Sustained by the Holy Angels of God

It is truly meet, right, and salutary that we should give all thanks and praise to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for His precious and merciful work in establishing His Church in this place and preserving this congregation of His people for the past 175 years, and continuing to this day! Indeed, we join with the angels and archangels and all the hosts of heaven, including all the saints who have gone before us from this place to the nearer presence of Christ, in praising the Lord for His faithfulness over these past seven generations, and for the promise of His loving-kindness to generations yet to come, who by His grace will learn to love Him and to live by faith in His Word. 

It is by His grace alone that you are here (each of you and all of you together), and by His grace alone that you remain and persevere — by the Means of His Grace and the Ministry of His Gospel through the agency of His faithful servants, both heavenly and human.

For all that, the devil and his wicked angels hate you on account of Christ Jesus, your Savior, the incarnate Son of God. That old dragon despises each one of you as a child of God in Christ, and all of you together as members of the Body and Bride of Christ. Indeed, the more faithful you are, the more the devil spites and despises you in body and soul, as well as your whole congregation.

By the same token, St. Michael and all the holy angels love and serve you for the sake of your dear Lord Jesus Christ; for He has become like you, Flesh of your flesh and Blood of your blood, by His conception and birth from the Blessed Virgin Mary; and so has He also, in turn, raised you up and recreated you to be like Him, a participant in His divine nature by grace through faith in Him, by His Word and Holy Spirit. Consequently, the holy angels see Christ the Lord in you — He who is the very Image and Likeness of God in the Flesh — in whose truly human face both they and we behold the light of the revelation of the glory of God the Father.

All of which drives the devil to fury and great wrath, utterly consumed by envy and jealousy, by his pride and self-conceit. He does not consider it appropriate or fitting that God should become Man, nor that man should be exalted above the majestic and powerful angels. So consumed by his envy and driven to rage by his pride, the devil is relentless in his assaults and accusations against you. He would do anything to remove you from the favor of God. Hence, he is called “Satan,” the accuser. And to that very end he tempts you to sin in every way that he can — he tempts you to turn away from God, to fear, love, and trust in anything and everything else! And then, quick as a wink, the devil is the first in line to accuse you of the very sins into which he has tempted you!

To say it again, the devil hates you. And the bottom line is that he is a liar and a murderer from the beginning. But because he masquerades as an angel of light, and because your own heart, mind, and soul are sinful and unclean, you are too easily deceived and misled into the devil’s snares.

Beware of succumbing to the envy and jealousy, the pride and conceit such as the devil has. Do not despise your neighbor, nor tempt him, nor resent the grace of God in Christ for your neighbor. Rather, as the Lord has taught you, love and serve Christ Jesus in your neighbor, and especially in your fellow Christians, your brothers and sisters in the family of God. Thereby you become an “angel” of Christ Jesus to your neighbor, a messenger of peace and joy and the grace of God.

Where you have despised any of His “little ones” (of any age) — any of those who believe and are baptized into Him — wherever you have caused them to stumble and to fall, Repent. Cut off such temptations and sins altogether, not by mutilating your body, but by disciplining your flesh, your eyes, your heart and mind. Be drowned and destroyed in the depths of your Holy Baptism, along with your Satanic old Adam and all your evil lusts and desires, by daily contrition and repentance.

Confess your sins, and avail yourself of God’s good gift of Holy Absolution from your pastors. For they are angels of God in the flesh, called and sent to give you His good gifts of the Gospel.

Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, your Maker and Redeemer. Humble yourself to be and live like a little child who must rely upon your Father for absolutely everything, beginning with grace, with mercy and forgiveness. Humble yourself under God, and rejoice that He raises you up from the depths of the sea and the dust of the earth to shine like the stars of heaven with the pure and perfect righteousness of Christ Jesus, your Savior.

Humble yourself, and do not rely upon yourself but upon the Lord your God. And pray. Pray in the confidence of the Cross and Resurrection of your merciful and great High Priest, Christ Jesus. For in Him — by His Cross and in His bodily Resurrection from the dead — every prayer of faith has already been answered, “Yes, and Amen!” once and for all. For you!

The Lord hears and answers your prayer in love, by His grace. The Father hears and answers your prayer for the sake of Christ, His beloved and well-pleasing Son. In Him, indeed, you are beloved and well-pleasing, as well, and there is no good thing that your Father in heaven shall withhold from you. He hears and answers your prayer. He responds in love, always, and He serves you by the means of His good creation.

That is a pivotal point to this day and occasion, to the Feast of St. Michael & All Angels, and to the celebration of your anniversary as a congregation of the Lord’s Church on earth:

The Lord God serves you by the means of His good creation. That is why there are such things as the holy angels. Not because God needed a “helping hand,” but because He delights to serve His creatures with His creation, with His creatures. And so He serves you by His good creation, by the agency of His ministers, the holy angels; and by the human angels (or messengers) whom He calls, ordains, and sends in His Name as your pastors; and by the created elements that He employs with His Word, the waters of Holy Baptism, the bread and the wine of the Holy Communion, which are the very Body and Blood of Christ Jesus.

By these Means of Grace — by these means of creation — according to and with the Word of God, you are well served by your Father in heaven. Indeed, it is by and with and through these creaturely ways and means that He has established and still preserves St. James Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lafayette, Indiana. For so does He forgive you all your sins, and pour out His Spirit generously upon you, and grant you His divine, eternal Life in the Body of Christ Jesus — no less than He, the Son of God, has become Flesh and tabernacles with you here.

These servants of God, both the heavenly and the human, guard and keep you in both body and soul. In a variety of circumstances, His angels lift you up and keep you in all your ways, lest you strike your foot and stumble and fall. While they often do protect your mortal flesh and blood from harm and danger, on account of the Flesh and Blood of Christ, they all the more protect your soul and body from the assaults and accusations of the devil — by the Blood of the Lamb, and by the testimony of His Word — which is to say, chiefly, by the preaching and ministry of your pastors.

By the Means of His Grace — His Gospel-Word and Sacrament — His tangible forgiveness of your sins — the servants of God preserve your life and bring you through the great tribulation clothed in the righteousness of Christ. For Christ has atoned for all of your sins by His holy and precious Blood, and by His Word of the Gospel He daily and richly, fully and freely forgives you.

Through the Ministry of the Gospel — by the preaching of His Word, and by the administration of His Body and His Blood — He interposes Himself and His Redemption, His Reconciliation, and His Righteousness between you and all the accusations of Satan. And because those accusations cannot stand against Him, they cannot stand against you, either. You are in Christ by His grace, by His Gospel; and He lives in you. And He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

When the holy angels do permit the hurt and harm of your mortal body, as Christ also suffered and died in His human flesh and blood upon the Cross, the Lord thereby humbles you unto repentance: to become like a little child and learn to rely upon God, to be returned to the cleansing waters of your Baptism, to be brought to the Healing Medicine of His Altar, and to be raised up from death to life, from the dust of the earth to shine like the stars (in body and soul) forever and ever.

That dying and rising of repentance and faith, that rhythm of humble confession, free and full forgiveness, and newness of life in Christ Jesus, is how and why you are here — how and why St. James is here — how and why your pastors are here. And it is for this very purpose that God preserves you in this place by and with His messengers.

So do we give Him thanks and praise for His heavenly angels, those great majestic creatures who guard and keep us night and day, though hidden from our sight. And we rightly thank Him, also, for His human angels (the called and ordained servants of His Word) — those earthen vessels of His grace, mercy, and peace — who love and serve His people in His Name and stead. Not only Pastor Bombaro and Pastor Barcott, but the long line of pastors whom the Lord has provided for His people in this place over the past 175 years, and for His Church on earth from the beginning.

Here again this morning, as for these past 17-1/2 decades, the angels and people of God are gathered together around the Lamb upon His Throne, encircling the Fruits of His Cross, which is the Tree of Life. Here again this morning, on earth as it is in heaven, the great prince of God’s people, St. Michael the Archangel, and all the holy angels, the cherubim and seraphim, join with us, the children of God, in praising the Holy Trinity and giving Him thanks for His great Salvation in Christ Jesus. And for His Name’s sake, His holy angels also guard and keep you in body and soul, in safety and peace, at His holy Banquet Table. For they do always behold the Face of God the Father in you, His beloved and well-pleasing son or daughter.

For watchful is the angel band that follows Christ on every hand, to guard His people where they go and break the counsel of the foe. They never rest nor sleep as we; their whole delight is but to be with our Lord Jesus, and to keep His little flock, His lambs and sheep.

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

To Fear, Love, and Trust in Christ Jesus, Your Savior

The issue that confronts you in this Holy Gospel is the question of what it is — whatever it is — that you cling to and depend upon. What is it that you fear, love, and trust above all things? Which is really to ask: What is your god? What is it that you worship with all your heart, soul, body, mind, and spirit, with your time, treasures, and talents?

As Dr. Luther so profoundly describes in his discussion of the First Commandment, your god is whatever it is that you look to for life and depend upon for your happiness; and when you have it, you are content and satisfied, you feel safe and secure, but if it is threatened or taken away, then you panic and are thrown into despair, as though there were no longer any hope or happiness.

With that in mind, it is apparent that those who are poor in this body and life are no less tempted to make wealth, money, and possessions into their false god than those who are rich. The fact that you may not have it certainly does not mean that you don’t want it more than anything else in the world! The poor often spend their lives thinking that, if only they were rich, they’d be happy.

But those who are poor do have an advantage, in that they are less likely to fix their hopes and rely upon what they don’t have. In recognizing their poverty and need, they are more likely to repent of their sins and to look to the Lord for His forgiveness and His gift of life. That is yet another way of becoming and learning to live like a little child in the presence of God.

The especially difficult challenge for those who are rich in their worldly possessions, is that they do seem able to rely upon those material things for life and health and all manner of advantages. Their wealth and their possessions are all good gifts and blessings from the Lord their God, but it requires the humility of repentance and the clarity of faith to receive them with thanksgiving, to use them to His glory and for their neighbor’s benefit, and not to put their trust in those things.

The same thing holds true, of course, whether your “wealth” in this world happens to be money or some other gift and blessing of God. Your intelligence and education may become your idol and false god, to which you cling for security and success. Or your athletic abilities, your bodily health and strength, or your outward attractiveness, charm, and charisma. Or maybe you are more tempted to “fear, love, and trust” in your marriage and family, your wife or husband, your children and grandchildren. Or you might be prone to rely upon your track record of dedicated service to the church — on being a pastor — as though that were the key to eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

Bear in mind that these examples of “wealth” are all good things, gracious gifts and blessings from the hand of God. But the real problem is found in the attitude of your sinful heart, when you cling to and depend upon the gifts instead of their Giver; when you worship your wealth of whatever sort it happens to be, instead of worshiping the Lord your God. That is not to be!

Sad to say, you do fix your heart, mind, and strength, your body and life, upon your possessions and your stuff, your achievements and activities, your hopes, dreams, and aspirations, instead of fixing yourself on Christ and following after Him by faith in His Cross and Resurrection. Which is why you must let go and leave behind all of those idols in order to enter the Kingdom of God.

Consequently, the more of whatever you have, the more you are called to give up and leave behind. Not that you must necessarily liquidate everything and donate it to charity, or quit your life and go into seclusion. On the contrary, it is much more to be a change of heart and attitude, whereby you live by faith in God and in self-sacrificing love for your neighbors. It is not so much your stuff that is the problem, far less the people in your life, but the idolatry of your sinful heart and flesh.

What you must give up and leave behind, therefore, are all of your attachments to everything other than God, whether people or things, whether tangible or intangible, whether it be what you have or what you really want. It is necessary that you give up and leave behind all of those attachments, that you take up the Cross and follow Jesus, and that you die to yourself and live unto God in Him.

Tragically, whether you have a lot or very little, in your native sinfulness you are not able to give up your false gods and leave them all behind. You simply cannot do it, not by any wisdom, reason, or strength of your own. And don’t imagine for one moment that St. Peter and the other disciples gave up everything they had to follow Jesus by any innate abilities of their own! It was rather that Jesus called them to repentance and faith by His Word of the Law and the Gospel. He called them to take up the Cross and follow after Him, even to the point of persecution and death. And it was only by the power of His Word and Holy Spirit that they answered His call and followed.

It is the same for you, as well, who are called by the Gospel and enlightened by the gifts of His Word and Spirit. Otherwise, your sinful heart would go on trusting your own wisdom, reason, feelings, and opinions, relying on your money and material possessions, and prizing your family and friends above the Lord your God. Well, if you are honest with yourself, you will know better than I do what are the idols and false gods in your life. They are, again, those things which, when they are in place, then you are content and secure; but whenever they are threatened in some way, or if they are taken away from you, then you become frantic with despair and hopelessness.

To be sure, left to yourself and your own devices, all would be lost and hopeless. To save yourself is not simply difficult; it is impossible. You cannot save yourself. You cannot even come close!

Thankfully, what you could never have done for yourself, the Lord Jesus has done for you. He has obtained salvation for you by the sacrifice of His Cross and with His bodily Resurrection from the dead. And now He saves you — by grace alone — by the Word and Ministry of His Gospel.

In willing obedience to His God and Father, in perfect faith and holy love, He did let go of all that was His and made Himself nothing — even to the point of His death on the Cross — not to achieve any benefit for Himself, but to atone for the sins of the world and to reconcile sinners to God.

So it is that, by the preaching of His Word, and by the gracious working of His Spirit, He calls you to receive and trust what He has accomplished for you by His Cross and Resurrection. All that He has done for you and gotten for you, He offers and gives to you by the Ministry of His Gospel — even as you who are called, ordained, and sent to preach and administer the same Holy Gospel in His Name and stead are thereby privileged to distribute these Gifts Christ freely gives unto others.

And by His Word and Holy Spirit — by faith in His forgiveness and the sure and certain promise of His Resurrection — you are set free from your reliance on riches and from your worship of wealth, so that you are rather able to receive whatever the Lord has given you in this body and life with thanksgiving, and to use it all in faith and love according to His good and acceptable will.

It is likely the case that repenting of your misplaced trust in wealth and riches will sometimes mean that you must give up on certain things altogether, in order to alleviate their hold upon your heart and mind, body and soul. Various addictions can only be broken by going “cold turkey.” And it may well be that the fruits of repentance will include the surrender of things you have relied on.

Beyond all that, however, it is not so much your stuff or your habits but yourself that you must give up, and set aside, and put behind you. It is the work of the Cross, within your Holy Baptism and throughout your life, that puts you to death and buries you with Christ through daily contrition and repentance. And it is the forgiveness of His Cross that raises you up to a brand new life in Him.

By and large, repentance and faith in Christ Jesus do not require that you must give up or get rid of your possessions, far less that you must abandon your neighbors. It is rather that repentance and faith result in a brand new relationship with the people and things in your life, so that you are able to enjoy and appreciate whatever you are given with a heart that fears, loves, and trusts in God.

To say it simply, your entire life is lived under the Cross of Christ in the hope and promise of His Resurrection from the dead. Relying on His forgiveness of sins, you find true peace and Sabbath rest in the grace of His Gospel, regardless of how much or how little you may have in this world.

In point of fact, to inherit eternal Life and to enter the Kingdom of God by grace through faith in Christ Jesus, is to receive one-hundredfold the gifts and blessings of God in the Body of His Son. That is true already here and now within His Church on earth, the household and family of God to which you belong by His gracious adoption, and wherein you are surrounded by numerous brothers and sisters in Christ. So shall it be, all the more so, in the Resurrection of your body to the Life everlasting of your body and soul in the Kingdom of your God and Father in heaven.

Oddly enough, among the gifts and blessings that you have from the Lord, the most important — although it is the hardest of all to receive and understand — is the strange, divine, paradoxical blessing of the Cross. That includes, for example, the persecutions that Jesus says will come your way on His account and on account of the Gospel. And do not be surprised that such trials and tribulations are all the more fierce and persistent for those who serve the Ministry of the Gospel.

Such persecutions in this body and life, and the Cross of Jesus that you bear, will take many and various forms — some of them subtle, and some of them quite obvious and traumatic. They may at times involve the loss of your family and friends, or the loss of your house and home, or the loss of your money and goods, as happened in the case of Job in the Old Testament.

Be that as it may, whatever the particular shape or form of the Cross in the course of your Christian faith and life, it remains the gift and blessing of the Lord your God. It is the Cross of Christ Jesus that you bear, with which He has marked you as His own by His Word and Holy Spirit in your Baptism. And as the Cross is the height of His own divine glory as your Savior, it is likewise your greatest glory as a child of God, because it is the power and wisdom of God for your salvation.

It is by the Cross of Christ that you are saved. And so it is that, when you bear that Cross, you are already sharing and participating in the eternal life and salvation which Christ has thereby obtained for you and all, which He gives to you and bestows upon you by His grace and through His Gospel.

Thus does He feed you, here and now again, with His own sacrificial Body and Blood, given and poured out from His Cross into His Church, for the forgiveness of all your sins, and for life and salvation in Him. And it is in and with that Holy Communion that you receive and share the fruits and benefits of His Cross, and that you are united with the entire household and family of God, which is the Bride of Christ, His Holy Church, who is your Mother in the same Lord Jesus Christ.

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

Like a Bride Made Ready for Her Husband

Everything is done for the sake of the beloved Son. Everything is done for Him. It is in the Name of Jesus, and for His sake, that the Father loves the Bride, and for the sake of Jesus that He rejoices over her with lavish generosity and gracious hospitality. The Father loves the Bride because she is the Bride of His beloved Son. He loves her as He loves Him — with divine, eternal Love.

It is the Bridegroom who speaks this Parable and reveals the Kingdom of Heaven within it. And He is at the heart and center of it all, not only as the Author of the story, but the Author and Giver of Life by His Word of the Gospel, by the gift of His Holy Spirit through His forgiveness of sins.

The whole story is about this Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. The Feast is held in His honor. And yet, He is the One who has been sacrificed in order to become the Feast. He is the One who has been slaughtered, so that you might eat and drink, cleansed and forgiven. He feeds His guests from His own hand, as the Waiter, for He is among you as the One who serves. And what He sets before you is nothing else and nothing less than Himself, His own holy Body and His precious Blood.

Indeed, the invitation and the call that you have received to this Wedding Feast are actually a marriage proposal. You are called, that is, not simply to be a guest of the Bride and Groom, but to be a member of the bridal party and, what is more, to be a member of the Bride herself, the holy Church. For the call and invitation are a betrothal, that you be wed to Christ, the beloved Son.

Take to heart, therefore, the seriousness, the importance and significance of this call and invitation. The King would have you be united to His Son, joined to Him, as one flesh and blood with Him, both now and forever, so that even death is never able to part you from Him. The Father would have you married to His Son, and He would love you in Him as a dear and delightful daughter.

So it is that, from heaven Christ came and sought you out — to call you to Himself, to make of you His Bride by the washing of the water with His Word. In your Holy Baptism, He has cleansed you, and He has clothed you in His own righteousness. He has made you ready for Himself, as a Bride made beautiful for her Husband. He has dressed you for the Wedding and for the Wedding Feast. You are gloriously adorned, and there is no spot in you at all; there is no wrinkle, no blemish, and no flaw. There is nothing to be seen but the beauty with which Christ has made you beautiful.

And now, made ready, you are called to partake of the Feast. To rejoice and celebrate with Christ, your Groom, your Husband and your Head. To eat and to drink the Meal that He sets before you, the Meat and Drink indeed, which He has prepared by His sacrificial death upon the Cross.

“It is finished,” He has spoken from that Cross. There’s nothing more to be done that He has not done. His Feast is ready. Everything is ready. So, come and eat. Already here and now, His great Feast is set before you in the Holy Communion. You are called to celebrate and rejoice by eating and drinking this Food and this Drink, and thus to abide in Christ, and He in you, in the Kingdom of His God and Father — already manifested here under the Cross within His Church on earth.

The Feast in question is not simply a metaphor. It is not simply a picture of something yet to come. It is already here and now in the Lord’s Supper. The Sacrament really is that central and important to the Christian faith and life. This is what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. More than that, this is the Kingdom of Heaven, which is here with you on earth in the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus.

The Lord’s Supper is not simply a means to some other end. It’s not play-acting in remembrance of what happened a long time ago. Nor is it a dreamlike anticipation of some “sweet by-and-by” yet to come. No, here you actually taste the Feast that goes on forever in the Kingdom of God.

Therefore, do not despise His Feast. Do not reject His gracious invitation.

On the one hand, you despise His Feast when you are unwilling to come, when you engage in other activities while turning your back on that which Christ the Lord has set before you; when you treat the things of this world as a higher priority than the things of Christ Jesus, the things of heaven.

On the other hand, you also despise His Feast when you presume to come dressed in your own attire; when you refuse the hospitality of your Host by refusing to wear the garment He provides.

Consider this Parable’s troubling conclusion: Just when you think that you’re finally sitting down to eat, the King comes in, and He scans His guests, and there He sees a man not wearing wedding garments. He says to him, “How did you get in here, friend, not wearing wedding garments?” And the man is speechless. He has nothing to say for himself. So, what does this mean for you?

How shall you know that, coming to the Feast, you will not be spotted for the sinner that you are, and thrown into the outer darkness of death and damnation, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth? With what worthiness do you dare to come and recline at the Table of the Lord?

The conclusion of this Parable is frightening, if it is heard apart from faith in the Gospel. But that is precisely the point and the problem at hand in the case of this man without a wedding garment. He has approached the Feast apart from faith in the Gospel. He has presumed to dress himself, instead of receiving and relying on the hospitality of the King in the righteousness of Christ.

Do not attempt to feed and clothe yourself. Do not stay away from the Feast in fear that you are not worthy. And do not try to work and strive and primp in order to dress and adorn yourself, as though you could ever be made worthy by such efforts to sit at this Table and to eat this Feast.

Simply come in this confidence, that you are called to feast upon the One who has given Himself for you in love, and you are dressed in His righteousness from the waters of your Holy Baptism. That is where you have received the wedding garment. It has already been given to you. It is already yours. You have already been dressed by the hands of the One who loves you so dearly.

And here your heavenly Bridegroom cares for you as His Bride, His beloved Church. He clothes you, and He feeds you in His love for you, in His faithfulness and mercy, in His steadfast loving-kindness and tender affection for you, whom He has sought and called to be His own. Humble yourself to receive His good work and His gracious gifts, since He is your Savior and your Head.

His care for you, that is your wedding garment. Not what you do for yourself, and no amount of preparation on your part, but His gracious, loving care for you — that is your wedding garment.

Do not come trusting in yourself, nor in any human might or merit. Rather, fix your eyes on your Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, by fixing your ears upon His Word of the Gospel. Rely upon Him, and come to the Feast. Wear the clothing with which He has clothed you in your Baptism, that is, the righteousness, innocence, and blessedness of Christ Himself, which now cover you in His peace.

To wear those garments of salvation is to live by faith in Christ and His forgiveness, clinging to His Word and trusting His Gospel. It is to come, knowing that you are not worthy of yourself to eat and drink this Meal, but that Christ has made you worthy, that He has called you to Himself, and that He has wed you to Himself. Come to the Feast believing that. Here there are only the free gifts of God, and for your part there is only thanksgiving. There is nothing else you can give to Him who gives you everything by grace, except to return thanks through Jesus Christ your Lord.

When everything is a gift, as it is here, there is nothing for you to do but to say, “Thank you!”

It is for this reason that one of the primary names which the Church has given to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper is “Eucharist,” the Greek word for thanksgiving. What else do you have to bring? But clinging to the Cross, you simply give thanks for the free gifts of God in Christ Jesus.

That is what characterizes the Kingdom of Heaven: Thanksgiving and rejoicing, praising the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has done everything for you, who gives everything to you, and who withholds no good thing from you. You, then, give thanks to Him. That is what faith does, as surely as it hears and believes what God says and gladly receives what He freely bestows in the Gospel. Rejoice, give thanks, and sing to the praise and glory of His Holy Name!

Rejoice in what is good and right and true. Be gentle of heart. Be honorable in all of your actions. Be pure and chaste in all of your thoughts, in your words, and in your deeds. And do whatever you are given to do with excellence, as the Lord so enables and provides; not as though you were competing, but to the glory of your God and Father and to the praise of your heavenly Bridegroom.

Trust His grace and favor. And living by His grace through faith in His Gospel, be at peace as you go about your days in this world. So far as it depends on you, be at peace with everyone. If you are hurt, bear it in Christ, in patience, forgiveness, and love. Be content and confident in what the Lord has done and said and given to you; do not be anxious or worried about anything.

Remember that Christ has clothed you with His righteousness. He has dressed you in the robes of salvation. He’s got you decked out in better than your Sunday best. That’s true both day and night, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, whatever you happen to be wearing. You are clothed by and with and in Christ Jesus. How then shall you live in relation to your neighbors in the world?

Glorify the Holy Name of Christ by confessing His Name, not only in what you say, but also in how you act, in how you live your life within the world.

Do not clothe yourself again in death. That is the garment that was spread over all the nations by the fall into sin, the pall of death that covers the entire world apart from Christ. Do not clothe yourself in that legacy of fallen Adam, but be clothed by Christ Jesus with His Life and Salvation. Be clothed by Him in wedding garments fit for the Feast of a King.

Don’t go rolling around in the mud, in the muck and the mire, when your Lord has dressed you in such wedding finery. But where you have stained the wedding garment with which the Lord has dressed you, don’t take it off; and don’t try to cover yourself with fig leaves or high fashion. Only return to the waters of your Baptism; not to be baptized again, but to be cleansed by the Blood of Christ, again and again, as often as you fall, through His Absolution, His forgiveness of sins.

And being clothed and fed by Christ — though He and you are despised by the world — clothe and feed your neighbors with the love of God in Christ, even as you daily return to His love in the Gospel. Pass the serving tray, as it were, with which the Lord Jesus Christ continues to serve you.

In living by faith and with such love for others, you glorify your Bridegroom who has dressed you so beautifully and so well, and who cares for you with a passion that never wanes or ceases.

Be content, be confident, and be at peace in Him. Receive the gifts Christ freely gives, and know that you belong here at His Feast, not simply as a guest, but as His own dearly beloved Bride. From heaven He came and sought you, and He has called you to Himself. He loves you, and He will never leave you nor forsake you. Come, then, to the Feast, and rejoice in His great salvation.

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

Messengers Sent to Serve the Children of Man

Like ourselves, the holy angels are likewise creatures of the one true God; but they are creatures of such might and majesty that we human beings of finite, frail flesh and blood can hardly begin to comprehend what they are like — and all the more so because of our fallen, sinful state.

The angels of God are His creatures, and perhaps in all of His vast Creation there are no creatures of greater might and majesty than they possess. And yet, these holy angels were created for the sake of Man, to honor and serve mankind. Not as though God needed their help; there is nothing that He cannot do by His own almighty power. As great and majestic as the angels are, they also depend upon the Lord our God for their very existence, and for all that they are and have.

But, no, God made the angels, not as though He needed them — not as though He needed anything — but because in His divine love He desired to serve and honor us, men and women made in His Image and Likeness, which is to say, in the Image and Likeness of the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus.

Man alone among all of God’s creatures has been created to share and participate in His divine, eternal Life. The Son of God did not become an angel, nor any other creature than true Man, born of the Woman, born of flesh and blood like your own, save only without any sins of His own. The majestic holy angels were created to serve mankind for the sake of that one true Man, Christ Jesus.

There are hints in the Holy Scriptures — and theologians throughout the history of the Church have surmised and concluded — that Satan and his minions fell from God’s presence because of pride and envy over this very thing, that human beings were created for such glory, that God in His grace would bestow such honor upon such creatures of frail flesh and blood. Out of jealousy and  resentment, Satan rebelled against God, the Lord, and led other angels into this rebellion, as well.

And the gracious privilege that God has given to the children of Man is demonstrated above all in this crucial difference, that, whereas those rebellious and fallen angels — the devil and his hordes — have been given no opportunity for redemption, repentance, and restoration to their original state, fallen man is raised up with Christ Jesus through repentance and faith in His Holy Gospel.

As we are all well aware, it certainly is the case that Man has also rebelled against God, the Lord, and fallen into sin, and brought death upon himself and all of Creation — because all of Creation has been created by God for the blessing and benefit of Man, to whom He gave dominion over the earth. Yet, despite this glory and honor of God’s grace, Man dishonored God and disobeyed His Word. Adam & Eve and all their children, including each of us, have sinned against the Lord.

But to you and all the children of Man — in contrast to the fallen angels — there is given this great redemption in Christ Jesus, this restoration and salvation, this high honor of the Holy Gospel!

It is not as though the sins of mankind are any less sinful or egregious than those of Satan and the other fallen angels. If you consider that Satan’s sin is one of arrogance, pride, envy, and jealousy, you find that much of your own sin is Satanic — or demonic, as we heard recently from St. James. You also are arrogant and prideful in your sin, selfish, self-centered, and self-righteous; and you also are envious and jealous of your neighbor, covetous of what the Lord God has given to others.

And yet, the same Lord God in His mercy has chosen to save you by the incarnation of the Son!

That grace and salvation of God makes the devil all the angrier. Indeed, the devil is furious, hell-bent on dragging you and all people down with himself; he is desperate and determined to destroy you, to grab you and keep you away from the one true God. To that end, Satan tempts you to sin, in order that he might then accuse you of your sin! Do not underestimate the devil’s wiliness, he is wiser and more cunning than you. He is crafty and subtle. And do not underestimate his strength, for he is stronger than you, and he prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking to devour you.

The devil will stop at nothing to destroy you. And sadly, you give him plenty of ammunition with your sins, with all that you do contrary to the Word of God. That old dragon, Satan the “Accuser,” does not even have to lie when he points his finger in your face, because he can bring the very Law of God against you. Yet, he is undone by the Word of the Gospel, because Jesus forgives you!

The simple Word of the Gospel is your mightiest weapon against the devil, all his works, and all his ways. The Word of the Gospel is your strongest armor and protection against the devil’s wiles and strength. For the Holy Gospel of your Lord Jesus Christ forgives your sins and removes all your iniquity and guilt, and it covers you with the Lord’s own righteousness, holiness, and peace.

It is likewise for the sake of this Holy Gospel that St. Michael and all the holy angels serve and protect you in both body and soul, according to the good and gracious Will of God. Indeed, above all else, St. Michael and the holy angels live to serve the Will of God; and it is His good and gracious Will for you in Christ Jesus, that you should be rescued and saved from sin, death, the devil, and hell, and that you should not perish but live forever with God Himself in Paradise.

So, for the sake of the Gospel — which is really to say, for the sake of Christ Jesus — those great majestic angels of God constantly surround you and protect you, and they pull you from the fire, and they save you from destruction, and they protect and guard your body. And along with all of that, they also guard and keep your soul, as well, so that Satan has no chance to get at you.

Even so, for all of that, it has not been given to the holy angels but to men, whom God has chosen, called, ordained, and sent in His Name — not to angels, but to such men it is given to preach the Gospel, to forgive sins, and to administer the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus in His Holy Supper.  It is by this Word and Flesh and Blood of Christ that you are rescued and saved from the devil and all his wicked assaults and accusations. But it is not the holy angels who are entrusted with that Holy Ministry of the Gospel, but men who are sent by the Lord Jesus in His Name and stead.

Today, then, in particular, we give thanks and praise to God for the gift of His human “angels,” His messengers in this place — Bryan and Adam — sent to proclaim His Gospel to all of you!

In this Holy Ministry, we see again the honor and glory that God has given to Man, over and above that of the holy angels. It is men who are given to bestow the Gifts of Christ Jesus, and it is men and women who receive those Gifts unto themselves. For the almighty and eternal Son of God has not become like those angelic spirits, but He has become true Man and the Savior of all mankind.

The holy angels of God see in you, in your flesh and blood, the same human nature that God Himself, the incarnate Son Christ Jesus, has made His very own when He was conceived and born of the Woman, St. Mary. That is what the angels see in you. And by the same token, that is what you ought to see in your neighbor, as well, namely, the Image and Likeness of God, your Savior.

Indeed, in Christ Jesus, mortal Man — despite our fall into sin, and notwithstanding the death and damnation we deserve by our sin — Man is raised up, exalted, and glorified far and above the holy angels: in Him who was for a little while made lower than the holy angels, but has now been given the Name which is above every name, the Name with which He has named you in your Baptism.  And this is your glory and honor, that by the grace of God He has done all this for you.

Unlike Satan and all the other fallen angels who joined in his rebellion, St. Michael and all the holy angels of God harbor no envy or jealousy of you. They do not resent this grace of God toward you and all the children of Man. They are not bitter toward you, nor angry with God over you. Rather, their greatest joy and delight is found in the repentance, forgiveness, faith, and salvation of men and women, boys and girls — in your repentance, your forgiveness, your faith, and your salvation.

The holy angels of God rejoice to serve and support you for the sake of Christ Jesus, your Savior. They love to do it, because it is according to the Will of God, the Lord. This is God’s greatest delight, to save you and give you life; and so it is the greatest joy and delight of the holy angels.

And so, for all that they praise and honor and worship God, they do so for this above all else, that you have been saved; that you have been called out of darkness into the Light of Christ; that your sins have been forgiven; that you shall live with Christ forever and ever. In this all the angels in heaven rejoice. How much more, then, shall we worship, honor, glorify, and praise our dear God and Father for this Gospel and this Life which He freely gives to us by His grace in Christ Jesus!

And along with all His benefits, we give thanks to God, as well, for the service of His holy angels, who even now gather with us around the Lamb upon His throne, the God of God and Light of Light, the very God of very God, who became Flesh of our flesh and Bone of our bone, who bore your sins and griefs and sorrows in His own Body to the Cross, who was crucified, put to death, and buried for you, to atone for your sins and reconcile you to God, who is risen from the dead, ascended into heaven, and seated at the Right Hand of the Father forever and forevermore.

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

The Mercy and Intercession of Our Great High Priest

Do you look for the Resurrection of the dead and the Life of the world to come?  Is that what you wait for, long for, and pray for? — The Life of the world to come, when there will be no blindness, and no paralysis, no aching bones and muscles, no ugly cancer cells eating the life out of your body from the inside-out — the Day without end, full of life and light and joy in the Lord your God?

To be and to live as a Christian is to look for that Resurrection of the body and that Life in both body and soul in the presence of the Holy Triune God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  And if, by His grace, you are looking for that Resurrection and that Life, your hope shall not be put to shame or disappointed, because Jesus of Nazareth is here, the incarnate Son of God, your merciful and great High Priest.  He has drawn near to you here, that you might draw near to God in Him.

He is the Son of David, Bartimaeus has it exactly right.  Descended from David according to the flesh, according to the promise God had given, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, He is your Brother in the Flesh.  He has a Body of flesh and blood, just like you.  And into His own Body He has taken all your sin, borne its full weight, and suffered all its consequences.  He knows your hurt, He knows your hunger, He knows your weakness and pain, your fatigue, and your tears.  He has become like you, and He has been tempted and suffered in every way like you, save only without any sins of His own, in order to save you, to fill you with His Life in both body and soul.

For all of that, He is and remains the one true God, begotten of the Father from all eternity, God from God, Light from Light, very God of very God.  All that belongs to the Father belongs to Him.  And now He has become Flesh, and He draws near to you in the Flesh, to be and to serve as your High Priest, the one Mediator between God and Man, perfectly uniting God and Man in Himself, in His Body.  Thus has He given Himself for you, sacrificed Himself and shed His Blood for you.

The incarnate Son of God, great David’s greater Son, has thereby conquered death for you and all the sons and daughters of affliction, because He has made Atonement for the sins of the world.  He has redeemed you and all the children of men by His Cross, He has reconciled you to His God and Father in the righteousness of His Resurrection, and He has made right all that was wrong.

And even as He draws near to you here, tabernacles with you, and gives Himself to you here within His Church on earth, He is also seated at the Right Hand of His God and Father in the heavenly places, where He has made a place for you, now and forever.  The One who has taken your place — the One who shares your flesh and blood, who bore your sins in His own Body and died your death upon the Cross — He is the One who is risen from the dead, who lives and reigns forever.  He has entered into the true Holy of Holies, eternal in the heavens.  He has taken His seat at the Right Hand of the Father because His work of Atonement and Redemption is perfectly completed.  And yet, as your High Priest, He ever lives to make intercession for you before the Throne of God.

This is one of the most amazing and astonishing things, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, always lives to pray and intercede for you in the presence of His God and Father.  He’s doing so right now, even as He is also here with you in His Church on earth, in the Liturgy of His Gospel.  Both here and there — with God and with you, as surely as He is both God and Man — He stands for you, steadfast and eternal.  His Priesthood never ends, and so shall your Life and Salvation never end.

The Son of God is praying for you, ever and always.  And the Father hears His prayer and receives, not only His prayer, but you along with it in this beloved Son, Christ Jesus.  For He has done all that He has done, and He still does what He does, in order to bring you to the Father in Himself.

It is in and with and through Christ Jesus, and by no other way or means, that the Father gathers His people from all the nations of the world, from all times and place.  It is in and with and through Christ Jesus — by the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus — that the Father calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies His children to be His holy people, a royal priesthood, named with His own Name.

Take courage, then, and have no fear.  Know that God Himself is for you.  He does not condemn you for your many sins, though you surely deserve nothing but punishment, but He raises you up from the dust of the earth, from sin and death, to live the New Life that is yours in Christ Jesus.

Don’t lie there in despair.  Don’t imagine that there is no hope or help for you.  Don’t withdraw into yourself.  But stand up, and draw near to Jesus in His Gospel; for He is calling for you.

“Come unto Me,” He says.  If you labor and are heavy laden — if you know your sins, your needs, your hurts and sorrows, your frailties and afflictions — come to Him, and He will give you rest.  Draw near to Him, and follow Him.  Live by faith in His Word, as a child of His God and Father.

He has made you God’s own child by the washing of the water with His Word and Holy Spirit in your Holy Baptism.  Those are the quiet waters to which God calls you and along which He leads His people; and that is the straight and narrow way by which you live and walk as His dear child.

Do not wander away from those waters, for they are your daily cleansing, your forgiveness and sanctification, your life and health and strength and every blessing.  Though it seems very simple, too good to be true — and though you cannot see it with your eyes or discern it with your senses in this mortal body and life — yet, listen with your ears, and know that it is true.  The Lord Jesus is here with you and for you in the Church and Ministry of His Gospel.  Come to Him, and live.

He has taken His stand for you here.  He has planted His feet here on earth, right here on the corner of Milton and Dale, in order to receive you to Himself — no less so than He did for Bartimaus.  When Jesus heard that poor man calling, He stopped, and He said, “Call him to Me.”  That Word of Jesus, that was that man’s courage.  And the Word of that same Jesus, calling for you, is now your courage, also.  It is His Word that raises you up from the dust and the dirt on the side of the road — that raises you up from death and the grave — to live and walk with Him as a Christian.

He has taken His stand for you here, to receive you to Himself; and as I said, even now He sits at the Right Hand of God, the Father in heaven, interceding for you.  So, consider what that means:  As the Lord Jesus is here with you, and the same Jesus is seated at the Right Hand of His Father, then right here is where you draw near to God.  Right here is where you live in His presence.

Repent of your sins, therefore, and turn away from all that is not right in your life.  Throw off your old self, as Bartimaeus threw off his cloak and got up.  You are called to something new and real.  You are called from out of your darkness and death into the Life and Light of God in Christ Jesus.  So, rise up, draw near, and call upon the Name of the Lord who loves you and calls you to Himself.

If you are threatened with despair, call upon His Name.  If you are crushed by more than you can handle, call upon His Name.  And if you think you have everything handled, call upon His Name.

You do not have what it takes to live by yourself.  But you do have such a Savior who invites you, teaches you, and commands you to pray; who has also promised to hear and answer your prayer.

His Word reveals and makes plain the way things really are.  His Word exposes your sin for what it is and makes known your desperate need for Him, sitting there on the side of the road, blind, or lame, or deaf and mute, or even in good health but sinful nonetheless, and dying in your ignorance of God — which is real blindness — unable to see the Lord as He is, to know and trust in Him.

But as surely as God’s Word exposes your sin and shame and desperation, so surely does His Word also open your blind eyes to see and know the Lord Jesus, to follow Him, to love and trust in Him, to cling to His forgiveness in faith and confidence, and to find all that you need in Him alone.

The Word that He speaks to you is the Word of His Cross, which is both Law and Gospel.  It does crucify and kill you, but it also makes you alive.  It wounds you to the core, but it also heals you from the inside-out.  The One who speaks to you is the One who has borne your griefs and carried all your sorrows — your blindness, your lameness, your deafness, and your muteness, your hurts and pains and disappointments, your frustrations — all of that, He has borne it in His own Flesh.

All of the sin and death that lives in your body and soul, He has taken all of it upon Himself, and He has nailed it all to the Cross in His own Body, in frailty, weakness, and pain.  And yet, it is by His innocent suffering and death, by the shedding of His holy and precious Blood, that He has made Atonement forever, for you and all the world.  He has done it.  He has made Peace with God.

This fallen, sinful world is no longer under the wrath and judgment of God’s Law, but is now made new in Christ Jesus, reconciled and at peace with God, because He has taken all the fallenness and brokenness, all the sin, death, and damnation upon Himself, and still He has persevered in perfect faith and love.  He did not turn away from His God and Father, but continued to call upon and trust His Father, even in the depths of judgment and under the condemnation of the Law — punished for the sins of the world.  In all things He remained faithful and righteous and holy as your Savior.

And you know that God has vindicated Him.  His Sacrifice was not in vain.  For God raised this same Jesus from the dead.  The very One who bore your sins and died in your place, God raised Him from the dead.  He lives, He lives, who once was dead, the Lamb who has been slain for you.

Therefore, you also are raised from death to life in His Resurrection.  Your home and your place are not in the ground, under judgment, or in hell.  Your home and your place are with God.  Thus are you seated with Christ Jesus in the heavenly places by faith in His forgiveness of your sins.

You are vindicated in Him.  You are holy and righteous in Him.  There is no condemnation for you in Christ Jesus.  None.  That is your courage to stand up and come to Him.  And you shall not be put to shame or disappointed, for you bear the honor of Christ as a beloved son of God in Him.

That’s what “Bartimaeus” means, “a son of honor.”  And what a joke it must have seemed, as he lay there on the side of the road, blind and begging.  And when he would go to Jesus, everyone told him, “No! You can’t go to Him. Sit down and shut up!”  But Christ Jesus says, “Call him to Me.”

And the same Lord Jesus calls you to come, as well.  He has brought down the walls of hostility, as surely as He once brought down the walls of Jericho in the days of old.  And He has defeated all of your enemies, every last one of them.  But you He has saved.  As He once rescued Rahab and her family when He brought down the walls of Jericho, so has He saved you from sin and death.

So, pray to Him in faith and confidence, in the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection and the Life everlasting.  Call upon His Name as a beloved and well-pleasing child of God in Christ Jesus.  Not as though you have to twist His arm or convince Him to help you, but because He is your Life and your Salvation, and He has come in mercy to raise you up and save you in body and soul.

Stand up, and take courage.  He is calling you to Himself.  Call upon His Name.  And as you pray, so also live by faith in Him, in love for Him and for your neighbor.  So let your life be your prayer.

As Bartimaeus was called to faith and received his sight by the Word of Jesus, he set out to follow Jesus on the Way of the Cross.  In short, he became a disciple, a Christian.  Now, you also follow Christ Jesus, wherever He has called you and stationed you to serve in this body and life on earth.  Do what He has given you to do.  Where that means bearing the Cross for your neighbors, give thanks to God that He counts you worthy to do so.  And where it means suffering for His Name’s sake, rejoice that you bear such a Name.  And if you die because you are a Christian, give thanks to God that you live because you are a Christian, because you are in Christ, and Christ lives in you.

The Way of the Cross can seem futile and foolish, like marching around a city for six days in a row, wondering what’s going to happen.  But trust the Word that God has spoken, and know that at His Word you are raised up and you live, as Christ is risen from the dead and lives forevermore.

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

Your Sabbath Rest in the Body of Christ Jesus

Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy.  That is to say, not that you simply recall and think about the Old Testament Sabbath (which has been fulfilled and superceded in Christ Jesus) — nor that you merely give a nod to this or that day of the week — but that you receive and rest yourself in the Word that God speaks and the Gifts that He bestows upon you in the place where He causes His Name and His Glory to tabernacle with you for the sake of your Life and Salvation in Christ.

So, then, as Dr. Luther has so clearly and simply explained: In the fear and faith of the Lord your God, do not despise the preaching of His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.  For it is by this way and means of preaching that God grants you His perfect Peace and Sabbath Rest through the forgiveness of all your sins.  And it is in the receiving of these good and gracious Gifts of God, in faith and with thanksgiving, that you worship God the Father in His incarnate Son and by His Holy Spirit.  Indeed, that is how you live and do not die, body and soul, now and forever.

The way you live and work and go about your days and weeks hinges on whether and how you keep this Sabbath rest.  Do you think of that rest as the due reward of your labors?  Or do you recognize your work to be a way of living in the peace and rest that God gives you by His grace?

When you realize, understand, and trust that your entire life in body and soul is from the Lord your God — that your real life, now and forever, is found in Him and with Him, in the Word and Flesh of Christ Jesus — and that you are always living in His presence (Coram Deo) — and when your heart, mind, body, and soul are thus turned toward the Lord in repentance and faith — then you have true peace and genuine rest, even as you work hard to do your job, and even in your death.

But when you work as though to make a life for yourself by your labors, and when you live for the accumulation of wealth and riches on earth, then you have no peace and no rest.  Not even when you call it a day and go to bed and try to sleep.  Not even when you’re living it up on vacation.

These are the chronicles of life and death and everything in between.  For the way your life begins — and the way that it will end — certainly ought to inform the way that you live all of your days in between, the way that you approach your job and go about all your working and your resting.

And the fact remains that your whole life comes entirely from God; and when you die He will be your Judge.  So, consider that you were naked when you were born into this world, and so will you be naked before Him when He raises your body from the dust of the earth for the final judgment.

Whatever it is that you may hold in your hands in the meantime, every last bit of it is a gift, pure and simple, not according to any merit of yours, but all by the mercies of God.  And all such things are temporary, besides; you can’t take any of them with you, so how should you be using them?

Who or what is it that you worship with your body and life?  Who or what do you serve with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength?  What is it that occupies your thoughts and your attention?  And where do you invest your time, your energies and affections, and your financial resources?  Where and how you spend your money is often the best way to discern who and what your god is.

So, do you worship the one true God in faith and love, according to His Word?  That is to say, do you fear, love, and trust in the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, by repentance and by faith in His Gospel, by hearing and receiving His Gifts in the Liturgy, in the sacred Preaching and Holy Supper of Christ Jesus?  If so, then you are alive, and you are living by the grace of God, come hell or high water against you; and even though you die, yet shall you live forever with God.

For your Life in God’s Kingdom does not originate with your works, nor does it consist of your wealth, but it is received by faith in His Gospel, and it is lived in love for the sake of Jesus Christ.

But if you do not love the Lord your God above all, and if you do not serve and worship only Him, then you are dead and dying in your false belief and sin, which is idolatry, even as you go about your temporal life on earth, no matter how healthy, wealthy, and wise you imagine yourself to be.

To put it another way, What is it that rules your life?  What is it that has dominion over you?  Who or what is your lord?  Whom or what do you obey?  And what, then, does your life look like as a consequence?  For that is “the kingdom” to which you belong, whether it be of God or the devil.

Make no mistake, there are lots of wealth and riches of all kinds in this fallen and perishing world, to which you are tempted and prone to cling, and for which you hunger, strive, and fight, as though your life and happiness derived from and actually depended on such things.  It might be money, your house and home, or your vehicle, by way of some common examples.  Or it might also be intangible things, such as friendship and popularity, power and prestige, knowledge and ingenuity, or entertainment of one kind or another.  All such things are good and gracious gifts of God, which are to be received in faith and with thanksgiving and sanctified by His Word and prayer.  But your sinful and guileful heart is rather inclined to take His gifts and make them into false gods and idols — thus worshiping the creature instead of the Creator, the gifts instead of their Giver.

There’s any number of different ways by which you count your “coins” and compete with your neighbors in this body and life.  But whether you “have” or “have not,” whether a lot or a little, it is not possible for you to enter the Kingdom of God by your wealth and riches of whatever sort.

In fact, not only will your “wealth and riches” not get you into heaven, they present a temptation, a covetous desire that actually threatens to consume you; which makes it that much harder and all the more impossible for you to enter into the Kingdom of God at all.  Your stuff gets in the way.

Where, then, is the promise of real Peace and Sabbath Rest?  That is yours only in Christ Jesus, in His Cross and Resurrection; and it is granted to you by His grace in the preaching of His Gospel.  The one true faith is conceived and born within your heart and life, within your body and soul, by the way and means of that preaching, as you are thereby given to hear, receive, and trust the Word of God in Christ Jesus, the forgiveness of all your sins and the free gift of eternal Life in His Body of Flesh and Blood.  Thus do you have Peace and Rest in the incarnate Son of God by faith in Him.

Listen, then, and hear His Word to you.  He has already made Peace for you by the reconciliation of His Cross.  And He has established Sabbath Rest for you in His Resurrection from the dead, which is your righteousness in the presence of God.  All of this that He has done for you, He also desires to share with you, and He does so here and now — Today! — with His voice of mercy.

In the Old Testament, the Sabbath was first established with the finished completion of Creation — and then again with the Exodus from Egypt, whereby the Lord, the one true God, bestowed rest upon His people by way of His works on their behalf, by His mighty arm and outstretched hand.

So did the Lord God create His people out of nothing, and redeem them from out of death into life, from out of slavery into freedom.  He set them free to worship Him, to fear, love, and trust in Him, not for His benefit, but for their present and eternal welfare, even the Life everlasting with Him.  So did He bring them through the desert wilderness, across the Jordan River, into the good Land that He had promised, wherein He gave them Peace and Rest from all their enemies on all sides.

And all these things, which the Lord God did for His people then, He has fulfilled in Christ Jesus for you and for all people.  By His Holy Cross and Passion He has redeemed you from death and damnation, and He calls you out of your slavery to sin into the freedom of faith in His forgiveness.  That is the Sabbath Rest that remains for you and all His people in the Word and Flesh of Jesus.

By His Resurrection and Ascension Christ Jesus brings you through the waters of Baptism out of Egypt into the heavenly Canaan, into the Kingdom of His God and Father, in and with Himself, as a member of His own Body and Bride, the Holy Christian Church (on earth as it is in heaven).

It was surely not easy for Him to accomplish this great Salvation on your behalf.  Indeed, how costly and painful it was!  And yet, He has done it gladly and willingly in His divine and holy Love — for all people, yes — but in His divine and holy Love for you, for each and every one of you.

And what He has thus done and established by His hard work, by His bloody sweat and labor, He grants to you as Peace and Rest in His Means of Grace, in His means of forgiveness and Life: In the waters of Holy Baptism, wherein you have died with Him, and by which you also rise and live with Him.  In the Holy Communion, wherein He feeds you with His own holy Body and precious Blood, that He might abide in you and you in Him, both body and soul, now and forevermore.  And, really, everywhere in His Holy Gospel, He is consistently forgiving your sins, day after day.  Thus do you have Sabbath Rest in Christ Jesus, even as you go about your works of love within your own stations in life, and even as you face your death.  For not the devil, nor hell, nor even the Law of God have any right to accuse or condemn you any longer, since Christ has given Himself for you, atoned for all your sins by His Sacrifice, and still graciously forgives you by His Word.

As you have died with Christ Jesus and given up everything in your Baptism — for that is what happened there, in those waters; that is what you promised; and that is what Christ did for you by His Word and Holy Spirit — as you have died with Him there, relinquishing everything else in the waters of Holy Baptism — renouncing the devil, all his works, and all his ways, and the world with all its pomp and circumstance, and, yes, even your own sinful flesh, with all your sinful lusts and desires — and there laying hold of eternal Life in Christ Jesus, in His Father and His Holy Spirit — so do you now live and work on earth, in the place where God has stationed you, by faith in Him, by faith in His Gospel, in the hope and confidence of His Resurrection from the dead.

So, too, the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ is your Peace and Rest, here in time and hereafter in eternity.  For all things in heaven and on earth are yours in Him, by His grace, through faith in His Gospel, in the Liturgy of His-Word-preached-to-you and His-Body-and-Blood-given-for-you.

This Lord Jesus Christ has finished once-for-all His perfect work on the Sixth Day, Good Friday, atoning for the sins of the world and reconciling the world to His God and Father.  And He has rested on the Seventh Day, that Holy Saturday, the Sabbath, in order to sanctify your rest in Him, so that even your grave and the graves of all His saints are made holy by His own rest in the tomb.

In His Resurrection, His Body has become the First Fruits of the New Creation, and His Flesh and Blood are the New Passover; for He has accomplished the new and greater Exodus, bringing His people out of death into eternal Life in and with Himself, the One who is greater than Moses.  For all things are fulfilled, perfected, and made brand new in Him, in His Body of flesh and blood.

Therefore, do not harden your heart by setting it upon your own works or your own wealth, but worship the Lord your God by faith in the Person of the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus.  Remember His Sabbath and keep it holy unto yourself by hearing His Gospel, by receiving His mercy and grace here within His Church, in His own Liturgy, and by eating and drinking His Body and Blood here at His Altar, according to His Word, in faith and with thanksgiving for all that He has done.

For He does remember you with His free and full forgiveness of all your sins; He sanctifies your body and your soul for the Life everlasting; and He gives you Peace and Rest in Himself forever.

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

Living the Good Life by Faith in Christ Jesus

What is it that you trust and rely on?  What is it that you cling to for dear life?  What do you look to in yourself and in your life for safety and security, for a sense of peace and satisfaction?

Is it your good works?  Or have you come to the honest realization that your good works just aren’t good enough?  What, then?  Your good intentions or best efforts?  Your property, your land and all your stuff?  Can you name and number your possessions, and do you keep them close at hand?

Is it your income you depend on?  Your savings and investments?  Or your insurance policies?  Have you got everything in its place, so that, no matter what happens, you’ll still have it made?

Or, maybe you know better.  Maybe you know that your silver and gold will disappear, and that all of your stuff will rust, or moths will eat it, or thieves will steal it.  So, do you look for your life, instead, in your family, friends, and loved ones?  In your relationships and social circles?  In the number of “likes” and comments that your posts and pictures get on social media?  Or in the nice things you hope they’ll say in your obituary and at your funeral?  Is that what you’re relying on?

The rich young man understood that, for all his good works, and for all his possessions, there was still something missing.  He was still falling short and lacking something crucial.  Perhaps he had heard (or heard about) the Sermon on the Mount, and he wondered how his righteousness could ever exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, that he might inherit and enter the Kingdom of God.  He had questions, in any case, because his heart and mind were not at rest.  He had no real peace.

It’s easy enough to hear this story and suppose this young man was boastful and arrogant, prideful, and self-confident.  But he comes to Jesus because he’s looking for something — something he doesn’t know or have or understand.  He’s restless inside, and he’s searching.  How about you?

For all that you have — for all your best efforts, all your hard work, your family and friends, your good name and reputation — for all that, what is still missing, and what is it that you still need?  What is it going to cost?  And what must you do to get it and keep it?  What are you willing to do?

Actually, you already know what you should be doing; or, you should know, in any case.  Like it or not, the Lord has told you what to do and not to do, and what you are to be about.  He has given you the guidance of His Word, He has called you to a particular office and station in life, and He has positioned you in the proximity of neighbors you are to love and serve and care for.

As the Catechism has taught you, consider your place in life according to the Ten Commandments, and then you will already have more than enough to occupy all your days and life on earth.

Wherever God has placed you in this world, that is it where you are to fear, love, and trust in Him, to listen to His Word and call upon His Name.  That is where you are to honor your parents and the other authorities God has positioned over you, to catechize and care for those He has entrusted to your oversight, and to do unto others as you would have done unto you.

You don’t have to go hunting and searching to find or figure out what God would have you do — in fact, you absolutely should not abandon your post to attempt that kind of self-chosen adventure.  Just do what God has given you to do in the place where He has put you, according to His Word.

But don’t do it as a way or means of getting life for yourself, far less as a way or means of saving yourself or gaining the Kingdom of God by your own works and efforts.  Rather, do what God has given you to do, and live according to His Word, because He is the Author and Giver of Life, and His Word to you is your Life and Salvation.  It is good and right to live as He has spoken.  What is more, it is good for you and for your neighbor to live in harmony with His Word, which reveals and describes, guides and governs the divine Life that is lived by His grace in faith and love.

Goodness is not achieved or accomplished by your behavior.  You can’t make yourself good by the works that you do.  That is not within your power or ability.  Goodness belongs to God alone, to His Word and His works.  And such goodness can only become yours by the gift of His grace.

Now, then, your goodness as a creature of God, as a human being, is by and according to His holy Word, for He has created you in His Image and Likeness; He brought you into existence by His almighty power, and He formed you in your mother’s womb for Life with Himself in both body and soul, both here in time and hereafter in eternity.  And notwithstanding the Fall, in spite of the curse and consequences of sin and death, the goodness of God is established and fulfilled in Man in the Person of Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, that you might inherit the Kingdom of God and Life everlasting in Him.  And that divine goodness of Christ Jesus is given to you and realized in you by His grace, by faith in His Word of the Gospel.  Your goodness is solely by faith in Him.

It is because you are good by faith in Christ that you do what is good and right in love for God and for your neighbor, in the keeping of the Lord’s Commandments.  It is not what you do that makes you who and what you are (nor can you determine for yourself who and what you are); but who and what you are is manifest in what you do.  Because you are a sinner — a fallen child of Adam — you sin: you do what you should not, and you don’t do what you should.  But so, too, because you are a child of God in Christ Jesus — baptized in His Name — you do what is good and right: you live according to His Word by faith, and you love your neighbor as Christ Jesus loves you.

Now, your works in themselves can be measured by the Word of God, as to whether they are good or evil, right or wrong, outwardly speaking.  But as for yourself, your heart and soul, body and life, and where you stand before the Lord your God, that is another matter.  Your outward behavior is good and right to the extent that it agrees with the Word of God.  But apart from faith in Christ Jesus, even your best and most impressive works are detestable, filthy, and unclean in the presence of God.  Your self-righteousness is no righteousness at all in the eyes of the Lord, no matter how good it might look to you and to the world.  Apart from faith, it is impossible to please Him.

Such faith is not a commodity you can possess and put away on a shelf or in your closet.  It’s more than intellect or emotion, more than your knowledge of true facts, more than your good feelings.  It is rather to fear, love, and trust in God above all things, to stake your entire body and life on Him and on His Word, to rely on Him, to learn from Him, to bear His Cross and follow Him, even unto death, in the sure and certain hope of His Resurrection.  And with that, it’s a willingness to let go of your possessions, to give them up or use them up in service to your neighbors, while fixing your heart, mind, body, and life upon the Lord Jesus Christ and His divine Liturgy of the Holy Gospel.

Whatever it is that you cling to and won’t let go — whatever it is that you depend on for dear life — whatever it is that makes you feel happy, complete, safe, and at peace when you have it; but if or when it is threatened or taken away, you are inconsolably angry, defensive, or sorrowful — that is your god, and that is your worship.  So, if you cannot relinquish your possessions, if you cannot let go of your stuff, you are worshiping the wrong gods, which are perishing and cannot give you life or save you.  But if you fear, love, and trust the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ above all things, then, no matter what comes your way, whether for life or death, you have Life in Him.

What, then?  Repent of your sins.  Turn away from evil and do good.  Hear and heed what God the Lord has spoken to you, and do what He commands.  Above all, believe and trust the Gospel of Christ Jesus.  Depend upon His grace and His forgiveness.  Receive His gifts, and so rely on Him.  That is your Life and Salvation.  For you are His, and He is yours, and He will not let you go.

Repent of your sins, believe the Gospel, and be baptized.  Or, if you have already been baptized, then return to the ongoing significance of your Baptism — every day — and so also, here and now.  Return to the Cross of Christ, to your death and life in Him, by contrition and repentance, by faith in His forgiveness of your sins and His free gifts of the Gospel.  Because everything that you lack, everything that’s missing — the big empty hole in your heart, the restlessness in your mind, and all your sleepless nights — everything you need is here for you in the Word and Flesh of Jesus.

And it is all given to you, freely, by His grace, by the divine Charity of the Lord your God, whose eye is ever upon you in love.  It is not by your works that you receive it.  Nor is it for sale, as if you ever could afford to buy it, anyway.  But it is poured out upon you generously in Christ Jesus.

He is the One who keeps all of the Commandments, inside and out.  He lacks nothing in regards to holy faith, and He lacks nothing in respect to holy love.  And so it is that He who was rich with all the riches of the Kingdom of heaven made Himself poor with the utter poverty of your sin and death, in order that you might inherit His Righteousness and everlasting Life in His Resurrection from the dead.  He liquidates everything, His Body and His Life upon the Cross, in order to give you His Body and Life and all the Treasures of God’s Kingdom in the Liturgy of His Gospel.

Today, then — right here and now, Today — you hear His voice, that of your Good Shepherd and merciful High Priest, speaking His Gospel to you, forgiving you all your sins.  And as you hear His voice Today — from this Pulpit and this Holy Altar — do not harden your heart against Him, but follow Him where His Voice leads, and live by His good works, by His Cross and Resurrection.

Like that rich young man of St. Mark’s Holy Gospel.  Maybe it was John Mark himself, as tradition suggests (and I am inclined to believe).  In any case, we hear the story of this young man who had so many possessions — who was actually a ruler of the synagogue, a leader in the church — who had so much and did so much, and yet he knew that he was missing something — we hear about him here, and then we hear about two other young men in the continuation of the Holy Gospel.

I’m sure you remember the one story.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus was arrested and as He was being hauled away to get beaten up and then to be executed on the Cross, there was a young man following after Him.  He was wrapped in a linen sheet, that’s all he had on his body.  And the soldiers grabbed him — they were going to take him away, too — but he slipped away, and he ran away naked into the night.  Buck naked.  He had nothing.  It had all been stripped away.

And then, on the Third Day, very early in the morning, when the women went to the tomb, and they wondered how they were going to move that huge stone out of the way, they found that it was already gone.  And the body of Jesus was not there, because He had risen, just as He said.  But there in His tomb — you know it was an angel — but that’s not how St. Mark describes him.  There was a “young man,” he writes, clothed in white raiments, in the radiance of the Resurrection.

That’s what the Lord Jesus has done for you in Holy Baptism.  And that’s what He does for you Today and every Sunday.  Stripped naked by way of repentance, you are clothed in Christ Jesus, radiantly adorned in His Righteousness and Holiness, and decked out in His divine Goodness.

Here, then, is the peace and rest you’re looking for.  Here your poverty is filled up with His Riches.  Here your nakedness and shame are covered by His Honor and His Glory, because here your sins are all forgiven by His Word of the Gospel.  They really are.  And that is very good.

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

United as One Body in and with Christ Jesus

There is finally one Marriage, one Husband and one Wife.  There is the one Man, Jesus Christ — and there is the one Woman, His Holy Christian Church, made for Him as a suitable companion, corresponding to Him in every way, brought to Him and given to Him by His God and Father.

He is faithful in caring for His Bride and giving her life, in and with His own Body and Life, with His own Flesh and Blood — by His Cross and Passion and in His bodily Resurrection from the dead — in the Water and the Blood from His wounded side, in His Font and in His Chalice.

By these means of grace and salvation, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has made of you a member of His Bride, the Church; He has brought you to Him and given you to Him.

So are you called to be faithful to your Husband and Head, Christ Jesus, within your own particular place and station in life, whatever that may be.  For you are named with His holy Name, and you have been joined together with Him, united with Him in body and soul, heart, mind, and spirit.

You derive your life, all that you are and have, entirely from Him; and thus are you given to live unto Him in righteousness and purity, now and forever.  It’s not that you must earn your keep, or pull your own weight, or make a life for yourself, but that you would receive your life from Him alone, and so live in Christ Jesus your Lord by faith, by His grace, to the glory of His holy Name.

What that life in Christ Jesus looks like in the context of holy marriage here on earth is faithfulness and love in the lifelong union of one man and one woman, the male and the female, even unto death.  The husband gives himself and lays down his life for his wife, that she might have life; and the wife submits to her husband and serves him in love, in the faith and confidence of Jesus.

The intimate union of male and female as one flesh, the intimacy of heart, mind, body, and soul, belongs to this lifelong bond and commitment of marriage, because it confesses Christ Jesus and His Church and thus declares the Gospel and the grace of God.  It is to be a bond of faithfulness and loving devotion, because the Lord Jesus is faithful and devoted in His perfect love for you.

Casual “hook-ups,” temporary and conditional “shack-up” arrangements, perversions of sexuality, and all manner of unfaithfulness, including the breaking of the marriage bond by legal divorce — these all confess a false “christ” and false “gospel,” which do not give life but rob and destroy it.

Indeed, any and all attempts to engage in sexual intimacy outside of holy marriage, which is to say, outside of Christ Jesus and apart from His Word and Spirit, are not only sinful and unclean, but dangerous, deadly, and doomed to fail.

Of course, the “one flesh” union of husband and wife is also abused and broken within marriages — when spouses do not love and care for each other, but instead hurt or neglect each other, turn away from each other, or fend for themselves in competition with each other.

Simply living together in the same house, even sleeping together in the same bed, is not yet, by itself, the intimate communion of heart, mind, body, and soul that characterizes and constitutes the holy Matrimony of Christ Jesus with His beloved Bride, the Holy Christian Church.

Tragically, one doesn’t have to look very far or dig too deep to find examples of the brokenness, the disappointments, the failures, and the hurts that impact our human marriages here on earth.

By the same token, there is also the brokenness, the disappointments, the failures and hurts of those who have longed to be married or to be given in marriage, but who have no husband or wife to have and to hold, to love and to cherish in that blessed fellowship of a life wedded together.

All of which can easily make the very idea of “holy marriage” seem rather idealistic and naive.

And, as we have heard this morning, on account of the hardness of our fallen, sinful hearts, even holy Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send his wife away.

This “permission,” which God allowed through His Prophet Moses, should not be interpreted as any kind of acceptance or approval.  It is rather an acknowledgment of failure, an accommodation for the sake of avoiding even greater wickedness and further hurt.  But none of this is “good.”  From the beginning, Jesus says, this is not at all what God intended.  Elsewhere, the Lord clearly declares that He hates divorce, which is so contrary to His love and so antithetical to His Gospel.

Yet, the Lord God knows your frame, that you are mortal.  He knows that your flesh and blood are full of sin and death.  He knows the hardness of your heart and of your head.  He knows that you are prone to selfishness, to look after yourself at all costs, instead of trusting Him and obeying His voice and loving your neighbor as you ought.  He knows that you are likely to lash out in violence if you are backed into a corner and put on the defensive.  And He knows that you still have much to learn and a great deal of maturing to do, before you will grow into the fullness of the stature of your Savior, Jesus Christ, who is the true and heavenly Bridegroom of His Church.

It is also a fact that genuine love, such as holy marriage properly requires, cannot be achieved or obtained by the force of the Law.  Demands and threats and punishments will not bring about the self-giving and self-sacrificing love that belongs to real intimacy.  To be sure, your actions can and should be disciplined.  Your behavior can and should be curbed and moderated for the benefit and protection of your neighbors.  But outward regulations and controls will not change your heart.

So it is that God permits divorce, as a tragic last resort, lest even greater tragedy unfold — lest husbands and wives resort to violence and murder.  So might a father separate his warring children from each other, for a time, rather than risk trying to force them to get along with each other.

It’s not a matter of condoning sin or rewarding stubbornness, but a case of taking sin seriously and choosing the lesser of evils, while working to rescue the children from every evil of body and soul.

As a good and loving Father, the Lord your God is patient with you, long-suffering, and slow to anger.  He does not punish you as your sins actually deserve, but He bears with you according to His tender mercies and His grace, while He also disciplines you as a beloved son or daughter.

But it is more than immaturity and ignorance at work in your hardness of heart; it is sin and death having their way with you, wreaking havoc in your body and life and in all of your relationships.  Such things are another kind of “childish behavior,” altogether different than the childlike faith to which you are called.  The hardness of your sinful heart is evident, for example, in the pout and stomping foot and rebellious “no” and temper tantrum of the toddler.  The toddler must grow up — and so must the Christian also learn to live in faith toward God and in love for the neighbor.

The Law exposes your sin, your hardness of heart, your wickedness, your nakedness and shame.  But you learn and grow by repentance and by faith in Christ, because holy love and holy marriage are found, not in you, but in Him, in His faithfulness, and in His sacrifice for the sake of sinners.

It is certainly not just the “good” little boys and girls whom He takes up in His arms and blesses, but He gathers to Himself the colicky infants, the tyrannical toddlers, the spoiled brats, the moody and distant teens, the dead-beat twenty-somethings, and the childish “adults” who still resort to pouting and stomping and hollering “no.”  He calls them all to repentance, to be sure.  Their sins, and all of your sins, are not good.  But so does He also lay His hand on you in Holy Absolution.

And He does not cast you away from His presence.  He does not send you away.

What He permits men to do, because of their hard hearts, He Himself does not do.  He does not divorce His wife, but He wins her back, woos her to Himself in love, and reconciles her to Himself in the grace and forgiveness of His Gospel.  He does not consider her trespasses or count them against her, but He bears all her burdens and all her weaknesses in Himself.  He covers her guilt and shame and clothes her with His own honor, with His own righteousness and holiness.

He does all of this for you, in making you a member of His Body and His Bride, the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.  This is not idealistic or naive, but this is Holy Marriage, which is the Love of God in Christ Jesus, your Savior.  He is faithful in giving Himself for you, that you might be His very own, to have and to hold forever.  Even death shall not separate you from Him.

So, too, here within His Holy Church is where and how you get your bearings and take your cues, whether you are married or unmarried, widowed or divorced in this life on earth.  For you belong to Jesus Christ, the true and heavenly Bridegroom, and you bear His Name in whatever it is that you are called and given to do.  Both marriage and celibacy, here in time, point beyond themselves to the one Marriage of that one Man and His Holy Bride, which is forever and ever.

It is His Cross which sanctifies the crosses that you are given to bear in this body and life, whether the crosses of a spouse and marriage or the crosses of celibacy and loneliness.  It is the sacrifice of His Cross that forgives you, redeems you, and saves you from all of your unfaithfulness, from all of your lust, from your fornication and adultery, and from your coldness and hardness of heart.

The Lord your God — the almighty and eternal Son — has made Himself to be like you, bone of your bone, and flesh of your flesh, and blood of your blood.  He was conceived and born of the Woman, St. Mary, by the Word and Spirit of God, that you might be conceived and born of God by the washing of the water with His Word and Holy Spirit in His Holy Christian Church.  Therein you are cleansed and sanctified and clothed in the beautiful white wedding garments of Jesus Christ and His perfect righteousness.  Having no sins of His own, no flaws or blemishes, no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, He has bestowed on you His innocence and blessedness, even as He has taken upon Himself your sin and death and all unrighteousness.  He has borne your temptations and suffered all your sorrows, in order to become your merciful and faithful High Priest, in order to bring you blameless into everlasting Life with His God and Father in Paradise.

This is what it means for the Lord Jesus Christ to be your Husband, your heavenly Bridegroom.  And this is what it means for you to be a member of His Body and His Bride.  He is perfected in this vocation through suffering, by His Cross and Passion, so that you are perfected and glorified in Him, in His bodily Resurrection from the dead.  In His sleeping — in the deep sleep of His death upon the Cross and His resting in the earth — you have been taken from His side and formed in His Image, in the waters of your Baptism and in the holy and precious Blood of His Chalice.

Thus are you given to Him in Holy Marriage here at His Altar, as often as He feeds you here with His Flesh and Blood.  And so does He take you into His arms and bless you, for now and forever.

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

Salted by the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus for Life with God in Body and Soul

Your life and health and strength and salvation are found in the Name of the Lord.  You do not live by your own works, for they will perish with you.  Nor is your life to be found in the wealth and wisdom of this world, which also is perishing.  But it is by the Name of the Lord that you live — as His child, in His presence — by His grace.  And that life is by faith in Christ Jesus, your Savior.

The Name of that Lord Jesus Christ has been granted to you in Holy Baptism.  And that is a most wonderful and extraordinary thing.  Whenever that day was, whatever your age may have been, whether you can remember the day or not, there in the water with His Word the Lord laid hold of you in love, He saved you from death by forgiving all your sins, and He gave you His own Life.

The Name of the Lord is your Strength and your Song, because He has become your Salvation, and He has named you with His own Holy Name.  So are you also anointed by the Holy Spirit for faith and life with God, who is now your own dear Father in Christ Jesus, the beloved Son.  Everything that belongs to Him is now yours.  His Life is yours, because His Name and His Spirit are yours.

You are “salted” by the Holy Spirit through the Word of Christ Jesus.  But what does that mean?  You are disciplined, as though by fire — as gold and silver are purified by fire — and as the sons of Levi and all the children of God are purified as though by fire.  By the discipline of the Word of God, by the work of the Holy Spirit, you are called to daily repentance — by and through and with and in the Cross of Christ.  As He was crucified for you, so are you crucified with Him and put to death to the world, to your sin, and to all the lusts of your flesh, the cravings of your heart.

That is how you are “salted” on the one hand.  But you are also “salted” or “seasoned,” both inside and out, with peace and love — the peace that is yours in Christ Jesus, which is your reconciliation with God and with your neighbors — and the Love of God which is likewise yours in Christ Jesus, the beloved Son, which He has poured out into your heart by and with His Holy Spirit.

So are you also “seasoned” with newness of life in body and soul, because God the Father has raised you from death to life in the crucified and risen Body of His incarnate Son.  The One who died for you has also risen from the dead, and you are raised with Him through His forgiveness of your sins.  There is no accusation that stands against you in your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

How, then, shall you deal with yourself and your body and life in this world?  And having been named with the Name of God and anointed by the Spirit, how shall you deal with your neighbor?

What shall it mean for you — for your relationships, callings, and stations in this life on earth — that you are God’s own child, baptized into Christ Jesus, crucified and risen with Him for life with God in body and soul, not only for ever, but already here and now as a member of His Church?

Well, it’s a hard Word that Christ Jesus declares to you this morning.  We’re not used to hearing Him talk this way; we know that He does on occasion, but it’s not typical, and it’s not easy to hear.  There is a kind of violence in what He says today, as He speaks of tying millstones around necks and drowning people in the depths of the sea, of cutting off body parts and plucking out eyes.  This is the sort of thing we expect from horror movies, not from the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He speaks of such violence — and it is a real violence, make no mistake — but it is not a violence against your body per se.  It is sometimes necessary, in medical surgery, for example, to harm the body and place the body in precarious danger for the sake of addressing some greater threat to life; and that is not so far removed from what we have going on here.   But the Lord is not prescribing a medical treatment, whereby you would actually mutilate your body with knife and scalpel; for your body remains His good creation even under the curse of sin.  Certainly He is not directing you to do violence against your neighbor’s body, either.  The violence of which our Lord here speaks is leveled against the sinfulness of your heart — the fountain out of which all of your sins proceed.

Your every hope, your life and salvation are in the Name of the Lord.  He saves you by His Name.  And His Name in turn bears good fruits in your body and life — finally forever in the Resurrection of your body to the Life everlasting of your body and soul — but already here and now, His Name is bearing the fruits of faith and love in your life on earth, wherever He calls and stations you.

But the sin in your heart is another story altogether; and that is what needs to be dealt with, to be cut off and thrown away.  As surely as faith in the Name of the Lord brings forth good and godly fruits in your body and life, so does the sin in your heart bring forth “fruits” after its own kind in your body and life, which are not living and life-giving but damnable and deadly to you and others.

So, our Lord is harsh and violent against your sin because He loves you.  He is not out to destroy you, but to save you from sin and death — to save you from yourself — for Life with God in Him.

Both sinful unbelief and repentant faith are matters of the heart and soul.  But both sinful unbelief and repentant faith are also embodied and bear fruit in your flesh, in your outward life and actions.  Faith bears the fruits of love, the fruits of the Spirit.  But sin bears more sin and brings forth death.

The actions of your body, in turn, substantiate and strengthen the attitudes of your heart, whether for good or ill, whether for life or death.  To live according to the Word of God is to exercise and strengthen your faith in His Word and in the life that He has given you by His grace.  To persist in sin and wrongdoing is to strengthen the sin in your heart and to buck against the Holy Spirit.

So, then, deny your body its sinful desires, its lust and greed, and live instead by faith in the hope of the Resurrection of your body.  Do not give yourself over to your cravings.  Do not covet what the Lord has given to your neighbor, but be content and satisfied with what the Lord gives to you.  In all that you do with your body, live now in view of the fact that your body shall be raised to live with God in His Kingdom forever; for your body also bears the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember that you are baptized.  The Name and Spirit of God have been given to you, along with the forgiveness of your sins and the cleansing of your conscience.  All of this in your body as well as your soul, as the water washed over your body with the Word of Christ Jesus, and the sign of His Cross was marked upon your forehead and your heart.  So shall your body be raised from the dead, glorious, like unto His own glorious Body.  Your body rises day-by-day from the watery grave of your Holy Baptism by faith in the Gospel, and so shall your body be raised in glory at the last, just as Christ is risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity in His Body.  So, live now in the view of that Resurrection, in such a way that your body confesses the Name of Christ.

If your hand, your foot, or your eye is involved in sin, then repent in your heart, and so also repent in your body and in your outward behavior.  Discipline your flesh to do good and refrain from evil.  Avert your eyes, divert your feet, and withhold your hand from every manner of wickedness.

To live in sin is already a kind of living death.  And I’m not just talking about people shacking up and fornicating, though that is certainly part of it.  But to live in whatever your sin is, to persist in it, to keep on doing what you know is wrong, to put yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time, to harbor temptations in your thoughts and in your heart instead of resisting the devil and fleeing from his temptation — to live in sin is already a kind of living death, and it will end in no good.

But to live by faith, that is to rely on the Name of Christ Jesus, even unto Life everlasting.  To live by faith in His Name is to pray by and with His Word and Holy Spirit.  It is to rely upon Him rather than yourself.  To live by faith in His Name is to live in the Liturgy of His Gospel — to know that you need it, that you need to hear it and receive it — to seek it out, and to support it with your prayers, with your financial contributions, and above all with your presence and participation.

In turn, to live by faith is also to live in love, to catechize your neighbor.  Whether you are husband or father, wife or mother, or simply a Christian living in the world, you are given to catechize your neighbors — not necessarily by sitting down and having a class together, but rather by speaking the Word of Christ that you have heard and received in the Liturgy of the Gospel.  That is the most precious thing you can do for any of your neighbors, the one thing that shall remain forever after.

To live by faith is to live in love and to care for your neighbor in the Name of Christ Jesus, because you bear His Name, and because your neighbor may bear His Name — if he or she is already a Christian, a child of God baptized into Christ — or, if not, it is God’s desire that your neighbor would become a Christian, and receive that Name, and live by that Name as you live.   And so, for the sake of His Name, you care for your neighbor in the way that Christ Jesus cares for you; and you speak to your neighbor in the way — and with the Words — that Christ Jesus speaks to you.

Do not go home from here and go about your day-to-day life as though you have heard nothing of any consequence, as though the Word of Christ did not matter or make any difference, as though it may or may not be true, or as though it were only true for you.  But gladly speak what you have heard here, and do not be ashamed of that Word of Life in Christ, which is also for your neighbor.

Both by your words and by your actions, be patient and at peace with your neighbor, practicing mercy and kindness.  Be slow to anger, reluctant to hurt in what you do or say, eager to help and to heal, and always quick and ready to forgive, as you are forgiven by Christ Jesus in His Name and stead.  And when your brother goes astray, or when your sister stumbles in her faith and life, restore your neighbor in a spirit of gentleness, in the genuine humility of your own repentance.  For there is not one of you who does not stumble in many ways, and yet the Lord your God is merciful, and He calls you daily to repentance, to faith in His free and full forgiveness of sins.

In short, discipline yourself in body and soul, not only to avoid what is evil, but actively to do and say what is good and right, whether you feel like it or not.  Really, such discipline is most needed when you’d rather not do what you should; and, often as not, those are precisely the times when it is most important for you to do what is good and right for the sake of your neighbor.

In all of this, as you recognize your own sins and your own ways of stumbling — as you certainly will discover when you examine yourself honestly, as you should, in accordance with the Word of God — when you thus recognize in yourself your own sins and stumbling, do not despair — and do not persist in your sins, either — but call upon the Name of the Lord, and rely on Christ Jesus, your Savior.  Repent of your sins, trust Christ, and live; for He cares about you, He really does.

And because He loves you, the Lord Jesus provides for all your needs of body and soul, for this life and for the Life everlasting.  He forgives you all your sins for His Name’s sake; He raises you up to newness of life each day in His own righteousness and holiness; and so shall He raise you at the last to Life everlasting with Himself, and with His God and Father, and with the Holy Spirit.

The One who promises is faithful, and He shall do it.  Already He has borne the burden of your sin in His own Body on the Cross.  Indeed, what Moses and the Law could not do or accomplish, this Jesus has done for you and for all, for your life and salvation.  He has borne the whole burden of His people in His Body.  He has carried them in Himself.  He has saved them from sin and death.  And even now He brings you and all His people through this desert wilderness into the promised Kingdom of His God and Father, whom He has made your own dear God and Father in Him.

See here, in this Hour, in this Place, how He feeds you on the Way — how He feeds the vast multitude of His Church in all times and places.  He does not fail to do it, but with real Meat and true Drink He sustains them all.  And so does He sustain you with His holy and precious Blood, poured out for you, and with His own Body given for you, the Life-giving Manna that refreshes and restores your soul and renews your body for the Resurrection and for eternal Life with God.

Even in the midst of death, this is real Life, and this is real Living, which is for you in Christ Jesus.

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