Given by Christ Jesus to Be a Shepherd of His Sheep

“Thank God,” Dr. Luther once remarked, “even a seven-year-old child knows what a shepherd is and does.” He feeds and tends the lambs and sheep, and he guards and protects them from predators and other dangers. He puts himself in harm’s way, in order to keep them safe.

That is what the Lord Jesus does for His whole Flock. And that is likewise exactly what a Christian pastor is and does. He feeds and tends the sheep of the Good Shepherd in the good green pastures of His Word, His Law and His Gospel, unto repentance and faith in His forgiveness of sins. And a pastor leads the sheep beside the clean and cleansing waters of Holy Baptism to the Table of the Lord in His Kingdom, all the while defending the flock against false doctrine, idolatrous practices, and all the assaults and accusations of the old evil foe. A pastor invests himself in this work, he spends his body and life for the well-being of the flock placed under his care.

If that sounds like a big job and a daunting task, that’s because it is. And as it is true that each and every Christian is called to bear the Cross and follow after Jesus, it is all the more the case that His pastors, the ministers of His Word, are called upon to serve and to suffer for His Name’s sake. Nor should anyone ever suppose that we can do or manage any of this on our own, by our own reason or strength, education, ingenuity, or what not.

None of us can be a sheep of the Good Shepherd — far less a shepherd of His sheep — by any efforts of our own. Those who attempt to do so are hirelings at best, or, as Jesus says today, they are thieves and robbers. But we are sheep because the Shepherd has called us by name with His Voice of the Gospel. And Pr. Harrison is here given to be a shepherd of the Lord’s sheep in this place, because he enters through the Door into the Sheepfold — in the Name and stead of Jesus.

So, what does this mean for us?  It is a bit confusing on the surface of it, and even the disciples did not understand the Words of our Lord when He first spoke them. But the Key, of course, is Christ Jesus Himself, His Cross and Resurrection. He is the Good Shepherd, and He is the Door by which His sheep and His undershepherds enter in and come and go in peace and safety, faith and love.

As the Good Shepherd, He lays down His Body and Life in death upon the Cross, and then He takes it up again, in order that His sheep might have abundant Life in Him forevermore. This is why He has come — to bear your sins, and the sins of the whole world, in His own Body on the bloody Cross, that you might die to sin and live to righteousness in Him. By His wounds you are healed, and by His bodily Resurrection from the dead you have Righteousness and Life.

Thus has He become the Door, and by your Holy Baptism in His Name you have entered through His death into His resurrected Life in the presence of His God and Father. Even now, living under the Cross in the midst of sin and death, awaiting the Resurrection and the Life everlasting, you live and abide in the House of the Lord, as a sheep of His pasture, in the communion of His Church:

In the Apostles’ Teaching and Fellowship, in the Breaking of the Bread, and in the Prayers of the Church, you live and abide under the care of your Good Shepherd, Christ Jesus, the Chief Pastor and Archbishop of your soul and body, heart, mind, and spirit.

It is by and for this Ministry of the Word and Sacrament that men like Pr. Harrison enter through the Door of Christ Jesus into His Sheepfold, not only to live and abide as one of the sheep, but to serve and care for the lambs and sheep, to feed and tend the flock in the Name and stead of Jesus.

As the sheep are called to learn from Jesus and follow His example, to live and love as He does, so are the pastors of the sheep called to preach the Word of Jesus, to speak with His Voice, to administer His Gifts, and to do what He does for the life and health of His Church in His Name.

Such pastors have beautiful feet, as we have heard, because they are sent to go, to bring and deliver His Word of the Gospel — and in their going, in their preaching and teaching, Christ Jesus Himself is actively present and at work to forgive sins and to grant His beautiful Life and Salvation.

This is not a self-chosen office and work. A man may well aspire to become a pastor and bishop, but it is the Lord who calls, ordains, and sends a man into that Office of the Holy Ministry, albeit through the agency of His Church on earth. Pastors and congregations identify and encourage young men to give themselves for this work. The seminaries train and prepare them, examine them, and then, along with the Council of Presidents, they certify and place them. Churches extend Calls, and those who already serve in the Office ordain new men to that Office and install them in it. But, again, it is the Lord our Good Shepherd who is ever at work throughout this process to bring a man through the Door into His Sheepfold to be a pastor — a shepherd — of His own dear sheep.

So, today, that is what He is doing with you — and for you — Pr. Harrison, for the sake of His dear sheep in this place, for their life and health and strength in Him. And as He is the One who stations you here in His Name, so shall He be and abide with you here in this Vocation and Office. He loves you, as He loves all His pastors; and He loves all His lambs and sheep entrusted to your care.

Along with that, the same Lord Jesus has given you the added benefit of a faithful colleague in this particular pasture, so that you will labor in love for the lambs and sheep alongside Pr. DeBlieck. It is a blessed thing when brothers in arms live and work together in unity, in common cause, not for their own benefit or glory, but for the benefit and blessing of the Lord’s own beloved flock.

Now, then, as the Lord Jesus in His Ministry lives and works, dies and rises, in accordance with the Word and Will of His Father who sent Him, you also are called and ordained to live and work, to bear the cross, to suffer and even to die, in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ who sends you.

So proceed in faith, hope, and love. And do not despair when it may seem that nothing is working or going well; nor fall into the trap of supposing that all of this work depends on you. Simply do what you are called and given to do, knowing that your labors in the Lord are not in vain. He will accomplish His purposes in you, and through you, and for you, all to the glory of His Holy Name.

Lay down your life in love for Christ Jesus and His sheep, in the sure and certain confidence that He will raise you up again, as surely as He daily and richly forgives you all your sins and cleanses you from all unrighteousness by His own Resurrection and the power of His indestructible Life.

You know the work you are given to do, not only because you have been taught and trained by the Church, but also because you are first of all a sheep yourself, and you live as a sheep of the Good Shepherd solely by His grace alone, by faith in His forgiveness of all your sins. You know and understand the challenges and hurts, the weaknesses and fears of this body and life. But you also know and love the sweet comfort and peace of the Gospel, the solid confidence and strength of Holy Baptism, and the forgiveness and fellowship of the Lord’s Altar. And here you are given, not only the duty and responsibility, but the blessed privilege of serving God’s people with these Gifts.

At its heart, the most basic work of a pastor — as we have prayed with the Psalmist this afternoon — is to proclaim the righteousness of the Lord in the great assembly of the Church, in the midst of the great congregation. That is to preach and teach the Gospel of Christ Jesus, and thereby to speak of His faithfulness and salvation, unto repentance and faith in His free and full forgiveness. By the preaching and hearing of this Word of Christ, the Lord Himself obtains faith in the heart, where and when it pleases Him. And as the heart thus believes, so does the Lord put a new song upon the lips and tongues of His dear people, a hymn of praise to the glory of His Holy Name. Blessed are the pastors and all the people of God who live by such faith in His precious Gospel!

Dear saints of University Lutheran Church, hear and heed the Voice of your Good Shepherd in the preaching and teaching of this man, Pr. Harrison, who is here and now given to you by the Lord to be your pastor in His Name, alongside Pr. DeBlieck. Receive the ministry of these men of God in faith and love. Listen to them and learn from them. Allow yourselves to be challenged by them, that you might grow in wisdom and maturity, in the grace and knowledge and fear of the Lord.

And wherever either of your pastors may stumble and misstep at times, be patient and kind, love them, and forgive them, even as you also hear and receive the Lord’s forgiveness of all your sins through the voice and ministry of these dear men. For it is ever and always the case that pastors and laity alike depend upon one and the same Lord Jesus Christ, the great Good Shepherd of the sheep. Everything depends on Him. So, do not be afraid, but rely on Him and rest yourself in Him.

Do not listen to strange voices, but flee from strangers and follow Christ Jesus the Lord by giving attention to His Word and availing yourself of His means of grace. And as often as you go astray, return by repentance and faith to the Pastor and Bishop of your soul. Indeed, He comes to you here to give you His abundant Life, and He will not fail, nor shall He ever leave you or forsake you.

Risen from the dead, never to die again, He lives and reigns to all eternity as your gracious God and Lord, your Savior and your Shepherd. And as He lives and abides with you here in peace and love, so shall you live and abide with Him — in His own Holy House — forever and forevermore.

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

United with Christ Jesus in His Baptism, His Cross, and His Office

It was on this Sunday twenty-five years ago that I had the privilege of preaching for my father’s installation as the new pastor at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Milford, Illinois. Not only does that make this a particularly poignant and nostalgic occasion for me, but I remain convinced — now as then — that the Baptism of Our Lord is an especially appropriate day for an installation, as a compelling opportunity to consider the meaning and significance of the pastoral office.

If I have understood correctly, it was almost nineteen years ago, Pastor Griebel, when you were ordained at Emmanuel-Soest and there received the special gifts of the Holy Spirit which are known collectively as the Office of the Holy Ministry: When you yourself — your body and soul, your eyes, ears, reason and all your senses, and all that you are — were given as a gift of the Spirit to the Church on earth; when the yoke of Christ Himself — the mantle of His holy Prophets and Apostles — was laid upon you, not as a burden, but as a joyous vocation under the Cross; when, in addition to your other vocations as a son (and a son of God in Christ), as a husband and father, you also became a shepherd of the Lord’s flock under the one Good Shepherd of us all.

From the first, there is a particularity to all of this. You were ordained at Emmanuel-Soest, but you were given to be the Pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Wapakoneta, Ohio, and thereafter to serve at the Veteran’s Hospital and later at Lutheran Life Villages. So, too, you have now been called and are here today given to be the Pastor of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church.

This particularity — this “locatedness” of your pastoral ministry — is a continuation and extension of the very Incarnation that we have so recently celebrated in the Holy Nativity of Christ our Lord. For it is the scandalous particularity of the Christian faith, that we can point to this Baby in this place at this time — and/or to this Man on this Cross at this time — born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate — and precisely (and only) here in Him, we confess, is the one true God in the Flesh, who for us and our salvation came down from heaven to earth.

Now, to be sure, you are not God! You are not the Lord Jesus Christ! But we can point to you — here in this place and at this time — and rightly confess that you are here given to speak with the Voice of Christ to these people, and to administer on their behalf the works of Christ Himself.

That is the very point and purpose for the rite of installation this morning: that we might see with our eyes, and confess with our lips, that God has placed you here to speak and act for Him, and in your Ministry to be His active Gospel-presence among these dear people, for whom Christ died.

Today, you do not become what you were not, but what you have been, what God has given you to be in your Ordination nineteen years ago, is now given to and for Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church right here on St. Mary’s Avenue. In all of its particularities — and we might even say, in all of its peculiarities — God is present and at work in this place, at this time, in and through you.

In this respect, it is so fitting and appropriate that the Lord has chosen this day — the First Sunday after the Epiphany: the Baptism of Our Lord — to install you in this new Office of responsibility. For it is certainly the case that our Lord Jesus did not receive the Holy Spirit for the first time at His Baptism (as though He were previously without the Spirit), but He was visibly and publicly anointed by the Spirit — when He descended bodily upon Him in the form of a dove — to “install” Him, as it were, into His Office and Ministry as the Christ or Messiah, the Lord’s Anointed.

He is the Son of God and bears the Holy Spirit from all eternity, but in the waters of the Jordan River, as the Son of Man, He is bodily anointed as our Substitute and Savior. As St. Luke puts it, “When all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized.” Henceforth, all that He is and does is for the sake of our salvation. And so also for you: Henceforth, all that you are and all that you do — as a minister of Christ and as a pastor of His Church on earth — is for the people of Trinity.

Now, there are many who would say that your ministry is an extension of your own Holy Baptism. But that is only indirectly true, and it is a bit misleading to follow down that road of logic. By all means, there is no greater treasure in your life than Holy Baptism! But it is not by virtue of your Baptism that you speak the Words and work the works of Christ Jesus as a pastor of His Church. Rather, as the Liturgy of the Holy Communion has taught us so well, it is by virtue of your Office as a called and ordained servant of the Word that you forgive sins, and preach the Gospel, and baptize, and distribute the Body and Blood of Christ to and for His people (now also in this place), all in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Make no mistake, the Sacrament of Holy Baptism belongs to all of this, and the waters of your own Holy Baptism are certainly also involved. For in the washing of those waters with the Word you have been united with Christ Jesus in His Cross and Resurrection, anointed by His Holy Spirit, and adopted by His God and Father as a beloved and well-pleasing son. And, as a son of God in Christ, you bear His Holy Name in all of your various vocations. Indeed, your entire life in all its aspects, including your vocation as a minister of Christ, is an ongoing confession of the Christian Creed.

But your pastoral vocation was not given to you in your Baptism. There you were called to be and to live as a child of God. So were you called to be a child of your parents when you were born; you were called to be a husband when you were married; you were called to be a father when your children were born; and you were called to be a pastor when you were ordained to the Office of the Holy Ministry. And you serve faithfully in that Office, as in all of your vocations, because you are a baptized child of God who lives in Christ, and Christ in you, by grace through faith in Him.

But whereas your Holy Baptism united you with Christ in His Cross and Resurrection as a child of God, your Ordination united you with the same Lord Jesus Christ in His Office of preaching and teaching and otherwise administering His Holy Gospel of forgiveness unto others. By your Holy Baptism, you became a disciple. By your Ordination, you were called and sent to make disciples.

As a child of God, you stand in the waters of the Jordan with Jesus, and you hear the Voice of your dear Father in heaven declaring that you are His beloved son, with whom He is well pleased.

But as a minister of the Gospel, you stand on the banks of the Jordan with St. John, preaching a Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and baptizing other sons of God in Christ.

The nature of your pastoral ministry is, in many ways, very much like that of St. John the Baptist, but more so. You do not prepare for a Christ who is yet to come, but you preach and bestow the Christ who has already come, and you proclaim His death until He comes again. Even so, it is still the preaching of repentance, which the Lord Jesus Himself describes (on that first Easter Sunday) as being on par with His Cross and Resurrection in its divine necessity. Without such preaching, the forgiveness and life and salvation of His Cross would never be distributed and received.

Thus were the Holy Apostles sent to preach repentance in the Name of Jesus to all the nations. And so have you also been called, ordained, and sent to preach this same repentance in the Name and stead of the same Jesus, for the forgiveness of these dear people who are entrusted to your care.

This is the “Word and Sacrament Ministry” with which you are charged by Christ Jesus Himself. And this “Word and Sacrament Ministry” is no mere cliché. It is to be understood and carried out quite tangibly in your flesh-and-blood preaching, living, and embodiment of the Holy Gospel.

Which means that you will hear the confession of real sins by real sinners, and you will forgive those sins with the spoken Word of Holy Absolution. It means that you will visit frail and hurting people who are hospitalized or homebound, that the Word of Christ might dwell among them and with them in body and soul. It means that you will administer the Holy Communion, putting the true Body and Blood of Christ Jesus into the mouths of His people. And it means, of course, that you will Baptize young and old into His very real and eternally-significant Cross and Resurrection.

In the footsteps of the Holy Apostles, you are sent by the one Lord Jesus Christ in His Name and with His own authority — who is with you in all that you say and do — to baptize, to teach, to pray, to feed the flock with the Word and Flesh of the One who sends you; to speak with His Voice, and to work His own works with His own hands, as it were, all according to His Word:

Whoever hears you, hears Him who sent you; and whoever receives you, receives Him who sent you, even Jesus Christ, your Savior and your God.

With all this in mind, both you and the people of Trinity must realize that you are sent, not only to tell them “about” Jesus, “about” the Gospel, “about” the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation; but here among them you are given to embody the Gospel in your Office, to deal with them with the Law and the Gospel, as the one through whom Christ Jesus deals with them personally. He speaks and acts through you to forgive their sins in fact, and to bestow His own divine Life and eternal Salvation into their ears, their hands, their mouths, and thereby into their hearts and lives.

How shall you rise to this occasion and live up to this Office and responsibility? You shall not, nor can you. But Christ shall raise you up — and so shall He raise up His people here through you.

As a minister of Christ, as a pastor of His Church, you must also live from that same Word that you preach, from that same Body and Blood that you administer, and from those same holy waters with which you baptize. In this respect, you shall find your best example in St. John the Baptist when he was languishing in prison, waiting for his head to be removed, and suffering the doubts and fears of his own sinful heart. What, then, did he do?  He sought a Word from Jesus, the Voice of the Gospel; which is the one and only thing that will sustain you in the Office of the Holy Ministry.

The Lord will seek you out, because He loves you, and He will not let you go beyond the sound of His Voice. But you must also seek out His Voice for yourself, and give ear to it — from your Brothers and Fathers in Christ Jesus — through Individual Confession and Holy Absolution, and through the mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren (especially within your Circuit).

And dear people of Trinity, as you also must live from the Word and Voice of Jesus, which you will hear from Pastor Griebel in this place (under the Cross, in the midst of all the hurts and frailties of life), remember that, as you have heard, so you should also speak a Word of the Gospel — a Word from Jesus — to your family and friends, to your neighbors and acquaintances, and so also to your Pastor, who lives by the grace, mercy, and forgiveness of the Lord no less than you.

Martin Luther offers a beautiful example of how to live such a life in such a way as that. It is said that he would get out of bed each morning and begin his day with the reminder: “I Am Baptized!”

That simple confession of faith sustained his confidence and hope in Christ Jesus, even in the midst of all sorts of personal doubts, ongoing challenges, and numerous threats from all around him. Whenever he was tempted or afraid, he likewise recalled his Baptism by making the sign of the Cross (as he did in all his prayers and at meals), marking himself as one redeemed by Christ the Crucified. He took comfort in the fact that he was baptized into the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, that he had thereby received forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit, and that he was thus a beloved and well-pleasing child of God the Father in heaven.

You have that same comfort in the waters of your own Holy Baptism — consecrated and set apart by Christ Himself today in His Baptism. To the human eye and senses, according to the wisdom of this world, it is nothing but a splash of ordinary water (an empty symbol). But to the eyes of faith, according to the gracious Will and Wisdom of God, it is a gracious water of life, a rich and full washing of regeneration. Indeed, it works the forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the Words and promises of God declare: “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved.” Grant this, Lord, unto us all!

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

Upon This Rock Christ Builds His Church

The Church’s one Foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord – the almighty and eternal Son of the Living God, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, put to death and buried, risen from the dead, ascended to the Right Hand of the Father, but given and poured out for us Christians to eat and to drink in His Holy Supper here on earth.

He is the Foundation, or, as the Scriptures say, the Cornerstone who gives shape and strength and stability to the Foundation of His Apostles and Prophets. And He is the Wise Man who establishes, builds, protects, and sustains His Church – His House – upon the Rock, as we have heard in this familiar Holy Gospel this afternoon.

Because He builds His House upon the Rock, it stands fast against the winds and waves and storms that rage against it; and according to His Word and promise, even the gates of hell (or Hades) are unable to prevail against His Church.

As to “the Rock,” a lot of ink has been spilled over the years debating what it is and how that works.  It’s certainly not Simon Peter in and of himself as a fallen and fallible human being. Indeed, the Holy Gospels do not cover up or hide his human foibles and failings at various points along the way. Yet, the Lord chose Simon Barjona, called him to faith and discipleship, forgave his sins, restored him following his denials, and sent him to preach and administer the Gospel from Jerusalem to Rome (from Pentecost to Martyrdom). Thus do our Lutheran Confessions assert that our Lord addresses Simon Peter as an Apostle, a called and ordained minister of His Word, and says, “Upon this Rock,” that is, upon this Ministry – the Ministry of the Confession of Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

And that apostolic Ministry, upon which Christ Jesus builds His Church, continues around the world to this day, to the ends of the earth – and so also to this place – even to the close of the age.

It is to this same Ministry – of the Confession of Christ Jesus – that Pr. Hesse has been ordained, and for which he has now been called to St. John Lutheran Church here in Aurora, Indiana.

So has the Lord intended, from before the foundation of the world, that His servant Mark Hesse should become part of the foundation of His Church in this time and place. To that end, in all that he says and does Pr. Hesse is to be guided and governed by the Word of Christ Jesus, as recorded in the Holy Scriptures by the Holy Prophets, Apostles, and Evangelists.

Pr. Hesse has but one Name to proclaim and declare, one Name in which to Baptize and Absolve you, and one Name to rely upon, come hell or high water against him. That is the Name of the one Lord, Jesus Christ, given here in your midst from God the Father in heaven.

Pr. Hesse will have nothing else to offer you or give you than that, and there is really nothing else in heaven or on earth that you and your congregation need – nothing else that really matters. This is the point and purpose of it all, and it is more than sufficient, more than adequate.

It is revealed and given, first of all, in Holy Baptism, just as it was in the Baptism of our Lord that God the Father anointed Him with the Holy Spirit as the Christ and openly declared Him to be His beloved and well-pleasing Son. That is where Simon Peter learned to know and confess who Jesus is. And so, too, it is in your Holy Baptism that you have been named with His Name, anointed with His Spirit as a Christian, and adopted by God the Father as a beloved and well-pleasing son or daughter in Christ Jesus.

A pastor is given no greater or higher privilege than that of baptizing disciples of Jesus in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; for such baptizing with water and the Word works the forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal Life and Salvation to all who believe this, according to the sure and certain promises of God.

And of course, it is not to be forgotten or taken lightly that pastors also have this great blessing and benefit of Holy Baptism. That is not what makes a man a pastor, but it is the confidence and hope in which he is sustained in the Office of the Ministry and in all of his callings and stations in life. You are first and foremost a Christian, a child of God, before you are called, ordained, and sent to be a pastor of the Lord’s people, a shepherd of the Lord’s sheep under the Good Shepherd.

Forgiveness of sin does not begin and end with Holy Baptism. Indeed, forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ Name is at the very center of the Church and Ministry, the heart and soul of this Office and work to which you are called and ordained. You yourself depend upon the forgiveness of your own sins; and you, in turn, are given the tremendous privilege and responsibility to forgive the sins of others.

To be sure, it is the duty of every Christian to forgive as we are freely forgiven by the Lord Jesus, to forgive those who trespass against us, and to be reconciled with those we have trespassed against. But as a pastor, you are also entrusted with the office and exercise of the Keys – the preaching and administration of the Gospel – unto repentance and faith in the forgiveness of sins. You are to hear the confessions of God’s people with the ears of Christ Jesus, and to absolve them with His Word, with His Voice, in His Name and stead. However odd that might seem, that is how our dear Lord Jesus chooses to deal with us on earth.

And that is why it is so fundamental and so necessary to the integrity of the Office, to the Church and Ministry of the Gospel, that you maintain the absolute confidentiality of those things that are confessed to you. As Christ forgives the sins of His people through the Word that He speaks with your lips, it is vital that your lips not speak of those sins to anyone else, anywhere, at any time. They are altogether swallowed up by the Gospel, removed as far as the East is from the West, and remembered no more before God in heaven. Whatever temporal consequences remain on earth are the concern and responsibility of other authorities.

By the same token, where you are given to confront and deal with those who refuse to repent of their sins but persist in them with hardness of heart, there you must exercise the binding key, as needs may be, that the Lord’s Church and Ministry not become agents of evil or a den of thieves. Our hope and prayer, even then, is that the Lord in His mercy would work repentance in their hearts, unto faith in His free and full forgiveness of sins. But His forgiveness is deliverance from sin and every evil, not a license to continue in sin.

To those who believe and are baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus, who live in the promise and significance of their Holy Baptism, and who by faith confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, you are also given the profound privilege – as already here this afternoon – of administering His Body and His Blood in remembrance of Him. That goes hand-in-hand with the proclamation of His death until He comes, the preaching of repentance and forgiveness of sins in His Name. To celebrate the Lord’s Supper is an exercise of pastoral care, within a context of ongoing pastoral care. It is the Family Meal at the heart of the Lord’s House, and you are the housefather entrusted with the stewardship of this Mystery for the children of God under your care.

Are you up to the task? No, of course not! None of us are, not of ourselves. Consider again St. Peter and his faults and failings. As Luther confesses, if this Ministry depended on us, it would all fall apart and go to rack and ruin. Yet, this is how the Lord has determined to preserve, protect, and prosper His Church on earth, and so shall He be with you, strengthen and sustain you in this Office and work. Your labors are not in vain in Him! He rather delights to work by the way of His Cross, and He manifests His glorious power precisely in such weakness, in the frailty of flesh and blood.

There is salvation by no other way or means than the Ministry of the Confession of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God. Though He is despised and rejected by the world, He is the Cornerstone upon whom everything rests and depends. And by the preaching of His Word and the Ministry of His Gospel, He has granted to you – to His pastors and to all His people – such exceedingly precious and very great promises, that you should become partakers of the divine nature in Him. For He became like you, that you should become like Him.

As He was crucified for your transgressions and has been raised for your justification, so are you raised from death to eternal Life, in both body and soul, in and with Him. This is what it means that the gates of hell (or Hades) shall not prevail against His Church. Death and the grave do not get to have the last word against you, because they are defeated, undone, and burst apart from the inside-out by the Lord Jesus Christ. Death no longer has any hold on Him, and neither shall it be able to hold onto you. For Christ is risen from the dead, and He has opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all who believe and are baptized in His Name.

Built on this Rock, the Church shall stand, even when steeples are falling. For here stands the Font before our eyes, declaring how God has received us. The Altar recalls Christ’s Sacrifice and what His Supper here gives us. And here sound the Scriptures that proclaim Christ Jesus, forever the same, our Savior and our Redeemer!

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

United with Christ: in His Cross and in His Office

By a son’s reckoning, it will be twenty years ago this June; if memory serves me well, it was on the Nativity of St. John the Baptist — or, in any case, it was close enough — when you were ordained as a Minister of Christ and a Pastor of His Church.  Even though you remained at Grace Lutheran, Wood River, Nebraska, where you had served as a Vicar in their vacancy, nevertheless, you were surely able to sense the profound difference that began with your Ordination: Not unlike the difference between engagement and holy marriage.

It was at that point, now almost twenty years ago, when you received the special gifts of the Holy Spirit which are known collectively as the Office of the Holy Ministry; when you yourself — your body and soul, your eyes, ears, reason and all your senses, and all that you are — were given as a gift of the Spirit to the Church on earth; when the yoke of Christ Himself — the mantle of His Holy Prophets and Apostles — was laid upon you, not as a burden, but a joyous vocation under the Cross; when, in addition to your other vocations as a child (and as a child of God), as a husband and father, you were also called to be a Shepherd of the flock under the Good Shepherd of us all, Jesus Christ.

From the first, there is a particularity to all of this.  You became, and you have remained, a Minister of Christ in His Church; and, as such, you have served in a wide variety of ways and places.  But you are (and you must be) also a Pastor of His Church in a particular place: At Grace, Wood River; at Peace, McCook, Nebraska; and now at Our Savior in Milford, Illinois.

This particularity — this “locatedness” of your pastoral Ministry — is a continuation and extension of the very Incarnation that we have so recently celebrated in the Holy Nativity of Christ our Lord.  For it is the scandalous particularity of the Christian faith, that we can point to this Baby in this place at this time — and/or to this Man on this Cross at this time — born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate — and precisely (and only) here in Him, we confess, is the one true God in the Flesh, who for us and our salvation came down from heaven to earth.

Now, you are not God!  You are not the Lord Jesus Christ!  But we can point to you — and, as of today, we can point to you here in this place at this time — and we confess that you will speak with the Voice of Christ to these people, and you will administer for them the works of Christ Himself.

That is the very point and purpose for which we have been gathered today: that we might see with our eyes, and confess with our lips, that God has placed you here to speak and act for Him, and in your Ministry to be His active Gospel–presence among these dear people, for whom Christ died.

Today, you do not become what you were not, but what you have been, what God has given you to be in your Ordination, is now given to and for the Lutheran Church of Our Savior here in Milford, Illinois.  In all of its particularities — even peculiarities, “warts and all,” as your dear wife might say — God is present and at work in this place, at this time, in and through you.

In this respect, it is so fitting and appropriate that the Lord has chosen this day — the First Sunday after the Epiphany: the Baptism of Our Lord — to install you in this new Office of responsibility.  For just as our Lord Jesus did not receive the Holy Spirit for the first time at His Baptism (as though He were previously without the Spirit), but He was visibly and publicly anointed by the Spirit — when He descended bodily upon Him in the form of a dove — to “install” Him into His Office and Holy Ministry as the Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the world.

What He was from all eternity, He now becomes for us and our salvation, as He is baptized into the eventuality of His own Cross and Passion (unto death).  Henceforth, all that He is, and all that He does, is for us.  And so also for you: Henceforth, all that you are and all that you do, as a Minister of Christ and as a Pastor of His Church, is for Our Savior here in Milford.

Now, there are many who would say that your Ministry is an extension of your own Holy Baptism.  But that is only indirectly true, and it is misleading to follow down that road of logic.  By all means, there is no greater treasure in your life than Holy Baptism!  But it is not by virtue of your Baptism that you speak the words and work the works of Christ as a Pastor of His Church.  Rather, as the Liturgy of the Holy Communion has so well taught us, it is by virtue of your Office as a Called and Ordained Servant of the Word that you forgive sins, and preach the Gospel, and baptize, and distribute the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus to and for His people (and now also in this place), all in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

To be sure, the Sacrament of Holy Baptism belongs to all of this; and the waters of your own Holy Baptism are also involved.  For in the washing of those waters with the Word you were united with Christ in His Cross and Resurrection, anointed by His Spirit, and adopted as a son of God the Father.  And, as such a child of God, you bear His Holy Name in all of your various vocations.  So it is that your entire life, in all its aspects, is an ongoing confession of the Creed, including also your vocation as a Minister of Christ.

But this vocation was not given to you in your Baptism.  There you were called to be and to live as a child of God.  But you were called to be a child of your parents when you were born; you were called to be a husband when you were married; you were called to be a father when your children were born; and you were called to be a Pastor when you were ordained to this Office of the Holy Ministry.  And you serve faithfully in this Office — as in all your other vocations — because you are a baptized child of God who lives in Christ, and Christ in you, by grace through faith in Him.

But whereas Holy Baptism united you with Christ in His Cross and Resurrection as a child of God, your Ordination united you with Christ in His Office of preaching and teaching and otherwise administering His Holy Gospel of forgiveness unto others.  By your Holy Baptism, you became a disciple; by your Ordination, you have been sent to make disciples.

As a child of God, you stand in the waters of the Jordan with Christ Jesus, and you hear the Voice of your dear Father in heaven declaring, that you are His beloved son, with whom He is well pleased.

But as a Minister of Christ, you stand on the banks of the Jordan with St. John, preaching a Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and baptizing other sons of God through Christ your Lord.

The nature of your Ministry is, in many ways, very much like that of St. John the Baptist, but more so.  You do not prepare for a Christ who is yet to come in the first place, but you preach and bestow a Christ who has already come, and you proclaim His death until His comes again.  And yet, it is still the preaching of repentance, which Jesus Himself describes (following His Resurrection) as being on par with the Cross and Resurrection in its divine necessity.  Without such preaching, the forgiveness and life and salvation of the Cross would never be distributed and received.

Thus were the Holy Apostles sent to preach repentance in the Name of Jesus to all the nations.  And so have you been sent to preach this same repentance, in the Name and stead of this same Jesus, for the forgiveness of these dear people who are now entrusted to your care.

This is the “Word and Sacrament Ministry” with which you are charged by Christ Himself.  And this “Word and Sacrament” is no mere cliché.  It must be understood and carried out quite specifically and concretely in your flesh-and-blood preaching, living, and embodiment of the Holy Gospel.

Which means that you will hear the confession of real sins by real sinners, and you will forgive those sins with the spoken Word of Holy Absolution.  It means that you will visit those frail, hurting people who are hospitalized or homebound, that the Word of Christ might dwell among them and with them.  It means that you will administer the Holy Communion, putting the true Body and Blood of Jesus into the mouths of His people.  And it means, of course, that you will Baptize young and old into His very real and eternally-significant Cross and Resurrection.

In the footsteps of the Holy Apostles, you are sent by Christ with His own authority, who is with you in all that you say and do — to baptize, to teach, to pray, to feed the flock with the Word and Flesh of the One who sends you; to speak with His Voice, and to work His own works with His own hands, as it were, according to His Words and promises: He who receives you, receives Him who sent you; and He who hears you, hears Him who sent you, even Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior.

In this respect, both you — and these people of Our Savior — must realize that you are sent, not only to tell them “about” Jesus, “about” the Gospel, “about” the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation; but here among them you are given to embody the Gospel in your Office, to deal with them with the Law and Gospel, as the one through whom Christ, their dear Lord, deals with them Himself: to forgive their sins in fact, and to bestow His own divine life and eternal salvation in their ears, in their hands, in their mouths, and thereby into their hearts and lives.

How shall you rise to this occasion and live up to this Office and responsibility?  You shall not.  But Christ shall raise you up, even as He shall raise up His people in this place through you.

As a Minister of Christ, as a Pastor of His Church, you must also live from that same Word that you preach, from that same Body and Blood that you administer, in those same holy waters with which you baptize.  In this respect, you shall find your best example in St. John the Baptist when he is languishing in prison, waiting for his head to be removed, and suffering the doubts and fears of his own sinful heart.  What, then, does he do?   He seeks out a Word from Jesus, the Voice of the Gospel, which is the one and only thing that will sustain you in the Office of the Holy Ministry.

The Lord will seek you out, because He loves you, and He will not let you go beyond the sound of His Voice.  But you must also seek out His Voice for yourself, and give ear to it — from your Brothers and Fathers in Christ, through Individual Confession and Holy Absolution, as well as through the mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren.

And dear people of Our Savior, as you also must live from the Word and Voice of Jesus, which you will now hear from this Pastor in this place (under the Cross, amidst all the hurts and frailties of life), remember, too, that as you have heard, so ought you to speak a Word of the Gospel — a Word from Jesus — to your family and friends, to your neighbors and acquaintances, and to your Pastor, who lives by grace and mercy and forgiveness no less than you.

And now, to all of you, a beautiful example of how to live such a life in such a way.  Martin Luther used to get out of bed each morning and begin his day with a reminder to himself:  “I Am Baptized!”

That simple confession of faith sustained his confidence and hope in Christ, even in the middle of all sorts of personal doubts, ongoing challenges, and numerous threats from all around him.  Whenever he was tempted or afraid, he likewise recalled his Baptism by making the sign of the Cross (as he did in all his prayers and at meals), marking him as one redeemed by Christ the Crucified.  He took comfort in the fact that he was baptized into the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, that he had thereby received forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit, and that he was thus a beloved child of God the Father.

You have that same comfort in the waters of your own Holy Baptism — consecrated and set apart by Christ Himself today in His Baptism.  To the human eye and senses, according to the wisdom of this world, it is nothing but a splash of ordinary water (an empty symbol).  But to the eyes of faith, according to the gracious Will and Wisdom of God, it is a gracious water of life, a rich and full washing of regeneration; it works the forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the Words and promises of God declare: “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved.”  Grant this Lord, unto us all, for Jesus’ sake!

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

The Spirit of Christ Jesus in the Ministry of His Gospel

We pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit in the confidence that our Father in heaven pours out His living and Life-giving Spirit generously upon His Church through Jesus Christ, His Son — as on that first Christian Pentecost Day, so also on His beloved children in this place on this day, and upon His servant, the Reverend Samuel Steven Wirgau.  For the Lord our God is awesome in His Sanctuary, and He gives power and strength to His people through the Ministry of His Gospel.

In the footsteps of Moses and the Holy Apostles, Pastor Wirgau has been called and ordained by the Lord to be a prophet and a priest of God Most High for the benefit of the Lord’s own people.  As of today he is entrusted with that office here in Ossian, as for the past seven years in Texas, not by his own reason or strength, piety or wisdom, but by the Word and Spirit of God in Christ Jesus.

The Spirit of God does rest and remain upon this man, not only as a Christian disciple of the Lord Jesus, but also as a minister of the Gospel, as an instrument of the Holy Spirit for others.  Indeed, it is for this purpose — that the Holy Spirit should be given to you from the Father in Christ Jesus — that Pastor Wirgau has been ordained to this Ministry, and that he is being installed here today.

Such good work — in such a Holy Office — is possible only by the Word and Spirit of the Lord.

Although you are a creature of God, which is to say that you exist and have life by His Word and Spirit, you could not receive or know the Holy Spirit in your sinful unbelief — nor could you even realize there is such a Person of God as the Holy Spirit — because you cannot see Him or perceive Him with your mortal flesh, and you are not able to discern His presence or find Him for yourself.

What is more, you are not able to love without the Holy Spirit; you are incapable of knowing love or even what it is.  For without the Holy Spirit you do not know the Lord your God, who is Love, neither the Father nor His Son who live and abide in Love in the communion of the Holy Spirit.

But the mutual love of Christians for each other, and of pastors and people for each other within the fellowship of the Church, is established and rooted in the divine Love of the Holy Triune God.  For the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has known you and loved you in His Son; and He has poured out His Spirit generously upon you in Christ by the cleansing waters of Holy Baptism.

The Lord has given you a new heart and a new and right spirit within you, so that you begin to live and to love as you are loved by Him.  He has removed your heart of stone with its idolatry and greed, and He has given you a heart of flesh and blood like that of the incarnate Son, Christ Jesus.

You abide in Him, that is, in the Lord Jesus, in His Body of flesh and blood; and He abides in you, in your body and your soul, along with the Spirit of His Father.  He comes to you, and He reveals and gives Himself to you, because He loves you with divine, holy, and steadfast loving-kindness.

You love both God and your neighbor because this one Lord Jesus Christ, who is both God and your Neighbor, has first loved you, and because He continues to love you and serve you forever.

This same Jesus, who was crucified for your sins, who has risen from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father, who lives and reigns eternally, He has not orphaned you.  He has not left you alone to make it on your own.  He is with you in the Ministry of His Gospel, by which He has also given you another Helper, that is, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father in the Son.

Under the shadow of the Cross, in the hope and promise of the Resurrection (though not yet seen), the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit constitute the dark and glorious Cloud with which the Lord God accompanies and confirms the preaching and works of His ministers in His Name and with His own authority.  Beginning with Christ and His Apostles, that Ministry continues to the close of the age throughout His Church on earth, and no less so here and now in Ossian, Indiana.

It is therefore not by sight, but by faith in Christ, by the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus, that you know and love His God and Father as your own dear God and Father, because He has given you the Spirit of adoption.  You are a beloved and well-pleasing son of God in Christ Jesus by virtue of your Baptism in His Name, whereby you share His Cross and His Resurrection from the dead.  So have you also been anointed as a Christian with the Spirit of Christ Jesus in Holy Baptism.  For all that belongs to the Son of God has thus been given to you and is now yours by His grace.

Assuredly, you are not an orphan.  You are God’s own child, an heir of all good things in Christ.  You belong to the Household and Family of God, living and abiding with Christ in the Bosom of His Father, partaking of His Spirit and participating in the Life and Light and Love of His divine nature.  For God the Lord has called you out of Egypt in His Son.  He has brought you through the waters of the Red Sea and the Jordan River out of death into life, out of darkness into light.  He has established His holy Covenant with you, and He feeds you at His Table with His own Lamb.

With all of that, He has likewise taught you and invited you to pray to Him with all boldness and confidence, as a dear child to your own dear God and Father in heaven, and as a beloved member of the Body and Bride of Christ Jesus.  So it is that we call upon the Name of the Lord for Pastor Wirgau and for Bethlehem Lutheran Church, trusting that He hears and answers all our prayers.

In particular, the Lord lays His hand upon you, and He pours out His Holy Spirit upon your heart, mind, body, soul, and spirit, by the agency of His sent ones, His ministers of the Gospel.  Through their words and works of love in His Name, He stretches forth His mighty arm and reaches out His strong but gentle hand, not to hurt you but to help you and to heal you, to absolve you of all your sins, to cleanse you of all your guilt and shame and sorrow, and to feed you in body and soul with peace and joy and grace and every blessing in Christ Jesus.

Pastor Wirgau shall now begin to administer and carry out these works in this place.  But they are not his own doing.  They are the works of God the Father in His Son and by His Holy Spirit, as you and your pastor are taught and reminded, that you should fear, love, and trust in the Lord alone.

Sam, as you continue to work and serve in the Name of the Lord, in the same Holy Office to which you were ordained seven years ago, take to heart the Words and promises of God which undergird, uphold, and prosper that work which He has given you to do.

Such labors are not without their difficulties, hardships, and frustrations, as you and all of your brothers in office are well aware.  Much of your work is confidential or otherwise carried out in quiet solitude behind the scenes, and the fruits of your labors are generally hidden from sight and human sense (including your own).  To be and to work as a minister of the Gospel, as a pastor of the Lord’s Church, is every bit as much by faith alone as it is to be and to live as a Christian at all.

Even so, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is with you — in love for you and for all people — to sustain you and keep you in peace, and to accomplish His purposes to the glory of His Name.

The Lord who has been with you for so long — who knew you before you were conceived in your mother’s womb; who created you in divine and holy love; who called you by His Name to be His very own in the waters of your Holy Baptism — the same true God and Lord shall continue to be with you, even at those times when you do not recognize, remember, or know Him as you should.

And by the Spirit of Truth, who dwells in you and with you by the Word of God in Christ — by the Holy Spirit who rests and remains upon you within the Holy Office to which He has called and ordained you — God shall strengthen and sustain you in all things, at all times, and in all places.

Because He lives — not only as true and eternal God in His own divine nature, but as true God and true Man in the Person of Christ Jesus, in His own Body of flesh and blood, crucified and risen from the dead, ascended far above all heavens — so shall you also live, here on earth in this body and life, and hereafter in the Resurrection to the Life everlasting of your body and soul in Him.

So it is that God’s Kingdom comes in and with His Church, even here and now, on earth as it is in heaven.  As surely as the Lord Jesus has reigned in His Church by the preaching of His Apostles from Jerusalem throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, even to the ends of the earth, so does He reign in love from His Cross through the preaching and ministry of His Gospel in this place.

Indeed, according to His astonishing promise, even greater works are done within His Holy Church than those which He once did in the Holy Gospels, because He has returned to the Father in human flesh and blood by the way and means of His Cross and Resurrection and Ascension into heaven.  For God has reconciled the world to Himself in Christ.  He has made Atonement by His holy and precious Blood, and He has perfected His Creation and made all things new in His Resurrection.

Therefore, by the preaching of the Gospel, by the ministry of the Word of Christ, by the washing of the water with His Word in Holy Baptism, by Holy Absolution in His Name and stead, and by His Body given, His Blood poured out for you, His God and Father in heaven gives to you His Holy Spirit here within His Church on earth.  And so, by His grace, you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you love and trust in Him, and you do keep His commandments: You love as He loves you.

Together, then, as pastor and people in the Lord, you are given to know the Father and to receive the Holy Spirit in the Word and Flesh of Christ Jesus.  Baptized into His Cross and Resurrection, bearing His Spirit in both body and soul, you are a priestly people in Him.

Pastor Wirgau’s priesthood is carried out in faith and love within the Office of the Holy Ministry, according to His own vocation and station in life.  He is given to care for you and serve you in the Name and stead of Christ, according to the Lord’s divine command.

In much the same way, for all of you members of Christ’s Church, your priestly service is carried out within your own proper callings and stations in life, whatever and wherever those might be.  Not least of all, as beloved children of God in Christ, you are given to love and care for your pastor and his family, remembering him in your prayers, and providing for his bodily needs, as surely as he is given to serve you in body and soul with the priceless gifts and treasures of the Lord Jesus.  So do you pledge and promise on this day, and so shall you carry out by the grace of God.

For the Spirit of God is with you by and with the Gospel — and this Gospel is the Truth.  It is the Truth that God the Father loves you, that He forgives you for Jesus’ sake, and that He gives you Life in Himself by His Son.  By this Truth of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit lays Christ upon your heart to defend and protect you, to strengthen and sustain you.  The Spirit loves you with the Love of God in Christ, and by the forgiveness of your sins He obtains the faith and love of Christ in you.

Beloved of the Lord, the Holy Spirit is with you.  He lives and abides in you, not in some vague, abstract, or generic way, but in all the particulars of your own body and life and place in the world.  He is with you and in you in all of your callings and duties and relationships; in both your joys and your sorrows; in hardship and prosperity; in sickness and in health; in death as in life, unto the Resurrection and the Life everlasting that are yours, now and forever, in the Body of Christ Jesus.

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

The Ministry of the Word of Christ

As He called and gathered the disciples to Himself, to follow Him on His journey from the waters of His Baptism to His Holy Cross and Passion in Jerusalem, so does He appear to them and reveal and give Himself to them in His Resurrection from the dead.  Not only for their own faith and life and salvation in Him, body and soul, but that He should also send them as ministers of His Word, that His fulfillment of the Old Testament should be written down and preached to all the nations, even to the ends of the earth and to the close of the age.  That you also, here and now, should hear and believe the Word of Christ Jesus, in order that, believing, you should have life in His Name.

As God the Father intended from before the foundation of the world, His Son, Christ Jesus, has perfectly fulfilled the Holy Scriptures by His becoming flesh, by the ministry of His preaching and miracles, by His Sacrifice upon the Cross, and by His bodily Resurrection from the dead on the third day.  This work of God in Christ is what the whole Bible is really all about.

So, too, by the preaching and teaching of the Holy Scriptures, by the Ministry of His Word and Sacrament — as also here and henceforth in the words and works of His servant, Pastor Gadbaw — Christ Himself is actively present within the life of His Church on earth, and He is powerful to save all those who hear and receive Him in the preaching of His Holy Gospel.

The Lord is merciful to all who call upon Him in truth, that is, by faith in His Word; for it is by His Word that you know His Name, that you know the Father and receive the Spirit in Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son, and that you fear, love, and trust in the Holy Trinity by divine grace and mercy.

And yet, for all of that, life within the world and in your own skin is a daily challenge.  It is a troubled world, challenging and difficult, chaotic and discouraging.  Everyone is dying, everything is perishing.  Suffering and sorrow, anger, hatred, and violence are pervasive on all sides.

The Cross looms large over a fallen and perishing world, and it cannot be understood rightly apart from the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus.  But there are so many voices, so many words, and so many competing agendas, all of which threaten to drown out the preaching of His Gospel.

In the face of terrorist attacks on a daily basis and Christians being martyred all around the globe, the Lord’s Church appears to be powerless, subject to the capricious whims of this sinful world.  Certainly, there is open and growing hostility toward the Lord’s Word of Truth.

Even within the life of the Church, there are doubts and fears and difficult times.  You are tempted  to second guess or reject your pastors, to control them, or simply to ignore them; all because your sinful heart and mind refuse to recognize the Lord Jesus Christ in His Ministry of the Gospel.

Examine yourself.  Allow the Word of God to have its way with you.  And consider how it is with your heart and mind, with your spirit, soul, and body.  Are you at peace with God in your thoughts, words, and deeds?  Are you confident of His forgiveness and salvation?

Do you live as though the Cross and Resurrection of Christ made any difference in your life?  Do you lie down and go to sleep each night in the faith and comfort of the Cross?  And do you wake up each morning in the joy of the Resurrection?  Or do you drag yourself off to bed, exhausted by another day, with a mind full of worries and fear?  And do you get back out of bed to face another day with something more like grim determination than cheerful hope and expectation?

If you would know and love the Lord Jesus and abide with Him in Peace by faith in His mercy, then remain here in His City, in the midst of His Jerusalem, that is to say, within His Church on earth.  For here you are clothed by His Father with the Holy Spirit through His Word of the Gospel.

It is by the preaching of His Cross and Resurrection that He comforts you and lifts you up from your doubts and fears to hope and joy and gladness in Him.  That is the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of all your sins in His Name, that you should believe and trust in Him, and live in Him by faith, with peace in your heart through the hope and promise of His Resurrection.

Such repentance, faith, and life with God are accomplished in your body and life by the preaching of the Cross and Resurrection, because it is by the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus that He has accomplished everything for you.  His dying and rising are your repentance, faith, and life.

So, then, because the Lord your God loves you and does not want you to perish forever in the darkness of your sin, despair, and unbelief, He sends His servants to proclaim Christ Jesus to you.  And just so, Pastor Gadbaw is sent by the Lord to preach to you here at Trinity, to comfort and sustain you in the Word and faith of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You receive and embrace the Lord Jesus in this preaching, not by your own reason, wisdom, or strength, but only because the Lord in mercy opens your ears, your heart and mind, to understand the Scriptures.  And to understand the Scriptures is to understand Christ Jesus, crucified and risen from the dead.  For the whole Bible is the Book of Christ, and He is the One who opens that Book to you.  Not to make you smart, but to make you alive, and to make you His own.

The preaching of His Cross does crucify you.  It puts you to death and buries you with Him.  But at the same time, His Word of the Cross also removes all of your sins and raises you up with Him.

And Christ Jesus preaches this Word to you in flesh and blood like your own.  For He was not only crucified in the flesh, and not only did He shed His precious blood for you upon the Cross, but He is also risen from the dead forever in His own Body of flesh and blood.  He has known the curse of your sin and death, He has suffered your blood, sweat, and tears in His Body, that you might receive and know His Life and His Salvation in your own body of flesh and blood forevermore.

On your own, you are blind and lost and frightened.  Only Jesus can open your eyes to His Gospel of peace and forgiveness and eternal life.  First He must show you how real your sin is, and how desperate is your situation and your need for a Savior.  And then He must lead you to recognize Him as your Savior and to know the glory of His Cross as the fulfillment of the Holy Scriptures.

That is how He works to save you.  By His Word of the Gospel, proclaimed in His Name, your sins are freely and fully forgiven.  And by that Word of Holy Absolution, you are rescued from your fear of death, from your uncertainty and superstitions, and brought into the confidence of faith.  You are taught by His grace to trust and rely upon Him, and to receive all good things from Him.

He is here with you in His Church, and He addresses Himself to you.  He speaks from His great heart of love to your own heart and mind, to your body, soul, and spirit.  In the midst of your pain and confusion and difficulty, He’s here talking to you.  And by His Word to you, He removes your burdens; He grants to you the peace and hope that are found in His Resurrection from the dead.

From within His Church and Ministry on earth, His Cross and Resurrection are preached to all the nations — unto repentance and faith in His forgiveness of sins, unto life and salvation in His Name — until you are gathered to Him in glory in the Resurrection of all flesh on the Day of Judgment, when you shall be clothed with Power from on high, glorious in body and soul, like unto Christ.

His Word does and gives what it says, just as the Holy Scriptures of St. Moses, the Psalms, and the Prophets preached Christ in days of old and were perfectly fulfilled with His coming in the flesh.  The preaching of the apostolic witness of His Cross and Resurrection truly delivers the goods.

Just as Jesus was present in a bodily and personal way for His disciples, so is He present for you in the life of His Church, in the preaching and administration of His Holy Gospel.  That is what it’s all about.  Christianity is not a disembodied “spirituality,” or a superstitious “ghost story.”  It lives and abides in the flesh-and-blood real presence of the crucified and risen Jesus of Nazareth.

That is what it meant for the Twelve to be sent as witnesses of the Cross and Resurrection.  And that is what it means for Pastor Gadbaw to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins “in the Name of Jesus.”  For when the called and ordained servants of the Word of Christ thereby deal with you in His Name, in accordance with His divine command, it is your dear Lord Jesus Christ Himself who is thereby caring for you, granting you His Peace and His forgiveness of your sins.

And for you, Brother Gadbaw, as from and in your Baptism, in your vocation as a child of God, so also from your ordination to the Office of the Holy Ministry, and now in your Divine Call to Trinity, in your station as a servant of the Word of Christ Jesus, the Promise of the Father rests and remains upon you and accompanies you in all that He sends you to do and say in His Name.

It is not an easy work that you are given to do.  Humanly speaking it is often a thankless task, and you may not be able to see or perceive that you are doing any good or making any difference.

The preaching of repentance is not fun for the preacher or the hearer.  It crucifies and puts to death the sinful heart, mind, body, soul, and spirit.  But it accompanies and aims at the preaching and bestowal of the Gospel, the forgiveness of sins in the Name of stead of Christ Jesus.  And it is by that Word that all the people of God, pastors and laity alike, live and abide in Him by His grace.

The Word that you are called and sent to preach is the Word of Christ, crucified and risen from the dead.  It is for the nations, but it is proclaimed from within the Church, on earth as it is in heaven.  It is to and from the Church, the City of God, His true Jerusalem, that you preach — to and from the Font, to and from the Altar, the Breaking of the Bread, wherein the Lord Christ is with you.

And as the Lord has bestowed His Spirit upon Pastor Gadbaw, and as He continues to sustain him in the Office to which He has called and ordained him, so does He bestow the same Holy Spirit, the Promise of His Father, upon all of you through this Office and Ministry of His Holy Gospel.

He causes His Word to be preached to you here in this place, in this city, that you may know Him and receive Him in the Breaking of the Bread, and that you may know and love the Gifts Christ freely gives you by and with His Word.  So that, hearing and receiving, trusting and believing, you may abide in Him, and be purified in Him through His forgiveness, and raised up to newness of life in Him, both body and soul, in perfect health and strength, at peace with God forevermore.

Rejoice, therefore, give thanks, and sing.  Even from the waste places of Jerusalem, the City of the Cross — under duress; in the midst of destruction; assaulted by the devil, all his works and all his ways; tempted to despair — sing for joy and praise the Lord, confess and call upon His Name in the sure and certain hope and promise of the Resurrection, which is yours in Christ Jesus.  For the One who calls you is faithful, and He will surely continue to fulfill all that He has spoken and promised, to the praise of His glorious grace, for the life and salvation of His beloved children.

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

The Crucified and Risen Lord Gives Good Gifts

St. Matthew, the former tax collector, is among the Lord’s good gifts to His Church.  Indeed, as one of the Twelve Apostles, and as the first of the Four Holy Evangelists, he is a most excellent gift of God’s grace toward us in Christ Jesus.

He was given, not only to preach, but to write the Holy Gospel for the posterity of the Church, even to the close of the age; and, in that Word of the Gospel, Christ Himself is with His Church.

But St. Matthew remembers — as he himself records for all the ages in that same Holy Gospel — he remembers where he was, and who and what he was, when the Lord Jesus saw him, found him, and called him to follow: to become, first of all, before anything else, a disciple of the One who makes His Way to the Cross.

He was a “Levi,” as we know from the other Evangelists, but he had sought his inheritance, not in the Lord, as the Levites were to find their heritage in Him, but in the collecting of taxes, in the making of money, in worldly wealth and riches, in the worship and service of mammon.

Yet, the Lord had mercy on this man, Levi, and compassion on his whole motley crew.  He sought him out and called him to newness of life, that is, to the real life that is found only in Christ Jesus.

So it was that Levi became a new man, and he was called “Matthew,” a gift, because of what he received, and because of what he was given to be.  What he freely received, in the compassion of Christ Jesus, he freely delivered and bestowed upon others.  You have heard that, for example, in the way his home became a place of hospitality for Christ and His disciples, and for other sinners.

By the gift of St. Matthew, and by his Ministry of the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ has sought and found others, and has called them to Himself, to follow Him through death into life everlasting.  Not simply in the Book of the Gospel that St. Matthew wrote by inspiration of the Holy Spirit; though, to be sure, that precious Book has been copied, published, and distributed in countless ways to all the nations of the earth, to the praise and glory of God, and to the edification of His saints around the world.

But it is also in the Apostolic Office of the Holy Ministry, to which St. Matthew was called and ordained, that Christ is actively present and at work to seek and to save the lost, to call sinners to repentance and faith in His forgiveness of sins.  What St. Matthew wrote is what he and the other Apostles first of all preached and administered; and it is that Office, and that good work, which is continued in the preaching and teaching of men who are called, ordained, and sent by Christ.

Men such as the Reverend Dave Seyboldt, who is given here to you by the same Lord Jesus Christ.

You have heard the testimony of St. Paul the Apostle, that pastors, too, are God’s good gift to His Church.  But you may not always recognize or appreciate that fact.  As children do not always see their parents as good gifts, and spouses do not always perceive each other to be God’s good gift, so too, and for similar reasons, the people of God may struggle to think of their pastors as gifts.

Often you are grateful, and you are generous in your thanksgiving.  But there are times when what you see most clearly in your pastor are frailties and failings, weaknesses and mistakes.  In fact, the better you get to know him, the more and more aware you may be of his sins and his mortality.

The devil would have you stand in condemnation of your pastor, and of the Lord Himself, who has given you such a pastor; in much the same way as the scribes and pharisees grumbled and complained concerning Jesus and the company He keeps.

Believe me, your pastor is more painfully aware of his sins and shortcomings than you are; and the Lord knows even better.  But so it is, that, in your pastor, the Lord demonstrates His mercy and compassion for sinners; and in calling His servants daily to repentance and to faith in His Gospel, He teaches them such mercy and compassion for you, as well.

You have heard of the shepherd who rejoices at the finding of the lost sheep.  So does your pastor learn to have such joy for the salvation of lost souls, as he himself receives mercy from the Lord.  He learns what it means to desire compassion, as he himself receives the compassion of Christ.

As it was for St. Matthew, so it is for your pastor, and for each pastor of the Church, that he must first of all become a disciple of Christ Jesus, before he can “go and make disciples” of others.

To be a disciple is to live by faith in the gracious providence of the Lord Jesus Christ, and so to receive and rely upon His good gifts.  That is no less true, but all the more so, for those who are called to serve as ministers of His Church.  And our dear Lord is faithful in providing all that is required for this good work to which He calls and sends them.  He gives them His good gifts, in love for them, who are His own men, and in love for the sheep He entrusts to their pastoral care.

For it is the case that, for the household and family of His Church, as also in each of your homes and families, the Lord of mercy cares for His people: in, with, and under His Holy Cross.

Foremost among His gifts, especially within the Office and vocation of the Holy Ministry, is the Word of God, both the Law and the Gospel, by which He reveals and conveys His divine Will for life and salvation.  Such is the heritage, in particular, of those who are called to be the “Levites” of His Church on earth, that is, His servants who are given to care for the Tabernacle of His Body.

He gives them His Word to preach and teach, to catechize both young and old, to admonish and absolve, to encourage and instruct in the Way of the Lord.  But, so also, He gives them His Word, in the first place, by causing His Word to be preached and spoken to them, that is, to His servants, in order to forgive them, to heal them, to strengthen and sustain them in His faith and life forever.

They have nothing to give, and no Word to speak, but that which they have received from Him.

It is not a mushy, sentimental word that is spoken to and by the ministers of Christ, our Lord, but the deadly and life-giving Word of His Cross: It is the Word of Christ, the one true God who has become flesh and blood for us, crucified and risen from the dead.  Such a Word is deadly, because it crucifies and buries your old Adam with Christ Jesus; for so must each and every disciple take up the Cross and follow after Him, even unto death.  But it is no less a life-giving Word, because it raises you with Christ in His Resurrection through the free and full forgiveness of all your sins.

It is a Word of lamentation for the sins of the world, and for the death that has fallen upon all men because of sin.  And yet, it is a Word that has become sweeter than honey in the mouth of him who preaches, by the dying and rising of Christ, our Savior, who was crucified for the transgressions of the world, and who has risen from death for the reconciliation and righteousness of the world.

Your pastor learns that Word, not only academically, but in his own experience and suffering of the Cross: in the pain of repentance, and in the blessed relief and resurrection of forgiveness.  He is given to eat and drink such things, to receive them not only into his ears and his head, but into his mouth, his stomach, his whole body; into his heart and soul and spirit.  He is given to consume the Word of the Lord, the preaching of repentance and forgiveness, that it should consume him.

So does your pastor learn mercy and compassion on the narrow path of his own dire straits, so as to have sympathy and tender affection for even the least of these, for tax collectors and sinners, who, like himself, have no hope nor help but Christ.  He is taught by the Word of the Cross, and by the Cross itself, to know and practice the humility of repentance and the confidence of faith; and to proceed in the Peace of Christ, received and given, by and with the forgiveness of sins.

It is by this Ministry of the Word of the Cross, by this preaching of repentance and forgiveness, by the practice of confession and absolution, that you grow up into Christ, your Head; that you are conformed to the Image of God’s own beloved Son, crucified and risen from the dead.  Not only that you emulate His good example, but that He puts you to death and raises you to newness of life.

So is a pastor also formed by the Cross of Christ, for the administration of the fruits of the Cross, that is, for the breathing of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel, and for the giving and pouring out of the Body and Blood of Christ at His Table.

These are the works of mercy and the acts of compassion which define and characterize the Office of the Holy Ministry; and which, in turn, define and characterize the Christian faith and life.

At the heart and center is the Lord Jesus, who is not ashamed to call both you and your pastor His brethren; who graciously receives you to Himself, and reclines at the Table with you in peace; even as He stands to serve you, and as He kneels to wash your feet.

This Man receives sinners, and He eats with them.  Yes, and what is more, He feeds them from His own hand, with His good gifts: with Himself, His Body and His Blood.  He is the best Gift of all.

He gives Himself to you, Pr. Seyboldt; and He gives you as a gift to His people in this place.

Beloved of the Lord, He gives Himself to each and every one of you; and He gives you to one another, and to your neighbors in the world, so that you also are a good gift of His compassion.

That is how your dear Lord Jesus works mercy upon sinners.  It is with compassion that He acts.

As He takes bread, and, by His Word, He gives it to you, His very Body, for the forgiveness of all your sins, so does He take this man, David, and, by His Word, He gives him to you, His servant, His spokesman, to serve you, to preach and teach, all for the sake of forgiving you all your sins.

His heart is stirring with a noble song.  Let him recite what has been fashioned for you by the King.  For his tongue shall be the pen of that skilled Writer.  How sweet is the Word who thus speaks Peace to you.  Much sweeter than honey is the Word of Absolution in his mouth.

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