It is truly meet, right, and salutary that we should give all thanks and praise to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for His precious and merciful work in establishing His Church in this place and preserving this congregation of His people for the past 175 years, and continuing to this day! Indeed, we join with the angels and archangels and all the hosts of heaven, including all the saints who have gone before us from this place to the nearer presence of Christ, in praising the Lord for His faithfulness over these past seven generations, and for the promise of His loving-kindness to generations yet to come, who by His grace will learn to love Him and to live by faith in His Word.
It is by His grace alone that you are here (each of you and all of you together), and by His grace alone that you remain and persevere — by the Means of His Grace and the Ministry of His Gospel through the agency of His faithful servants, both heavenly and human.
For all that, the devil and his wicked angels hate you on account of Christ Jesus, your Savior, the incarnate Son of God. That old dragon despises each one of you as a child of God in Christ, and all of you together as members of the Body and Bride of Christ. Indeed, the more faithful you are, the more the devil spites and despises you in body and soul, as well as your whole congregation.
By the same token, St. Michael and all the holy angels love and serve you for the sake of your dear Lord Jesus Christ; for He has become like you, Flesh of your flesh and Blood of your blood, by His conception and birth from the Blessed Virgin Mary; and so has He also, in turn, raised you up and recreated you to be like Him, a participant in His divine nature by grace through faith in Him, by His Word and Holy Spirit. Consequently, the holy angels see Christ the Lord in you — He who is the very Image and Likeness of God in the Flesh — in whose truly human face both they and we behold the light of the revelation of the glory of God the Father.
All of which drives the devil to fury and great wrath, utterly consumed by envy and jealousy, by his pride and self-conceit. He does not consider it appropriate or fitting that God should become Man, nor that man should be exalted above the majestic and powerful angels. So consumed by his envy and driven to rage by his pride, the devil is relentless in his assaults and accusations against you. He would do anything to remove you from the favor of God. Hence, he is called “Satan,” the accuser. And to that very end he tempts you to sin in every way that he can — he tempts you to turn away from God, to fear, love, and trust in anything and everything else! And then, quick as a wink, the devil is the first in line to accuse you of the very sins into which he has tempted you!
To say it again, the devil hates you. And the bottom line is that he is a liar and a murderer from the beginning. But because he masquerades as an angel of light, and because your own heart, mind, and soul are sinful and unclean, you are too easily deceived and misled into the devil’s snares.
Beware of succumbing to the envy and jealousy, the pride and conceit such as the devil has. Do not despise your neighbor, nor tempt him, nor resent the grace of God in Christ for your neighbor. Rather, as the Lord has taught you, love and serve Christ Jesus in your neighbor, and especially in your fellow Christians, your brothers and sisters in the family of God. Thereby you become an “angel” of Christ Jesus to your neighbor, a messenger of peace and joy and the grace of God.
Where you have despised any of His “little ones” (of any age) — any of those who believe and are baptized into Him — wherever you have caused them to stumble and to fall, Repent. Cut off such temptations and sins altogether, not by mutilating your body, but by disciplining your flesh, your eyes, your heart and mind. Be drowned and destroyed in the depths of your Holy Baptism, along with your Satanic old Adam and all your evil lusts and desires, by daily contrition and repentance.
Confess your sins, and avail yourself of God’s good gift of Holy Absolution from your pastors. For they are angels of God in the flesh, called and sent to give you His good gifts of the Gospel.
Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, your Maker and Redeemer. Humble yourself to be and live like a little child who must rely upon your Father for absolutely everything, beginning with grace, with mercy and forgiveness. Humble yourself under God, and rejoice that He raises you up from the depths of the sea and the dust of the earth to shine like the stars of heaven with the pure and perfect righteousness of Christ Jesus, your Savior.
Humble yourself, and do not rely upon yourself but upon the Lord your God. And pray. Pray in the confidence of the Cross and Resurrection of your merciful and great High Priest, Christ Jesus. For in Him — by His Cross and in His bodily Resurrection from the dead — every prayer of faith has already been answered, “Yes, and Amen!” once and for all. For you!
The Lord hears and answers your prayer in love, by His grace. The Father hears and answers your prayer for the sake of Christ, His beloved and well-pleasing Son. In Him, indeed, you are beloved and well-pleasing, as well, and there is no good thing that your Father in heaven shall withhold from you. He hears and answers your prayer. He responds in love, always, and He serves you by the means of His good creation.
That is a pivotal point to this day and occasion, to the Feast of St. Michael & All Angels, and to the celebration of your anniversary as a congregation of the Lord’s Church on earth:
The Lord God serves you by the means of His good creation. That is why there are such things as the holy angels. Not because God needed a “helping hand,” but because He delights to serve His creatures with His creation, with His creatures. And so He serves you by His good creation, by the agency of His ministers, the holy angels; and by the human angels (or messengers) whom He calls, ordains, and sends in His Name as your pastors; and by the created elements that He employs with His Word, the waters of Holy Baptism, the bread and the wine of the Holy Communion, which are the very Body and Blood of Christ Jesus.
By these Means of Grace — by these means of creation — according to and with the Word of God, you are well served by your Father in heaven. Indeed, it is by and with and through these creaturely ways and means that He has established and still preserves St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lafayette, Indiana. For so does He forgive you all your sins, and pour out His Spirit generously upon you, and grant you His divine, eternal Life in the Body of Christ Jesus — no less than He, the Son of God, has become Flesh and tabernacles with you here.
These servants of God, both the heavenly and the human, guard and keep you in both body and soul. In a variety of circumstances, His angels lift you up and keep you in all your ways, lest you strike your foot and stumble and fall. While they often do protect your mortal flesh and blood from harm and danger, on account of the Flesh and Blood of Christ, they all the more protect your soul and body from the assaults and accusations of the devil — by the Blood of the Lamb, and by the testimony of His Word — which is to say, chiefly, by the preaching and ministry of your pastors.
By the Means of His Grace — His Gospel-Word and Sacrament — His tangible forgiveness of your sins — the servants of God preserve your life and bring you through the great tribulation clothed in the righteousness of Christ. For Christ has atoned for all of your sins by His holy and precious Blood, and by His Word of the Gospel He daily and richly, fully and freely forgives you.
Through the Ministry of the Gospel — by the preaching of His Word, and by the administration of His Body and His Blood — He interposes Himself and His Redemption, His Reconciliation, and His Righteousness between you and all the accusations of Satan. And because those accusations cannot stand against Him, they cannot stand against you, either. You are in Christ by His grace, by His Gospel; and He lives in you. And He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
When the holy angels do permit the hurt and harm of your mortal body, as Christ also suffered and died in His human flesh and blood upon the Cross, the Lord thereby humbles you unto repentance: to become like a little child and learn to rely upon God, to be returned to the cleansing waters of your Baptism, to be brought to the Healing Medicine of His Altar, and to be raised up from death to life, from the dust of the earth to shine like the stars (in body and soul) forever and ever.
That dying and rising of repentance and faith, that rhythm of humble confession, free and full forgiveness, and newness of life in Christ Jesus, is how and why you are here — how and why St. James is here — how and why your pastors are here. And it is for this very purpose that God preserves you in this place by and with His messengers.
So do we give Him thanks and praise for His heavenly angels, those great majestic creatures who guard and keep us night and day, though hidden from our sight. And we rightly thank Him, also, for His human angels (the called and ordained servants of His Word) — those earthen vessels of His grace, mercy, and peace — who love and serve His people in His Name and stead. Not only Pastor Bombaro and Pastor Barcott, but the long line of pastors whom the Lord has provided for His people in this place over the past 175 years, and for His Church on earth from the beginning.
Here again this morning, as for these past 17-1/2 decades, the angels and people of God are gathered together around the Lamb upon His Throne, encircling the Fruits of His Cross, which is the Tree of Life. Here again this morning, on earth as it is in heaven, the great prince of God’s people, St. Michael the Archangel, and all the holy angels, the cherubim and seraphim, join with us, the children of God, in praising the Holy Trinity and giving Him thanks for His great Salvation in Christ Jesus. And for His Name’s sake, His holy angels also guard and keep you in body and soul, in safety and peace, at His holy Banquet Table. For they do always behold the Face of God the Father in you, His beloved and well-pleasing son or daughter.
For watchful is the angel band that follows Christ on every hand, to guard His people where they go and break the counsel of the foe. They never rest nor sleep as we; their whole delight is but to be with our Lord Jesus, and to keep His little flock, His lambs and sheep.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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