Through the Water into Life with God in Christ Jesus

In the beginning, from out of nothing, the Holy Triune God created the heavens and the earth by the speaking of the almighty and eternal Word.  The Father spoke forth His only-begotten Son, and with that Word He breathed forth His Life-giving Holy Spirit; and thus did He bring forth all of Creation, beginning with water, a great cosmic deep, and then forming the earth out of water and by water.  That is how He chose to work, to begin and to proceed.  All of this was and is very good, because it was and is the work of God, the Lord, and because He still preserves and provides for His whole Creation in love.  The Father upholds all things by His Word, who is indeed His Son.

All of this the Lord has done, and still does, out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, for the sake of Man, male and female, created in His Image and Likeness for Life with Himself forever.

But of course, our first parents, Adam and Eve, rebelled against the Lord who had created them, who had given them life.  They disobeyed His Holy Word, though it was His Word that brought them into being, gave them body and life, and provided for them. And by their sin they plunged all of mankind, all of their children, into a downward spiral of sin and death and eternal damnation, which is separation from the Holy Triune God, from His Life and His Love and His Light.

Henceforth, all men and women, boys and girls, infants and toddlers receive this inheritance from their parents, from the first moment of conception in the womb.  It is this inheritance that you have likewise received from your father and mother, which you also pass on to your sons and daughters, this heritage of sin and death from which you cannot set yourself free.  The heart, soul, mind, and strength of man, of all the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, are sinful from the outset.  That is the stream into which you were born, in which you would drown and die forever without God.

So it was that the Flood, for example, was God’s righteous judgment against the hardened hearts, unbelief, and rampant idolatry of Man.  The Holy Scriptures testify that the Lord was sorry that He had even created Man.  So He brought the waters of the Flood down upon their heads.

Yet, that same Flood, which was indeed the judgment of God against the sins of the world, was also a Type and a Sign of the great Salvation He would accomplish by His own Son, Jesus Christ, by His Holy Cross and Passion in His Body of Flesh and Blood.  For it is upon the head of Christ Jesus that God the Father finally pours out all His righteous wrath and judgment in your stead.

The Flood was thus a Type of that gracious washing of regeneration and rebirth by the Holy Spirit which the Lord has brought about in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism.  And so it was with faithful Noah and his family, eight souls in all, though they were descendants of Adam and Eve, conceived and born in sin and subject to death, they were saved by the waters of the Flood, which lifted them up in the mercies of God — pointing them and you and all mankind to Christ Jesus, our Savior.

Really, everything in the Old Testament — from before the foundation of the world, and even to the close of the age — it’s all about Jesus, the incarnate Son of God.  Everything depends upon Him, on His Incarnation, His Life, His Cross and Resurrection and Ascension.  Everything depends upon Jesus for its real meaning, for its purpose, and for its fulfillment in divine and holy Love.

So, for example, the Old Testament Exodus from Egypt is finally realized for what it truly is in the Exodus that Jesus accomplishes for us men and our salvation upon the Cross outside of Jerusalem and in His Resurrection from the dead.  He is the Firstborn Son who is put to death to set you free from Pharaoh’s satanic bondage.  And He is the Passover Lamb who is sacrificed in your stead, whose Flesh feeds you for Life, and whose Blood covers and protects you from death.

It is the wood of His Cross that parts the waters of the Red Sea; which is to speak of your Baptism in His Name, whereby you pass through those waters with Him, through death and the grave into Life in the Resurrection.  He feeds you with the heavenly Manna of His holy Body throughout your pilgrimage on earth, and He seals you in the New Covenant of His Blood in the Holy Communion.

In truth, until you finally tread the verge of Jordan — until your body is finally dead and buried from your life in this world — you never do outgrow the necessity and benefits of your Baptism.  As the Catechism has taught you, it possesses a lifelong and daily significance for you.

It is by your Baptism into Christ Jesus that you have been born again to a new and living hope through the Word of His Cross.  Like little fishes you were born in those waters, and as a Christian you live your whole life in those same waters of Holy Baptism, wherein the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have recreated you in the Image and Likeness of God — which is to say, in Christ Jesus.

It is by your Baptism into Christ, the beloved and well-pleasing Son, that you are a dear child of God, and that He is your dear Father in heaven.  And it is by your Baptism in His Name that you have been anointed with the Life-giving Holy Spirit, unto faith and life in Christ Jesus, through the forgiveness of your sins (which you need each day, just as the Lord has taught you to pray).

Your Baptism is and does all of these things, because it is by your Baptism into Christ Jesus that you have been united with Him and bound to Him in His Cross and Resurrection; such that His Good Friday and His Easter are now yours — your dying and rising in and with Him.

Henceforth you live, no longer in Adam and for yourself, but in Him and for Him who for your sake died and was raised.  The river of sin and death flowing from Adam and Eve to all of their children has been cut off, because Christ has taken His stand — together with all of us mortals — in the middle of that stream.  He has planted Himself and His Cross, the true Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat of God, in the midst of the Jordan River.  And by His priestly Sacrifice of His own Body and Life, He has opened the Way for you and for all the baptized — out of the desert wilderness into the Promised Land of heaven, flowing not with sin and death, but with the pure spiritual Milk of His Word, like Water from the Rock, sweeter than honey from the honeycomb.

Thus has the new and greater Joshua, Jesus the Christ, established the New Israel of His Church, wherein He has fixed this Pillar and this Sign of Holy Baptism, which works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal Salvation — to you and to all who believe this, as the Words and Promises of God declare: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.”

It is to this permanent Monument of Holy Baptism that Jesus calls you daily by His Word and Holy Spirit through contrition, repentance, and faith.  For it is with His Baptism that you also have been baptized; only, what was death for Him is now Life for you.  By your Baptism with Christ, your old Adam is crucified, put to death, and buried; he is drowned and destroyed, with all your sinful lusts and desires.  But, so also, by and from those waters of Holy Baptism, you arise and emerge to live before God as a new creation, to live in and with the New Man, the true and better Adam, Jesus Christ, in His righteousness and purity, which are yours by His grace through faith in Him.

So it is that you live with Him in His Kingdom, now and forever; and you do drink His Cup, the overflowing Chalice of His holy and precious Blood, unto the Resurrection and eternal Life.

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

He Turns to You a Father's Heart

Both boys are blind to begin with.  Neither of them knows who he really is, nor what his life is worth, nor how to live in peace and joy and contentment.  Maybe you have the same problem.

One of them adopts a strategy of extravagant spending, the other of disciplined saving, but neither of these sons is satisfied.  One of them is restless and tired of the routine; he wants to leave, to make his own way in the world, and he goes for it.  The other is unhappy and resentful of his lot, but he doesn’t dare leave.  He follows the rules and keeps his nose clean, but he doesn’t like it.

Both boys are lost, each in his own way, because they have both lost sight of their Father.  They do not know themselves, not rightly, because they have forgotten what He is like.  They do not feel at home with Him, because they no longer know His heart.

But He has not forgotten either of them.  He has not lost sight of them, no matter where they are, near or far.  And He has not turned His heart away from either one of them.  Not at all.  That is the point on which the story turns, on which everything depends.  Not what the boys are like, nor how they behave, but who the Father is, and what He does.  You’ll finally find yourself there, too; that is to say, neither in wanderlust nor in work, but in your Father, in His Household and Family.

I do not mean that your day-to-day life in the world doesn’t matter.  I’m not suggesting that what you do, be it good or bad, is of no account or consequence.  You should not neglect your job, nor should you waste what God has given you, certainly not in wrongdoing.  A child of the Father will want to make different decisions than that.

But the point is that you do not make a life or a name for yourself.  Nor do you have to.  You have been given life, and you live it, by the grace of your Father.  And His House is your true home, your place of peace and rest, because He has named you with His Name.  All that He has is yours, because He is your Dad.  Even His servants are well-cared for.  How much more His own children!

That is what remains solid and true.  The Father remains faithful to who and what He is.  He cannot deny Himself, and He will not disown His children.  Not when His younger son wishes He were dead, and values wealth over family, and runs off to squander his life on the reckless pursuit of fun.  And not when His older son tells Him off, yells in His face, and refuses to come into the House.

He does not disown them, because He loves them, and He has compassion for them, even though they suffer the consequences of their own attitudes and actions.  He is patient with them, and He gently pursues them in peace.  And in the same way, He does not disown you, either; but rather, as He has called you by name, so does He seek you out and call you back to Himself.

But who, then, will be the Son after His Father’s heart?  He will be the One who has learned to live in His Father’s House; who looks to His Father and trusts Him for all good things; who seeks not His own but the Father’s Will, and gladly receives whatever His Father gives Him; who does not begrudge the Father’s generosity to others, but actually lays down His own life for them all.

He is the One who receives sinners and eats with them; who calls publicans and prostitutes to repentance, and in mercy welcomes them to His Table.  He goes looking for the lost sheep, rescues it from danger, and bears it home upon His shoulders, rejoicing in its recovery.

This is the Son in whom God the Father reconciles the whole wide world to Himself, not counting trespasses or keeping track of sins, but forgiving iniquity, absolving guilt, and covering shame with His own grace and glory.  Indeed, He is not passive but active in His rescue of the lost.  He takes every initiative in seeking them out and saving them.  Indeed, He has become your Salvation

You see it in the case of the older brother, when the Father goes out to him and pleads with him.  This is the ministry of reconciliation: “My child, I am at peace with you.  Be at peace with Me and with your brother.  Come on home.  Come inside.  Rest yourself here in My love for you.”

This ministry of reconciliation hinges on the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus.  There God has turned to you a fatherly heart in the Person of His Son.  In His Flesh and Blood you are shown what your God and Father is like, and you see how far He has gone to bring you home in Love.

The only-begotten Son of God has gone on a journey, from the House of His Father into the far country of your sin and death.  He has emptied Himself and made Himself nothing.  He has spent Himself in Love for sinners like yourself.  He has made Himself unclean with your uncleanness.  He has soiled Himself with your slop and made Himself stinky with your stench.

He has placed Himself under the burden and the condemnation of the Law and has suffered its judgment, its punishment and shame.  Abandoned and alone, a stranger in a strange land; beaten up, a bloody mess; stripped naked and hung up on the Cross in shame.  The eyes of the world are upon Him with contempt, because the handwriting of your sin has been leveled against Him as an accusation.  “Where is Your Father now?” the mockers taunt and tease.

But the Father has handed Him over to this death in order to save you and all the children of men; and this Son, the true Son after His Father’s heart, goes willingly.  He becomes your sin.  He bears your curse, and He becomes that, too.  He is damned in your place, as you have deserved.

As Life is found with the Father, in the Father’s House, so does separation from the Father bring death.  That is where you were, so that is where this Son goes, even unto death upon the Cross.

In Him the Father comes to you and finds you.  And not for nothing does He do it.  Nor merely to commiserate with you.  Neither to wallow in the muck and the mire without any help or hope for you.  But He comes to you in Love, that you might become the righteousness of God in Him.

To that end, the Son who went on this journey into a distant country has also risen from the dead and returned to His Father.  The One who humbled Himself unto death, sharing your shame and disgrace, has also been highly exalted and has sat down at the right hand of the Throne of God.  He died, and yet, behold, He lives.  He became sin, and yet, He is glorified and honored, He is righteous and holy in the presence of His God and Father, forever and ever.

This, then, is the answer to all of your questions.  This is the resolution of all your predicaments and problems.  This is your Resurrection and your Righteousness.  This is who you are and what you are worth.  As Christ Jesus, the Son of God, was baptized into your pig sty and has returned to His Father in peace and joy, so are you baptized into His Cross and Resurrection and Ascension.

To come to yourself, to find yourself, and to know yourself rightly, is to know God as your Father in Christ Jesus.  It is to remember your Baptism and what your Baptism means and does for you; that just as God raised Jesus from the dead, so do you also rise and walk in newness of Life.

Recognize your sins and repent of them.  Return to the Lord your God.  Come home to your Father in Christ; no matter whether you have been far, far away, pursuing the fake and fatal “freedom” of debauchery, or always close at hand but hardening your heart while trying to earn your keep.  Forget all of that, and remember who you are by the grace of God: “You are My beloved son,” the voice of the Father declares.  “With you I am well-pleased.”

Listen: Your Father calls you to repentance, which is to say, He calls you to come home to Him.  Not as a bargain to be struck, nor a barter to be made — not as a condition or contingency — but because He loves you, and He longs to have you with Him, in order to give you His Life.  And it surely is not hopeless, nor are you a lost cause; for there is no depth and no distance from which He has not already sought you out and found you and brought you home to Himself in Christ.

Consider the prodigal son, in whose place you also have been, and whose place the Son of God has freely taken.  Already when the prodigal “comes to himself,” it is because he begins to remember his Father, and his Father’s House, and what his Father is like.  That is what raises him up from the muck and the mire and turns him homeward.

And while he is still strategizing, feeling sorry for himself and ashamed of his sin, but ready to make a deal — while he is “still a long way off” — even then, “the Father saw him.”  His Father’s eye has always been upon him and has never lost sight of him; not looking over his shoulder to criticize and condemn, but with deep, divine compassion for him.

He will not force His son to come home.  He has freely allowed the boy his fatal freedom.  For what the Father longs for is not a servant, not a slave or a hired hand, but His son.  He loves him, and that is how he deals with him.  So, He will not force him against his will; but neither does the Father simply wait it out and make His son bridge the gap and go the distance.  By no means.

Consider it well, that the Father goes out to get His boy and brings him back home.  In doing so, He takes the prodigal’s shame upon Himself, and He adorns that young man with His own honor.  He serves notice that, “Anyone who has a problem with My son, has a problem with Me.”

But there is no law, no accusation, no guilt or shame that can separate a child from this Father’s Love.  It is no mere emotion, nor sentiment, nor empty show.   This Father’s heart is turned toward you, and open to you, and beats for you, in the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead.  It is in Him that God the Father runs to you, embraces you, and kisses you.  It is with Him that your Father robes you in righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.  It is by His Gospel of forgiveness that He puts a ring on your finger — not a wedding ring, in this case, but the signet ring of a child and heir of the House.  So, too, your feet are shod with the sandals of peace, for you are welcomed without any reservations or restrictions.  You are at home.

Little wonder that St. Paul genuflects before this God and Father of our dear Lord Jesus Christ, by whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named.  We bend the knee, too, not in shame or terror, but in faith and love, in gratitude and joy, and in reverent awe of His mercy.  For such Love the Father has for us, that He has given us the right to be called His children.

This is what it means to be a real father.  This is what it looks like.  Patience and peace for your children.  Compassion, even for their self-inflicted wounds, and forgiveness for all their sins.  Not returning anger for anger, but exercising gentleness and self-control.  Not giving up on the wayward daughter or the prodigal son, but watching and waiting, ready to run to them with open arms and bring them home.  And to do it all over again.  Not keeping score.  Not counting the cost.  Not counting their trespasses against them.

What man among you is like that?  Where has there ever been, or where shall you ever find, such a father as that?  You do not see it in yourself, nor in your family.  “Show us such a Father,” you pray, “and that will be sufficient.”

Dear child of God, He is already with you, and so shall He always be.  For you know the Father in His Son.  In the One who receives sinners, including you, and eats with them.  In the One who has become the Sacrifice for all your sins, who now feeds you with Himself, with His Body and His Blood.  In this One who has become your Brother in the flesh, in order to make you a child of His God and Father.  In Him who was dead, who has come to life again, that you might live.

Great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel!  For this Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ is the Heart of God the Father for you, for the forgiveness of all your sins.  For you fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters; for you husbands and wives, and for you widows, widowers, and orphans in distress — here is your everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, who does not cast you away from His presence, but has found you and brought you here, home to Himself, in Love.

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

In the Flesh and by the Cross, God Loves You and Gives You Life

Nine months prior to Christmas, the Feast of the Annunciation on March the 25th is one of the most ancient of the Church’s festival occasions; and in many ways it marks the beginning of the Gospel.  Coming as it does in the midst of Lent, it stands out in sharp contrast to that season of repentance.  And that is really to the point at hand; for the Light of God in Christ Jesus shines in the midst of deep darkness, in order that you may see and believe and live by that Light, now and forevermore.

Here in the Annunciation — in the Word of the Lord spoken by the Archangel Gabriel — God takes hold of His Creation.  As He once took hold of dirt, in order to make the Man, and as He then took hold of the Man’s rib in order to make the Woman for the Man, so here He takes hold of Blessed Mary’s flesh and blood, in order to make the New Man for you and your salvation.  He takes hold of Mary’s flesh, and God Himself becomes the Man who knows you and gives you Life.

In taking hold of St. Mary’s flesh God makes Himself a part of His own Creation, and henceforth He lives His divine, eternal Life in His own Flesh, so that you might live your own life-in-the-flesh with God.  He thereby takes hold of His whole Creation, but in particular the Man and the Woman, the King and the Queen of His Creation, that He might bestow His good gifts upon them in Love.

That God is conceived and shall be born of this Woman is good news for you and for all people.  For St. Mary is your sister in the flesh, a daughter, not only of David’s household and family, but of Adam and Eve, like yourself.  But now, in bearing the Son of God, the Savior of all the children of men, she also becomes the Mother of all the Living, of all who are reborn as the children of God by the washing of water with His Word and Spirit — as God the Son is conceived in her womb.

God thus takes hold of His Creation, in order to bring Creation to completion and perfection in the Person of this Son.  All is not yet accomplished on this day, but all has begun to be accomplished.

God here becomes Man, the Word becomes Flesh.  And why?  That He should offer His Body as a Sacrifice and raise that Body again from the dead, and so that He might feed you with His Body.

All of this great Salvation, by which God gives you divine, eternal Life, begins here and necessarily depends upon His work today in the Annunciation of His Word to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

By the Incarnation of God’s Son — which simply means that God, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity actually becomes Flesh, conceived and born of the Woman, flesh of her flesh and blood of her blood — by His Incarnation, by His Holy Cross and Passion, and in His Resurrection from the dead, all of Creation is redeemed and sanctified for the Life everlasting.

That is how it is, and why it is, that all things are given to be received with thanksgiving and are sanctified to your use by the Word of God and prayer; for God Himself lives in the Flesh forever.  Let no one say that His Creation is evil or beyond all hope.  His Creation is rather a cause for great rejoicing and thanksgiving, notwithstanding the curse of sin and the burden of death in the wake of Man’s tragic Fall.  The Incarnation is not only the proof, but the very means by which it is so.

What is more, not only is all of Creation redeemed and sanctified, beginning with this Incarnation of the Son of God in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary; but in particular, the reconciliation of Man to God has here begun.  Your fellowship with God is here begun and established in the Body of Christ Jesus, in whom God and Man are truly One — not simply joined together, but truly One.  So it is in Him that you are reconciled to God and united with Him in holy fellowship.  Indeed, that is your Life, to live with God in Christ Jesus, also in your flesh, in both your body and your soul.

And as Christ lives in perfect faith and holy love, so it is that you now live in faith and love, since you are baptized in His Name and live and abide in Him.  From this point onward, everything He does, even as the tiniest Fetus in the womb of His Mother, He does as the true Man.  He lives by faith in His God and Father, just as Man was and is created to live by such faith; and He lives in love for all the children of men, whom He is not ashamed to call His own brothers and sisters.

In this Holy Gospel you are given to know the way that God regards you, and the way that He receives and reconciles you to Himself.  Here His great Love is made manifest, that though in the flesh you fell, and though with your body you sin, and though you have departed from His ways, He loves you and embraces you to Himself, both body and soul, within Himself, in His own Flesh.

It is in the light of this Incarnation of God the Son — beginning with His conception in the womb — that you likewise regard and receive your neighbor in Jesus’ Name and for His sake.  That begins with your tiniest neighbors of all, with infants in the womb, who are so ill regarded by the world, but whom God the Lord has delighted to make His own brothers and sisters in the flesh.

So has taken for Himself and lived in His own Flesh all the stages of human life, from the womb to the tomb.  Every circumstance and every situation, every temptation, every hurt and fear, and every frailty of the flesh, God has made His own in the Person of Christ Jesus, the Son of Mary.  And with His own Body and Life He has sanctified every part of life for you and your neighbors.

Love your neighbor, therefore, not only for Jesus’ sake, but because it is in your neighbor that you love Christ Jesus.  Know that your neighbor shares flesh and blood with God the Son — all the more so if he or she is a Christian, a communicant in the Body and Blood of Jesus.  And know that your neighbor’s body and life are precious to God, no matter who or what your neighbor may be.

The same is true for you, as well.  You also are precious to your God and Father in heaven, and to your dear Savior, Jesus Christ, who has become like you in every way (save only without sin), that you might be like Him and live with Him forever (set free from sin and death).  Your body and life are precious to Him, whatever the frailties and weaknesses of your mortal flesh.  Whatever trips and falls you have stumbled in your life, God is with you in the Flesh and Blood of Jesus, and you have found favor with God in Him.  In that respect, what is true for St. Mary is no less true for you.

God is gracious toward you.  His mercy is upon you — not according to your merit, but according to His grace, His Love and His forgiveness, and His desire for your salvation.  He comes to you in Love, and He is with you, not as a stranger, but as your Friend, as your Brother, as your Savior and your God.  Indeed, He who is the one true King, your Savior and your God, has come to reign over you in Love, to serve you with Himself, and to make of you a free citizen of His Kingdom, which has no end.  You live with Him, because He has come to live with you here in Flesh like yours.

How?  How can this be?  And how is it done and accomplished?  It is all by the Word of His Cross.

It is a great irony and a paradox, and yet it is the truth, that the Cross — which is foolishness and a stumbling block to those who are perishing — is the power of the Most High.  It is by the Word of the Cross that the Holy Spirit comes upon you and overshadows you — not to destroy you, and not to terrify you, but to save you and give you Life with God in body and soul, now and forever.

It is the Word of the Cross — this Word of death, of blood and hurt and shame — that raises you from death, and gives you Life, and shines the Light of God upon you in the midst of darkness.

It is the Word of the Cross that was also spoken to St. Mary, even in the Annunciation of such good and gracious news as she received on this day.  For the Child she conceives takes flesh and blood from her womb in order to sacrifice it upon the Cross.  Her Child comes to die.  And as she shares His Life, she also bears the Cross, even in His infancy, and then again at the foot of His Cross.

The same is true of every Christian, every daughter or son of God in Christ Jesus, everyone whom He addresses with the Word of the Cross of Christ.  There is this burden of life in this world, in which you are mocked and ridiculed or hurt, in which you are maligned and misunderstood, in which you are put to the test and maybe even put to death for the Name of Christ which you bear.

And yet, it is still that Word of the Cross that gives you Life through the forgiveness of your sins.

The Lord your God loves you, and He knows what He is doing.  He’s not out to wreck your life or destroy you.  Rather, all that He does is for your sake — it is for your benefit — that you may live.

“Do not be afraid.”  Those are precious Words which Gabriel announces to St. Mary, and they are echoed throughout the Gospels on the lips of Christ Jesus.  Those Words are also spoken to you.

“Do not be afraid.”  Do not be afraid to live the life that God the Lord has given you, even though it is a life under the Cross in this world.  Do not be afraid to live the life that God gives to you, although it is a life that you live by the way of death with Christ Jesus, beginning already in your Baptism.  And day by day, what does your Baptism indicate?  That you should die to live with Him.

Do not be afraid of the vocations and stations in life to which your God and Father has called you.  Do not suppose that it will be easy; it often won’t.  And do not suppose that anyone else will care; for many will not.  But do not be afraid to live wherever the Lord your God has placed you.

To be sure, none of you are called to be the Mother of God, as St. Mary was.  But your own calling, along with your life and your flesh, is sanctified and redeemed by the Incarnation of Christ Jesus.  Whether you are a celibate virgin and serve the church and your neighbor within that vocation; or whether you are a married man or woman, a mother or father; and whether you have any children of your own or not — wherever God has stationed you, do not be afraid to live in that calling, but do so with confidence and courage, and know that it means something, it matters.  Your labors in the Lord are not in vain, for He will accomplish His purposes in you to the glory of His Name.

If you are beaten up and hurt, if you are slapped around, if you are spit upon, if you are crowned with thorns, if you are scourged, if you are nailed to a cross — then rejoice that you are counted worthy to share the glory of your God, who has obtained salvation by suffering those very things.

Do not be afraid.  Yes, your sins accuse you, the devil assails you, the world attacks you, and death is always stalking you.  But do not be afraid.  For here stands and echoes the Word of God, which He has spoken to you and concerning you by His Son — yes, even in the Flesh of Jesus Christ, conceived and born of Mary, crucified and risen from the dead, your merciful and great High Priest.

May it be done to you according to His Word.

May you have Life in the midst of death and Light in the midst of deep darkness.  For the Word that God speaks to you — the forgiveness of your sins, the promise of salvation, the gracious adoption of sons, the bestowal of His Holy Spirit, the grace and favor of God in Christ Jesus — this Word that He speaks to you is no less amazing or remarkable than the Word that He spoke to St. Mary.  It is no less difficult to believe or to bear.  But it is no less true for you than it was for her.

Not only that, but the very same Flesh and Blood that were conceived in her womb, and born nine months later from her body, and crucified under Pontius Pilate, and laid to rest by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea — the same Body of that very same Flesh and Blood, just like yours, now also risen from the dead, alive forevermore — God speaks to you and gives to you that very same Body, and He pours out for you that very same Blood of Jesus Christ here within His Church on earth.

This is His Pledge, and this is the Sign He gives to you, as deep as Sheol and as high as Heaven.  The Man from Heaven who has come down and gone back to the Father, making a Way for you — He Himself is the Sign that is given to you.  And not only a Sign, but the Substance of your Salvation, your Savior in the Flesh.  He is given into your body, to be “conceived” and “born” in you today.  May it be done to you according to that Word, that you may have Life in Christ forever.

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

As God Speaks by His Son, So Do You Pray in His Name

The Lord your God has commanded you to pray, and He has promised to hear you.  He has also taught you how to pray and what to pray, so that you may approach Him and call upon His Name with all boldness and confidence, as a child looking to your Father for all that you need.  And it is truly meet and right that you should do so, because your need for Him is great.  He is your Life and your Salvation, and He is your Help and Hope at all times and in all places.

Pray to Him in faith according to His Word, that is to say, in the way that He has taught you and in the confidence of His promises.  Because He has so tenderly invited you to do so, look to Him as your own dear Father in Christ Jesus, the beloved Son.  And rely upon Him for all good things, for all that you need in body and soul, trusting in His mercy, His grace, and His forgiveness.

This way of prayer is the way of true wisdom in the fear, love, and trust of the Holy Triune God.  It is your acceptable and pleasing sacrifice and your sweet-smelling incense in the presence of the Lord your God.  And it begins, not with your speaking, but with your listening to His Word.

You know how and what to speak, both to and about God — you know how and what to confess and to pray — first of all by hearing what God the Lord says to you, and then by speaking to and about Him as He has spoken.

“Righteousness looks down from the sky,” and then “faithfulness springs up from the ground.”

God speaks His justifying Word of the Gospel to you, and then by faith you pray to Him as He has spoken.  For His Word does not return to Him empty or unfruitful, but as the Lord gives the seed, the sunshine and rain from heaven, and thus brings forth a bounteous crop from the earth, so does He raise you up, a new creation, and open your mouth and your lips to show forth His praise.

It is from a heart of faith in Christ Jesus that you pray.  This Son of David, who is the incarnate Son of God, the true King of Wisdom and of Peace, He is the One by whom you pray and are heard.  He is God’s Word to you — the Word of the Father in the Flesh of His Son — who has become your sure and certain Word of Prayer to God.

This Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished and fulfilled the good and gracious Will of God for you and your salvation.  He has overcome death and the grave and He has defeated the devil by atoning for all your sins with His holy and precious Blood, by the sacrifice of Himself.  In His Resurrection from the dead and in His preaching of the Gospel of His Cross, He has brought and established the Kingdom of God in His Church on earth.  And in your Holy Baptism He has not only made you a free citizen of that fair and glorious Kingdom, but He has made you a member of the Household and Family of God, a dear child of His own Father, by naming you with His Name.

All of this for which you pray He has done for you by His Incarnation, Cross, and Resurrection, and He now gives to you by His Ministry of the Gospel, by His preaching and His Sacraments.

Thus, He teaches you to pray for the Gospel, first and foremost; which He delights to give to you and do for you by His grace.  He teaches you to pray for what He is already doing and giving!

The Gospel of Christ Jesus is the most important “daily bread,” without which you have no life.  Therefore, He teaches you to pray, that you would learn to know your need for it, and that you would look to Him alone to save you, and that you would receive the Gospel with thanksgiving.  He does not force it upon you, but He desires you to have it from Him so that you may live.

Worldly riches, earthly power, human fame, and temporal success, all are attractive and enticing, but all are empty of real life and altogether unable to save you.  To be sure, they are gifts of God, to be received and used with thanksgiving and sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.  But everything depends upon His Word and Holy Spirit, lest His good gifts become your deadly idols.

It is by and with the Gospel that the Lord your God gives you every good and perfect gift and all that you need, already here in time and all the more so for your body and soul hereafter in eternity.  With the Gospel God Himself is yours by His grace, and His Kingdom and His Righteousness are yours through His forgiveness of all your sins — purchased and won for you and all people by the giving of the Son of God into death upon the Cross and by the Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead, who ever lives to make intercession for you before the Throne of His God and Father.

Everything depends upon the forgiveness of sins, since all that you deserve is only punishment, now and forever.  But the Gospel is entirely by the grace and mercy of God in Christ Jesus, by the divine Charity of the Father in His Son.  For His sake He forgives you all your sins.  In Him the Father speaks Peace to His people.  And with that grace He freely gives you all good things.  For it is in Christ Jesus, by your Baptism in His Name, that His God and Father is your God and Father.

He is your true Father, and you are His own dear child.  But He is not your Father only.  He is the Father of all who are baptized into Christ Jesus, the beloved Son.  He is the God and Father of all who belong to Christ by His grace, through faith in Him.

Therefore, as often as you pray, you do so in the fellowship of the whole Christian Church, both with and for your brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.  You pray to one and the same God and Father of all Christians everywhere, in the holy Name with which each and all of you are named.

And all those many brothers and sisters of Christ, all those children of the heavenly Father, they all pray for you and with you in the one Lord, Jesus Christ, and in the Life-giving Holy Spirit.  Really, there is that one Prayer of Christ and His Spirit, to which your prayer and the prayer of all the baptized faithful is united.  The crucified and risen Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the uplifted Hands and the holy Incense of your prayer, of your evening and morning sacrifice, which ever arise and ascend to “Our Father who art in heaven” and are gladly received by Him.

As this great fellowship of the Church depends upon the forgiveness of sins, so does the Church on earth also live in the mutual forgiveness of sins — each and all of you, one for the other — confessing your sins to one another and freely forgiving each other in the confidence of Christ.

The faith that lives before God in Christ Jesus likewise dwells in love with the neighbor in Christ.  And as you pray to your Father in the faith and confidence that He daily and richly forgives you all your sins, so do you thus abide in His love and forgive your neighbors for Jesus’ sake.

By contrast, a refusal to forgive those who sin against you is a rejection of the very forgiveness of sins that you yourself need and depend upon.  And that refusal of your neighbor — that rejection of the Gospel for your neighbor — shipwrecks your faith and poisons your prayer.

You simply cannot pray in the peace of Christ Jesus while refusing to forgive your neighbor.

So it is that your Father calls you daily to repentance.  He does so in His great love for you, His own dear child, so that you do not grow cold and hard and die in your sins, but that you would be turned to Him in faith, to receive from Him the forgiveness, Life, and Salvation of Christ Jesus.

He performs a kind of open-heart surgery, cutting you open and piercing your flesh to its core, in order to expose and deal with your animosity and enmity, your bitterness and grudges, and your stubborn rejection of grace — for that is what your refusal to forgive your neighbor actually is.

This painful process, which threatens to kill you — and in a sense, it does, there on the operating table — that is the discipline of a loving Father for His dearly-beloved child.  He opens you up and exposes your sick and sinful heart in this way, in order to speak tenderly to your heart by His Son.

He allows you to be tempted and tried, and He puts you to the test, in order to restore your faith, and strengthen your faith, and teach you to pray.  For surely your need and your hurt, your poverty and suffering bring you to your knees and turn your ears and heart back to God, to listen to Him, and then also your mouth and your lips to pray, to call upon His Name for mercy and salvation.

He teaches you not to despair, but to pray in this way, and He also answers your prayer by the way and the means of His Gospel.  He hallows His Name in you by the preaching of His forgiveness.  And He protects your faith and life within His Kingdom by His Holy Spirit through the same Holy Gospel.  So, too, according to His good and gracious Will, He thwarts the wickedness of the devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh, and He preserves you steadfast in His Word and faith.

He daily and richly forgives you all your sins — by His Gospel in His Church — and He daily and richly provides you with all that you need for this body and life on earth.

And by this same grace and mercy, by the Word and Spirit of His Son, and by the strong protection and sacred service of His holy angels, He guards and keeps you in the midst of temptation, and He delivers you from every evil of body and soul.

So it is that trial and tribulation, temptation, and tragedy are not able to destroy you, but rather serve the purpose of driving you back to God, your Father in Christ Jesus, in whom you endure — in whom you have peace and rest — unto the Resurrection of your body and the Life everlasting.

That same Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, your Savior, is the true King Solomon, the real Prince of Peace, and the very Wisdom of God the Father.

By Him God speaks to you — His Perfect Peace and His Sabbath Rest for your body and your soul — and in Him you speak to God: You pray, praise, and give thanks, and you call upon His Name.

As He speaks to you by His Son, so do you pray to Him by the Same.  What is more, dear child of God the Father, your prayer is heard by Him, it is acceptable and pleasing to His ears, and it is gladly answered in love with a resounding “Yes” and “Amen,” which is Christ Jesus Himself.

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

The Fruits of the Repentance of Christ Jesus

Let’s face it: Life in the wilderness is hard.

Which is not to say there are no joys along the way, no pleasant perks or satisfactions.  Indeed, there are many good things in this body and life, by the grace and mercies of God in Christ Jesus, for which we rightly give to Him all thanks and praise.  He both leads and follows after you, and day after day He guards and keeps you in body and soul.  So does He also feed and nurture and sustain you on the journey; He opens up His hand to provide you with everything you need.

Even so, life in the wilderness is hard.  You work hard, and it’s a struggle to keep your head above water, to make ends meet, and to get ahead.  No matter how secure your investments, and no matter how safe your neighborhood, there are threats and dangers that may still lay hands on you.  And all around you, near and far, your neighbors in the world are falling prey to foul play and disaster.

Now, some of what you read and hear about, and some of what you know firsthand, may seem like the natural consequences of poor decisions, reckless behavior, or a lack of foresight and planning.  And when such things befall someone you don’t know or someone you don’t like, you’re prone to wag your finger and your tongue; whereas, when they happen to a friend, you may commiserate and shake your head with sympathy and concern.  But such things won’t happen to you, right?

Be careful.  If you think that you are standing tall and strong, take heed, lest you fall down hard.

There are those calamities, of course, where no amount of planning ahead or being careful make any difference at all.  Like a sinkhole opening up beneath your home and swallowing you alive while you are fast asleep in your own bed.  Or minding your own business, going about your day, doing what you’re supposed to be doing, and yet, ending up in the wrong place at the wrong time when someone you don’t even know finally snaps and goes postal

There, indeed, but for the grace of God, go you.

But what is the point or purpose of it all, and what’s your plan?  Is it a matter of being savvy and working hard?  Or is it chance?  A game of luck, be it good or bad, but of no strategy or skill?

As a Christian you know better, as the Word and Spirit of the Lord have taught you.  He has made you and all creatures, and He still takes care of you, even in the wilderness.  Bad stuff happens, but He remains faithful.  All of creation is under the curse of sin and death, but there is still hope; for the Lord Himself has entered His own Creation and become Flesh; He has taken all your sins upon Himself and lived in the wilderness; He has suffered your death, and He has risen from the dead.

As the Lord Himself lives — not only from eternity, in Himself, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but also in the Resurrection of the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus, in His own Body of flesh and blood like yours — as surely He lives, so surely does He love you and give to you His own divine Life.

He calls you to live by faith in Him, which is to fear, love, and trust in Him above all other gods.  And He calls you to that life, not by force or constraint — not by twisting your arm, not with bribes or threats, and not by violating your will — but by His Word and Spirit.  He preaches and teaches, and He pours out His Life and His good Gifts freely upon you, that you might learn to love Him.

Now, your life on earth, here in the wilderness, is not a game; it’s not a meaningless exercise; nor is it a scientific experiment, as though you were a rat being run through a maze in some cosmic lab.

But this wilderness is a training ground — as well as a battle zone between God and the devil.  The outcome of that contest is already safe and secure in Christ Jesus, but He wages the war in such a way that you are given to share in His victory.  So there is this “boot camp” of life on earth.  It is an apprenticeship, which we normally describe as discipleship, whereby you take up the Cross and follow after Christ, in order to learn from Him how to think, and how to speak, and how to live, and how to die.  The world is your classroom, and mortal life is a learning experience.

What the Lord is teaching — and what you are here learning — is daily, ongoing repentance; and that is painful and hard, to be sure, but it is for your own eternal good.  For this is how you learn to live in the faith and love of God, in the neverending divine glory of His grace and goodness.

Sin and its consequences, including death — both within your mortal flesh and all around you in the fallen world — are a preaching of the Law of God, which not only exposes and accuses your efforts to live without the Lord (for that is what you do with all your sins), but it also brings to bear the utter futility of any and all such attempts to make a life for yourself.  You cannot live by your own righteousness, which is really no true righteousness at all, but rather an idolatry of your self.

Even when you may be prospering for a little while in this fading and fast-fleeting world, yet, when others around you suffer, whether as criminals being punished or as victims being exploited, in them you are confronted with your own mortality, with your own culpability and vulnerability.  And thus you are reminded of where you are (and are not) called to look for and find your life.

Do not become complacent and lazy, resting on your laurels, or supposing that everything will always continue as it has before.  Nor become haughty and brazen, presumptuous and pushy, as though you had any rightful claim upon your life.  The truth is that you live by the charity of God, and you cannot extend your life by even so much as one day beyond what He bestows upon you.

But do not despair of hope, either, and don’t suppose that you will gain control by ending your life.  Despair and the death that it brings are neither mastery nor liberation, but a dark enslavement.

Despair of yourself and your righteousness, yes; but then also hope and trust in Christ, your Lord.

Repent of your sin.  That is what I mean.  And that is what I must preach, if I am to be a faithful watchman of the Lord’s people.  Repent of your sin in all of its breadth, and height, and depth.  That is to say, in all of your thoughts, words, and deeds, cease from doing evil, and begin to do what is good and right.

Remember and return to the Lord your God.  He is the beginning of your faith and righteousness.

Remember that He brought you out of Egypt through the Red Sea waters of your Holy Baptism, and so now enter into Canaan with Joshua by returning to the significance of your Baptism.

That does not mean relying on your Baptism as a presumptuous excuse to sin, as though it didn’t matter; as though it made no difference; as though you could go on sinning with impunity.  No, the history of Israel in the wilderness is proof against that, and a warning to you against that lie.

But rather leave your sin and every evil, Pharaoh and all his chariots and horsemen, drowned in the depths of the sea behind you.  Do not dredge them up again in your life and conduct.  Instead, live now by the Word of God, by the Food and Drink that He provides, and by His Righteousness.

The wilderness is not only hard but precarious; the time is short, and the Lord’s call to repentance is urgent.  Therefore, do not crave evil, but hunger and thirst for the Lord and His good Gifts.

Evil does not wear a name tag, but it masquerades as a golden god.  It offers enticing promises, stroking your ego, stimulating your mind, warming your heart, and arousing your flesh.  It teases your tongue and fills up your body with tasty morsels and sweet wine.  It tells you what you want to hear.  It makes you feel good.  It looks and sounds like the answer you’ve been searching for.

Do not be deceived.  Do not be an idolater.  And do not kid yourself that idolatry is easily spotted and avoided.  Your gluttony of food and drink is idolatry.  Your lust and fornication are idolatry, even if your false gods are only images on the internet or in magazines.  Your addiction to gossip, to shopping, or to anything else, is idolatry.  With your time and energy, with your mind and body, and with your wasted talents and squandered treasures, you worship and serve your addictions.

Beloved, do not try and tempt the Lord your God.  Hear and heed His warning, and repent.

In particular, cease and desist from your grumbling and complaining, lest you be destroyed by the devil and his wicked deceits.  In this, too, Satan would lead you into complacency and have you suppose that there is no danger or harm in your muttering and whining.  But you are a Christian!  Do you not realize that words are powerful?  That what you speak, as well as what you listen to, shapes and gives substance to your thoughts and feelings?  Even your whispers give voice to the meditations of your heart, and, in turn, they inform and determine the imaginations of your heart.  Thus, with your grumbling complaints the devil hardens your heart against the Lord your God.

But now, repent of that, and live by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.  Hold His Word and preaching to be sacred and, as such, gladly hear and learn it.  And as you have heard, so also speak.  Armor and shield yourself with His Word and bear it as your Sword against the crafts and accusations of the devil.  Let your heart and mind be taught by Christ Jesus, that is, by confessing and praying and singing His Word.   That is where your Life is truly to be found.

Then also live your life in Christ by His Word, by practicing justice and righteousness.  That is to say, what you have heard and received from Him by His grace, put into practice in the way that you speak to your neighbors and deal with your neighbors.  Practice charity with all people.  Have mercy and compassion on those who are in need, not only with kind words, but with good deeds and generous gifts.  Freely forgive and gladly do good to those who trespass against you.  And where you have done wrong or failed to do right, now make amends and reparations as you can.

Such righteous living derives from the righteousness of faith in Christ.  It cannot be purchased, nor is it manufactured by human ingenuity.  But the good works of which I speak — the practice of justice and righteousness to which the Lord calls you — these are the fruits of repentance, the fruits of faith, the fruits of the Spirit of Christ Jesus, which are borne by the Tree of His Cross.

This is the repentance to which He calls you, that is, the repentance of His own Cross and of His Resurrection from the dead.  Indeed, His Body and His Blood, crucified and risen, are the First Fruits of repentance, which bear fruits after their own kind in you.  And this is the way of escape that He has provided, in order that you may endure the temptations of the devil, the world, and your flesh, and survive the wilderness journey, and finally enter into Canaan, into eternal Life.

The Lord is a tender Teacher and a patient Pastor.  He is merciful, kind, and good, long-suffering, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.  As surely as He lives — crucified and risen from the dead, never to die again — so surely does He love you, and so does He desire to give you Life.

Thus has He given His own Life for you, and shed His own Blood by His crucifixion under Pontius Pilate, as the Sacrifice of Atonement for all your sins and for the sins of the whole world.  And so has He conquered death and the devil on your behalf, treading them into dust beneath His feet.

The Tree of His Cross bears the Fruits, the ripe and luscious Figs, by which you live; inasmuch as His death and resurrection are your repentance, your righteousness, your Life and Salvation.  For He has rebuilt the fallen walls and the crumbled towers of Jerusalem in Himself, in His own Body, that He might be a Refuge and a Mighty Fortress for the people of God in heaven and on earth.

That is the New Life to which you are called here in time and hereafter in eternity, and that is the House where you now live in safety and in peace, by the grace of God, through faith in Christ.

So, then, as you are called daily to repentance, so are you daily and richly forgiven all of your sins.  And in the Spiritual Food and Drink of Christ Jesus — even here in the hard wilderness, even in the midst of sin and death — you are given a Life that is forever in body and in soul.  Come hell or high water, you are the Lord’s.  And in Him you shall not perish but live forever and ever.

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

The Word of Christ Is Near to You

It’s a rough and tumble world, and it’s easy enough to get caught up in the crush of the crowd, with so many people pushing and pulling at you, threatening to trample you beneath their feet, or else to drown and destroy you with their endless chatter, everybody talking at you, telling you what’s what, and what to do, and what you should be like.  There’s lots of noise and confusion, lots of words and information, and lots of competition and jockeying for position.

It is overwhelming, and yet, in its own way, enticing.  Against the onslaught of the crowds, you are tempted to impress them and appease them, to protect yourself from the critics, and to promote yourself with the movers and shakers, in the hopes of becoming someone important.

But none of the people, neither the celebrities nor the crowds, are able to save you or destroy you.  They can neither make you nor break you, not really.  For each and all of them are mortal, like yourself, subject to death and decay and held accountable to the judgment of God.

It is in the presence of the Lord your God that you live your life and die your death: Coram Deo, that is, before God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth and of all things.  He is the One with all authority — the authority to judge all of creation — because He is the Author and Giver of Life.

Therefore, He is the One, not only with power to hurt and kill, such as fallen man presumes to do with those who are smaller and weaker than himself; but God has genuine authority to condemn both soul and body forever: To “Gehenna,” Jesus says (though it is sometimes translated “hell”).

Gehenna was the name of a valley alongside Jerusalem, where, at various times, even the Israelites had resorted to sacrificing their own children, and where an ongoing fire served the potters’ kilns and the constant burning of rubbish and every manner of refuse.  It provides a vivid picture of hell on earth, but only God Almighty has the authority to consign both body and soul to such a place.  And He alone has the power and authority to save you, in body and soul, for the Life everlasting.

Therefore, the Lord Jesus exhorts you, not to be afraid of the world and its power-brokers, but to fear, love, and trust in the Lord your God above all things.  For He is the only true God, who is Life and Light and Love within Himself.  He has created you in holy Love, both body and soul, in His own Image and Likeness, for Life everlasting with Him, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Not only that, but the almighty and eternal Lord, who changes not, has Himself become a part of His own Creation by the conception and birth of the Son from the Blessed Virgin Mary.  He has lived and died in the Body, with flesh and blood like yours; and God the Father has also raised this incarnate Son, Christ Jesus, bodily from the dead.  So shall your body likewise be raised at the last, and glorified like unto the crucified and risen Body of your Lord, unto Life eternal in Paradise.

Do not doubt that it is true.  The One who created the sparrows and still cares for them, though they are but a dime-a-dozen, cares for you all the more and provides for you all that you need, for this life and for the Life to come.  You are precious to Him and valued most highly.  Just consider the price that He has willingly paid for you: not gold or silver, but His own Body and His Blood.

He who was crucified for you — who has also risen from the dead and lives and reigns forever as your great High Priest, always interceding for you at the Right Hand of God the Father — He now serves you in body and soul with His tangible Means of Grace, His Holy Word and Sacraments.

The Word of the Word-made-Flesh penetrates your heart and mind, your soul and spirit, through the ears of your body.  And your conscience is cleansed before the Lord your God by the washing of your body with pure water, that is, with water included in God’s command and combined with God’s Word in Holy Baptism.  And your Savior Jesus Christ, the incarnate God, feeds you with His true Body and gives you to drink of His true Blood, which you eat and drink with your mouth.

Therefore, your body also is justified and saved by the Gospel of God; and in fact, your soul is not saved apart from your body, for it has no access to God apart from His Word and Sacraments.

So, then, take it seriously that the life which is yours in Christ Jesus, which you have by grace through faith in Him, is lived not only in your heart and in your head, but likewise in your body — in your words and in your actions, in what you say with your mouth and do with your hands.

And yet, you know well enough that your insides and your outsides don’t always match.  You know that what you say is not always what you’re thinking and feeling.  And you know that your actions are not always in harmony with your convictions and your actual preferences.

Those differences are not bad, but good and right, when they stem from the discipline of your sinful flesh, so that you do and say what you should, instead of what your old Adam desires.

At other times, however, it’s not a matter of self-discipline, but of hypocrisy, whereby you make an outward pretense for the sake of good impressions but out of sync with your conscience.

In this respect, there is actually a two-fold danger of hypocrisy.  There is, on the one hand, the outward show of false piety, in which you act the part of godly reverence and you go through the motions of the fear and faith of God, while your heart and mind are still far removed from Him.  Then you are like a white-washed tomb, decorated pretty on the outside, but hiding death within.

On the other hand, there is the hiding and disguising of the Christian faith and life, as though you could carry on with Jesus privately, while outwardly you live like a pagan and talk like a pirate, whether it be out of fear of “persecution” (be it martyrdom or being laughed at), or maybe to compete with the world on its terms, contesting for popularity, power, and prestige, or whatever.

One and the same person can be as pliable as Play-doh, shaped by the expectations — or by the perceived expectations — of the people around him.  So he may be pious and reverent at church, profane at school or work, and something else altogether by himself — probably lost and lonely without the crowd to play to, without an audience to perform for.

But the truth will come out.  It will.  Jesus says so.  And that is both a warning and a promise.  Your secret sins are not hidden from the Lord your God.  But so, too, your faith and life in Christ are also known to Him who loves you.  There is no concealing of your conscience before Him.

Where you actually stand with the one true God will be made known — in your life and in your confession, and in the final Judgment — whether for everlasting Life or everlasting punishment.

So, here is what you need to know: True Life is found only in Christ Jesus, crucified and risen, and it is had only by faith in Him, in His Gospel of forgiveness.  Not by your works, but by His.  And yet, such faith in Christ cannot be kept hidden in the heart.  It can’t — not without suffering loss.  No, faith in Christ is exercised, as it is expressed, with your mouth and with the rest of your body: In worship and in works of love — and in words of confession, whereby you speak as the Lord your God has spoken to you.  To say what He has said is how you know and speak the Truth.

Both faith itself and the words and works by which you confess the faith are the gracious work and the good gifts of God the Holy Spirit.  And He is near to you, indeed, He is actively present and at work in you, by and with the preaching of Christ Jesus.

The Holy Spirit calls you and brings you to faith in Christ by the Word of Christ.  There is no other way by which you believe and are saved.  And He likewise strengthens and sustains you in this true and saving faith by the same Word of Christ Jesus.  Apart from this Word, you die.  By it, you live.

The Holy Spirit preaches Christ to you, so that you believe in Christ and call upon His Name in prayer, praise, and confession of His Word.  What He speaks into your ears comes out of your mouth; for this is how the Spirit works in and with the Church, which is the Body of Christ Jesus.

The power and authority of this Word is the Gospel; for by the Word of Christ your doubts and fears, your denials and failings, and all your many other sins are freely and fully forgiven, just as He was crucified for your transgressions and God raised this same Christ Jesus from the dead.

So it was that Simon Peter, who denied Him, was forgiven and restored to faith and life in Christ.

But to set your heart and mind against the preaching of the Word of Christ is to resist and reject the Holy Spirit and His gracious work.  So it was that Judas Iscariot ended his own life in despair.

Beware that you do not harden your heart and mind in this way, lest you be condemned to the fire that burns forever, and your soul and body be consigned to a worse Gehenna than earth has known.

Rather, hear and heed the Word of Christ that is preached to you.  Hear and receive His Word of Absolution, that is, the forgiveness of all your sins; for with that Word He sets His own Cross and Resurrection before your eyes and thereby saves you from the fire forever and ever.

You need not scale the heights of heaven (nor can you!), as though to bring God down to you.  Nor can you raise yourself or anyone else from the deep dark abyss of death and the grave.  But the Lord your God has come down from heaven, and He has gone into the depths, into Sheol, into Gehenna, in order to raise you up with Himself.  God the Father has sacrificed His own dear Son, in order to atone for all of your sins and thereby to rob death and the devil of any claims on you.

Now the Son draws near to you in Peace, and He befriends you with His Word and Holy Spirit.  He reconciles you to Himself by the way of repentance and forgiveness of sins.  In this way He returns you daily to your Baptism, and He raises you up from sin and death to life with God.  For the Lord has surely set apart the godly for Himself, and you are godly by the grace of His Gospel.

With this Word of Christ Jesus the Holy Spirit teaches you what to confess, and He likewise gives you the confidence and courage to do so, come what may.

Cling to that Word with both your body and your soul, as He gives it to you generously in so many ways: by preaching and teaching, by the Holy Scriptures, by the Catechism, and by the Hymnal.

And for God’s sake, teach these things to your children, and to your children’s children, as you are given the opportunity; that they, too, may not die but live forever with God in Christ.  Read the Bible to them.  Sing hymns with them.  Pray with them and for them.  And bring them to church.

This Word of Christ is not powerless, it is living and Life-giving.  Indeed, the Lord Himself is very near you by and with His Word, as He preaches it into your ears, as He lays it upon your heart, and as He brings it to confession in your mouth.  So is He a very present help in every kind of need.

By His dying and rising He has received all authority in heaven and on earth, that is, the true power and authority of the New Creation — to forgive sins and to save sinners; to comfort you with His forgiveness, life, and salvation; to justify and save you in body and soul, for now and forever.

So does He grant you a quiet night, a restful sleep, and peace at the last.  And so does He raise you up in the true joy of His mercy, which is new every morning and ever shall be, world without end.

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

The Perfect Righteousness of Your Father

You are to be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect: whole and complete, holy and righteous.

Indeed, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of heaven.

But Whoever keeps and teaches the commandments of God, the Law and the Prophets, He shall be great in the Kingdom of heaven.  That is to live according to the Word of God, to find life in His Word, and to confess and teach His Word to others, especially to your own children, that they may learn to love the Lord their God and to live by faith in His Word, unto the Life everlasting.

So you are called, on the one hand, to live as an obedient child of God within your own particular place, and on the other hand, to become a true father or mother to those entrusted to your care.  This rhythm of receiving all things from your Father in heaven, and then handing over what you have received to those who come after you on earth, is fundamental to the Christian faith and life.

So it is that Christ Jesus has come, the Son of God in the Flesh, not to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them in Himself, in His own Body and Life.

What does this mean?  The Lord Jesus lives His entire life — and He lays down His Life in death upon the Cross — in perfect faith and love for His God and Father in heaven, and in steadfast love and with forgiveness for His neighbors here on earth, including you and all of yours.

He lives ethically and morally, to be sure.  That is a given for the One who fears, loves, and trusts in God above all things.  He possesses His own vessel, His Body and Life, in purity and holiness and peace.  But more than that, He serves His neighbors — even you — in grace and gentleness.

So fully and completely does He trust His God and Father, even unto death, that He also fully and completely offers up Himself and sacrifices Himself, as the Charity of God, in order to save His neighbors from sin, death, the devil, and hell — in order to save you for the Kingdom of heaven.

This, then, is the Royal Law, that you are to love your neighbor as yourself.  Not only your kinfolk and buddies and those who do you well, but also your enemies and persecutors, who hate you and hurt you, who take advantage of you and take you for granted, without any gratitude or thanks.

For the love of God, do not seek revenge but reconciliation with those who have done you wrong.  By the same token, do what you can to make amends and to be reconciled with those whom you have wronged.  For your part, be at peace with all your neighbors and do right by them in love.

So shall you be and live as a son of your Father in heaven.  Which is really to say that you live in Christ Jesus, as He has lived for you, and as He ever lives to do you good, in spite of your sins.

His mercy triumphs over judgment, as surely as His own Cross and Passion and His Resurrection from the dead have already actually achieved justice and righteousness for you and for all people.  By His holy and precious Blood and by His innocent suffering and death you are set free from the Law of transgressions, set free to live by His grace according to the Law of Liberty.

That is the glorious freedom that is yours through His forgiveness of all your sins.  It is the true freedom of faith in Christ, because there is no condemnation for you who are in Christ Jesus.

Such is the freedom truly to love and forgive your neighbor; because your life in Christ is secure, and God is your dear Father, and you are a free citizen of His Kingdom, on earth as it is in heaven.

Therefore, you are given to love your neighbor, not only as you love yourself, but, so much the better, as the Lord your God loves you.  That is not to harbor anger and resentment, and not to hurt your neighbor, whether with your fists or your words, but rather to provide assistance in need.

It is not to covet what your neighbor has, but — being content with what the Lord has given you — to use whatever you have been given to care for your neighbors in their circumstances, as you are able; to give rest to your neighbors, as you are given rest in Christ Jesus; to forgive, as you are forgiven; and to be reconciled with your neighbors, as God has reconciled you to Himself.

This is the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, which far and away surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, and by which you are saved.  By faith in Christ, by faith in His Gospel, you have entered the Kingdom of heaven and you live with Him in His righteousness.  In Him you are right with God.  You are not condemned but rescued from every evil.  You are safe and sound forever.

This is your confidence and courage before God, which undergirds your charity for other people.

This is your perfect righteousness, because this is the perfection of your Father in heaven, that is, the fulfillment of His good and gracious Will in the Flesh and Blood of His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, your Savior.  He not only fulfills the Law and the Prophets, but He Himself is their perfect fulfillment; for He was crucified for your transgressions and raised for your justification, and He has thereby reconciled the whole world, including you, to God the Father in Himself.

He has made Himself the Poor Man, in order to make you wealthy with His grace.  He has given up His outer coat and His inner shirt, in order to cover your nakedness and shame, to clothe you with His righteousness, His holiness and peace.  He has gone the full distance to save you, and by His fair Name He has called you from out of death and the grave into the Resurrection and the Life everlasting.  So, then, as He offers up Himself in perfect faith and holy love, He also brings you in and with Himself to God.  And so are you made perfect in the righteousness of His mercy.

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

By Faith in the Word and Promise of the Father

Whatever the Lord God did for ancient Israel, He has done all the more so for you.  And all that has been written concerning His people of old has been written for your instruction and edification.

God has brought you out of Egypt by the mighty hand and outstretched arms of Jesus Christ.  And He has brought you through the waters of your Baptism — through the Red Sea and the Jordan of your Baptism — into the Good Land that He promised, into His Holy Church.  And here it is true that Milk and Honey flow, the pure spiritual Milk of His Word, which is sweeter than honey from the honeycomb.  And as God the Father has not withheld His only Son but given Him up for you, there is no good thing that He withholds from you; for He is your Father, and you are His child.

Along with the preaching of His Word, He provides all that you need for body and soul, now and forever.  To this day He has not allowed you to perish, and He continues to feed and clothe, shelter and protect you.  He surrounds you with good gifts and with people who love and care for you.

Offer to Him in return, therefore, the first fruits of His gifts to you.  Not as though to buy Him off or bribe Him (as if you even could), but in order to give all thanks and praise to Him who loves you, to confess your faith and trust in Him, and to entrust yourself to Him in whom you have life.

As His first and best gift to you is His Word, offer the first fruits of that sacred gift by the prayer and confession of His Word.  Use His Name rightly, which He has given to you in Holy Baptism.  Call upon Him in every trouble.  Pray, praise, and give thanks.  Confess what He has spoken.

Seek Him in the place where He causes His Name to abide with you in Peace.  Seek Him in His Holy Church, in the preaching of His Gospel, in the remembrance of your Baptism, in the Body and Blood of your Savior, Jesus Christ.  And from the priest whom He has called, ordained, and given to you, hear the Word of Christ by which you believe and pray and are saved.

And so also with the material gifts that God the Lord has entrusted to your stewardship — with the money that He has provided, with the abilities that He has bestowed upon you, and with all the means that He has placed into your hands — support His Church and Ministry on earth to the glory of His Holy Name, not only for your own benefit, but for your neighbors’ benefit, as well.

Thus do you worship the Lord your God, just as it is your duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him; not only with your thoughts, words, and deeds, but also with your stuff, and with your whole body and life.  Refrain from every kind of evil, and be quick to do good to your neighbors, to your family and friends, to the Levite, stranger, and alien, and even to your enemies on earth.

Receive what God has given to you, whatever it may be, and use it to glorify Him by loving and serving the people He has set beside you.  Live where He has stationed you in charity and peace.

Do not take or even covet what the Lord your God has not given to you, but be content with your own place and purpose and possessions, and live in love according to your calling as a Christian.

Do not test the Lord your God, but do fear, love, and trust in Him, according to His Word and all His promises. Worship Him in the beauty of His holiness by living in holy faith and holy love.  Give all glory, honor, thanks, and praise to Him, because He has shown His mercy to you.  That is your life, even here and now on earth, as you live with God in Christ Jesus by faith in His Word.

Yet, even so, although you live with Him in His Kingdom by such faith in the Gospel, there is still this wandering in the wilderness between the Red Sea and the Jordan, between your Baptism and the completion of your Baptism in death.  And this wilderness can be scary.  It is a trial, and there are many tribulations.  There are temptations on all sides, within and without.  And there is the constant threat of danger to life and limb, body and soul, possessions and reputation.

Still, God does not lead you through the wilderness in order to destroy you.  It is rather the place of repentance and catechesis, wherein He teaches you to call upon His Name, to trust in Him and rely upon Him, and to live by faith in His Word and promises, even when you go without bread.  He disciplines you in the wilderness, as a father disciplines a child in love, so that you might live.

But the devil tempts you in the wilderness; certainly not because he loves you, but because he hates you and despises you.  He is furious that God has redeemed you, and he hates the promises that God has given you.  The devil knows no mercy, but he will do anything to hurt and destroy you.

To that end, the devil tempts you to doubt and despair, and he tempts you to idolatry, in which you find not life but only death.  The devil tempts you to take what God has not given you.  But as he masquerades as an angel of light, so does he disguise his temptations to appear good and right.

The devil tempts you to make gods out of the things of this world, whether by coveting what you have not been given, or by devoting your body and life to whatever you have been given, putting your trust in those things, as though they were the source and substance of your life and salvation.  Thus would the devil turn you away from the Lord and His Word to the perishing things of earth.

He tempts you to reckless bravado in doing such things as the Lord has not given you to do, while tempting you to cowardice and negligence in those duties and responsibilities that God has given; so that, far too often, you do what you should not, and you fail to do what you should.

Repent of all such ways in which you have fallen prey to the devil’s temptations.  Rather, resist the devil, firm in the faith of Christ, as the Scriptures have taught you, and he will flee from you.

Indeed, the Holy Scriptures have taught you to put on the full armor of God, that is, to arm yourself with His Word, that you may stand fast against the assaults and the accusations of the old evil foe.  Thus do you resist his temptations, as often as they come; and where and when you do fall into sin, the gracious Word of the Gospel heals you, defends you, and raises you up to new life in Christ.

Thus do you fix your eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith.  And thus do you live and abide in the place where the Lord your God causes His Name and His Glory to dwell with you in grace, mercy, and peace — that is to say, in the Church and Ministry of the Gospel of Christ Jesus.

For one thing, you do find a good example today in your Lord Jesus Christ; for He has lived perfectly in faith and love, and He has left you an example, that you should follow in His steps.  In His refutation of the devil’s temptations you find a sure and certain way to proceed in your resisting of the devil’s temptations.  The Lord Jesus relies upon the Holy Scriptures, He relies upon the Word of His Father, in order to know the Way He is to go, and to avoid the way He is not.  And He trusts the Word and promise of His Baptism, even when His experience may seem to deny it.

His Father has declared, “You are My beloved Son, with You I am well pleased.”  So, that is what Jesus believes and clings to.  He will not listen to the devil’s “if.”  He listens only to His Father.

And all of this, you should also do.  Hear and heed the Word of your God and Father, and trust the promises of your Baptism; for you are His beloved son in Christ, and with you He is well pleased.

But do not kid yourself!  You are no match for the devil.  On earth is not his equal.  He is stronger than you, to be sure.  As a creature of God, he was a holy angel before he fell, and he retains the powers that God has given to him.  So, if you consider what the holy angels can do, you know the strength of Satan.  But his strength is not his greatest trick.  It is his craftiness and cunning, his lies and deceits.  It is by such words that he seeks to destroy you; for the devil is not the Creator, but he can only mimic the Creator.  As God does all things by His Word, the devil uses words, as well, and in this way he twists, distorts, and perverts what God the Lord has said and done and given.  Satan will even quote the Holy Scriptures, selectively, in order to trick you and trap you.

Notwithstanding all your best efforts and good intentions, you will not survive the wilderness on your own.  You’ll not go toe-to-toe with the devil and win.  “On earth is not his equal.”  Thanks be to God, therefore, that your dear Lord Jesus Christ is far more than just a good example.  He is your Savior and Redeemer, your merciful and great High Priest, and your own great Champion.

Remember that Jesus has taken His stand with all the people in the waters of the Jordan.  He has bound Himself to you there in His Baptism.  And He has bound you to Himself in your Baptism.

It is for your sake that He is out in the wilderness.  It is for your sake that He is led by the Spirit and tempted by the devil.  It is for you and your salvation that He remains faithful and steadfast as the true Man, even unto death upon the Cross.  He does not give in to the devil’s temptation, but rather submits Himself entirely to the good and gracious Will of His Father.  All that He does, He does it all for you in love, to the glory of His God and Father, to the praise of His glorious grace.

He hungers after forty days of fasting in the wilderness; so His Body knows hunger like yours, and His tummy has rumbled for the food that is needed to survive.  And yet, He hungers far more to do the Will of Him who sent Him; which is the good and gracious Will of God for your salvation.

He proceeds in perfect faith on the Way of the Cross, and He will not turn aside, neither to the left nor to the right.  He goes where God has called Him and sent Him, and nowhere else.  And He worships the Lord, His God and Father, with all His thoughts, words, and deeds, with all His stuff, and with His whole Body and Life. With everything He is and has, He offers Himself up as the once-for-all Sacrifice for the sins of the world.

And by His death He crushes the devil’s head, because He thereby atones for the sins of the world and shatters all the power of death.  Those are the devil’s two greatest weapons — sin and death — but Satan is now utterly stripped of both.  For Christ has atoned for all your sins, and Christ has trampled death beneath His feet.  The Lord has gotten this great Victory for you and for all people

Relying on His Father, praying to Him and trusting that He would be able to save Him out of death, the Lord Jesus receives the promise of His Father in His Resurrection from the dead.  And having by His Cross reconciled the world to God, He rises from the dead as the First Fruits of the New Creation.  In rising and ascending to His Father, He brings you also to the Father in Himself.

How is it that His Victory, Life, and Salvation become yours?  And how do you go about putting on the Armor of Christ Jesus and His Cross and Resurrection?  It is by the prayer and confession of His Word.  And that is not beyond your grasp.  It is true that by your own reason and strength you could neither know nor believe His Word, nor could you pray it and confess it.  But the Lord has spoken and revealed His Word to you, and with it He has opened up your lips to show forth His praise.  Indeed, His Word is not far away from you; it is drawing near to you even now.

It is in this very preaching, this preaching of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, that His Word of Life is very near you.  It is in your heart and in your mouth, because it is first of all in your ears.  And as you hear His Word, so do you believe.  And as you believe, so do you confess and pray.

The Word has drawn near to you in the Person of your Lord Jesus Christ, as He has drawn near to you by His Incarnation and Holy Nativity, by His Baptism in the Jordan River, by His Fasting and Temptation, by His Agony and Bloody Sweat, and by His Holy Cross and Passion.  And so does He also continue to draw near to you within the Liturgy of His Gospel in Word and Sacrament.  He draws near to you, and He abides with you, and He shall never leave you nor forsake you.

With this Ministry of His Gospel He offers you up to His Father as the first fruits of His Salvation.  That is how St. Paul speaks of his ministry to the Gentiles, namely, that by his Gospel he offers them unto God.  And so, by this Gospel, Jesus offers you to His Father, that you may have Life.

You are no longer a wandering Aramean.  You are no longer a stranger or an alien to God.  But you are a member of the Body of Christ, His Church, a member of His Family and a resident of His Household.  And here you also rejoice in the Good Gifts that your own dear God and Father showers upon you in Him who is your Savior and Redeemer, even Jesus Christ, your Lord.

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

You Are at Home with God in Christ Jesus

The saying is that “Home is where the heart is.”  So, where is your heart at home?  Where is it set?

That’s really also a question of what your treasure is, where you look for it and seek it, and where you would keep it and store it for yourself, in order to keep it safe — and to safeguard yourself.

Your treasure is your bliss, your prize, your real wealth.  It’s whatever makes you happiest — and, when it is threatened or taken away, you’re at a loss, frightened, and sad to the point of despair.

Your treasure is wherever your heart would find its peace and rest, its satisfaction and contentment.  It is whatever marks and measures the meaning and purpose of your life and fulfills your destiny.  And as such, your treasure is also your god; it is what you worship with your heart, mind, body, and life, with your time, attention, and energy.

So, what is your treasure?  Where is your heart?

Perhaps it is your property, your house and home, your souvenirs, collections, and investments.  Or maybe it’s your family and friends, or your power and position in the world.

What is it that you’re proud of?  What identifies you?  What do you rely on and fall back upon?

If you treasure and store up stuff, whether coins or castles, clothes or collectibles, be aware that it will perish — if it is not stolen first.  None of it will last, nor will it give you life or save you.

If you treasure worldly wealth and riches of whatever currency, paper or plastic, precious metals or digital data, it will come and go in the blink of an eye — or you will die before it has done you any good.  Locusts of one sort or another will come and devour every bit of it, and there will be nothing left.  Neither the biggest bank nor your mattress will secure such wealth for you in heaven.

And if you treasure other people as the source and substance of your life and happiness and future well-being, remember that all men die because of sin.  Kings and queens, princes and princesses, presidents, actors and celebrities, all are mortal, as are pastors according to their person.  Parents and children, spouses and friends also die in their own day, and they shall not return to you here.

In the meantime, people are fickle and flighty, not only finite but fallible and flawed.  Other people are just as sinful as you are.  If you make of them your god, they will fall far short and fail you.  They may lie to you, or break their promises, no matter how sincere, or they will simply be unable to follow through, no matter their good intentions.  They may speak with flattering words, all the while their thoughts and feelings are already pulling them away from you to something else.

But what if everyone actually did think well of you?  What if everyone were impressed with you and your abilities and accomplishments, and they looked up to you and praised you in every way?  What if your reputation in this world was sterling silver and unsurpassed in all the world?

In such a case, you would already have your reward.  But not yet with your Father in heaven.

Enjoy your reputation, your position and prestige, the praise and flattery of the whole world if you can, for as long as it lasts.  But beware that it will not help you in the end, and it will not raise you from the dead.  Neither now nor ever will it set you free from sin or set you right with God.

If you would have real life, now and forever, repent of your idolatry and return to the Lord, the one true God, your Maker and Redeemer.

Store up treasures for yourself in His heaven, in the secret place of faith, in the hidden place of His Cross, in the inner room of His Church.  That is to fix your eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith, and to be reconciled to God in Him.  For Christ Jesus is your Righteousness, and He is your Holiness.  He is your Peace with God and your neverending Sabbath Rest.

He is your true and lasting Treasure.

So, the question is, How do you store up Jesus for yourself?  What could that possibly mean?  And what is it going to look like in practice in the life that God has given you here on earth?

You lay hold of Jesus where He lays hold of you, that is, by His Ministry of the Gospel.  For He gives Himself to you by this way and means, as the One who has given Himself to God for you.  He is the Sacrifice for your sins, whom God does not despise; and He is now also your priestly Food and Drink.  And as He was anointed by the Spirit of God in His own Body of flesh and blood, so does He anoint you with the Holy Spirit by the Gospel, by the forgiveness of all your sins.

His Flesh and Blood are the Sacrifice of Atonement for the sins of the whole world; for He who knew no sin became Sin and Death and the Curse, in order to put sin to death in Himself and to bring forth the blessing of life through the forgiveness of sins in His Resurrection from the dead.

So has He entered into heaven for you, where He has established His place for you with His God and Father, and where He ever lives to make intercession for you as your great and merciful High Priest.  Thus, by the power of His indestructible Life, in and with His own glorious Body — risen from the dead and never to die again, immortal and imperishable — He is your priceless Treasure, now and forever, whom moth and rust and thief cannot touch and even death cannot destroy.

This one Lord Jesus Christ is your Anchor behind the Veil, within the Holy of Holies eternal in the heavens.  And He is your Life and your Salvation with the one true God, forever and ever.

And yet, see here, He has also left behind the Grain Offering of His Body and the Drink Offering of His Blood, so that you may eat and drink and be satisfied and rejoice in the Lord who loves you.  With these most holy and precious Gifts, He gives nothing less than His own Self to you, and He pledges Himself to you for all time and for eternity.  So that, whether you have much or little — really, no matter what you have in this life on earth — you have all good things in Him forever.

Whether men speak well of you or curse you, the Word of the Lord Jesus adorns you with holiness and righteousness, with the glory of His grace and the beauty of His Resurrection from the dead.  That is what He says to you and concerning you.  And that is what He does by and with His Word.

Whether you live or die, you are the Lord’s, and He is yours, and in Him all things are yours: His Father and His Spirit, His Name, His Sonship, His Life and Salvation in body and soul, and all things in heaven and on earth.

You lack no good thing in Him, nor shall you want for anything, as you are seated at His Table to eat the Flesh of the Lamb and to drink from the overflowing Chalice of His Blood.

Such righteousness and life and peace and rest can only be given by the one true God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — by His grace alone — and they can only be received by faith in Jesus Christ.  No one else in all of creation can bestow such Gifts, nor can your own works obtain them.

Yet, this righteousness and life, this peace and rest of Christ Jesus are yours.  They are for you, and they are here given and poured out for you, preached into your ears, pressed into your hands, placed upon your lips, and laid upon your heart by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel.

Here, then, at the Lord’s Altar in the Lord’s House, your heart has found its home in Christ Jesus — and with His God and Father, who is now also your God and Father.

It is with such sure and certain hope, in such confidence and faith, that you pray to Him and call upon His Name.  Not to be seen or heard by men, but to be heard and answered by your Father in heaven.  He will reward you by His grace with Christ Jesus and all His benefits, hidden under the Mystery of His Cross, yet a greater treasure than all the heavens and the earth combined.

So do you also fast in the same way you pray, in the faith and confidence of your God and Father, knowing that He feeds you and daily and richly provides you with all that you need for this body and life on earth.  You discipline your mortal flesh, depriving it of passing pleasures, in order that you might hunger and thirst for the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, and so also for His Kingdom and His Righteousness.  You train yourself to regard the Creator and Giver of all things above His whole creation and all His many gifts.  You curb your appetites, in order to prevent your appetites from controlling and consuming you; for thus you set your heart and mind, your body, soul, and spirit against the enticements of the devil, and you rest yourself in the refuge of your Lord Jesus.

So are you also free — free and clear to love and serve your neighbors with genuine works of compassion and genuine gifts of mercy.  That is what alms are, namely, gifts and works of mercy and compassion.  Trusting your God and Father in Christ for all that you need, and receiving what He provides — not only for yourself, for your family and friends, but also for the stranger at your gate, for orphans and widows in distress, and for the poor and needy who are always at hand — you are able to be generous on the right hand and on the left with the gifts that God has provided.

You don’t keep score nor maintain a ledger.  You simply love, as you are loved.  In this way you let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.  And you also glorify Him and exercise your faith in Him, who by grace alone has given you all things, when you fast, and when you pray, and when you give alms.  These are not works by which you become righteous; and these are not works by which you are justified by men; but these are works of faith, by which you glorify the Lord your God and serve your neighbor.

So does your God and Father work His good works in you, even in your body of flesh and blood, in your words and in your actions of holy faith and holy love.  For He washes you through and through, inside and out, with His tender mercies and divine compassion.  He cleanses you from all of your sins and iniquities by His Gospel.  He repairs whatever has been broken, as surely as He has raised Christ Jesus from the dead.  And He fills up whatever has been lacking in you with Jesus, with His Food and Drink and Holy Spirit.  All that He has, He gives to you by His grace.

Now, if you do not find or experience such grace and peace and love and hope in yourself, yet it is given to you — and it is yours — in Christ Jesus.  Do not receive this grace of God in vain, but lay hold of Him who loves you, who lays hold of you by His Word of forgiveness, by the Gospel of His Cross.  For now, yes, even now, is the acceptable Time.  Now is the Day of Salvation.

Where you are disciplined by His Love, where you are broken by His Law, where you are crucified by His Cross, there does He also raise you up by His Gospel in His Resurrection from the dead.  His death is your repentance, and so His Resurrection is your Life, your Righteousness, and your Hope in the face of sin and death and every evil.

Do not despair, for He does not grow weary of loving you.  He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  He does not punish you as your sins deserve, but He daily and richly forgives your sins and cleanses you from all unrighteousness.  He is patient with you and, as He has pledged Himself to you, He shall never leave you nor forsake you.

Your God and Father in heaven has opened His heart to you in Christ Jesus, your Savior, who has come to make His Home with you here, to abide with you in Peace and Love.  Here, then, is your Home, and here is your heart’s true and greatest Treasure; for here is your God in the Flesh.

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