He Is Called the Nazarene for You and Your Salvation

The example of St. Joseph is a beautiful confession of faith. And it is a good example, because the Lord our God is faithful in His mercy and compassion, in all His Words and promises; and because He has saved us from sin and death by His Son, the Child born of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Truth be told, and all appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, it is the Lord your God who has you and your situation and all things in His hands, in His care and keeping. Although you do have responsibilities to carry out, you are not in control of your life and your future. Not really. But neither are your enemies, no matter how big and strong and powerful they may ever seem to be.

No, the Lord your God, the Maker of the heavens and the earth, He is the Author and Giver of Life, and He is the One who governs all of creation for the sake of His Church. He rules the universe for the benefit of His people. And He accomplishes His purposes in love, for the salvation of sinners, by His grace and mercy and forgiveness. Not only “in spite of” those who oppose His will, but even through them, contrary to their own designs — He fulfills His Word and promises.

So, too, He guides and guards His faithful people — including St. Joseph and you — by and with His Word: As written by His Prophets and Apostles in His Holy Scriptures, and by the preaching of His Law and His Gospel through His messengers, whom He sends to speak to you in His Name.

All that He has spoken, He has fulfilled in the Person of Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, conceived and born of St. Mary. As He is the Word of God made Flesh, He is the accomplishment of God’s good and gracious will for you and for all people. And all that He is and does — as true God and true Man — is in accordance with the Word of the Lord. So do the Season of Advent and the Christmas story demonstrate and rehearse, year after year, that you should hear and believe in all that God has spoken through the Prophets and in the Person of His Son.

Again this morning, St. Matthew clearly indicates that the events in this story of the Holy Gospel are in fulfillment of the Old Testament Holy Scriptures. And that turns out to be the case even in ways that we would never have been able to guess or figure out for ourselves. In this case, for example, you’ll never be able to find any specific Old Testament Prophecy that says the Savior would be called a Nazarene. In the Hebrew language, though, the root word for both “Nazareth” and “Nazarene” is the word for “root.” And it was clearly foretold in many and various ways that the Christ would be the “Root” of Jesse — from the house and lineage of Jesse’s son, King David.

Sure enough, our dear Lord Jesus Christ is indeed great David’s greater Son, the Root or Nazar of Jesse, anointed by the Spirit of His God and Father to be the King of the Jews, to rule and shepherd His people Israel, the sheep of His pasture. And not for Israel and Judah only, but for all those who are the children of Abraham by faith in the Gospel. And yet, it is truly meet, right, and salutary that you will find this Lord and King, not in Jerusalem, but in the little burg of Nazareth.

He Himself, the Son of God and of St. Mary, is the Epitome of faith and trust in God His Father. To be sure, from all eternity He is of one substance with His Father, of one mind and one will, in and with the Holy Spirit. He is the one true God, now and forever. But in His own human flesh and blood, as the true Man from His conception, even in His Mother’s womb, He is fully devoted to God with His whole heart and mind, His body, soul, and spirit. His human will conforms entirely to the divine will, even to the point of His great anguish, suffering, and death upon the Cross.

In this, He has been consecrated and devoted to the Lord, much as the Nazarites were dedicated to the Lord by their vows and in their obedience. In His case, it is not only for a set period of time, but with His entire body and life, and with His very flesh and blood, even unto death.

It is finally on the Cross that He is called the Nazarene. For by His voluntary sacrifice, He fulfills the Scriptures of the Prophets, and He accomplishes the will of God for the salvation of the world.

His death and burial are on the horizon and anticipated from the beginning, as for example in Herod’s persecution, and in the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt. But God the Father calls Him out of Egypt, just as He will draw Him out of the Red Sea waters of His Baptism. So does He finally call Him out of death and the grave. This, too, is “according to the Scriptures,” just as we confess in the Nicene Creed. And in this Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead, God the Father calls you also out of death into Life, to be His beloved and well-pleasing son by adoption and by grace.

He calls you by the preaching of His Word to repentance and faith in His forgiveness of sins, and to newness of life in Christ Jesus. He calls you, as He called St. Joseph, to live according to His Word within your vocation as a Christian, and within your own proper office and stations in life.

Although it is true that neither you, nor your life, nor your future are in your own hands — for they are in His hands — it is also the case that He accomplishes His purposes in you and through you, and He cares for others, including His Church on earth, by means of your faithful service.

Here, too, consider the example of St. Joseph, who quietly and quickly obeys the Word of the Lord in caring for his Bride, St. Mary, and for her Son, the Christ Child. Such a tremendous task it is, of such great importance! But God provides for the Child and His Mother, and He preserves their lives by the hand of His servant, St. Joseph. He does the same for your neighbor by your hand, as you work and serve according to His Word in the place where God has called you to be.

In a corresponding way, you know where and how the Lord is with you by giving attention to His Word and the ways and means that He has thereby designated. St. Matthew has made this clear and plain in his record of the Infancy Narratives, in the way that he refers to the Christ-Child always with “His Mother.” Over and over again, it is “the young Child and His Mother.” Not only in this Holy Gospel, but already in the Visit of the Magi that precedes it, as we shall hear on the Feast of the Epiphany tomorrow. Such is St. Matthew’s way of indicating and stressing, as Dr. Luther also stressed, that one should not look for God — nor will you ever be able to find the one true God — anywhere else than here in the flesh and blood of Jesus, the incarnate Son of God born of St. Mary.

Which is also to say that you should not look for God — nor will you ever be able to find Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God — except in His external Means of Grace, that is, in the preaching of His Holy Gospel, in His spoken Word of Holy Absolution, in the washing of the water with His Word in Holy Baptism, and in the Holy Communion of His Body and Blood, given and poured out for you to eat and drink with your body in repentant faith and with thanksgiving. For these bodily Means of Grace are where and how the Lord Jesus Christ is present and available for you and for the many. These are the lap of His Holy Mother, wherein and whereby His flesh is given to you.

So, you find and receive the Lord Jesus in and with His Church, and as a servant of God you are called to love and support His Church on earth and His beloved children, His sons and daughters, your brothers and sisters in Christ: Much as St. Joseph was given to care for the Holy Family.

And as for St. Joseph, so also for you, the Word of the Lord directs you in the darkness of night, in the midst of great danger, and on paths of real difficulty. The world hates you, as it hates the One whose Name you bear. And the devil himself seeks your life more viciously than any King Herod. In the face of all that, you have only the Word and promises of God to go by, and there are times when, like St. Joseph, you are afraid of the foes who reign so fiercely in the world. The task set before you is too daunting, and yet, it is too important to fail.

Even so, get up and go! Hear and heed the Word that God the Father speaks to you by His own dear Son. Remember that you and your journey, the outcome of your duties, and your destination are all in the hands of Him who loves you. God has guarded the Child with His Mother, and so does He guard and keep you as a member of His Bride. He has been at work through St. Joseph, and now He is at work in you to will and to do His good pleasure for you and for your neighbors.

The guarantee is in the Body of Christ Jesus, who has been crucified for your transgressions and, yes, who has been raised for your justification. Out of Egypt God has called His Son, in order to bring about this great Salvation for you and for all. And by and with His Word in the waters of your Holy Baptism, He has called even you His beloved and well-pleasing son in Christ Jesus, and He has promised you eternal Life and Salvation in both your body and your soul.

With those precious Words and Promises of God ringing in your ears and going with you from this place, be encouraged by and emulate the good example of St. Joseph in heeding the Word that God the Lord has spoken to you by His Son. Not only in obeying His Commandments, as you are surely called to live the new life in Christ throughout this New Year of His grace. But, above all, in receiving and believing His precious Word of the Gospel, whereby He forgives you all your sins.

So does your God and Father call you out of Egypt and save you by His mighty deliverance, by the humility and meekness of the Cross and Resurrection of His Son. And so does He reveal and give to you that same Son, Jesus Christ, that you should live and abide with Him forever. This promise is for you and for your children, and for your children’s children and their children yet unborn.

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

Rejoice in the Lord at All Times and in All Circumstances

The Season of Advent awaits and anticipates the coming of Christ Jesus, whose Way St. John the Baptist prepares, calling sinners to repentance that they might escape the wrath to be revealed when the same Lord Jesus comes in Glory for the final Judgment. It is a penitential time of patient perseverance in the confidence of the Cross and in the hope and promise of the Resurrection.

Advent prepares you to receive the coming Christ, now as then, by the preaching of the Law and the Gospel unto repentance and faith in the forgiveness of sins. Such preaching returns you to the significance of your Holy Baptism. It teaches you to confess your sins and to seek the Word of Holy Absolution. And it leads you to the Body and Blood of the Lamb who saves you at His Altar.

Because He comes to save you, here and now, by the preaching of His Word and by His means of grace, your Advent repentance is not without rejoicing. Especially this Third Sunday in Advent calls you to rejoice in the Lord, because He is at hand with His mercy and His great Salvation.

It is for the sake of this rejoicing that our Advent candle for this Sunday is rose-colored instead of purple. It signifies that true Light that was coming into the world, like the rose-colored hews of an early morning sunrise. It would have you look at life through the rose-colored glasses of faith, that you should remember the Incarnation of your Lord, receive His Body born of Mary and His Blood poured out for you from the Cross, and rejoice in the expectation of His glorious coming.

All of which is fine and good. And of course, you might say, as Christians we rejoice in Christ. Then again, you may not feel like rejoicing this morning or at many others times, especially in view of your own sins and the sins of others against you, and given the consequences of sin that dog you all year long and really never do let up in this mortal life. The so-called holidays can be some of the most depressing and difficult days, because they aggravate your envy and jealousy of others, and they make all the more painful your loneliness and the absence of those you have lost. So many expectations, as to what you must do to get ready for Christmas, it’s a struggle to rejoice when you’re stressed out and wondering how on earth you are going to meet all your expenses.

Despite the faith and life to which the Lord has called you by His Gospel, and notwithstanding your confession of His Word, there are days when He seems so far away, and you may wonder if your faith has been too optimistic. Does Jesus really care? Does He even know your name? Or has He just given up on you and written you off altogether on account of your sins and failings?

Perhaps you would compare yourself to poor St. John the Baptist, imprisoned by King Herod, no doubt wondering what’s going to happen next, and probably tempted to question the glorious promises of God. There he sits, the Forerunner of the Lord Himself, but left to rot in prison. Left to rot, that is, until his head will finally be removed by order of the king. How about that?

As he waited in prison for death, John sent his disciples to ask Jesus: “Are you the Expected One, the Christ who is to come, or should we be watching and waiting for Another?”

Of course, St. John the Baptist knew that Jesus is the Christ, the Lord’s Anointed. For even though Jesus, the Son of God, always possesses the Holy Spirit, He also received a special anointing of the Spirit at His Baptism by St. John in the Jordan, the inauguration of His own Ministry on earth. The Holy Spirit came upon Him as a dove, and the Father declared Him to be His beloved Son.

St. John knew that Jesus is the Christ, because he had seen the Lord anointed with the Holy Spirit. It was part of his own preaching to others, even as he pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. But for all of that, St. John also needed to hear the preaching of the Gospel for himself. He needed Christ Jesus to set him free — not from Herod’s prison, nor even from his executioner — but from the dungeon of his own sin and its deadly consequences.

What are your expectations of the Lord Jesus Christ? What are you watching for and waiting to receive from Him? Is it rescue and redemption from your sins, from death and the damnation you deserve? Or would you rather He fulfill your hopes and dreams for this body and life right now?

Bear in mind that the Son of God is not a means to some other end, as though He were coming to give you a leg up on your personal ambitions. Neither is the salvation He brings a matter of facts in your head or feelings in your heart. It’s not enough to know this or that about Jesus, and all the warm fuzzies in the world are not going to set you free from death and hell or bring you to God.

Like St. John, what you need is the Word of Christ Jesus: The Word that He speaks into your ears, into your heart, mind, and body. The Word that forgives your sins, and gives you life, and fills you up with Christ and His Spirit, even in the midst of the most dire and desperate of circumstances.

That is what He does and gives by the preaching of His Word, beginning with St. John himself, the Forerunner of Christ who was sent to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in His Name.

And now in this case, in this Holy Gospel, the same Lord Jesus Christ does the same thing and provides the same help and comfort for His servant, St. John. He preaches His Word to His preacher of repentance, that John be delivered from all doubts and fears and rejoice in the Lord.

As great as St. John was, and as much as he suffered for his faithfulness, even unto death, it is not John but Jesus Christ who gives to you divine, eternal Life in place of your death and damnation. He is the almighty and eternal Son of the Living God, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who became Flesh of your flesh and Blood of your blood, conceived and born of the Woman; who then also made Himself least in the Kingdom of Heaven, so that He suffered and died in the stead and for the sake of sinners — for John the Baptist, for you, and for all people. So it is not by your keeping of the Law, but by His, and not by your repentance, but by His Cross and Resurrection, that Christ Jesus has first of all obtained and now bestows the free forgiveness of all your sins.

He proceeds in every case by sending His messenger before His face to prepare His Way by the preaching of His Word with His own Voice, and to work His works of repentance and faith with His own authority: Isaiah the Prophet, and John the Baptist, who is more than a Prophet because he ushers in the Christ. Then, in the footsteps of Christ Jesus come His Holy Apostles, who speak and act for Him as the shepherds of His Church on earth, and following after them, the pastors who feed and care for His lambs and sheep with His Holy Word and with His Holy Sacraments.

It is by this ongoing Ministry of His Gospel in every age that He brings forth streams of water in the desert and prospers His Church with milk and honey, bread and wine, and every good thing.

Even so, as beautiful and wonderful as this providence and promise of the Gospel is — that the Holy Triune God should send to you, as to His Church in every time and place, His messengers to speak with His Voice and to preach good news in answer to your every need — the fact is that your circumstances may not improve in this life. They might just go from bad to even worse!

To frail flesh and blood there is an evident contradiction between the promises of God and your actual experience in the world; between the hope of the Resurrection and the present reality of the Cross that you bear and carry in this vale of tears. It is especially hard when the wicked prevail and appear so powerful on earth, whereas the righteous of the Lord suffer and perish on the way.

Consider, for example, that St. John remained in the captivity of his prison until he was beheaded. So, too, in this life, no matter how much you may receive and trust the Gospel — the forgiveness of your sins and the free gift of eternal life in Christ — you may yet suffer all manner of difficulties and atrocities, as do many of your fellow Christians throughout the world. Sometimes you bear the temporal consequences of your own sins, that you should be disciplined in love by your dear Father and called to repentance by His Spirit. But you are also given to bear and carry the Cross as a disciple of Christ Jesus, who was born of the Virgin Mary to suffer under Pontius Pilate.

It’s all too easy to be scandalized by this sort of Christ, who comes in such lowly meekness and humility, born in a stable, living homeless, riding on a donkey, and then condemned and put to death on the Cross. Not exactly impressive credentials. And His followers and supporters fare about as badly, beginning with St. John the Baptist, who was more than a Prophet and the greatest of those born of women, but who finishes his days on earth in Herod’s dungeon. One might well expect more and better from the Savior of the world. It’s no surprise that even John wondered and chose to ask:  Are You the One, Jesus, or not? And, if so, where are You now when I need You?

It is only by the grace and blessing of God, by His Word and Holy Spirit, that you are not offended by Christ and His Cross, by His messengers and means of grace, and by the way that He rules and governs the Kingdom of His Church in this world, that is, in lowliness, meekness, and humility. And it is only by the grace and blessing of Christ the Crucified — by the preaching of His Word, and by the administration of His Body and His Blood in remembrance of Him — that you believe and trust His promises, even while you sit and wait in your own dungeon for the final axe to fall.

Now take this to heart: Your God-given confidence in Christ, which is not offended by His Cross or scandalized by His Gospel, will not by any means be disappointed. The suffering and death of His Cross is not the last and final Word for Him or you, but it is the end of sin, death, and the devil. For by the Cross of Christ sin is forgiven, death is destroyed, and the devil’s kingdom is routed.

Satan still rages and taunts, he hinders and afflicts, not least of all through tyrants like Herod, but all to no avail. Actually, the Lord your God uses even the devil’s wickedness, against the devil’s will, to call you and others to repentance and to drive you back to the Cross. And as always, that old dragon, the devil or Satan, is defeated by the Cross. Your salvation is made certain in Christ Jesus, who preaches the victory of His Cross and the righteousness of His Resurrection to you.

It is this profound privilege that we your pastors are given, that is, to preach and teach the Word of Christ into your ears, knowing that His Word alone is steadfast, eternal, unchanging, and true.

We are sent to you — as St. John the Baptist was sent — to call you to repent and to forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Lord. We are sent to announce and proclaim the presence of Christ and His Kingdom, here and now among you, in the very Word that we preach to you by His authority, and in His flesh and blood, given and poured out for you to eat and to drink unto the resurrection of your body and the Life everlasting of your body and soul.

We do not speak and act for ourselves. But with the Voice of Jesus — by virtue of this Office, as called and ordained servants of His Word — we declare to you that He is the Christ who is coming. That blind unbelief is here replaced by the sight of holy faith. That deaf ears are opened to hear the Word of God. That the leprosy of your sin is cleansed by the waters of Holy Baptism. That death has been destroyed by the death of Christ, and those who were dead in their trespasses and sin are raised up with Him by His Holy Absolution. That for two-thousand-plus years the Gospel has never failed to be preached to the joy and edifying of Christ’s holy people, and so also to you and to your children, and to your children’s children.

So, then, while weeping and sadness remain for a night, rejoicing will yet come in the morning.

Rejoice, therefore! Rejoice in the Lord at all times and in all circumstances. Again I will say it, Rejoice! Your own dear Lord is at hand. He is a very present Help in times of trouble. Be anxious for nothing, for He is faithful and just. He will never leave you or forsake you. And the Peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

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.

Christ Jesus Is the Life and Light and Salvation of Body and Soul

It is evident that Jairus has been catechized by the Word of the Lord, for he comes to Jesus in the hope of His mercy. He worships Him by faith with his prayers and petitions, and with his body, too, prostrate before his Lord in humility. The posture of his body confesses the faith in his heart.

It is evident that he, a ruler of the synagogue, has not only cared for others with God’s Word and prayer, but has catechized his own little daughter, as well; else she would not only be sleeping. The Christian fears the grave as little as her bed, but those who die apart from Christ are swallowed up, body and soul, by eternal death.

Such death is the legacy and inheritance of all the daughters and sons of Adam & Eve. All of you will die — and must die — because all of you sin and fall short of the Glory of God. Indeed, it is necessary that you die to your sin, to yourself, and to the world, in order that you be set free and raised up to newness of life in the Body of Christ Jesus.

But so it is, in Him, that death does not have the last word, final though it seems. Even death cannot end your gladness when you have become a child, not only of man, but of God. By faith in Christ Jesus, the Son of God, you live, even though you die. That is our bold confession, on this day as throughout the year, as we remember with thanksgiving the faithful departed who have gone before us over this past year. They are not “dead and gone,” but alive forever with the Lord.

For the very Son of God has come in the flesh, with a Body and Blood like your own, conceived and born of the Woman, St. Mary, herself a daughter of Adam. He has entered into the house of sin and death where you are. He has crossed over to the other side of the sea in the new and greater Exodus of His Cross and Resurrection, even as He was baptized for you and for all righteousness in the waters of the Jordan River. He made the depths of the sea a road for the redeemed to cross over; and, as you are baptized into Him, you pass through death into Life everlasting with Him.

To that end, He now comes with His Ministers of the Gospel, who follow Him and bear His Name, who preach His Word and give His good gifts to the children of men. With His Word and the touch of His hand, He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies you and His whole Christian Church with the Holy Spirit of His God and Father. So does His Word go out into all the world, His Voice to the ends of the earth. And His Word declares that Life and Light and Salvation are found in Him.

Jairus is prompted to seek Him out by his desperate need for the sake of his dear daughter, and by his faith in the Word and Flesh of Christ Jesus he prays and intercedes for his girl, for the life and health and strength of her body. He prostrates himself and worships Jesus with his heart and mind, with his words and actions, and with his whole body, as well. And his prayer is that Jesus would come in the flesh to lay His hands on the little girl, in order to raise her up from death to life again.

You hear the attention that is given here to the body. And at the same time, you know that your own body is afflicted by the curse of sin and death. Your flesh suffers and decays, it perishes and fades like the grass and its flower. There is no lasting life but only sickness and death in your body.

That poor woman with the twelve-year hemorrhage certainly knew and experienced that frailty of her flesh and the weight of her mortality.

For all of that, the truth remains that Christ Jesus has come in His own Body of flesh and blood. He has suffered and died for all your sins and transgressions, and He is risen from the dead in His glorified Body for your justification, in order to rescue and raise you in both body and soul. For all that He has accomplished for you in His Body, He has also given to you in Holy Baptism, and He continues to bestow upon you in the Holy Communion of His Body and His Blood. Already in the Gospel He delivers your soul from death — as He will your body in the Resurrection.

Therefore, do not weep and wail and mourn like those who have no hope.  Rather, pray, praise, and give thanks in the hope and confidence of Christ. Call upon the Name of the Lord, trusting that He hears and answers your prayers and supplications, and that He saves you from sin, death, and the power of the devil. Do not be afraid, but seek Him where He may be found, and so lay hold of Him by the “hem of His garment,” which is to say, by availing yourself of His Word and Sacrament.

Not what your senses, your intellect, or your emotions tell you, no matter how convincingly, but what Jesus says and does for you and gives to you determines what is true and what is real. The world will mock and scorn, it will laugh and ridicule the hope that is in you. But never mind that.

The Lord your God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live by and from Him. And by His grace, by His Ministry of the Gospel, He has delivered you from the domain of darkness, death, and damnation, and brought you into the Kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom you have redemption through His Blood, the free and full forgiveness of all your sins in Christ Jesus.

He raises you up and gives you life, already here and now in your body on earth. As surely as He has purified your heart and cleansed your conscience by the washing of your body with the water and His Word in Holy Baptism, so surely does He enliven your body with His Holy Spirit; so that you rise up and live and walk in His Way — from your childhood into your teens and adulthood.

He stretches out His hand to lay hold of you in love, to strengthen and sustain your faith and life in Him through the blessing of His Word and Holy Spirit. And it is your faith in Him that saves you, not as any kind of work or merit on your part, but as receiving and relying on His good Gifts.

The Synagogue and Sabbath Rest of Christ Jesus are where He catechizes you with His Word and calls you daily to repentance. Thus He returns you, again and again, to the significance of your Holy Baptism, to your dying and rising with Him. And He feeds you with Himself for the Life everlasting of your body and soul. He comes to abide with you, that you should abide in Him.

So now, in turn, confess the faith to your neighbors, and catechize your daughters and sons with the Word of Christ Jesus. Be as earnest and eager to do so as Jairus was to seek out Jesus for the sake of his dear little daughter; for it is by the catechesis of the Word of Christ Jesus that you give true and lasting Life to your children and preserve them in body and soul for now and forever.

And little girl, or little boy — young woman, or young man — child of God, whatever your age, do not continue to sin with your body, nor give yourself over to the laziness of apathy and despair, but worship the Lord your God — and love your neighbor as yourself — in and with your body.

As a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, follow Him on the Way that leads to Life even in the midst of death. Enter with Him into the House of your true Father and Mother, in which your weeping is turned into joy and your sorrow gives way to feasting. For your heavenly Bridegroom is here with you, feeding you with the Meat and Drink indeed of His holy Body and precious Blood, that you should not die but live, now and forever. He abides with you, and you abide in Him, both body and soul, waking, sleeping, in life, in death, and in the Resurrection to the Life everlasting

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

The Marriage Feast of the King's Son

The Kingdom of Heaven is all about the Father and His Son and the great Marriage Feast of Christ Jesus and His Bride, the Holy Christian Church.

From the Foundation of the World, from the Fall into Sin, through all the ages of the Patriarchs and Prophets, to the coming of our Lord in the Flesh, His Cross and Resurrection, even to the close of the age, the Lord provides for His people (and all His creatures); He feeds them in body and soul, for this life and the Life everlasting, and He promises a great Feast indeed.

Now, as we have depicted in our Lord’s Parable this morning, what He promised and provided for His people in the Old Testament was frequently despised, neglected, and rejected; and in response, He disciplined His people and called them to repentance — to receive the food with which He fed them, to rely upon His providential care, and to rejoice in His gracious gifts.

And in His tender mercies, long-suffering patience, and steadfast loving-kindness, He continued to preserve His people, to provide for them and feed them.

And when the time was fully come, the Father sent forth His dearly-beloved only-begotten Son into our Flesh, to call and claim His Bride and bring her Home rejoicing.

Thus did St. John the Baptist go before Him, to preach and prepare His Way, as the Best Man for the Bridegroom. He pointed the people to Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world — in whom all the promises and all the sacrifices of fattened calves, goats and bulls, sheep and oxen have found their fulfillment, their meaning and significance.

To that end, the Lord Jesus Himself, the incarnate Son of God, was sacrificed once-for-all upon His Cross, in order to atone for the sins of the world, to redeem the world for God, to justify all of us poor sinners and reconcile us to His God and Father — no longer as strangers and aliens, but as His own dear Bride, a Princess indeed, a daughter of the King.

This is truly a cause for great rejoicing, now and forever — in the Marriage Feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom, which has no end. For not only is the Lamb of God sacrificed, but His own Flesh and Blood are the Meal of Salvation for His Bride and all her dear children.

But we know how lukewarm the world is — and even our own mortal flesh — how readily we forego the things of Christ and the Kingdom of God for our earthly enterprises, our farms and our business dealings, so that we ignore His summons and decline His invitation.

So, too, St. John the Baptist, Christ Jesus Himself, and almost all of His holy Apostles were not simply ignored but persecuted and put to death for their preaching of the precious Holy Gospel.

The Lord’s own chosen people, by and large, refused and rejected Him — for which reason God sent the Roman armies as the instruments of His judgment to tear down, burn, and destroy the once holy city of Jerusalem — a sobering indication that the external walls and trappings of the Church on earth will not preserve a rebellious and hard-hearted people from the Lord’s just judgment.

The King’s Feast is prepared and ready, nevertheless. The promised Christ has come, His Cross and Resurrection have been accomplished, and His Body and His Blood are given and poured out as Meat and Drink indeed for His disciples to eat and to drink in faith and with thanksgiving.

The Lord’s Supper is, indeed, already the true and real Foretaste of the Feast that is hosted and celebrated forever in Paradise. And this Holy Supper, with all that it gives and does, is the Heart and Center of the Church — on earth as it is in heaven. Not a means to some other end, it is the Kingdom of Heaven among us, the Banquet of the King’s own dear Son and His Royal Bride.

Thus, in the sending of His Apostles to make disciples of all the nations — by the preaching and catechesis of His Word and by Holy Baptism in His Name — the Lord Jesus calls and invites all people to come and enter into His Wedding Feast in the Kingdom of His God and Father.

That is the very invitation that each of you has received through the Ministry of the Word. And that  is why you are here this morning, in anticipation of the Final Judgment, the Resurrection of all flesh, and the Life everlasting of body and soul in and with Christ Jesus, the heavenly Bridegroom.

So, it is good and right that you are here. And for those who are baptized and catechized in the Name of the Lord, who confess His holy Name, it is good and right that you should feast upon the Lamb of God here at His Table in His Home, in His Supper. Truly, forgiveness, life, and salvation are here freely given and bestowed upon you in the Word and Flesh of Christ Jesus.

But take heed to His warning in this Parable, that you not presume upon your gracious Host by entering upon His Feast without the wedding garment.

The ending of the Parable at hand is a call to repentance and the fear of the Lord. Not that you should rely upon yourself and your own righteousness (which is nothing), but that you should be clothed in Christ Jesus and His righteousness and holiness by grace through faith in His Word.

Just as the City and Temple of Jerusalem were no protection against the judgment of God for those who refused and rejected His beloved Son, so it is that simply being in church, sitting in the pew, hearing the Word with your ears, and receiving the Sacrament into your body will not save you apart from faith in Christ Jesus, by which alone you are justified and holy in the presence of God.

What then? Where faith and love are lacking in your heart, soul, body, mind, and spirit, what shall you do about that? If you have soiled, forgotten, or misplaced your wedding garment, how then shall you be dressed for the King’s Banquet?

Repent of your sins and avail yourself of His Word, whereby He does and accomplishes all things. Return to the significance of your Holy Baptism by contrition and repentance, confession and Absolution. The Lord who adorned you with His righteousness in those waters to be a member of His Bride, likewise cleanses you and covers you again by and with His Word of forgiveness.

It is His Word of the Gospel that renews, strengthens, and sustains your faith and life in Him, whereby He also bears good fruits in you after His own kind. Thus do you hallow His Name and honor your Bridegroom with the good works of your calling and stations, leading a good life in holy faith and holy love by His Word and Holy Spirit.

To be sure, your sins persist in this body and life, and your works are never perfect in themselves. But where you recognize your sins and weaknesses, failures and shortcomings, take to heart the grace and mercy and forgiveness of your Lord, who loves you. Fear, love, and trust in Him, not by your own reason or strength, but by faith in His Word and promises. His judgment does not fall upon those who trust in Him and partake of His Feast in the hope and confidence of His Gospel, no matter how frail and faulty your life has been. He has called you to come, that He should feed you with Himself and all the fruits and benefits of His Cross and Resurrection.

Therefore, look to Him and wait upon His mercy. And see here how He opens wide His generous hand to give you His Meat and Drink indeed. Truly does He satisfy your body and soul with His own divine Life, with His own holy Body and precious Blood. And so does He also adorn you as His own Bride with His own Righteousness, unto the Resurrection and the Life everlasting.

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

Given the Eyes of Faith to See Christ the Crucified

Everything hinges and depends upon the Word of God in Christ.  However, because it centers in His Cross, His Word remains a great Mystery, and even His disciples are blind to what it means and signifies (for Him and for themselves), until it is revealed and explained by the Holy Spirit.

As a case in point, St. Luke has carefully and purposely contrasted here the blind ignorance of the twelve disciples with the faith of the blind man.  Where he without eyes could see by faith who and what Jesus is, the twelve disciples understood nothing because His Word of the Cross was hidden from them.  Seeing, they could not see; and hearing, they could neither hear nor understand.

Yet, the Cross and Passion of Christ Jesus are the fulfillment of all that the Prophets had written concerning the Son of Man.  This is what the Word of God is all about!  This is what it means for Jesus to be the “Son of Man,” the incarnate God, given and poured out for the salvation of sinners, that He might justify the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve in His Resurrection from the dead.

Contrary to all human wisdom, reason, and strength, the Cross and Passion of the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus, are the revelation of the grace and glory of God in the flesh.  There, in the Body of Christ the Crucified, the heart of God is opened to you in love, to forgive you and to save you.

But you are not able to recognize this true divine reality with the eyes in your head.  Nor can you measure any of this accurately according to outward appearances.  Apart from the Word and Spirit of God, you can neither see nor hear nor understand what any of this is or what it really means.

It is already a struggle to see and believe that Christ the Crucified is the Power and Wisdom and Glory of God in the flesh, and that His Cross and Passion are forgiveness, life, and salvation for the world.  But now you are called, as well, to bear and to carry His Cross, to suffer His Passion, to live and die with Him in your own body and life as a disciple of this one Lord, Jesus Christ.

The challenge, then, is to recognize the gracious presence of God in the Cross of Christ that you bear and suffer.  It is not “in spite of the Cross,” but it is by and with and in the Cross that you are glorified with the Glory of God in Christ Jesus.  Just at those times and in those places when you are most tempted to suppose (and complain) that the Lord your God has forgotten you, that He has abandoned you, that He is angry at you — or, at your most cynical, that there is no God at all — it is then and there that He calls you to rejoice and give thanks that He is with you to glorify you.

But you cannot embrace the Cross of Christ Jesus as the Grace and Glory of God, as your Life and your Salvation, except by His Word and Holy Spirit.  It is only by the preaching of His Word, which is the work of His Spirit, that you are called and converted from your blind unbelief to see and believe the truth — in the humility of true repentance, but so also in the confidence of faith.

So, there you sit by the side of the road — squatting in a gutter at the edge of town — a poor, blind beggar.  A poor, miserable sinner.  You have nothing of your own, nothing to show for yourself.  And all that you deserve from the Lord your God is nothing else but punishment for your sins.

Well, okay, it may be that you’ve managed to cobble together a comfortable life for yourself in this world, or an adequate existence at any rate, better than others.  But you know that is not your true spiritual condition, not apart from Christ Jesus.  Apart from Him, your life is neither comfortable nor adequate, but rather on its way from bad to worse.  And in your native sinfulness, you could not see or find the Lord Jesus anywhere.  You could not see or understand anything as it really is, nor could you see or find any hope for the future.  In truth, apart from Christ there is no hope.

So you squat and waste away in your rut by the side of the road, a poor beggar.  That is what the Cross must make of you.  That is what repentance does.  It reduces you to nothing and leaves you with nothing to show for yourself, nothing to offer to God or anyone else, but only your desperate and pitiful need.  To that end the Cross is laid upon you, in order to put you to death with Christ the Crucified and bring you by way of His Cross into His Resurrection and the Life everlasting.

Repentance is no game, nor is it a mental exercise.  It begins with the dreadful experience of death and the grave, the anguish of your sins, and a little taste of hell in your heart, mind, body, and soul.  It is the crushing realization that, in yourself, because of your sin, you have no power, no strength, no hope for the future, no choices to make, and no opportunities, nothing but emptiness and want.

And then comes the Word of Christ.  You cannot see Him with your eyes, but you hear the Word which declares that Jesus is drawing near and passing by.  That Word reaches into your darkness, past your blindness, and calls you to attention.  It is true, there is no hope in you, but there is every hope for you in this Man from Nazareth.  And though you are blind to His presence, unable to find Him, the Word proclaims that He is here.  He has come to where you are on His way to the Cross.

And because you have been reduced to nothing but emptiness and need, the Word of Christ Jesus elicits from you the most basic prayer of faith: “Kyrie Eleison!” “Lord, have mercy!”  What else can you say?  You have nothing else to offer, and nothing with which to bargain or barter with the Lord.  You are a beggar.  There is no merit or worthiness in you.  So you simply cry out for mercy.

It is a deeply heartfelt prayer.  It is a groan of anguish and a cry of desperation, a plea for help from the only One who can help.  It is the voice of faith in its purest and most childlike state, small and fragile, helpless and weak, relying on the mercy of the Lord, the Son of David, Jesus Christ.  Under the weight of the Cross, you cry out for mercy to Him who bears and carries the Cross for you.

But of course, as soon as you begin to pray — as soon as repentance and faith begin to offer up their Kyrie Eleison! — the devil, the world, and your own flesh rise up against you, determined to keep you from Jesus.  “Hush your mouth,” they say.  “Be content with sin, death, and hell, and do not presume to ask for mercy.  Don’t pray.  Don’t hope.  Don’t trust.  Just give up, and shut up.”

So it is that voices of opposition strive to keep you from hearing and receiving the Word of Jesus, and to dissuade you from calling upon His Name and coming to Him at His Word.  But such voices do not belong to those who follow after Jesus.  They are the false noises and the fatal cacophony of those who presume to go before Him, who presume to lead and guide Him.  They know nothing of the Cross, but only the power, might, and wisdom of the world.  They are puffed up with their own reason and strength, and they insist that you must likewise be measured by their standards.

It is the Word of Jesus on His way to the Cross that defends you against those false and misleading voices of doubt and despair.  So faith persists in the confidence of His Word, which declares that He is close at hand.  And His Cross has taught you to know and believe these two most basic facts: You need Him, who alone is able to help and save you; and He has come for you in divine love.

So you will not shut up, nor will you give up, but you will cry out all the more: Lord, have mercy!

But, O Lord, how long!?  How long must we grope about in this deep darkness?  How long must we languish in our poverty and pathetic degradation, begging for mercy by the side of the road?  How long must we pray and cry out, before the Lord opens His hand and pours out His mercy?

If you are asking how long you must bear the Cross and suffer such difficulties, the answer is that your entire life in this world is lived under the Cross of Christ, which is paradoxically your glory, your strength, your sure confidence and hope — all appearances to the contrary notwithstanding.

But if you are asking how long it will be until the Lord Jesus hears and answers your cry for mercy, He has already answered before you have asked.  Indeed, He has planted Himself here, that even a blind beggar may find Him and lay hold of Him; and He calls for you to be brought to Him.

Against all those voices of opposition, He has commanded that you should be brought to Him.  He speaks with the authority of His own Cross and Resurrection, and His Word gives you confidence.  For not only has He drawn near to you, but He is calling for you to be drawn near to Him.

Your prayer for mercy is not in vain.  It is heard, and it is answered.  For the Lord invites you to pray, to lay your every need and every request before Him.  What is more, He has given you the very words with which to pray: “Our Father, who art in heaven.”  He has indeed commanded you to pray, and He has promised that, whatever you ask in His Name, it will be granted.  So it is that His Word comes to your rescue.  It opens your ears to hear, your eyes to see, and your lips to pray.

Now, to be sure, He answers your prayer for daily bread, for all that you need to support this body and life, just as He has taught you to pray.  Cast all of your anxieties on Him, therefore, because He truly cares about you, and He provides food and clothing, shelter and protection for your body.  But even better, He opens your blind eyes to behold and believe His true Glory, which is to say, His Holy Cross and Passion, whereby He has obtained the forgiveness of all your sins, conquered death in order to give you life, and defeated the devil in order to save you for eternity in heaven.

Of course it is true that, no matter what your circumstances in this world, for now you are not yet able to see the Lord Jesus with the eyeballs in your head.  And for as long as you live in this world, always under the Cross, you will not be able to “feel” His presence with you here.  For now it is by faith alone, and not by sight.  Blessed are you, therefore, who have not seen but have believed.

But how so are you blessed, and how do you believe what you cannot see and the world denies?  It is by the Word of Christ the Crucified.  “Faith alone” depends upon “the Word alone.”  Not just any Word, but the Word of God in Christ.  And not just any Christ, but Jesus Christ the Crucified.

The truth of the matter is that, if you could see Him, this crucified Lord Jesus Christ, you would be no less confused and scandalized than the disciples were then.  Just as you are so challenged, and sometimes shaken, when you are confronted by the Cross in your own Christian faith and life.

Even so, the Word of Christ prevails.  Not only has it alerted you to His gracious presence.  Not only has it called you to Him and invited you to pray.  His Word now also gives you Christ Himself and such good things as you could never dare hope for.  He speaks to you today, and your sins are forgiven.  He speaks to you today, and your faith is strengthened unto Life everlasting.  He speaks to you today, and He thereby gives to you His own holy Body and His holy, precious Blood, which He has sacrificed for you upon His Cross, that you should live in Him, and He in you, forever.

He speaks to you today, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against you.  For He speaks to you from His own Cross, the One who has been mocked and spitefully treated and spit upon, scourged and put to death for you and your salvation, who has risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity.  Today, then, as you hear His Voice, do not harden your heart, and do not suppose that He has hardened His heart against you, but enter into His Peace and Rest by faith in His mercy.

You are a beggar, that is true — truer than you even know.  But Christ be praised, He is the Savior of such beggars.  He is your Savior, and He has had mercy upon you.  His Word has saved you.  Come, then, rise up from your gutter, and follow Him on the Way that leads to Life everlasting.

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

To Eat the Food the Lord Provides

It happens again that there is a large crowd which is hungry and has no food to eat.  And they have no money to purchase what they need.  But they are gathered by and for the Word of Jesus, and they are taught to rely upon His Word and to live in body and soul by the food that He provides.

Previously it was the crowd of five thousand men in Jewish territory, along with their women and children, whom the Lord Jesus fed and satisfied from the five loaves of bread and a few fishes.  All four of the Holy Gospels include that story, the miraculous “Feeding of the Five Thousand.”

Now it is another feeding, this time of four thousand Gentiles in Gentile territory.  And though it may seem odd to our way of thinking, the Evangelist St. Mark has made of point of providing the statistics, that is, the numbers of things involved, and to make a comparison of the two stories on that basis.  In the Bible, such numbers are often significant of theological concerns.

The five loaves of bread that fed the five thousand call to mind the five books of Moses, which Jesus fulfills in Himself as the promised Messiah of Israel.  But the seven loaves of bread with which He now feeds the four thousand — and the seven baskets of the broken bread remaining — signify the seven days of the creation story, and therefore the whole world, brought into being by the Word and Spirit of God, and given Sabbath Rest in the completion of His good work.

So, too, the sevens of this feeding story point to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, whom Christ Jesus pours out upon His Church on Pentecost Day, and by whom He renews His good creation.

The number seven also has Gentile connotations.  For example, there are the seven deacons in the Acts of the Apostles, appointed to serve the tables of the Gentile Christians; and seven letters in the Book of the Revelation, which St. John addresses to the seven congregations of Asia Minor.

Likewise, the number four thousand suggests the four corners of the globe — East and West, North and South — multiplied by the number of completeness, that is, by 1000, which is 10 three times over (like the Ten Commandments of the Holy Trinity).  It embraces all the nations of the world.

There were in the previous case twelve baskets remaining from the feeding of the five thousand, signifying the twelve tribes of old Israel and the twelve Apostles of the New Israel of Christ.  And now the seven baskets remaining from this feeding of the four thousand signify that Jesus feeds His entire Church on earth, both Jews and Gentiles, and disciples from all nations, including you.

Jesus is the Lord, the great Good Shepherd of His sheep, who leads His flock by His Word, even through the wilderness, into the green pastures of His Church.  Even in the midst of sin and death, He feeds His lambs and sheep with food from His Table, as He does for you in His Holy Supper.  He provides the living Bread and life-giving Meat and Drink for both your body and your soul.

The Lord Jesus is not limited by the limited resources of this fallen and perishing world.  You have heard, for example, how He fed those who were with Him for three days in the desert wilderness.  And you have also been called to live with Him under the Cross — to be crucified, dead, and buried with the Lord Jesus, by your Baptism into His death, as you heard from St. Paul last week — in the sure and certain hope of His Resurrection from the dead.  Already now, by faith in His crucified and risen body, you do begin to live with Him and to walk with Him in newness of life.

You live with Him, and the desert actually becomes a kind of paradise, because Christ Jesus provides an overabundance of all that you need, with room to spare and always more left over.  Indeed, His Cup of Salvation is poured out for you and overflows with His forgiveness of sins and His gift of life.  He supplies more than enough for all the nations; for the people of all times and places; for all the men, women, and children; for His one, holy, catholic, and Apostolic Church.

Along with this gracious general Providence of God in Christ, the feeding of the four thousand  also teaches you concerning the Lord’s Supper.  In both cases, both then and now, He takes the bread, He gives thanks, He breaks the bread, and He gives it to His disciples.  As He fed the bodies of that hungry crowd, so does He feed His people with His own holy Body and precious Blood.

By His grace and power, there is never any lack.  The Food that He provides never runs out.  What is more, that divine Food with which He feeds you is more than sufficient to feed your body and soul, to nourish your Christian faith and life, and to carry you home to life everlasting in heaven.

Notice that Jesus makes a point of giving the food that He provides to His disciples — that is, to His holy Apostles, the Ministers of His Gospel — that they should give this food to the people.

Even though His own disciples often do not understand what He is saying and doing — and they may forget the feeding that He has previously done (such as when He fed the five thousand) — nevertheless, He calls them into His service, and He sends them to His people to act in His Name.

In the same way, think about how the Lord Jesus has always fed and clothed and cared for you in every way, for your body and life on earth, and for your life and salvation in the Kingdom of God.  And yet, how often do you also wonder and worry, and doubt, and question where and how your needs will be met tomorrow and the next day?  You are as slow to catch on as those disciples were.

In each and every case, it is the one Lord Jesus Christ who feeds His flock.  But He continues to do so through His called and ordained servants of His Word, also to this day and in this place.

In the words and actions of His servants, in their preaching and ministry by His Word, Christ the Lord is speaking and acting to feed you with His gifts of life: forgiveness and life and salvation.

All of this Jesus does out of His divine compassion for you and for all people, who are lost and helpless without Him, like lambs and sheep without a shepherd to feed, protect, and care for them.

Such “compassion” is a divine attribute.  For the Lord, the one true God, is moved with such compassion in the very depths of His Being, in the depths of the Father’s Love for His Son, and in the Son’s Love for His Father in the Holy Spirit.

This word compassion indicates that His guts (His intestines) churned within Him on account of His tender grace and mercy toward the helpless, the hopeless, and the hurting.

The same root word for guts (or intestines) has sacrificial implications on the basis of the Old Testament animal sacrifices.  But here it is pointing to the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Himself.  To be sure, the Lord’s deep compassion for you and for all people took Him to the Cross on your behalf, to sacrifice Himself, His body and life, His guts and intestines, for your salvation.

It is from His Cross, with the fruits of His own Sacrifice there, that He now and always feeds you here within His Church on earth through the ministry of His called and ordained servants, who are your shepherds in His Name.  He feeds you on the green pastures of His Word in their preaching of His Holy Gospel, and He feeds you with His own Body and Blood in the Holy Communion.

As I have said, the Lord Jesus does all of this out of His deep divine compassion for you, so that you are not condemned to death and damnation, but you have life and salvation in Him forever.

With such tender compassion for you, Jesus has suffered and died in your stead for the forgiveness of all your sins.  And He is risen from the dead for you, in order to open up heaven as your home.

To this day, and even to the close of the age, in His steadfast love and mercy for you, He feeds you with the Bread of Life, which is His sacrificial Body given for you, and He pours out for you the overflowing Cup of His Salvation, which is the New Testament in His own sacrificial Blood.

Eat well, therefore.  Be nourished, satisfied, and sustained in body and soul by this Food and Drink that Jesus provides for you from His own hand, which your pastors give to you by His authority.

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

Your Righteousness Before God and Man

It is because of who you are in Christ that you now live in the way that God has called you to live.  That is the way of righteousness for which you have been created, redeemed, and sanctified by His Word and Holy Spirit.  For the salvation that Christ your Savior has accomplished for you and for all people is not the abolishment of the Law but its true and perfect fulfillment.  Not only does He keep all of the commandments of God, but, in His doing so, He also teaches you to do the same.

His teaching and His righteousness are not like those of the scribes and Pharisees.  But He does not dismisses the Law, which is the Word of God and the revelation of His good and acceptable Will.  Jesus does not trade legalism for a liberal permission to indulge in wickedness, as though sin and disobedience were okay.  He has not come to set you free from the righteousness of God, but to bring you into the glorious liberty and genuine righteousness of God’s beloved children.

The righteousness of which your dear Lord Jesus speaks, and for which He has set you free by His Gospel, is not some amount of stuff to be purchased or sold, earned, or traded in the market.  And it is not a self-contained idea or feeling inside your head or your heart.  There is no righteousness in isolation from God and your neighbor.

The righteousness of Christ is the right relationship of a beloved son to His true God and Father in heaven.  It is a relationship of faith and love: to fear, love, and trust in God above all things, and, for His sake, to love your neighbor as yourself.  This living and loving proceed from within the relationship of sonship.  As you are a son of God by grace, by your Baptism into Christ, so do you now live as a son of God, sanctifying His Name in your words and actions by faith in Christ.

This is the righteousness that Christ has accomplished and fulfilled from His own Baptism in the Jordan River unto His Cross and Passion, and established for you in His Resurrection from the dead, unto the life everlasting.  It is by His dying and rising that you enter the Kingdom of heaven, and by which you live with Him in His Kingdom in own His righteousness and holiness forever.

That means dying to yourself and to your own self-righteousness, and rising to newness of life in Christ Jesus.  It is thus a matter of repentance and of faith in His forgiveness of your sins.  It is not imaginary, nor is it by your own reason and strength.  It happens by His Word as you receive and use His means of grace; as you remember and return to your Holy Baptism by confessing your sins and receiving Holy Absolution from your pastor; and as you receive the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Communion.  By His mercy, it is the daily new beginning of a brand new way of life.

To point out that your righteousness before God is by faith in Christ Jesus, by faith in His Gospel, is not to say that it may be kept hidden away within your heart, as though it were a private matter.  In fact, it cannot be that way.  No, the righteousness of faith before God is demonstrated in love before people.  It is foolish to suppose that a Christian disciple of Jesus could be or live otherwise.

To refrain from loving your neighbor, to neglect your duties and responsibilities, to ignore or disobey the commandments of God, is to deny your very identity as a child of God: like salt that is not salty, or water that is not wet.  It is to disown the family of God, to run away from His home, and to set yourself outside of His Kingdom and His righteousness.  It is to lose everything.

So, wherever you have disregarded the commandments of God, as though they had no authority over you; wherever you have hidden yourself away from your neighbor and his needs; wherever you have been concerned with lighting only your own path and progress, instead of shining a light for your neighbor and glorifying your God and Father in Christ Jesus — I say to you now: Repent.  Return to the Lord your God, and live unto your Father in Christ to the glory of His Holy Name.

If you are a Christian, live as a Christian.  For you are baptized into Christ.  You are crucified, dead, and buried with Him through your Baptism into His death, and you are raised with Him in His Resurrection from the dead.  Therefore, die to yourself and to your sins, to your old ways of life, and rise with Christ each day to live unto righteousness as a child of God.  And if you are not yet a Christian, become one, so that you may live: Repent and be baptized, and believe the Holy Gospel, that for Christ’s sake all your sins are forgiven and you are justified by His grace.

It is by the mercies of God in Christ Jesus that you are His own child, named with His own Name.  You are a beloved member of His household and family, a royal citizen and heir of His Kingdom.  That is who and what you are by the grace of God the Father through Jesus Christ, His Son.  And who you are and how you live belong together, like your hand in a glove.  The righteousness of your life is an exercise of the righteousness that is your relationship with God in Christ by faith.

So it is that both your repentance and your righteousness result in new behaviors, in keeping with the commandments of God.  In Christ you are a new creation, a new person, a new man, woman, or child.  You do not live all by yourself in isolation, independent of others, but you live and act within your relationship to God, and so also in a new relationship with all your neighbors in the world.  You think and speak and act differently, because, by the Word and Spirit of your God and Father, you have the heart and mind of Christ.  It is no longer you who live, but Christ lives in you.

This is truly an amazing new reality, a new way of life, which you could never accomplish or achieve for yourself.  It is given to you by the gracious adoption of God.  You do not storm the gates of heaven with your good works, but you do good works of faith and love because God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, has called you to be His very own, He has brought you into His home as a member of His family, and He has established you forever and ever within His Kingdom of grace.  Not only do you live with Him, but you live in Him; and He now lives and moves in you.

The commandments of God, from the greatest to the least, describe this Life of God as it is lived in human flesh and blood.  It is the Life of His children, of His people, of His family, on earth as it is in heaven.  It is the Life of Christ, the incarnate Son, for you and for all.  It is the Life that is lived in His Kingdom, where you now live by His grace through faith in His Gospel.  It is a life that can be seen, which fills the whole house with the Light of Christ to the glory of His Father.

What, then, shall your life in Christ look like?  Instead of using and manipulating your neighbor, set him free and serve him.  Instead of clinging to what you have and striving to get more and more at your neighbor’s expense, share what you have been given, and use whatever means the Lord has provided to care for the people around you.  Instead of entertainment and personal pleasure, invest yourself in your relationships and in your actual vocations.  Befriend and benefit your neighbor instead of trying to avoid him.  Care for both his body and his soul, giving tangible gifts of money, food, and clothing, and forgiving the sins of those who trespass against you, rather than holding grudges and harboring bitterness against them.  Be at peace with all people.  Let your gentleness and kindness be obvious to all.  In the confidence of Christ, sacrifice yourself to serve others.

The great Mystery of His own Cross and Sacrifice is the culmination of His divine righteousness, the fulfillment of all the Law and the Prophets.  It is the righteousness of the one true God, the Holy Trinity, who acts entirely in Love, in accordance with His own divine nature, which is Love.  It is the righteousness of perfect faith and perfect love on the part of the Son for His Father — not hidden away within the inner Life of the Godhead, but on display upon the Cross before all men.

It is by His Cross and Passion that Jesus keeps the commandments of God to their completion, and He catechizes you to live the same way.  You are not the Savior of the world, but you are crucified and raised with Him, so that you now live in righteousness and purity in Him, in faith toward God, and in love for your neighbor.  He teaches you by His instruction and example, to be sure, but, more than that, His living and active Word of the Cross puts you to death and brings you to life in His own crucified and risen Body.  His Cross, therefore, is not only your crucifixion, death, and burial.  It is also your Atonement and Redemption, your Reconciliation with God and man, and your Righteousness forever in His bodily Resurrection from the dead.  You live because He lives.

The same Lord Jesus Christ, crucified for your sins and risen from the dead, is your Righteousness and Sanctification.  He has gone before you through death into life, and He also now journeys with you all the way.  He has opened up the way for you to enter the Kingdom of heaven.  Indeed, He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, by which, even now, you have access to the Holy of Holies, to the Mercy Seat, and to God the Father in heaven.  So do you live as a child of God by faith in His forgiveness, by His Word and Spirit.  And this Lord Jesus, who goes before you into Glory, guards and keeps you on your right and on your left and all around you, to preserve you steadfast in His Righteousness and Peace, unto the resurrection of your body and the life everlasting in Him.

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

He Takes Your Sad Song and Makes It Better

Sing to the Lord, you children of God, for you are baptized into Christ.  And who is Christ?  He is the Son of God, true God and Man.  And He is the Passover Lamb who has been sacrificed for you.  His Blood now marks your door, but, see, this same Blood of Christ also touches your lips.  How, then, shall they not sing, when your lips are thus cleansed, and you are forgiven and set free?

Death is here served notice that you belong, not to him, but to the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.  For Christ is also your great Redeemer, whose right hand and holy arm have worked salvation for Him, for you and all His people, for His Name’s sake.  He has truly done marvelous things, and He is with you in steadfast love and faithfulness.  By the wood of His Cross He has defeated the tyrants who held you captive; He has broken the chains that bound you; and He has opened the way before you, through the water into freedom, into life.

You are baptized into His Exodus.  Therefore, sing to Him, sing praise to Him, and bless His Holy Name.  Come into His presence with thanksgiving; enter the courts of the Lord’s House with songs of praise.  For the floods have lifted up their voice, and the waves of many waters worship Him.  So let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it.  Let all the earth break forth into joyous songs and sing praises.  As also the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven sing to the Lamb upon His throne; who was slain, and yet, behold, He lives.  For He has redeemed you with His precious Blood; He has purchased and won you for life with God; and He has saved you for the singing of this Song, here in time, and hereafter in eternity.

You know this Song.  You do.  You know the words and the tune.  You infants and nursing babies, you are not excluded, for the Lord Himself opens your mouth to show forth His praise.  You little children, sons and daughters, young men, old men, and ladies, this is your Song.  It is taught by the Spirit of Christ Jesus, who sings to you by the Gospel.  He has sung to you by the washing of the water with His Word.  He sings to you from the Holy Scriptures and the Catechism.  He sings to you in the Creeds and in the prayers of the Church, in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

He sings to you at the Altar and in Holy Absolution.  He sings the forgiveness of all your sins, the Peace of Christ for you, reconciliation with God and with your neighbor, and your Sabbath Rest.

This is the New Song, which the Spirit of Jesus sings for you; and which you also now sing by the same Spirit.  Do not receive this grace of God in vain, nor make it bad.  Dear little Mockingjay, as you have heard this Song, now echo it and sing.  Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, and let that be your verse and chorus all the time, in every place.  Rehearse it with your words and with your actions.  Let His Gospel be the tune that you sing, His mercy the melody of your whole life.

For as the Spirit sings the Song of Christ into your ears, and through your ears into your heart and mind, into your body and your soul, so do you bestow the same Holy Spirit upon your neighbor by the singing of this Song that He has taught you.  Your lips and tongue become the vehicles of God Himself, as they reverberate with His Words of love and forgiveness.

You parents, sing to your children, and you children, sing to your parents.  You husbands and wives, sing to each other.  You brothers and sisters in Christ, sing together in peace and joy, in the fellowship of one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all.  And as you sing, so also live.  Let the New Song that you sing resonate in everything that you do.

For in this New Song, Christ Himself is with you, bestowing the Spirit and all the good gifts of the Father upon you.  Everything that belongs to Him, is sung to you in this Gospel, and thereby given to you.  As this Word is in your ears, in your mind and in your heart, so is the Lord Jesus near you.  And He is with you, also, when you confess this Word and sing this Song with your own lips.

That is the Truth, even though it seems and feels as though He were absent, as though He had gone away and left you all alone.  In the world around you, there is trouble and pain: people who are hurting, and people who are hurting you.  And in yourself, in your own life and actions, there is much to suggest that you and Christ Jesus are not very close, and that you really don’t know Him at all.  In your sorrow there is an overwhelming sense of emptiness and loneliness.  In your anger there is no righteousness of God.  In all your terrible fear, it appears that Christ has deserted you.

So maybe you don’t feel much like singing; or at all.  Or, maybe you’d just rather sing the blues.

There is a reason that sad songs say so much, that so many of them have been written, and that, for all their melancholy, those are the songs that strike the heart and stick.  Often they bewail the pain and sadness of goodbyes, which everyone experiences and knows, and the music helps you to feel it tangibly, to taste it on your lips, so that the person you are missing is almost present in the song: almost, but not quite; not really.  It seems almost cruel, but misery loves company, and so you savor the bittersweet comfort of knowing that someone else has hurt the way that you are hurting.

If silly love songs are always popular, the sad songs of lost or unrequited love are more poignant.

So long as your beloved is still “out there” in the world, there is mingled along with sadness the hope of his or her return, of reconciliation and recovery, of love requited.  Sad songs seize upon that hope as a kind of plea, a cry for pity.  But death intrudes even there with even greater sadness, which suffocates whatever little hope you may have had.  You can hardly catch your breath to sing anything then; whatever words you do manage get caught in your throat.  After all, isn’t death the permanent departure and the ultimate distance between you and those you love?  Whether you had the chance to say “goodbye” or not; and whether you resolved what needed to be resolved, or not.

There are plenty of songs about that sorrow of mourning and regret.  Some of them simply play upon emotions, and your reveling in that kind of manipulated grief — making yourself feel sad — becomes a way of trying to atone for your guilt over missed opportunities or unamended wrongs.  Other songs simply wail and lament, because there is nothing else that can be done or expressed in the face of death.  That sadness feels good, and it offers some measure of comfort; not because of any hope, but because sadness is all that you have left.  Sadness fills your heart, and the song helps you to bring it out and examine it, even if you have to rely on someone else to sing it for you.

There are plenty of people who seem to think that Lutheran hymns are like those kinds of songs, those laments.  After all, how many clichés are there about Lutheran “funeral dirges”?  We do sing of death, no doubt, and we certainly do take a sober and serious approach to mortal life in a fallen world, which withers and fades like the grass.  But that is not all there is to what we say and sing.  We do not mourn as those who have no hope.  We do not weep and wail as though death were going to get the last word.  We know, even through our tears, that sorrow will be turned to joy.

The Truth of the matter is, that the Word and Spirit of Christ enter into that sorrow — into that terrible hurt and pain — into the depths of despair, and into the darkness of death and the grave.  God the Father was His source, and back to God He ran His course. But into hell His road went down, and back then to His throne and crown.  That is how He turns it all around.  He does not deny the departure of death, but He goes the distance, and then He returns with you and all His people in hand.  That is the journey of which He speaks to His disciples, His return to the Father who sent Him: not that He is leaving you, but that He is coming to get you, by way of the Cross, in order to bring you home to the Father, in and with Himself, in His Resurrection from the dead.

He takes your sorrow seriously; He takes it on Himself; He takes your sad song and makes it better.

That is the story our poets sing, the Psalmists and the best of the Church’s hymn writers across the ages.  That is the New Song of David and Asaph, of Luther and Gerhardt, of Nicolai, Heermann and Rist, among many others.  It is the Song of the Cross, and of the Resurrection of Christ Jesus.  It the Song of real hurt and pain, of sorrow, grief and loss, but also of the Gospel, of comfort, joy and peace.  It is sung from the depths of woe — it is sung from where you are in misery, anger and fear — but so does it also rise up with Christ to be sung in the hope of His mercy and forgiveness.

Music itself, which is a good and perfect gift of God, as part of His good creation, participates in that journey of Christ; for all of creation is redeemed, raised up, and renewed in His Resurrection.  Music surely knows the fall into sin and the sadness of death, but now it also knows the glory of Christ and the power of His indestructible life.  Thus, as Luther well knew, music with its beauty, with its artistry and grace, is able to chase away the devil and to cheer up the sorrowing spirit.

When such music carries the Word of Christ, how much more then does it bring healing and life.  For then it truly bears the Life-giving Holy Spirit, as St. Paul teaches the Church in his Epistles.

The Spirit sings Christ Jesus to you, as I have said; not only with the poetry and melody of Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, but with the Gospel itself, in all the many ways that it is proclaimed and administered in the Name of the Lord Jesus.  For the Word of the Gospel itself, which is the Word of Christ, is the music and the Song which give you life, no matter how it may be spoken, chanted, or sung.  Like Aslan singing Narnia into existence in The Magician’s Nephew.

That sweet Song of the Gospel carries Christ from the Father to you, and the Spirit of Christ Jesus, because it conveys to you the same faith and life once delivered to the saints and Apostles of old.  It implants the same Word of God in you, in order to save you from death and give you new life.

If you have forgotten the Song — if you have lost the Words or failed to take them to heart — He who sings the Song to you has not forgotten.  He remembers the Song, as the Father remembers His Son; and He still sings the Song to you, because He remembers you in faithfulness and love.

Rest assured, you do not carry the world upon your shoulders, no matter how heavy it may feel.  But this Song of Christ and His Spirit lifts you up and carries you: out of sin and sorrow, out of the depths of death and despair, and out of darkness into Light, to God the Father in Christ Jesus.

For Christ Himself, the Word-made-Flesh, He is the New Song that is sung to you in the whole Gospel, throughout His Church on earth and in your Christian home.  And He is the New Song that you now sing, by faith, as He opens your mouth to pray and confess His Word.

He is your Song, and He is your Strength in the singing of His Gospel, because He has become your Salvation.  He has accomplished everything in Himself, in His own Body of flesh and blood, by His journey from the Father to His death upon the Cross, and in His rising from the dead and His ascending to the Right Hand of the Father.  He is the Sacrifice of your Atonement, and now He is your Song because He is your Sacrifice of praise and your sweet-smelling Incense of prayer.

It is to your great advantage that He has thus returned to the Father, for He has done so as your Great High Priest, on your behalf.  All that He has, whatever is His from the Father, and everything He does, it is all given to you and becomes yours in this Song of the Gospel.  Therefore, you also rise and return to the Father in Him.  Even now that is so, although you make that journey, as He has done before you, by the way of His Cross, which is sorrowful.  But do not be afraid.  For He has taken your sad song and made it His, so that His New Song of the Resurrection may be yours.

The Name that has been sung upon you in the waters of your Holy Baptism — in the preaching of the Holy Gospel of Christ Jesus, in the Word of Absolution, and in the Benediction — that is the Name which you now sing, by His grace and by His Spirit, in calling upon the Lord your God.  And as surely as Christ is risen from the dead and ever lives to intercede for you before His God and Father, so surely are you heard, and you are saved, by the same God who is your own dear Father in Christ.  For His Name is exalted in Christ, His Son, and you also are exalted in Him.

So, too, the Word that is here sung to you — the Word of the Word-made-Flesh, with which He gives to you His Body to eat and pours out His Blood for you to drink — this is the Song that now rings in your ears and sings upon your lips; which resonates in your heart and mind, and in your flesh and blood.  For He is both the Singer and the Song, who sings to you the forgiveness of all your sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the Love of God the Father, unto the life everlasting.

To Him be the worship, the blessing and honor and glory and praise, forever and ever.  Amen.