The Treasure of God Is Yours in Christ Jesus

The Heart of God the Father is Christ Jesus. And the heart of Christ is mercy and compassion. Such is the Treasure of God, which He freely bestows upon His creatures in gentleness and peace; for it is always His nature to be gracious and kind. The Father treasures His Son, and for His sake He treasures you. Christ Jesus treasures mercy, and in mercy He forgives you all your sins.

This mercy and compassion of God the Father in Christ Jesus are what characterize the Kingdom of God. This is what life in His Kingdom is like, the way it is lived in His presence by His grace.

The grace and favor of God are a priceless treasure, indeed. It is a real prize that remains forever, which gives everlasting Life to you. It cannot be earned or purchased, but only received as a gift; not by works, but only through repentant faith in Christ Jesus. And although such repentance and faith are yours, they are not of yourself but of God. They are His good work in you, by grace alone.

You cannot steal this treasure away from God, but neither can it be stolen from you, to whom He has given it freely as a gift by the Gospel. In Christ, this treasure is yours, and you are His own.

When you live by such faith — in the sure hope and certain confidence of Christ — your entire life and your whole world are shaped by the grace and favor of God, by His mercy and compassion.

It is a matter of where you have fixed your focus. That is where your heart and home are. When you are conscious of your life before God in Christ, and you live unto Him by faith in His mercy, then you have true joy, even in the midst of sorrow, and you rest in peace in the midst of death.

But when you are conscious, not of God, but of yourself — when you are not Christ-conscious, but self-conscious — then your body and life in the world are hounded by relentless demands and constant concerns, by worries and anxieties that never fully go away. The harder you try to get on top of it all, the less you are able to set your heart and mind at ease, or to let your body rest.

If what you seek are the praises of people, their admiration, appreciation, and applause, then you already have what you’re going to get, and even that much will not last for long. Fifteen minutes of fame?  Maybe more, maybe less. But not forever, that’s for sure. And it will not satisfy you.

Life on earth is fleeting and failing. So is everything about it, and everything it offers from within. Neither the entire universe nor any part or portion of creation is self-sufficient or self-sustaining. Apart from the Word of God, it withers and fades, it dies and decays.

And yet, you hunger insatiably for those precarious and perishing things, as though they could save you and sustain you, as though they could actually give you life and peace and happiness, and as though your appetites and desires gave you a rightful claim to take and keep whatever you want.

Driven by the passions of your fallen flesh (as it is also mortal and perishing), you’re constantly feeding on the world around you, but you are never content, never satisfied. The more you devour, the more you are consumed by your addictions to that which is not God and cannot give you life.

With yourself at the center, as though you were God, you use and use up whatever you find in self-interest, while you neglect the Lord and your neighbor: without faith, and without love. There are plenty of outright pagans all around you, and professed atheists, who attempt to live without God in the world. But do not pride yourself on the trappings of religion and philanthropy in your life. Even your piety, prayers, and charitable contributions are self-serving, and therefore idolatrous, whenever they are exercised and offered, not in the fear and faith of God, but in order to be noticed and praised by people — whenever your concern is not what you can do to serve others, but what others think of you and say about you, and what you can get them to do for you and give to you.

Repent of your idolatry. Stop worshiping yourself, and stop using your neighbor. Return to the Lord your God. Be reconciled to Him by faith in His Gospel of forgiveness, and live before Him in the righteousness of Christ, your Savior. For He is the One who calls you daily to repentance, not in wrath, but on account of His mercy and compassion for you. He has not hardened His heart against you, nor does He cast you away from His presence. On the contrary, His grace and favor are upon you in the Gospel of His Cross and Passion, and in His Resurrection from the dead.

Therefore, discipline yourself in accordance with His Word, and so bear the fruits of repentance. Not as though to save yourself, but as you live by grace in the presence of God, in His Kingdom. It is to this that He has called you in peace, that His Life might be yours both now and forever.

Discipline your flesh by fasting, in whatever particular ways will be most helpful to you in curbing and resisting your own particular appetites and addictions. That may be food and drink, or it may be something else entirely. Do not despise the good gifts of God, but do not make false gods out of His gifts, either. Rather, temper your consumption. Learn to live without those things that are not beneficial or necessary, and with less of those things that do still belong to your daily bread.

Do not fast to impress God or your neighbor, but to loosen the fallen world’s grip on your mortal flesh, and to exercise hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God in Christ. That is to seek first His Kingdom of heaven, instead of striving to reside in the palaces of earth and reveling in them. Let your body find its resurrection and its real life in the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus.

Likewise, discipline your heart and mind, your lips and mouth, by the prayer and confession of the Word of God. You will not drive the devil, the world, and your own sinful thoughts and feelings out of your head by your own willpower. You are not equal to that task. But actively take up the Sword of the Spirit, and wield the shield of faith, by hearing and confessing the Word that God speaks to you in Christ Jesus. Call upon His Name in the confidence that your Father in heaven hears and answers your prayers, just as He has promised and has taught you to pray by His Son.

Do not worry whether others are listening or notice. You are not praying to them, but to the Lord. Fix your eyes on Him, by fixing your faith on His Word of the Cross, in which His mercy and forgiveness are given to you. Hear the preaching of His Resurrection, in which you are justified, and reconciled to God, and raised up in peace from death and the grave to the Life everlasting.

So, too, discipline your hands and feet, your attitude and actions toward others, and the use of your possessions, by having mercy on your neighbor and giving alms to help and support him. Do so quietly, and in humility before God. For you know that you deserve nothing but punishment for your sins, and that everything you hold in your hand is nothing but the charity of God. Therefore, do not boast of your good works, nor embarrass your neighbor by announcing your almsgiving. You are not above him, nor is he beholden to you, but you and he alike are beholden to the Lord.

Living before God in the secret place of faith, in the hiddenness of the Cross of Christ, does not mean that you ignore your neighbor or turn your back on your brothers and sisters in their need. It does mean that, instead of viewing other people as an opportunity to achieve your own goals and to advance your own agendas, in Christ you are able to see them as objects of His affection, who are dear to His heart and recipients of His divine compassion. So then do you also love them, and you serve them for Christ Jesus’ sake, because you have also received the treasure of His mercy.

Indeed, you are able to pray to God, your dear Father in heaven, and you are able to give alms, because the Lord your God has had mercy upon you, and has given His only Son to die for you, and has now also given Him to you — into your ears, into your heart and mind, and into your hands and mouth — by the Ministry of His Gospel. You are able to return to the Lord your God, because He has sought you out and found you, and He has come to you in Christ Jesus.

Let such tender mercies of God be your dearest treasure, and so also the character and content of your Christian heart. For this treasure does not decay or turn to dust, and it cannot be taken away from you. It is given to you freely by the Lord your God in Christ Jesus, your Savior, and it is surely not depleted but multiplied by extending it to others in His Name and for His sake.

The Lord Jesus Christ, who is all in all, is all mercy and compassion. He is the One who saves you by His grace. He is the One who fasts in faith before His God and Father, so that, by His hunger and thirst for righteousness, He might establish and obtain the Kingdom of heaven for you and all. So has He made Himself nothing, and humbled Himself unto death, that you should now be fed with His Body and given to drink of His Blood, in which the Kingdom and the righteousness of God are yours. For having become sin and suffered death, He who knew no sin has borne the curse and consequences of your sin, in order to bless you with the Spirit of God unto the Life everlasting.

He who died for you has also risen from the dead, and He ever lives to pray and intercede for you before the throne of God, His Father in heaven. In that Inner Room, which is the Holy of Holies made without hands, eternal in the heavens, He prays for you, and He is heard. Thus are you also brought before God, who is your own Father in Christ Jesus, and you now abide in His presence.

And even that is not all. For not only has Christ given Himself for you, in order to make peace for you with God. And not only has the Father received you to Himself in Christ Jesus, risen from the dead and seated at His right hand. But also here and now, in this Holy Sacrament of His Altar, in this Grain Offering and Drink Offering of Bread and Wine, the Father feeds you with His Son and comes to abide with you in Him. He places His most precious Treasure into your hands.

That is, not only does Christ Jesus give you alms, but He is Himself the Gift of God’s mercy in the Flesh. He is the Bread from heaven, who has given Himself for the Life of the world. And He is the true Vine, who has shed His holy, precious Blood to make Atonement for you and everyone.

In receiving what He gives you and pours out for you, you receive the reward of His mercy, and you are returned to the Lord your God, who loves you with an everlasting Love. For where His Treasure is, there His heart is also. And here the Father opens His great heart of mercy to you in the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, your Savior. So does He abide with you, forever and always.

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

You Are at Home with God in Christ Jesus

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He is your true and lasting Treasure.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From Ashes to Ashes in Christ Jesus

The ashes for which this holy day is named, with which your forehead may be marked, are a sign of repentance because they signify and point to your death.  There is nothing heroic in making this confession; it is simply the truth.  You are mortal.  You are dying, as you must, because you are a sinner.  So much for your ambitions, your accomplishments, and your accumulated wealth.

Your mortality and death are the necessary consequence and punishment of your sin, which goes far deeper than your behavior to the very heart and soul of you.  Conceived and born in sin, you are unholy and unclean, not only at odds with God but unable and unwilling to seek Him out or draw near to Him.  And yet, because you cannot escape His presence, His holiness consumes you.

And yet, above all, the holiness of God the Lord is mercy.  So He does not allow death to be or to have the last word, but He takes death itself into His hands to become the remedy and solution to your sin.  For one thing, your dying brings an end to your sinfulness and sinning.  As St. Paul says, the one who has died is freed from sin.  But that would hardly be a happy ending, if that were it.  Your death would not make things right, put things back together, or bring you to God in peace.  However, what your death could not achieve, the death of Jesus Christ has done for you and all.

The Lord your God does not desire your death, nor the death of any sinner, but that you would be set free from sin and death, and that you would live without sin, holy and righteous before Him.  Therefore, God the Father has given His own dear Son, and the beloved Son has given Himself, even into death, in order to atone for your sin by His Sacrifice upon the Cross, by the shedding of His sacred Blood on your behalf.  And having done so in holy faith and holy love, His Resurrection from the dead is now your Righteousness, in which you are raised up to newness of life in Him.

As you have been taught by the Word and Spirit of God, you share in the death and resurrection of Christ by your Holy Baptism.  That is why the ashes are signed upon your forehead in the shape of His Cross, recalling both His Sacrifice for you and your Baptism into Him, that you have died with Him, and that your life is hidden with Christ in God.  Although you are still sinful, and your mortal body is still dying, returning to the dust whence you are taken, yet you are set free from the power of sin and death.  You are alive, and you are righteous in Christ Jesus, by faith in Him.

When you know that your righteousness is by this faith in Christ, and not by your own works or efforts, then you also know how to practice your righteousness rightly.  It is to live by faith under the Cross of Christ in the hope of His Resurrection from the dead.  It is a righteousness that cannot be seen by men; neither can you see it in yourself.  But it is exercised in faith as you bear the Cross of repentance for your sin, and as you bear the Cross in love for your neighbor.  Dying to yourself, you live unto God, and you live for those around you, not to impress them, but to care for them.

This baptismal life is your whole burnt offering, the sacrifice of your whole body and life, which you render upon the atoning Sacrifice of Christ Jesus.  By repentance and faith in His Cross and Resurrection, you are offered up, given up, and given over entirely to God.  You are consumed by the fire of His Spirit, but so also purged of your idolatries and purified by the holiness of Christ.  And the smoke that rises from this sacrifice is pleasing and acceptable to the Lord your God, as surely as the Father has received His Son back from the dead and seated Him at His right hand.

Of particular interest on this day are the ashes of the whole burnt offering, which were removed by the priest from the Lord’s Altar to a clean place outside the camp of Israel.  For so do your body and life remain in this world, but no longer of it; no longer unclean because of your sins, which are removed, but cleansed and forgiven by the Blood of Christ Jesus and His acceptable Sacrifice.  Even now in your still mortal flesh, you live and abide outside the camp with the Crucified One.

And this burnt offering of your body and life as a Christian, this living sacrifice of repentance, faith, and love, is characterized and exercised by those three basic practices to which Christ Jesus refers in the Holy Gospel for this day: fasting, almsgiving, and prayer.  Indeed, He does not teach you to avoid this fundamental piety of the Christian life, but to avoid all pretense and presumption, and to undertake these basic activities of discipleship in the fear and faith of the one true God.

To fast, to give alms, and to pray are not to be practiced as a means of gaining righteousness before God or man.  There is to be no bargaining with God, nor any boasting in His presence.  But you are to fast, to give alms, and to pray by the righteousness of faith in Christ Jesus, because you are reconciled to God in Him.  You are justified by His grace; you are cleansed and sanctified by His forgiveness; and, by your Baptism into Him, you are dead to sin and alive to God forevermore.

To fast is to reduce your consumption, to give up for awhile what you otherwise rely upon, and to deny yourself the very things you crave the most.  Whatever form it takes in your life, such fasting belongs to the daily dying of repentance.  To curb your appetites in this way is to curb and put to death your flesh with all its covetous idolatry, to take up the Cross, and to follow Christ by faith.

Almsgiving goes hand in hand with fasting, as you deny yourself and give what you have to others.  It is, indeed, the sacrifice of yourself and the gift of yourself to your neighbor in his or her need.  Not for praise and recognition, but for the sake of love, in thanksgiving to the Lord Jesus Christ, who has given Himself entirely for you.  In quiet humility, then, exercise mercy, and be generous in charity as you have opportunity.  So, too, forgive and do good to those who sin against you.

But neither fast nor give alms without also calling on the Name of the Lord in prayer, which is the very voice of faith.  By it you lay hold of Christ in the promise of His Gospel, and you store up treasures for yourself in heaven; not by scaling the heights, but by confessing the Word He has placed upon your lips, by receiving the gifts He gives into your hands, and by relying on His grace.  In praying to the Father in His Name, you rise and ascend with Him who has come down from heaven to you, who has given Himself into death, who has risen and returned to the Father in glory.

Everything begins with and continues to depend upon the Sacrifice of Christ.  He is the One who knew no sin, who yet became the Sin Offering for you and for the world.  In flesh and blood like yours, He has offered Himself entirely to His God and Father on your behalf, in order to atone for your sins, to reconcile you to God in perfect peace, and to bring you into fellowship with Him.

Sin has been put to death once-and-for-all in His crucified Body.  All its impurity, perversion, and stains have been removed by His Blood.  And in His Resurrection and Ascension, He has entered into the presence of God as your merciful and great High Priest.  Thus do you have access in Him to God the Father in heaven.  Indeed, you enter the inner room of the Lord’s own House and Home, into the Holy of Holies, not made with hands but eternal in the heavens.  And, like Christ Himself — for you are in Him and He in you by the Gospel — your sacrifice of repentance is a pleasing aroma and your prayer of faith is a sweet-smelling incense in the nostrils of the Lord your God.

He hears and answers your prayers in mercy, with compassion and generous charity.  His gives you His alms in abundance for both your body and your soul, for this life and for the life everlasting.

He restores you day by day, throughout Lent and every day, to all the blessings and benefits of your Holy Baptism, which are the fruits and benefits of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus.  He pours out the Holy Spirit upon you, anointing you with the true Oil of gladness.  He washes you, cleanses you, and sanctifies you through the forgiveness of all your sins.  He clothes you with the priestly garments of Christ, that is, with His own righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

And He feeds you at His Table with the priestly Food and Drink of Christ, which are His Body and His Blood.  These Gifts are hidden from your sight, and from the sight of every man, being given as they are in the grain offering and drink offering of bread and wine.  But the Body and Blood of the Lamb are truly present, given and poured out for you here at His Altar on earth, while never ceasing to appear and avail for you before your God and Father in the Most Holy Place in heaven.

Thus do we have fellowship with God in Christ, and with each other in His one Body.  And thus do we give thanks to God and bless His Holy Name as we feast upon His Son in this sacrificial Meal.  And our thanksgiving, too, is sanctified, acceptable, and pleasing to Him in Christ Jesus.

You are able to approach the Lord’s Altar with such confidence and joy, because you are clothed in Christ and covered by His righteousness.  And by the same mercies of God in Christ, you are able to live in the world in love for your neighbor, purified within and without by the Holy Spirit.  For the ashes of your perishing mortal flesh reside, even now, in a clean place with Christ Jesus; while yet, in Him, your body, soul, and spirit always live and abide in the presence of the Father.

Therefore, even now, on this day of grace, in this time of salvation, return to the Lord your God.  For He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.  And here in His Holy Communion is the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, which are for you and for the many.  Here is your Meat and Drink indeed.  Here is not death, but your life and salvation in Christ Jesus.

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

In Faith Toward God, in Love Toward One Another

Ash Wednesday and the sacred Season of Lent call you to examine yourself, your heart, and your life, in the light of God’s Word; to repent of your sins, and to live in faith toward God and in love for your neighbors in the world; to be turned away from evil, and to begin doing what is good and right.  Not for the sake of any fame or fortune, but from a heart full of faith and love in Christ.

To examine yourself rightly, then, is to ask yourself, not only what you are doing or how you are doing, but, Why do you do whatever it is that you do?  And why do you not do what you should?

What is it that motivates and drives you?  What is it that you dream about at night, and what is it that gets you up and out of bed in the morning?  What are you after?  And what is that you love?  That is to say, where do you invest yourself in the hopes of finding life and peace and happiness?  Where do you spend your money, your time, and your energy?  What occupies your attention?

The truth is that your only true and lasting life — your only real hope for genuine life and peace and happiness, now and forever — is found not with man on earth but only with God in heaven.

Only with God do you have life forever: Not by your own reason and strength, and not by your own works or efforts, but solely by His grace, by His divine charity in Jesus Christ, your Savior.

Of course, you know that to be true.  For so you have been taught by the preaching of God’s Word, and so do you confess by His Holy Spirit.  But what does it mean for you?  What does it look like to live by grace through faith in Christ?  And how shall you not receive this grace of God in vain?

St. Paul the Apostle has admonished you not to receive this grace of God in vain.  But what does that entail?  How do you receive, embrace, and exercise the grace of God according to His will?

The starting point and the bottom line is this: The Lord is after your heart.  That is what He wants.  That is what He requires from you.  He doesn’t need your stuff; it’s already His to begin with.  And He doesn’t need your help, either; for all that you are and all that you have comes from Him and depends upon Him.  No, He’s after your heart — that you should fear, love, and trust in Him above everything else; and that you should live by faith in Him, in His Word, in His Gospel, in His Gifts.

Now, when the Lord thus has your heart — and you thus have divine, eternal Life in Him — then He also has your body and soul, your reason and all your senses, your time, treasures, and talents, your home and family, and all your stuff besides.  It is already His to begin with, but He gives it to you in love.  He entrusts all these things to you because He loves you, and He delights to care for you.  And as you receive His good gifts, He would have you serve your neighbors with them.

When God has your heart, then your entire body and life are also offered up to Him as a living sacrifice of holy faith and love.  But that is exercised and offered to God chiefly by way of loving service to your neighbor.  You thereby practice the righteousness of faith in your heart in the presence of God at all times, while outwardly you pour yourself out in love for your neighbors — for your family and friends, and also for your foes, for all your neighbors.  You do not hold their sins against them, but you forgive them because the Lord forgives you.  You serve your neighbor without any expectation of reward or even thanks.  You do it out of love for the Lord your God.

So, that is how you live your life by faith.  You entrust yourself entirely to your God and Father.  Everything that you are and all that you have, you place into His hands, and you trust Him truly for everything that you need, body and soul, now and forever.  And trusting Him, you give yourself generously for others without counting the cost and without considering what’s in it for you.

It is in this way that you live with your heart already with God in heaven, by faith in Christ Jesus.  And hereafter your body and soul will follow, forever and ever.  For where your treasure is, there your heart is also; and where your heart is, there your body and soul shall likewise be, as well.

By contrast, when your heart, soul, mind, and strength are spent upon this world — and I mean that in terms of your time, in terms of your energy, and, yes, also in terms of your cash — when your heart, soul, mind, and strength are thus spent upon this world, invested in your mortal life on earth, and motivated by the kingdoms and the treasures of man, then your body and soul will perish, finally and forever, along with all the false gods and idols that you so highly prize and worship.

You may stockpile a real treasure trove here and now, but it will not last forever.  It will not survive.  If you’re honest with yourself, you already know that.  But what does your life confess?  What do your words and actions actually reveal about your heart and the treasures it clings to?

Yet, again, all of your false gods and idols — all of those things that you fear, love, and trust, other than the one true God — none of them will help you in the big picture and final outcome.  None of them can save you.  None of them are yours for very long, and you sure can’t take it with you.

Therefore, let go your heart of that which is not God.

Give up your adulterous love affair with all the idols of this world (for that is exactly what it is).

Repent of all your misplaced love and affection, and return with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength to the Lord your God, to your first Love, to your true and heavenly Bridegroom.

Stop stuffing your mouth and your stomach with that which will ultimately end up in the sewer.  And stop pampering your body with creature comforts as finite and as frail as you yourself are.  Labor not for the food that perishes, but avail yourself of the Food that endures unto eternal Life.

In short, do not look for life and love anywhere else but the Lord Jesus Christ, who is here with you in His Church on earth, in His Ministry of the Gospel, in His free forgiveness of all your sins.

It is sure and certain that He has reconciled Himself and His Father to you and all the world — by the way and means of His Cross, by His fulfillment of the whole Law in perfect faith and holy love.  All that you have failed to do, He has done for you, both in your stead and for your benefit.  And all that you have done wrong, He has paid the price for it.  He has made amends, and He has made Atonement for all your sins, by His suffering of the punishment that you and all have deserved.

He has reconciled Himself and His Father to you.  He has reconciled the whole world to Himself.  You, therefore, be reconciled to Him by faith.  Hear and trust His Word.  Rely upon His Gifts.  And live in the confidence of His Cross and Resurrection, His forgiveness, and His righteousness.

As you fear, love, and trust in Him, and as you rest yourself in the Sabbath Rest of His Gospel, you are set free from the bondage of your sins, from your debilitating fear and avoidance of death, and from all your desperate and futile attempts to justify and save yourself.  You are pulled out of your own head and heart, and turned toward the Lord your God in peace and joy and confidence.  And you are free and able, in Him, to be courageous and generous in love and care for your neighbors.

You have such freedom and certainty in the presence of God, your Father in heaven, because your standing before Him, your relationship with Him, and your place within His home and family, do not depend on you but entirely on Christ Jesus.  It is by His prayer, by His faith and by His fasting, by His agony and bloody sweat, by His holy Cross and Passion, and by His divine charity toward you, that you are presented to the Father in righteousness and holiness, even for Life everlasting.

And to that end, that you should ever live and abide with God in Him, behold, He has come to live and abide with you within His Church on earth.  Here among His own He has left behind a Grain Offering and a Drink Offering for you and all: the Bread and Wine which are His Body and Blood.  These are the acceptable Sacrifice which He has offered to the Father on your behalf, with which He now feeds you for the forgiveness of all your sins and for the nourishment of your faith and life.

Eat, therefore; and drink.  Here is your real Treasure.  Here is the Heart of Christ for you.  Here is your Foretaste of heaven, which shall never perish, and which shall not be taken away from you.

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

Christ Jesus Is Your Grain Offering and Your Drink Offering

There is the danger of complacency in your heart and soul when everything is going well, whereas even a small taste of the consequences of your sin can be enough to send you reeling in despair.  When you are brought to an awareness of your mortality, when you’re caught with your hand in the cookie jar and suffer the penalty, or when you’ve gotten yourself up to your neck in trouble because of your poor choices and reckless behavior, you either panic and scramble or you give up.

The basic instinct of your sinful flesh, when you recognize your predicament, is to work and strive and try harder to please God with improved behavior, or else to pacify Him with your sacrifices.  In point of fact, genuine repentance does involve the sacrifice of yourself and your false gods, as well as positive changes in your life, in what you think and do and say.  Such things belong to the fruits of repentance, but they are not a means of self-justification or atonement for your sins.

If you work and sacrifice in an effort to free yourself from the consequences of your sin, and in the hopes of impressing the Lord your God or simply getting Him off your back, you’ve already failed from the get-go.  No matter what you do, no matter how much you offer, it will never be enough, nor will it ever be good enough.  It will not makes things better, it will only make them worse.  Not only because you are not up to the task and so fall short, but because the effort itself is all wrong.

All of your attempts to fix the problem are flawed from the ground up, because they fail to take sin seriously enough, and they do not realize what sin really is.  By the same token, the presumption that you could actually make things right between you and God demonstrates that you are taking your own self-righteousness far too seriously.  But do you really imagine that you could ever buy God off?  Are you so naive as to suppose you could help Him or give Him something He lacks?

What God desires from you is not your stuff, which is really His stuff anyway; but what He desires is you, your heart, your whole body and life — that you should fear, love, and trust in Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  Not that He’s looking to get something from you, but that you should look to Him and rely on Him for life and health and strength and all good things, and that you should thus receive His many good and gracious gifts in faith and with thanksgiving.

The harder you try to give Him something else — anything else than your heart and your self — the further and further away you depart from Him, the deeper and deeper you fall into your sins, and the more firmly you entrench yourself in the dust of the earth from which the Lord your God would raise you up.  But why should you die and not live?  Why do you hold yourself back from the Author and Giver of Life?  And why do you trade His grace and mercy for perishable stuff?

Truth be told, you don’t show mercy and charity to the poor and needy as you should; you don’t pray and fast as you should; your heart and your treasures are invested not in heaven but on earth.

But prayer and fasting, charity, and works of mercy will not save you from your sin and death.  As meet, right, and salutary as those basic disciplines of the Christian faith and life truly are, they are not able to reconcile you to God, whose holy Law and righteous judgment condemn you for your lack of faith in Him and for your idolatrous worship of yourself, your flesh, and all manner of false gods.  The discipline of your flesh, the fruits of faith, and works of love are not able to atone for your sins or to redeem your life.  Then again, that is not what they were ever intended to do.  They serve only to exercise and focus your faith and life in Christ, and to steer you clear of further sins.

What you need, though, in order to be rescued from your sin and death — to be forgiven all your sins, to be justified in the presence of God, and to be sanctified unto Life everlasting in body and soul — is nothing you could ever do or achieve for yourself, not at any price, nor by any effort.  Nor have you been created by the Word and Spirit of God to be your own savior, but to live by His grace at all times and in all places, receiving His providential care in faith and with thanksgiving.  That is the life to which you are called throughout Lent, and which you are given by the Ministry of the Gospel in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus.  Already and always, we live to and from Easter.

You enter into His Resurrection and His Life by the way and means of His Cross.  Just as it was necessary that the Christ should suffer and die and thereby enter into His Glory through the Cross.  For He is crucified, put to death, and buried on account of your sins, that you should be justified, made brand new, brought to life, and sanctified, body and soul, in His crucified and risen Body.

So must you also be crucified, put to death, and buried with Christ, in heart, mind, body, and soul, that you might also rise with Him to newness of life in Him.  You must become altogether different than you otherwise are and otherwise have been apart from Him.  Because your sin is not so much a case of broken rules and infractions for which you must be punished and for which you could potentially make amends.  It is rather a perversion of your created nature and a devastating, deadly rupture in your relationship with the Lord your God, who is alone your Life and your Salvation.

You cannot save yourself from sin and death because, at the heart of it, you are the problem, you are your own worst enemy.  The Lord calls you to repentance, not that you should raise yourself up by your own bootstraps (which is futile and impossible), but that you should die to yourself in order to live in Christ by faith in His Word, by the grace of His Gospel, by the generous gift of His Holy Spirit, by the power of His own indestructible Life.  Thus are you broken by His Law and by the curse and consequences of your sins, in order to be healed by His forgiveness of all your sins.  You are broken and made contrite in spirit, in order to be cleansed and sanctified by His Spirit.

If you would recognize the seriousness of your sins, and so also the futility of any and all attempts to redeem and save yourself, consider the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as He is lifted up and stretched out upon the Cross as the Propitiation for your sins and for the sins of the whole world.  In His voluntary suffering and death, in the shedding of His holy, precious Blood, you behold just how deadly serious the perversion and rupture of creation by the sin of Adam and his progeny have been.  For it is all met and suffered, blow for blow, by the Son of Man in His Cross and Passion.

But see there in the Crucifixion of your Lord, not only the wickedness of your sin and the righteous wrath and judgment of God against it, but also the way of repentance that He has thereby opened up for you and for all, that He should bring you in and with Himself out of death into life, from the slavery of your sin to the freedom of His forgiveness, from brokenness to wholeness in His Body.  It is for this purpose that He willingly suffers and dies, and it is in this way that He becomes your true Lord.  So is He your Strength and your Song, because He is the Sacrifice of your Salvation.

It is by His Baptism in the Jordan River — from the waters of His Baptism to His death upon the Cross — that He has opened up the heavens and the way to God the Father to you and to all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve.  He submitted Himself to St. John’s Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, that you should receive life by repentance and faith in His forgiveness and by the anointing of the Spirit in heart, mind, body, and soul, through Baptism in His Name.  So it is that you are crucified, dead, and buried with Him, that you should rise and live with Him.

It is by His sacrificial death, by the pouring out of His heart and the shedding of His Blood, that He has made atonement for your sins, redeemed you for Himself, and reconciled you to His God and Father in heaven.  This He has done in love, for you and all the world, so that by His death you should not die but live forever in body and soul with Him and with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Consider, then, what He has given up and done without, not to achieve or accomplish anything for Himself (for all things are always His by right), but that you should benefit and be well provided at His expense.  It is by the sweat of His brow and the hard labor of His hands, by His good works of mercy and charity, by His fasting and prayer, by His faith, hope, and love, that you are brought into the presence of God, and that you come to His Father as a beloved child to your own Father.

It is for sake of Jesus Christ, your Savior, the beloved and well-pleasing Son, that God the Lord is gracious and merciful, compassionate and kind, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love for you and for your children.  It is for the sake of Jesus Christ, your Savior, that your own dear God and Father in heaven freely and fully forgives you all your sins and remembers them no more.

As you are broken in heart, mind, and spirit by His Law, so much the more does He heal you in body and soul by the Ministry of His Gospel.  And as often as you are sorrowful and cast down by your sins and their consequences in this world, and by the sins of those who trespass against you, so often does He comfort your troubled conscience, cheer your sorrowing spirit, grant peace to your heart and mind, and lift up your countenance in the hope and confidence of the Resurrection.

Here and now, in this poor life of labor, He does it all in the secret place of the Cross, which the world cannot see and does not comprehend, and which your own fallen flesh, sinful heart, and beclouded mind cannot understand and would prefer to do without.  Yet, by His Word and Holy Spirit, you embrace and hold fast to His Cross in repentance and faith.  So also, by His grace, you receive, rely upon, and rest yourself in the Fruits of the Cross of Christ — in the remembrance of your Holy Baptism, in Confession and Absolution, and in the Holy Supper of His Body and Blood.

Though it is hard and often hurts, it is by His Cross that you die to yourself, to your sins, and to this fallen and perishing world, that you might live unto God in the righteousness and innocence of Christ, the Son of God.  It is by His Cross and in His Resurrection that you are thus born again as a well-pleasing child of God the Father.  For His crucified and risen Body is the acceptable Sacrifice and sweet-smelling Incense by which your prayers are heard and answered in the Holy of Holies made without hands, eternal in the heavens, and by which you enter with all boldness and confidence into the presence of God, not to be cast out, but to abide forever in His Peace.

You know your Father’s heart and mind concerning you, according to His Word and Promise, by what He says to you, does for you, and gives to you within His Church on earth.  For He is faithful, and He does what He has spoken.  Day by day He opens His hand in mercy to satisfy all the needs of your body and soul, not only here in time, but unto the Resurrection and the Life everlasting.

He strengthens and sustains you in the one true faith by His Word and Holy Spirit, daily and richly forgiving you all your sins through His Holy Absolution and by the preaching of His Holy Gospel.  And not only does He feed and clothe and shelter your body here on earth, but He feeds you with the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus in His Supper, as He has clothed you with the righteousness and holiness of Christ in Holy Baptism, and as He shelters and protects you within His Church.

It is for this reason that you feed and clothe and shelter your neighbors on earth, even the least of them, and especially your brothers and sisters in Christ, your fellow members of the household and family of God.  Not to atone for your sins, but because your Lord has made Atonement for you by His Cross.  Not to justify yourself, but because your Lord has justified you by His Resurrection.  And not to look good in the eyes of men, but to glorify your God and Father in heaven by works of mercy like His own, bearing fruits of faith and love after the same kind as the Cross of Christ.

It is in Christ your Savior that you relate to your Father in heaven and to your neighbors on earth.  For He is your merciful and great High Priest in all things pertaining to God.  And not only that, but He is the true Temple of God in whom you live, and He is the once-for-all Sacrifice to end all other sacrifices for sin.  So also is He the Grain Offering and the Drink Offering by which you have fellowship with God and with one another.  You eat His Body and drink His Blood in faith and with thanksgiving, and you are bound together with all the baptized as one Body in Him.

These Gifts Christ freely gives — His Holy Word and Sacraments, His means of grace, the Liturgy of His Gospel — these are the sacred Alms He gives to you in the hiddenness of His Cross.  These are His mercy toward you, by which you draw near to God in peace, as He draws nears to you in love.  And these Gifts of Christ are your true and greatest treasure, on earth as it is in heaven, that where the Body of Christ Jesus is given and received, there your heart will be and abide forever.

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

Live and Abide in the Righteousness of Christ

Let it be noted that our Lord Jesus does not forbid or denounce prayer, fasting, or almsgiving.  He rather indicates the “why” and “how” of these fundamental Christian disciplines.  As an exercise of faith and love, they serve to cleanse the Christian life and facilitate the fruits of repentance.

To pray at all times and in all places is the calling and occupation of all Christians.  It is the very voice of faith and a participation in the priestly intercessions of Christ Jesus, who is our merciful and great High Priest in all things pertaining to God. As He offered Himself once for all upon the Cross, and as He prayed for those who were putting Him to death, so does He teach you to pray without ceasing and not lose heart.  To pray and intercede, not only for yourself, but for all people, for kings and all those in authority, and for your enemies and those who persecute you, as well.  That is the central activity and practice of faith toward God and of fervent love for your neighbors.

To fast is an exercise of self-denial, a conscious and deliberate resisting of your fleshly appetites.  It stands in striking contrast to the grasping and eating of the forbidden fruit by Adam and Eve in the Garden, whereas it follows the example of your Lord Jesus, who fasted forty days and forty nights in the wilderness and even then rejected the devil’s temptation to turn the stones into bread.  By fasting, you train yourself to hunger, not for the food that perishes, but for every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God, and for the Living Bread with which He feeds you from heaven.

And to give alms is to provide for the care of the poor and needy with gifts of charity above and beyond your regular support of the Church and Ministry.  Almsgiving appropriately accompanies the discipline of fasting, as that self-denial allows for greater generosity in serving your neighbors. Not simply “giving up something for Lent,” but sacrificing yourself to love and care for others.

Each of these most basic disciplines can be helpful in turning you away from a preoccupation with yourself, and in turning your attention toward God in faith and toward your neighbors in love.

But prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are therefore not to be undertaken as a system or a process for obtaining a righteousness of your own, neither before God nor in the eyes of men.  The point and purpose are most emphatically not that you should try to impress anyone in heaven or on earth!

To be right with God is first of all a matter of the heart, prior to anything else you may do or say, whether praying, fasting, giving alms, or whatever else you may do.  It is a matter of the heart — that is to say, not the romance of Valentine’s Day, but genuine repentance and faith in the Word of the Lord.  It is in repentance and faith that you live before God in peace.  It is in repentance that you fast, and from a heart of faith that you pray to your Father in heaven.  And as you thus deny yourself and trust the Lord, calling on His Name for all that you need, so do you also sacrifice and give of yourself in love for your neighbors, dealing with them as the Lord deals with you in mercy.

Whatever it is that you treasure, that is where your heart abides and lives.  And by the same token, wherever you invest your heart, that is where your treasure is found, whether with the Lord, the one true God, or with the many and various idols of this perishing world.  Your “god” is whatever you fear, love, and trust, whatever you worship from the heart with your body and life, with your time, treasures, and talents, and with your thoughts, words, and actions.

The heart comes first, in so far as where you stand with God.  And when there is faith in His Word in your heart, then you will pray and fast and give alms in love for Him and for your neighbors.  But if you do not trust His Word, then nothing else you do (or don’t do) will make things right.

In hearing this admonition of the Lord, do not suppose that faith is the one thing you must manage and do for yourself.  The Lord is not directing you away from an external self-righteousness to a new self-righteousness of the heart.  Nor does He commend a self-righteousness of the head, either, as though you could think and know your way into the kingdom of heaven.  His goal, again, is not that you should refrain from praying, fasting, and almsgiving in favor of some new strategy.  It is rather that you be turned inside-out and away from yourself altogether, in order to hear and receive the Word and promises of God and to find your righteousness in the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus.

So there is both Law and Gospel here.  And to begin with, the Law confronts you with the question of where and how you are living in relation to God and your neighbor.  That is getting to the heart of the matter, as the attitudes of your heart are manifested in your outward actions.  How, then, do you think and speak and act with respect to God and the people He has placed around you in this body and life?  Are you trusting Him and loving them with all that you are and have?

The answers are not pretty, are they?  Not if you are being honest with yourself.  Your life in the flesh, your words, and your actions are often as ugly as a smudge of ashes on your forehead.  It is true that appearances are neither the problem nor the solution.  Neither what you do nor how you look doing it will justify or save you.  Apart from faith in Christ, you are dead and dying in your sins.  But you are called to live in faith toward God, to call upon His Name in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, to deny yourself and take up your Cross and follow Christ Jesus in love for others.

Realize, and take it to heart, that your entire life in body and soul, in heart, mind, and spirit, is lived in the presence of God.  That is always the case, whether you know it or not.  And in His presence there is no possibility of pretense.  Hypocrisy will not fool Him, who knows your heart and mind better than you know yourself.  But the answer and solution to hypocrisy is not to persist in sin, to neglect your neighbor and your duties, to ignore the life of the Church, or to abandon all piety.

As Holy Scripture says: “The judgment begins with the household of God.  And if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the Gospel?  If it is with difficulty that the righteous are saved, what will become of the godless and the sinner?  Therefore, let those who suffer according to the Will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.”

Which is to say that you bear the Cross in faith and love, in patience, in prayer, and in charity.

But how often do you go about your days and spend your nights as though you (not God) were the heart and center of all that is important?  And how often do you regard the Lord God Almighty as your Sugar Daddy in the sky — as a means to some end, a last resort, or your ace in the hole — as though He were your servant instead of your Lord?  Do you ignore Him until you realize that you need something from Him?  And do you then suppose that you will bargain or barter with Him in exchange for His goods and services, or simply pay Him off?  Do you live as though your body and life were your own to do with as you like, and not a sacred trust and a divine stewardship?

Such sinful, self-idolatrous attitudes and actions pervade your fallen heart and mortal flesh, as your deadly inheritance from Adam.  Which is why you return to the dust from which you are taken.  And because you are dying and slipping away from yourself back into dirt, your lack of faith in God is further manifested in relation to your neighbors, whom God has given to you here on earth.

Frightened by your own mortality and the transience of this world, yet lusting all the more for the flesh and its passions, you view and treat your neighbor as a competitor for these finite things.  You maneuver and manipulate and jockey for position, and you cut your neighbor off wherever you can, in order to gain something for yourself, despite the fact that it won’t last.  Consumed with yourself and your own ambitions, you consume the people whom God would have you care for.

When your neighbor has something you want for yourself, you’re willing to flatter and shmooze, to grovel and beg and grease the palm, or to scheme some strategy for getting it from him or her.

But when your neighbor appears to be useless and inconsequential for your purposes, you write him off and ignore him, as though he were a nuisance and a bother to be avoided or driven away.  You do not see your neighbor as a person like yourself, as a human being to love and care for, but as an object to be gained, as a tool to be used, or as something to be discarded and forgotten.

What may be even worse, as Jesus reveals this evening, is when you serve your neighbor with alms and charity, not out of love and mercy for the Lord’s sake, but so that you might exalt yourself and appear to stand above your neighbor as though you were his savior and his god.  The remedy, of course, is not that you should refrain from almsgiving, but that you should care for your neighbor in the quiet humility of repentance and faith, giving freely as you have received from the Lord.

These sins against God and your neighbor are not only the cause and consequence of your dying; already they are the death that reigns in your heart and in your flesh apart from the Spirit of Christ Jesus.  And yet, so great is your selfishness, so deep is the perversity of your heart and mind, that you justify your sins and presume to wallow in the filthy rags of your own self-righteousness.  But attempting to advance yourself in this way is simply to rush headlong into death and damnation.

The Gospel, therefore, is not a strategy of self-justification or self-advancement.  It rather replaces your sinful self-righteousness with the perfect Righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has in fact become your Servant in peace and love.  He forgives your sins and gives you life in Himself.

It is not by your works, but by His works that you are saved.  Not by your piety, but His.  Not even your faith, but His faith and His faithfulness have become your righteousness and your salvation.

With fear, love, and trust in His Father above all things, He sacrificed His entire body and life and shed His holy, precious blood to atone for your sins and the sins of the whole world, to reconcile the world to God.  In love for you, His neighbor, He sacrificed Himself in order to save you.  He gave Himself over to death on the Cross in your stead, in order to give Himself to you in mercy by the Ministry of His Gospel.  Though you were at enmity with Him, He reconciles you to Himself.

It is His Righteousness that is credited to you in the presence of God forever.  As He is risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity, so are you justified in Him.  In His crucified and risen Body, you are raised up from the dust of the earth to live with God in the Kingdom of heaven: Already here in time (by faith), and hereafter in the resurrection of your body to life everlasting.

This Righteousness of Christ and His great Salvation are His divine charity for you, the alms that He gives freely to you and to all others, not to His own advantage but to your eternal benefit.  He fasted and humbled Himself as a Servant, even unto death upon the Cross, that He might now feed you with His Body and His Blood.  And as He prayed faithfully on His Way to the Cross, so does He also, in His Resurrection, ever live to intercede for you before the Throne of God.  He is your merciful and great High Priest, and it is in and with Him that you live and abide with His Father.

So it is that, as He calls you to repentance tonight, throughout the Season of Lent, and throughout all your days in this world — as He calls you away from yourself, away from your selfishness and sins, away from your death and damnation — He calls you to this Righteousness of His, which is yours by His grace through faith in His Gospel, that you might receive it from Him as a free gift.

His Life is an example for you to follow.  His prayer, fasting, and charity are the pattern in which you are to live and walk by faith, in love for Him, for His Father and the Holy Spirit, and for your neighbors in the world.  But His Life for you is more than an example.  It is your Righteousness.  It is the beautiful robe with which He covers your nakedness and shame, as He forgives all your sins with His blood, as He clothes you in and with Himself, and as He feeds you with Himself, from the waters of your Holy Baptism to the resurrection of your body in His glory at the last.

He calls you to hide yourself in Him, to live and abide in Him, and thus to stand before His God and Father in heaven with all boldness and confidence, in His Righteousness and purity forever.

It is true that you are dying.  That fact we acknowledge and confess.  But so do we also affirm and believe that, by your Baptism into Christ Jesus, you have already died — to yourself and to the world, to sin, death, and the devil — and that your life is now hidden with Christ in God: Hidden where no man can see, but your Father sees, who loves you as His own dear child for Jesus’ sake.

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

Store Up for Yourself Treasures in Heaven

Why do you do what you do? And why do you not do what you should?

What is it that drives you and motivates you? What is it that you’re after? What do you love?

Where do you invest yourself and hope to find your life?

Your true and lasting life, your future and your hope, are not found with man on earth but only with God in heaven.

You have life with Him forever, not by your own reason and strength, not by your own works and efforts, but by the grace of God in Christ.

So what does that mean for you, and what does it look like? How shall you not receive this grace of God in vain?

He’s after your heart; that’s what He wants, what He demands. He doesn’t need your stuff; it's really His. He doesn’t need your help, for all that you are and have comes from Him and depends upon Him. No, He’s after your heart — that you should fear, love and trust in Him.

But when He has your heart — and you thus have divine, eternal life in Him — then He also has your body and soul, your reason and all your senses, your time, treasures and talents, your home and family, and all your stuff besides (which all belong to Him by right, but He entrusts them to you in love).

When He has your heart, then your entire body and life are offered to Him as a living sacrifice in loving service to your neighbor. Then you practice your righteousness (by faith) before Him alone at all times, while outwardly you pour yourself out in love for your neighbor — family, friends and foes alike — with forgiveness of their trespasses against you, and with no expectation of thanks or reward.

This is how you live by faith: You entrust yourself entirely to God, and trust Him truly for everything that you need; and so you give generously to others without counting the cost or considering what’s in it for you.

In this way do you live with your heart already with God in heaven, and your body and soul shall hereafter follow forever and ever.

If, on the other hand, your heart, soul, mind and strength are spent upon this world, invested in this life on earth, and motivated by the kingdoms and treasures of man, then your body and soul will perish finally and forever along with all of these false gods you prize so highly.

You may stockpile a real treasure trove here and now, but it will not last or survive — it will not save you — it will not remain yours — you won’t take it with you.

Let go your heart of that which is not God.

Give up your adulterous affair with the idols of this world.

Repent of all your misplaced love and affection, and return to the Lord your God.

Stop stuffing your mouth and your stomach with that which ultimately ends up in the sewer, and stop pampering your body with creature comforts as frail and finite as you are.

Do not look for life and love anywhere else but the Lord Jesus Christ. Here He is with you and speaks to you by His Ministry of the Gospel.

He has reconciled Himself and His Father to you and all the world by His Cross: by His fulfillment of the Law in perfect faith and love, and by His suffering of the punishment that you (and all) have deserved.

He has reconciled the world to Himself. You, then, be reconciled to Him. Hear and trust His Word. Rely upon His gifts.

It is by His prayer, by His faith and His fasting, by His agony and bloody sweat, by His Cross and Passion, by His divine charity toward you, that you are presented to the Father in righteousness for peace and rest and life everlasting.

And behold, He has left behind a grain offering and a drink offering for you: bread and wine, which are His Body and His Blood — the acceptable sacrifice that He has offered to the Father on your behalf — with which He now feeds you for the forgiveness of all your sins, for the nourishment of faith and life.

Eat, therefore; and drink. Here is your treasure. Here is the heart of Christ for you. Here is your foretaste of heaven.

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