thinking-out-loud

The Confession of St. Peter

2012-01-18T17:40:00.002-05:00

The true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ is the knowledge of repentance and faith in His forgiveness of sins. It is the knowledge of His Cross and Resurrection; not only as historical facts, but as the means by which He has accomplished salvation and entered into His Glory as the Christ, the Lord’s Anointed.

To confuse Him with John the Baptist is mistaken, yes, but not so far fetched; for it is by John’s Baptism that Jesus is manifested and made known to Israel. Everything flows from and with His Baptism, even unto His death upon the Cross and His Resurrection from the dead.

The Father revealed Him to be the Christ and His beloved Son when the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form as a dove, and the voice from heaven spoke concerning Him, as He came up out of the waters of His Baptism. All of this belongs to the Jesus who went into the waters on behalf of all the people (including you); who submitted Himself to St. John’s preaching and baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; who thereby committed Himself to sacrificial suffering and death as the Lamb of God, who takes upon Himself and takes away the sins of the world.

The Word and promise of the Father at His Baptism is the faith that Jesus confesses with His entire life, and the confidence with which He proceeds to Jerusalem, to the rejection of the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and to His Cross and Passion. He has willingly taken up the Cross in His Baptism, and He carries it faithfully unto His Crucifixion, in the expectation that His Father will raise Him up again. He knows that His suffering and death are neither useless nor unfruitful, because He knows that He is thus given under heaven among men for the salvation of all people. He takes their place under the Cross, under the burden of their sin and death, in order to receive on their behalf the Name that is above every name, and the Spirit of God in His own human flesh, and the very Life of God as true Man. So that, in His Resurrection from the dead, you and all people — all who believe and are baptized in His Name — become partakers of the divine nature.

This is what it means for Him to be the Christ.

As a Christian, a disciple of this Lord Jesus Christ, you learn all this, you know all this, and you receive it and share in it, by following after Him, that is, by taking up His Cross and following Him, through death, into life everlasting. That means suffering the rejection and hostility of the world, on account of Christ and His Gospel. And it means bearing the burden of your neighbor’s needs and of your neighbor’s sins, by loving and serving your neighbor, and by forgiving his or her trespasses against you. But it also means the daily dying of your old Adam, and of your own sinful flesh, through contrition and repentance. It means that you are put to death by the Law of God, in order to be raised to new life in Christ by His Gospel, His forgiveness of your sins.

You have been named with His Name, anointed with His Spirit as a Christian, and adopted as a beloved child of His Father, by the washing of water with His Word in Holy Baptism. That is where and how you have received His Cross, and it is from your Baptism that you now follow after Him and learn from Him. You confirm and make certain His calling and choosing of you there, by the ongoing catechesis of His Word; that is, by the preaching of His Law and His Gospel, the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, the preaching of His Cross and Resurrection.

Apart from that preaching and catechesis, you do not know the Man. You will not confess Him, at least not rightly, but you will deny Him when His Cross looms large and His Passion presses upon you. Apart from His preaching and catechesis, you will fear the wrong things, and desire the wrong things, and be zealous in pursuing your own good intentions, which actually do nothing but pave the road to hell. Your own wisdom and knowledge, without the Word and Spirit of Christ, are a Satanic delusion, which promise you the world at the cost of your soul.

But, now, the Lord Jesus has given His Life, His body and soul, in exchange for the world; that the world might be saved through Him, and have life in Him, in His Resurrection from the dead. Thus has He given Himself for you and for all, and for all of your sins. And by His Cross and Resurrection, He has opened up the gates of Hades, in order to bring you out; He has opened up your grave, in order to raise you up from death; He has opened up heaven to you, in order to bring you into life with Himself, in body and soul. And He has opened up the way of repentance for you through His Gospel of the forgiveness of all your sins.

It is for the sake of that Gospel that He raised up Simon Peter, and restored Simon Peter, not only to discipleship, but to the apostolic ministry. He rebuked Peter and called him to repentance, to be sure; but He did so in love and with mercy, both for Peter and for His whole Church on earth. He rescued Peter, in order to rescue and raise up His people through Peter’s confession of His Name. He poured out His Spirit upon Peter, in order to give him the true knowledge and wisdom, and the true boldness and confidence, not of bravado, but of the Cross and Resurrection.

Thus, by St. Peter’s preaching and catechizing, men and women, boys and girls, were brought to repentance, to faith in the Gospel, and to Christian discipleship. You hear that throughout the first half of the Book of Acts, beginning with the great Day of Pentecost. Let us give thanks for that.

But St. Peter also knew, from his own experience, as also by the Lord’s Word and Spirit, that all of this — repentance, faith, and life in Christ — continues to depend upon the preaching and the ongoing catechesis of Christ Jesus.

Even though you already know the story and the facts, and you have already been established in the Truth (by your Baptism into Christ), the knowledge by which you have life and godliness, and by which grace, mercy and peace are multiplied upon you, is the living and active Word of Christ which is preached to you; which daily calls you and brings you to repentance, and purifies you from sin; which names you with the Name of Jesus, and anoints you with His Spirit, and teaches you to pray, praise and give thanks to your dear God and Father in heaven.

Therefore, in love, and by the grace of God, St. Peter’s preaching and catechesis have been preserved and handed over for the edification of the whole Church: in the Acts of the Apostles, in his two Epistles, and in the Gospel According to St. Mark (written under St. Peter’s apostleship). By these apostolic Scriptures, the Name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene continues to be given under heaven among men, so that, by His Name, you are raised up from death to stand in the health and strength of faith in the Gospel; and you shall be saved.

Along with St. Peter’s confession, you also have the comforting example of the Lord’s mercy upon him. In grace and peace, the Lord Jesus cared for Simon Peter and made of him a faithful disciple and a great Apostle, so that he was by no means useless or unfruitful. The Lord bore good fruits in him, which still feed the Church to this day, to the ends of the earth, and to the close of the age.

By these good fruits of St. Peter, and by the catechesis and confession of Christ Jesus in this place, the same Lord also cares for you, and He bears good fruits in you, as well. The preaching of His Cross and Resurrection puts sin to death in you, and brings you to life in Him. As you are preserved in the grace and promises of your Holy Baptism, and as you are given to eat and to drink the holy Body and precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, you are indeed a partaker of the divine nature. You are set free from the bondage and corruption of your covetous lust and selfish greed, and you are brought from faith to moral excellence, to self-control, to brotherly kindness and love.

These qualities are yours, and they continue to grow and increase, because Christ is yours, who has given Himself for you, and who gives Himself to you by the Gospel. He does not abandon you, nor leave you to your own devices; but as He was crucified for your transgressions, and has been raised for your justification, so does He forgive you, and restore you, and give you His own life.

Though you know your flaws and failings — such as your arrogance and pride on the one hand, and yet also your fear and denials on the other hand — nevertheless, your holiness and righteousness are sure and certain in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead. He is with you in peace and love, and He is your courage and strength, your confidence and sufficiency. Even your falling and rising, your daily repentance and His daily forgiveness of all your sins, are a beautiful confession and example of His perfect grace and mercy.

As you are His Christian, you are neither useless nor unfruitful, but even your enemies, as well as your friends, begin to recognize that you are with Jesus — because He is surely with you.

As He is the Chief Cornerstone of His Apostles and Prophets, and of His whole Church in heaven and on earth, so is He the Chief Cornerstone of your life, both body and soul; and so does He glorify His Name in you, both now and forever.

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

Come and See the Heavens Opened to You in the Body of Christ

2012-01-14T22:38:00.002-05:00

Before you ever came to Him; before you were called to faith; before you were even conceived in the womb and borne from the body of your mother, Jesus saw you in love and mercy.

He purposed to come, by His grace, to seek you out and find you, in order to give you life.

And now He has called you to Himself, to follow Him: to come and find your life in Him, who is your Savior and your God, your Rabbi and your King.

He speaks. You, follow Him, first of all by listening to what He says.

He warns and admonishes you against sins that destroy faith and love and lead you to death.

He disciplines and instructs you in the way of faith and love, which is the way of life.

Best of all, He promises an open heaven to you, through His fulfillment of the Scriptures for you; as demonstrated already in His Baptism, and fully accomplished by His Cross and Resurrection.

By all means, search the Scriptures for Him, as Nathanael was doing under the fig tree; for that was a place for the study of Moses and the Prophets. The Scriptures speak of this Lord Jesus Christ, the One who is called the Nazarene. Therefore, catechize yourself and your family with the Holy Scriptures. Read and study the Bible, or listen to it being read by your parents or your siblings. Pray and confess the Catechism, which is a simple summary and teaching of the Holy Scriptures.

But so also hear and heed the Word of Christ, and follow from the Scriptures to the place where He is, that is, to His preaching and His Absolution, and to His Body of flesh and blood.

That is where heaven stands open to you: Not “up there, somewhere, over the rainbow,” but right here, right now, in His Body and His Blood, upon which the angels of God ascend and descend. Notice how the angels begin from below, that is, from here on earth, where the Body of Christ is found in His Church. For here in His Body is the House of God; that is to say, the true Beth-el. Here in His flesh and blood is the very gate of heaven.

It is His Body of flesh and blood that has broken the bondage of sin and death, by His atoning sacrifice upon the Cross. And in the Resurrection and Ascension of His Body, from the grave to the Right Hand of the Father, you also are raised from death to life, and seated with Him in the heavenly places. You and your life are hidden with Him in the bosom of His God and Father.

So, He sees you, and He comes to you, and He calls you to “come and see,” to find Him here in His Church. For the Altar of His Supper is the Ark of the New Covenant of Yahweh Sabaoth.

It’s easy to be cynical and skeptical, because of what you see and experience on the surface. The Church on earth is beleaguered, the pastors are fallible, and all the people are flawed, including the officers and leaders of the congregation. Everyone is so finite, frail and mortal. Resources are limited and stretched so thin. Can anything good come out of something so pathetic as all this?

Yet, the Word of the Lord is true, and even though heaven and earth pass away, and everything else perishes, His Word remains. The Lamp has not gone out, but He calls and sends His preachers to preach, and He does not allow their words to fail; for they are His Words. What you now hear by the testimony of the Apostles, you will see with your own eyes in the Resurrection at the last.

In view of the Resurrection, even now — for it has already appeared in His own Resurrection from the dead! — He calls you to come in body and soul; and He cares for you in body and soul; He unites Himself to you, body and soul, and anoints you with His Holy Spirit, also in body and soul.

Therefore, follow Him, confess Him, and manifest Him; not only in your soul, within yourself, but with your body in the world, and for your neighbor (also in his needs of both body and soul).

Your body is cleansed and forgiven by the Gospel, and set free from sin and death. Your body is given peace and rest in Christ Jesus, in His means of grace: Words in your ears; waters that have washed over your body; and real food and drink in your mouth, upon your lips and tongue, and down your throat. So shall your body also be raised in glory unto the life everlasting; like Jesus.

Take care, then, what you do with your body, which has been created, redeemed, and sanctified for the Lord, for life with Him. As your eyes now look upon the Cross, and as they shall finally and forever look upon the Lord in His risen and glorified flesh, be careful what else your eyes look at in the meantime. As your ears are granted to hear the Name of the Lord, and the forgiveness of His Gospel, be careful what else your ears listen to. And be careful what your lips and tongue speak, when they have also received and eaten the Body and Blood of the Son of God. Shall you curse, swear, lie or deceive with the same mouth that has confessed Christ and tasted His Supper?

Consider where your feet should take you, and where they should not go; and what your hands should do, and what they should not. Your body is free, no doubt; for Christ has set you free by His Cross and Resurrection, and by His Gospel. But do not use your freedom to rush back into the slavery of sin. Do not return to the bondage of death.

You are free, because you have been bought with a price, that is, the precious blood of Christ. Therefore, you are not your own; nor should you want to be, since you cannot give life to yourself! But you are the Lord’s; not as though you were His slave, but that you may have real life in Him.

Follow Christ Jesus, therefore, in and with your body — in the freedom of faith in His Gospel — in the way of life that has been given to you in your Baptism — in the hope and expectation of the resurrection of your body.

Follow Him by seeking out your neighbor and going to your neighbor, as Christ your Lord has sought you out and found you; and as Philip did in going to get Nathanael.

Follow Christ by speaking to your neighbor what Christ has spoken to you; by calling and inviting your neighbor to “come and see” what you have found, by God’s grace, here within His Church.

And follow Christ by worshiping Him with your body — along with your heart and mind, soul and spirit — in repentance, faith and love. Humble yourself before Him, as Nathanael was moved from his cynical skepticism to the reverent honor and praise of Christ Jesus.

So acknowledge your own sins and failures, your frailty and weakness,

but also the great glory of Christ’s mercy, His grace, His forgiveness and love.

Here, now, enter the heaven He has opened to you through His holy Body and precious Blood. For these great things are here for you, given and poured out, that you may taste and see His Glory.

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

The Dawning of the New Creation

2012-01-07T19:09:00.001-05:00

To begin with, God created the heavens and the earth by His Word and Holy Spirit — out of nothing — out of love. He started with the waters of a great cosmic deep (brought into existence by His will), and over those waters His Spirit hovered and His voice sounded, bringing forth all things in good order. He spoke, and it was so: “Let there be,” and there was! And it was all good. Divine Love brought forth Light and Life.

The Lord crowned His good work of creation with Man, made in His own Image and Likeness — male and female He made them, the man and his wife, as living icons of Christ and His Bride, the Church (from the beginning, it was always about Christ Jesus and His people).

Created in love, for the sake of love and friendship — with God and with each other — the man and the woman were permitted the freedom to fall; and all of creation fell with them.

Disregarding and disobeying His Word, fleeing His Voice and His Spirit, man fell (and fled) back into the formless void and deep darkness of existence apart from the Word and Spirit of God.

From the lush and fertile Garden into a tough and barren wilderness they went. Everything became hostile and hard. The ground from which the man was taken doesn’t cough up food easily or for nothing, but only with hard work and bloody sweat. The water without the Word and Spirit of God is not just simple water only, but a dark and dangerous deep, a chaotic abyss. Then again, life without water is no better, but deadly; for that is to wander in the desert, in the waterless places to which the demons flee in fear.

That is where you find yourself — or, rather, that is where you are lost — except the Lord Himself come and enter in, to find you and to save you, to bring you back to life.

Apart from His Advent and Epiphany — His coming and appearing — you exist, to be sure, but you do not really live. Until He fills you up, you are empty and void on the inside. Until He grants you His peace, there is chaos surrounding you on all sides, hounding you and haunting you, and always threatening to swallow you up and consume you. Until the Lord shines His light upon you, there is only darkness, within and without. And without His forgiveness of your sins, there is only death; not that you die once, and then it’s over, but perpetual dying.

That is the wilderness — outside of Paradise, outside of Canaan — in which John the Baptist appears, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He comes announcing the solution. He has the answer to all your hurts, confusion and fear. His appearance, his preaching and his baptism, as you have heard from St. Mark this past month, are the beginning of the Gospel. This is the dawning of a New Creation — the promise of Light in the midst of deep darkness — this voice now crying in the wilderness.

So all the people go out to him in hopeful expectation. Judah and Jerusalem make their way out to John in the wilderness, seeking a fresh start; looking for salvation; waiting on the redemption of Israel. They hear his preaching of repentance, and so they are baptized, confessing their sins.

In this you see the practice of Confession & Absolution, and its connection to Holy Baptism. It is the way of repentance, which seeks and receives the forgiveness of sins.

The Absolution and the answer are not found in John the Baptist, but in the One to whom he points, whose way he prepares, and of whom he preaches. For John is not the Christ. He is not your redeemer, nor could he be. He is not your rescuer, your savior or solution. But his preaching and his baptism usher in the One who is all of these.

Enter Jesus of Nazareth. He is the Mighty One who comes, who is greater than John. And though John cannot take His place, this Jesus takes the place of all the people in submitting Himself to John’s preaching and baptism of repentance!

He stoops down to be baptized by John in the Jordan River. And what does such baptizing with water indicate? It signifies His death and burial, His sacrifice for the sins of the world. Not merely as a symbol, but as a Sacrament, which actually gives what it says and does what it declares.

In submitting to John’s baptism of repentance, Jesus assumes responsibility for the sins of Adam and Eve and all their children, and He commits Himself to die their death. As surely as He enters into the waters, so shall He be crucified, dead and buried.

He dies for all the people, because the waters of His Baptism have soaked Him in their sins, and soiled Him with all their sins. That is why the waters of your Baptism wash away all of your sins — because He absorbs them into His Body, like a sponge, by submerging Himself in the waters of Baptism. You get clean, because He gets dirty.

But now, also, He comes up out of the water. He emerges and arises from the waters of His Baptism, as He shall also arise from death and the grave. And because He does so as the One who has taken your place in the water, your sin and your death, so do you also emerge and arise from the waters of your Baptism, unto faith and life and righteousness in Him. For so intimately has He united Himself to you in the waters of Baptism, and so tightly has He bound Himself to you, once and forever.

Everything that Jesus receives from His Father through His Baptism, He receives for you, so that you also receive it through your Baptism into Him.

Thus, it is first of all true that you are buried with Him through Baptism into His death. You are crucified, dead and buried with Him; so that sin is put to death in you, and your body of death is done away with.

But then you come up out of the water with Him; you are risen with Him in His Resurrection, and the heavens are opened to you. If you want to know for sure and certain what will happen to you when you die, remember that you are baptized, and consider this Baptism of our Lord for you, and then you will know that heaven has been opened to you — and it will not be closed. Only do not abandon your Baptism, but return to it; for there the door stands open forever in Christ Jesus.

He proceeds from the waters of His Baptism — on the way to His Cross and Passion — in that same faith and confidence, in that same promise of His Father. Having taken your place in His Baptism, He lives your life, as a Christian lives, by the Word and promise of His Baptism.

When He received the Spirit, who hovered over the waters and descended upon Him, He received the surety, the guarantee and down payment of His Resurrection from the dead. And though He had taken upon Himself the sins of the world, and bore them in His Body as the sacrificial Lamb, He also received the Word of His Father: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased!”

Here is the Word and Spirit of God, by which all of Creation is resurrected and renewed in the Body of Jesus. And that Word and Spirit are given to you, and they are yours, by your Baptism into Him. Thus, you are resurrected and renewed, in both body and soul, unto the life everlasting.

Indeed, you have been reborn as a beloved son of God in Christ. You have been recreated in His Image and Likeness, as a member of His Body and Bride, the Church. And your God and Father in heaven is well-pleased with you. Do not let go of that Word, nor forget that declaration:

You are beloved and well-pleasing to your Father.

Though you still feel and experience sin and death in yourself, in your thoughts, words and actions, there is no sin or death in you that Christ Jesus has not taken upon Himself, and made His own, and suffered and died for you. Therefore, just as sure and certain as He is the beloved and well-pleasing Son of God — even as He bears your sins in His Body from the waters of His Baptism to His death upon the Cross — so sure and certain are you beloved and well-pleasing to your God and Father in Him. And as surely as God raised this same Jesus from the dead, so surely shall you also be raised. Because you are His own, and He loves you.

This voice of the Father from heaven is the Light that shines upon you in the darkness, which also causes the Light of Christ to shine within your heart.

This pledge and promise of your Baptism is the dawning of the New Creation for you — and now in you, in your heart and mind, body and soul, by the grace of God, through faith in the Gospel.

It has already been accomplished for you in Christ Jesus, the Son of God: by His Incarnation and Holy Nativity, by His Baptism in the Jordan River, by His Cross and Resurrection, and by His Ascension to the Right Hand of the Father in His glorified Body of flesh and blood.

And all of this that He has done and accomplished for you, He has given to you in your Baptism. It fills you up and gives you peace. It is all yours. For Christ is yours, and you are His forever.

Now, then, you live in the New Creation — in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus — by living every day in His Baptism, and in His Body.

What does that mean? And how do you do that? By living in your own Baptism: through daily contrition and repentance. Which isn’t something you can do for yourself, but it is worked in you by the Word and Spirit of God. So give attention to His Word, and live according to His Word.

Examine yourself, your thoughts, words and actions, and your place in life, according to the Ten Commandments. Then you will know how to live in faith and love, and what you should do, and what you should not do. You’ll also know what sins to confess, going to your pastor as the people went to St. John, that you might hear and receive the forgiveness of Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God.

Examining yourself and confessing your sins is the first way to use the Word of God, as an exercise of faith and a means of repentance. It allows the Word of God to expose your sins and put them to death — and to crucify the old Adam in you, with all your sinful lusts and desires. That sounds pretty scary and self-defeating, I realize, but it is the beginning and first step of repentance, which is the only way of life.

God identifies your sin and puts it to death with His Word — and He crucifies you, and puts you to death, by the Cross of Christ — in order to free you from sin and death, to save you for life with Himself, through His Word of Absolution or forgiveness.

That voice of the Gospel — that forgiveness of all your sins — rings out clearly in Confession and Absolution, surely. But it also sounds forth throughout the Church: in the preaching of Christ Jesus, and in the administration of His Body and His Blood with His own Word.

You live and abide in His Body — in His Resurrection from the dead, and therefore in the New Creation, in the Paradise of your God and Father — by listening to the Gospel and receiving the Sacrament. These are the bodily means by which Christ Jesus is with you, and by which His Holy Spirit descends upon you and rests upon you.

So does the Gospel of Christ Jesus, which reverberates throughout the Church, also resonate in you, in your thoughts, words and actions. The more you immerse yourself in its good vibrations, the more its sweet frequencies permeate your life and your relationships. The sound originates in Christ Jesus, in the voice of the Father speaking to you by His Son, but it echoes and reverberates and sings in you by the breathing of His Spirit.

For your Baptism not only puts you to death and buries you, but it also raises you up and gives you new life in Christ. This is not your work, but His work, and His free gift to you. Yet, it is now your life, which you live in Him by faith in His Gospel.

Thus are you also taken from the dust of the earth, and recreated in the Image and Likeness of God, and given to breathe the Breath of Life.

Thus are you a beloved son of the Father, well-pleasing in His sight.

For the Light of His Glory shines upon you, His peace is with you, and you shall be saved.

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

The Eleventh Day of Christmas, A.D. 2012

2012-01-04T21:30:00.003-05:00

The floods have lifted up their voice; the waters of Holy Baptism have testified:

Jesus, the Son of Mary, is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. He is the One who is greater than John, who existed before him, but who now comes after him, in order to save the world.

Even John does not know this Lord Jesus rightly, except by the water, Word and Spirit of Baptism. For it is by John’s baptizing in water that Jesus is manifested to Israel as the Lamb of God.

He is both humbled and exalted by His Baptism, because He there receives two things: the sins of the world, and the Spirit of His Father from heaven. Both of these He receives in His own Body of flesh and blood, so that He might be your Savior, and the Savior of all people.

Receiving your sins is the guarantee that He will die your death.

Receiving the Spirit is the promise of His Father that He will be raised for your justification.

Though Jesus is of higher rank than John — because He is Himself the Son of God by nature, from eternity — He submits Himself to John the Baptist, to his preaching and his baptism, in order to become the Lamb of God, who is given by the Father for the sins of the world.

Thus, He takes those sins upon Himself in the waters of His Baptism, in order to bear away the sins of all the baptized — to cleanse the people and set them free from the bondage of sin and death.

But the same Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, who bears your sins and the sins of the world in His Body, also receives the Holy Spirit in His flesh, as He comes up out of the waters of His Baptism.

And the Spirit remains on Him.

For He is indeed the Christ, the Lord’s Anointed, and He bears the Spirit in His Body as the One who bestows the same Spirit upon you — as the One who baptizes you with the Holy Spirit.

To begin with, He fills the waters of your Baptism with the Holy Spirit, so that by that washing of water with His Word, the unclean spirit must depart and make way for the Holy Spirit, who enters in.

So also does Christ Jesus bestow the Spirit by the way and means of His Body and Blood in the Holy Communion.

This also belongs to His office and vocation as the Lamb of God: On the one hand, He bears your sins in Himself, in His own Body, so that, by His sacrifice, your sins are removed and atoned for. He is the Passover Lamb who is given in your place, so that He dies instead of you. His Blood is poured out as the propitiation for your sins, and it now covers you completely.

But the same Lamb of God is also given to you as spiritual Food for you to eat, and His Blood is poured out for you, as your spiritual Drink. And this Meat and Drink of Christ Jesus, the Lamb, cleanses you, both inside and out; it fills you, in body and soul, with His life-giving Spirit.

This is what it means for Him to be the Lamb of God, who takes away all of your sins; who takes away the sins of the whole world.

In His Baptism, He has taken all those sins upon Himself, but so has He also received the Spirit on your behalf. So that, by your Baptism, and by your eating and drinking of His Supper, you are forgiven, and you are anointed by the Spirit of Christ — and His Spirit remains on you for life.

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

The Tenth Day of Christmas, A.D. 2012

2012-01-03T11:09:00.000-05:00

We know that, as an adult, zeal for His Father’s House will consume Him. He’ll roll up His sleeves to cleanse the Temple of all works righteousness; of all buying and selling of indulgences. And then He’ll bare His arms and stretch them out, and lay down His Body and Life in sacrificial death, in the confidence that His Father will raise Him up again; so that His own Body becomes the Temple of the Living God for you and for all people.

All this He has done and accomplished, and now we all know the rest of the story; even as we hear about the twelve-year-old Boy Jesus. In that respect, you know more now than He did then. For in a mysterious way that we can hardly fathom, He grew and increased in wisdom: He listened to His teachers, and He learned from them, as from His parents.

He was catechized. He asked questions, in order to learn, to make progress in His knowledge and understanding of the Word of God.

Though He is Himself the very Word made Flesh, and He has at all times the perfect Wisdom that begins and continues with the fear of the Lord; still, He lives a truly human life. He lives the life that you, also, have been created to live, which flows with and from the hearing of the Word of the Lord; and is always flowing into His holy Temple.

The Word of God became flesh, conceived and born of St. Mary, so that His own Body would become that Temple of God. But He achieves that purpose by living your childhood pattern in His upward journey to the Father on your behalf.

So it is that His parents catechized the little Lord Jesus. They did for Him what your parents do for you, and what you parents do for your children: They taught Him the Bible, they took Him to church, they brought Him to His pastors, they prayed and worshiped with Him.

They weren’t perfect. They made mistakes. They got frustrated, worried, scared, and impatient. They were astonished by Him, and they did not always understand Him. But they lived within their vocation, as His parents, and so they taught Him. And He learned from them.

So did He increase in His wisdom.

And so did He learn from the Feast of the Passover — to which His parents faithfully brought Him each year. He learned that every firstborn male is the Lord’s. In truth, all of God’s people are His own children; He has not only created them, but has redeemed them for Himself. But the firstborn sons are His in a pointed and particular way. For the firstborn sons of Israel were spared in the Exodus, when the Passover Lamb was put to death in their place.

Thus, the infant Christ Child was presented to the Lord in the Temple, when He was six weeks old, the firstborn Son of His Mother Mary, according to the Law of the Lord. He was consecrated to the Lord, His God and Father.

And He knows, now, at the age of twelve, that sons belong in their Father’s House at the Passover. That is what the Feast requires.

He belongs in the Temple, a Son at His Father’s Table. And in time, when His Hour has come, He will Himself be the Lamb that His Father gives for the Family.

Which is why, dear child of God, you also belong here in your Father’s House, gathered here at His Table. For you belong to His holy family, and the Lamb who has lived your life has also been sacrificed for you.

Let us therefore keep the Feast. For here in His Body is the Temple of your God and Father, in which you now abide, forever and ever. His flesh feeds and nurtures you for life, and His Blood covers and protects you from death.

For He has come down from heaven to abide with you here for a little while,

so that you may now go up with Him to the heavenly Jerusalem, and live with Him there.

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

Entering the Eternal Eighth Day by the Name & Circumcision of Jesus

2011-12-31T23:43:00.001-05:00

Some days are longer than others; but that can mean very different things. Most of us prefer the long sunny days of summer to the short dark days of winter. But when we talk about a “long day,” we usually mean one that has been difficult and tedious. Such “long days,” when they pile up, become long weeks, long months, and sometimes long hard years.

There is, however, yet another Day, which actually goes on forever: one that is not “long,” but eternal. Not difficult, tedious or painful, but full of light and life and love and peace. A Day that never ends, in which there is no more night, nor darkness anymore; nor hurt, nor fear, nor sadness.

Your days on earth can be long and hard, and often are, because they are burdened by sin and death. Since everything is dying, and there are limited hours of daylight, there is a constant battle to grow and gather food while you can, and to shore up life against the encroaching night.

But now, the Circumcision of our Lord Jesus points you to the Eighth Day: not the beginning of another week, another month, or another year, but the never-ending Day beyond all blood, sweat and tears. The eternal Day of life with God in the New Creation of the Lord’s Resurrection. The dawning of the new heavens and the new earth, in which there is no more night; no more darkness or death. The Day that doesn’t require any alarm clocks or time clocks, or watches or schedules, because work is no more cursed by sin, nor is it a battle to the death, but work and play alike are simply part of living the Life that is yours by the grace of God in Christ Jesus.

Because He, Christ Jesus, has redeemed and sanctified all of creation — and man, in particular — by His becoming flesh of our flesh, by His innocent death and holy bloodshed. And, behold, all things are made brand new in His risen Body. For He has taken your flesh to be His own, and He has taken your sin and death upon Himself, to bear it in His Body to the Cross. So, then, in His Resurrection from the dead, your sin and death are left behind, and He enters heaven in your flesh.

As He has thus entered upon the eternal Eighth Day on your behalf, by His Cross & Resurrection, so have you entered upon that Eighth Day by your Baptism into Him (into His dying and rising).

In his Epistle to the Colossians, St. Paul describes that Holy Baptism as a “circumcision made without hands.” In doing so, he identifies your connection to the Circumcision of Jesus, and to the fulfillment of the Covenant of Circumcision that the Lord God made with Abraham and his Seed.

Circumcision was both the Law and the Gospel for Abraham and his heirs. It was commanded and required, and there were serious consequences for males who were not circumcised: without this cutting of the flesh, they were cut off from the communion of Israel. But circumcision itself was indeed a cutting. It was painful and bloody. For adult men, it was debilitating for several days.

Yet, however odd or embarrassing it might be, circumcision was God’s Covenant with Abraham, and a promise that was given to father Abraham and all his children. Not the cutting in and of itself, but the cutting included in God’s command and combined with God’s Word. Thus, it was a divine promise signed and sealed in the very flesh of the Patriarch and his sons. For the Seed of Abraham would inherit the earth, and in that Seed of Abraham all the nations would be blessed; for in Him, Abraham would become the father of many nations, according to the promise of God.

Now that Covenant and its promise have been fulfilled in Christ Jesus. In submitting to the Law of Circumcision, He has taken the burden of the entire Law of God upon Himself, as well as the curse and consequences of sin and death. So has He also received the inheritance of Abraham, that is, the blessing promised to his Seed forever. For the Son of Mary, Jesus, is the Seed of Abraham. His holy Body is of the flesh and blood of Abraham, and in that Body of His, in His own flesh, He bears — and bears away — all the sin and death of all mankind.

His Circumcision signifies all of these things, and so does it mark His Body for all of these things.

So does the Name that He is given signify and mark His identity and His vocation as the promised Seed — of Abraham, of Judah and David, of the Woman Eve, and of the Blessed Virgin, St. Mary.

To be named “Jesus” is to be called the Son of the Most High. Indeed, it is to be the true God, Yahweh, in the flesh, who saves His people from their sins. For He is Immanuel, God with us. He is the Everlasting Father, the Patriarch of a new Israel, who surpasses even the great father Abraham. He is the true Prince of Peace, surpassing even the great kings David and Solomon.

He is the Joshua, named by God, who truly fulfills what the Lord promised through Moses, but which Moses himself could not do or accomplish.

The Law was a custodian and a tutor, leading the people out of Egypt, by the staff of Moses, through the Red Sea and the wilderness, to and from Mt. Sinai, to the border of the promised land.

But now this Joshua has come, who goes ahead of the people into the waters of the Jordan River; and He brings them, one and all, into Canaan, into the good land, flowing with milk and honey.

That is what this little Lord Jesus has done for you, and for all, by receiving Circumcision in His flesh, and by receiving the Name with which His God and Father has named Him from heaven.

He has gone the full distance — from the waters of His Baptism in the Jordan River (such as we shall hear and celebrate next Sunday), even unto His death upon the Cross. And so also, in His Resurrection from the dead, you are brought into the true and everlasting Promised Land, which God swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and to all who share the faith of Abraham.

He brings you into that good land through the waters of your Baptism: not as a slave or a captive, but as a beloved son — a son of Abraham by faith, but so also a son of God in Christ Jesus.

Whether you are male or female, young or old, rich or poor, Jewish or Gentile, employed or un-employed, a student or retired, still very young, or already very old — you, dear Christian, are a son of God in Christ, by virtue of your Baptism into Him.

For by your Baptism into Christ Jesus, His Circumcision and all that it signified avails for you, for the removal of sin and death from your flesh and blood, from your heart and mind, body and soul; and for your resurrection to newness of life, as a new creature living in the New Creation.

So, too, your Baptism has also named you with the Name of Jesus. Not that each and all of you are called “Joshua.” (How confusing would that be!?) But that everything the Name of Jesus testifies concerning Him, is now yours. That you are saved by Him, who is your own true God; and that you are His very own dear child. That He is your Father forever, and your true King, whose reign is one of peace and love, of joy and gladness.

With His Name, which He has invoked on you and given to you, He binds Himself to you and blesses you. He has done this for you in your Holy Baptism, and that is permanent. But so does He do it, daily, and throughout your life on earth (unto the life everlasting), by the speaking of His Word, by the preaching of His Gospel, by His absolving of your sins, and by the giving of Himself to you, the Word-made-Flesh, for you to eat and drink.

As a father first begets a child, and a mother once gives birth, but then both parents continue to “name” their children with loving care for them, by teaching them, by conversations with them, by forgiving them, by praying and confessing the Word of God with them (and for them). Each time a father calls his child by name, by the name that he has given, he calls that child his own.

So does the Lord continue to name you, by the speaking of His Word; and with that Word He blesses you with the gift of His Spirit, who is life and health, and peace and strength, and love.

Naming you with His Name, by His Word, He guards and keeps you in body and soul; in this life, yes, but also for the life everlasting — for the eternal Eighth Day of life with Himself in heaven. For with His Name, He claims you as His own, and He identifies you with Himself, as His own beloved child and heir. He is gracious toward you, compassionate and patient, because He loves you. He delights in you. He smiles upon you, and His countenance is bright with joy over you.

As you are named with the Name of Christ Jesus, anointed by His Spirit as a Christian, the Lord your God, your dear Father in heaven, is pleased with you and proud of you. He is not angry or unhappy with you; far from it. He reigns over you with grace and mercy and never-ending love.

That is your peace, through Jesus, your Savior. It is solid, sure and certain in His Body, in His flesh and blood, in His already-accomplished and completed-once-for-all Cross and Resurrection.

And this is already yours, here and now; as Christ is yours, even now, in your Baptism (which has left its indelible mark on you), and in this preaching of the Gospel, and in this Holy Communion.

By this grace of God in the Gospel, by this flesh and blood of Jesus, you already live and abide with Him in the eternal Eighth Day. It is not a long hard day, but a brilliant and beautiful Day of light and life and love.

For now, it is by faith, and not by sight. There are still days and nights, some longer than others. But the Eighth Day has already dawned for you, and for all, in the Incarnation of the Son of God, and in His bodily Resurrection from the dead. So shall you also rise, and live forever in body and soul, immortal, imperishable, and glorious, like Jesus.

Then shall there be no more days and nights, no more weeks and months and years, but only one great and glorious Day, and only the Light of Christ Jesus, your Savior, shining upon you forever.

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

The Sixth Day of Christmas, A.D. 2011

2011-12-30T09:00:00.001-05:00

The Son of God has appeared in the flesh on earth, in order to take away sins and destroy the works of the devil. But the way He goes about it is not obvious. You don't yet see Him as He is, though you know Him and love Him by faith in His Word. The world does not know Him at all, nor recognize Him, but hates Him and persecutes Him, because the world is sinful and practices lawlessness. it is driven by the devil in a jealous rage, in prideful spite, in covetous greed and terrible fear.

Take care, then, how you live in the world. For your own flesh is prone to those ways of the world: it perceives sin to be a way of life, and lawlessness as freedom. But, beloved, you are born of God, and His Seed abides in you. For this reason, also, the Son of God has become flesh, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary; so that you would be called a child of God by the gracious adoption of His Father. Indeed, you are a child of God — a son of God in Christ Jesus — by virtue of your Baptism into His Cross and Resurrection.

It does not yet appear what you will be, but when the Son of God appears in Glory, then, not only will you see Him just as He is, but you will be like Him.

Therefore, fix your hope on Him, as St. Joseph did, by hearing and heeding His Word: by listening to what He says, by trusting His promises, and by doing what He calls you to do.

By such faith you are purified, just as He is pure; and you abide in Him. You do not live in sin, because you live in the righteousness of Christ, and all of your sins are taken away by Him; they are not counted against you.

That is why He goes into Egypt — and God calls Him out again, into the Promised Land, His Son. He lives in the midst of adversity and danger. He takes upon Himself the burden of sin and death. He bears the Cross and suffers reproach, hostility, persecution and violence.

This is, again, why the world does not recognize or know Him as the true and only God; because He appears in such frailty and weakness, in such a pitiable state. It holds Him in contempt, abuses Him, and finally kills Him; because it can. And it does the same to you, because it can, and because you belong to Him.

You see, already under the Cross, you are like Him! You are frail and weak; you suffer and die. And He has made Himself like you.

But now, God has also called Him out Egypt. The Father has raised up His beloved Son. And so does He raise you up and call you to Himself, as His beloved child, through the same Lord Jesus Christ.

He calls you to live and abide for a while in Egypt — under the Cross in the midst of sin and death — but even here He preserves you in peace and provides for all your needs of body and soul. And in due time, He will call you from this vale of tears, into the heavenly Canaan, to your true home.

It is already from heaven that you are born of God and named by God in Christ.

Dear Christian, you are baptized, and Christ who is your hope is risen from the dead. That last great enemy, even death, is defeated. Therefore, with the Child and His Mother, you are rescued, you are cared for, and you live.

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

Called unto God by the Cross of Christ

2011-12-28T20:56:00.001-05:00

Despite its familiarity, the story of the Holy Innocents still has the power to shock and even scandalize. It assaults your sensibilities, your convictions of right and wrong, your knowledge of good and evil. It can certainly threaten your safety and security, and scare you, with the sort of things that give a parent nightmares.

Some things are sacred, surely, and ought to be left that way. Taking candy from a baby is the proverbial dirty trick, easy enough, but taking the baby from his mother is wicked. Even the world recoils at such horror, despite its own daily slaughter of the innocents. The whole country reeled at the news out of Penn State last month — horrible indeed — and today our own local paper describes the murder of a little girl who had been left in the care of a trusted family friend.

Such things are shocking and scary. They wake you up from your reverie, not only to righteous anger, but to repentance for your own sins, to cry out for mercy, forgiveness, deliverance and peace, from your God and Father. For you are His own dear child, and He is your only refuge.

But that is the very point at which the story of the Holy Innocents is most difficult and unsettling. Because it seems so backwards, and so wrong. As awful as King Herod and his actions are, you’re accustomed to the depravity of such tyrants. The Holy Scriptures and the history of the world are full of this kind of thing. What isn’t so normal or customary is the way the Lord responds and deals with the tyrant and his treachery in this case.

It is pivotal to the whole story of salvation, the very heart of the Gospel, that God gives His own dear Son to suffer and die in the place of fallen Adam and all the children of men. The Woman’s Seed is born to crush the serpent’s head. The Lamb of God is given as the Sacrifice, so that Abraham’s beloved Isaac is spared. The Passover is given so that the sons of Israel are not killed by the angel of death. The Son of David dies for His father’s sins. The little Lord Jesus is born to give His life as a Ransom for the many, in order to redeem the world.

Only, not this time. In this story, the little children are cruelly put to death, while Jesus gets away. It’s not just that people die — people die all the time. Pharaoh had how many babies killed before Moses grew up and came back to lead Israel out of Egypt? Christian martyrs still suffer and die, to this day, for the One who for their sake died and was raised. But the baby boys of Bethlehem get slaughtered so that Mary’s little Lamb can escape.

So, what has become of the Gospel? What is the point? Could the Lord not have dealt with this situation in some other way? Either without all the bloodshed, or by the shedding of the Christ Child’s Blood: the very purpose for which He is born!

Such thoughts and questions are almost inescapable in dealing with the slaughter of the Holy Innocents. Just as the mothers and fathers of Bethlehem could hardly help but wonder what was going on. Where was their God, while their babies were being murdered? Where was their Savior? Running away to Egypt? Seriously? Where is the future and the hope in that? Why should Rachel not weep and mourn for her children, who are no more?

Of course, you know the rest of the story, and, yes, it all makes sense in retrospect. With 20/20 hindsight you recognize that God surely has not spared His beloved Son, but has given Him up for us all. And we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Innocents, not to make light of their death, but to honor their martyrdom and to give thanks for their life and salvation. For Christ Jesus is their Savior and Redeemer, as He is also your Savior and Redeemer, and your children’s.

In the meantime, though, you are in the midst of living your own story, and you don’t yet know the rest of it. You know and confess the Resurrection and the Life everlasting, but you don’t know what will happen between now and then. You don’t know what tomorrow will hold, nor even what the middle of this very night may bring. Sometimes it all feels solid and sure, and then again, just like that, it can all be shaken to the core and leave you reeling.

Who are the soldiers that come crashing into your home in the dead of the night? The shrill ringing of the phone at an hour when you know it can’t be good. The urgent warning of your smoke alarms. The shattering of glass in your child’s room, or some other crash or cry in the dark. The blare of sirens racing past your home. Or maybe just the racing of your own heart.

What is it that snatches your babies from your arms? A miscarriage or stillbirth? A childhood illness or accident? Or maybe they don’t die, but they simply grow up and grow away from you. They have thoughts and ideas, hopes and dreams, interests and passions of their own — different from yours — and so you begin to recognize and feel the distance between yourself and your children. They make friends, they fall in love, they get married and have their own families. Or they go off to college and get jobs, and you’ve lost the babies they once were, no matter how desperately you try to cling to those bygone days and memories.

If you are still a little child, yourself, or still in the process of growing up, what is it that threatens you? What is it that tugs and pulls you away from your parents? What takes them away from you? Are you worried about your Mom and Dad, because they aren’t getting along so well, and you wonder if they’re going to get a divorce? Are you scared because they always seem to be so stressed about money, and it sounds like things might get pretty hard? But you’re too young, or too small, and there doesn’t seem to be anything you can do to help. What kinds of monsters are there in your closet, or under your bed?

You never know when Herod is going to get angry and strike. And then what? Where will you turn, and what will you do? If he takes and destroys what is most precious to you, how shall you go on? Or will you refuse to be comforted and succumb to despair? Will you abandon all hope? Will you harden your heart and become bitter, resentful, and angry, yourself?

Herod was enraged because he was afraid. He lashed out, not with true strength or power, but with violence born of desperation. To hurt and destroy those who are small and weak — to threaten or bully the helpless — that is not courageous, but cowardly. Herod was paranoid and terrified; he got so very angry, because he was so very afraid of losing his place and his position in the world. He murdered his neighbor in order to protect himself, in order to keep what he thought was his.

Do not allow your own fear to control you in that way. Rather, fear the Lord, and repent of both your hot temper and your inconsolable grief. You will not be able to protect or save yourself, in any case; but you do have a Savior who will save you. You are not in control, but neither is Herod. None of the tyrants of this world will have the last word. Their violence and destruction are wicked and devastating, but all of that will come to nothing in the end. For the Lord has set His true King upon His holy hill of Zion, and He shall reign forever and ever.

His almighty power has been perfected in His own voluntary weakness, and it is demonstrated chiefly in His compassion for you, in His tender mercy and loving-kindness. He has and shows true strength in His Self-sacrifice, in His Self-giving, in His love for those at enmity with Him, in His forgiveness of those who sin against Him.

The Father, in love, has handed over His Son — even unto death upon the Cross. He is rescued from Herod’s wrath, because no one takes His life from Him, but He will lay it down willingly when the Hour has come. For the Son submits Himself entirely to His Father’s will, in perfect faith and holy love. He makes Himself small and weak, not only becoming a little creature of flesh and blood, but subjecting Himself to the frailties and mortality of fallen man. Already as a newborn Infant at His Mother’s breast, He lives by faith, as you are also called to live.

At all times, and in all places, He commends Himself, His body and soul, into the hands of His Father in heaven. But that also means entrusting Himself to the hands of His father on earth.

It falls upon dear St. Joseph to care and provide for the Christ Child and His Mother Mary. And Joseph sets a good example of faith and love for his wife and her Son, by hearing and heeding the Word of the Lord in quiet obedience.

As Dr. Luther admonishes in his preaching on the Christmas story, we should not romanticize any of these things, nor suppose that Mary and Joseph were made of stone. They were people like you, called by God to faith in His Word, forgiven by His grace through the Gospel, and set upon a path of love, bearing the Cross in the hope of the Resurrection.

Thus are you catechized in faith and love by their godly example.

Fleeing to a foreign country in the middle of the night, with Herod’s hot anger roaring behind you, is hardly a fun family vacation. Living and providing for a wife and child in a strange land is no picnic either. It is Joseph in Egypt all over again. But the Lord was with His Joseph in both cases, and He is with you, too.

You also are a stranger in a strange land, and the Lord would catechize you to live as such. That is to live by faith in Him, to fix your hope on Him, to lift up your heart unto Him, in peace.

So, what does that mean, and what will that look like?

It means that you are never finally “at home” in this world, in this life on earth, and yet you are able to make yourself “at home” wherever the Lord may call you to live and abide for a time. You receive and accept and rely upon His gracious providence, whether it be a stable when there is no room in the inn, or the gifts of strangers from the East when your own ruler is out to kill you and your family, or a safe haven in the land of pagan Pharaohs. Behind each of these masks, you behold the hand of your God and Father. Just as St. Mary and the Baby Jesus saw the hand of God in the care provided by St. Joseph. So do you live by the means that God provides for you.

Yet, while you gladly and gratefully receive His providential care, your hope and trust remain in Him alone, and these do not shift to the good gifts of His creation. You trust and honor and love the Lord in your parents and your spouse; and you trust and honor and love Him still, when you are bereft, orphaned or widowed. You receive all things with thanksgiving, and you sanctify them to yourself, to use and enjoy them, by the Word of God and prayer. But so do you remain content in all circumstances, even when everything is taken away from you. As God remains, and His Christ, though He died, ever lives, so do you live and abide in Him, both now and forever.

That is why you neither despair nor become defensive and angry when your life on earth and all your worldly possessions are threatened.

Not that you have learned this on your own, nor taken any of this to heart by your own cleverness, wisdom, or resolve. You are catechized by the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus, by His preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of your sins. You are catechized by His Cross, as you are also baptized into His Cross.

Only by the Cross do you follow the Lamb wherever He goes — in and out of Egypt, through death and the grave, into the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Only by the Cross do you learn the new song — the song of God and the Lamb — the never-ending song of heaven — which is the song of the Gospel, and of faith in the Gospel. For only by the Cross of Christ are you purchased from the earth and presented to God, blameless before Him. You are bought by the Blood of the Lamb, and bathed in His Blood. How, then, shall your life on earth not be bloody?

You are being crucified and put to death in the world, not only because the world and the devil hate you, but because your God and Father loves you. He does not gladly cause you pain, nor does He rejoice in your death, but He permits such heartache and loss, suffering and death, that you might be His own and live forever in Him. Thereby all falsehood is put to death in you, and all covetousness is put to death in you; all false hope, all anger and despair, all greed and selfishness, and all idolatry is put to death in you. Thus does the Lord work repentance in you by the Cross.

Ironically, one of the most difficult and painful places at which the Cross must work repentance in you, is precisely in those most precious and holy relationships to which the Lord has called you in this life. There is a constant tension between loving your parents and your spouse, as you are given to do, and the temptation to idolize them in the place that belongs only to the Lord your God. To be orphaned or widowed is an exquisite loss, because it brings that tension to a crisis point. Of course you rightly mourn the loss, but you are also called and brought to repentance, lest you despair of all hope and refuse the comfort of Christ Jesus.

In some ways, the challenge is all the greater in the case of your children. Your parents and your spouse are each, in their own way, masks of God for you, in whom you behold your Father in heaven and your heavenly Bridegroom. But if you are a father or mother, yourself, then God has given you His own place for your children. In this you are tempted, not only to make idols of your sons and daughters, but to make a false god of yourself. Thus, when they are lost to you, in one way or the other, it is you who are crucified and put to death by the Cross. You are put to death, that the true God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ may raise you from the dead in Him. Thus does He call you to repentance, to fear, love and trust in Him, through His forgiveness of sins.

What, then, am I saying? That the Lord sacrifices your children in order to spare you and save you? That He slaughtered the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem in order to rescue their parents?

No, that is not quite right. Did the Lord not stay the hand of father Abraham from slaying Isaac? Did He not give Seth in place of Abel? And did He not raise the widow’s son and the daughter of Jairus? He does not willingly grieve the sons of men. Nor is He the Author of death, but life.

Nevertheless, He does bring good out of evil, and He raises life from out of death. He permits the curse and consequences of sin — and by His Law, He increases and exacerbates these things — for the sake of discipline, correction and reproof, catechesis and repentance. He allows the devil his little day, and despots on earth their little reign of terror, that He might strengthen faith, and sanctify His people by the Cross, and finally prove His own faithfulness by raising up His saints.

None of this at your expense, but at the cost of God’s own Son. He has not fled the Cross, but He has fully borne and suffered it for you and for all, for your children, and your children’s children. Even with the flight into Egypt, the Lord Jesus was not spared the Cross. He was taking it upon Himself and bearing it for all the people. All the sins of Adam and Eve and all their children, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and of all the sons of Israel, He took upon Himself, in order to atone for everything and to redeem everyone. He gathered up into His own Body and Life, into His own flesh and blood, the whole history of man (from the beginning to the end of the world), in order to obtain a future and a hope for all mankind in His bodily Resurrection from the dead.

That is where the Creed crescendoes: with the Resurrection of the crucified Christ, and with the Resurrection of the body unto the life everlasting for all who believe and are baptized into Him.

That is your future and your hope. That is the country to which your children also are called, to which they are gathered in Christ Jesus. They were created for such life with God in the first place.

The tyranny of sinful men and women is inexcusable, but the Lord does not permit it to thwart His good and gracious will for the salvation of all whom He calls and gathers to Himself in love.

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His holy ones, who are blameless and innocent by the blood of the Lamb. He has not abandoned any one them, but He has brought them into Sabbath Rest, into endless joy and felicity, into eternal Peace.

He does not abandon you, either, who still live and work under the Cross. The life of faith and love is not easier than martyrdom, but neither is undertaken apart from Christ, who loves you. Whether you live or die, you are the Lord’s, and your life remains in and with Him forever and ever. When you mourn, He mourns with you, and just as surely will He turn your mourning into gladness and rejoicing. While you work and suffer, He works and suffers with you, and so shall your work be rewarded in His Resurrection from the dead. For if you are crucified with Him, so do you also rise with Him and live with Him.

You are a stranger in a strange land, on a pilgrimage in a foreign country. But you are not alone. You have not been forgotten, nor shall you be forsaken. Here, now, is Food for your journey. Open your mouth, and be fed. The Lord indeed is with you. And out of Egypt, at the last, He will surely call you, unto the true God who is your own dear Father in Him.

All glory, honor, thanks and praise be unto Him, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is one God, now and forever. Amen.

The Crown of Life Is Yours in Christ Jesus

2011-12-26T21:36:00.003-05:00

There’s a great scene in Walk the Line, the movie about Johnny Cash, in which Waylon Jennings is giving Luther Perkins grief about the way he picks his guitar. “How come you ain’t ever tried this kind of pickin’, Luther?” Perkins plays a bit, rattles off some tasty licks, and then he says, “Well, Waylon, whatever you’re lookin’ for, I’ve already found.”

It’s a great line, and one of my all time favorite scenes; not only because it involves guitars, but because it is so right. There is that kind of confidence and contentment when you know that you already have what you need. St. Paul describes much the same thing when he writes:

“Godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, and neither can we take anything out of it. But if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content . . . because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, but especially of those who believe.”

St. Stephen had that godly contentment, because he had already found what everyone needs and most people are still looking for. He wasn’t searching for the meaning of life, which had already been made known to him by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel. He wasn’t confused about his place and purpose in the world, because he knew himself to be a child of God in Christ. He wasn’t nervous or afraid about tomorrow or the next day, because he lived by the grace of his Father.

That explains the striking contrast that we find in the story of Stephen: On the one hand, his fierce and forthright preaching of the Law, and on the other hand, his gracious prayer of forgiveness for those to whom he preached, as they were stoning him to death. He demonstrates the bold courage that characterizes the martyrs of our Lord Jesus, but also the charity and compassion of Christ. He has the strong confidence and passionate conviction, not of harsh anger, but of faith in the Gospel.

In particular, Stephen knew and trusted that he had a dwelling place with God; because God had made His dwelling place with Stephen in Christ Jesus. The holy martyr knew that he would be with Christ, with the Father in heaven, because the same Lord Jesus Christ was with him in his suffering and death. Stephen wasn’t on his own. He wasn’t flying solo. He wasn’t flying without a parachute, nor walking the high wire without a net. He knew that heaven was his home, and that heaven had been fully opened to him by the Cross and Resurrection of the incarnate Son of God.

The Lord has just as surely done the same for you, as well. He has become flesh for you. He has given Himself for you, even unto death. He has risen from the dead and ascended into heaven for you, also. And yet, He also remains with you here, in His Church on earth, in His own flesh and blood, with His own Word and Holy Spirit. Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with you here.

What Moses was shown and what he saw on the Mountain was a Type of that incarnate Lord, Jesus Christ, and the tabernacle that Moses made by God’s direction was according to that holy pattern. It served the people of God in the wilderness as a means of grace, a proclamation of the Gospel, because it pointed to what has now been accomplished and fulfilled in the Son of Mary.

He is the new and better Joshua, who brings God’s people out of the wilderness into the good land that He has promised, defeating all their enemies before them. And He is the new and better David — the Son of David who is greater than Solomon — the true King of Peace, and holy Wisdom — whose own Body is raised and established as the true Temple of God. That is to say, not a house for God to live in, as though He were otherwise homeless, but a House in which you live with God.

In Him, by your Baptism into Him, His God and Father is your God and Father. You bear His own Name and Holy Spirit, because you are born of Him, and you have your life in Him, and you are a member of His family. Your house and home are with Him, safe and secure, now and forever.

For Christ Jesus, the beloved Son, has become your Brother in the flesh, and your Savior from sin, death, the devil, and hell. He is your merciful and great High Priest (in the order of Melchizedek). His sacrificial death is your Atonement and Redemption. His Resurrection from the dead is your reconciliation and your righteousness with God. And His Ascension to the Right Hand of the Father is your own happy homecoming, your peaceful resting place, and your salvation forever.

That is why you can be strong and courageous, as St. Stephen was, in doing your job, in doing and saying forthrightly what is good and right and true; even when it is painfully difficult, woefully unpopular, and poorly received. You fear the Lord, because He alone is your true God and Father, but you need not be afraid of any mortal man. No one can rob you of your life with God in Christ.

Along with such courage and confidence, you are also able to be compassionate, kind, and patient, even when you deal with hurtful and unpleasant people. To be sure, your kind compassion may require the preaching of the Law and the call to repentance, according to your office and vocation. But such a preaching of repentance — as when the Lord persisted in sending the Prophets to His people of old, and in the case of St. Stephen — is neither vindictive nor mean-spirited, but aims at warning the neighbor of danger and calling him back to the Lord.

So, too, when you must warn your neighbor, do so in love — truly to rescue him from danger and lead him to life with yourself — and neither out of anger, defensiveness, fear, or vengeance.

After all, you know that you are safe. Your life is secure. You need not guard yourself so fiercely. God has opened His heaven to you in Christ Jesus, as fully and freely as He did for St. Stephen. Indeed, through your Holy Baptism, you have already died with Christ and entered into life with God in Him. That is how sure and certain your life and your eternal future are, and ever shall be.

Dear child of God, you know that, for Jesus’ sake, your true Father in heaven loves you; that He is pleased with you, and delights in you, regardless of what anyone else may think or say or do. And you know that all of this is solely by His grace and mercy; that He is compassionate, kind, and patient with you; long-suffering, slow to anger, and full of nothing but steadfast love for you.

Therefore, as Christ has given Himself for you, and has given you His own life by the Gospel, and He has become your Righteousness and your Salvation, so is He your Strength and your Song — your confidence and courage, on the one hand; your charity and compassion, on the other.

So it is that you become like Him. Which is also to become like St. Stephen, who was recreated in the Image of God, after the pattern of Christ Jesus, in his own Holy Baptism.

Therefore, you also live (you suffer, and you die) as Stephen did — like Christ — by grace through faith in the Gospel. That is the only power and poise that you will ever need. And it is already yours!

You have the tabernacle of the testimony here in the wilderness, that is to say, the preaching of the Gospel. That is the true wisdom and eloquence of the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus, calling you daily to repentance, unto faith, through the forgiveness of all your sins. It cleanses you and clothes you with the Blood of the Lamb; as in your Holy Baptism, so also in the Holy Communion.

The saints who have gone before you, especially the holy martyrs like St. Stephen, are another kind of “tabernacle of the testimony,” because they have lived in their own flesh and followed by faith the same pattern they were shown in Christ Jesus. And you, in turn, follow the same pattern as a living testimony to your neighbor, so that your neighbor is given to see the Son of Man in you.

Be Thou faithful unto death, and He will give you the crown of life. That was His sure and certain promise to St. Stephen (whose name means “crown”), and His promise to you is no less sure and certain. Indeed, it is already a “bird in the hand,” because your dear Lord Jesus Christ, the very King of heaven, has already crowned you with His own royalty and righteousness by the Gospel. He has crowned you with Himself and with His Glory, having made of you His royal Bride, His Queen. And as He spoke by the Prophet Isaiah, you are a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

You are another Stephen, by virtue of your Baptism into the Cross and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And as He did for that holy Stephen, for whom we give thanks and praise to God this day, He also brings you through those waters of your Baptism into the heaven He has opened by His own Baptism. He will bring you through death and the grave into the life everlasting, as even now He brings you through the great tribulation into His own Resurrection and Ascension.

Already you live with Him in God, by grace through faith in His Gospel, because God tabernacles here with you in Him, that is, in His flesh and blood, and in His Word of forgiveness. For that dear Lord Jesus binds together in Himself, forever, both God and Man, both heaven and earth.

Here at His Altar — and so also from this Altar into the world in your vocations, even through the wilderness — you live before the throne of God; you live and abide in His Temple.

Your sins are all forgiven. Forgive those, also, who trespass against you. For you are righteous and holy before God, and precious in His sight, for the sake of Christ Jesus. As He has risen from the dead, and lives and reigns forever at the Right Hand of His God and Father, so shall you not die, but live. Does He not feed you with His flesh, and pour out His Blood for you to drink? Yes, He does. He sees to it that neither His Word nor His Table are neglected in this place. Therefore, you lack nothing, nor shall you ever lack for what you need.

You’ve already found what you were looking for.

Or, rather, He has found you.

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

Abiding with His Flock in Their Field at Night

2011-12-25T17:38:00.009-05:00

You may not be a shepherd, but you do have your own watch to keep: your own flock to guard and protect, to feed and care for, and your own field in which to abide. You have the duties of your office, the responsibilities of your particular station in life. Consider your place in the world according to God’s commandments, and you will know where you should be found, what you should be doing, and what you should not. You will know the sheep of the Good Shepherd whom you are given to love and to serve.

Whether you work the day shift or at night; whether evenings and weekends, or on call 24/7, you live and work in the midst of deep darkness. It is the darkness of sin and death, of sickness and sadness, of violence and hate, bullies and hazing; the pitch black darkness of unbelief and idolatry, ungodliness and worldly desire.

Sometimes the darkness looms and grows and thickens to the point that it threatens to swallow you up completely — like a living, breathing monster, some kind of wild beast, a roaring lion, seeking to devour you. Left alone and afraid in the darkness, unable to see which way to turn, neither do you see any hope for tomorrow. In the dead of the night, when you cannot sleep, or when your sleep is assailed with nightmares, it does not appear that the sun will ever shine on you again.

And then, at other times, it might seem as though the darkness is simply overcome by the bright lights of man. Electricity is just one of many good gifts of God that we turn into an idol of self-sufficiency. Who needs the sun, when you can simply flip a switch? You can fill your house with light at any hour of the day or night. You can brighten your whole block with your colorful display of Christmas lights. You can travel anywhere, anytime, purchase anything you want around the clock, and find out anything you want to know in a moment.

But it’s all a charade. It’s not really day, no matter how many watts you burn. You can hide from the darkness and pretend, or cover it up with bright and shiny things; you can set your clocks forward in the spring, and turn them back in the fall, but the night still descends, and thick darkness covers you.

Really, though, I’m not speaking so much about the natural darkness that comes with the setting of the sun at the end of each day. That is part of the Lord’s good creation, with which He also gives to His beloved sleep. Or so He intends and desires to do and to give, though you flee from His gentle darkness, from His peace and rest, to burn your candles at both ends in pursuit of your own good and evil. And that is so around the clock.

The darkest hours ain’t always at night. Nor is the darkness only on the outside, surrounding you. There is a deeper, darker darkness within you, gnawing away and eating you up from the inside-out. Not the natural darkness of God’s creation, but the native darkness of your fallen old man, the darkness of your heart and mind, beclouded by sin, ignorant of God, tempted to wickedness and evil on the one hand, but then also accused, ashamed, and afraid, on the other hand.

This is the darkness that blackens your thoughts and feelings, and makes it difficult, or, rather, impossible, for you to see or perceive anything clearly, even at high noon. You live, as it were, always at night, always in the dark. You tend your sheep, yes, but like a hireling; you despise and resent them, and grumble and complain. You run away and hide, on the inside at least, when push comes to shove. You work without joy, because you have to, in order to make ends meet, and you count the hours, the days, the weeks and years until you’re done.

When you take care of the sheep, only for the sake of taking care of yourself, then the darkness emerges from within you in the form of self-preservation and self-protection, and it descends upon you in the form of fear, desperation, and finally despair.

That is the darkness which would eventually consume you altogether, and bring you into the long dark night of death and the grave.

Except that, now, the true Light has come. The same true God who caused the Light to shine out of the darkness in the beginning, has caused the Light of His Glory to shine upon you by His grace. He’s doing it right now, as a matter of fact, in the middle of this night, in the midst of all the darkness around you. As always, it is by and with His Word that His Light shines. His Word is the Light, which is preached to you, that you might see God and have life in Him.

This Light of the revelation of the Glory of God is scary in its own way at times. When you’ve been in the dark for so long, well, you know how it is; the light hurts your eyes. And when you’ve been hiding away in the darkness, doing what you shouldn’t and neglecting what you should, then having the lights suddenly flipped on might well freak you out and make you sore afraid.

The Light first of all exposes the deeds of darkness, and it makes clear that you have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.

At other times — perhaps even most of the time — although your Light has come, and the grace of God has appeared, it may seem as though it were lost and overcome by thick clouds and long dark shadows. The irony and paradox of the Cross, which is the Hour of God’s great Glory in Christ Jesus, is that it appears completely otherwise. We do make crosses out of burnished metal, and we make them beautiful, as best we can, in order to confess the mysterious and hidden truth of the matter. But in this present age, the Cross of Christ is not bright and shiny; it is dark and foreboding. His Cross is a kind of black light, I suppose.

So, as it is the Light of the Cross that shines upon you in the Word of Christ, your life on earth is not all blue skies and sunshine, but overcast and overshadowed, maybe even dark and cold and rainy. The days are short, your nights are long. And when all the excitement and celebration of Christmas has come and gone, the presents have been opened and put away, the decorations taken down, and even the leftovers have all been eaten, there will still be your job to do, your studies to resume, and either the frenzy or the boredom, the loneliness or chaos of your life.

For some of you, the fear that nothing will ever change or get any better may be the greatest fear and deepest dread of all.

But to each and all of you I say, Fear not. For right here, right now, I bring to you good news of great joy. This is a Word of Peace, not only for shepherds “once upon a time,” but for all people, and so also for you. These glad tidings are preached to you, as you keep your watch, and tend your sheep, and abide in your field, by night as by day. This message rings out to the ends of the earth, and so also here it is spoken and heard, confessed, prayed and sung. It is proclaimed for you, first of all, but in such a way that you, too, are able to speak it and sing it.

This Word is full of great joy, because it meets your deepest needs, delivers you from death, and gives you life with God. It is comfort and peace. It is Light in the darkness. It is rescue and relief, protection from danger, tender care, and free salvation.

Because it is unto you that a Savior has been born. He is your Savior, and so He comes for you here, where you are. He is born “in the same country,” that is to say, not Palestine per se, nor the U.S.A. Neither Canada, El Salvador or Kenya. But all of the above, in the same country and commerce in which you live and work; the world of men, of flesh and blood, of sunshine and rain, of eating and drinking, waking and sleeping. He has been born for you into all of that.

He has come, not simply to be with you and keep you company as you go about your days and nights, but to be your Savior — to save you from all that darkens your world, and from all that brings death into your life. He comes to do it by His Cross, by submitting Himself to the darkness of death and the grave, allowing Himself to be swallowed up by them — but then He is the One who triumphs and swallows them up, once and for all. The darkness does not overcome Him — indeed, it cannot — and so it is dispersed by Him Who is the Light. Death and the grave cannot hold Him, but death is defeated by His death; so has He risen from the grave, and He shall never die again.

As death no longer has any lordship over Him, neither shall it be allowed to rule over you. For your Savior, Christ Jesus — born into the House and Lineage of David, a Man after His Father’s heart — He is your Shepherd and your King.

Even a little child knows that a Shepherd guards and protects His flock from danger, and also feeds and cares for His sheep, leading them into good green pastures and alongside cool clear waters. That is what your Shepherd does for you, so that you have life, and death is kept at bay.

Because He is also your King, the governments rests fully upon His shoulders, and not upon you. He is not a tyrant, nor a cruel dictator, but an “everlasting Father” for His people. As Dr. Luther describes a king as a father of his country, so is Jesus a fatherly King to you and all His people. So it is, again, that He feeds you and clothes you, shelters and protects you, teaches you and trains you, in body and soul. All by His grace, without any merit or worthiness in you, but with fatherly divine goodness and mercy.

The government of King Jesus is the true “welfare state.” He does not take your wealth to spread it around and share with others. He does not take a census of the people, in order to tax the world. But He distributes His own wealth to you and all your fellow citizens of His Kingdom, so that you and your neighbor are well supplied and well able to love and serve and care for each other with the good gifts of your King.

But, see then how it is: You are saved by Him, and now you live by His grace and mercy, and you have Peace in the Light of His Gospel. For He is the Christ, the Lord’s Anointed, and having been anointed by the Spirit of His Father in His Body of flesh and blood, He pours out the Holy Spirit upon you through His forgiving of all your sins. Indeed, He is the Lord Himself — the almighty and eternal Son of God, begotten of the Father from all eternity — but He has also become true Man, a human being like yourself, by His conception and birth of St. Mary. In Him, God and Man are perfectly and permanently united. So also, in Him, you are united with God in perfect Peace.

Here, then, let me tell you where and how to find Him. To worship Him, yes, in His own flesh with your whole self, body and soul, heart and mind, words and actions. But to worship and adore Him, in the first place, by hearing His Word and receiving His good gifts — trusting Him, and living by His grace. And then also to return thanks, to bend your knee and lift up your voice, and to love and serve your neighbor in the name of your King.

You will find Him in the city of David, that is, Bethlehem, which is the “House of Bread.” Not by accident or coincidence is your Savior found in such a House, for He is the true and living Bread from heaven. But His Bethlehem is not far away from you, on the other side of the planet. It is found, and He is found, wherever His Church is gathered by and for the preaching of His Gospel and the giving of His Body in remembrance of Him. The household and family of His Church, in which that Bread is administered with His Word, is where you will find the Son of David.

He is wrapped in swaddling clothes, in anticipation of the clothes that will wrap and swaddle His Body when He is taken down from the Cross and buried. Because He wraps Himself in your frailty and weakness, in your fallen-ness, in your mortality and death. But so, again, does He burst the bonds of sin and death, and set you free. Thus, the swaddling clothes of His humble nativity, and of His tomb, are a sign of His Victory over death and the grave, as well as the means by which He wraps Himself up to give Himself to you (under His Tree). Thus, He is wrapped and swaddled now upon the Altar, in the Cup and on the Plate, reverently adorned with linens recalling both His burial and His Resurrection from the dead.

If you would find Him, find Him here at His Altar. If the wood of the manger has given way to the wood of the Cross, so is the Cross set before you in the wood of this Altar. And it is still a manger of sorts, that is, a feeding trough, from which you eat and drink. Here is where His sheep are fed, with the Food and Drink that are His own holy Body and His own most precious Blood.

Little wonder, then, that angels and archangels and all the host of heaven are gathered here with you, round about, and join with you in praising God. For wherever the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, are found, there all of heaven takes notice, pays devout attention, and sings with such great joy and gladness to the glory, honor, thanks and praise of the Holy Triune God. All saints and angels, in heaven and on earth, rejoice, give thanks, and sing, because the Lord our God has become Man, and has saved the sons of men for the life everlasting.

The same Lord God in mercy sends His messengers to you, to shepherd you as His dear sheep by the preaching and teaching of His Word, in order to bring you these glad tidings: which are for you.

Do keep these things, as St. Mary did, and ponder them daily (ponder them at night, too) in your heart and mind. Savor these glad tidings in your words and actions. For this Word of Christ is the Light that disperses the gloom and scatters the darkness. So it does for you, as you hear it and remember it; and so it does for your neighbor, as you also speak it and share it with those you encounter.

With this Word, and by this Light, return to your own field, to your own flock, with thanksgiving to God, and at Peace, in the sure and certain hope of Christ. His Incarnation and His Birth, His Cross and Resurrection, have already changed everything for the better.

Though it is still dark, and the night seems to reign without ending, in truth, everything is — and ever shall be — just as it has been told to you. Your Light has come in the flesh of Christ Jesus, and the Grace of God has appeared in the preaching of His Gospel. The eternal Day has already dawned in the Resurrection of Christ from the dead, so that you who are redeemed by His Cross shall also rise and live forever in His Light.

What your eyes have not yet seen — what your heart cannot yet feel or comprehend, and your mind cannot yet picture or imagine — shall at last appear, suddenly bursting into the midst of this long dark night. As surely as the Gospel is here preached — and your sins are all forgiven by that Word of the Gospel — and the Sacrament is given to you in this present age — so surely does your dear Lord come to you, and His Glory shines upon you, and surely He will also bring you home with Himself, rejoicing. Then there shall be no more night forever, but only the Light of your great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, evermore and evermore.

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

Peace Be with You in the Body of Christ

2011-12-21T20:49:00.001-05:00

As a disciple, Thomas should have believed the testimony of the other disciples, who had seen the Lord. And as a disciple, he should have been there with them in the first place, when Jesus came. It is fundamental to the Christian faith and life to be gathered together with the other members of His Body, the Church, on the Lord’s Day. For it is in the gathering of His disciples in His Name that the crucified and risen Lord Jesus comes and takes His stand, and speaks His Word, and grants His Peace, and bestows His Spirit, and gives Himself to you and all His Christians. It is in His Body that you find Him, and have your peace and rest.

So, Thomas should have been there with the disciples when Jesus came, and, having not been there, he should have believed their testimony. For these things, he was called to repentance, and brought to repentance, to receive the Lord Jesus, to be forgiven, to be at peace, no longer faithless but believing. The fruits of his repentance are found, even in the midst of his cynical doubts and skepticism, in the fact that he was with the disciples on the Eighth Day. He was back in church. He was where he belonged, and where he needed to be.

We may certainly suppose that the other disciples were instrumental in re-gathering their brother Thomas to their fellowship. He doubted their word — and basically called into question, either their integrity or their sanity — but they did not shun him, shut him out, or spurn his presence. Evidently, they encouraged him to be there with them, and they supported him with their company. Precisely that kind of encouragement and support is part of what it means to be a congregation of the Church, to be members of one Body in Christ, to belong to the household and family of God.

You would notice and do something about it, if one of your children or siblings were absent from the family gathering. So should you be aware when your fellow disciples, your brothers and sisters in Christ, are absent from His Body, and in love seek them out and call them “home” with the confession of His Cross and Resurrection, with the testimony of His Gospel:

“Dear friend, we want you to be here with us. Not only so that you might love and serve us, but so that we might love and serve you. Let us bear one another’s burdens. Let us share your doubts and fears, your griefs and sorrows, and bear them with you in Christ Jesus. Let us hear His Word together, and pray and sing together, and thereby call upon His Name, and hope in His mercy.”

Whatever words and gestures the other disciples may have used, they had Thomas together with them again on the Eighth Day of Easter. And there the were, a rag-tag collection of men, tossed about and torn by mixed emotions, anxieties and hurts, weariness and expectations. One of their number, Judas, was already lost and gone, having hanged himself in despair. Simon Peter was yet to be restored, after having denied Jesus on the eve of His Passion. And despite the Resurrection appearances of the previous Sunday, and several eyewitness reports, the disciples still struggled with doubts; their faith waxed and waned, and they were as often incredulous as confident.

Who knows what hurt feelings there may have been among them? We know they had often argued among themselves, as to which of them was the greatest. There were jealousies and resentments between them, and no doubt as many differences of opinion as there were personalities. What reservations and suspicions did they have about each other, as they were gathered together behind closed doors? Was Thomas ashamed of himself, or feeling sorry for himself? Or was he covering up his fear and protecting himself by acting sullen or surly?

There’s always a lot going on beneath the surface, and more than meets the eye, in a roomful of sinners. Frail, fallen men of mortal flesh and blood are besieged and beleaguered by all kinds of things, constantly in flux. You know that from your own experience. In truth, that gathering of disciples was not unlike this congregation, with ups and downs, strengths and weaknesses, doubts and fears, hopes and dreams, and hurts both new and old. You bring all of that with you into this place, into this gathering. So does your neighbor. So it was for Thomas and the other disciples.

How is it that such fractured and fragmented people become whole? How is that disagreements and division are healed and give way to community? Is it just that misery loves company, and so we get together to commiserate? Is it a case of circling the wagons against the big bad world out there? Or, what is it that brings you from being so afraid, so angry, so bitter and cynical, and so depressed, to being at peace — with God, with your neighbor, and with yourself — and believing in Christ Jesus: that He was crucified for all your sins, and that God the Father raised Him from the dead as your righteousness, life and salvation?

This, too, is for you and for this congregation as it was for Thomas and the other disciples: The Lord Jesus comes, and stands in your midst, and He speaks, “Peace be with you!” He calls you to repentance, which is to say, He calls you to Himself. For He has risen from the dead, and in His Resurrection He forgives you, He gives you life. His Absolution raises you from the dead, as surely as He Himself has been raised. That is what the preaching of His Gospel does, for His Word does and gives what it says: forgiveness of sins.

That Word is preached to you, even now, from the testimony of the Apostles then, including Thomas. In this respect they differ from you, and from all other Christians; they excel the prophets who came before them, and the pastors and teachers who follow after them. Blessed are their eyes, Jesus says elsewhere, because they have seen what the righteous men of old longed to see.

And what the holy Apostles have seen with their eyes, what they heard with their ears, and what they touched and handled, they have spoken and written, testified and professed for the whole Church on earth, even to the end of the age. What they believe, because they have seen, they give to you, who do not see, and yet you believe by their Word.

In this regard, as an Apostle, as one of the Twelve, Thomas is exactly right to insist upon seeing. It is necessary that he also be an eyewitness of the crucified and risen Jesus. His apostolic office and vocation require it, just as a replacement for Judas will need to be an eyewitness of the Resurrection, and Saul of Tarsus will behold the risen Lord Jesus on the Road to Damascus.

That same Lord Jesus has given His Apostles to His Church, as the first of all His gifts, so that by their preaching and teaching, by their confession and their doctrine, you might believe in Him, and have life in Him, and share in the fellowship of the holy Apostles — which is, in fact, to share in the fellowship of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Blessed are your ears, therefore, because they hear what the Apostles saw. And blessed are you, because faith comes by such hearing of the Word of Christ.

Not only that, but also, what St. Thomas the Apostle saw and touched and handled — the Body of the crucified and risen Christ Jesus — he has also handed over to the Church, and now to you. For along with the confession of the Cross and Resurrection, there is also given the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, which began with the Twelve, who ate and drank with Him both before and after His Passion. And, again, what they received from Him, they also delivered to His Church, and that apostolic tradition continues to this day, to this place, to this gathering of the disciples of Jesus in His Name.

In this Supper, Jesus does for you what He did for Thomas and the other disciples. He opens Himself to you. He entrusts Himself to you. In a sense, He humbles Himself, and makes Himself weak and vulnerable, subjecting Himself to being handled, investigated, and scrutinized, as it were. Not in the same way as He did for Thomas, obviously. You cannot put the Sacrament under a microscope and see the wounded hands and feet and side of Jesus; not with your eyes, at any rate. But your ears do hear the same Word of the same Jesus:

“Take, eat; this is My Body. Drink of it, all of you; this is My Blood.”

With this Word, He gives to you the fruits of His Cross and Passion, in which His almighty power has been made perfect in weakness. It is in such strength that He entrusts Himself to you, and suffers Himself to be grasped and consumed; that He might lay hold of you in love, and heal you, and grant you peace, and feed and sustain you, and give you His own life.

Here, then, is the flesh of Christ, which was nailed and pierced for you; the Body that was crucified for you. Here is the holy and precious Blood, which poured from His wounds on the Cross, now poured out for you from the Cup, for the forgiveness of your sins.

He comes to you in this way, and shares Himself with you in this way, in voluntary weakness and humility, so that you, who are weak, may receive Him and hold Him and rest yourself in Him without fear. He knows your hurts, your wounds and scars of heart and mind, body and soul; remember that He is your faithful and merciful High Priest, who has suffered and been tempted in every way that you are. Therefore, in compassion for you, He has borne your hurts, and He still bears in His Body your wounds and your scars. He is forever the Lamb who has been slain, who died for you, and yet, behold, He lives. He is your Passover, who has been sacrificed for you. He is your Meal, your Meat and Drink. He does not consume you, but He bids you to eat and drink.

It is remarkable, really, that St. Thomas recognizes Jesus by the marks of His Passion, by His bodily wounds. They identify Him as the Crucified One, to be sure, and yet, there He is, standing in front of Thomas, talking to him; not a ghost, but a true Man, the Blessed Virgin Mary’s Son. Thomas, the twin, certainly understands that wounds and scars distinguish this Man, Jesus, from anyone else who might have looked like Him. This is no case of mistaken identity, then.

But, remarkably, what St. Thomas recognizes in the wounded Body of Jesus is the Lord, his God. And that isn’t a matter of logic or reason or scientific proof. That is the theology of the Cross. That is the true greatness and glory of God, the grace of His Self-giving for the salvation of sinners. That is divine compassion, which does not simply comfort, console, and commiserate, but condescends to relieve suffering and rescue from all harm and danger, from hurt and pain, from doubt and fear, from sin and death.

How ironic is that? Your Lord and your God is this wounded Man. True, Thomas got to see Him in a way that you don’t. But, then again, consider what it was that Thomas actually saw: a Man of real flesh and blood, like his own (like yours), with evidently open wounds, into which he could poke his finger or insert his whole hand. That is what the Body of Christ is like. That is what God’s Body is like. Because He has made Himself your twin. He has made Himself like you. Not only flesh and blood, but wounded, scarred. As you are. As Thomas was. As all your neighbors are; some of them in ways you can see, and others of them in ways you may never know, or that you will only perceive by listening carefully.

So, then, I want you to consider this: In your wounded, weak and weary neighbor, you are given to see your dear Lord, Jesus Christ. And, yes, you are given to care for His Body, by caring for your neighbor. So closely has He identified Himself with fallen man, and joined Himself to fallen man. So closely has He identified Himself with you, and joined Himself to you. No sooner should you be ashamed or afraid to reach out your hand to your neighbor, to your hurting brother or sister, to your friend or foe in need, than to reach out your hand for the Sacrament.

But you are not the Savior of His Body. Nor was St. Thomas, nor any of the Apostles. It is rather His Body that saves you and all of His disciples. It is to His disciples that He gives His Body, and as you eat, so you are; as you drink His Blood, so do you have His Life and His Spirit in you, and the power of His Resurrection. The wounds of His Cross have enabled you to enter into His Body by way of Holy Baptism, to receive and rest in His Body in the Holy Communion. And thus you are a member of His Body, the Church. The flaws and failings of His Christians — your own flaws and failings, and those of your fellow disciples — are no proof against His Resurrection, His Life and Salvation, but by such wounds you recognize your Lord, your Savior and your God.

His Crucifixion embraces the wounded — all of them, everywhere, whatever their woundedness might be. His Crucifixion fully embraces your woundedness, too, whatever it is. He reaches out His arm, and stretches out His hand, to gather to Himself all the fractured and fragmented children of men, and He brings them into the fellowship of His own wounded Body.

Who, then, would dare to say that anyone does not belong here?

He retains His wounds, even in His glorious Resurrection from the dead, in order to gather such disciples to Himself from all the nations, even to the close of the age. And, so as to remain closer than a brother, a merciful and great High Priest, to all of His disciples on earth — including you — while you bear the Cross, even unto death.

Nevertheless, this wounded One has also been raised, never to die again. This Lamb who has been slain is alive forevermore. In Him — in His own Body of flesh and blood — the curse of sin has been undone, death has been defeated, and Satan has been crushed with all his dire accusations.

Which is why the gathering of the disciples of Jesus is far more than a pity party or misery loving company. It is a holy communion of men and women, boys and girls, united to one another within the one Body of Christ Jesus. You are knitted and joined together by Him, who is your Head. Therefore, you share His life, and you live in Him, and together you are growing and maturing into the fullness of the stature that belongs to Christ. In love, you serve and support one another, and the whole Body is built up through mutual repentance and forgiveness. Not by your own reason or strength, but by the apostolic ministry of the Gospel, by the apostolic doctrine of Christ, by the apostolic fellowship of the Lord’s Altar.

The health and strength of the Body is the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, all of which is granted by the apostolic Word that is preached to you.

Within this Body of Christ, though you are wounded, and you are crucified, dead, and buried with Him, you also share in His Resurrection, and you are preserved by the power of His indestructible Life. The wounded Body of Christ is also risen, alive and glorified, and that is also true of you in Him. The wounds that you see and feel and experience in yourself do not undo or contradict your faith and life in Christ. They do not rob you of His righteousness and holiness, which are yours by His grace, bestowed upon you by and from His wounds.

As surely as the Body and Blood of Christ are given and poured out for you to eat and to drink, so surely shall your body of flesh and blood be raised from death to life everlasting.

Do not be afraid. This Altar of the Lord is your Peace and Sabbath Rest, and here His Peace is with you, as He Himself is with you. So does He abide with you, and so shall you be with Him, where He is forevermore, unto the eternal Eighth Day of His Resurrection.

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

Unless the Lord Build the House

2011-12-18T12:50:00.001-05:00

When you set out to make a name for yourself, and a life for yourself; when you strive to build and establish your own house and home, your own castle and tower — apart from the Word of God — you may or may not succeed for a time, but, like yourself and your mortal flesh, it will eventually crumble and fall back into dust. It will not last. It will not save you. It will not give you life.

There simply is no life without the Word of God; nothing that remains for long, far less forever. If the Lord your God is not with you, then you are lost, and everything you do is for nothing.

Do not suppose that you will rectify the situation and salvage your hopes and dreams by enlisting the Lord’s help with your own self-chosen projects and self-appointed pursuits. Attempting to include and incorporate the Lord into your own plans, in the hopes that He will help you achieve your personal goals and aspirations, is not to honor Him and serve Him as your King; nor is it to fear, love and trust in Him as your true and only God. It is, rather, to make a god of yourself, and to elevate yourself, and to make the Lord into your servant, your handyman, your gopher.

So, too, attempting to do your own thing, but “for Him,” to dedicate your achievements to Him, to create buildings and monuments ostensibly for Him, is really to erect monuments to yourself. As though, in this way, you would be able to preserve your legacy, your memory and your glory, even after you are dead and gone. At any rate, you know that you will die, as your fathers and mothers before you have died; but you cling to this false and misleading dream, that your works and accomplishments can somehow be secured, in order to remain and preserve “you.”

But, no, even the attempt to live your life, and work your works, and build your buildings for God is misguided and futile — apart from His Word. What would you do for Him, anyway? What would you give to Him, which is not already His to begin with?

What would you achieve without Him?

Unless the Lord build the house, you labor in vain to build it.

Unless the Lord guard and keep the city, in vain do you keep vigil.

It is not for you to build and achieve, but for the Lord to speak, and by His Word to give His good gifts, to accomplish His purposes for you, according to His good and gracious will. And He does.

He is the Builder of all things: God the Builder. He creates the heavens and the earth out of nothing — He speaks, and it is so. He establishes and upholds you and all creatures by His Word.

He calls Abram from the land of the Chaldeans; He brings him in, and He settles him, in Canaan. And He makes of that one old man (as good as dead), an Abraham, a father of many nations.

He brings the children of Abraham, Isaac and Israel out of Egypt, and He makes of them His own children, His people, His chosen nation, in order to bless all the nations of the earth. He sustains them through the wilderness, and brings them into the good land He has pledged. He defeats and drives out their enemies, granting them victory in battles they barely fight, wherever He directs. He gives them a safe place to call their own, a place of peace and rest. He shelters and protects them. He dwells among them with His Word, and He remembers His covenant with them.

Though the people are stubborn, frequently ungrateful, often rebellious, and resistant to His Word, He raises up a king for them, a ruler after His own heart. He finds and chooses David, He calls him and anoints him; He takes him from shepherding sheep to shepherding Israel. The Lord crowns David a prince among His people, giving him victory over all his enemies, and exalting his name.

It is the Lord who does all of this for David; the Lord who gives all of this to David; the Lord who builds up David’s house and blesses it. Not for David only, but for the blessing of all the people.

David is always at his best when he trusts that gracious providence of God, the Lord, and lives accordingly. Whenever he proceeds by faith in the Word of the Lord, he receives exactly what the Lord has promised, even against seemingly impossible odds.

But when David presumes to act apart from the Word of the Lord, there it all goes terribly wrong: not only for himself, his household and family, but for all of Israel. When he attempts to move the Ark of the Covenant, without following the Law of Moses in the way it should be done. When he decides to count the people, contrary to the Lord’s command. When he gets lazy and complacent in his duties, and then follows the lust of his eyes into adultery and murder. When he neglects his children, and he fails to protect them and discipline them, as a father should. At such times, the Lord must discipline David, bring him to repentance, and catechize him in the way he should go.

So, too, when David would do what seems to be a very good and noble work for God. The Prophet Nathan even gives him a thumbs-up at first, and Solomon will later declare that the Lord praised David’s good intentions. But, for all of that, it was not for David to build a house for God. He could draw up the plans and gather some of the materials, but he would not construct and dedicate the Temple he dreamed of building. His greatness and his glory were to receive all things by grace, and to live by faith in the Word and promises of God.

And of all those Words and promises, there is none greater than the one that David received in response to his proposal and plans for a temple. The Lord would build and establish the house of David, and raise up a Son of David to sit on his throne and reign forever; and that Son of David would build a house for God’s Name.

You’re well aware, of course, that Solomon would reign after his father David, and that he would build, with God’s approval, a great Temple in Jerusalem. There the Lord indeed caused His Name and His Glory to dwell among and with His people, hearing and receiving their prayers and their sacrifices, according to His Word; forgiving their sins, and bestowing His good and gracious gifts of body and soul upon them.

But neither Solomon nor his Temple were forever. In fact, both came to a rather disappointing end, subject to the judgment of God. Solomon was drawn away from the Lord by his numerous wives and their pagan gods. And over the ensuing years, the people regarded the Temple and their sacrifices as a guarantee against God’s wrath and punishment, even while they gave themselves over to false gods and the willful pursuits of their own flesh. Thus, after Solomon the kingdom was divided, and in time the Temple would be destroyed, Jerusalem laid waste, and the people taken into Babylonian captivity.

Such is life apart from the Word of God.

Yet, precisely because the Lord is gracious, and life and salvation are by His grace alone, He does not forget His promises, but He fulfills His Word, as He has spoken.

He is faithful, and He does it.

As always, it is also by His Word that He brings it about and accomplishes it: that is, the Word that He speaks and preaches — which Word, from the beginning, indeed, from all eternity, is the very Son of God — that same Word who has now become flesh and tabernacles among us.

The Lord sends His angel Gabriel to speak that Word to Mary — the blessed Virgin Mary — in Nazareth. He fulfills what He promised, at a point when no one would have dreamed that it could happen, when the once illustrious house of David was in disarray, decrepit, little more than a stump. But the Lord takes the initiative, and He does everything from the ground up, by His grace.

It is no son of David, nor any other man, who conceives the Son of God in St. Mary’s womb, but God does it by His Word and Spirit. And He does it in His own surprising way: not with worldly power, earthly strength, or human glory, but in quietness, humility, frailty and weakness. For the throne of David and the house of God will be established forever and ever by the holy Cross and Passion of St. Mary’s Son.

As from the beginning, when God speaks His Word, it is so. As surely as all projects and pursuits without His Word shall fail, so surely does every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God accomplish His purposes. That is the answer to St. Mary’s question: “How can this be?” And it is the answer to all of your questions, too. For all things are accomplished by the Word of God.

Faith echoes His Word with its own, “Let it be!” Mother Mary does not presume, but she hears and professes what the Lord has spoken. “Let it be to me according to Your Word.” That is the voice of faith, the prayer of a faithful servant of the Lord. And with that prayer of faith proceeds the obedience of faith, as well. You see that in St. Mary, to be sure, who receives everything by grace, but who is also called to live and to work: to bear the Christ-Child in her womb, to bear reproach and suspicion from her fiancée and neighbors, to suffer hardship and loss, and to care for a Son whom she will see cruelly put to death in due time. She does not choose these works, nor does she offer them to God for the sake of gaining His favor. She already has His favor! But in faith she says “Yes” and “Amen” to His Word.

You see that same obedience of faith in her father David, at his best, and in her husband, Joseph, who quietly accepts and follows the Word of God at every step along the way.

But you see the obedience of faith especially in St. Mary’s Son, our dear Lord Jesus Christ. For He, the Word-of-God-made-Flesh, lives as perfect Man — your Brother! — by perfect faith in His God and Father. This is how closely, how deeply, how intimately the Lord has come and drawn near to you, to the extent that He lives your human life. He establishes the house of David, by establishing the house of God in His own flesh.

Or, rather, He establishes the house of David in Himself, in His own human flesh and blood, by trusting and relying on His Father to raise Him up and establish Him — by the way of the Cross!

Not only does He share your human flesh and blood and make it His own, by His conception and birth from St. Mary, but He also shares your sins and your stripes, and He makes those His own. He owns your sins, and the sins of all men and women, all the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, as though He had committed every one of them Himself. And then He suffers the strokes of God and man in punishment for all those sins. So fully does He share your shame and sorrows, even unto death. So fully is He with you, every inch of the way, to the bitter end.

He submits to His Cross and Passion in the obedience of faith, in the confidence of the Word and promise given to His father David (and to His Mother Mary). Though He is punished with the rod of men, and with the strokes of the sons of men, the Lord does not remove His loving-kindness from Him, nor remove Him from His throne. Even from the dead, from the dust of the earth, He raises Him up and establishes the throne of His Kingdom forever. And in the process, the sins of His people are forgiven, and all their punishments are removed. Their enemies are all defeated.

Thus, the Lord your God is with you, not only as your Brother in the flesh, and as your sacrificial Substitute in death, but as your King, which is also to be your Good Shepherd. As you live under Him in His Kingdom, you share fully in His faithfulness and obedience, in His victory over sin and death, and in the Glory of His Name. For just as all the people suffer when their king is unfaithful, so do all the people benefit and prosper, together with their King, when He is faithful. That is why the sins of David and Solomon were so serious and detrimental, but so is the salvation of the Son of David that significant for you and for all who are ruled and shepherded by Him.

He shepherds and reigns over you in love, from His Cross, by His Word of the Gospel. He sends His messengers to you, to preach in His Name, as He sent Nathan to David and the angel Gabriel to Mary, and as He sent St. Paul to preach, even to Rome and beyond. By such preaching, you are established in His grace, in the household and family of His Church, and all the wealth and bounty of His Kingdom are given to you. Thus, you are rich in the midst of your poverty. You are alive, even in the face of your death. You are great and glorious before God, even though you suffer shame and sorrow on earth. And you are strong and steadfast, despite your frailty and weakness.

You live by faith in the Gospel, by which the Lord forgives your sins and declares you to be righteous, innocent and just. Your faith in this sure and certain Word of the Gospel is as much His good work in you, and His good gift to you, as the conception of the Son of God in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. But so does it also become your own faith, as surely as the Son of God became St. Mary’s own Son. Not only that, but her prayer and obedience of faith are likewise yours, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So, that, not only do you say, “Yes” and “Amen,” and “Let it be,” to the Word and promises of God — which are spoken to you in the Gospel, and are for you — but you also live and walk according to the Word of the Lord within your calling.

And the Lord is with you in your calling, as He was with David and Mary in their callings. He is with you, and He is close to you, to strengthen and sustain you, to guard and keep you, in those duties He has given you to do. And whereas your self-chosen projects and self-appointed pursuits are bound to fail and collapse, your works undertaken in accordance with the Word of the Lord will accomplish His purposes. They shall not fail.

Not because you are so faithful or flawless, but because the Lord is faithful and gracious, because He loves you, because He forgives all your sins, and because He will never let the righteous fall.

Oh, to be sure, you’re going to make mistakes, mess things up, blow it badly at times, and continue to sin in your thoughts, words and deeds, up until the day you die. All the saints have been such sinners, but it is the Lord who builds the House and brings His people into it. So it is the Lord who delivers you from evil, who removes all your foes (within and without), and who grants you peace and rest in His House, by the forgiveness of all your sins.

It is already a done deal. For the dear Lord Jesus, the Son of David, St. Mary’s little Babe, has made your sins His own, and suffered all the punishments for them — so that by His stripes you are healed — and God has raised Him from the dead. That is your righteousness, and that is your resurrection, no matter how many times (or how far) you have fallen. Just as He is risen from the dead, and lives and reigns eternally, so do you live in righteousness, innocence and blessedness.

Therefore, do not be afraid. The Lord is with you, and you have found favor in His sight. Behold, here is the House that He has built for you, that you may call upon His Name and be saved. Behold, here is the Body of Christ, which is the Temple of God; and here is the precious Blood, by which you are reconciled to God in Him.

His Peace be with you, according to His Word. For He speaks, and it is so.

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

(Un)Like the Rolling Stone: Another R.S. List of 100+ Great Guitarists of Our Time

2011-12-13T23:45:00.009-05:00

Several months ago, I mused about the difficulty of trying to identify "the best guitarist in the world," and offered some thoughts on serving our respective vocations and stations in life to the best of our ability. We are not called to compete with one another for personal greatness, but to live by the grace of God through faith in Christ, and to love one another, each of us from within his or her particular place in the world.

Even so, when it comes to artistic ability, creative expression and skilled performance, there are obvious differences to be noted, and I suppose it is inevitable that people are going to compare and contrast, weigh and measure, sift and sort; if for no other reason than the simple fact that none of us can give our time and attention to everything that's going on in the world around us. Anyway, beyond the duties and responsibilities of our vocations, we have the freedom to pick and choose between this and that, under the basic rubrics of faith and love. Such freedom also means that we are able to debate and discuss our considerations and conclusions, even in matters of personal preference and taste.

Which is to say that, despite my caveats in August, Rolling Stone has not sinned by publishing a list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" (November 2011). Nor was it a sin the previous time (in 2003). I enjoy such lists and find them interesting, whether I agree with them or not. In this most recent case, both the list itself and the numerous reactions to it have prompted me to do some reading and research (so to speak) on "great guitarists," to see what I might discover. The process has been enlightening, especially as I have been making a list of guitarists that I will want to check out for myself, as time and opportunity permit. In the meantime, I've also been considering the place of my own favorite players within the hierarchy of the guitar universe.

I've aimed at coming up with my own list of "Great Guitarists," without presuming to say that these are the greatest guitarists of all time. My efforts have sought an intersection between my personal preferences and the acknowledged achievements of artists over the course of the past several decades. There is a sense in which music is both an art and a science; it has both objective and subjective qualities. Which suggests that "greatness" is found, not only in the fingers of the player, but also in the ears of the hearer. Beyond that, there are still such a plethora of criteria that one might take into account, there's plenty of room for gentlemanly argument and friendly debate. Even my own conclusions are subject to change, not only as I become more informed and knowledgeable and familiar with a wider ranger of guitarists, but as the circumstances of life are always unfolding and developing.

At any rate, it seems to me that a great guitarist will be inspiring and influential, but without really "trying too hard" to impress. He (or she) will make make music that is innovative and interesting, but also inviting and intelligible. A musician needs to be creative, yes, but truly good music also needs to be coherent and consistent, retaining some continuity with what has gone before. It should be entertaining and enjoyable, but also enduring in quality, and in some sense edifying (at least with respect to its artistry, beauty, and craftsmanship). Great guitar music will be mesmerizing at the moment one first hears it, but also memorable after the fact. Of course, you may or may not agree with my opinions in your own assessment and evaluation of any given guitarist, but these are the qualities and characteristics that I am considering and listening for.

So, I've arrived at the following list, and I'm mostly satisfied with my conclusions, such as they are. Some of the names will seem obvious enough, whereas others may seem oddly included. There are some "glaring" omissions, I must confess. There are some admittedly great guitarists who are just not familiar to me at this point, and others whom I simply haven't cared for that much. In other cases, I've included "the usual suspects" on my list, but at a much lower ranking than anyone might typically expect, and that, too, is due either to a lack of familiarity or a lack of interest on my part. These are examples of the subjective element kicking in. My personal biases also show up in the inclusion of guitarists that others might not even think to mention. My number one great guitarist is Joe Satriani (hands down, never a doubt), who was not even included in the top 100 on either of the Rolling Stone lists (although he is otherwise recognized and regarded as at least a "top ten" guitarist). But, along with my subjective tastes and personal preferences, I've also taken into account and weighted the informed opinions of many others, with respect to both inclusion and ranking on my list. And, with all of that in the works, here's what I've come up with:

A Gross of Great Guitarists

1. Joe Satriani (Chickenfoot)

2. Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin)

3. Randy Rhoads (Ozzy Osbourne)

4. Eric Clapton (Cream, etc.)

5. Jimi Hendrix

6. Paul Gilbert (Racer X, Mr. Big)

7. Eddie Van Halen

8. Marty Friedman (Cacophony, Megadeth)

9. Joe Bonamassa (Black Country Communion)

10. Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell)

11. Glen Tipton & K.K. Downing (Judas Priest)

12. Gus G (Dream Evil, Firewind, Ozzy Osbourne)

13. Dave Mustaine (Megadeth)

14. Jeff Beck

15. John 5

16. Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society)

17. John Petrucci (Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment)

18. Brian May (Queen)

19. Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple, Rainbow)

20. Carlos Santana

21. Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi)

22. George Harrison & John Lennon (The Beatles)

23. Angus & Malcolm Young (AC/DC)

24. Dave Murray & Adrian Smith (Iron Maiden)

25. Chris Robertson & Ben Wells (Black Stone Cherry)

26. Slash (Guns ‘n’ Roses, Velvet Revolver)

27. Steve Clark & Phil Collen (Def Leppard)

28. Brian Robertson (Thin Lizzy)

29. Mark Tremonti (Creed, Alter Bridge)

30. Andy McKee

31. Yngwie Malmsteen

32. Chris Broderick (Jag Panzer, Nevermore, Megadeth)

33. Synyster Gates & Zacky Vengeance (Avenged Sevenfold)

34. Kirk Hammett & James Hetfield (Metallica)

35. Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones)

36. Joe Walsh (The Eagles)

37. B.B. King

38. Steve Vai

39. Eric Johnson

40. Ace Frehley & Paul Stanley (KISS)

41. Michael Schenker (Scorpions, UFO)

42. Peter Frampton (Humble Pie)

43. Stevie Ray Vaughan

44. Duane Allman

45. Joe Perry (Aerosmith)

46. Al Di Meola

47. Steve Howe (Yes, Asia, GTR)

48. Chuck Berry

49. Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi

50. The Edge (U2)

51. Chet Atkins

52. Gary Moore (Thin Lizzy)

53. Jack White (White Stripes, Raconteurs, Dead Weather)

54. Dimebag Darrell (Pantera)

55. Scotty Moore (Elvis Presley)

56. Neal Schon (Journey, Hardline)

57. Steve Morse (Dixie Dregs, Kansas, Deep Purple)

58. Brian Setzer (Stray Cats)

59. Rob Balducci

60. Rudolf Schenker & Matthias Jabs (Scorpions)

61. Paul Quinn & Doug Scarratt (Saxon)

62. Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains)

63. Antoine Dufour

64. Glen Drover (Megadeth)

65. Mick Jones (Foreigner)

66. Keith Urban

67. Don Donegan (Disturbed)

68. Uli Jon Roth (Scorpions)

69. Mikael Åkerfeldt & Fredrick Åkesson (Opeth)

70. Herman Li & Sam Totman (Dragonforce)

71. Thomas Bredahl & Michael Poulsen (Volbeat)

72. Rich Eckhardt (Toby Keith)

73. John Sykes (Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake, Blue Murder)

74. Gary Rossington (Lynyrd Skynyrd)

75. Brent Hinds & Bill Kelliher (Mastodon)

76. Alvin Lee (Ten Years After)

77. Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top)

78. Brad Paisley

79. Steve Lukather (Toto)

80. Mike Campbell (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers)

81. Jake E. Lee (Ozzy Osbourne, Badlands)

82. Jeff Loomis (Nevermore)

83. Orianthi (Alice Cooper, et al.)

84. Chad Taylor (Live, The Gracious Few)

85. Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits)

86. Pete Townshend (The Who)

87. Buddy Holly

88. Lindsey Buckingham (Fleetwood Mac)

89. Dave Davies (The Kinks)

90. Phil Keaggy

91. Tony MacAlpine

92. Alex Lifeson (Rush)

93. George Lynch (Dokken)

94. Michael Angelo Batio

95. Tommy Emmanuel

96. Andy Timmons

97. Bonnie Raitt

98. Tom Scholz (Boston)

99. Corey Beaulieu & Matt Heafy (Trivium)

100. Chris Poland (Megadeth, Ohm)

101. David Gilmour (Pink Floyd)

102. “Metal Mike” Chlasciak (Halford)

103. Dave Martone

104. Andy James

105. Luke Morley (Thunder, The Union)

106. Ronnie Wood (Jeff Beck, Faces, Rolling Stones)

107. Zac Brown

108. Philip Shouse (Bo Bice, et al)

109. Kenny Wayne Shepherd

110. Don Felder (The Eagles)

111. Joe Stump

112. Joanne Shaw Taylor

113. Stoney Curtis

114. Neil “Spyder” Giraldo (Pat Benatar)

115. Ben Moody (Evanesence, We Are the Fallen)

116. Matt Tuck & Michael Paget (Bullet for My Valentine)

117. Christian Muenzner (Obscura)

118. Michael Romeo (Symphony X)

119. Michael Harris

120. John Mayer

121. Lee Ritenour

122. Chris Henderson & Matt Roberts (3 Doors Down)

123. Prince

124. Tommy Shaw (Styx, Damn Yankees)

125. Gary Hoey

126. Josh Steely (Daughtry)

127. Austin Diaz & Gabriel Garcia (Black Tide)

128. Vivian Campbell (Dio, Whitesnake, Def Leppard, Thin Lizzy)

129. Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave)

130. Tosin Abasi & Javier Reyes (Animals as Leaders)

131. André Olbrich & Marcus Siepen (Blind Guardian)

132. Olavi Mikkonen & Johan Söderberg (Amon Amarth)

133. Vinnie Moore (UFO)

134. Nancy Wilson (Heart)

135. Sammy Hagar (Montrose, Van Halen, Chickenfoot)

136. Steve Wariner

137. Eric Gales

138. Leslie West (Mountain)

139. Rory Gallagher

140. John Fogerty (Creedence Clearwater Revival)

141. Robby Krieger (The Doors)

142. Roger McGuinn (The Byrds)

143. Stephen Stills (Crosby, Stills, and Nash)

144. Les Paul

Dr. Luther on Celibacy and Marriage

2011-12-13T12:00:00.005-05:00

Dear boy, do not be at all ashamed that you desire a girl, or that a girl longs for a boy, but see to it that it leads to marriage, and not to fornication. Then there is nothing disgraceful about it — as little as eating and drinking is a disgrace. Celibacy is supposed to be a virtue, but it is a veritable miracle of God, just as if a person did not eat or drink. It is beyond the capacity of a healthy body, not to mention the incapability of sinful and depraved human nature.

There are not many virgins to whom God granted a long life; rather hurriedly He whisked them out of this world, like Cecilia, Agnes, Lucia, Agatha, and others like them.

I know full well how noble that treasure is, but also how difficult it is to preserve for any length of time. If in every town, there were five boys and five girls, all twenty years of age, completely pure, with no experience of natural discharge, then I would be right in saying that the state of Christianity was better than in the days of the Apostles and martyrs.

O Lord God, I believe that unchastity would not have become so prevalent and spread in such a terrible way, if it had not been for this rule and vow of chastity [required of clergy and monastics]. What a Sodom and Gomorrah the devil has created through these rules and vows! How vulgar has he made this odd chastity, causing unspeakable anguish. No brothel stimulant is as dangerous as these rules and vows invented by the devil.

Furthermore, I say that those boys and girls who entered an order before they felt the stirrings of flesh and blood, that is, those who are fifteen or sixteen or twenty years of age, should be immediately released, if they so desire. Their vow after all is useless, just as if a child had taken it. Consecration is valueless in this case, nor does it matter whether he is a priest, a deacon, or has entered some other holy order. Those consecrations are frauds and have no validity in the eyes of God.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 52, p. 273)

In saying this I do not wish to disparage virginity, or entice anyone away from virginity into marriage. Let each one act as he is able, and as he feels it has been given to him by God. I simply wanted to check those scandalmongers who place marriage so far beneath virginity that they dare to say: "Even if the children should become holy, celibacy would still be better." One should not regard any estate as better in the sight of God than the estate of marriage. In a worldly sense celibacy is probably better, since it has fewer cares and anxieties. This is true, however, not for its own sake, but in order that the celibate may better be able to preach and care for God's Word, as St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7. It is God's Word and the preaching which make celibacy — such as that of Christ and of Paul — better than the estate of marriage. In itself, however, the celibate life is far inferior. . . .

He who would enter into wedlock as a Christian must not be ashamed of being poor and despised, and doing insignificant work. He should take satisfaction in this: first, that his status and occupation are pleasing to God; second, that God will most certainly provide for him if only he does his job to the best of his ability, and that, if he cannot be a squire or a prince, he is a manservant or a maidservant. . . .

To sum the matter up: whoever finds himself unsuited to the celibate life should see to it right away that he has something to do and to work at; then let him strike out in God's name and get married. A young man should marry at the age of twenty at the latest, a young woman at fifteen to eighteen; that's when they are still in good health and best suited for marriage. Let God worry about how they and their children are to be fed. God makes children; He will surely also feed them. Should He fail to exalt you and them here on earth, then take satisfaction in the fact that He has granted you a Christian marriage, and know that He will exalt you there; and be thankful to Him for His gifts and favors.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 45, pp. 46-49)

Sketching Out Chapters: For All His Benefits

2011-12-06T17:28:00.005-05:00

Introduction: The historical and theological place and importance of hymnals and service books in Lutheranism - from Luther to the 19th-century confessional revival - to the formation of the LCMS

1 - Hymnody and Liturgical Practice in the early LCMS

2 - Walther's Kirchengesangbuch and the accompanying Agende

3 - Coinciding and Subsequent Developments in American Lutheranism

4 - Development, Publication, and Reception of the ELHB (1922)

5 - Revision of ELHB and Publication of The Lutheran Hymnal (1941)

6 - Reception and Use of TLH and its accompanying Agenda

7 - The Work of the LCMS Worship Committee through the 1950s

8 - Coinciding and Subsequent Developments in American Lutheranism

9 - Work on the Proposed Revision of TLH (amid a "Pan-Lutheran" Push)

10 - Origins and Formation of the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship

11 - The Preparation and Publication of the Worship Supplement (1969)

12 - Organization and Work of the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship

13 - The Pan-Lutheran Battle Over the Ecumenical ILCW Eucharist

14 - LCMS Assessment of the Proposed Lutheran Book of Worship (1978)

15 - The Work and Proposal of the Special Hymnal Review Committee

16 - LCMS Revision of LBW and Development of Lutheran Worship (1982)

17 - The Introduction, Adoption, Acceptance, and Aftermath of LW

18 - Division, Disarray, "Creative Worship," and Desk-Top Publishing

19 - Coinciding and Subsequent Developments among Other Lutherans

20 - Preparations for and Publication of the Hymnal Supplement 98

21 - The Organization and Work of the LCMS Lutheran Hymnal Project

22 - Coinciding and Subsequent Developments among Other Lutherans

23 - Proposal, Adoption, and Completion of Lutheran Service Book (2006)

24 - The Introduction and Reception of the LSB (from 2006 through 2011)

Conclusion: Where We Are Now, and Where We Ought to Go from Here

The Feast of St. Andrew, the Apostle

2011-12-03T23:36:00.001-05:00

In the beginning was the Word, by whom and for whom all things exist, and without whom there is nothing. He alone is your Light, your Life and your Salvation.

This same divine and living Word has become flesh and dwells with you in love.

He has become flesh to bear your sins in His own Body to the Cross, and to shed His holy, precious Blood for you, in order to atone for your sins and redeem you, to justify you with His righteousness and reconcile you unto God the Father, to sanctify you with His own Spirit, and to share His own divine life with you in peace.

He is the true Passover Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world — who takes upon Himself and takes away your sin — who covers you with His Blood and feeds you with His flesh.

In order that you may behold Him, and recognize Him, and receive Him as the Christ, your Savior and your God, the Lord has sent the Forerunner to preach repentance, to make a disciple of you by baptizing and catechizing you.

Apart from this Word and Sacrament (the Ministry of repentance for the forgiveness of sins) you cannot even see the Lord Jesus, much less believe in Him or follow Him.

It is by the Word and Spirit of Christ, by the preaching of Christ Jesus, that you are pointed to Him and brought to Him in faith. Whereas, without His Word, you remain utterly in the dark, subject to death and damnation. Thus, not only all of creation, but everything pertaining to faith and life and godliness, depends upon the preaching of the Word of Christ. Otherwise, you have nothing.

It is for your sake, for your life and salvation, that the one true God has opened His mouth in love and spoken His Word to you, and thereby breathed His Spirit into your body and soul. And with this divine and holy preaching of God Himself, He has established for you, and for His whole Christian Church on earth, a most sacred tradition of the Word: a handing over of the Son of God (from heaven to earth, from then till now, from the Father unto you).

The Father speaks forth His Son to make the heavens and the earth, and to create man in His Image. The Father speaks forth the same only-begotten Son in the flesh, to bear your sin and be your Savior. And as the Father has thus spoken, so does the Son speak His Word to you, which is Spirit and Life: He speaks to you by the ministers of His Word, called and sent in His Name.

And by that Word that is preached to you, far more than simple information is conveyed: indeed, the very Lamb of God is manifested to you, and you are called to repentance, to faith and life in Him, through the forgiveness of all your sins.

That is what this Word does: It forgives you. And by this Word of forgiveness, this Holy Abso-lution, you know the one true God as your own dear Father; you live and abide with Him in peace.

This God and Father still speaks His Son to you. He sends His man, John, to go before His face to prepare His way — to prepare you for His Advent (His coming) — and to point Him out to you: the Lamb of God, who saves you. And He sends His servants, Andrew and Simon Peter, His James and John and Paul, His Richard and Gifford, to preach the Christ to you — to bring you to Christ Jesus in faith, and to Himself in Christ.

Now, therefore, what is it that you seek? Is it not life, and a place to live, a place to call home?

That life and home are in Christ; and Christ is here for you in His Word of the Gospel: He is near to you, in your ears, in your heart, and even in your mouth. First of all as He speaks His forgiveness of your sins, and bestows His peace upon you, and feeds you, both body and soul, with His holy body and precious blood. And as He thus gives you life, by grace through faith in Him, so does He open your lips to declare His praise; and He opens your mouth to confess His Name.

You, then, carry on this sacred tradition of the Word: Speak as you are spoken to. As you have heard, so believe, and call upon the Name of the Lord. Pray and confess His Word. Speak Christ Jesus to your neighbors, beginning first of all with your own family, your spouse, your parents and your children, your brothers and sisters. And speak to the members of your true and permanent family, that is, to your brothers and sisters in Christ (as Brother Andrew spoke to Brother Simon). For you belong to them, and they to you, as belonging together to the one Body of Christ, His holy Church. Therefore, speak in holy love and with free and full forgiveness.

Do you find yourself speaking otherwise, and not with such grace and evangelical eloquence?

Hear and heed the Word of Christ to you: Repent of your sin, and follow Him. Come, hear and see where He lives, and how He lives. Receive His hospitality, and abide with Him. He is your Teacher, and He catechizes you unto life. He has died for you and shed His blood for you, but see, He has risen from the dead and lives for you, as well. The very blood that He has shed for you now anoints you with His Spirit and fills you with His righteousness and peace.

Taste and see that He is good — in Him is Life, and that Life is your Light and your Salvation. Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away your sins. You are forgiven. You are His own.

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

Not Your Typical Rocker Mentality

2011-12-01T10:12:00.004-05:00

I've been thoroughly enjoying the wonderful new Daughtry album, Break the Spell. The whole thing is great. But this song in particular caught me by surprise and took my breath away. Really beautiful, and not your typical rocker mentality, for sure. Just one of the reasons that Chris Daughtry is one of my favorite singers.

Along with others, I have to believe that Chris and his wife must have suffered a miscarriage, in order for him to express the emotions that go along with such a loss so well. Or, maybe he's just that good at sympathizing with others. Either way, "Gone Too Soon" puts my own heart into words, as "not a day goes by" that I don't think of our little Job (who would have been three this past month or so). I rest myself, my wife and my family, in the gentle peace of Christ, even as we rejoice in the sure and certain hope of His Resurrection. For we do not mourn as those who have no hope, but as those who live in our crucified and risen Lord. I pray, too, as I also suspect, that Chris Daughtry and his family find comfort, peace and rest in the same Lord Jesus.

"GONE TOO SOON" (Chris Daughtry, Busbee)

Today could've been the day

That you'd blow out your candles

Make a wish as you closed your eyes

Today could've been the day

Everybody was laughing

Instead I just sit here and cry

Who would you be

What would you look like,

When you looked at me

For the very first time

Today could've been the next day

Of the rest of your life

Not a day goes by

That I don't think of you

I'm always asking why

This crazy world had to lose

Such a ray of light

We never knew

Gone too soon

Would you have been president

Or a painter, an author

Who sang like your mother

One thing is evident

Would have given all that I had

Would have loved you like no other

Who would you be

What would you look like

Would you have my smile

And her eyes

Today could've been the next day

Of the rest of your life

Oh, that He Would Come Down and Open the Heavens to Us

2011-11-27T12:00:00.002-05:00

Be careful what you ask for! For when you call upon God to rend the heavens and come down to deal with your enemies — when you call down His anger as a fire against your adversaries — then you call down His wrath and judgment against yourself, as well.

Because, at the heart of all your worries and difficulties, at the heart of all that threatens to undo you and makes you so afraid, you are the problem. You are your own worst enemy! Which is why your own works and your own righteousness can never save you or deliver you. The harder you try, the more filthy and messed up you and your situation get. The more you attempt to raise yourself up, the further into the ground you dig yourself.

You are the problem: not who you are as a creature of God (as clay in the hands of your Potter), but the way in which your heart and mind are set upon yourself and set against Him; the perversion of your soul and spirit, out of harmony with His good Word and Spirit; and the bent of your will, curved inward upon yourself, intent upon your own wants and needs and feelings and emotions.

Although you should know better, the truth is that your intellect, knowledge and understanding are all clouded and faulty, as surely as your body is wearing out, falling apart and perishing. You have no wisdom, reason or strength with which to pull yourself out of the bottomless pit you are in.

Instead of confidence or certainty, confusion reigns, along with anxiety and fear. You are restless and ill at ease, without any real peace, contentment, satisfaction or security; because you have set yourself up at the center of everything, and yet, you are utterly unable to hold it all together. Although you attempt to control things, including your neighbor, you cannot even control yourself, much less the world around you. Far less can you control the Lord, the one true God. When you call upon Him to secure your life, you don’t have Him on a leash, but you call for His Judgment.

And, when you call for the judgment of His Law against your neighbor — when you demand His right ordering of the unruly world around you — then you call for the justice and righteousness of His Law against yourself and your own unruly life.

Then you find yourself at the foot of Mt. Sinai, trembling in fear at the roar of His thunder and the billowing clouds of His fierce wrath and terrible fury. His holiness threatens to consume you, because the revelation of His will and the perfection of His Law expose how utterly corrupt and wrong you have been, and His Spirit convicts you of sin.

It’s not just that you’ve fallen short, but that you’ve had everything inside-out, upside-down, and back-to-front, so that all of your best efforts and most impressive accomplishments are dirt, and worse than dirt; they are garbage — refuse and sewage. All your works, no matter how they may appear, are filthy and unclean, because you are filthy and unclean. You are sinful and unholy.

You need more than help, more than counseling and guidance, more than medication or therapy, and something altogether different than a new strategy or greater effort. To be rescued from the threatening perils of your sin, from the judgment of God’s Law, from punishment and death, you must be redeemed by God Himself, justified by His righteousness, and resurrected to a new life.

How, then, shall you be saved? What hope do you have?

The answer is at hand, at the foot of the Mount of Olives, and even now is entering upon the holy city and into the house of the Lord. Here mercy flows down from the hills, like oil down Aaron’s head and beard, anointing you with the Spirit of God, not only to consume the sinner you have been, but to resurrect and recreate and sanctify you for life. For here the Lord, your royal Priest and Shepherd King, has come in righteousness and peace, endowed with salvation for you.

He is already here at hand. There is no gift or grace of God that is lacking to you. But, again, He is altogether different than you have expected or perceived. Your eyes have not seen, nor have your ears ever heard, such a God as He is: Who acts on behalf of the One who waits for Him, and Who meets the One who rejoices in doing righteousness (that is, who lives according to His Word).

You have not known Him, because you have not waited upon Him. You have not called upon His Name. You have not known Him, because you have not done righteousness, but have continued in your sin a long time. From conception, and from your mother’s womb, you have done wrong.

But now He reveals Himself in Christ Jesus. He comes to you in peace, not with anger but in mercy. Not as though He has been absent or far removed from you, but He comes now, in the flesh, by the way of the Cross, in order to save you by the righteousness of His life and His death.

He has come in the flesh, into the valley of the shadow of your death, in order to bear your sins and carry your sorrows — like a beast of burden — like a lowly, humble Servant, come to serve you. And by this path of voluntary suffering and Self-sacrifice, He comes to the Father — through death into life — in order to bring you with Himself, in His own Body, to His God and Father in heaven.

He never has departed from you (though He does hide Himself to reveal Himself under the Cross), but, since you have departed from Him and fled from His presence, He has come to you, in order to bring you back to Himself. This is what He has done for you by His Cross and Passion, and this is what He now does by the Gospel, in order to save you for life everlasting in body and soul.

He sends His disciples — in His Name, and with His Word — to find you where you are: tied up and tangled in your sins, on the outside, in the street — and, by His divine command, to loose you from all your sins and death, to clothe you with His righteousness, and to bring you back to Him.

He comes to you in this way, in gentleness and meekness, by His unassuming means of grace and forgiveness, in order to bear you in Himself and to bring you into His Kingdom: a free citizen!

So has He lived faithfully and righteously — for you — in perfect faith and perfect love. For He has called upon His Father and waited patiently upon Him, even unto His death upon the Cross. And He has walked in the way of the Lord, also as true Man (bearing mortal flesh like yours).

And now you have been called into fellowship with Him. He has been laid upon your heart and mind, upon your body and soul, by the preaching of repentance and forgiveness in His Name. And you have been united with Him and bound to Him by your Baptism into His death, so that you also share His Resurrection and His Life. What is more, you are most intimately knit together with Him in the Holy Communion, in the eating of His Body and the drinking of His Blood.

All of this, so that, as I have often said before, everything that belongs to Christ Jesus — all that He has done and accomplished, and all that He has received in His Resurrection and Ascension; His faith and love; His righteousness and holiness; His life and salvation — all of this is given to you, and it is yours. For keeps. Forever. For the same Lord God who has come to you and called you by the Gospel, shall likewise strengthen and preserve you in that Gospel, in the one true faith, in the fellowship of Christ Jesus, unto the life everlasting.

Just as you are now blameless in His sight, because you are fully clothed and covered in His own Righteousness, so shall you be found blameless when He comes in glory for the final judgment.

Already it is yours — credited as yours, for Jesus’ sake, and pressed into your hands and placed upon your lips, into your mouth and body — even as it shall be fully and openly revealed at last.

Do not be ashamed or embarrassed, therefore, to bear and carry this Lord Jesus Christ — and His Cross — in your body and life. He is indeed your Savior and your King, even in great lowliness. Do not be swayed by the fickle opinions of the world, whether they be positive or negative. And do not despair of the Lord’s tender mercy and loving kindness toward you. For He is faithful, and He has freed you from bondage and called you to the fellowship of Christ Jesus. The burdens of this body and life, and the Cross of Christ that you carry, are no indication of God’s displeasure, but are in fact a participation in His divine life and glory, by His grace.

Wait upon the Lord, and know that He will rescue and exalt you at the proper time. His help and His salvation are as sure and certain as the Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead.

Therefore, call upon His Name in faith and hope. For He has given you His Name in your Holy Baptism, and He has taught you, invited you, and even commanded you to pray — and He has promised to hear and to answer. Indeed, His answer is already given: “Yes” and “Amen.” For God raised His dear Son Jesus from the dead, who has named His Christians with His own Name. So it is that everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved. You shall be saved!

As you pray in His Name, so also lay hold of His gracious answer to your prayer in His Ministry of the Gospel. Arouse yourself to hear His Word, and give attention to it. Avail yourself of Holy Absolution, which is the voice of God Himself, who speaks and it is so. Find nourishment, health and strength for your body and your soul in the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, your Savior.

Take hold of Him, also, as He takes hold of you, by living unto righteousness in Him. That is, not by constraining your neighbor to do what is right, but by constraining yourself to do what is right for your neighbor (in the faith and freedom of the Gospel). Really, it is a matter of living within your own vocations — as Christ Jesus has lived for you in His vocation — and thus bearing the burden of the Cross for your neighbor in the particular path that God has stretched out before you.

To proceed upon that path in the peace of Christ, in the love of God, in the hope of the Gospel, is to walk in the ways of the Lord Himself.

You walk in His ways, in His footsteps, as following His example. But you know, too, that He is far more than a good example for you. To be sure, His good example shows you His fulfillment of the Law on your behalf and in your stead, and, as such, His example of faith and love is nothing else and nothing less than His own faithfulness and love for you, as your Savior and Redeemer.

You are able to follow after Him, to learn from Him, and to live as He lives, because He has set you free and rescued you from sin and death and every evil. He has defended you and defeated all your enemies — including, yes, even the enemy of yourself!

And even now, as you are called to bear and carry Him in your vocations, He is the One who still continues (and ever shall) to bear and carry you in His own Body, to cleanse you with His Blood.

Indeed, His Body and His Blood — given and poured out for you, His dear Christian, to eat and to drink — are the remembrance of His mercy for you; His act of salvation, here and now, on your behalf and for your benefit; and the free gift of His righteousness, that you may live by His grace.

To walk in His ways, therefore, is not first of all your working and doing, but is principally your receiving of His work and of His good gifts, and your resting in Him, who is with you always, even to the close of the age, and who comes to you now in His Peace.

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

The Love of the Good Shepherd for His Sheep

2011-11-19T16:02:00.002-05:00

Your salvation hinges on two things: the Cross & Resurrection of Christ, and your attachment to Him by faith. For He has atoned for your sin and gotten victory over death by His death upon the Cross, and He has opened the way of life to you in His Resurrection from the dead; so, whether you stand or fall in the final judgment depends entirely on where you stand in relation to Him.

Are you on His right or on His left? Are you a sheep or a goat? Will you live under Him in His Kingdom in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness? Or, will you be forever cursed and die eternally with the devil and his wicked angels?

The judgment has already been determined by the Cross of Christ, and the verdict has been openly declared in His Resurrection: for you and for all people, for the world and for all nations. In Him, crucified and risen, there is no more condemnation or punishment. But, so too, apart from Him there is no salvation. The judgment rests entirely upon Him, and it is by His authority that you are judged: either righteous and alive with His righteousness, or else wicked and dead without Him.

This is what it means for Jesus, the Christ, to be “the Son of Man,” to whom all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to judge the living and the dead.

He has come into the glory of His Kingdom and His Righteousness by the way of His Cross: His vicarious self-sacrifice of Atonement as the Propitiation for all of your sins and for the sins of the whole world. His Resurrection, therefore, is His vindication, the declaration of His Righteousness, and the justification of all those who belong to Him — of all who believe and are baptized into Him.

Thus, because He desires all people to be saved, He reigns in love from His Cross and calls all people to Himself by the Gospel. He sends His messengers — His Holy Apostles to begin with, and His undershepherds after them, that is, the pastors of His Church in every time and place, even to the end of the age — He sends these messengers to make disciples from all nations by the way and the means of Holy Baptism and the ongoing catechesis of His Word. It is by these means of grace, by the Ministry of the Gospel, that He gathers the lost and wandering sheep to Himself, unto life.

The preaching of His Word — the preaching of repentance in His Name, unto faith in His free and full forgiveness of your sins — that is the truth: the sure and certain verdict of the Lord your God, now and forever. Though you are crucified and put to death with Him, so are you also raised up, in and with Him, to a brand new life. In Him, the old has passed away, and you are a new creation.

Repent of your sins, therefore. Repent of your unbelief, idolatry, unfaithfulness and lack of love. Turn away from sin and death, and live unto righteousness in Christ. Receive and trust His Gospel, and live by that grace of God in Him. Fear Him as the Lord, your King. But so also trust in Him as your great Good Shepherd, as your merciful and great High Priest, as your dear Savior and Redeemer. Believe His Word to you as the judgment of God. Love Him with all your heart.

Love Him, not selfishly, but gratefully, because He is your Savior and your God, your highest good. Love Him, not to get something from Him, but because you receive every good and perfect gift from Him. Love Him, not to curry or manipulate His favor, but because His favor and His righteousness are yours. Love Him righteously, by faith, because you are justified by His grace.

It is entirely by His grace, because, in truth, He does not need anything from you; neither is there anything at all that you need, which is not already yours in Him, freely given to be freely received, with no strings attached and no conditions or contingencies upon His mercy.

Love Him, therefore, because of who He is, and because He loves you faithfully forever.

Love Him, by loving and serving His Christians; love them in His Name and for His sake. Such love is the evidence of your faith and life in Christ. It is how faith lives, without keeping score, and being not at all self-conscious. It is the good fruit that Christ Jesus bears in you by the tree of His Cross in your life. For by His Cross, He brings you through repentance into the faith and life of His own Resurrection. He brings you to God the Father, in and with Himself, and He gives to you His own relationship (His sonship) with the Father. So does He likewise give to you His own relationship of love with your neighbor. For as you live in Him, He now lives in you.

Therefore, you live in love toward your neighbor — in particular toward your brothers and sisters in Christ — because this is the life of Christ, which He also lives in love toward you: He daily and richly provides you with food and drink for your hunger and thirst; with safe shelter and sanctuary from the cold, from darkness and death; with clothing for your nakedness; with comfort and care in all adversity; with good health in place of all your illness, and with release from your prison.

So, then, as for you: feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the poor, visit the sick and imprisoned. Do it for Jesus' sake. Do it in His Name (as He does so for you). Do it all, as unto Him. Not only the occasional extraordinary act of kindness, charity and mercy toward someone you barely know or rarely encounter, but the steady and faithful care of those who are set alongside of you, day after day. Learn to see Christ in your neighbor’s frailties, weaknesses and needs, as also in the duties and demands of your vocation toward your parents, your spouse, your children, your siblings. For it is precisely in His poor and needy ones, in the weak and lowly and despised, and in His little ones of every age and every kind, that you find your Lord and serve Him in love.

For this is how He has come to you and served you in love: He has been hungry and thirsted. He has been the stranger and the outcast. He has been abandoned by His friends, and left to bear the burden alone. He has been imprisoned, stripped naked, tortured, mocked and cruelly punished — for your sins. He has been sick with the sickness of the world, even unto death upon the Cross.

Consequently, it is not only in your neighbor’s weakness that you find Him, your Lord and God, your Shepherd King. But He is with you, in love, in your weakness and shame, in your nakedness and pain, in your hunger and fear, in your sickness and at the hour of your death. He is with you as One who has been there before you. And He is with you, as your Redeemer, in the Judgment.

Not only that, but, as He has taken your place in His death upon the Cross, so does He give you His place in His Resurrection. And here is what that means for you: His Righteousness is yours. His works of love are yours. His life and His salvation are yours. All because the Atonement, the forgiveness, the reconciliation and the peace of His Cross are yours, by His Word of the Gospel.

Hear this Word, and take it to heart, for it is already in this preaching of the Gospel that you truly hear and receive God’s verdict concerning you: You are forgiven all your sins. You are righteous. You are not guilty, but innocent. Thus, you are set free from the prison house of sin and death. You are healed of every disease. You are fully clothed with Christ. You are fed with His Body and His Blood. You are blessed and beloved of His God and Father, and you are welcomed into His Father’s Kingdom, who is now also your God and Father in Christ Jesus, your Savior.

That is the significance of the church on earth, and of this congregation: Here eternal judgments are declared and delivered. Here the Son of Man exercises His authority to forgive sins, and with that forgiveness He gives you life and salvation. Here He sits upon His glorious throne — with all His angels round about Him — and here He gathers you to Himself: to feed you, to clothe you, to heal you, to set you free. Come, then, blessed of the Lord; enter into His peace, and rest.

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

Dualing Axes

2011-11-11T23:11:00.006-05:00

Having recently listed my fifty-two favorite active-duty guitarists, focusing especially on solo artists, it seems only fair to acknowledge my favorite Guitarynamic Duos, that is to say, those pairs of guitarists who work in tandem to create a sonic landscape for their bands. These twin blades relate to each other in a variety of ways, sometimes as rhythm and lead guitarist respectively, sometimes trading off on those duties in tag-team fashion, and sometimes providing twin leads throughout. Anyway, these axes go marching two-by-two, hurrah, hurrah, and I've listed them here in the order (more-or-less) of my personal enjoyment of their efforts:

1. Chris Robertson & Ben Wells (Black Stone Cherry)

2. Thomas Bredahl & Michael Poulsen (Volbeat)

3. Dave Mustaine & Chris Broderick (Megadeth)

4. Joe Satriani & Sammy Hagar (Chickenfoot)

5. Ozzy Lister & Mark Thomas (Black Spiders)

6. Synyster Gates & Zacky Vengeance (Avenged Sevenfold)

7. Gabriel Garcia & Austin Diaz (Black Tide)

8. Gus G & Bob Katsionis (Firewind)

9. Oscar Dronjak & Pontus Norgren (Hammerfall)

10. Mark Tremonti & Myles Kennedy (Alter Bridge)

11. Joe Selby & Andy Brewer (Taddy Porter)

12. Corey Beaulieu & Matt Heafy (Trivium)

13. Alex Rosamilia & Brian Fallon (The Gaslight Anthem)

14. André Olbrich & Marcus Siepen (Blind Guardian)

15. Herman Li & Sam Totman (Dragonforce)

16. Thom Blunier & Thomas Muster (Shakra)

17. Andy Boulton & John Wiggins (Tokyo Blade)

18. Matt Roberts & Chris Henderson (3 Doors Down)

19. Matt Tuck & Mike Paget (Bullet for My Valentine)

20. Chad Taylor & Sean Hennesy (The Gracious Few)

21. Fabian Schwarz & Christof Leim (The New Black)

22. Steffen Kummerer & Christian Muenzner (Obscura)

23. Paul Quinn & Doug Scarratt (Saxon)

24. Paul Kleff & Nick Layton (Firewölfe)

25. Brent Hinds & Bill Kelliher (Mastodon)

26. Luke Morley & Peter Shoulder (The Union)

27. Nicolas van Dyk & Bernie Versailles (Redemption)

28. Keith Wallen & Robert Zakaryan (Adelita’s Way)

29. Slash & Dave Kushner (Velvet Revolver)

30. Wolf Hoffmann & Herman Frank (Accept)

31. Matthew & Caleb Followill (Kings of Leon)

32. Nick Wheeler & Mike Kennerty (All American Rejects)

33. Johan Söderberg & Olavi Mikkonen (Amon Amarth)

34. Susan Tedeschi & Derek Trucks (Tedeschi Trucks Band)

35. Mikael Åkerfeldt & Fredrik Åkesson (Opeth)

36. Oli Herbert & Mike Martin (All That Remains)

37. Ville Friman & Markus Vanhala (Insomnium)

38. John Cobbett & Leila Abdul Rauf (Hammers of Misfortune)

39. Joakim Nilsson & Jonatan Ramm (Graveyard)

40. John Baizley & Peter Adams (Baroness)

41. Bryan Giles & David Sullivan (Red Fang)

42. Phil Sgrosso & Nick Hipa (As I Lay Dying)

43. Esa Holopainen & Tomi Koivusaari (Amorphis)

44. Ray Toro & Frank Iero (My Chemical Romance)

45. Jake Pitts & Jinxx (Black Veil Brides)

46. Leo Leoni & Freddy Scherer (Gotthard)

Honorable Mention (from days gone by):

Glenn Tipton & K.K. Downing (Judas Priest)

Dave Murray & Adrian Smith (Iron Maiden)

Rudolf Schenker & Matthias Jabs (Scorpions)

Steve Clark & Phil Collen (Def Leppard)

Malcolm & Angus Young (AC/DC)

Paul Stanley & Ace Frehley (KISS)

Brian Robertson & Scott Gorham (Thin Lizzy)

Gary Rossington & Allen Collins (Lynyrd Skynyrd)

Keith Richards & Ronnie Wood (Rolling Stones)

Don Felder & Joe Walsh (The Eagles)

Kirk Hammett & James Hetfield (Metallica)

John Lennon & George Harrison (The Beatles)

My Fifty-Two Favorite Guitarists as of 11/11/11

2011-11-11T11:11:00.000-05:00

So, now, after a couple years of paying closer attention and listening more carefully to guitarists hither and yon, here's a highly subjective and constantly-subject-to-adjustment list of my 52 favorite guitarists. I've focused on those with solo careers, whether with or without vocals, but have also included a few well-known guitarists from key guitar-driven bands. I've also looked at those with relatively recent releases (within the last few years). The list is more or less in order of preference, beginning with my top favorite, although there's certainly a lot of fluctuation from one day to the next when it comes to the ranking of those lower down.

1. Joe Satriani (Chickenfoot)

2. Paul Gilbert (Mr. Big)

3. Marty Friedman

4. Steffen Schackinger

5. John 5

6. Tony Iommi

7. Rob Balducci

8. Joe Bonamassa (Black Country Communion)

9. Gus G (Firewind, Ozzy Osbourne)

10. Gary Hoey

11. Michael Harris

12. Dave Martone

13. Joe Stump

14. John Petrucci (Dream Theater)

15. Andy James

16. DC Slater

17. Zakk Wylde (Black Label Society)

18. Andy McKee

19. Brian Setzer

20. Michael Angelo Batio

21. Mark Tremonti (Alter Bridge)

22. Jonas Tamas

23. Fabrizio Leo

24. David T. Chastain

25. Slash

26. Orianthi

27. Michael Schenker

28. Andy Timmons

29. Antoine Dufour

30. Michael Lee Ferkins

31. Chris Broderick (Megadeth)

32. Peter Frampton

33. Yngwie Malmsteen

34. Sebastian Cloutier

35. Paul Wardingham

36. Glen Drover

37. Chris Brooks

38. Stoney Curtis

39. Eric Gales

40. Dave Mustaine (Megadeth)

41. Christian Muenzner (Obscura)

42. Jeff Loomis

43. Eric Johnson

44. George Lynch

45. Broderick Gray

46. Al Di Meola

47. Brad Paisley

48. Eric Clapton

49. Kenny Wayne Shepherd

50. Chris Duarte

51. Steve Lukathar

52. Keith Urban

So, y'all, feel free to let me know if I've missed anyone essential.

You Live as Christ Lives

2011-11-01T22:38:00.000-04:00

By your Holy Baptism into Christ Jesus, you have received the gracious adoption of sons, so that you are God’s own child, and He is your true Father. Though it is yet hidden from even your own eyes and senses, you have been signed with the Cross of Christ and sealed with His Holy Spirit, so that you also have life and salvation in Him. And, as you thus belong to Him, so has your Baptism situated you within the Holy Communion of His Body, the Church; even as you are given to eat His holy Body and to drink His precious Blood, for the forgiveness of all your sins, and for the cleansing of your body and soul, within and without.

Belonging to the Body of Christ, and bearing the sign of His Cross upon your body, upon your forehead and your heart, you have been set upon the pilgrims’ way. Your Baptism has given you a new identity in Christ Jesus, and it is not of this world. The world does not know you, dear Christian, because it does not know Him who has anointed you and named you after Himself. Here, then, in this fallen world, you are a stranger in a strange land. For this is not your true home, and this is not your fatherland. But your true home is in Christ with your Father in heaven.

In this life on earth, as a baptized Christian, you are on a journey — one with many twists and turns, and ups and downs — in the midst of a great tribulation. It is a narrow way, often dark, and painful: Like the pain of labor and delivery for both mother and child, and like the dark and narrow chamber of the grave. It is the tribulation of the Cross that weighs upon you, and works in you both death and life. Because it is the daily journey of repentance, on which your old Adam is put to death in you, crucified and buried.

But the journey does not end in death. Weeping may remain for a night — and that may be a long, dark night, indeed — but there is joy in the morning of the Lord’s Resurrection, and day by day He wipes away every tear from your eyes. He forgives your sins, raises you up from death, and gives you life in Himself. So the Cross that you bear is not only the death of your old Adam, but it also becomes the burden of love and forgiveness that you bear for your neighbor in Christ.

So there is the Cross and burden of both death and life, but both of these belong to the journey; neither is yet your destination. Already there is a Sabbath Rest for you in Christ, even in the midst of all your labors. And even now He leads you and guides you to the springs of the water of life in the Ministry of the Gospel. But there shall down a still more glorious Day — the eternal Eighth Day of the Resurrection — when all your burdens shall be no more, and you shall rest from your labors in the endless joy and felicity of Christ Jesus.

That Peace and Rest in Christ — in the face of sin and death — is the promise and hope to which we cling, and which we celebrate in the witness of the faithful departed. In the death of those who die in the Lord, we recognize not defeat, but victory; not a tragic ending, but a blessed sleep. We dare to say of dust and bones, that these shall be raised and live in glory. For the First-fruits of the Resurrection have already been offered to God in the Body of Christ Jesus. He has gone up the Mountain and taken His seat at the Right Hand of the Father, and so do His works follow Him: His disciples from all the nations, from many tribes and tongues and peoples, all who believe and are baptized into Him; they come to Him in peace, and the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

So do we rightly dare to say and confess concerning you, also, even though your mortal flesh already reeks of death and the grave, and despite the fact that all of your best efforts and most righteous works are dust and bones. But we boldly confess that you shall from death and live forever in glory, because you are surely cleansed and covered and clothed by the Blood of the Lamb. For He has taken your mortal flesh to be His own, and He has taken all your sins upon Himself, and He has been sacrificed for you. See, His Blood now marks the door of this House, where you have been given a home with His God and Father. And His paschal Blood permeates the waters of your Baptism, whereby you are washed and vested in the white robes His perfect righteousness. He has redeemed you with His life, and He has reconciled you to the Father in His Resurrection from the dead. Now He also feeds you with His crucified and risen flesh, and He pours out His Blood for you to drink, that you might have His Life in you, not only in your soul, but in your body. As death could not hold Him, neither shall it have any final claim on you.

That is the endurance with which you run the race that is set before you. His Cross and Resurrection are your courage in the face of sin and death. His Body and His Blood are your food for the journey: your Manna in the wilderness, your water from the Rock. His Righteousness is your strength, His forgiveness your peace, and His Gospel your life and light and salvation.

Therefore, do not die within yourself — do not lose heart or give up hope — but live, as Christ lives. Pursue the path that the Lord your God has set you upon. Be content with your own particular calling, and fulfill it faithfully, whether it be great or small. Bear the Cross in love for your neighbor. Be patient, and persevere in the faith of Christ. For you are a son of God in Him, and He has honored you with His own life-giving Spirit.

As your hope is in Him — and your life, your health and strength are in Him — purify yourself in Him, just as He is pure. That is to say, live by the grace of the Gospel. Forgive those who trespass against you, just as you are forgiven all your sins by your Father in heaven, for Jesus’ sake. Humble yourself before Him, and so deal with your neighbor in humility and gentleness. Have mercy upon your fellow sinners, as upon your fellow Christians, and, so far as it depends upon you, be at peace with all people. Swallow your pride, and make the first move to apologize, to make amends, and to be reconciled with your neighbor.

As you are comforted by Christ in your sadness, comfort those who mourn. Call them, or write to them, or visit them if you are able. Remember those who are hurting, not only in and with your prayers, but with the balm of your kind words and your presence in their anguish. Feed your neighbor, not only with food and drink, but with whatever means the Lord has generously provided you, for whatever needs your neighbor may have in heart, mind, body or soul.

And do not resent the needs and weaknesses of those you are given to help, as though you had any strength or sufficiency of your own — when, in fact, you having nothing but the charity of God. Therefore, pursue righteousness, not with the force of the Law, but by the Gospel of the Cross.

That is the pilgrims’ way, and that is the race that is set before you. That is the journey of your Baptism — through death into life with Christ Jesus, your Lord.

Beloved, take to heart that you are not alone on this journey. Surely the Lord Himself is with you always, as He has promised. But consider the ways and means by which He accompanies you and abides with you, and realize that, precisely in Him, you are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. There is the testimony and the evidence of the saints who have gone before you in the faith of the Gospel, as well as the witness of those who love and serve you within their own vocations now. As you are given to care for your neighbor, so do your brothers and sisters in Christ care for you.

Not only the saints in heaven, but the whole Church in heaven and on earth is gathered before the Throne of God in His Temple, to worship the Lamb in the center of the Throne. For He who is both perfect God and perfect Man, who was crucified for your transgressions, and raised for your justification — who was sacrificed for you, and yet, behold, He lives — He fills all things and unites all of the children of God in Himself. While He ever lives to intercede for you at the Right Hand of His Father, so does He also serve you in His Church on earth. For He is the One who preaches and teaches, who baptizes and absolves, and who communes you with His Body and His Blood. He is the great Good Shepherd who spreads His Tabernacle over you, even as He is your merciful and great High Priest, who brings you to His own dear God and Father in peace and love.

Fix your eyes and ears, your heart and mind on Him: on Jesus, your Savior. You see and hear Him in His saints, not by their own merits, but according to His mercy, because He is their Life — as He is also yours. So, too, their example and their faithfulness, by His grace, point you to the Gospel. For it is the Gospel of Christ Jesus that their lips and their lives have confessed.

Everything flows from Him, returns to Him, and centers in Him. For He is the Author and Perfecter of faith and life, and the Firstborn of many brethren: by His Incarnation, by His Baptism, by His Life and Ministry, by His Cross and Resurrection, and now also by the preaching and administration of the Gospel in His Name and stead.

Everything that was necessary for you to have life and salvation with God, this dear Lamb the Lord Jesus, has done and accomplished for you: not only on your behalf, but in such a way that everything He has done is credited to you, and given to you, so that it actually becomes yours. In fact, it is already yours, by His grace, through faith in the Gospel. Because He gives you nothing less than Himself in and with and through the Gospel.

Your strength is in Him — and it is an all-sufficient strength, which is not defeated but made perfect in weakness. That can be frustrating and discouraging, because it is so contrary to your instincts, and so foreign to the wisdom of the world. It seems foolish and helpless. That is the way of the Cross. On the one hand, it appears so weak and impotent, while on the other hand it crucifies you and puts you to death. But out of this great divine paradox — and out of this great tribulation — the Cross releases you from sin and death, and sets you free to live with Christ Jesus. In fact, by the Gospel of forgiveness — this weak and foolish charity and compassion of God — from His own Cross and Passion, He gives to you His own Resurrection, and His Life.

That’s right: His Victory over death and the grave is your Victory. His Resurrection and His Righteousness are yours. And His Life is yours. Indeed, everything that belongs to Him, now belongs to you, by His grace. It is given to you freely, by and with and in His Gospel. And not even death shall be able to snatch it from you; no more than death can snatch you from Him.

That is what we celebrate in this Feast of All Saints. For here you also are gathered with that great throng of witnesses, robed in white, encircling the Lamb once slain. Just as He is risen from the dead, and lives and reigns to all eternity, so shall you not die, but live.

For you are in Him, and He abides in you and with you. He surrounds you round about, supports you as a firm foundation, and shelters you with Himself as a strong shield.

Though you struggle and suffer, and you are crucified, dead and buried, you share the Lord’s Resurrection and His Life — even as you eat His Body and drink His Blood. And you are knit together with all His saints in the fellowship of His Church in heaven and on earth. You are bound together, in Him and with Him, in His flesh and blood, with all those who have gone before you in the faith and Baptism of Jesus.

Though it does not yet appear what you shall be, it is already true in Him, and when He appears, then you shall see Him as He is, and you shall be like Him: glorious with His glory, immortal, imperishable, and fully alive forever and ever.

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

The Life of Christ in the Body

2011-10-29T22:46:00.002-04:00

Here is the Life to which the Lord your God has called you:

First of all, to hear and receive the Word of God; to believe and confess His Word; to pray, and to live by His Word: in faith and love. For you have one Teacher, from whom you receive the Word and the Wisdom of God. Listen to Him, and learn from Him. And as you have heard, so also speak and pray His Word; because it is by His grace that you live, through faith in His Word.

Hear and heed His Word while you have this chance, while it is near and spoken to you; lest He remove it from you, and leave you with nothing but darkness and silence, and death and despair.

Be not only a hearer of His Word, but trust in His Word, and so also do and observe what He has commanded. Work and labor, faithfully and righteously, within your particular vocation and place in life. Submit to the authorities that He has placed over you, as unto Him, according to His Word. And be a faithful “father,” as it were, in exercising whatever authority you have been given within your own calling, under the One Father in heaven by whom all fatherhood on earth is named.

Do not serve for the love of money, nor to make a name for yourself, to be seen and acknowledged by other people. But, rather, work and labor in the fear of the Lord, in faith toward Him, and in love for your neighbor, in harmony with God’s Word. (Always, your reference point is His Word.)

As He has named you with His Name, and has given you Himself and all things by His grace, so rely on Him for all that you need, and receive His good and perfect gifts in the Gospel of Christ Jesus, the beloved Son. And, so also, love and serve your brothers and sisters in the same Lord, Jesus Christ, as being the children of one and the same God and Father in heaven.

Discipline yourself and your flesh, and “possess your own vessel” (that is, your body), in holiness and honor. For as your body also is redeemed and sanctified by Christ — who bore all your sins in His Body on the Cross, and who was raised bodily from the dead for your justification — and as your body has been cleansed, along with your soul, by the washing of water with His Word in Holy Baptism; and as your body is fed, along with your soul, with the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Communion; and as your body shall be resurrected at the last, and glorified forever — so, too, the life that you live in the body, even here and now, really matters. It makes a difference.

Your life in the body matters, and makes a difference, whether you live in faith and love, unto the righteousness and holiness of Christ — or in laziness, lust, and licentiousness, unto death. For as faith lays hold of life in Christ, so does sin lay hold of death (because it departs from Christ).

Your righteousness and life in Christ Jesus are free and clear, by His grace alone, no doubt; that is sure and certain. But that is not an excuse or permission for laziness or licentiousness. Rather, it is a cause for holiness in word and deed. Whereas good works do not lead the way into heaven, nor can they ever get you there, they do follow after faith in Christ.

Good works do not make the saint; but good works do follow after the saints, who live by faith in Christ Jesus. And their good works of love glorify the Name of their God and Father in heaven.

So, then, beloved of the Lord, do not be lazy — so that others do not have to make up your slack and serve you — but work hard to do your job, to provide for your family, and to care for others.

Give yourself over to good works, as the Lord has given you to do within your office and station in life. Not only is this good and right, but it focuses your time, attention, and energy on loving your neighbor, and giving life to your neighbor, as the Lord loves you and gives you life by the Word and work of His Gospel.

Give yourself over to such good works of love, rather than leaving your heart and mind and eyes to wander in lust; and do not give yourself over to lust, which, left unchecked and undisciplined, leads to bodily impurity and to sins against your neighbor (and against your neighbor’s spouse).

If you do not struggle with sexual temptations, praise God for that, but still be on your guard against the covetous lust of whatever sort does rage within your members, whether it be for money or fame, for music or sports, for popularity or power, or for whatever else it might be.

Do not kid yourself: What you do with your body matters. When you set your heart and mind upon that which is contrary to the Word of God — to desire what He has not given to you — and you turn your eyes to gaze upon it, and move your feet toward it, and set your hand upon it, then your covetous lust has conceived and given birth to sin, and your sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. Not only does it lead to the death of your body, but the pursuit of your sinful passions and impurity is deadly to your spiritual life and health, as well.

But the Lord is the Avenger in all these things. He avenges your neighbor against your sins, to be sure, but He also avenges you against the assaults and accusations of the devil, the world, and your sinful flesh. As your body participates in your sin, so does the Lord discipline your body, not only to curb and temper your wickedness and evil, but also to alert you to the danger, as part of His call to repentance. For it is also the case that, along with His discipline of your mortal flesh, He calls and sends His true Prophets to preach repentance, unto the forgiveness of sins in His Name.

He does not chase you down and chastise you in order to castigate and shame you, but to save you from your sin and death, and to bring you to Himself in love, into His life and light and salvation. In short, He humbles you in order to exalt you. But the one who exalts himself, He will humble.

Be humbled, then, before both God and man. Be humbled before the Lord your God, to fear, love and trust in Him. Rely upon His Word and promises, rather than trying to defend and protect, to promote and exalt yourself. And as you are loved by Him, and served by Him, and cared for by His grace, so humble yourself before your neighbor: Love and serve your neighbor in the Lord.

Do not worry about yourself, but follow Christ Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith. Follow Him by listening to Him, by hearing and heeding His Word and the preaching of it. Trust His Word, and live according to it. And follow His example. For He is your Leader — already in your life in the body here on earth, and so also through death and the grave into the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting in heaven. He leads not only by His Word, but also by His example.

And yet, for all of that, He is far more than just a good example. In His true divine greatness and almighty strength, He has become your Servant. He has come down from heaven to serve you, and to save you, at the cost of His own body and life. He has taken all your sin, all your suffering and sorrow, all your mortality and death upon Himself. And He has humbled Himself, even unto death upon the Cross. He has thereby suffered all your punishment, and He has given His life and shed His blood to atone for all your sins.

In this you see His faith and love. He did not talk the talk without walking the walk. He did not bind the heavy burden of the Law upon your shoulders, but He took its full back-breaking load upon Himself and bore it for you. He trusted His Father, and He submitted Himself in absolute obedience to the Word and will of His Father. In such faith, He gave Himself up for you.

And God the Father raised Him up again, and highly exalted Him, and glorified Him — also in His Body (of flesh and blood like yours!) — and has seated Him at His right hand for all eternity.

He is your merciful and great High Priest, and He (Himself) is your righteousness and holiness. His Cross and Resurrection are your repentance, by which you are now called and carried out of sin and death into faith and life — out of the grave, to be seated with Him in the heavenly places. Just as your Holy Baptism has given to you, and as it signifies and works in you every day of your life: namely, that you die to sin, and that you rise with Christ to live in Him by grace through faith.

This repentance and forgiveness, unto life and salvation, are not thwarted, undone or ended by your death, but they are finally completed in your bodily death from this vale of tears, and are fully realized in the resurrection of your body unto the life everlasting (of body and soul) in heaven.

That is the sure and certain hope in which you live and work and labor — and in which you are now given to remember the faithful departed, who are surely among the great cloud of witnesses with which you are surrounded. For as they live and abide in the Body of Christ, cleansed by His Blood and so clothed in His Righteousness forever and ever, so are you also one Holy Communion with them in the Body and Blood of the same Lord Jesus Christ. So are you cleansed and clothed by Him, like a Bride made beautiful for her Groom. And so do you also live and abide in Him, both now and forever.

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

Jesus Is a Friend of Yours

2011-10-29T16:03:00.001-04:00

There is the Risk of love and friendship, and the Cost: when you give yourself to and for another person. Not only do you expend yourself, but you are open and vulnerable to being hurt (in any number of different ways).

To make yourself weak in this way — in love and friendship — is actually an exercise and demonstration of real strength; which does not seek its own protection and advantage, but extends itself to serve and protect and do good to others: even at great cost, and sometimes even without any reciprocity.

The Lord Jesus has exercised the greatest strength, in the greatest Love, by giving Himself for you, and laying down His life for you. He has chosen to do so in love, and He has loved you in this way, not because you were His friend — but while you were His enemy! — in order to befriend you; or, rather, to befriend you precisely by and with and in this great love for you, unto His death upon the Cross.

He has paid this Cost to love you and to be your Friend. And He has taken this Risk to open Himself to you, to reveal and give Himself to you, and to make Himself vulnerable.

Thus, for the sake of His great love, and because of His great love — for you and all the world — He was hated and persecuted and put to death. And by His own friends on earth, He was betrayed, abandoned, denied, and doubted.

You also have tasted the risks and the costs of love and friendship, and, once bitten, twice shy, it is tempting to flee from your neighbors; to retreat into yourself; to guard and protect yourself, by all means, and at all costs, from everyone else.

But the Lord Jesus has chosen you — in love — He has called you to Himself, and He has appointed you, to go and bear good fruits in His Name. Such good fruits are the fruits of His Cross, and they are the fruits of love: that you should love one another, as Jesus loves you.

He has befriended you. You, now, be a friend of His. Live as He lives. Love as He loves.

That means bearing the Cost — and the Cross — of genuine friendship for your neighbor; and, really, more than friendship. It means a divine love, even for those who hate you and persecute you. So that you sincerely forgive and gladly do good to those who sin against you.

You take the Risk of loving and serving and caring for your neighbor. You make yourself vulnerable and weak. You open yourself to hurt and rejection. All for the sake of the Love of God in Christ Jesus, your Lord: your Friend.

That is what the Holy Apostles did — St. Simon and St. Jude, and the other Apostles. That is what they did, and that is how they lived, in going forth to bear the good fruits of the Cross according to their calling and appointment as preachers of Christ; like the Old Testament Prophets before them!

It was certainly a Risk to be identified as a friend of Jesus. But, loving Him, and loving the world for which He died, they preached faithfully in His Name; for which they, too, like Him, were hated, and persecuted, and put to death.

Was it worth the Risk, and worth the Cost? Indeed, it was.

Their love was not pointless or meaningless, nor was their friendship with Jesus foolish.

For, on the one hand, as the Lord Jesus had chosen them in love, called them to Himself, befriended them, and named them with His own Name, so did He bring them through death into life with Himself.

And, on the other hand, their Ministry of the Gospel, though met with such hostility and violence, also did bear the good fruits of the Cross; so that the Church grew and increased and spread. Those who once were far off were called to the friendship of Christ, and they were born again to a new and living hope.

So also have you been called and born again to that same hope: in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead.

That is the hope in which you take the Risk and pay the Cost of love: for one another, for your family and friends, for your fellow Christians and for your neighbors in the world, and even for those who hurt you and take advantage of you.

The Church into which you have been called — the household and family of God, the circle of Jesus’ friends! — the Temple and City of God, on earth as it is in heaven — the Church is not a “safe haven” in the sense that here you are free to continue in sin, to avoid the costs and risks of love and friendship, and to set aside the Cross of Christ.

But the Church, which is the Body of Christ the Crucified, is a refuge of repentance, in which you are saved from sin, and you are set free to bear the Cross in love.

You have heard His Commandment: that you love one another.

That is the life to which He has appointed you.

He knows the Risks. He knows the Cost. He knows the hurts and heartaches. He knows the disappointments and deep sorrows.

But, just as He has all things from His Father, so does He give Himself and His Life to you.

He knows the Risks and the Costs, because He has borne them for you — and God has raised Him from the dead. So does He raise you, also, in Himself.

Again, the Church is not a “robber’s den,” where you run away to hide out from the Lord and from your neighbor. But, it is a place of peace and rest and safety for those whom the Lord has befriended in love — for you, who are His friend by the Gospel.

Here, all your sins are freely and fully forgiven. Here, you are safe, and you are loved. Here, you are fed with the good fruits of the Cross. Here, you are given the life of your dear Lord Jesus. And though you do not yet see Him — but you love Him and believe in Him (by grace through faith in His Word) — what is now revealed to you by the Gospel, under the Cross, shall be openly revealed in the Glory of His Resurrection at the last, when your faith and life in Christ Jesus will be shown to be more precious than gold.

As it was for St. Simon and St. Jude, so it is for you, and so shall it be — for you and all the faithful — forever and ever: In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

All You Need Is Love

2011-10-22T21:49:00.000-04:00

You are to be holy, as the Lord your God is holy. But, whereas He is holy in Himself, by nature, you are holy in Him, by His grace, sanctified by His Word and Spirit. Therefore, in calling you to such holiness, to be holy in Him, He calls you to share His own divine Life, and to rest in His Love. He calls you to live your life in Him, in harmony and peace; to be loved by Him, and so to love: To love the Lord your God above all things, and your neighbor as yourself, as you are loved.

To love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, is to entrust and submit all your thoughts and feelings, yourself and your entire life to Him; so that all your words and actions are governed by His Word, and your every breath glorifies His Name.

And to love your neighbor as yourself, is to love and serve your neighbor, and to give life to your neighbor, by and with and for the Love of God. In short, you love your neighbor as the Lord your God loves you. Receiving and sharing His love, you manifest His holiness in your love for others.

When you fear, love and trust in the one true God above all things, you will not be afraid of anything else in heaven or on earth, and you will not be afraid to give yourself in loving service to your neighbor. Rather, you will delight to be like God in such love, and, as such, you will desire to know and to follow His good and acceptable will in all things: which is summarized in love.

What is natural for God, is for you by grace alone. Which is to say that you do not rely upon your own wisdom, reason or strength to know what love is, or to know the way of love. But you hear and heed the Word of God, and you rely upon His Word; as even Christ Jesus, our Lord Himself, as true Man, relied upon and so confessed the Holy Scriptures (in resisting every temptation, and in answering all questions). For His Word sanctifies all things, by and with His Holy Spirit, by creating all things, giving life to all the living, and establishing what is good and right.

The holiness of God, and so also the holiness of His people, is rooted in the confidence of God and expressed in the charity of God. What does this mean? The Lord our God — the Holy Trinity — He alone is fully alive, fully complete, fully realized and fully sufficient in Himself. He alone is Love; which is to say, not only that He is loving, as an attribute or attitude, but that He is Love in Himself, in His very Being and Identity, in the Love of the Father for the Son in the Holy Spirit.

You have such confidence and charity, and such holiness of God, not from within yourself, but from outside of yourself — from the Holy Triune God, who reveals and gives Himself to you, for the sake of His divine and holy Love, that is, for His own sake, because of who and what He is.

Because it is by and with His Word that God reveals and gives Himself to you — by the preaching of His Prophets and Apostles, and above all by the Person of the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus — and because it is by and with His Word that He names you with His Name, and sanctifies His Name in you by the generous outpouring of His Spirit through Jesus Christ, our Savior — so it is that your holiness, as a child of God, depends entirely upon His Word. That is your confidence, your sure and certain hope, which is demonstrated and confessed in a godly life of holy love.

Within your own office and station in life, it is for you as it was for the holy Apostles, who trusted the Word of the Lord, and so preached that Word faithfully, even unto death: not lording it over those to whom they were sent, but loving them, and caring for them gently, with the tenderness of a mother for her babies, and with the kindness of a strong father for his dear children. They gave to the Church, not only the Gospel of Word and Sacrament in the Name and stead of Christ Jesus, but their own bodies and their very lives.

You are called to live the same way in your own place.

To be sure, it is precisely in such faith and love that many of you have made the promises that were asked of you in the Rite of Confirmation, as four of our catechumens will pledge before God and His Church this morning. Such serious promises and solemn pledges are actually a matter of life and death — for confirmands commit themselves to suffer all, even death, before they would ever forsake the Word and faith of God. But in this respect, they repeat the commitments, the serious promises and solemn pledges of Holy Baptism, as the Rite of Confirmation makes clear by echoing the Rite of Holy Baptism. Already as an infant (the tender age when most of you were baptized) your Baptism placed you on the front lines of a fierce battle, armed and armored with nothing else — and nothing less — than the Word and Spirit of God. That is where and how you now stand.

Thus, you have pledged to find your life in the Holy Triune God, in the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, in His Church and Ministry of the Gospel, in His Holy Word and Sacraments. And, correspondingly, you have renounced and rejected the devil, the world, and the sinful flesh of the old Adam, with all his lusts and desires. You have died to all that, and you live unto God alone.

So, what does all of this look like, practically speaking? What are you supposed to do and say, and how are you supposed to live? If your Holy Baptism and the Rite of Confirmation are more than just a couple of certificates, whether on your wall, in a lock box, or shoved into a pile in the closet, what does any of this mean for you? Seriously, what difference does it make?

The Catechism teaches you, in much the same way that Leviticus and the entire Law of Moses taught God’s people in the Old Testament. That is why pastors, who love the dear people of God entrusted to their care, require their catechumens to memorize the Catechism: to learn it by heart, and firmly to implant its faithful confession of the Holy Scriptures into your grey cells, especially while they are young and pliable enough to be formed and molded by that pattern of sound words.

The Catechism is actually a prayer book, and a manual for Christian faith and life. And even for those who have committed the entire thing to memory — and even for those who still remember it perfectly — it is not a textbook to be put away and forgotten. Because it confesses the Word of the Lord, it opens your lips to show forth His praise; it is a shield and buckler against the assaults and accusations of the devil; and it is a lamp to your feet and a light upon your path.

The Catechism teaches you what love for God and for the neighbor does and says, how it looks, and how it sounds. It teaches you to fear, love and trust in God above all things, by teaching you to pray and confess, to call upon the Name of the Lord, to praise and give thanks to Him. It points you to the preaching of God’s Word, and teaches you to hold it sacred, to gladly hear and learn it. It teaches you to remember your Baptism rightly, to examine yourself and confess your sins, so as to avail yourself of Holy Absolution, and to hunger and thirst for the Body and Blood of Christ.

The Catechism teaches you to consider your particular place in life according to the universal rule of the Ten Commandments, not only to show you what sins you should confess before the pastor, but so also to know how you are to love those neighbors whom God has placed in relation to you. It informs your station in life, and instructs you in the duties and responsibilities of your office, with clear passages of Holy Scripture. Thus you know what is pleasing to God, what is good for your neighbor, and what is given to you in faith and love.

You are taught that love, which is the fulfilling of the Law, does no harm to the neighbor. And then you are also taught that love does not merely refrain from doing harm, but actively strives to help and serve, to protect and defend, to support and strengthen the neighbor in his body and life, in his family, his property, his name and reputation. You are taught, not only to honor and obey your parents and other authorities, but to love and to cherish them, and gladly to submit to their governance, as to the Lord. And you are taught, not only to avoid committing adultery with your neighbor’s spouse, but fully to invest yourself, your time and your energy, your heart, mind and body, in the self-sacrificing service and loving care of your own God-given wife or husband.

So this is what your holiness as a child of God looks like. This is how faith and love are to live. There’s no need to go searching for anything more; there’s more than enough here to keep you busy, and you have no cause to complain that you are bored, or that you have nothing to do.

Honestly, the real and compelling question is: How often do you live and act, and speak and think otherwise than you are taught by the Word and Spirit of God? How often do you expect the Lord your God to stand in line behind your host of other gods and idols — your work and your play, your hobbies and other interests, your money, your music and sports and other entertainments? How often do you neglect your neighbor, in favor of yourself, even when the neighbor in question is your own spouse or child, your own dear father or mother, your own dear brother or sister, or your fellow Christian? How often do you trust your own wisdom over and above God’s Word?

Truth be told, if you examine yourself rightly, according to the Word of God, then you also will be silenced by the Law — no less so than the Scribes and Pharisees, the Sadduccees and Lawyers, who were unable to answer Jesus anything, and who did not dare ask Him any other questions.

For the Law of God gives you nothing else to say but a confession of your sins. Indeed, it exposes not only your ignorance and weakness, and not only your sins and failings — what you have done wrong, and what you have failed to do right — but also your inability to do any better on your own; not only your failure, but your impotence to fear, love and trust in God. You cannot do it.

Yet, there is another Word of God — the Gospel of Christ Jesus — which gives to you a voice, a confession and a prayer. This Word of the Gospel gives you life, and it sanctifies you by the Spirit of God, through the forgiveness of all your sins. More important and decisive than the promises and pledges that you made at your Baptism, this Word of the Gospel — and all the promises that God made and gave to you in the washing of the water with His Word in your Baptism — works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives you eternal life and salvation.

Because great King David’s Lord and God has, indeed, also become King David’s Son, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and He has been anointed in His human flesh and blood by the Spirit of God, to be the Christ, your Savior and your King. What He has given Himself to do in His Baptism — the serious promises and solemn pledges that He made before God and man, by submitting Himself to St. John’s Baptism of repentance in the waters of the Jordan River — He has fully accomplished in faith and love, for you and for all, by His Self-sacrifice upon the Cross.

So has He loved His God and Father with all His heart, with all His soul, and with all His mind; with all His strength, with His whole body and life, with His holy and precious blood, and with His innocent suffering and death. He has given Himself fully, and without any reservation, in the fear, love and trust of His Father above all things, and in divine and holy love for you: for each and every one of you, and for all people everywhere, for all the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve.

So has He fulfilled and perfected all the Law and the Prophets — not only in your stead and on your behalf, but for you, and for your benefit — to save you, and to sanctify you, and to give you life with God forever in Himself. He has done you no harm, but He helps and supports you in every way, in both body and soul, in this life on earth, and for the life everlasting in heaven. He takes nothing but your sin and death from you, whereas He gives you Himself, His Righteousness and Peace, His Innocence and Blessedness, His Holy Spirit and His divine Sonship, His own dear Father to be your God and Father, and all the wealth and riches of His eternal Kingdom. He does not divorce you, but forgives your unfaithfulness, woos you to Himself in tender peace, cleanses you of every blemish, spot and wrinkle, and cherishes you as His own beloved Bride. He does not testify against you, but with His Gospel He defends you, speaks well of you, and justifies you.

And as the great God and Father of this dear Lord Jesus Christ has highly exalted Him, and has raised Him from the dead, and has given Him the Name above every name, and has seated Him at His Right Hand forevermore — in the same human flesh and blood that He received from His Mother Mary — so has the same God and Father raised you up from death to life, and given you the Name of Christ Jesus in your Holy Baptism, and seated you with Him in the heavenly places. That is where your life is safely hidden — with Christ in God — even as you go about living your life on earth, by His grace, through faith in His Gospel.

This is a faithful saying, and it is most certainly true. For the surety and certainty of your faith and life are not found in yourself, nor in your frail mortal flesh, but they are fixed for you, and secure, in the crucified, risen and ascended body of Christ — who is not far away from you, but He is here for you in His Church on earth, in His Ministry of the Gospel, in the preaching of His Word, in the Holy Absolution of all your sins, and in the Holy Communion of His Body and His Blood.

So do you also, in the Spirit, call Him “Lord.” Which is to pray and confess that He has entered in to save you, to ransom and redeem you, to set you free from the bondage of Satan, sin and death, and to bring you into His glorious Kingdom. He is not ashamed to call you His brother, His sister, His friend, but all that belongs to Him, He freely gives to you and shares with you forever. Sit here, then, at His Table, and receive from His right hand the pledge of His undying love — the gift of His indestructible life — while He puts all your enemies, your sin and death, beneath His feet.

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

Render to God the Things That Are God's

2011-10-15T23:51:00.001-04:00

You have been created by the Holy Triune God — you are made in His Image and Likeness — to live in His Way, by His Word, according to His Will, in Spirit and in Truth. You have been given life, in order to live in harmony and peace with Him, by His grace, through faith in His Word. And you are called to be like Him in relation to His creation — to live in love toward your neighbor, and to grant life unto others — within the particular place where the Lord your God has put you.

As you thus live by His creative Word, by His divine grace and in His holy love, you are confident and content with who you are and what you have; you are compassionate and charitable toward those who live around you; and, because you are well cared for, you likewise care for others.

By such faith and love — for that is what your confidence and charity as a Christian are — you render your whole body and life as a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You glorify His holy Name — the very Name which He has given to you in your Baptism: inscribed upon your forehead and heart, your body and soul, with the Cross of Christ.

In offering such a sacrifice (not of propitiation for your sins, but of thanksgiving for God’s grace), you do not lose your life, but you find your entire life in the Lord, your God.

Thus having your life in Him, you fear, love and trust in Him above all things. You listen to His Word, and you call upon His Name in peace and hope and joy. You love your neighbor as yourself — cherishing your own spouse, and not coveting your neighbor’s wife or husband — not hurting your neighbor, nor robbing him or bad-mouthing him, but helping and protecting him, speaking well of him, and serving him, however you can. And you honor your parents and other authorities, all the way up to governors, kings, and Caesar himself: you obey the laws of the land, you pay your taxes, and you pray for the powers that be (who are God’s ministers, appointed for your good).

In this way, also — that is to say, in rendering to Caesar what God has given and assigned to Caesar — you render yourself, your body and life, to God the Lord, your Creator and Redeemer.

For all things are His, and it is by Him, and from Him, and for Him, and unto Him that you live.

There is no either-or between God and Caesar: You honor Caesar under God, until such a time when Caesar demands that you sin against God, and then you must obey God rather than Caesar at that point. There is no dividing of your allegiance between God and man, but your obedience belongs entirely to God, also in submitting to those authorities whom He has placed over you.

So, too, where He has given you authority over others, you are to use that authority in the fear, love, and trust of Him who is the Author of all things. Therefore, children, obey your parents in the Lord. And, parents, love and serve and care for your children, as the Lord so loves and serves and cares for you. Feed and clothe and shelter them, sure, but, above all, teach them His Word.

But all of this requires the crucifixion of the old Adam in you, who would have you become a god unto yourself: not receiving all things and living by the grace of the one true God, but grasping and taking and striving and contesting for that which you would call your own.

The Lord shows no partiality, but, speaking the truth in love, He puts to death that sin and selfish-ness in you. He does so, not with any malice or hypocrisy, nor to trap and destroy you, but that you might know the Way of God, which is the way of life instead of death.

He brings you under His authority — rather than leaving you to your own self-governing autonomy — not to boss you around, but to bestow His Life upon you, and to glorify His Name in you.

You resent and rebel against the Word and work and authority of God, because you fear that you are being robbed. It seems as though you are losing yourself, and your freedom, and everything that is yours and is so precious to you. In the Cross you perceive only punishment and death, instead of forgiveness and life. In repentance you feel only humility and grief, embarrassment and shame, instead of rescue, redemption, and righteousness.

It is honestly not possible for you to see or understand the Cross and the authority of God, the Lord, until He has put you to death by that Cross and raised you to newness of life by the authority of Christ Jesus: as He has, in fact, done for you in Holy Baptism, and as He continues to do for you (as also for Ingrid and Mazzy), so faithfully and so patiently, throughout your life on earth, by the ongoing catechesis of His Word, by the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of your sins.

He crucifies you, puts you to death and buries you, in order to give you a new birth and to make you His own child. He calls for your allegiance in all things, that you may live under Him in His Kingdom, and so that He Himself, and all that He has, may be yours by His grace.

Thus, you have and you live your life before God as a little child. And becoming an adult is not about getting an independent life for yourself, but it is properly an exercise of wisdom, reason and strength for others: to love and serve and give life to your neighbor in the Name of the Lord.

You have been (and you are) brought into this Way of Life in God, in Spirit and in Truth, by the Way of Christ, by His Incarnation, by His Body and Life, His flesh and blood, His faith and love, His Cross and Resurrection. For He is the Image and Likeness of God — true God and true Man, united in His one Person — the Son of the Father from all eternity, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary — the Word of God made Flesh — the Bearer of the Spirit in His Body.

And as God the Father has glorified this incarnate Son, Christ Jesus, in His Baptism, so has He glorified His Father’s Name by His holy Cross and Passion; whereon was written the Inscription, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”

He there submitted Himself to the authority of Caesar — and to Caesar’s governor, Pontius Pilate — in order to render Himself — in faith and love — unto God, His dear Father in heaven.

In this way, by His sacrifice on the Cross, the one true God is perfectly revealed in this true Man, and harmony and peace between God and man are perfectly realized. Faith and love are perfectly united, and real life is accomplished and established — for you and for all — in the midst of death.

For as Christ Jesus, your Savior, rendered Himself unto God (for you), so did God the Father raise this same Jesus from the dead, and bring Him to Himself, and exalt Him at His right hand.

Therefore, not simply Pilate, but God the Father Almighty has named this Jesus of Nazareth to be the King, not only of the Jews, but of the heavens and the earth.

As the true Man of God, the Lord Jesus uses His authority to love and to serve, to care for you, and to give you life. As He has already payed the poll-tax for you and for all, with His own Body and Life, the denarius He grants to you — the coin of His realm — is forgiveness. Such forgiveness you receive freely from Him, and with such forgiveness you love and serve each other in peace.

There’s an economic policy that you can live with!

Do not be amazed, and do not turn away and leave Him. This dear Lord and King, Christ Jesus, speaks the truth to you in love. He shows no favoritism, but He has given Himself for all, so that all the world has been redeemed and reconciled to God in Him.

In Him is your life, your light and your salvation. In Him you are safe and secure in body and soul. In Him you are rendered to God in peace; not for death, but for life, both now and forevermore.

It is in that confidence and certainty that He tells you to give Caesar his due: to honor your parents and other authorities; to serve and obey them, to love and cherish them.

It is in the same confidence and certainty that He calls you to live by faith — which is really to entrust your whole body and life unto God, who is your own dear Father in Christ Jesus — to fear, love and trust in Him above all things.

And it is by the sure compassion and certain charity of His own Cross — in the confidence of His Resurrection from the dead — that He grants you this very faith and life, this love and trust in Him, with His own Body and Blood, and with His forgiveness of all your sins.

Come here and see. Let me show you, and consider whose likeness and inscription this bread and wine shall bear: not outwardly, but inwardly, hidden from your sight, but not from your ears. Listen and behold — for the Son of God declares, and His Word makes it so, “This is My Body, given for you. This is My Blood, poured out for you. Take, eat. Drink of it, all of you, for the forgiveness of sins.” These are for you, because you are God’s own dear child.

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

The Wedding Banquet of the Royal Son

2011-10-09T12:31:00.000-04:00

On this Mountain — in the midst of this city, His new Jerusalem — the Lord of hosts, Yahweh Sabaoth, has prepared a Wedding Banquet: a great Feast to the glory of His Son and for His Bride. Not by the flesh and blood of bulls and goats, nor sheep and oxen, but by the sacrifice of the same beloved and only-begotten Son, who loved His Bride and gave Himself for her, even unto death.

By His death, He has swallowed up death forever; and in His Resurrection, He has been glorified, so that His beloved Bride might also be saved and glorified in Him.

This is the glory of the Bridegroom, indeed, that He lays down His life for His Wife, and that He also feeds and nurtures her, and glorifies her with His whole body and life.

Whereas earthly husbands often hesitate and fail to give themselves so completely to and for their wives, for fear they will lose themselves and be lost, the Son of God has spent Himself entirely for His Church, and He gives Himself to her without fail, in the confidence of His Father — who raises Him from the dead, and glorifies Him, and gives life to both Him and His holy Bride.

This is the Holy Gospel, and, by this Gospel, the Lord calls and invites people from all nations to be His disciples: to be united with Him and joined to His Bride, the Church — to join the wedding party — and so to eat His Feast. For it is to His disciples that our Lord Jesus Christ gives His Body to eat and pours out His Blood to drink.

So has He called you to be His disciple, and so to feast both with Him and upon Him in this Supper. He calls you by the ongoing catechesis of His Word, the Law and the Gospel, by the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of your sins. Just as He has called you to Himself, and wed you to Himself, by the way and the means of your Baptism into His Cross and Resurrection. For your Holy Baptism is the fount and source, the heart and center of your daily and lifelong repentance and the forgiveness of sins, whereby you are crucified with Him and raised up with Him to newness of life, and you are clothed in Him and His righteousness.

These are your wedding clothes, by which alone you are worthily attired to enter the wedding hall and to eat the wedding feast: Not by any “goodness” of your own, but entirely by the grace of God.

You are a guest of the King: do not despise or reject His hospitality. Rather, just as the Father of the Bride adorns His daughter to be given to her Groom, and as the Husband adorns His Wife with His own honor and glory, so are you attired and adorned by the Father and the Son. You do not adorn yourself, but as you are dressed by and with Christ in your Holy Baptism, so are you truly worthy and well-prepared to eat and drink His Supper, His Body and His Blood.

To wear these wedding clothes — which you have received in Holy Baptism — is to live by this grace of God, through faith in His Gospel, instead of relying on yourself and your own resources.

It is to pray in faith and confidence, to trust your God and Father in Christ, and to receive from His hand whatever He provides, whether much or little — living under the Cross, in the hope of the Resurrection — and thus to be content and satisfied in any and all circumstances.

To wear the wedding clothes provided for the Feast is likewise to do good works of love within your vocation — to glorify the Bridegroom and the King through your behavior — and to serve His other guests, your neighbors, with your words and actions — as a kind of outward vesture.

As a woman honors her husband and glorifies his name — which he has given to her and shares with her — by receiving and using whatever he provides to care for their own home and family, and to share hospitality with others. For a woman who knows herself to be loved by her husband, is able to love her family, friends and neighbors generously and well. And a woman who is fed and clothed and sheltered by her husband, is likewise able to feed and clothe and shelter her dear children and many others, too. A woman who is thus adorned by her husband, need not adorn herself, but she is eager and well able to adorn others with mercy and kindness and tender care.

So do you also honor and glorify your Royal Bridegroom with reverent humility, and with artistic beauty, with gracious conduct, gentle words, and godly piety. As your God-given abilities permit, according to His all-sufficient providence, you praise and give thanks to Him, you confess His faithfulness and magnify His loving-kindness, and you declare yourself to be His very own.

Not as though to clothe yourself; nor to justify yourself; nor to make a name for yourself; nor to make yourself worthy — but in the strength of Christ, your Savior; in the abundant love of your heavenly Bridegroom; in the peace of His Gospel of forgiveness; in the confidence that death has been defeated by His death, and that heaven has been opened to you in His Resurrection from the dead; in the sure and certain hope that Life is found and freely granted forever in Him.

Those who live by such faith in the Gospel are fully covered by the perfect righteousness of Christ. From head to toe, they are beautiful with His royal beauty, and glorious with His divine glory.

By striking contrast, as you have heard from His parable this morning, those who reject His Wedding Banquet will be condemned: their homes and their cities, their businesses, their fields and cattle will be utterly destroyed, and they will be left with nothing but punishment.

And in a similar fashion, those who attempt to enter and to eat the Feast by their own merits and worthiness — that is to say, those who refuse to wear the wedding clothes provided by the royal Host, but presume to wear their own attire (whether it be a tux or a t-shirt and jeans) — they will be cast out of the Kingdom forever, into the darkness of eternal death and neverending despair.

These are sobering words, and a serious warning against all unbelief, false belief, and self-idolatry.

Fear God, therefore. But do not be afraid.

Where you have despised and rejected His Gospel, Repent. Return to the significance of your Holy Baptism, and to discipleship, and here now receive the Word and Sacrament of Christ Jesus, according to His mercy and His promise. Or, if you are not already baptized into Christ, submit to the catechesis of His Word, become His disciple, and follow Him into the Feast by His Cross.

In either case, wherever you have relied upon your own righteousness, Repent. Humble yourself before the Lord your God, in order to be stripped of your old wardrobe, and to be clothed, instead, with Christ and His Righteousness: by His grace, through faith in His Gospel. Hear and heed His gracious Word of Life, and rest yourself in His free and full forgiveness of all your sins.

For you are not here by mistake, nor by accident, but the Lord your God, the King of heaven and of all creation, has called you by the Gospel of His Son, the Royal Bridegroom. Indeed, He has called you and invited you, not only to join the celebration, but to be a member of the Bride.

He has removed the shadow and the stink of death from you, by the sacrifice of Christ our Lord, by the shedding of His Blood for you, and by His own glorious Resurrection from the dead.

He has cleansed and refreshed your body and soul, your flesh and blood, in the washing of the water with His Word and Holy Spirit in your Baptism.

As you are His own dear child, by virtue of that same Holy Baptism, your dear Father in heaven has poured out His Spirit upon you, and has adorned you with all the Glory of Christ Himself, as a royal Bride made beautiful for her Husband.

And He Himself, who is your Bridegroom, has forgiven you all of your sins, as He daily and richly forgives you — and as often as you fall, He raises you up — so that He beholds no flaw or fault or failing in you, but He rejoices over you in love, and He delights in you with all His heart.

Now in this Feast of His Life and Salvation, which He has prepared and made ready for you here — in this wedding hall, and on this mountain, which is the Church on earth (as it is in heaven) — He gives Himself to you most intimately. He feeds you with Himself; He nourishes and cares for you; He provides for you, as a Husband for His Wife; and He preserves your faith and life, your body and soul, in Himself. All of this He sets before you here, and gives to you in His own Body and Blood, in His own Royal House, unto the Resurrection and the Life everlasting.

Behold, this is your God, your Savior and your Lord, your Husband and your Head — who with the Father and His life-giving Holy Spirit is one God forever — and you are His dearly beloved. Let us rejoice in Him, and rejoice in His Salvation, today, tomorrow, and always.

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

The Authority of Forgiveness

2011-09-25T14:58:00.002-04:00

Genuine Authority is not a power play or political maneuver. It isn’t “might makes right,” nor “push comes to shove.” It’s not about controlling people or getting them to do what you want.

But real Authority uses whatever strength, ability, resources or skills one might have, to give life: to preserve and protect and nurture life; to love, and to serve, and to care for others. Whether with muscle, with intelligence, knowledge and wisdom, with eloquence of words or charity of heart, or with whatever talents, treasures and time one may have.

All such true Authority derives from the Lord, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the Maker and Preserve of all things. Because Authority begins with and always belongs to the Author: to the One who speaks, and it is so; to the One who was, and is, and is to come, who acts in love to bring about life, not selfishly, but graciously. He is the Author and Giver of Life for the sake of such love, which is and remains the source of all Authority.

It is by and through, and in and with the Word of God that all things are made, and you cannot separate the true divine Authority of God from His Word. The Authority of the Father is the Authority of the Son, and the Authority of the Son is the Authority of the Holy Spirit. The Father speaks His Son, and so breathes His Spirit, and so does the Holy Triune God create and give life. To man, in particular, He gives Himself. He shares His Life and His Love by His Word.

To live according to the Word of God, therefore, is Life. And to disregard and disobey His Word, to depart from it, is death. At its heart, that is what all sin is: a departure from the Word of God. The outcome is death: not so much as punishment as the inevitable consequence, because departing from the Word of God is a departure from His Life.

Repent, therefore, and live.

Why should you pursue death, and die, when the Lord who created you in love still speaks to you in mercy, to give you life with Himself, and health and strength and every good?

In one respect, it is so simple and so obvious: Turn away from evil, and do good. Turn away from sin and death, and live unto God in faith, unto righteousness. Stop doing what He has forbidden, and do what He has commanded. Use your freedom to pursue a greater knowledge, love, and understanding of His holy and precious, life-giving Word, and in all things live according to it.

Not only is this good and right: It is good for you.

It is the way of life, whereas the soul that sins shall die.

But of course, it isn’t obvious or simple at all. Because your sin is more deeply rooted than even your thoughts and feelings. It is deeper than your words and actions — deeper even than your intentions. It is rooted in your ego and your will. It permeates your heart and darkens your mind. It’s got your tongue, your ears and eyes, your hands and feet, because it’s got you. You’re not simply a person who sins, but you sin because you are a sinner.

You do not see things clearly. You do not understand them. Your perceptions, opinions, and conclusions are off; they are fallen, along with the rest of you. So that, even your efforts to please God, to keep His Word and live according to it, are muddled and misguided. The problem is not with His Word, but with your heart, mind and spirit.

Thus, instead of the righteousness of faith and the life of love, there reigns in you — apart from Christ and His Spirit — the selfishness of lust and the self-righteousness of pride (or else the despair of unbelief, which is nothing else but the flipside of pride).

Which is why the tax collectors and the prostitutes enter the Kingdom of God ahead of the religious elite. Not because their sins are acceptable or harmless — far less commendable — but because they are exposed for the sinners they are, and broken and contrite, and called to repentance.

Ironically, their rescue is found and received, first of all, in the recognition of their helplessness and hopelessness. Their life of selfishness and sin is laid bare for the foolishness and futility it really is — self-destructive, deadly, and damnable. In this respect, the Word of God has not simply informed or educated them, but has convicted them and hastened their death: that is to say, it has put them to death to themselves, to their sins, to their idolatrous pursuits, and to the fallen world.

But the Word of God speaks more than condemnation. It speaks life and light and love. It shows not only sin, but salvation.

To those whom it convicts and crucifies, it grants the peace of forgiveness: It pardons and spares. It justifies the ungodly with a righteousness not of themselves. It does not drive to despair, but raises from death and reconciles to God. It not only speaks about life, but actually bestows life. It enlightens the heart and mind with the Spirit of Christ Jesus.

All of this for the same reason that God created all things to begin with: that is, for the sake of His divine grace and holy love.

Because the Lord, the Author and Giver of Life, takes no pleasure in the death of any sinner, be it publican or pharisee, but He desires all people to be saved. And that’s not just a hope or a wish or a pipe dream on His part, but He becomes the Author of Salvation: your Savior! He not only calls you (and all men) to repentance, but He Himself comes to save you, to bring you out of death and the grave, into life, in and with Himself.

The Lord Jesus Christ has divine Authority as the Son of God from all eternity, and as the Word by whom all things are made. But now He has obtained and received a New Authority — in the flesh, “for us men and our salvation” — by authoring repentance, resurrection, reconciliation, and righteousness on behalf of the fallen and far off — for lost and condemned sinners: like you.

He has done so by living as true Man, in your place, by faith and love. From His conception in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, He does so. From His holy Nativity, He does so. From His Baptism by St. John in the Jordan River, He does so. He takes upon Himself, not only human nature, flesh and blood just like yours, but also the fallen condition of all Adam’s children, and thus mortality like yours, the full curse and consequences of sin.

He humbles Himself, and submits Himself to the will of His God and Father (for the salvation of His creatures), and He becomes obedient, even unto death upon the Cross. He does it voluntarily, in love for His Father and for you, with divine compassion and tender mercy.

It is not easy for Him, nor at all pleasant, but this is how He uses His strength, His almighty power, His divine Authority. He subjects Himself to the judgment, condemnation and punishment of the Law for all your sins (for the sins of the whole world), in the confidence and hope, the trust and the prayer, that God His Father will raise Him up again, vindicate Him, exalt Him and glorify Him.

All of this so that you, also, in Him, should be raised up, justified, exalted and glorified; so that you should not perish, but be saved and have eternal life in Him.

Thus, by His Incarnation, by His Cross and Resurrection, He has become the Author of Salvation, and, as such, He has been given Authority to forgive sins, to save sinners, to rescue from death and the grave, to make disciples out of men and women from all nations, and to give life with God.

Repent, therefore; trust Christ, and live.

As He has entered upon His story of salvation by the way of His Baptism, so then, you also be baptized, or return to your one Holy Baptism for the remission of sins. That is to say, remember your Baptism, what it signifies and indicates. Return to its cleansing, refreshing and life-giving waters by contrition for your sins, and by repentance.

Follow Christ Jesus to the Cross in the sure and certain hope of His Resurrection from the dead.

What does that mean but to renounce the devil, all his works and all his ways, and to seek and find your life in the Holy Triune God. Stop trying to make a life for yourself, and receive the life that only He can give. Turn away from your sin — from your lust, your pride, your selfishness, your false gods of whatever kind, your false belief, despair, and shame, and vice — and trust the Crucified and Risen Lord Jesus.

Flee to His forgiveness, lay hold of His Life, and seek His salvation, while it may be found.

You know where and how to find it (to find Him), because He calls you to Himself by the Gospel. It is by the Holy Ministry of the Gospel that He exercises His Authority of forgiveness, life and salvation. That is so clear throughout the Gospel According to St. Matthew — who was himself among those tax collectors who were called to repentance and faith, to discipleship, by the Word of Christ Jesus. Thus, the people marveled that God has given such Authority to men on earth. For the Lord Jesus sent His Apostles, and others after them, to do all the things that He Himself was doing (and does): to preach and teach, to cast out demons, to heal the sick and raise the dead — and so also to forgive sins in His Name and stead.

And as the Gospel begins with the Baptism of St. John, the Forerunner of the Christ, so does the Gospel conclude — and continue to the end of the age — with Holy Baptism in the Name of the Holy Trinity, by the Authority of Christ the Crucified.

“All Authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me,” He says to the Apostles. “Therefore, go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, and teaching them all of My Words.”

You come to that same Lord Jesus Christ, and you enter the Kingdom of God through Him — like tax collectors, prostitutes, and countless other sinners before you — by your Baptism into Him; by the preaching and teaching of His Word; and by the gathering of His disciples to His Table, to eat and drink His Body given and His Blood poured out for you, for the forgiveness of your sins.

By these ways and means, the Author of Salvation sets you free to live.

Now, then, use your freedom to love and to serve, to give life to your neighbor.

That is what the way of righteousness and the life of God in the flesh looks like: faith toward God in Christ, and love for one another (also in and through Christ Jesus).

That is what the scribes and pharisees, the chief priests and the elders of the people, by and large, did not get, despite their valiant and zealous efforts to keep the Law of God and to live according to it. Lacking faith and love, they missed the heart of the matter, and the whole point eluded them. They sought a righteousness of their own before God, and so they looked with contempt upon their neighbor. They did not recognize their sin, and so they could not recognize their Savior.

But now the Author and Giver of Life and Salvation has written His story and revealed Himself to you, in the flesh, in the waters of your Holy Baptism. For as that Sacrament is the fountain and source of your discipleship and life in Christ, so is it also the shape and pattern of your discipleship and life. In it you have been recreated and reborn with a new heart of faith and love, endowed with the mind and the Spirit of Christ Jesus, the beloved and well-pleasing Son of God.

Your Holy Baptism — into Christ — is the righteousness by which you live in faith and love. It marks and bestows and lays out before you the path of life in Christ, the way of righteousness, so that you now walk humbly before your God and Father in Him, and you bear the Cross for your neighbor — by loving and forgiving, caring for and serving your neighbor. As you have already died and risen with Christ in Holy Baptism, you know and trust that, whatever you suffer, and even though you die, yet shall you live in both body and soul forever. The Lord shall raise you up, and vindicate you, and glorify you in His Kingdom.

So, too, your Holy Baptism — into Christ — is the repentance by which you daily die to sin. It crucifies and buries you with Christ Jesus, so that your old Adam with all his sinful lusts and desires, with all his doubts and fears, with all his envy and jealousy, selfishness, pride and despair, is put to death and done away with. Not for punishment, but for repentance and discipline, that you might not die forever in your sin, but be rescued by and for the one true God.

The Lord is not petty or vindictive, nor does He have any desire or intention to deprive you of any good thing. Exactly the opposite is true. Therefore, He cuts you off and calls you away from all the false gods who promise you life but give you only death and damnation. As painful as that may be, because you are so addicted and beholden to your sins, and so dependent on your idols, this wound is for your healing; this crucifixion, death and burial is for your resurrection.

Your Holy Baptism is that, too: your resurrection and your life, by which you live in Christ, both now and forever. For this Holy Sacrament, administered once but operative throughout your life, daily and richly forgives your sins, washing all of them away. It rescues from death and the devil, and so also gives life and salvation. As it crucifies you with Christ Jesus, so does it raise you up with Him. And as He has reconciled the world to God, so are you reconciled to God through your Baptism into Him.

Thus, your Baptism has brought you into the Temple of God — into His Church, the Body of Christ, on earth as it is in heaven — and so into the Kingdom of God. Here He is still preaching and teaching, and by this Word of Christ, the Father speaks to you by His Son, in order to give you life with Himself. He enfolds you in His Love, and He enlightens you with the Holy Spirit.

Here you are seated with Christ in the heavenly places, your life hidden with Him in the bosom of the Father, as surely as He is here with you in this place, at this Altar.

Here you are fed with His Body and His Blood, which are your Meat and Drink indeed. Do not doubt that He has such Authority to feed you in this way, but rejoice and delight in His grace, and give thanks and sing for what He says and does and gives to you here.

For He has tasted the sour grapes of your sin and death, with His own teeth, in His Body of flesh and blood, so that you might drink freely the Choicest of Wines from His Chalice, from the Cup of Blessing which we bless, which is the Cup of Salvation. For you. For real. Forever.

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

Rocker Babies Learn Their ABCs

2011-09-10T19:11:00.006-04:00

Because the basics are so fundamental and important, I’ve been contemplating an alphabet book for the children of the born-to-rock baby-boomer generation. I’ve got the text worked out below. Now all I need is a graphic designer, a copyright expert, and a publisher.

Should be as simple as ABC.

A is for . . .

AC/DC, Aerosmith, and Alice in Chains;

Amon Amarth, Alter Bridge, and All That Remains

B is for . . .

Black Sabbath, Boston, and the Beatles;

Bon Jovi, Breaking Benjamin, and Baroness

Black Tide, Black Spiders, and Black Sunshine;

Black Water Rising, Black Veil Brides, and Black Stone Cherry;

Black Label Society, Black Country Communion, and the Black Crowes

C is for . . .

Cream, Creed, and Cinderella;

Coldspell, Cold, and Chickenfoot

D is for . . .

Deep Purple, Def Leppard, and Daughtry;

Dream Theater, Dragonforce, and Disturbed

E is for . . .

Evanesence, Everclear, and Evergrey;

Eden’s Curse, Europe, and Extreme

F is for . . .

Foreigner, Fleetwood Mac, and Frampton;

Framing Hanley, Fall Out Boy, and Foo Fighters

Firebird, Fireflight, Firehouse, Firewind, and FireWölfe

G is for . . .

Guns ‘n’ Roses, Great White, and Gotthard;

Good Charlotte, Goo Goo Dolls, and Gus G

H is for . . .

Hammerfall, Hendrix, and Hardline;

Houston, House of Lords, and Halford

I is for . . .

Iron Maiden, Impelliterri, Incubus, Iommi, and Insomnium

J is for . . .

Judas Priest, Jag Panzer, and Joan Jett;

Jay Jesse Johnson, Journey, and John 5

K is for . . .

Kid Rock, Kiss, and Killswitch Engage;

Kamelot, Khymera, and the Kinks

L is for . . .

Lynyrd Skynyrd, Loverboy, and Linkin Park;

Lacuna Coil, Lynch Mob, and the Letter Black

M is for . . .

Metallica, Megadeth, and Manowar;

Motörhead, Mastodon, and Mr. Big

N is for . . .

Nickelback, Nightwish, and Nirvana;

Night Ranger, Nelson, and Nevermore

O is for . . .

Ozzy Osbourne, Opeth, and Orianthi

P is for . . .

Poison, Pantera, and Pearl Jam;

Periphery, Petrucci, and Paul Gilbert

Q is for . . .

Queensrÿche, Queen, and Quiet Riot

R is for . . .

Rainbow, Rush, and Randy Rhoads;

Rhapsody, Redemption, and the Rolling Stones

Red Fang, Red Goodbye, and Red Line Chemistry;

Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

S is for . . .

Satriani, Saxon, and the Scorpions;

Soundgarden, Stryper, and Slash

T is for . . .

Thin Lizzy, Tesla, and Tokyo Blade;

Trivium, TNT, and Taddy Porter

U is for . . .

Uriah Heep, U.F.O., Unruly Child, U2, and Unearth

V is for . . .

Van Halen, Velvet Revolver, and Volbeat;

Van Zant, Vai, and Victory

W is for . . .

Whitesnake, Warrant, and Weezer;

Wolfmother, Winger, and the Who

X is for . . .

Xandria, Xorigin, and Symphony X

Y is for . . .

Yngwie Malmsteen, Yellowcard, and Yes

Z is for . . .

Zeppelin, Zakk Wylde, and ZZ Top

The Best Guitarist in the World?

2011-08-27T19:22:00.008-04:00

I don't know. I'm not sure there is any one "best guitarist" in the world. Maybe Guthrie Govan, or Joe Bonamassa, or Andy McKee, or Yngwie Malmsteen; or maybe none of the above. I have my personal favorites, to be sure, but whether any of them is "the best," who am I to say?

How in the world could anyone meaningfully measure and realistically compare the ability and skill, the artistry and creativity, the versatility, virtuosity and value of Antoine Dufour and Christopher Parkening with that of Gus G and Synester Gates, with that of Brad Paisley and Keith Urban, with that of Paul Gilbert and Joe Satriani, with that of Al Di Meola and Phil Keaggy, with that of Zac Brown and Zakk Wylde, with that of Jack White and the Edge, with that of Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, with that of Slash and Mark Tremonti, with that of John Petrucci and Steve Lukather, with that of Orianthi and Steve Vai, with that of Carlos Santana and Michael Angelo Batio, with that of George Lynch and Mark Knopfler, with that of Kirk Hammet and James Hetfield, Glen Tipton and K.K. Downing?

How does one evaluate and quantify the "bestness" of living guitarists like Eddie Van Halen and Jimmy Page, who were surely among the greatest in their heyday, but who haven't contributed much in many years, especially as compared to the likes of B.B. King and Tony Iommi? And where does one situate Jimi Hendrix and Randy Rhoads in the hierarchy of the guitar, when they've been dead these past many years, and yet their music is still being enjoyed all over the world?

If there were any one "best guitarist" in the world, I suspect that he (or she) is probably a session player in Nashville, New York, Houston or Los Angeles, inconspicuously if not anonymously making the stars in the limelight sound good. Or, maybe "the best guitarist in the world" only plays for himself, for the love of the music, and for the pleasure of his family and friends. Perhaps such personal joy and the generous entertainment of local neighbors are further aspects of "bestness" that we should be hard-pressed to calculate, or even to discern.

It occurs to me that, what is true when it comes to the guitarists of the world, is likewise applicable to the whole broad spectrum of talents and trades with which people all over the world are variously occupied. The "best of the best" are not necessarily those who manage to make a name and trunkloads of money for themselves, but are more likely those who quietly go about their tasks in faithfulness and love, simply doing what they have been given to do. In any event, life isn't a competition — those who attempt to make it so, lose. "Greatness" in the Kingdom of God, which is where the only true and real life is lived, is found in the humility of repentance and the confidence of faith; it is not "compared" from one citizen to the next, but measured solely in relation to the Cross of Christ, who pours out His "greatness" for us, and upon us, in Self-sacrificing love. Wherever such genuine greatness is poured out in love for the neighbor, whether by the playing of guitar, or by whatever task is taken up in faith, there is the sweetness of a life that is being lived well.

Forty Eurekas of the New Decade So Far

2011-08-26T13:53:00.004-04:00

Hats off to Roy Harper, of course; and to Classic Rock magazine; to my good friend, colleague and fellow rocker, Grant Knepper; to my son, Zachary, who also happens to my best music buddy; to my local library, especially for its large collection of CDs in multiple genres; to Amazon.com for its search engines and music samples; and to all the online ways of checking out new music for FREE.

Eight months into the new decade, and it's abundantly clear that the Lord continues to give more good gifts of great music than I'll ever be able to exhaust in a single lifetime — and certainly more than enough to grace my days with joy and gladness in the creativity and skills of my neighbors.

As August draws to a close, and as I've been waking up from my recent jet lag, I've been pondering my favorite musical discoveries of the year (which also happens to be the decade) so far; and, as I am almost always wont to do, I've compiled a list — in this case, a list of the forty "eurekas" that happen to have landed at the top of my mind at this point. Some of these gems are hardly new to the rest of the world, but somehow they managed to escape my attention up until now; better late than never, though, right? Probably my favorite discovery of that sort is Saxon, and I have Brother Grant to thank for calling my attention to them. (Thanks!)

Anyway, enough of the preliminaries. Here's the list, in alphabetical order, with apologies to the letters I, O, Q, X, Y, and Z, which aren't represented by any of these outstanding artists:

Airrace

Amaranthe

Audrey Horne

Michael Angelo Batio

Black Spiders

Wade Bowen

Coldspell

Dragonforce

Eden’s Curse

Foo Fighters

Peter Frampton

Gotthard

Hammerfall

Houston

Jag Panzer

Jorn

Khymera

Lovehammers

Mastodon

Myrath

The New Black

The Poodles

Pretty Maids

Red Fang

Rhapsody of Fire

Brian Robertson

Saxon

Shakra

Sideburn

Social Distortion

Joe Stump

Symfonia

Thompson Square

Treat

Trivium

Trust Company

Uriah Heep

Vega

Wolfmother

Work of Art

Consciences Are Burdened

2011-08-13T08:08:00.007-04:00

When someone speaks, as though with divine authority, whether to command or forbid, to accuse or condemn, without any clear Word of God that does so; and,

When someone speaks the Law of God with its full force, rightly accusing and condemning sin for what it is, but withholds the preaching of the Gospel and refuses to forgive the repentant sinner; and,

When someone speaks a confusion of the Law and the Gospel, as though righteousness, life and salvation with God should be sought and obtained by adherence to some code of conduct.

Consciences are not burdened by differences in adiaphora, except where a word of requirement or prohibition is attached to such practices as a condition for justification before God.

Consciences are set free from any and all burdens by the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, who was crucified for our transgressions and raised for our justification, and in whom there is no condemnation. That is the sweet balm of the Gospel, which raises poor, miserable sinners from death to life, and sets us before our God and Father in peace.

Considering Contraception in Brief

2011-08-07T09:42:00.011-04:00

For those who would much rather cut to the chase, here is a condensed statement of my opinions on contraception. The nineteen points here are still numbered to coincide with the corresponding points in the full original version, which should be consulted for clarification (as well as for the catechetical and kerygmatic context in which these points are given).

2. A husband and wife will normally engage in marital relations as a matter of course in their life together, and they should not withhold themselves from each other except by mutual agreement for a time for the sake of prayer (1 Cor. 7:5). It is in this union of the two as one flesh, that the Lord our God, who is alone the Author and Giver of life, conceives children where and when it pleases Him.

3. Though men and women cannot create new life, it is within their power and ability to destroy the temporal life that God has entrusted to their care, to hurt and kill the bodies of their children. But such destruction, harm and violence, even when it is done quietly and covertly in the secret place of the womb, is forbidden and prohibited by God. It is sinful.

4. Because the Creator and Preserver of all things has established an orderly creation, and He is most faithful in upholding His creation in its natural order, it is possible for men and women to avoid the likelihood of conception. Such avoidance does not involve the destruction or murder of any living being. It may be a godly exercise of dominion over the creation.

5. Notwithstanding the common usage, I pointedly distinguishing between “contraception” and “birth control,” as follows: “Contraception” avoids the likelihood of conception by seeking to prevent the union of the man’s sperm with the woman’s egg. “Birth control” aims to prevent the actual birth of a child. It does so, whether in whole or in part, by hindering, inhibiting, and preventing the normal growth and development of an already-fertilized egg; which is to say, by doing harm and violence to a newly-conceived human life.

6. “Birth control,” thus defined, is sinful and immoral because it violates the fifth commandment.

8. I do not regard the act of “contraception” per se to be sinful or immoral, but neutral and free.

9. The practical decision to use contraception, however, is subject to the moral considerations of faith and love in accordance with the Word of God.

11. Deliberately refraining from marital relations on a particular occasion, or at any given time, for the purpose of avoiding conception, is itself a method of “contraception,” which I do not regard as morally superior or inferior to other methods. “Barrier methods” are self-evidently more intrusive, and in that respect are less “natural.” But withholding and abstaining from the natural affections and intimacy of marriage is another sort of intrusion, which is also unnatural (especially at those very times when the woman is most fertile).

12. The morality of contraception is not measured in the external action, nor in the particular method that is used vis-à-vis other methods of contraception, but it is measured in the heart.

13. When decisions to avoid the likelihood of conception are driven by fear, doubt and despair, laziness, selfishness and greed, personal ambition, etc., those decisions and actions are sinful violations of faith and/or love, irrespective of the method of contraception that is used.

15. Faith trusts and confesses that the Lord will surely provide all that is needed for each and every child that He conceives. For He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, will freely give us all things in and with Christ Jesus.

17. The Lord’s gracious providence is granted through various masks and means, which should not be despised or ignored in preference for some “miraculous divine intervention,” but should be recognized and received in confidence as the Lord’s ordinary divine work.

19. When considering contraception, in particular, the key to living in faith and love is for the husband and his wife to live within their respective vocations in relation to each other.

20. In love for his wife, the husband considers her welfare, listens carefully to her, and finally exercises his headship and authority to care for her. He takes into account, not only her bodily health and well-being, but also her heart and mind, her soul and spirit. And, as a father, he considers the (special) needs of those children the Lord has already entrusted to his care.

21. In faith before God, the wife speaks to her husband in love — opening her heart and mind to him, and also serving as an advocate on behalf of those children the Lord has already entrusted to her care. Then she submits to her husband’s headship and authority, as unto Christ her Lord.

22. Sometimes for the husband, and sometimes for the wife, faith and love will remain open and receptive to the likelihood of conception, in spite of personal fears and trepidations. And at other times — whether for the husband or the wife — faith and love will agree to avoid the likelihood of conception, in spite of personal desires or “ambitions” for more children.

Considering Contraception: Clarifying this One Man's Opinions and Position on the Topic

2011-08-07T09:21:00.008-04:00

From the flowers to the birds and the bees, as it were. How poetic, I suppose. Still, I would prefer not to blog about this topic of contraception. For one thing, it should rather belong to pastoral care than public discourse, normally. Beyond that, I fear that stating my opinions and position on the topic will anger and alienate my friends on both sides of this great divide. It seems to have done so in the past, though it is difficult to tell for sure when people simply stop talking to me. Nevertheless, over the past few years a fair number of people have asked, and several of them have requested more than once, that I express my thoughts clearly and publicly. I have also been aware of increasing conversation and discussion of contraception, and, along with the sometimes fervent arguments and debate, I know there have also been distressed and troubled consciences. Since my family, friends, parishioners and colleagues do look to me for some kind of input and contribution to this ongoing conversation, and because it is true, for good or ill, that my family and my presumed position on contraception are sometimes included in the discussion, it seems appropriate and helpful, and perhaps even incumbent upon me, to offer my opinions.

Actually, I have blogged about these things before, but I have deliberately done so with specific reference to my own circumstances. Not as though my personal situations and decisions were in any sense normative for anyone else, but for the sake of addressing these concerns gently, with empathy and compassion, and hopefully to convey that my considerations and comments are not offered abstractly, generically or theoretically, but personally and practically. Certainly, no one should suppose that these matters are any easier or simpler for me than they are for anyone else. I would like to believe that my example, as much or more than my words, might serve as an encouragement for others who are struggling with difficult circumstances and decisions.

For all that, I am the husband of only one wife, and it is not my place to “consider contraception” for any other husbands and wives. What I offer here are simply my own opinions, which, of course, I believe to be in harmony with the Word of God, with faith and love, and with sound reason. It is my confident hope and prayer that, wherever I am found to be in error, my brothers and sisters in Christ will kindly correct me in gentleness, peace and love. (A condensed and simplified version of the following points is provided in a subsequent post.)

1. Created in the Image of God, the Man and the Woman are given to each other in love, and they are blessed by God to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and have dominion over it. In this they are given to share and to confess the life and love of the Holy Trinity. In their union of love, in heart and mind, body and soul, they signify the marriage of Christ and His Bride, the Church. In their fruitfulness is an image of (and a participation in) the Church’s fruitfulness in bearing the children of God by the Gospel of Christ. And in their dominion of the earth, they are given a stewardship of faith and love, in the name of the Lord, as the king and the queen of His creation.

2. Practically speaking, what this means — in view of the topic at hand — is that a husband and his wife will normally engage in marital relations as a matter of course in their life together, and they should not withhold themselves from each other except by mutual agreement for a time for the sake of prayer (1 Cor. 7:5). It is in this union of the two as one flesh, that the Lord our God, the Maker of the heavens and the earth, who is alone the Author and Giver of life, conceives children where and when it pleases Him. Men and women do not make babies. God makes babies. Men and women are not able to create new life; nor is it within their power and prerogative to choose conception. Husbands and wives are called and given, rather, simply to cleave to each other in love, in faith before God and in faithfulness to one another. They do so in the confidence that God is the One who will bless them with fertility according to His grace and wisdom; who in mercy will multiply their love for each other with sons and daughters, whether by nature or adoption, and/or by faith and love within the household and family of His Church.

5. I am deliberately consistent and precise, therefore, in distinguishing between “contraception” and “birth control.” I recognize that these terms are typically used in a broad and comprehensive manner, and perhaps interchangeably, almost as synonyms. Yet, there needs to be some way of differentiating between the avoidance of conception, on the one hand, and the actual destruction of human life on the other hand. Despite their common usage, the terms at hand already do imply this fundamental distinction, which is why I define them more narrowly and precisely, and I use them consistently as follows: “Contraception” avoids the likelihood of conception by seeking to prevent the union of the man’s sperm with the woman’s egg. “Birth control” aims to prevent the actual birth of a child. It does so, whether in whole or in part, by hindering, inhibiting, and preventing the normal growth and development of an already-fertilized egg; which is to say, by doing harm and violence to a newly-conceived human life. By this definition and usage of the terminology, abortion is simply the most outwardly obvious form of “birth control.”

6. “Birth control,” thus defined, is sinful and immoral because it violates the fifth commandment.

7. I do not approve or condone the use of “birth control pills,” because they intentionally cause the woman’s body to be inhospitable to any children who are conceived; and because they also do short term and long term violence to the woman’s body in the process. Yes, I am aware and do understand that there are different kinds of birth control pills, some of which are more or less harmful and egregious than others. I also perceive that it is extraordinarily difficult to research, test or verify the actual consequences and effects of birth control pills, because of the politicized agenda, the ideology, and the economics that both undergird and depend upon their sale and their use. In the meantime, given the available evidence and every indication, I do not believe that it is acceptable, permissible or tolerable to play what amounts to “Russian roulette” with the unborn. Nor do I consider it a legitimate or acceptable risk to the woman’s bodily health and well-being.

8. I do not regard the act of “contraception” per se to be sinful or immoral, but neutral and free.

9. The practical decision to use contraception, however, is subject to the moral considerations of faith and love in accordance with the Word of God.

10. Contraception is not the rule, but the exception. It should not be regarded as the norm or the standard. The true norm, the starting point, the baseline and default position — where faith and love reside to begin with — is that a husband and wife will be open and receptive to children.

11. Deliberately refraining from marital relations on a particular occasion, or at any given time, for the purpose of avoiding conception, is itself a method of “contraception,” which I do not regard as morally superior or inferior to other methods of “contraception.” Of course, “barrier methods” are self-evidently more intrusive, and in that respect are less “natural.” They may also involve a more active volition in the avoidance of conception, which may at times be a violation of faith before God. However, withholding and abstaining from the natural affections and intimacy of marriage is another sort of intrusion, which is also unnatural, and which may at times be a greater violation of love than the use of “barrier methods” (or not using contraception at all).

12. The morality of contraception (in contrast to “birth control”) is not measured in the external action, nor by the particular method that is used vis-à-vis other methods of contraception, but is measured in the heart according to the standards of faith and love.

14. Faith is called upon, first of all, to receive and trust the forgiveness of sins, the free and clear redemption of the Gospel, and the life and salvation that are established and given in Christ.

15. Faith also trusts and confesses (in thought, word and deed) that the Lord will surely provide all that is needed for each and every child that He conceives. For He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, will freely give us all things in and with Christ Jesus. He does not accuse or condemn us, nor count our trespasses against us, but with His forgiveness of all our sins He also gives us daily bread for body and soul. He opens His hand to provide all that we need for this temporal life, and by the Gospel He grants to us the kingdom of heaven forever.

16. The Lord’s gracious provision, in this fallen world, is granted in, with, and under the Cross, finally to be realized and fully received in the resurrection of the body. Thus, the certainty of His providence does not negate, nor is it contradicted by, the present frailty of our mortal flesh. Nor is it thwarted or undone by our sin: not by our doubts and fears and weaknesses; not by our greed and selfishness; not by our laziness and lust; not by depression or despair. Not even abortion, nor any other birth control; neither contraception, nor infertility, nor miscarriage; nor the brokenness of heart, mind or body, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. For He was crucified for our transgressions, and God the Father raised this same Jesus from the dead for our justification. He is our righteousness, who ever lives to intercede for us. For His sake, our Father in heaven does not cast us away from His presence, nor does He withdraw His gracious hand from us. He continues to love us, to care for us and provide for all our needs, even as He calls us daily to repentance by the Cross and Resurrection of His Son, until by His grace He shall call us also from the grave to the life everlasting.

17. Now the Lord’s gracious providence is granted through various masks and means, such as the medical care of doctors, and the loving care of a husband and father for his family. These means should not be despised or ignored in preference for some “miraculous divine intervention,” but they should rather be recognized and received in confidence as the Lord’s ordinary divine work.

18. Living by faith in the Lord’s divine providence does not mean that we ignore, dismiss or reject His mediated gifts and guidance. Nor does faith put the Lord God to the test by proceeding recklessly or foolishly into harm’s way without cause, that is, where love does not require it. But faith in God surely does proceed in loving care for the neighbor, exercising the knowledge and wisdom of experience, and giving thoughtful consideration to the neighbor’s burdens, finitude and frailties of the flesh, mortality, and any other weaknesses of heart, mind, body and soul.

19. When considering contraception, in particular, the key to living in faith and love is for the husband and his wife to live within their respective vocations in relation to each other.

20. In love for his wife, the husband considers her welfare, listens carefully to her, and finally exercises his headship and authority to care for her, to bear her burdens, to strengthen and support her in every weakness, to shelter and protect her from the assaults and accusations of the devil, and to cover all her sins and shame with his own honor. He takes into account, not only her bodily health and well-being, but also her heart and mind, her soul and spirit. He does not address her frailties, faults and failures with the crushing condemnation of the Law, but with the life-giving balm and free forgiveness of the Gospel. He does not try to make her righteous by compulsion, by demands or expectations, but he justifies her in this life by loving her and giving himself for her in the faith and love of Christ. Surely he will also catechize and encourage her by the Word of God, and teach her the way of faith and love, which is the good and acceptable will of God. He will admonish and correct, as needs may be, in opposition to the temptations of the devil, the world, and the sinful flesh (as Adam should have done for Eve), but even this he will do in the gentleness and tenderness of love for his bride. And, not only as a husband to his wife, but as a father to his family, he will take into account the needs (including the special needs) of those children the Lord has already entrusted to his care.

21. In faith before God, the wife speaks to her husband in love — freely opening her heart and mind to him, in order to share her hopes and fears, her burdens and desires with him — and advocating on behalf of those children the Lord has already entrusted to her care, in keeping with her vocation as their mother — and then she submits to her husband’s headship and authority, as unto Christ her Lord. For she is confident that the God and Father who gave her to this man in holy marriage, will also continue to love and serve and care for her through this man.

23. For me, personally, I have recognized that a decision to avoid the likelihood of conception would not be governed or guided by loving care for my wife, but by my own doubts and fears, by my own laziness and selfishness and greed. Therefore, I have disciplined my choices, decisions and actions in accordance with my confession of faith, and have deliberately remained open and receptive to whatever children the Lord may entrust to my wife and me in this temporal life. If, under different circumstances, our doctor would convey that further pregnancies or childbearing are very likely to harm my wife’s body and health, I would not hesitate to use contraception; nor would I have any qualms of conscience about it, because I would be acting in both faith and love. The same principles would prevail if my wife were to fall under the cross and burden of clinical depression or some other mental illness, or if our family were already handling the extraordinary demands and special needs of a child crippled by illness or injury.

24. Yet, I do not justify myself. The comfort, confidence and courage of my conscience before God in all things, at all times, is not found in myself, nor in my choices, decisions and actions, nor even in my faithfulness and love, but solely in Christ Jesus, my Savior and my God. At the end of every day, at the end of my life, and at my last hour, I am an unworthy servant. At best, I have only done my duty. But Christ my Lord enters in, seats me at His Table, and girds Himself to serve me by His divine grace. For He has redeemed me from death and the grave, atoned for all my sins, justified me with His righteousness, and reconciled me to His God and Father. So, too, He grants me life and health and strength by His Holy Spirit, and He sanctifies me with His own divine holiness, with His pure and perfect innocence, and with His eternal blessedness.

25. For Christ Jesus is the Incarnate Son, the Image of God in the flesh, who is alone the perfect Man, the perfect Bridegroom, the perfect Husband. He has given Himself for His own Bride, the Church, in order to cleanse her and sanctify her by the washing of water with His Word, to clothe her with Himself in all His glory, to feed her with Himself and cleave to her in love, and to unite her to Himself as one flesh and blood with Him. Only in this Holy Matrimony of Christ and His Bride is there, at last, finally and forever, the perfect marriage of the Man and the Woman, which no man nor even death shall be able to sever or put asunder. In this Marriage, alone above all others, there is no doubt or fear, no greed or selfishness or lust; there is no frailty or weakness; there is no sickness or death; there is no contraception, no birth control, no miscarriage or stillbirth; no heartbreak or despair. In this Marriage, by the Cross and in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus our Lord, there is and remains forever the fruitfulness of His perfect faith and the dominion of His perfect love. So do we live, as dear members of His Holy Bride, by His grace.

The Kingdom of Heaven Is at Hand

2011-07-23T19:05:00.001-04:00

Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. It is here with you, and for you, in the Person of Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, in His flesh and blood, in His Word and Spirit. It comes to you and is given to you by the preaching of His Gospel, that you might be rescued from the abyss, from the black hole of your sin and death, from the chaos of your idolatry and unbelief, and from the dust of the earth in which your mortal frame will be buried.

Repent, therefore, and believe the Gospel. Cease your striving for a kingdom of your own on earth, and here receive the Kingdom of heaven in the Word of Christ. And don’t suppose that you must find it for yourself, nor that you must (or even could) buy your way into it or earn your place in it. The Kingdom of heaven is not for sale at any price. Nor is it within your grasp — neither of your heart nor head nor hand. You will not storm its gates or take it; not with your feelings, nor with your hard work, nor with your intellect.

It has been hidden from before the foundation of the world in the heart of God. It is given to you from His open hand. And it is received and recognized only by the Mind of Christ, which is to say, by His Word and Spirit. For it is a divine Mystery, and it is yet hidden even in its revelation.

When Christ Jesus opens His mouth to utter the Mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven in parables, He thereby conceals from the crowds what He reveals and gives to His disciples by the catechesis of the Gospel. To this day, it remains the case that you cannot comprehend the Mystery apart from faith in the Gospel, which comes by the hearing of the Word of Christ. And even the ears by which you hear must be given to you and opened for you by the preaching of His Word.

You are His disciple — a Christian — a citizen of His Kingdom (on earth as it is in heaven) — not by your own wisdom, reason or strength, but by His apostolic Ministry of the Gospel, by His Holy Baptism, and by the ongoing catechesis of His Word. For you enter His Kingdom in the same way that it comes to you (within and through His one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church), that is, by His preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Repent, therefore. Trust Christ, and live.

He is the one true God, the only-begotten Son of the Father from all eternity, who came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made Man. He is the One who has found you — hidden in the world of sin and death — fallen, frail, weak and mortal; sinful and unclean; angry and afraid; desperate and despairing, yet prideful and arrogant; boasting of your numbers, your impressive stats, yet whining and complaining of your poverty and want. That is how He finds you. That is your condition apart from Him, under the curse of sin, subject to death and the grave. You’re made of dirt, and you’re returning to the dirt, so much so that you’re already up to your neck in it and going under, even as you go about your life in the world.

But for the sake of His divine and holy love, the Man Christ Jesus has redeemed you from your bondage to sin and death, that you might be raised up with Him to the life everlasting. Because that is what the Kingdom of heaven is like, and really what it is: the Love of God in Christ, and the Resurrection and the Life in Him. For He has purchased and won you to be His very own. He has liquidated Himself and His Life, shed His holy and precious Blood, and given His Body into death upon the Cross, in order to redeem you for Himself forever.

Indeed, He has redeemed not only you but all people. There are no exceptions. He has redeemed the whole world, and reconciled the world to God, not counting anyone’s trespasses against them.

He has given His everything to buy the entire field, for the sake of His people, His Church, His chosen possession, His Treasure.

That is how He regards you, dear child of God, in His love for you. You are holy and precious to Him. You are His pearl of great price, for whom the Father did not spare His Son but gave Him over to death, and for whom the same Son willingly suffered and died. That is your great value and precious worth: not your stats, but His steadfast love for you; not your savings account and savvy investments, but His free and full salvation, by which you are counted righteous in His sight.

Who you are, and what you are in truth, is still hidden in this world. It is hidden even from you. What you still see and feel and experience is sin and death, within you and all around you. You’re still up to your neck in the dust and the dirt. You’re still sinning every day, and you’re still being sinned against. Despite your boasting and bravado, you honestly don’t find much to brag about in yourself. Your best efforts too often fall flat and fail. Mostly what you’re given to do is the tedious bearing of the Cross for neighbors who don’t recognize any great value or priceless treasure in you. And the Cross seems hardly any way for God to prize and regard His beloved.

But, then again, who’s to wonder? You don’t really find any great value or priceless treasure in yourself, do you? You don’t much feel like such a precious pearl of great price. Leastwise, if you are honest with yourself, as a Christian, you know that you are a poor, miserable sinner, and that you surely deserve nothing but punishment for all your many sins. If you do not recognize or admit the truth of that, all the more do you need to repent.

However, this also is most certainly true, that your great value is not found in you, but in Christ, and in the price that He has paid for you in love. He looks upon you with grace, mercy and peace, and He does not see your dirty, filthy, rotten junk. He does not smell your stink. He rather rejoices over you according to His own righteousness. He perceives you entirely in His great love for you, by which you are most beautiful. He glories in you, according to His own divine grace and glory. And He credits to you His own worth, His own value, by investing Himself entirely in you: not only by giving Himself for you, but by giving Himself to you, by anointing you with His Holy Spirit, by naming you with His holy Name, and by making you a child of His God and Father.

What, then, is your value? What is your worth? It is that of God Himself. It is that of the beloved Son, who, though He was rich, yet made Himself poor, that you might inherit all the riches of the Kingdom through Him. That He has done so by the Cross — by the divine grace of His Self-sacrifice — by making Himself nothing, and humbling Himself unto death, in order to save His enemies — reveals that true value and true worth are not what the world imagines or calculates.

The world looks at the Man on the Cross and concludes that He is nothing but trash. God the Father looks upon that same crucified Man and declares, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.” And for His sake, the Father redeems and reconciles the world unto Himself.

That is why the great dragnet of the Gospel is cast far and wide and gathers fish of every kind from all the oceans and seas, all the rivers and lakes, all the ponds and streams on earth. It’s not that God is being reckless in catching good and bad alike. This isn’t one of those “kill ‘em all, and let God sort ‘em out” kind of deals. Truth be told, there are no good fish who are righteous in themselves, but all the fish are bad — not from the beginning, but ever since the fall into sin. There is no one who is righteous; no, not even one. But the Gospel gathers sinners, the bad fish, the guilty, the unrighteous and unclean, and it brings them aboard the holy ark of Christendom.

This isn’t a joke. God isn’t teasing or making sport of anyone. He preaches the Gospel of Christ Jesus sincerely to all the ends of the earth. By it sinners are truly forgiven and saved. The unrighteous are justified. The unholy are sanctified. The dirty are cleansed. The dead are raised to newness of life. For the preaching of the Gospel is the means by which God, the Lord, calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it united with Christ Jesus in the one true faith, unto the resurrection and the life everlasting.

So shall it be done, unfailingly, until the whole number of the elect from every time and place, from every tribe and tongue and nation on earth, have been gathered into the Kingdom of heaven. For those whom God foreknew from before the foundation of the world, whom He predestined to be conformed to the Image of His Son, He calls to Himself by the Gospel, and He justifies by His grace through faith in the Gospel; and those whom He thus calls and justifies by the Gospel, He shall also glorify in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead.

Until then, His Treasure remains hidden under the Cross in the world. Good and bad are gathered together in the net, the righteous and the wicked intermingled, even in the Church on earth, like the weeds entangled with the wheat.

But now, take care how you hear this, lest your ears and heart and mind be given over to pride or despair. Do not measure and evaluate your neighbor, as though to sort out the bad from the good among your fellow Christians. And do not look within yourself, either, to determine whether you are good or bad. Rather, love and serve and care for your neighbor, according to the Word of God, even as the Lord Himself preaches the very Gospel of forgiveness and life and salvation to your neighbor in love. All the more so should you love and serve and care for those who are caught in the same net of the Gospel with you, and forgive them for Christ Jesus’ sake.

And as for yourself, yes, indeed, examine yourself according to the Word of God — consider your place in life according to the Ten Commandments — and when you thus discover nothing in yourself but sin and death, from which you cannot free yourself — repent of your sins and heed the Gospel. For the Gospel delivers you from sin and death through the forgiveness of Christ Jesus, by His Cross and in His Resurrection. He is your righteousness, which cleanses you within and covers you without, and guards you against every evil of body and soul. He is the good Fish, in whom you also are good. And in the resurrection at the end of the age, then all the sin and death which for now remain in your mortal flesh, and all the unrighteousness and wickedness which for now reside in your sinful heart and mind and will, shall be removed and done away with forever.

That doesn’t mean that you should take your sin lightly or continue in your unrighteousness. Do not trifle with the Lord, but fear God and humble yourself before Him. Repent of all your wicked thoughts, words and deeds, that these not consume you and swallow you up. Do not presume upon the grace of God while you blithely turn your back and a deaf ear to His Word, and harden your heart against His preaching. He will not cast you out of His net, but if you reject His Gospel and refuse to hear it, you wriggle yourself out of the net and dive back into the chaos of the deep.

Rather, give ear to the preaching of the Gospel of Christ Jesus. For it is in Him that the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. It is in Him that you are righteous and safe. It is in Him that you are hidden under the Cross in the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection. It is in Him that you are God’s great treasure, His pearl of great price. It is in Him that you are predestined for the salvation ready to be revealed at the right time. It is in Christ Jesus that you are called, gathered, enlightened and sanctified. It is in Him that all your sins are forgiven, so that nothing is counted against you, and there is no condemnation for you.

It is in Him that you are now found, by His grace, and there is nothing in heaven or on earth, nor in all of creation, that shall be able to separate you from the love of God in Him. For He is the Lord your God, and He is faithful. He shall do for you all that He has promised. As He has called you to Himself in love, according to His good and gracious will (that you be saved), so does He work all things together for your good. As the Father did not spare His beloved Son but gave Him up for you, so shall He not withhold any good thing from you forever. Even here and now, while yet hidden in the field, He keeps His Covenant with you and grants you His New Testament: the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, given and poured out for you, for the forgiveness of all your sins.

Thus do you abide in Him, and He in you, unto the life everlasting.

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

An Excellent Wife He Has Found

2011-07-22T17:18:00.003-04:00

Mary Magdalene is a woman who fears the Lord, and He has risen up to praise her in the gates. Her children also rise up to bless her, and her works follow her to praise her, both day and night. For as St. Mary the Mother of God is both an icon and a member of the Lord’s Holy Bride, the Church, so is St. Mary Magdalene. And as St. Mary of Bethany (the sister of Lazarus and Martha) is remembered wherever in the world the Gospel is preached — because she loved the Lord Jesus, and listened to His Word, and anointed Him beforehand for His burial — so also is St. Mary Magdalene remembered with thanksgiving to God for her works of mercy and her witness to the Gospel of Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Her gratitude runs deep, and she loves Him greatly, because she was rescued from great evil, and she was forgiven much. Jesus cast out seven demons from this dear woman, saving her life and cleansing her in both body and soul. He had mercy upon her, and called her to Himself, and gave her, not only another chance, but a brand new life, here in time and hereafter in eternity. Therefore she became a true and faithful disciple, following the Lord Jesus throughout His Ministry on earth, listening and learning. In love, she supported Him and His holy Apostles from her own means, because she recognized the value and importance of His Ministry, both for herself and for others.

She was there, then, to witness the defining events of the Gospel: the Cross and Crucifixion, the burial of Christ, and His Resurrection from the dead. In fact, she is the first witness of our Lord’s Resurrection — not only His empty tomb, but His risen and glorified Body — and He Himself sends her to announce His Resurrection to the Apostles, to the very ones who would be sent to preach this Gospel to the ends of the earth. So she is “the apostle to the Apostles,” as the Eastern churches regard her, and if their feet are beautiful because they have gone out into all the world to preach the Gospel of peace, St. Mary Magdalene is also beautiful among the saints of God in Christ. She is adorned with His beauty and His glory, as a bride is adorned for her husband. And as we thus remember her, and give thanks for her on this day, we honor Christ Jesus, our Savior, and give all thanks and praise and worship to Him.

Everything we know about St. Mary Magdalene is bound up in and with her dear Lord Jesus. She received such excellent gifts and benefitted from His Ministry, and so she supported His Ministry with her whole life and all that she had. She shared in His Cross and Passion, not only by her presence as a witness, but also by Holy Baptism and daily repentance; therefore, she not only witnesses His Resurrection, but she herself is raised up by it, in and with Him, to live before God in His righteousness and purity forever.

Dear little lamb of Jesus, the same is no less true for you, as well. Though you are not an eye-witness of His Cross and Resurrection, you are in fact baptized into the very same, so that you also die and rise with Christ Jesus through daily repentance and faith in His forgiveness of all your sins. Consider the great treasures of His grace, mercy and peace, which are given to you by the Ministry of His Gospel. By these you have abundant life in Him, and with Him, both now and forever. For He is your true and heavenly Bridegroom, who has sought you out and found you, and called you by name to be His holy Bride, that is, within His Holy Church, as a member of His Body.

How, then, shall your life be a witness of His Resurrection? How shall your words and actions testify that God has raised your dear Lord Jesus from the dead? With what means, and by what works, will you support His Ministry of the Gospel, for your own sake and for your neighbor’s?

Everything about you, and all that you are and have, is bound up with Christ Jesus. For you are baptized into Him. You have died with Him — through your Baptism into His death — and so, now, your life is hidden with Him in the bosom of God the Father. Your temporary sojourn on earth, including your stewardship of whatever means the Lord in His mercy has entrusted to your use, is sanctified, and has real meaning and good purpose, because you are taken up into Christ and His Gospel — through His Cross and Passion, into His Resurrection and His Life everlasting.

Do not cling to Him, therefore, in the dead and dying things of this world. Do not attempt to find Him and have Him for yourself in that which has only the appearance of beauty, but inwardly is perishing. That sort of beauty is vain, and its charm is deceitful.

Trying to hang onto Christ and His Life in the transitory familiarities of earth is futile and fatal.

The fact of the matter is, that, apart from His Word and His Voice of the Gospel, you do not know where or how to find Him (and you can’t). You are still in the dark, and so you are confused, and afraid, and you weep with sorrow. You seek comfort and security and answers to your questions from your mortal father, old Adam, but he is laid to rest in the tomb and remains there to rot. And thus intent upon the dust and the dirt, you are unable to recognize the risen Lord Jesus. You do not know Him as He is.

But He is not that gardener, old Adam. He is the Good Shepherd, who lays down His life for the sheep — and takes it up again — that they may have abundant life in Him. He does for you and all His sheep as He did for dear Mary Magdalene: He calls you by name. He calls you with His sweet Voice of the Gospel — which forgives you all your sins, and casts out all your demons, and heals all your diseases, and raises you from death to life. His Voice calls you, and leads you and guides you, to and from the quiet waters of your Baptism, through the lush green pastures of His Word, to the laden Table of His Altar in His Father’s House. There He has prepared a great Feast for you, and He pours out His overflowing Chalice, which is the New Testament in His Blood.

Now your heart sings for joy, because you know the Voice of your Good Shepherd. You recognize and respond to the tone and timbre of His Gospel with its persistent rhythm of mercy and kindness, and its melody of forgiveness. You know, when He speaks, where He is to be found, where His Body is given and His Blood is poured out for you to eat and to drink. You know, when you hear His Voice, not only who He is and where He is, but who you are, and where you are.

Beloved, not only are you a dear sheep of this Good Shepherd, but you are an excellent wife of this true and heavenly Bridegroom. O son or daughter of the King, you belong to His most holy Bride! With St. Mary Magdalene, with Mary of Bethany and Mary the Mother of God, with Peter and John and all the witnesses of the Resurrection, and with all the baptized in every time and place, you belong to the Wedding Party of the Lamb, and you are seated with Him at His Table. For He takes you to be His very own, to have and to hold forever, and all that is His, He shares with you.

He rises from the dead; therefore, you also rise. He ascends to the right hand of God, and you are seated with Him in the heavenly places. His God and Father is now your God and Father. And He has prepared a place for you with Him, where even now your life is hidden, safe and secure.

Not only has He called you by name to Himself, but He has also called you by His own Name. Even now that is your surety, your pledge, your guarantee, your down-payment and your dowry, unto the life everlasting.

You are no longer in the dark, since Christ your Lord is risen from the dead. Even in the middle of the night, His Word is still a Lamp that does not go out, and by its light you rise up to eat and drink His Food from afar, and so to feed your neighbors in love. You are clothed with His scarlet and His purple, that is, with the forgiveness of His holy and precious Blood, and with the dignity and strength of His own royal righteousness. Therefore, you are made strong, and you are able to strengthen your household and family, your neighbors and friends, and all your brothers and sisters in Christ. For as He speaks so sweetly to you with His Voice of the Gospel, He likewise opens your mouth to speak in wisdom and with kindness to others.

Were you to look at yourself and consider yourself, for now, you would see no such glory, but only a poor gardener of sin and death, waiting to die and to be buried. But listen now, and hear the Voice of your Bridegroom, who has risen from the dead for you, who blesses you and praises you according to His grace, mercy and peace:

“Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all. For you are worth far more to Me than silver and gold, more than many rubies and fine jewels. Have I not sought you out and found you for Myself, and given Myself for you? Surely I have done so, and you are My own forever. Even in the gates of Hades I declare that you shall never perish but have abundant life in Me, and no one shall snatch you out of My hand. Rest assured that you shall not be put to shame, for I am your Refuge and Strength. Let not your heart be troubled; neither let it be afraid.”

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

Reversing Polarities

2011-07-19T10:48:00.007-04:00

I see it in my children, of course, but I find it as much or more in myself. There is this tendency in me to focus and dwell upon my own hurts and upon my neighbor's sins. Really, though, it ought to be the other way around. I need to reverse my polarities, as it were, and consider my own sins, that I might repent of them, curb them and confess them, and consider my neighbor's hurts with compassion, that I might care for him and relieve his hurts where I can.

Among my children, several of them are especially prone to pick at their ouchies, their bug bites, scratches, scrapes and scabs, until they've made things many times worse, much larger, infected and inflamed. The healing process is hindered and slowed, and the end result is often a scar that need not have been. I know well enough to warn my children against that sort of self-harm, and to avoid doing the same thing where my own external ouchies are concerned. Would that I were better at resisting the urge to agitate and pester the internal wounds of heart and mind.

I'm too often as bad or worse than any of my children when it comes to my emotional ouchies, that is, the insults, offense and slights, whether real or imagined, which I suffer in the bump and grind of life in a fallen world. I'll poke and prod and pick at them, analyzing and investigating, exploring all the ins and outs of my hurt, until I've got them festering and oozing, angry and raw. Instead of leaving them alone to heal and dissipate, I end up making them bigger and bigger, and worse and worse, until the "bug bites, scratches and scrapes" become major wounds, and temporary scabs turn into permanent scars.

What goes hand-in-hand with such a focus on my hurts, is a focus on the sins of those who hurt me (whether in fact or in my exaggerated perception). And just as I manage to make my hurts that much bigger by my dwelling on them, so do I magnify my neighbor's sins in the process, at least in my imagination. Except that it isn't actually my neighbor's sins which are getting worse, but only the hardness of my own heart against my neighbor. That is a self-inflicted wound in its own right, which causes harm both within and without. Such things should not be so.

My hurts can actually help me learn to love my neighbor, because they enable empathy and teach me understanding and compassion. That often happens instinctively in the case of my children, as they experience many of the hurts and hard lessons of life that I've already lived through and learned from in my own growing up. My heart is moved in love for them, to care for them and comfort them, because I actually do know how it feels. How, then, should I not console them?

That is how my hurts can help and serve my other neighbors, too, and yet another way the Cross bears good fruits, as the Tree of Life that it is.

But my focus should not be on my own hurts, nor on my neighbor's sins. Those things I should leave to Christ, the Good Physician of body and soul, who heals and forgives. But in myself, by self-examination in the clear light of His Word, "considering my place in life according to the Ten Commandments," I identify and address those sins in me that war against both faith and love. I do not pick and poke at them with morbid curiosity, but curb them through self-discipline and give them over to Christ through confession, that I might avail myself of His Holy Absolution.

As I thus address my own sins by the Word of Christ, by the Law and the Gospel, and so live in the freedom of His forgiveness, I can look in love upon my neighbor's hurts. Not that I would gloat over my neighbor or revel in his ouchies, but that I might know where and how to care for him, to serve him in the peace of Christ. That my heart would not be hardened against my neighbor, but softened with compassion, and moved in tenderness to comfort and console. That I might also help my neighbor in his need, in the same way that Christ heals all my hurts.

It is a simple enough little flip of the switch, but it makes all the difference in my posture and perspective vis-à-vis my neighbor. Instead of dwelling upon my own hurts and my neighbor's sins, I am turned about to consider my owns sins and my neighbor's hurts in the light of Christ. For He has borne all our hurts and all our sins in His own body on the Cross, and in the great reversal of His Resurrection from the dead, we are recreated and made brand new. That is the real balm and healing that gives real life to both me and my neighbor. And in the end, the only scars are those in the hands and feet and side of Christ Jesus.

Why Won't the Lord Weed His Garden Already?

2011-07-16T23:34:00.000-04:00

An enemy has done this. An enemy of God has sown the seeds of sin and death throughout the broad field of the Lord’s good creation. Prideful and arrogant, full of self-love, he has rebelled against the Author and Giver of life, and so he seeks to rob the whole world of all good gifts. Consumed with envy and jealousy, rage and resentment, he is driven by hatred of the one true God.

He is your enemy, and he hates you, and he seeks to destroy you, because he hates the Lord your God, your Creator and Redeemer, who loves you and has given you life. That is why the devil storms against you, determined to let you have no peace within or without. That is why he roams about like a wild beat, a deep growl rumbling in his throat, always seeking to swallow you up and consume you in his hate.

That is why the whole creation groans under the curse of sin, the weight of death, and the futility of fallen flesh. Mortal man cannot redeem himself, and he cannot preserve or save the world. It withers and fades, perishes and crumbles into dust all around him, as he himself returns to dust.

Not only is everything dying, but the devil stirs up anguish and pain and rebellion. The rain not only waters the earth, but floods and drowns and crushes and washes away. Fire not only gives warmth and light, but burns and consumes and destroys. The earth itself is not stable but trembles and ruptures, sometimes spewing hot lava, sometimes swallowing whole towns into the depths.

Your body, too, your flesh and blood, your parents and children, all have been sown with the devil’s seeds of sin and death. What God has raised up from the dust of the earth, created holy and good by His Word and Spirit, the devil attacks with great wrath and deadly fury. On the one hand he sneaks in with subtle cunning, like a serpent slipping through the cracks, and then, on the other hand, he is suddenly a fire-breathing dragon, a monstrous serpent with fangs like steel that pierce your flesh and wound you to the core of your being.

There are the hurts, the wounds, the scars, the bruises, scrapes and broken bones. There are the breakdowns and failures of one bodily system or another, or one after another, robbing you of freedom, of dignity, of pleasure, and finally of life. There are cancers that eat up your flesh, and diseases that eat away at your mind; illnesses that poison your blood or stop your heart.

An enemy has done this: an enemy of God, who hates you because he hates your Creator. And so great is his hatred, his anger, his wickedness and spite, that he is not at all content to attack your body of flesh and blood, your health and well-being, and the whole world of nature. No, he sows a far more vile weed than even all of that painful hurt, suffering, sickness and violent death.

As the devil warps and ruins God’s good gifts of creation, so does he manipulate and misuse God’s good gifts of language. Because the devil is no god, but a creature himself, he can only steal and destroy what God has made and given. So he thrashes about at the external world, while craftily using words to lie and deceive, to trick and lead astray. From the Garden he has always done so, for he is a murderer and a liar. He whispers and murmurs at your ear, unnerving and distressing you. He poses questions that raise doubts and fears in your heart and mind. He plants assumptions and accusations against your neighbors, so that love itself is broken, wounded and destroyed.

He sows in you the seeds of evil, like unto his own: arrogance and pride, envy and jealousy, rage and resentment. He strokes your ego and stokes your passions, but then sends shafts of guilt and shame deep into your heart and soul, so that you cannot stand but you reel and fall like a drunk.

He plants weeds that pose as virtues, masquerading in self-righteousness, as though they were grains and fruits and healthy foods. Thus, He sows gossip and retribution and stringiness, harsh words, unreasonable demands, destructive criticisms, and party spirit. He sows the seeds of hurt in the guise of help.

He sows the seeds of competition, which leads to jealousy, which leads in turn to resentment and bitterness, then to anger, arguments and fights, and finally to death. Even brother against brother, so caustic are the devil’s weeds.

He sows the seeds of covetous lust, which leads to fornication and adultery, then to betrayal and deception, and again to death.

And where he has first sown such seeds of wickedness, he follows with the weeds of accusation, condemnation, a guilty conscience, a troubled heart, a restless soul, and the terror of punishment. The devil haunts you with such fearful specters, and he taunts you with such threats, scattering his seeds into every nook and cranny of your mortal life.

An enemy has done this, and his devastation fills you with dismay, or with desperation. You cast about frantically, and there is hardly any wheat to be seen or to be found anywhere. Instead there is this thick and overgrown jungle of deadly weeds. What may have looked like wheat at first, or like a beautiful flower or good fruit, has turned out to be a tangle of thorns and thistles, brambles and brush, deadly nightshade, and dangerous man-eating plants of every kind.

If you are not overwhelmed with hopeless despair by all of this, it might seems as though the remedy were obvious. Clearly, all of these weeds have to be removed — rooted out and destroyed, by whatever means necessary — or none of the wheat will survive.

So, then, you may wonder why the Lord does not do this; why He does not get busy and deal with the mess. Lots of people wonder about that very thing: Why does He allow so much evil in the world? Why doesn’t He stop it, and get rid of it? Why won’t He weed the garden already, instead of leaving it go and apparently not doing anything about it.

And when you haven’t seen that kind of action that you’re looking for, and you haven’t received the answer or response you were hoping for, you may volunteer — like the earnest and eager servants in the parable — to do it yourself.

Or perhaps you simply take it upon yourself to start weeding. Hacking and thrashing, ripping and pulling, picking at your neighbor, digging through the dirt, rooting out every suspect plant you can find. Pull out the machete, the flamethrower, the poison, whatever it takes.

That’s some satisfying work and effort, isn’t it? Because you can readily see the results, and so it’s something that feels productive. Left and right you go at it, clearing a larger and larger patch of field all around you. And every time another weed peeks out of the ground, you pounce and remove it — almost like one of those first-person-shooter video games. If there’s more and more collateral damage along the way, as you’re caught up in the frenzy, and the wheat is rooted out along with the weeds, well, at least you’re getting rid of the weeds.

Except that, every time you pause to catch your breath, or turn around, or go to sleep for awhile, the weeds keep coming back — because the enemy is still on the loose, on the prowl and on the rampage. What is more, your own efforts to root out the weeds have done as much or more harm to the wheat as the enemy himself, no matter what your good intentions may have been. And there is yet another problem you had not bargained on at first, one that you cannot fix or resolve. Not only are the weeds all around you, surrounding you on all sides, tangling your feet and tearing at your arms, but they have taken root within you, in your fallen flesh, deep within your heart and mind, in your sinful thoughts, words and actions.

If you can live with all the collateral damage to your neighbors, what are you going to do with yourself? Self-discipline is good and right — especially for your neighbor’s sake! — but do not suppose that your self-discipline will get to the real heart of the matter. Your self-discipline may end up becoming self-mutilation and self-destruction, if you really go after all those weeds within you, and still you won’t get them all. You can’t. You’ll do more harm than good if you would cleanse the field that way, and you won’t uproot the weeds without undoing yourself altogether. Suicide, then? Is that the obvious solution? Don’t believe it, and don’t go there. That’s another seed of Satan, a weed that will not save the wheat but only strangles it and kills it all the faster.

Why, then, does God not do something? Why does the Lord not cleanse the field and rescue the wheat? What is He waiting for? Can’t He see that everything it out of control and getting worse all the time? Doesn’t He care about His field and His wheat?

Yes, dear friend, He does care. He cares more deeply and far better than you can yet perceive or imagine. Be at peace, for that is why He waits with such patience and long-suffering. He is slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, full of kindness, tender mercy and compassion. Therefore, He will not risk collateral damage. He will not throw out the baby with the soiled diaper or the dirty bathwater. He will not uproot the weeds at the risk of the wheat. He will not uproot you, though you are full of weeds, because He loves you, and He is intent upon your life and salvation.

You know how He has gone about accomplishing His purposes, don’t you? Not with violence, but in gentleness, humility and voluntary weakness. He has actually taken the curse of sin and death upon Himself. He has suffered thorns and thistles to crown and cover Him, the weeds to entangle Him, to choke and strangle and kill Him. He has not uprooted them at once, but He has returned Himself to the dust of the earth, and planted Himself in the ground like a Seed.

The Seed of the Woman, indeed, is bruised and beaten and bloodied by the devil’s seed.

Yet, the Son of Man is not destroyed.

He is put to death and buried, yes, and with Him — in His Body of flesh and blood — the weeds are also put to death and buried. But He does not suffer corruption or decay. He is raised up from death and the grave, His Body and soul reunited. The weeds have all been done away with in His Self-sacrifice, but now He is raised all-glorious, immortal and imperishable. His Cross is proven to be the Tree of Life, His crucified and risen Body the First Fruits of a New Creation. His holy and precious Blood has been poured out to heal and cleanse the earth, atoning for the sins of all mankind, redeeming creation from the bondage of death, and reconciling the whole world to God.

This is how He thwarts and defeats His enemy, cleanses His field, and preserves each and every grain of His wheat. He gets to the heart of the problem, and He bears the curse, the consequences, the inevitable hurt and pain and death of sin in His own flesh, so that the devil is undone from the inside out. Satan can no longer hold your sin against you, because Christ Jesus has removed it from you and suffered all its sting and received all its poison. Satan can no longer scare you with death and the grave, because Christ Jesus has already been there, done that, and returned to life and glory at the right hand of the Father in heaven.

So the devil’s seed is rendered impotent and sterile. Whatever weeds it may produce will neither destroy the wheat nor force the Landowner’s hand. For the harvest is sure and certain, already in the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The wheat will be gathered, none of it lost, into the Lord’s granary, and the righteous will shine — with His perfect righteousness — in the Kingdom of His God and Father.

That is the Lord’s long-suffering patience — with the fallen world, with His weed-infested field, with you and your weeds, and with your neighbor, too. He’s not wringing His hands in worry, nor twiddling His thumbs (unsure of what to do), nor simply hoping for the best. He waits in mercy and peace, having already resolved the assault upon His field and His wheat, and as surely as the Father has raised His Son, so shall He raise you in the harvest at the end of the age.

That is your patience, too, although it is hidden beneath the Cross and crowded by weeds. The Resurrection of Christ Jesus is your sure and certain hope — not just wishful thinking, but as steadfast and true as the Lord Himself — even though you do not yet see Him or His Resurrection. For now you wait upon the Lord, who shall indeed preserve your life and save you. And you are able to be patient with your neighbor, resisting the urge to pick and pull at his or her weeds, because the Lord is likewise so patient with you. You and your neighbor’s sins are all forgiven.

In the meantime, despite the enemy’s best efforts to sabotage the field and destroy the wheat, even the weeds must serve the gracious purposes of God the Lord. For the harder they press, the more they weigh you down, the tighter they choke and strangle, the more you are put to death with Christ, unto repentance. His Cross, looking to all the world like the biggest baddest weed of all, crucifies and buries you with Him. Daily it returns you to your Baptism, so that daily you die to sin and every evil.

But so, too, because it is the Cross of Christ, it does not destroy you, but it brings you — by the way of repentance — through death into faith and life, into the prayer and intercession of Christ and His Spirit. You call upon His Name, and you are heard and answered. In this way you are exercised in faith; you learn to hope and trust in God, and such hope will not be disappointed.

The weeds are daunting, to be sure, and all around you, within and without, they confront you with your own futility. They choke and strangle and put to death all your self-reliance, all your obvious solutions, and all your strategies of self-righteousness.

Well and good that you should thus despair of yourself.

But the devil with his bag of evil seeds could not foresee, nor can he now contend with, the Son of Man and His good Seed of the Gospel. The enemy has more than met his match in Him, who is the true and only God — in human flesh and blood like yours. He has planted Himself in faith and love, in peace and hope, in the midst of the devil’s overgrown jungle of weeds, and up from the dust of the earth He has risen, for you and for all, forever and ever.

The Lord’s Cross is your Redemption, His Resurrection is your righteousness, and His very Body and Blood are the First Fruits of your own bodily resurrection unto the life everlasting. Then, what you now hope for and wait upon shall be fully revealed in all its grace and glory, far exceeding all the suffering of this present time.

No enemy has done this, but your truest and best Friend forever.

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

From the Water to the Blood

2011-07-02T21:49:00.000-04:00

The great joy and gladness of holy marriage, and of this day — in all its personal particulars and bodily specificity — is found in Christ Jesus: in His loving service to His Bride, the Church.

Which is why the Lord God Himself, the blessed Holy Trinity, rejoices and delights in this day and in this couple — in Nathaniel and Sarah, and in their Holy Matrimony, and in His Holy Church.

For God the Father takes you to Himself as a beloved daughter, even as He gives you to His only-begotten Son, to be His holy Bride. That is where the only true and lasting joy is found: in Christ.

Apart from Christ Jesus, it is all in vain; everything is finally in vain. Because there is, first of all, your natural finitude as a creature. Which is to say that you are not self-sufficient, but entirely dependent on your Creator for life and health and every good. But now, beyond that, there is also the mortal frailty of your fallen flesh, which withers and perishes; so that, not just “the wine,” but everything runs out. In yourself, and of yourself, there is no life nor love, but only sin and death.

Yet, you have been created by God to live by His grace. And you are called — by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel of Christ Jesus — to live by faith in His Word; that is, the Word of the Cross.

True, the Cross puts to death the Old Adam in you, with all your sinful lusts and desires; your self-idolatry and selfishness; your false belief, despair, and all your shameful vices. But the Cross also raises you up — in and with the New Adam, that is, Christ Jesus, who has suffered your death, and has submitted Himself to the dirt of the ground for you, in order to redeem you from sin and death.

The Cross does not destroy you, because it has been the Cross of Christ for you, first of all.

Indeed, for all its pain and agony, shame and humiliation, the Cross is the Hour of Christ’s great Glory; for by it, by His divine grace, mercy and love, He has atoned for the sins of all people, and He has reconciled the world to God.

So, too, it is from His side, as it has been opened up in His deep sleep of death upon the Tree of the Cross, that His Bride is formed and purified with His Glory — by the water and the blood.

And on the Third Day, the fruits of His Cross are borne forth in His Resurrection from the dead, and there is the beginning of the New Creation — in the glorified Body of this great New Adam.

All of creation — including God’s good gift of marriage (the union of one man and one woman) — it has all been redeemed and made brand new. In fact, it is completed, perfected, and better than ever — in the crucified and risen Body of this true and perfect Man, Christ Jesus. By His holy Cross, and in His Resurrection, He has become the new Head of a renewed humanity. He is the new King of a new Creation, and the Church is His beautiful Queen, His beloved Body and Bride.

So, then, you and your marriage, and your whole life, are sanctified by the Word of God in Christ, and by prayer in His holy Name. That is both how and why you invite Jesus and His disciples, and holy mother Church, to your wedding (today) and to your marriage (until death). For by His Word and prayer, His righteousness and holiness are granted to you.

He Himself cleaves to you, dear ones, as to His own beloved Bride, by the Ministry of His Gospel. He provides for you, in love, and He grants to you His good gifts for both body and soul, for now and forever — by the means of His good creation.

In the Divine Service, in particular, as also on this day, He brings you from the waters of Holy Baptism — which have purified your conscience before God, and have cleansed you as a Bride for her Husband — to that good Wine which is the New Testament in His Blood, and to that Bread of Life from heaven which is His own Body.

And in this you find that His good creation and good gifts are taken up by His Word, and given back to you all the better: like dirt into a man, a living creature; like a rib into a woman; like water into wine — and this good wine now points to something better.

For just as He is risen from the dust of the earth to live and reign forever (also as true Man!), you also are now flesh of His flesh, and blood of His blood, so that your body is raised up from death to life in His Glory. As it shall be at the last, so also is it now in your life and marriage here — although it is still hidden under the Cross, and for now it is visible only to the eyes of faith.

His Glory — His gracious gift of life — shall be manifested in your life together, Nathaniel and Sarah, as husband and wife: As you love each other in Christ, as He loves both of you. As you live by His forgiveness of all your sins, and so you forgive each other.

And as you also serve your neighbors within your vocations.

Your sufficiency and life are not in yourselves, but in Christ. Do not worry. Do not be afraid. And do not despair. But for your part, simply do whatever He tells you — and do so in the hope and confidence of His Resurrection, because it is Christ who works in you and for you. Therefore, do not be timid in that which He has called you to do, but love boldly and gladly.

When a husband loves and serves his wife faithfully and well, there’s almost nothing she can’t do or accomplish. So, then, take this to heart, dear ones, that Christ cares for His Bride; He nurtures and cherishes her; and so she is well able to care for others (by His grace, in His mercy and peace).

Beloved, He cares for you, and nurtures and cherishes you. You shall not be put to shame.

As He has grafted you into His Body and joined you to Himself as a member of His Bride, so do you find yourself at home with Him. And He shall likewise make His home with you forever.

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

"Come to Me, and Rest"

2011-07-02T20:57:00.001-04:00

Rejoice, and praise God, that He has revealed Himself to you, and has granted you life in Himself, and that He gives you rest. For He has willed and chosen to do so in love, and He is well-pleased to save you by His grace. Otherwise, you would not know Him, nor could you ever find Him or come to Him, and you would have no life or salvation.

As it is, you are still tempted to rely upon your own human wisdom and earthly intellect, to make your own life and to find your own way to God by your own efforts, hard labor and striving. That won’t work, and you won’t find what you need, but still you fall into such sins.

It is sometimes out of selfishness and greed, and sometimes out of desperation; sometimes out of pride, and sometimes out of fear. But whatever the particular reasons may be, the consequences are a heavy burden, which you cannot bear: restless anxiety, turmoil and confusion, and such a weariness of heart and mind, body and soul, that you can no longer stand upright, far less continue on that path. Maybe you could trudge on to the bitter end, but then death would finally stop you in your tracks and lay you low. If you die with your boots on, you’re still dead, and what have you achieved? What would you take with you and still have?

The harder you try to work your way to God, or to think your way to God, the more hidden He becomes to you, and the further away you wander from Him; the heavier your burdens become, with no end to your labors in sight, and your weariness increases.

How then does the Lord Jesus say, “Come to Me”? Or what does He mean by that, and how can you “come to Him”? It’s not by your own wisdom, intelligence or reason, nor by any strength or striving of yours. You cannot do it. All of your attempts are worse than futile, because they actually make your situation worse. So is Jesus mocking you, or teasing you, or rubbing in your infirmity and weakness? Of course not!

No, dear child, the Lord who gently invites you, “Come to Me,” is the Son of the Father, who has come down from heaven to you, and has humbled Himself to bear your burdens, to share your weakness and pain, to suffer your hurts and sorrows; who gets down on His haunches to draw you — as the little one you are — into His arms and to His embrace.

By this beloved Son of God, in the flesh, the Father calls you and draws you and gathers you to Himself, the way a loving Daddy scoops up his toddler and cradles his newborn.

He says, “Come to Me,” even as He does so, not that you must work your way up to Him, but so that, by His Word, He should lift you up and strengthen you in confidence, and comfort you and give you courage. Such sweet words upon His lips are not a law, nor yet another heavy burden laid upon your weary back, but a respite from your labors and a place of rest.

Here there is blessed peace, and calm safety, and sure refuge. Here there is not death, but life; not shame, but the glory of God in Christ bestowed upon you by His grace.

In caring for you like an infant, He surely does not belittle you, but He raises you up and supports you and shares with you all that belongs to Him. For as the Father hands over all things to the Son, so does the Son hand over Himself — and all that is His — to you, to all of His disciples, and to His whole Church in heaven and on earth.

In becoming small before Him, by the humility of repentance, you are enlarged by His Gospel of forgiveness (which He gives to you freely for the sake of His holy love), and you are made great by the Cross of Christ unto the life everlasting. For this is real greatness, not that you exalt yourself, but that God the Lord exalts you and glorifies you in the resurrected Body of Christ Jesus.

So it is that His yoke is easy, and His burden is light, even though it is a Cross that is laid upon you. For that is what disciples of Christ Jesus are given and are called to carry after Him.

By your Baptism you are crucified, dead and buried with Him, and so you are signed and sealed by His Cross. It puts to death the old Adam in you, slaying your selfishness and calling you to live unto Christ by faith, and for your neighbor in love.

But, again, the Cross of Christ is not a work or burden of yours by which you must save yourself. It is, rather, the way and the means by which He has saved you in His own gentle humility, in perfect faith and love. Because He has so borne the Cross for you, and suffered and died for you, and has risen from the dead for you, and lives and reigns to all eternity as your merciful and great High Priest, His Cross puts you to death in order to give you His newness of life.

The death of His Cross is the way and the means by which you are reborn as an infant of God, a beloved child of our Father who art in heaven. And it is to you, who have been crucified and raised with Christ Jesus, the beloved Son — through Holy Baptism and by daily repentance — that God the Father has revealed Himself. He does so by granting you His Holy Spirit through the Gospel of His Son, whereby you know Him as the one true God who loves you and has mercy upon you; who forgives you all your sins, casts out all your demons and heals all your diseases, provides for all your needs, and gives you life forever with Himself in peace.

In making Himself known to you in Christ Jesus, by His Spirit through the Gospel, your dear God and Father does not only give you news and information “about” Himself, but He actually gives you Himself and His Life, His Name and His Home to be your own. Already now, in His Church and in His Gospel, even in this vale of tears under the Cross in the midst of sin and death, He shelters and protects you, provides for you and cares for you; He feeds, clothes and comforts you.

He is, in short, your true Father, and you are His true child, in Christ Jesus His Son.

That is your life, beloved, both now and forever. That is your Sabbath Rest, your safety, and your peace, which remains for you and always shall. In Christ Jesus, you breathe the Spirit of God, and so you live. And whether with your body here on earth you are working hard or resting easy, waking or sleeping, playing or praying, or whatever it is that you are doing, your life remains hidden with Christ in God.

Come to Him, therefore, and rest your soul upon Him, as He here comes to you in love and gives Himself to you, as your Meat and Drink indeed. For so He wills to serve you in peace.

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

The Ears of a Disciple

2011-06-27T22:17:00.003-04:00

It is not faith but self-righteousness that would ever say, "I've got things sorted out with God for myself, so I have no need to consider my neighbor or anything I might do for him."

Nor does faith ever ask, "Should I love my neighbor?" or "Do I have to love my neighbor?"

Faith, rather, confident before God and secure in His love, is free and unafraid to love the neighbor, and so gladly listens for that sure and steady Word of God which says, "This is what life and love shall look like for you." Precisely because He is our Savior, and we are His beloved.

In the ears of a disciple, to the heart of faith, the Law of Love looks just like Jesus loving all of us, who listened with the ears of a disciple, Himself, to the good and acceptable will of His Father for our salvation, and so humbled Himself in obedience, even unto death upon the Cross.

Which is why faith and love end up looking the same in Christ Jesus.

Postulating Law and Gospel

2011-06-27T14:38:00.005-04:00

The nexus of the Law and the Gospel is the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ in the crucible of His Passion, in His perfect faith before God the Father, and in His perfect love for God and man.

To distinguish the Law and the Gospel rightly, without dividing them, is as fundamental to the faith, and as difficult in this life under the Cross, as the distinguishing of the two natures in Christ without dividing His Person, and the distinction of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity without any division of the one true God.

This proper distinction of the Law and the Gospel belongs to the theology of the Cross, to the death of the old Adam and the rising of the New Man in us. This is the divine work of the Holy Spirit by the means of the Word. He who has begun this good work in us, shall also bring it to completion at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the resurrection of our bodies at the last. Yet, it is finished and complete, already for us, in the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, in the perfection of His glorified Body.

The Body of our crucified, risen and ascended Lord Jesus is our Anchor behind the Veil, that is, our Anchor within the Holy of Holies made without hands, eternal in the heavens. There He ever lives to make intercession for us before His God and Father, and we are sanctified in Him who is our righteousness and holiness, so that our life is safely hidden with Him in God. Therefore, it is by the way and the means of His Cross that the Holy Spirit also brings us daily in-and-out of death into the indestructible life of our merciful and great High Priest.

What that looks like, as we are confronted and met with the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and as we live by the grace of God through faith in Christ, is the difficult distinction of the Law and the Gospel. In this, the old Adam is painfully divided from the New Man, in us, but we are not divided from the new and greater Adam who remains for us.

Not Peace on Earth, but a Sword that Severs

2011-06-27T09:02:00.003-04:00

You heard from the Lord Jesus last week how disciples are made (that is, by Holy Baptism in the Name of the Holy Trinity, and by ongoing catechesis in the Word of Christ), and how disciples are called to live: by keeping His Word, and observing all that He commands. To be a disciple is to be a follower, and that you continue listening to, learning from, and living with your Rabbi.

Now, as I mentioned last week, Christ Jesus is not unaware of the challenges and difficulties of discipleship; for He Himself has borne them. But the question today is, whether you are aware of those challenges and difficulties, and whether you understand them, and how you are bearing them. In the world you will have tribulation, and you will bear the Cross, if you are a disciple of Jesus: not peace on earth, but a sword that severs and divides.

It is a difficult and challenging Word that Jesus speaks, for example, concerning your household and family: that Christ and His Word must take priority over your nearest and dearest kin. Not that you are called to forsake or neglect your parents or children, but you are to love and serve them (and all of your neighbors) according to the Word of Christ; for your allegiance belongs to Him in all things. Any number of examples could be given, touching on such things as the awkwardness of negotiating feelings, the quandary of how to encourage your adult children to go to church, the anxiety of relatives and friends who hold a differing confession, and the far greater anguish of loved ones who have abandoned the church altogether. Then there are the volatile “hot topics” of living together outside of marriage (fornication), redefinitions of “marriage” altogether, contrary to the Word of God, and political debates over abortion (murder).

There is the constant challenge of speaking up and standing up for what is good and right and true, and of living in faith and love, and of forgiving those who trespass against you, for Jesus’ sake; all of which can be far trickier and more stressful when it comes to your own extended family.

But if the Cross that is laid upon your family and relationships is difficult, there is yet a deeper and even more demanding challenge that confronts you: For the Word of Christ is a sharp two-edged Sword that cuts you yourself to the quick and divides even your bones from your marrow. It separates you from your own sinful flesh, from the lusts of your heart, and from all the false beliefs of your mind, soul and spirit. It is perhaps even more like a surgeon’s scalpel than a barbarians broadsword. Jesus does not hack away at you, but He goes for the jugular, and for the heart of the matter. And His Word is piercing, cutting you to the very core.

Really, what Jesus is doing in this Holy Gospel is preaching the first and foremost commandment, the greatest and number one Law; namely, that you shall have no other gods before Him.

This is a most exalted claim that Christ Jesus makes concerning Himself, indicating His true divinity and His eternal relationship with the Father. And that identification makes the Law all the more pointed and poignant, given the Lord’s Incarnation, His Humiliation, and His own Cross and Passion. For your fear, love and trust, and your allegiance, your faith and worship and obedience, belong to this Crucified God — and you are called to follow Him, to be and to live like Him, and to find your whole life in Him (precisely in His Cross and Resurrection, in His flesh and blood).

That commandment (in which the entire Law comes into focus) exposes your sin, condemns it for the idolatry it is, and actually exacerbates it and makes it worse; it makes your sin utterly sinful. It brings to light, not only your lack of faith in Christ Jesus, but also your covetous lust, greed and selfishness for all manner of other (false) gods, from which you seek to find your life on earth.

The commandment thus puts you to death, and it cannot bring you to life; not because it is bad — far from it! — for the Law of God is good and wise, holy and just — but because it confronts and crucifies your sinful flesh, your sinful heart, your sinful body, soul and spirit. It condemns and puts you to death for your idolatry, which is the worst sort of adultery. For you have joined yourself to other gods, although your true Spouse, your heavenly Bridegroom, the Lord who is a faithful Husband to you, is the ever-living and life-giving God.

You have forsaken your marriage to the Lord your God, and you have married yourself to sin and death, and for this the Law sentences you to die forever.

But here you begin to discover the purpose for the Sword that Jesus brings: In cutting you to the quick and putting you to death, He cuts you off and separates you from your adulterous idols. There is, in this respect, an “intervention” of the highest magnitude, by which you lose your life and everything else in this world.

That is not yet the whole story, however, for your true Bridegroom is not after vengeance, but reconciliation. He is not out to rob you of life, but to grant you the true divine eternal life that none of your other lovers could ever give, because it is found only in Him.

He is zealous for you, because He loves you, and He wants you to have real life in Him. And to that end, He suffers the mighty Sword of the Law to be turned upon Himself, in order to put sin and death to death in Himself, in His own flesh. This itself He suffers in fulfillment of the whole Law; that is, with perfect faith in His God and Father, and in wholehearted love for His Father and for you. For this is not the suicidal despair of a heartbroken Romeo, but the heroic Self-sacrifice of the Lord your God, who bears your sin to atone for it by His blood, and who dies your death in order to free you from it.

Thus, the Law is wholly satisfied and perfectly fulfilled in Christ Jesus. So, too, the faith and love of Christ are not for nothing: His faith is not disappointed, and His love is not wasted. But He, who laid down His life in love for you, receives it back again in His Resurrection from the dead.

And having gone to the uttermost of your sin and death, to set you free from that bondage of your own idolatry, He brings you back, in and with Himself, into newness of life.

The Life in Christ is, now and ever, truly yours. Yes, even now it is yours (in the midst of death).

He does not bring or promise “peace on earth,” but He has reconciled you and all the world to His God and Father; which is to say that God is at peace with you, and you have peace with God in Christ (by His grace, through faith in His Gospel, the forgiveness of all your sins).

It is that peace with God which enables you to be at peace with all your neighbors, and even with your enemies — not by compromise, but by the courage of Christ (and His forgiveness of sins). Not in fear of man, but in the fear of God (which also loves and trusts in Him, in Christ).

The fact is, there are always going to be those who hate you on this earth; actually, most of the world will hate you for Jesus’ sake, and in countless ways will do its best to hurt you, to kill you.

But the world cannot rob you of your life in Christ; the world cannot destroy your peace with God; nor can the world take away the new household and family to which you now belong as a child of God — for you are His little one, and He shall preserve you steadfast and save you. Has He not given you His own Name in the waters of your Holy Baptism? Yes!

And in His Name, He sends to you His Prophets and Apostles, His pastors and teachers, His preachers of His Word — and if that Word is a Sword that divides you from yourself, from your sin, from your idols, and from the whole world, it also gives you the Spirit and Life of Christ Jesus. For in the hearing of His Word, in the receiving of His sent ones, you hear and receive Christ Jesus Himself — and in Him you hear and receive His God and Father as your own — and in His Name, His Gospel grants you His Righteousness, which means also that His Resurrection (and His Life everlasting in body and soul) is now yours.

Consider what all this means for your relationships with all those many others who bear the same Name as you do, by God’s grace, as Christian disciples of Jesus.

Look around you at the congregation that surrounds you: This is the household and family of your God and Father. This is the house and home of your heavenly Bridegroom. These all around you, who also are baptized (and catechized by the same Word of Christ) are your brothers and sisters; these are your fathers and mothers; these are your sons and daughters; these are your family.

Therefore, beloved of Christ, love one another: care for one another, forgive each other, and serve one another with whatever means the Lord provides. If you have but a cup of cold water, by all means, share it with the one who is thirsty.

Let neither any sin of yours nor any sin against you divide this household and family of Christ Jesus. For His Word does not divide but truly unites His Church in heavenly peace, and that by the forgiveness of His own Cross (whereby He was divided that we might be made whole).

Here, by His grace, whatever has been broken is repaired. Enmity and animosity are healed by His reconciling love. Whatever has been wrong is made right in His Resurrection. He speaks and bestows His peace upon you; not as the world gives (or attempts to give), but perfect peace with God in heaven, true peace with Himself in the newness of the Spirit, and genuine peace with each other through His free and full forgiveness of all your trespasses.

And to you, His beloved disciples, He pours out a cup for you to drink, not of simple water only, but the New Testament in His Blood — for life with God — so that, having been united to Him, you shall not lose His Reward, but by His Cross shall enter into heaven with Him forever.

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