabeth, and so it is for the whole Church on earth.

You do not yet see the fulfillment with your eyes.  You can’t investigate it with your hands, in such a way the you could prove it.  You rather hear the promise with your ears, and it is by that promise that you live in hope and eager expectation.  With anxious longing you wait for the revealing of the sons of God, when you shall see your dear Lord Jesus face to face, and you shall be like Him.

For now, to be sure, you do not yet feel or experience the Resurrection.  You bear and suffer the Cross, within and without.  Poverty, hunger, weakness, and fear persist in this fallen world, in your own body and life and in your neighbors all around.  There are still tyrants on earth at every level, who rule with an iron fist and deal unjustly with those who languish under their abusive power.  The wicked still prosper, with impunity, while the righteous are persecuted and put to death.

Along with all of that, sin and death are still at work within you, in your mortal flesh and blood, and in your heart and mind, as well.  Your faith and love are not what they should be.  You doubt the Lord your God and the Word He has spoken.  You do not trust His promises, nor do you expect Him to do you any good.  You hurt and neglect the very people you should help and care for.  You are arrogant when you ought to be humble, and you despair when you ought to rejoice in hope.

Even so, do not wallow in self-pity, nor defend yourself in self-righteous pride, but repent, trust Christ, and live.   Do not be afraid of anything, but fear the Lord your God, and have no other gods before Him.  For He is with you.  Behold, He comes to visit you in His justice and righteousness.

Repent of your sins, therefore, and rejoice in His great and free Salvation.  For His coming does not depend on you, nor is it met with any worthiness of your own, but He visits you by grace, and He forgives your sins and gives you His Life according to His tender mercy and compassion.

In all events, He is here with you in this place, and that is most certainly true.

The Holy Triune God remembers His mercy and His faithfulness, and He fulfills His Word, in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son.  For He has permanently bound Himself to you, already by His conception in the womb of St. Mary.  Flesh of your flesh and blood of your blood, He does not deny or disown you, but He rejoices to call you His own kin, and He defends you.

He is not ashamed to call you His brother or sister, for He has atoned for all your sins, redeemed you from death, and justified you in His Resurrection.  He ever lives to make intercession for you as your merciful High Priest.  He sanctifies your body and soul by His Spirit through the Gospel.

If what you see and feel and experience in the here and now is the Cross and suffering, temptation, sin, and death, remember that He has taken all of that upon Himself and borne it in His own Body on your behalf, proceeding in faith and love, in humility and perfect obedience, even unto death.  Wherefore God, His Father, has raised Him from the dead and highly exalted Him.  And that which He has done for you, accomplished and received on your behalf, is now pledged and given to you.

So it is that His preaching of repentance wounds you, in order to heal you.  His Word and Spirit crucify and bury you, in order to raise you up and make you alive in Him.  He not only exposes and condemns your sins for what they are, but He calls you to faith in His forgiveness of all your sins.  He puts to death the old Adam in you, in order to make of you a brand new man or woman; no less than He made of St. Mary a New Eve, and He Himself became a new and better Adam for us all.

This Lord Jesus Christ — with His mighty arm, with His great things and holy Name — is found here in this place where His Word has directed you.  Arise, and come in a hurry to find Him here within His priestly house.  Receive His gracious hospitality in the Liturgy of His Gospel, in the preaching of His Word and the celebration of His Holy Supper.  And give thanks for your fathers and mothers of faith, who are righteous in Christ Jesus and live in His Love to the glory of God.

The holiness of His Name is thereby demonstrated and bestowed upon you here, as He visits you in His divine grace, tender mercies, and perfect peace.  For those whom He calls and sends to go before His face — like St. John the Baptist, even from his mother’s womb — those men likewise announce the presence of the Lord and rejoice in Him by way of His Gospel; whereby you also, like St. Elizabeth, are filled with the Holy Spirit and rejoice in the Life and Salvation of Jesus.

Hidden here in the womb of His Church, the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God — conceived and born of St. Mary, crucified and risen from the dead — His Body and His Blood are here given and poured out for you to eat and to drink in the remembrance of His mercy.  For so does He fill the hungry with good things, and so does He feed you with these great things, unto the Resurrection of your body and the Life everlasting of your body and soul in and with Him.

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

The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth in the Word and Flesh of Christ Jesus

The genesis of the flesh is flesh.  The genesis of the Spirit is spirit.  But the distinction here is not between tangible and intangible things, nor between bodies of flesh and disembodied spirits.  The contrast is rather between that which bears the Spirit of God and that which does not.

Flesh that is filled with the Spirit of God is alive and living; whereas there are plenty of spiritual things that are contrary to the Word of God and therefore devoid of His Spirit and His Life.

By the same token, flesh apart from the Spirit of God is already in the process of dying, returning to the dust whence it was taken.  So shall it decay, disintegrate, and be destroyed.  It goes down to Sheol, because flesh that does not bear and live by the Spirit of God is idolatrous and covetous.  Such flesh hungers, not for the true and holy God, but for flesh like itself.  It is cannibalistic, and in its voracious and insatiable consumption it is consumed and comes to an end.

Though flesh attempts to feed upon itself, it is utterly unable to sustain itself.  It cannot survive on its own resources, nor will it manage to live for long on its own terms.  Flesh cannot save itself.

Without the Spirit of God, all flesh, including yours, is blind and in the dark, lost in a permanent nighttime of ignorance and unbelief.  It cannot see God, know God, believe in God, or go to Him.  It cannot ascend into heaven, nor can it enter the Kingdom of God.

More to the point, you are not able to know God or believe in Him by way of your own fallen flesh.  You are not capable of discerning or knowing heavenly things, far less can you get into heaven, by any way or means of your fallen flesh.  Without the Spirit of God, your flesh is undone.

But if your fallen flesh is confronted by the Holy, Holy, Holy God — apart from His Gospel — then you are undone all the more quickly, because you are not holy, you are sinful and unclean.

Therefore, God the Father sent His only-begotten Son into the world, in Love, in order to save the world through Him — in order to grant eternal Life to those, like you, who have not known Him.

As in the beginning, the Father speaks His Word into the darkness; and His Word is Light and Life and Love for the whole of His creation, because He speaks to you by His Son, Christ Jesus.

So it is that you see the Kingdom of God in Him, the Son of Man, who has descended from heaven for you and your salvation.  In Him, God has become Man, and the Word has become true Flesh.

How so?  It is by the Spirit of God, who overshadowed the Blessed Virgin Mary and conceived the Son of God in her womb, whereby He became flesh of her flesh and blood of her blood.

The New Adam was thus conceived and born of a New Eve by the grace of God, by His Word and Holy Spirit.  And in the Flesh of Christ Jesus the fall into sin and the curse of death are reversed.

Accordingly, the Signs that He does — like turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana, and other such Signs of His divine Glory in the Flesh — are Signs of the New Creation in His Body.  This is the dawning of the eternal Eighth Day, the blooming of a brand new Paradise, and the New Birth of Mankind.  Jesus works and accomplishes all of this in Himself, but He does so for all of us and for our salvation, by the way and means of His Cross and in His Resurrection from the dead.

He does it all for you, and He alone is able to do it.  For this New Birth is harder than the first; indeed, it is impossible for the flesh apart from the Spirit of God.  It is harder than the usual labor and delivery of fallen flesh.  It is harder than entering again into your mother’s womb when you are old, as it is harder than putting a camel through the eye of a needle.  For the birth pangs in this case are those of the Cross and Passion of Christ Jesus, the suffering and death of the Son of God in His own Flesh, the shedding of His holy and precious Blood in Atonement for all of your sins.

Ironically, His descending into death and the grave — into Hades and Sheol — coincides with His being lifted up and His ascending; for He offers Himself up to the Father as the Sacrifice for the sins of the world, and He rises like sweet-smelling Incense in peace and reconciliation with God.

He has fully borne your sin and death in His own Flesh.  But His Father has received and accepted His Sacrifice.  His Father has raised Him up again from death to life.  And His Father has poured out the promised Holy Spirit upon Him — upon His Body, crucified and risen, and into His Flesh.

Consequently, His bodily Resurrection from the dead is the New Genesis — a new beginning — and He is the New Adam by whom all the children of God are born through His Church on earth.

It is the Holy Spirit who accomplishes this New Birth in you, by putting you to death and raising you to a new life in and with Christ Jesus.  That is what repentance is — being turned inside-out, being turned away from your sin and death to faith in Christ and His forgiveness of your sins.  By such faith you see and know God in Christ Jesus, and you live with God in Him forever.

The Spirit works the dying and rising of this New Birth and New Creation in your body and soul by the earthly Means of Grace, by the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the whole Ministry of the Gospel.  This is the Voice of the Spirit — this is the Sound of the “Wind,” which you can hear but cannot see — and it is by this Voice of the Gospel that the Spirit is actively present and at work with all His gifts and graces.

This Spirit of the Lord, this Author and Giver of Life, speaks by the cleansed lips of those who are called, ordained, and sent in the Name of Christ Jesus.  And in this way the Spirit is then breathed into man — into fallen flesh — through Holy Absolution.  You know that, right?  Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit; if you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven.”

And by this forgiveness of the Gospel, by this breathing of the Spirit into you, you are no longer dead and dying, but alive and living; you are not undone, but cleansed and healed and made new.

It is like the coal from the Altar of Incense — that little golden Altar in front of the Holy of Holies, where the Incense was burned in the presence of God, rising into heaven as the prayer of Israel — it is like that coal, which touched Isaiah’s lips and cleansed him from iniquity, so that he could go and preach the Word of the Lord to Israel, unto repentance and faith in the coming Christ Jesus.

And so it is that from the Cross, on which the Lord Jesus Christ has been offered up in death as an acceptable Sacrifice for you and all, and as a sweet-smelling Incense in the presence of God, a new and better “Coal” is now given, by which you are forgiven, that you might live with God in Peace.

From the Altar of His Cross the Lord Jesus touches your lips with His Body and His Blood, and by these Gifts you are forgiven all your sins, you are cleansed of all iniquity.  You shall not die but live.  And so shall you also speak the Name of the Lord your God, and call upon His Name, and praise His Holy Name in the midst of His Temple, within His Church on earth as it is in heaven.

By the whole Liturgy of the Gospel Christ the Crucified is being lifted up before you in this place — into your ears and into your mouth — unto faith and life in Him, in both your body and soul.

By your Holy Baptism in His Name, you are born again of water and the Holy Spirit.  You are put to death, crucified, and buried with Christ Jesus, and so raised with Him to newness of life.  Thus, you are a child of God in Christ, and you live as a child of God by grace through faith in Him.

As the Son of God was conceived and born of the Woman, in order to become true Man — and as He has risen from the dead, risen from the dust of the earth, the Firstborn from the dead, the First Fruits of the New Creation — so are you also born again from death to life, as a son of God in Christ Jesus, anointed by the Holy Spirit for everlasting Life with God the Father in Paradise.

You thus know the true and only God, not as a doctrinal abstraction, but as your own dear Father.  You know Him as your Father in Christ Jesus, the beloved Son, who is your Brother in the flesh and your Savior from sin and death.  And you know your God and Father in His Son by the Spirit whom He has given you by and with His Word, who breathes in you the very Life of God.

You know the Holy Triune God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, here and now in this Holy Place, at this sacred Altar, sanctified by His Presence.  You know God in the hearing of His Gospel, His forgiveness of all your sins.  You know God in the eating of the Body of Christ Jesus, and you know Him in the drinking of His Blood.  For the Word and Flesh of Christ are Spirit and Life.

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

Anointed and Alive by the Spirit of Christ Jesus

As a child of Adam you spend your life attempting to exonerate and justify yourself, to rationalize and excuse your behavior — to yourself and to your neighbors, and in comparison with others — and even before the Lord your God, when you’re not trying to run away and hide from Him.

And yet, for all of that, there is still death waiting for you at the end; sooner or later, it shuts down all of your attempts to make a name and a life for yourself.  You can’t argue with death.  Not really.  Not your own, nor anyone else’s.  It doesn’t matter how hard you work to ward it off, to put it off and delay the inevitable.  It doesn’t matter how careful you are in caring for your body and tending to your health.  It doesn’t matter how much you strive to protect your children and keep them safe.

If you take the opposite approach and live a crazy and reckless life, that doesn’t give you any more power or control, it only hastens your demise.  You sure don’t win that way.  You don’t beat death.

Your mortality looms so large, it casts a long dark shadow over your entire life.  Making it out of the womb is only the first of many hurdles.  Especially as you get older, it is sometimes the case that death and the grave and bones as dry as dust are all that you can see.  But Jesus you do not see.

As a Christian, you persist and persevere in hope, in the promise and assurance of things not seen.  But as a child of Adam in this fallen and failing world, you flirt with despair and court disaster.  You succumb to the dread of death and plunge yourself into faithless unbelief, whether through apathy or apostasy, bitterness or cynicism, or the stubborn denial of God’s Words and promises.  Since you cannot see what He has spoken, you feel as though it were false, and so you tell yourself to give up on God, to go it alone, or to give up altogether.  In this way your hope has perished ahead of your body and life, and you don’t even bother to pray or ask for help.

Sorrow seeps into your heart and fills it up, driving out faith and the Holy Spirit.  Not right away, but little by little, the more you dwell on your own thoughts and feelings, which seem so real and so true, instead of dwelling on the Word of Christ, which sounds so fanciful, and He so far away.

It’s not only that life is hard and you get discouraged, but in the midst of your pain your mortal flesh gets increasingly restless and afraid; and the world, full of its own sin and death, threatens and tricks you with its traps and temptations; Satan likewise attacks and accuses you, fiercely but cunningly.  Consequently, you are bounced back and forth between feeling sorry for yourself and feeling ashamed of your sins.  You know that you are guilty, and that you rightly deserve nothing but punishment and death; but that is a frightening prospect, which seems so final and inevitable.

In all of this the devil has you looking at yourself, in which there is no hope nor help to be found.

Without the Word and Spirit of the Lord, you are dust, and to dust you shall return.  You feel it in your bones, and the Law of God declares it to be so.  You are dust — which is where that old serpent, the devil, would drive you or entice you, to make you eat the dust that he is forced to eat.

But, now, consider that.  The devil does eat dirt.  The would-be ruler of this fallen world has been judged, and he is cast out.  And the Spirit has come — who is the Lord, the Author and Giver of Life — because the Lord Jesus, the only-begotten Son, has returned to the Father who sent Him.

Jesus is the One who pours out the Holy Spirit on His Church — and upon you within His Church — because He is the Christ, the Lord’s Anointed.  He has been anointed by the Spirit in His own Body of flesh and blood.  Conceived and born of St. Mary, He too is a Son of Adam, and so His Body also is from the dust.  Yet, that same Body of Christ Jesus has also been anointed by the Holy Spirit, and filled with the Holy Spirit, for the rescue and salvation of all the children of Adam.

It’s not as though the Son of God were ever without the Holy Spirit, but in His flesh as true Man the Spirit descended upon Him and remained upon Him, so that in this Lord Jesus Christ the Spirit of God abides with Man forever.  You know that to be true from the witness of His Baptism in the Jordan River, as both St. John the Baptist and all four of the Holy Evangelists testify; for as Jesus came up out of the water the heavens were opened and the Spirit descended upon Him as a Dove.

What began in the waters of His Baptism culminated in His Cross and Resurrection from the dead.  For both the dying and the rising belong to the Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins — which the Lord Jesus underwent on behalf of all sinners and accomplished in Himself.

Thus was He driven by the Spirit from His Baptism directly into the wilderness, in order to be tempted by the devil, as Adam and Eve were tempted in the Garden, as Israel was tempted in the wilderness, and in every way that you are tempted.  For Jesus is your Comrade and your Champion.

In this way, having come down from the Father in heaven, and having taken human flesh and blood like yours to be His own, He also then journeyed back to the Father with you and all mankind in Himself.  He has gathered you up in Himself, in His own Body, in order to return you to faith and life with God, and not only that, but to make you a child of His own God and Father in heaven.

It is for this reason that He has taken, not only your temptation, but all of your sins, and the sins of the whole world, upon Himself.  He has come, not only as the true Man, with His own Body of flesh and blood, but in the likeness of our fallen flesh.  He has borne and suffered the full curse and consequence of Adam’s sin, the full weight and burden of your mortality, as though every sin were actually His own, committed by Him, and as though every death were His own rightful wages.

So it is that He is convicted concerning the sins of the world.  For He is condemned and crucified under Pontius Pilate.  But it is His God and Father who hands Him over to the Cross, and it is the Spirit who fulfills the judgment of the Law in His punishment, in His bloody Passion unto death.  Thus, when it is finished, He hands over the same Spirit that He received at His Baptism; for with His death all the requirements and condemnation of the Law have been fully satisfied, in order that Adam & Eve and all the children of men might receive the Holy Spirit, not for death, but for Life.

The surety of that accomplished fact is in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead.  For His death has accomplished the destruction of death and the silencing of Satan’s accusations.  Whereas the Lord Jesus did not defend Himself or answer His accusers, but in faith and love He quietly and willingly submitted to the sacrifice of His Cross, His Father has fully vindicated Him by raising Him up from the dust of the earth.  He is not guilty.  He is blameless and free.  And so are you.

The whole world is “convicted concerning righteousness” in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus.  Death and the devil no longer have any rightful claim against you, nor against anyone else — not in Christ Jesus, the Savior of all mankind.  There is no condemnation for those who are in Him.

God’s judgment has been given by the Cross and Resurrection of His incarnate Son.  In Him sin is forgiven.  It is no longer counted or considered, nor is it held against you, because Christ Jesus has made Atonement with His Blood.  So, too, the whole world is justified and reconciled to God in His rising from the dead, in His returning to the Father in His own Body of human flesh.

The Holy Spirit therefore preaches these mighty deeds of God to all the nations of the world, in every language on earth, in order to make disciples of Christ Jesus from every tribe and tongue and people, and to gather men and women, boys and girls, the young and old alike, from the four winds into the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.  For the dried up old bones that are resurrected, re-enfleshed, resuscitated, and restored to new life are not isolated individuals but the whole house of Israel, that is, the Church, the Body of Christ.  It is precisely in His Body that all are made alive.

It is by the proclamation of the Word of Christ Jesus, crucified and risen, that the Spirit calls you daily to repentance, that is, from unbelief to faith in Christ.  By the judgment of the Law and the Gospel, He convicts you of sin and of righteousness.  He exposes your sin for the unbelief it is, and thereby removes every pretense of self-righteousness within you.  That is the truth of the Law, which condemns you.  But the same Spirit also speaks the truth of the Gospel, and by that Word He justifies you through faith in Christ Jesus and raises you from death to newness of life in Him.

Such is the Spirit’s testimony in response to all of your adversaries and accusers: Christ Jesus is your Savior from sin and death, in whom you are fully forgiven and justified.  On the one hand, the punishment of all your sin has already been carried out — in the Body of Christ Jesus on the Cross — and on the other hand, the innocence and righteousness of Christ are counted as yours.

That is the truth of the Gospel.  It is not an empty or powerless word, but the very Word of God, which is not only true, but is the Truth Itself, which establishes the truth concerning you, both now and forever.  It is a living and active Word, by which the Holy Spirit comforts you in sorrow and grants you peace in place of fear, rest from your weariness, and perfect health and strength and life.

By and with this Gospel the Spirit bestows on you everything that belongs to Christ Jesus — His righteousness and holiness, His Resurrection from the dead, and His eternal Life with the Father — all of this is given to you and worked in you, body and soul, from the waters of your Baptism.

The Spirit brings you through those waters into the wilderness, where you bear the Cross of Christ Jesus as a disciple and you live by faith in the Word and promise of your God and Father.  Here you find yourself in the midst of a desert of dry bones, and by daily repentance you are crucified, put to death, and buried.  For now you are still mortal; you get sick, you suffer, and you die.

But so are you also raised up, in and with Christ Jesus, and brought into the Land that God has promised you.  Already He has brought you into His Church, which is the Body of Christ, and here you live, just as He lives.  Not only that, but even now under the Cross you are glorified with the Glory of Christ Jesus, which shall be openly revealed in the resurrection of your body at the last.  For as Jesus returns to His Father by way of His Cross — in His Resurrection and Ascension — so are you brought to the Father as His very own dearly-beloved and well-pleasing child.

That shall be so in the final Judgment Day, in the Resurrection of all flesh at the last.  But so is it already true — even here and now — in the midst of the wilderness.  It is true for you as you hear and receive the Word of Christ, as your sins are all forgiven, as you are cleansed and refreshed by the waters that flow from His riven side, and as you are fed with His Body and His Blood.

In giving you Christ Jesus by this Ministry of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit gives you everything that Jesus has from God the Father.  And it is all by His Word.  For the Spirit guides you into all Truth by speaking what He hears from the Father in the Son, that is, your justification and forgiveness.

This Gospel of Christ Jesus, the Word-made-Flesh, is the new language of the Holy Spirit.  It is neither gibberish nor fantasy; it is the accomplished fact of the Body of Christ, crucified and risen — in which Body you also are redeemed, raised up, reconciled to God, and righteous in His sight.  That is what the Spirit says to you — and this Word does for you and gives to you what He says.

Though it seems so simple and so powerless, this Word of the Gospel fills your heart, mind, body, and soul with the Spirit of Christ Jesus, who drives out sorrow and replaces it with joy and peace.  For with this Word the Spirit refutes the rhetoric of the devil; He defends and protects you from the devil’s accusations; He comforts you with forgiveness and delivers you from hopeless despair.

And with this Word the Spirit opens your lips to show forth the praises of God, to speak the mighty deeds of God in Christ Jesus.  So that you and your children all speak and sing this powerful Word to the glory of God and to edify you and your neighbors in love.  For this Word of the Gospel of Christ is the Truth in your ears and on your lips, by which He breathes His Life-giving Spirit into your body and soul, that you and yours should not perish but live forever with Him in Paradise.

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

Living and Abiding in the Friendship of Christ Jesus

Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, has come by the Water of His Baptism, by the Blood of His Cross and Passion, and with His Spirit by the Gospel, in order to love you and abide with you.  He has come to befriend you — that His joy may be in you, and that your joy should be made full in Him, no longer driven to and fro by covetous desire, but content and at peace in His friendship.

His joy is found in faith and love, as He always abides in His Father’s Love for Him.  He trusts His Father’s Word and promises, and so He has kept His Father’s commandments from the Waters of His Baptism to His Blood shed on the Cross.  He went to His death in the hope of the Resurrection.

And the Father loves Him faithfully, forever and always.  He has raised Him up again and poured out the Spirit upon Him, so that His risen and glorified Body is the Fruit of the Cross that remains.

You, then, abide in His Love, and avail yourself of His Love for you in the Liturgy of His Gospel.  Rest yourself in His Love for you by trusting His Word and promises to you — from your Baptism even to your death.  And, so also, keep His commandment.  Love one another, as He loves you.

He has called you His friend.  And what does that mean?  He has made you a member of His own household and family, a comrade within His inner circle.  He has made you His own brother in the fullest sense of that word.  So does He make common cause with you.  He bears your burdens as though they were His very own; and He lays down His life for you, in order to spare you and save you from death and the grave.  That is the height of genuine friendship, as even the ancient pagans were able to understand in their own way.  But now the Lord Himself has called you His friend.  He values you and your life with His own Life, and He thereby makes you equal to Himself.

He loves you with His Father’s Love for Him.  And consider what a remarkable thing that is — that God the Son should love you with the very Love that God the Father has for Him.  But that is the case.  Everything that Christ Jesus, the beloved Son, has heard and received from His Father, He speaks, reveals, and gives to you by the Ministry of His Gospel.  He is not selfish or greedy.  He does not horde or hide His stuff from you.  He does not argue and fight to take anything away from you, or to keep anything to Himself.  But whatever is His own, whatever belongs to Him, He shares with you, also.  From the fullness of His joy He pours out Himself and His Life for you.

As He Himself has come in the Flesh to save you by the Water, by the Blood, and with the Holy Spirit, so does He now give Himself to you by the Water, by the Blood, and with the Holy Spirit.

He preaches Peace by His Gospel of forgiveness.  He calls you to repentance and to faith, that you might receive and rejoice in what He gives you freely by His grace.  He pours out His Spirit upon you with the new language of His Cross and Resurrection, with the speaking of His Atonement.

He speaks of your Redemption by the Word of His Cross, and it is so.  He declares you righteous by the Word of His Resurrection.  He sanctifies you with the Spirit by the preaching of His Gospel.

He preaches the Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  And to you who are baptized, He calls you back to the waters of your Baptism, that is, not to be re-baptized, but to contrition and repentance, to confession and absolution — to be cleansed by the One who loves you to the end.

As He has made you His disciple by His Word and Holy Spirit, by Holy Baptism and ongoing catechesis in His Name, so does He invite you to eat and drink with Him in His Resurrection from the dead — and not only to eat with Him, but to eat His Body given and drink His Blood poured out — that He should thus abide in you, and you abide in Him, body and soul, now and forever.

He thereby fills you up with the fulness of His joy.  Indeed, He fills you up with Himself, with His Flesh and Blood, His Body, Soul, and Spirit.  Thus do you overflow with His divine and holy joy, in much the same way that His Chalice overflows with His grace and great salvation for you and for the many.  You overflow with His joy in the Father and the Holy Spirit, and you pour yourself out in love for others — in love for your neighbors — whom you befriend with the Love of Jesus.

Thus do you keep His commandment to love one another, as the Lord Jesus loves you.

His commandment is not burdensome.  It is not a command of the Law, as it were, in the sense that you should make yourself righteous by keeping it.  Nor is it the command of a master to his slave, as though you were shackled and chained and compelled to obey, under threat of punishment.

His commandment is rather that of a close friend and confidant, the word of a comrade in arms, like soldiers communicating with each other as they execute maneuvers, each serving his own role.  Like teammates coordinating a play on the field or the court.  If you threw a pass to your teammate, or kicked a pass in soccer, can you imagine your teammate regarding that pass as some kind of law, as a burden?  No, not at all!  So, again, this commandment of Jesus is more like musicians playing in tune, in harmony with each other — like dancers moving together with beauty and grace, one of them leading with confidence, the other following his lead with poise — or like partners, first planning and then putting into practice some great endeavor or some grand adventure.

His commandment is that you should be with Him, and that you should be and do like Him.  For He has befriended you, and He would have you be His friend.  Not because He needs your help.  He does not offer you a contract or a bargain.  He befriends you solely for the sake of His Love.

He has already done and accomplished everything on your behalf.  But now, in His Love, not only does He give you this great work of His by grace; He actually draws you into His life and work, that you should live and abide in Him and work with Him.  He first of all gives you all the credit for His work, and He gives you all the benefit and profit of His work, as though you had done it.  And now He works in you and through you, that you should bear good fruits after His own kind.

He has chosen you in love.  He has called you His friend.  And He has appointed you to go and do likewise for your neighbor — that is, to befriend your neighbor within your own calling and station in life, that you might show yourself to be a friend of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, this isn’t anything like a “friendship” on Facebook or any other social media platforms — though many of us are active on social media, and to be sure, those arenas can also become a part of all that we’re talking about here.  It is possible to love and serve your neighbors and to nurture your relationships in those forums.  But in the main, the friendship of Jesus is quite different.

His friendship is not a case of self-promotion or a popularity contest.  It is, rather, a true friendship of self-giving and self-sacrifice for others.  That is the way Jesus has befriended you, and that is the way that you are to love and befriend your neighbors.  It’s not a matter of begging or expecting others to do this or that for you, but simply doing for your neighbor.  It is coming alongside your neighbor, in order to share and carry his burdens.  It is spending your life in love for your neighbor, not because she has been “friendly” to you, but in order to befriend her.  It is making friends by being a friend, not emotionally, but actively; not for the sake of some “return on your investment,” but from the overflowing fulness of joy in Christ Jesus, in the peaceful contentment of His Love.

Friends of God, let His Love have its way with you, and so love one another, as He is loving you.

Abide in His Love by resting in His Gospel.  That is a kind of active passivity, by which you avail yourself of His means of grace, His free gifts.  Listen to His preaching.  Remember your Baptism, and return each day to the dying and rising that He shares with you and works in you by His Word and Spirit.  Eat His Body and drink His Blood, as He serves you here at His Table in His House.

Pray to the Father in His Name.  Pray in the confession of His Name, that is, according to the Word and promise that He has spoken to you.  Pray in the faith and confidence of your Baptism into Him.

Abide in His Love by living and working within your own office and station, in the confidence of His calling and His faithfulness — as Christ Jesus Himself also went forward from His Baptism in the Jordan River to His Cross and Passion, in the Way of Life His Father laid out before Him.

Live in the sure and certain confidence of your Father’s Word and promise, who has called you His own beloved and well-pleasing child.  Know that the work He has given you to do is pleasing in His sight, and it is productive, accomplishing His purposes; for He is with you in that work, which He Himself has prepared for you and given you.  Your labors in the Lord are not in vain.  There is meaning and a point to it all, and the fruits of your good works remain forever in Christ Jesus.

Live in the confidence of His grace, mercy, and forgiveness.  For not only does He fill up whatever is lacking and make amends for whatever is amiss, but He also freely and fully removes all of your sins and failings.  He does not hold your faults against you, nor does He even consider them at all.  He rather cleanses you of all unrighteousness by the Water, Blood, and Spirit of His Passion.

Live, therefore, in the confidence that your God and Father loves you for the sake of His beloved Son, Christ Jesus.  He does not cast you away from His presence, but He hears and answers your prayers and provides for all your needs.  Always there is the loud and resounding “Amen!” of the Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead.  So does the Lord save you, according to His mercy.

Live in the confidence, which is your sure and certain hope, that He will raise you up — day by day and always and forever.  The One who promises is faithful, and He will do it.  Because you also are among the good fruits that Christ Jesus bears by the Tree of His Cross; and so it is that you shall remain forever in His own Resurrection from the dead, abiding in Him as He abides in you.

That is the testimony, the pledge, and the gift of His Water, His Blood, and His Spirit, which He pours out upon you here, and into you, body and soul, for the Resurrection and the Life everlasting.

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

Living and Abiding in the Living and Life-Giving Vine

From the beginning, Man has had an intimate connection to the dirt, to the soil, and to the produce of the soil.  Not only did God form the first Man, Adam, from the dust of the ground, but He then placed the Man and his wife in the midst of the Garden of Eden to tend it and care for it.  The Lord made Man in His own Image and Likeness and gave him dominion over the earth to manage and subdue it, to bring forth fruits of various and sundry kinds to the glory of the Holy Triune God.

God is not an entrepreneur, and He’s not out to make a living for Himself.  He creates all things, and He still preserves them, not to gain something for Himself, but rather to give Life and to share Himself with His own creatures for the sake of His divine and holy Love.  He does not need Man to feed Him, but He feeds Man, and He opens up His hand to feed and nurture every living thing.  But in His grace and mercy He creates and calls Man to share in His glory by the bearing of good fruits and by the giving of life to others.  So has He created you to live and bear good fruits in Him.

You live by faith in Him, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Thus do you receive His Life and His Love in yourself.  And relying on Him, you bear the fruits of His Love and share His Life with your neighbors.  That is the good and gracious Life for which the Lord your God has created you.

But there is a problem.  The soil has been cursed because of Man’s sin.  The Fall of Adam & Eve has had consequences, not only for them and all their children, but for the earth itself, the ground from which they were taken.  All of Creation suffers as a consequence of Man’s rebellion and sin.

The soil is cursed, and it does not easily bring forth plants.  It requires hard work, the sweat of your brow and blisters on your hands.  The Garden and the Vineyard are choked by weeds and thorns and thistles.  The earth is polluted, the sun is beclouded, and the rain is too much or too little.  The plants and the people produce more foliage than fruit, and though they might look impressive, they do little or no good.  The fruits of the Vineyard are rather wild and sour, idolatrous, and selfish.

Where God, the great Gardener, works to give Life and feed Man, Man works and competes and struggles and strives to feed himself and to horde whatever he gets.  Instead of the Life and Love of God for which you are created, there is the so-called “law of the jungle.”  Everything is amok.

Consequently, because the Lord your God is a good Gardener and He desires His Vineyard to live and grow and thrive, He cultivates the Vineyard and prunes the branches.  He removes whatever is detrimental, harmful, and unproductive, and He provides all that is needed for a fruitful Life.

But who, or what, or where is the Vine that can survive the curse and consequences of sin?  Where is the Vine that can thrive in the cursed soil, among the weeds and thorns?  And where is the Vine that can survive the Father’s pruning?  Where is the Vine that shall not be cast off and burned?

It is only in Christ Jesus, the true Vine, that the Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts shall survive and flourish and bring forth the good fruits that He intends to the praise and glory of His Holy Name.

Christ Jesus is the one true Vine, the true and perfect Man.  And His Father has planted Him in the midst of the wilderness, in the midst of the desert, in the midst of all the weeds and thorns.  He has been planted as a Seed into the ground, crucified, dead, and buried.  And as a Seed He has sprung forth from the earth, He has risen from the dead, a vital and productive Vine, surging with Life and bearing good Fruits, that the entire Vineyard should thrive with divine Life and holy Love in Him.

He has suffered the pruning, the cutting away, and the casting aside, but He has prevailed.  He has remained faithful and fruitful in the face of it all.  He has proceeded in faith, trusting His Father in all things, even unto death.  And He has proceeded in Love for His Father, for you, and for all.

Thus has He gone to His death, and thus was He planted in the dust of the earth.  And so has He been vindicated in His Resurrection, because He is the Righteous One.  He rises from the earth, and He is strong, and He is mighty, and He is full of “Sap” that flows with the very Life of God — for you and for all.  You have Life because you have been grafted into Him, into His Body.

Abide in Him, therefore, by faith in His Word, as He abides in you with His Gospel — and so bear good fruits in Him; for apart from Him you can do nothing.  But understand the order of things.

You do not become a branch of the Vine by bearing fruit.  You bear fruit as you are a branch of the Vine.  It cannot work otherwise.  It is the Vine that produces and brings forth His fruits in you.

You can’t bring a dead branch to life by purchasing clusters of grapes from the store and somehow tying them on.  But as a branch abides in the living Vine, it has life in itself and so bears fruit.  That is how it is for you, as well.  Apart from Christ Jesus, no amount of working and striving, no matter how impressive, will bring you to life.  But as you live and abide in Him, He lives in you.

Everything depends on His Word and the preaching of it, as in the case of the Ethiopian Eunuch, on his way home from the Feast in Jerusalem.  He has a portion of the Holy Scriptures, the Prophet Isaiah, and he is reading intently.  Yet, by himself he cannot understand what he is reading.  So the Spirit of Christ Jesus sends one of His messengers, one of His ministers of the Word, to explain the Scriptures to that man, to preach Jesus to him, and to baptize him in the Name of the Lord.

So it is by the preaching of His Word that Christ Jesus comes and abides with you; and it is by the hearing of His Word, by faith in His Word, that you abide in Him.  It is His Word that does it all.

It is by His Word — by the washing of the water with His Word — that you are grafted into Him in your Holy Baptism; and just like that Ethiopian, you are crucified, dead, and buried with Christ.  You also are a seed, planted in the ground.  And you also share His Resurrection.  You also surge from the earth.  You also grow and mature and live and are fruitful, because with that washing of the water with His Word — by that Holy Baptism — you are in Christ, and you are a new creation.

He has made all things new by His own Cross and in His Resurrection from the dead.  For His own Body, crucified and risen, is the Firstfruits of the New Creation.  And you also belong to that New Creation, as you are baptized into His death and so also share His Resurrection and His Life.

As His Word was at work there in the waters of your Baptism to raise you up to newness of Life, so His Word daily returns you to the significance of your Holy Baptism.  Daily His Word “waters” you with the Life-giving Rain of the Holy Spirit, so that you do not wither, waste away, and die, but by His grace you continue to live, to thrive, and to grow in the Vine.

You are already clean by the Word that Christ Jesus has spoken to you.  His Word of Absolution has not been a lie.  Your sins are forgiven.  Still, He speaks the Gospel to you, that day by day He may “wash your feet” and “water your soil” and sustain you in His Body and Life; that you might not be fruitless but fruitful; that you might live by faith in Him and in love toward your neighbor.

Your God and Father cares about you, and His desire is that you would live and thrive in His Son, Christ Jesus.  To that end, He does prune you.  With His Word of the Law He exposes your sin and cuts it out of your life.  Although that is painful, He does not aim to hurt or destroy you.  He would rather remove the clutter and open you up to the Life that He bestows through His gracious Gospel.

It is by and with and in His Word and Ministry of the Gospel that the Life of Christ Jesus flows into you.  For the Gospel is the forgiveness of all your sins, whereby everything is accomplished.  Nothing any longer stands in the way of the Life that you would have in Christ Jesus, as you are filled up with the vitality — the life and health and strength — of His Resurrection from the dead.

It is likewise by His Word that the same Lord Jesus Christ gives you the nourishment of His own good Fruits — the Fruits of the true Vine — His Body, crucified, risen, and given to you; and His holy, precious Blood, shed for you upon the Cross, and poured out for you to drink in His Supper.  So your body also is given life, and your body also is grafted into the Body of Christ Jesus, as you eat His Body and drink His Blood in faith and with thanksgiving.  Your body also is redeemed and sanctified for the Resurrection and the Life everlasting with the Holy Triune God in Paradise.

So does He abide in and with you, and you abide in and with Him, heart, mind, body, and soul.  And so do you bear good fruits to the glory of His Name, not only in your heart and mind, but in your words and actions, in holy faith and holy love.  You pray, praise, and give thanks.  You confess His Word and call upon His Name.  And you move to help your neighbors in their need.

In faith and love you worship God.  You go up to the true Jerusalem of His Church, to worship the Lord your God at the Feast of Christ Jesus, who is both your Good Shepherd and the true Passover Lamb of God — and not only that, but also the one true Vine in whom the entire Vineyard of the Lord lives and bears abundant fruit.  You worship Him from the heart, you prostrate your body and life before Him in the humility of repentance and the confidence of faith.  You lay hold of Him in faith and love in the Liturgy of His Gospel, and you rest yourself in Him who gives Himself to you.

It is not only with your heart and mind, but with your lips and your whole body that you worship Him, as you are able.  So have Christians from the start always done things with their bodies in the Liturgy, in prayer and devotion.  So, for example, you fold your hands when you pray, and you make the sign of the Cross upon your forehead and your heart, as you received in Holy Baptism.  You stand in the presence of God to praise His holy Name, and you kneel in reverence before Him as He comes to serve you with His forgiveness and to feed you with His Body and His Blood.  Such things are not necessary.  You will not make yourself righteous by doing any of these things.  You are already righteous, as you are already clean, by faith in the Gospel of Christ Jesus.  But in such ways your body participates in your confession of the faith and in your worship of the Lord.

Much the same thing is true with respect to love for your neighbor.  The fruits of love toward God also flow in love toward your neighbor, not only in the words that you speak, but also in tangible deeds of kindness and charity.  With your body, redeemed and sanctified by Christ Jesus, and fed upon His Body and His Blood, you love and serve your neighbor in his or her bodily needs.

This is how the Vineyard bears the good Fruits of the true Vine.  And this is how you, one of His branches, live in faith and love and bring forth the Fruits of Him who has become your Savior.

It is ever and always His Word that actually produces these Fruits in you, in your body and life, in your words and actions.  His Word produces these good Fruits in you because it is by this Word that your God and Father loves you and bestows His Life-giving Holy Spirit upon you in Christ Jesus.  It is by and with His Word that He gives you Himself, His Life and health, His strength and vitality, because it is by and with His Word that He forgives you all of your sins.

His Word is likewise the scaffolding and trellis upon which the branches of the Vine may grow.  For His Word is your Light upon your path, and it shows you the way in which you are to go.  His Law does not bring forth fruits; His Gospel does that, Christ does that.  But His Law guides those works of faith and love that He brings forth in you according to His good and gracious Will.

His Word enlightens before you the path by which Christ Himself has gone ahead of you in faith and love.  It is the path of compassion and great kindness, of long-suffering patience, slowness to anger, ready mercy, and free forgiveness.  Above all, it is the path of forgiveness in Christ Jesus, whereby you have Life and Salvation in body, soul, and spirit, and you forgive others in turn.

By the grace of God, by His Word and Holy Spirit, as a branch of the true Vine, abiding in Christ Jesus, you bear good Fruits after His own kind to the glory of His Holy Name and for the benefit of the neighbors He has placed alongside of you in this body and life.  For it is by Him, in Him, and with Him that you live, as surely as He is risen from the dead and lives and reigns eternally.

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