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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Receiving Life and Peace and Rest from God in Christ Jesus

Christian, live a life worthy of your calling, your vocation, to which the Lord your God has called you. You have that life, not of yourself, but from Him. You are not an independent “free agent,” you are the Lord’s own child and heir. So, live according to the Wisdom of His Word and Will.

Your life is not a contest or a competition. The goal and purpose of your God-given life is not to see how much you can grab for yourself and keep from your neighbor. Not at all. If you work and strive and compete for food that perishes, you’ll come up empty in the end, sooner or later. You cannot get life for yourself, and in any case it’s not a contest. Your brothers and sisters are not your enemies, competitors, or rivals. They really aren’t. Don’t live as though they were.

Your vocation and your life are gracious gifts of God, who is your own dear Father in Christ Jesus. And the life to which He has called you — the life He gives to you by grace — it is a divine, eternal life. It does not wear out, fade away, or perish. On the contrary, the more you live that life by grace through faith in Christ Jesus, the more it grows and thrives and bears good fruits. That is to live in love for both God and your neighbors, especially for those of the household of faith.

God does not call you to accomplish and achieve great things for yourself, to build a tower to the heavens, or to be a raving success. He has called you to be His beloved child, to bear His Name, and to receive all good things from His generous hand. You receive this life because He bestows it upon you graciously in love, even as He has called you His own and adopted you in Christ Jesus.

To be and to live as His beloved child is your primary vocation. Each of you has other vocations in this body and life. Some of you are husbands and fathers, some of you are wives and mothers. All of you are children of some parents. You have brothers and sisters, if not according to the flesh, then within the Body of Christ. But your chief calling is the one you were given by the Word and Spirit of God in Holy Baptism. That is where the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ called you by name and made you His own dearly-beloved and well-pleasing child. There He called you by your own name, to be sure, but there He also named you His own divine and Holy Name! Everything else that you are and do in life derives its value, its purpose, and its meaning from that.

So, think about the particular place and station in life that God has given to you, whether it be as a husband, a father, a wife, a mother, a son, a daughter, a teacher or a student, a worker or retired — wherever the Lord your God has stationed you in relation to your neighbors — understand that the gifts that He has given you are not your own, just as you are not your own but His. Your entire life is a free and gracious gift from God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And all of the many and various gifts and talents that He bestows upon you are a sacred stewardship of His grace, not only for your benefit and joy, because He loves you, but also for the benefit and blessing of others.

Whatever your gifts may be — whatever it is that God has given you, and whatever work He has given you to do — it is all for the purpose of exercising your faith in Him and living in love for your neighbors, not least of all by serving and supporting the Church and Ministry of His Gospel.

You have the gifts that God has given you in order that you might live from His hand, and trust in Him, and be content with what you have; because everything you have, and everything that your neighbor has, comes from the Lord your God and depends entirely on Him. Don’t try to measure yourself according to where you stack up alongside the people next to you. Understand that you are who you are, and you have what you have, because God in His wisdom — and in His love for both you and your neighbor — has given you these things, to the praise and glory of His grace.

He has likewise given you work to do, whatever your own job and station in life might be. So, for example, six days a week the people were to go out and gather the manna. On Friday God provided enough for two days, because on the Sabbath they were to rest, to do no work at all, because God would serve them. But He did give them work to do throughout the week, and He has given work to you, as well: Not to make a life for yourself, but as an exercise of holy faith and holy love.

Everyone who went out to gather the manna ended up with exactly as much as they needed. They couldn’t get more than that, because it would spoil and rot. And none of them got too little or not enough, either. It wasn’t that God redistributed the wealth by taking it from some and giving it to others. He rather lavished His good gifts upon them all, so that everyone ate and was filled.

Their work in gathering the manna was a way of living by faith. It was a daily and weekly test to see whether they would live according to the Word of God or depend upon themselves instead.

And at the end of every week, God demonstrated again that their lives did not depend upon their own efforts, but upon Him. On the Sabbath they were not to work at all, but to rest in His work and listen to His Word. They were to receive what only God could give. And that is your life, too.

Use your gifts and do your work for this reason and purpose — to receive the good gifts of God, and then to use them in service to your family, your friends, and your other neighbors in the world. Do it in the peace and confidence of the Gospel, that is, by faith in the Cross and Resurrection of your dear Lord Jesus Christ, in His forgiveness of all of your sins, and in His good gift of Life.

That is the peace and confidence in which you live. All of your sins are taken away! There is no condemnation against you. God loves you. He is your Father, and He cares for you. Christ is your Bridegroom, and He serves you with His very Life. There is nothing lacking. You are well cared for by God Himself. So, be at peace, and gladly do the work that He has given you to do in love.

The Law cannot give you life. But the Law does teach you how to live in faith toward God and in love toward your neighbor. It does of course expose your sins, because you are a sinner, but it also describes and demonstrates this way of real life in Christ Jesus: Trust in God, call upon His Name, listen to His Word, rest in His Peace. Honor your father and your mother, because God has given them to you. Be faithful to your husband or wife, as Christ is faithful to His Bride, the Church. And in all things, do no harm, but love your neighbor in the world, because God loves you — and God loves your neighbor, too.

The Law does not give you life, but the Law that Christ Jesus has fulfilled shows you what living by faith and in love looks like. Live that way. Not as a burden or an obligation. Do not live in fear. Do not live in desperation to make a life for yourself. It won’t work. Whatever you might achieve, whatever you might acquire, whatever you might accomplish will perish. It will fade away, or be stolen, or rust; sooner or later it will perish, and apart from Christ you will perish along with it.

But you are not apart from Christ, because He has drawn near to you in love, and He has called and gathered you to Himself by His Word and Holy Spirit. You don’t have to make a life for yourself (as if you ever could!), because Christ Jesus is your Life, and He is your reason for living. He’s your reason to get up each morning, and He’s your reason to do whatever it is you’re given to do.

Christ Jesus is the reason you can go to bed each night in the comfort, peace, and safety of your God and Father. Christ is your Strength and your Song, because He has given Himself for you and become your great Salvation. Trust Him. He will not fail you, nor will He ever abandon you.

He is your Life and your Salvation, and in His grace, mercy, and peace He gives Himself to you each day and night, evening and morning, sunset and dawning. Just as we have heard in regards to the Old Testament people of God: He gave them flesh in the evening and bread in the morning, and they saw the Glory of God. Right there in the wilderness!

The people were stubborn and irascible. No sooner has God delivered them from slavery in Egypt, and miraculously brought them through the Red Sea, then they start grumbling and complaining: Better to die in Egypt than out here in the wilderness!

But God fed them anyway, because He did everything out of love, all for the sake of the promised Messiah, and not because they deserved it. And the same is true for you. He has also brought you out of Egypt, and He has also brought you through the water. He has given you His great and precious promises. And though you grumble and complain, and you wonder where He is and why He allows you to suffer, to go hungry, and to die, the Messiah who has come feeds you anyway.

In the evening He gives His own Flesh for the Life of the world. And in the morning He rises as the very Bread of Life, with which His entire Church on earth is nourished unto Life everlasting.

So, then, eat your Manna in the wilderness, and live! Suffer patiently, whatever Cross is laid upon you. Suffer patiently in faith, hope, and love, as Christ has suffered for you. Do not grumble and complain, but pray. Your Father hears and answers. You are His child, after all, and you are dear to Him. As He has given His Son to die for you, so does He provide you with all good things.

If and when He does allow you go hungry for awhile, well, He has taught you why He does that. It is so that you will learn to live by faith in Him, and to rely on Him alone for all that you need.

In that same confidence and hope, serve your neighbor willingly and gladly in love. And do it especially within your callings and stations in life, wherever God has stationed you. That is where and how He teaches you what you are to do in holy faith and holy love. And you can go about doing that holy work, not as a burden of obligation to somehow raise yourself up by your own bootstraps, but rather as living the life that is already yours in Christ the Crucified.

Consider that He who is your Life — the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life — He who is the Resurrection and the Life — He has given Himself for you, even unto death. You see there how He has suffered patiently, in faith and hope, and He has done so in order to serve you in love.

And He has conquered. By His death, death has been defeated and emptied of any threat. All of the sins of the whole world — and that means all of your sins, too — Jesus has atoned for. Everything is paid for. And He has thereby reconciled you to His own God and Father, who is now also your own dear God and Father in Him.

Christ Jesus has suffered in order to serve you, and He still does serve you faithfully, day by day by day, in holy love. Seek Him where He may be found. Seek Him in His Church. Hear Him in the preaching of His Gospel. Know that it is His Voice that speaks to you, that He calls you again and again back to Himself in and with His Word of forgiveness. Receive Him also in His Holy Supper.

This dear Lord Jesus Christ is Himself your Peace and Sabbath Rest. He is the end of your work week. He is the eternal Eighth Day, the neverending Sabbath that remains for the people of God. Rest yourself in Him. He does not demand or take anything from you, but He rather gives you everything by His grace. He freely forgives you all of your sins, and He feeds you with Himself.

Eating and drinking Jesus in His Word and Sacrament, you lack nothing. Which is not to say that everything in this body and life is going to go smoothly, easily, and according to all your hopes and dreams and desires. Nor does it mean that you will no longer suffer any hurts or sorrows in this poor life of labor. But as the Lord your God gives Himself and His Life to you in Christ Jesus, none of that other stuff matters (be it good or bad), because everything that matters is yours.

The one true God, who loves you, is your Life. And nothing in heaven or on earth can rob you of that. As He feeds you with Himself, He gives you everything, so that nothing can hurt you, nothing can snatch you out of His hand. His love for you remains. And His Life is yours by His grace.

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

The Spirit of Life in the Valley of Death

Whether you’ve been around and doing your thing for twenty years or one-hundred-twenty, apart from the Holy Spirit you are nothing but dust and bones, constantly returning to the ground from which you were taken. Apart from the Holy Spirit you are dead and dying; for you have no life in you — neither in your body nor in your soul — except by the Spirit of God, the Breath of the Lord.

But you have been created for eternal Life with God. That is why you’re here, and why you exist at all. Yet, you do not really live without the Spirit. Apart from the Spirit, you continue to exist, as it were, but at odds with God (your Creator, the Author and Giver of Life) and cut off from Him; which is no life at all but a persistent and eternal death, an eternal damnation.

In the final judgment, in the Resurrection of all flesh at the end of days, you shall be raised from the dust of the earth in and with your body. But if you have not received the Holy Spirit in your body of flesh and blood within your life on earth, and if you have not remained in the Spirit of Christ Jesus within this body and life, then you shall be raised, not for everlasting life with God in Paradise, but for the neverending death and damnation of hell in both your body and your soul.

In the meantime, your body is dying because of your sin, which is (at its heart) the rejection of the Word and Spirit of God and the worship of yourself instead of the Lord. You die, as all men die, because of your sin. You live at all only by the grace of God, who gives life and breath to all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, who causes the sun to shine and the rain to fall on both the evil and the good, and who gives daily bread also to all the wicked. But all of this is temporary.

The Spirit of God does not strive with man forever. He continues to strive with man for a season — as He has done for twenty years through Pastor Kolaskey’s ministry, and as He has done for more than one-hundred-twenty years in the life and mission of Trinity right here in Dillsboro — because of God’s love for man, and because of His desire that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth. But that season of grace will come to an end in the hour of death and in the final judgment. Then everything will depend on whether you have received and borne the Spirit of Christ Jesus in faith, or denied and rejected the Spirit in sinful unbelief and idolatry.

The fact that you are presently dying and wasting away is a daily reminder of your sin, and thus a daily call to repentance. If you rely on yourself and persist in your sins, you will perish forever; for you cannot keep yourself from dying, and you cannot save yourself for eternal life with God. Even if you do not yet see it or feel it in yourself, consider the world around you. Do you not hear of death and destruction on a daily basis, both near and far? People get sick and die at every age.

Whether it be strangers in the news, or loved ones on their sick beds, or your own mortal flesh with all its frailties and flaws, you look about and find that you are set within the valley of the shadow of death, surrounded on all sides, within and without, by dried up bones returning to the dust.

In the very midst of all this death, your only hope is in Christ Jesus, who pours out upon you the living and Life-giving Holy Spirit through His Word of the Gospel. His Church and Ministry right here in your midst is a bastion and bulwark of Life over against the very gates of hell. And yet, you cannot see, perceive, or feel His Life and health and strength here with you. Despite the promises of God, all that you can see and feel in this world is dust and bones. So you wonder if there is any hope, or if you should give up in despair. Sadness fills your heart, sorrow permeates your spirit.

Can these bones live? These dead and dying bones of yours? These brittle and breaking bones?

Can you possibly be rescued in both your body and your soul, rescued from death and damnation, in order to live with the Lord your God in the good Land that He has promised, in the place that Christ has prepared for you, in His House, in the Kingdom of His God and Father? Can even you be raised from the dust of the earth to everlasting Life, though for now you are subject to death?

By the Word and Spirit of God, the answer is “Yes,” a loud and resounding “Yes” and “Amen.” By the preaching of Christ Jesus, you are raised up and rescued from death and the grave. Your sins are all forgiven by the grace of His Gospel, your death is undone. In the Body of Christ you belong to God the Father, you bear the Holy Spirit, and you live, body and soul, now and forever.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the almighty and eternal Son of God, anointed by the Father with the Spirit in His own Body of flesh and blood, conceived and born of St. Mary — the divine Word by whom all things are made — He has fully entered into your Death Valley. And there, by His Cross and Passion, by His innocent suffering and death, by the voluntary shedding of His holy and precious Blood, He has overcome the curse and consequences of sin, and He has won the victory for you.

He has come, this true God in the Flesh, this true and perfect Man, to bear your sins in His Body to the Cross, to suffer your death and the righteous judgment of the Law against the sins of the whole world, in order to reconcile God and Man forever in Himself, to receive and bear the Spirit in His Body, and to raise the sons and daughters of man from death to life in His Resurrection.

In perfect faith and holy love, He takes the full responsibility for your sins and hands Himself over to your death. In the confidence of His God and Father, He is crucified, dies, and is buried in the dust of the earth from which you are taken. He submits Himself to be cut off from the land of the living. He traverses the dark valley into the far country of death and the grave, even into Sheol.

For all that, appearances notwithstanding, He is not defeated in His death upon the Cross. The victory remains with Life, because God the Father does not abandon His Holy One, Christ Jesus, to Sheol. He does not leave Him to suffer decay, but raises Him and rescues Him from out of death.

Not only that, but in the Resurrection of Christ all the children of Adam are raised. The New Man is taken from the dust of the ground, and the Lord breathes His Life-giving Spirit into His Body. Thus are dead bones given new life, the dirt is remade in the Image of God, and man is saved for life with God in the Spirit. The whole Christian Church in heaven and on earth has life in Christ Jesus — and so also Trinity Lutheran Church in Dillsboro as a vital part of His Body and Bride!

As St. Peter goes on to say in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost, when God raised Jesus from the dead He poured out His Spirit upon Him, just as the Father had done when the same Son, Christ Jesus, was baptized in the Jordan River. In each case, the Lord Jesus receives the Holy Spirit in His Body, that you might also receive the Spirit of God in Him, as a member of His Body, baptized in His Name. Thus are you sanctified in body and soul for the Resurrection and everlasting Life.

That is the whole point of your life as a congregation, and of your calling and office, Pr. Kolaskey: What Jesus has received on behalf of all people, you also now hand over and receive in Him by the Ministry of His Gospel, by His Word and Holy Spirit. The Atonement of His Cross has made it possible, and in His Resurrection from the dead all things are made brand new. He pours out the Spirit from the Father upon His Apostles and upon His Church, even to the ends of the earth — even here and now! — through the free and full forgiveness of sins in His Name. As all men die because all men sin, so by the Lord’s forgiveness of sins are all men made alive in Christ Jesus.

His own crucified and risen Body is the Firstfruits of the New Creation, to which you also belong by His grace through faith in His Gospel. As Jesus is anointed by the Spirit of God, so are you anointed by the same Spirit as a Christian. As Christ Jesus ascends to the Right Hand of the Father in and with His Body of flesh and blood, so are you and all His people reconciled to God the Father in the incarnate Son. You are seated with Him in the heavenly places, as He is with you here and pours out the Spirit upon you within the Household and Family of His Church in this place.

It is here in His Jerusalem, the City of God — in the Upper Room where the disciples of Jesus are gathered in His Name and according to His Word and promise — within the Church, the Body of Christ, the fullness of Him who is all in all — it is here that the Father pours out the Holy Spirit generously upon you through Jesus Christ, His Son, by the pastoral Ministry of His Holy Gospel.

God speaks to you by His Son, and in doing so He breathes the Spirit into your body and soul, into your ears, into your heart, and into your mind, unto repentance and faith in His forgiveness of sins. He calls you away from sin and death, back to Himself in Christ Jesus. He raises you up from the dust of the earth and calls you back to life in His Spirit by the Resurrection of His incarnate Son.

This preaching of Christ Jesus, crucified and risen — the preaching of repentance and forgiveness of sins in His Name — that preaching is the Voice of the Holy Spirit, the Voice of the Gospel. That is the “Noise” that Ezekiel heard in the valley of dry bones, the “Noise” of a mighty wind, such as the disciples also heard filling the Upper Room in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost.

You cannot know or predict or see with your eyes where the Spirit is coming or going, but you do hear this “Noise,” this Voice of the Spirit in your own dear pastor’s preaching of the Gospel of Christ Jesus; and you are given to behold the work that your very dear Lord and Savior does and accomplishes by the preaching and ministry of His servant among you. Those who were dead in their trespasses and sin are raised up in faith to newness of life. Those who have succumbed to doubts and denials, perhaps even to despair, are delivered from the fear and the power of death and the devil. They are made to stand in confidence and hope, bold and courageous in the face of evil. They are sanctified in body and soul for life with God, both here in time and hereafter in eternity.

All of that is given to you by the forgiveness of your sins in the Name and stead of Christ Jesus. Thus do you have divine and real Life with God in Him, by the free gift of His Spirit, wherever in the world the Lord has stationed you in love. As Christ is risen from the dead and lives forever, so do you live by faith in Him, by His Holy Spirit, even here and now, regardless of appearances. Though dust and bones surround you and permeate your experience on earth, your body and life are not fruitless or futile. Your labors in the Lord are not in vain, whatever your vocation may be. In the work that God has given you to do, Christ bears in you the blessed fruits of His Spirit. You love and serve your neighbors in peace. You praise and glorify the Name of the Lord your God.

Thus do you also speak with new tongues by the Spirit of Christ Jesus, your Savior. That is to say, not only with your words, but also with your life, with your particular abilities and talents, with the work that you do, and with all that is in you, you glorify God and praise the Lord by confessing the Gospel of Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who animates your life in this way, as a true doxology, no less so than He caused those 120 disciples to praise the Lord in all those many languages — and every year that you have lived by His grace in this place is yet another chorus of that doxology!

The Gospel itself is the “New Tongue,” as it is also the “New Song” that all God’s people sing in heaven and on earth. It is the Salvation of Christ that you confess, no matter what your language or profession, no matter your talent and skill. In confessing Christ, you speak as an oracle of God. Men and women, boys and girls, disciples of all ages, you all declare the glories of Him who called you out of the darkness into His Light, as the Spirit gives you utterance by the Word of Christ.

The confusion of tongues and the dispersal of the nations after the Tower of Babel is now reversed. Not by the restoration of a single common language, but by the confession of the one Holy Gospel, the forgiveness of the Cross of Christ and the righteousness of His Resurrection from the dead. For there is one Holy Spirit who has called you by that one Gospel of Christ, enlightened you with His gifts, sanctified you in the one true faith — who keeps you steadfast in the Word of the one God and Father, in the one Lord Jesus Christ, in one Holy Baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and in the blest Communion of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, on earth as it is in heaven.

It is the Spirit who lives and abides and speaks in you by the Word of Christ, so that you confess His Holy Name in all that you say and do. That is what you are given to preach and teach and confess, Pastor Kolaskey; and that is what you dear people of Trinity are given to hear from your pastor and to confess in turn. And it is by that Word and Spirit of Christ that the dead are raised up and gathered from all the nations into the Household and Family of God. Thus do they pray and confess the Name of the Lord, together with you and all the disciples of Christ Jesus, to the glory of God the Father. They also rejoice, give thanks, and sing with you and all Christians.

Beloved of the Lord, your life and your confession are not meaningless! The life that you live by faith in Christ Jesus, and the work that you do according to your calling and station, are the work of the Holy Spirit. For He is actively present and graciously at work in the Church and Ministry of His Gospel, that your dried up, dead, and dying bones should rise and live with God forever!

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

Life on the Vine

The Holy Triune God has planted His people on earth to be a choice and productive Vineyard, that they might share in His divine Life and flourish in His loving care for them, bearing good fruits according to His own good and gracious will. So it is that you are called to live by faith in Him, to receive His Life into yourself, and to bear the fruits of His Love by sharing His Life with others.

This is what it means — and this is what it looks like — for you to be a branch of the true Vine and a part of the Lord’s Vineyard: To rely on Him and to receive your life from Him alone, to live in love for your neighbor, and so to bring forth the fruits of the Vine to the glory of God’s holy Name.

The Office of the Holy Ministry is the way and the means by which the Lord conveys His divine Life to the branches of His Vine and to His whole Vineyard. And it is certainly the case that His servant, Don, has been — and is — such a gift to His Church and to His people; for it is by Pastor Stock’s faithful preaching and ministry over these past many years that your gracious God and Lord has bestowed His Life and Love upon you and many others, to the glory of His Holy Name!

By way of contrast, to withhold life and love from your brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, to harbor bitterness or resentment against your neighbors in the world, to flatter and pamper yourself, or to serve yourself and seek your own glory — all such practices, wherever and whenever they occur, would indicate that you have severed yourself from the Vine and do not abide in faith and love within the Vineyard. For the Lord has planted His Vineyard to produce good grapes — not the sour grapes of wrath, but the good grapes of faithfulness, gentleness, kindness, and mercy.

So, how’s that going for you? Maybe not so good? After all, take a good look all around. Consider the daily news from all over the world and from the cities and towns of our own United States. Think about your routines, and about your relationships — not just the ones you favor and prefer, but all of those roles and relationships to which the Lord has called you. It isn’t all coming up roses. Nor is it the harvest of faith and love that God commands and requires of His Vineyard.

The soil has been cursed on account of sin. The ground from which you have been taken is stained with blood, and the earth itself quakes with the weight of death. Plants do not grow easily or well. The grass withers and fades, and all flesh dies. Thorns and thistles infest the Vineyard. The whole world is polluted, the sun beclouded, and the rain is either insufficient or else too much at once, so that it drowns and destroys what has been planted. The branches on the Vine produce more foliage than fruit, and the fruits they do produce are wild and sour, idolatrous and selfish.

The Lord looks for the fruits of faith and love in His Vineyard, and so also in you. But you do not fear, love, and trust in Him above all things; and neither do you love your neighbor as you should.

Yet, the Father in heaven still cares for His Vine, and so He cultivates His Vineyard by pruning the branches and removing those that bear no fruit, casting them into the fire. He does this cutting so that the Vine itself may survive and thrive, and that it should live and grow in faith and love.

But who, or what, or where is that true Vine which is able to survive the curse of sin and death? Who, or what, or where is that Vine which can thrive and give life to the entire Vineyard? For the curse is so complete, so comprehensive, and so devastating, surely the pruning and removing of branches must continue until there is nothing and no one left. For there is no good in any of us.

But, no, there is hope and help to be found in Christ Jesus. He is the true Vine, the planting of His Father, who willingly dies the death of sin and is buried like a Seed into the dust of the ground, in order to redeem and sanctify the soil, the earth, the whole creation. He is the One who is cut off from the land of the living and cast into the deadly fires of God’s righteous wrath and judgment. He Himself is pruned to the point of crucifixion, in order to purge the Vineyard of sin and death.

He removes what is wild and wrong in your body and life, and He bears it away in His own Body.

And this same Lord Jesus Christ also rises from death to life, to be a vital and productive Vine. He abides in faith and love, and He bears good fruit to the glory of His Father and for your benefit.

Again, it is by His Ministry of the Gospel that He bestows the good fruits of His Cross upon His Church on earth; and so has He done for many years now through Pastor Stock, in order that you should hear and receive the forgiveness of your sins and be enlivened by His grace in holy love!

The Cross of Christ, upon which He suffered and died, has become the Tree of Life for all the nations. Because His death atoned for the sins of the world, His Blood does not stain but cleanses the earth, and His Body, crucified and risen from the dead, is the First Fruits of the New Creation.

It is into Him that you are grafted, both your body and your soul, into His Body of flesh and blood, to be a branch of the true Vine. For you are buried with Him through your Baptism into His death, in order that, having been planted with Him in the dust of the ground, so do you live and grow and bear good fruit in Him, as well. Like the Ethiopian eunuch, you have been baptized into the Cross and Resurrection of the same sacrificial Lamb of God, who was lead to the slaughter and slain for your sins, who has also risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity, never to die again.

Abide in Him, therefore, as He abides in you with His Word of the Gospel; and so bear good fruit. For apart from Him, you are dead. The good fruits that you bear — the fruits of faith and love — are the produce of the Life that you receive and have and live in Him, as He Himself is your Life.

That is true for each and every one of you as Christians, and that is true for each and every pastor, as well. And so it is that Pastor Stock has been able to love and serve and care for you with the blessed Fruits of the Cross of Christ, because he has first of all received them as means of grace for his own life and salvation, and then also as a sacred stewardship for the life of the Church.

What he has received from the Lord from those who have gone before him, he has also handed over to you — as a minister of the grace of God — in the Word and Sacraments of Christ Jesus!

It is by the Word of Christ, by the hearing of His Word, that you live and abide in Him; for it is by and with His Word, by the preaching of His Word, that He is with you always and abides in you.

It is by the washing of the water with His Word that you are grafted into Him in Holy Baptism. So, too, it is by His Word, by His preaching of repentance and forgiveness, that you are daily returned to the significance of your Baptism; and by His Word that you are “watered” with the living and Life-giving Spirit, who keeps you and the whole Church united with Christ in the one true faith.

You are already clean by the Word of the Gospel that Christ has spoken to you, but so does He daily “wash your feet” and “water your soil” with the catechesis of His Word. With His Law and His Gospel, He teaches you the Way of Life — to be fruitful in faith and love, as He is fruitful.

Where you daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment, He does not cut you off, cast you away from His presence, or destroy you. He does prune your life with His Law, not for death but for the discipline of love, that you should rely upon His gifts of Life and so be nurtured and sustained by His grace. For His Word of the Gospel, which is the forgiveness of your sins, fills you with the vitality — the life and health and strength — of His Resurrection from the dead.

By the merit and means of His own dying and rising, He does not remove you from the Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts, but He raises you up from death and the grave, from the dust of the earth, and from the idolatry and unbelief of your sin, to bear the fruits of peace and joy, of faith, hope, and love, to the glory of His God and Father. As He Himself glorifies God with the abundant Fruit of His Cross and Resurrection, so does He glorify the Father in you, and He glorifies you in Himself.

So has He also glorified Himself and His Father — and the Holy Spirit — in His servant, Pastor Stock, first of all as a beloved and well-pleasing child of God, and then also as a faithful minister of His Word. It is a remarkable thing, indeed, that any of us poor, miserable sinners, fallen and fallible men of mortal flesh and blood, should be given such a privilege and such a responsibility, to preach and teach the Word of Christ and thereby to bestow divine, eternal gifts to His people.

It is likewise with His Word of the Gospel — by the human hands of His called and ordained servants — that He also feeds you and all His disciples with the Fruits of His Cross, that is to say, with His own sacred Body, crucified and risen for your Salvation, and with His holy and precious Blood, poured out for you from this true Vine as a better Vintage than this world has otherwise known. So does He abide in you, both soul and body, and you abide in Him by faith in His Word.

This Sacrament of the Altar truly is the Feast of Holy Love, because these gifts of the incarnate Christ, His flesh and blood, are the Produce of His Propitiation, the Communion Meal of His Self-Sacrifice for Atonement, Absolution, Reconciliation with God, and the perfect Peace of His Spirit.

I expect that you would readily agree, Pastor Stock, that, along with the preaching of the Gospel, the administration of the Lord’s Holy Supper is one of the most profound and greatest privileges  — and one of the most important responsibilities — that we are given as ministers of Christ Jesus. Although we carry out this high and holy calling in the confidence and courage of our dear Lord, we do so in the fear and trembling of repentant faith, in recognition of what we here place into the mouths and bodies of His beloved people, that He should thus abide in them, and they in Him!

It is indeed the case that, by these Fruits of Christ the true Vine, you are enlivened in heart and mind, in body, soul, and spirit. And as He thereby gives you life with God in Himself, so do His Fruits produce good fruits in you after their own kind: Not only in your thoughts and feelings, but in your words and actions, and with your hands and feet and lips and tongue. So does He bring forth in you the fruits of faith and love toward God, with which you worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth, and fruits of love for your brothers and sisters in Christ and for all your neighbors.

In much the same way, the ministry of the Gospel is itself a labor of holy faith and holy love, and it is right that we should recognize and give thanks for the love that Pastor Stock has exercised for  the Lord and for His people in this sacred calling and station. It is no easy task, but a worthy one!

Such love sometimes requires speaking up when it is difficult or even dangerous to do so, in order to defend what is good and right, to decry what is wrong, and to protect one neighbor from another. Never with a spirit of vengeance or violence, nor for the sake of destruction, animosity, or hatred, but by the Spirit of Christ Jesus, with the confidence and courage of His Resurrection, and with the charity and compassion of His Cross, for the sake of repentance and forgiveness in His Name.

And all such fruits of faith and love are a confession of Christ the Crucified, that He is the one true God in the flesh, and that He is your Life and your Salvation. By the speaking of His Word, and by your living in accordance with His Word — by what you patiently bear and suffer in steadfast faith, and by your tangible gifts and works of love for those you are called to serve — you testify of Christ Jesus, and you bear the fruits of His Cross and Resurrection in your place.

Thank you, Pastor Stock, for being a faithful instrument of such love in the Name and stead of our one Lord, Jesus Christ, and for serving His dear people in this place with His Word of the Gospel.

It is that Word which bears His fruits in each of you by forgiving all your sins, by granting you His own Life and love and faithfulness, and by lighting your path in the way that you should go.

That path of life is one of grace and mercy, of compassion and kindness. Above all, it is the path of forgiveness, even as God in Christ forgives you. Thus, you proceed along that path, bearing the Cross to the glory of God the Father, in the joyful hope of Christ and His Resurrection from the dead. Abiding in Him, as He abides in you, so do you live, and so do you love as He loves you.

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

He's By Your Side Upon the Plain

The Kingdom of God is at hand in Christ Jesus, and His Baptism has become your Holy Baptism.  Thus, you are a beloved son of God the Father, and you are well-pleasing to Him, because Christ has bound Himself to you, and you to Him, by and with His own Name.  The Father has opened heaven to you in the Body of the incarnate Son, and He has poured out His Holy Spirit upon you.

Consequently, in this mortal life on earth you now find yourself in the arena between God and the devil, and you are driven into personal conflict with the devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh.  Day after day, you are tempted by these enemies of God to doubt, deny, and disobey His Word.

At the same time, your dear God and Father in heaven would test you, as He tested Abraham.  He does not tempt you to sin, nor to any evil, but He does try your heart and mind in order to test, instruct, and strengthen your faith in His Word and in the promises of your Holy Baptism.  So it is that you are daily being put to death, and daily being raised to newness of life in Christ Jesus.

Life is a battlefield when the Kingdom of God invades the devil’s stomping grounds.  Which is why — because the Lord Jesus has been baptized to be your Champion and your Savior — He is immediately driven by the Spirit of God from the waters of His Baptism into the wilderness, there to be tempted by Satan, in order to engage that wicked foe in a strange and dreadful contest.  Thus, the Son of David goes out to meet a bigger, badder Goliath than this world has ever dreamed of.

The wilderness is where Christ contends with Satan, because the wilderness is where you also are tested and trained.  The wilderness is where the fallen children of Adam & Eve learn how to live in Paradise again, that is, by faith in the Word and works of God, to rest in His gracious promises.  The wilderness is that long stretch of desert between Egypt and Canaan, wherein the children of God are catechized to enter the Good Land that He will give them according to His tender mercy.  And it is where you are taught to live in the Kingdom of God by faith, and so also to work in love for God and for your neighbor, instead of trusting and loving only yourself.  To that end, it is in the wilderness that you are called to repent and believe the Gospel.  But, of course, it is especially at those points of repentance, faith, and love that you are under attack and assaulted by the devil.

The Lord your God tests you and tries you, in order to clarify and strengthen your faith and your confession.  The devil tempts you into all kinds of evil, in order to rob you of life and bring you to death and condemnation.  So it is that Satan wickedly entices you to disobey God’s Word; and then, in craftiness and spite, he is also the first in line to accuse you and bring charges against you.

At every point in your life on earth, this battle is waged: In your successes, and in your suffering and failures.  In what you have, and in what you lack or lose.  In what God has promised, and in what you covet for yourself that God has not given you.  Always the devil is tempting you to question and contradict, to ignore and despise what God has spoken, both the Law and the Gospel.

But now, let God and His Word be true, and know that everything else is a lie and a deception.

Trust the Lord, your God and Father in Christ Jesus. Cling to His Word, come hell or high water against you.  Do not despair of His goodness, nor despise His good gifts of body and soul.

Do not be deceived or misled into evil, which has merely the appearance of “good,” yet leads only to death.  Beware the assaults and temptations of the enemy: the lies, the flattery, the questions, and the accusations of the devil; the enticements and attacks of the world; and the lusts and desires of your own mortal flesh, which are the rotting cesspool out of which all sin and death proceed.

Sometimes crass, sometimes subtle, the devil is always crafty, and every sin to which he tempts you is dangerous and deadly.  Do not kid yourself.  It is not true that “all sins are equal,” but all sin, by definition, is contrary to the Word of the Lord, and that is always to your detriment.  Every denial, and every disobedience of what God the Lord has spoken, is a refusal and rejection of the Life that is found only in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  That is why the soul that sins shall die.

Where, then, shall you live?  In the Kingdom of God by His grace?  Or with the devil in his prison house of death and despair?  That is what it comes down to, finally.  You cannot have it both ways.

Repent of your sins and sacrifice your idols.  Worship the Lord your God by faith in His Gospel.  Not that He needs anything from you, but that you need Him for everything.  Rest your hopes in Him and call upon His Name.  Rejoice in His forgiveness, and know that He well provides for you.  He saves you from every evil of body and soul.  He raises you up, even from death and the grave.

Remember that you are baptized, and remember what God has said to you and done for you by that washing of water with His Word.  As father Abraham clung to the Covenant of Circumcision and persevered in the promises of God — even when he was tried and tested so poignantly in the case of his beloved Isaac — so cling to the Word and promises of God in Christ Jesus, in whose Name you are baptized, whose Cross you bear, and whose Resurrection from the dead you also share.

Renounce the devil, all his works and all his ways.  That’s not a one-time deal, it’s a lifelong battle and a deadly serious business.  But your life and your allegiance belong to the Holy Triune God.

See here, you will not starve.  The Lord your God will feed you according to His mercy.  And you shall not go naked, for God the Lord will clothe and shelter you in peace.  Nor shall you die alone.  The Lord is with you, in death as in life, and in the Resurrection.  He is your sure and certain hope.

There is no temptation with which you are tempted that He has not also endured and resisted on your behalf — in flesh and blood like your own — even in the wilderness of your sin and death.  And there is no suffering that you suffer which He has not also suffered in your place, so that by His Cross and Passion He should overcome them.  He has defeated your enemies.  He has atoned for your sins.  He has conquered your death.  His Resurrection from the dead is God’s own pledge and promise to you, which stands fast and forever, as Christ Himself lives and reigns to all eternity.

He has set Himself to be your Champion.  He’s by your side upon the plain!  He has taken His stand against the roaring lion that threatens to devour you; He has smashed his teeth and broken his jaw.  He has crushed the serpent’s shifting, hissing head beneath His own bruised and bloodied heel.  He is faithful, and He does what He has promised.  There is no shifting or turning with Him.

The devil is always shifting and turning.  When one strategy fails, he simply switches to another.  He’ll tell you one thing in the morning and another thing at night.  From one day to the next, from one week to the next, the devil is full of nothing but constant lies and deceptions.  He cares nothing for the truth, but only for your death and your damnation by whatever means he might employ.

Your own sinful heart is likewise full of guile, and the world is also deceitful and dishonest. But not so with your Father in heaven.  He speaks from His heart in Christ Jesus, His beloved Son, and His Word is always the Truth.  He will not change His mind concerning you.  What God the Father says to you in Christ is and always shall be so.  You are sheltered under the shadow of His wings.

Christ be praised, the Kingdom of God does not rest upon your faithfulness.  It does not even rest upon your repentance or your faith.  It does not depend on you at all.  But the Kingdom of God is at hand for you in the Body of Christ Jesus.  It is as sure and certain as His Nativity, His Baptism, His Life, His Death, and His bodily Resurrection from the dead.  So it is that your repentance and your faith, your life and your salvation, rest firmly upon Him.  And He shall not be moved.

Consider the example of your Lord Jesus Christ, therefore — though it is always much more than just an example — because everything He does, He does it all for you, that you might live in Him.

Amid the wild beasts and the wicked assaults of the devil, the Lord Jesus, in humility and faith, relies upon His Father and receives the ministry of His Father’s holy angels.  So, too, He sends His ministering spirits to care for you, both His holy angels and His mortal preachers of the Gospel,  in order to preserve your faith and life in both body and soul, unto the Life everlasting.

He provides the sustenance that you need in the midst of the wilderness.  Not miraculous bread from desert stones, but the Living and Life-giving Bread of His own Body, which is given for you.  And as He thus serves you with Himself, will He not also freely give you every good thing?

It is most certainly true.  You are beloved of the Lord.  You are a son or daughter of God the Father in Christ Jesus, and He is well pleased with you.  That is the truth.  Your sins are all forgiven, and God holds none of them against you.  From the waters of your Holy Baptism He has clothed you in the righteousness and holiness, the innocence and blessedness of Jesus, the incarnate Son.  He cleanses and restores you with His holy and precious Blood, which is poured out for you to drink.

By Himself He has sworn, He has bound Himself to you.  He is yours, and you are His forever.  The heavens stand open, and the Kingdom of God is here for you.  Amen, Amen, it shall be so!

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

Fix Your Eyes on Jesus in His Word of the Gospel

“Be on the alert!”  Pay attention to what you see happening in the world around you, in both the church and the state, among your neighbors, in your family, and within yourself.  But above all, give ear to what the Lord your God says; and so interpret all that you see by faith in His Word.

All around you, everywhere you look — and no less so where you refuse to look — there is sin and death, decay, and destruction.  The whole world is wearing out and wasting away.  None of it will last.  The days are growing short.  A harsh wind is blowing in a big storm.  The Winter is coming.

It’s more than just the weather or the season of the year.  There’s plenty of uncertainty in these dark and difficult days.  Political strife, ideological divisions, and economic challenges abound.

All such trials and tribulations, within and without, are constant reminders and signs that we live in a fallen and perishing world, and all of Creation is subject to the curse of sin and death.  Heaven and earth are passing away, and so are you.  Your mortal flesh and blood, your heart, mind, and body are like the grass which withers and fades, like the autumn leaves which fall and blow away.

Number your days, and know how short your life here is.  Consider your end, which comes before you know it, sooner than you think.  There is no strength in you that shall survive.

But your hope is in the Lord.  So be alert to Him.  Hear and heed what He says.  And pay attention to His Word of the Cross, in particular, even though it seems so futile, even worse than helpless.

Your dear Lord Jesus deals with sin, which is the real problem and the underlying cause of death and every evil.  He forgives all sins which you have done; but He also deals with your sin at its heart, not simply your bad behavior, but your turning away from God, your Creator.  You do not rely on Him or trust in Him; and that unbelief is your unrighteousness, which leads only to death.

But now, the Lord sends forth a Law, even to the ends of the earth.  He establishes His justice in the midst of sin and death.  Henceforth, His righteousness is near, and His salvation has gone forth forevermore.  Though everything else will perish, His salvation and His righteousness remain.

It is true that His holy and righteous Law would condemn you and sentence you to death and hell, because you are neither holy nor righteous in yourself.  Yet, He calls you to repentance, to faith and life in Him, to hope in the righteousness of Christ, the Lord, the incarnate Son of God.  For He has suffered the great tribulation and the final judgment in Himself, and has thereby accomplished justice and established righteousness forever.  Though He is the Creator of all things, the Word by whom all things are made — and though He is Life in Himself — He has taken the entire curse of sin and death, the destruction and decay of the whole world, into His own Body of flesh and blood.

By His Cross and Passion, the Lord Jesus Christ has atoned for the sins of the world, once-for-all.  And in His bodily Resurrection from the dead, He has rectified what was broken in all of Creation.  He has reconciled the sons and daughters of man unto His God and Father in heaven.

In flesh and blood like yours, as the true Man, conceived and born of St. Mary, He has waited in faith upon His Father.  He has lived as Man is created and meant to live — not knowing the day or the hour in advance, but hearing and heeding and relying on His Father’s faithful Word.  So has He been awake and alert.  At the right time He was ready.  He went to the Cross in faith and love.

So, learn the lesson of His Tree.  Consider its tenderness, its Leaves and its Fruit, which are for the healing of the nations — and so also for your healing, unto faith and life in Him, body and soul.

He has sent forth His messengers with its rich and lush Fruits, to gather His elect from the four winds, His disciples from all the nations.  Thus, by the Fruits of His Cross, that is, by the preaching of His Word and the administration of His Sacraments, He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies His whole Christian Church on earth.  With these healthy Fruits, by this Ministry of His Gospel, He Himself is near you — He is right at the door — daily and richly to forgive you all your sins.

It is for the sake of His forgiveness that He has appointed His servants to care for His household and family, that is, to feed and clothe, nurture and teach His children.  His pastors and teachers are watchmen on the heights, the doorkeepers of His Church on earth, the stewards of His Mysteries.  They are called and ordained to keep watch, both day and night, to guard your coming in and your going out by the catechesis of His Word, and to guide all your days and your deeds in His Peace.

And what He says to them, He says also to you — to the confirmands this morning, to be sure, but so also to each and every one of you: “Be on the alert!”  For to you, also, He has given your own proper duties, your own responsibilities within His household and family.  That is where and how you are to watch and to wait for the coming of the Lord, faithfully doing what He has given you to do in the hope of His mercy, which is to say, in the sure and certain hope of His Resurrection.

Give heed to the Word of the Lord, His Law and His Gospel.  And set your heart on the pilgrim’s way, to live by faith as a sojourner through the wilderness, as a wayfarer on earth.  Not with your eyes downcast and your chin in the dirt, but with your heart, mind, and spirit lifted up, your eyes and ears fixed on Christ Jesus, your Savior; for He is ready, willing, and able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand erect in His glorious presence — blameless in body and soul.

In the midst of the great tribulation — which is to say, in your pilgrimage under the Cross — rest yourself in Him and live by faith in His Word.  Gladly hear and learn His preaching and teaching.  And avail yourself of the Gospel by making regular use of the means of grace, just as the Rite of Confirmation indicates.  Remember your Baptism and exercise its ongoing, lifelong significance by confessing your sins and receiving Absolution in the Name of Jesus.  And as often as you are given the blessed opportunity, eat and drink His Body and Blood in faith and with thanksgiving.

Likewise, keep yourself in the Love of God and live by faith in Christ Jesus, by praying in the Holy Spirit at all times and in all places, without ceasing, as the Lord Himself has taught you to pray and given you the very Words with which to do so.

Pray, also, within the fellowship of the Church, which is the Body of Christ.  For it is in Him and with Him and through Him that you pray; and He would have you pray for one another in Him.  You thereby serve and support your brothers and sisters with your prayer, and they do the same for you; and together you receive the answer to all your prayers in the Word and Flesh of Jesus.

So, then, by the Word of God and prayer, wait eagerly upon the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Fix your eyes on Him, and trust that, by His Sacrifice upon the Cross and in His Resurrection from the dead, He has established His righteousness and His salvation for you and for all, forever.

Do not be consumed by the temporal things of this life on earth, but temper your consuming with the humility of repentance.  After all, you don’t know what even tomorrow may bring, nor if there will even be a tomorrow for you on this earth.  But comfort and strengthen yourself with the eternal things of Christ, who has risen from the dead and lives forever, whose Word shall never pass away.

And as you wait upon His mercy, so have mercy on your neighbor.  Comfort and encourage the doubting in their weakness and fear by loving them graciously and well.  Save others by snatching them out of the fire, by warning them straightforwardly.  Don’t wink or nod at sin, but call it what it is, and call your neighbor to repentance in a spirit of gentleness.  To hate the garment polluted by the flesh is not to flee from your brother or sister, but to flee from sin in the fear of the Lord.

Have mercy on your neighbor, who is a sinner like yourself, just as you also depend on the mercy of God in Christ, and as He Himself is merciful.  Be gentle and compassionate, as the Lord your God is gentle and compassionate with you.  Forgive, as you yourself are freely and fully forgiven.

Have no fear of death, and do not despair of hope, for the Lord Himself now helps you in your weaknesses and doubts, and He now saves you from the fires of your passions and from the fires of eternal punishment in hell.  As your merciful and great High Priest, He persists in His constant prayer and intercession for you.  And here in His Church He faithfully speaks His Word to you.  He sends out His holy angels to guard and keep you in body and soul, and He sends His ministers to gather you to Himself by the catechesis of His Word, by the forgiveness of all your sins in His Name and stead, and by giving you the Food and the Drink that you need at the proper time.

In calling you to repentance, He calls you daily to faith and life in His forgiveness.  He calls you to find your Sabbath rest and perfect Peace in His righteousness and holiness, in His innocence and blessedness, now and forever.  Indeed, with His forgiveness He delivers you from every evil, unto that day and hour when He shall call you from this vale of tears to Himself in heaven, as even now His fruitful Cross shines the summer sunshine of His Love upon you through His Gospel.

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

The One Who Endures to the End Is Your Savior

Blessed are those who have set their hearts on the pilgrims’ way.  But how shall you endure to the end of that way?  How shall you be saved?  That is the pressing question that Jesus sets before you today.  How shall you draw near to God and not die but live with Him in His Kingdom?

There are all manner of possible answers competing for your attention and allegiance: The nation, your family and friends, and all manner of would-be “churches” claim to have an answer for you.  Then there is your own reason, your common sense, and the notion that your own savvy, ingenuity, and hard work will get you there.  Or, maybe “all you need is love,” whatever that is taken to mean.  And perhaps you are tempted to look for life and love in the pleasures and pastimes of this world.

For all of that, no matter where you look, no matter how you spend your time and money, the truth remains that everything on earth will be destroyed.  Even Jerusalem is leveled, and the Temple is torn down.  Indeed, the earth itself will perish like a garment and pass away with fire in the end.

Meanwhile, nations come and go, kingdoms rise and fall.  Do not suppose that even the United States of America will last forever.  It won’t.  Whether it remains until the Lord returns in glory is up to Him and not to any of us.  Egypt came and went.  And Assyria.  And Babylon.  And the Medes and Persians.  And the Greeks and Romans.  And the Holy Roman Empire and Byzantium.  Nazi Germany.  The former Soviet Union.  Nations won’t save you.  Kingdoms won’t save you.  No amount of government stimulus will save you.

Only Christ Jesus and His Word remain, steadfast and forever in the glory of His God and Father.  He Himself who died for your sins has been raised from the dead for your justification, and He has taken His seat at the Right Hand of the Father until all His enemies shall be placed under His feet.  He alone remains.  Therefore, look to Him.  Fix your eyes on Him.  Cling to Him in heart and soul, with all your mind, your spirit, and your body, too.  Confess His Holy Name, come what may.

Listen to Him.  That is what God the Father Himself has commanded from heaven, as you may recall from the Transfiguration.  Listen to this one Lord Jesus Christ, the beloved and well-pleasing Son of God in human Flesh and Blood.  Listen to Him, to the Word that you hear from His lips, and trust in Him.  Rely on what He says and promises, and so also live according to His Word.

And be on your guard.  For Christ Jesus Himself has alerted you to the dangers that surround you.  Be on your guard with constant vigilance.  Do not be frightened, but do not let yourself be misled, either.  For not everyone who speaks (or claims to speak) in the Name of Jesus — not everyone who calls Him, “Lord, Lord” — actually speaks by and with His Holy Spirit.  But if you would know and recognize His Voice, then, as for you, listen for the preaching of His Cross.

St. Paul has written, for example, that he would know nothing in the Church except Jesus Christ — and Him Crucified.  The preaching of Christ is always the preaching of His Cross.  And that is the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins in His Name.  That is the Voice of the Lord which saves you.  For it is by His Cross and Passion that He has redeemed you from sin and death, and it is by His Cross and in His Resurrection that He brings you into Life everlasting with God.

Listen for the preaching of His Cross.  Look to Him upon the Cross.  Trust and hope in His Cross.  But be aware that His Cross divides the entire world.  It divides kingdoms, and it divides families; it even divides churches on earth.  And the Cross divides your own heart and life, as well.  It kills, in order to make alive.  It wounds, in order to heal.  And it must be so.

If you belong to the Crucified One, then you shall be crucified.  If you belong to the One who was blasphemed and hated by men and by all the world, know that you also will be hated and handed over to death because of the Name of Christ Jesus which you bear.

You were given His Name in your Holy Baptism.  Little boys and girls, grown-up men and women, whatever your age, know this, you are beloved children of God because you are Christians, you are named with the Name of Christ Jesus.  So are you hated for His Name’s sake; and on account of His Word, you will be questioned, accused, and put to the test, punished, and even put to death.

These are the beginnings of the birth pangs, the narrow passage of Crucifixion with Christ Jesus, whereby you are delivered from out of death and raised up from the dust of the earth unto the Life everlasting in both your body and soul — born of God by the water, Word, and Spirit of Christ.

But if you renounce the Cross of Christ in your words and in your actions — if you turn your heart and mind away from Him, the Crucified One — if you deny His Name, reject His Word, and forsake Him in exchange for other gods — if you do this in fact, even while you give lip service to Him — you shall not stand in the judgment, you shall not survive, and you shall not be saved.

How, then, shall you endure to the end?  How shall you be saved, being the poor, miserable sinner that you are?  For your sins not only accuse and condemn you, but they also weigh you down with guilt and shame, and they so easily ensnare you in their grip and drag you down into death.

Think about it.  Think about your life.  Think about your days on earth and how you go about them.  Think about your allegiances, your commitments and convictions.  Are you strong and courageous like Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms, who stood his ground under the glare of both church and state, when so many were ready to cast him out and kill him?  Are you brave and steadfast like the holy martyrs, who were put to death by stoning or burning or even being cut in half, who did not love their life on earth but remained faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ, even to the point of death?  Are you like them?  Or do you betray the Lord for silver and gold?  Do you deny Him out of fear?

If you examine yourself honestly, there’s nothing but death there, and you cannot save yourself.

Be on your guard!  But how?  You are your own worst enemy!  And from the inside-out, by sinful nature, you get it wrong.  See to it that no one misleads you — but you do not know the way.  How shall you get there?  How shall you not already be off the trail?  That is where you end up if you go looking inside of yourself, if you try to find your endurance in your own resolve, if you try to stand by your own strength, if you try to live by your own wisdom.  Do not do that.

But do not be frightened, either.  Hold fast the confession of your hope in Christ Jesus.  That is to say, confess what He has said and promised.  Your hope is in Him, and He will not disappoint you, because He is faithful.  Even when you are faithless, He remains faithful.  He cannot deny Himself, and He will not deny you, to whom He has bound Himself in love by His Word and Holy Spirit.

His great prince, St. Michael the Archangel, and His legion of holy angels, they arise to guard and keep you for His Name’s sake and by His Blood of the New Testament, His holy and precious Blood, shed for you upon the Cross and poured out for you to drink here at His Altar.

It is by and through His holy and precious Blood, and by the Veil that He has opened for you, that is, by His sacred Flesh, that you draw near to God — right here, right now.  It is by His Flesh and Blood that you here enter into the Holy of Holies of the true Temple, which is the Body of Christ Jesus.  Not to be slain, but to stand.  Not to die, but to live.  Not to be condemned, but to be saved.

Therefore, draw near with confidence.  Do not shrink back or despair.  Where you have turned away and wandered in the past, turn back now and draw near in faith.  Do not consider your sins, but consider Christ who loves you, who has died for you and is risen, who calls you to Himself.

Do not be afraid.  For by His Cross, with His own Blood, by the sacrifice of Himself once-for-all, He has atoned for all of your sins, and that is forever.  And not for your sins only, but for the sins of the whole world.  So testifies the sure and certain Word of God.

Your Savior, Jesus Christ, has washed you with pure water, with His Word and Holy Spirit.  He has sanctified you in body and soul.  You are perfected by His humble obedience unto death, by His Resurrection from the dead, by His righteousness and holiness, innocence and blessedness.  He has cleansed your conscience of every stain.  He has forgiven you all of your sins, He has taken them all away.  There is, therefore, no condemnation, not for you who are in Christ Jesus.

By the preaching of His Gospel, which is His free and full forgiveness of sins, He calls the nations to Himself and to God the Father in Him.  So does He call you to enter in, to abide with Him, to recline upon His bosom here at His Supper, and so to recline in the bosom of His God and Father.

All of this because He has endured to the end — even unto death, even the death of the Cross.  And He has been saved from out of death and the grave — in His Resurrection from the dead and in His Ascension to the Right Hand of the Father.  And all of this that He has done, He has done it all for you.  For all of you, yes, for each and every one of you.  There are no exceptions.

You, therefore, enter into His Passion, enter into His Resurrection, enter into His Sabbath Rest, His great Salvation — by eating and drinking His Body and His Blood at His Word.  For here at His Altar are the Fruits of His once-for-all Sacrifice for sin, whereby He has ended all sacrifice for sin because the one Offering of Himself upon the Cross has atoned for all sins, forever and ever.

Here in His holy Body and precious Blood is the Temple of God and the Holy of Holies; which, having risen from the dead, shall never die again, which shall never be torn down, which shall never perish or pass away.  This crucified and risen Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, which are given and poured out for you here in His Holy Supper, have conquered death and the grave by His Cross and Resurrection; and these Fruits of His Cross now also conquer sin and death in you.

As the Lord Jesus clearly says, this Body and Blood of His are given and poured out for you, for the forgiveness of all your sins; and where there is such free and full forgiveness of sins, there is no longer any death, but everlasting Life and eternal Salvation.  That is what is here for you.

As you are assembled here, together with your brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, in His Name, to eat and drink His Body and His Blood in the Holy Communion, you live and abide in the presence of God, and you reside in His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

Do not forsake this assembly, but draw near to God and enter into His inner Sanctum here, into the Holy of Holies, as He draws near to you in the Flesh and Blood of Christ Jesus, the beloved Son.

And so living by His grace, and living in His presence, abiding as a member of His Body — in His Temple — brothers and sisters, parents and children, friends in Christ, love one another; for all of your sins and all of theirs are forgiven.

Behold, what beautiful stones you are, built into a holy Habitation.  Even now the Lord your God is in your midst, dwelling in His Temple with such loving-kindness.  Make the circuit of His City, set here on His holy Hill.  Look well, and take it to heart, as you walk round about this place.  See the Tower of His Cross, and Christ lifted up for you upon it; consider the Bulwark of His Baptism, and examine the Stronghold of His Sacrament.  This is your God forever, your Savior evermore.

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

To Fix Your Hope on God in Christ Jesus

Why did she do it?  Why would this poor widow contribute everything she owned, everything she had to live on, to the Temple treasury?  I would guess that, over the years, you have understood this woman and her gift as a commendable example.  And perhaps you have felt, or you’ve been told, that you should give to the Church in a similar manner.  Give until it hurts.  Give it your all.

Jesus does speak along those lines on occasion.  It was just a few chapters ago that we heard Him say to the rich young man, “Go and sell everything you have, give it all away, and follow Me.”

But Jesus does not speak to this poor woman (in this Holy Gospel), nor does she speak to Him in this case.  He rather sits down to observe, not just what the people are doing, but how they do it.  The rich people come and contribute a lot — out of their surplus.  And this poor widow comes and gives everything she has — which was, ironically, the minimum permissible amount; that is, you weren’t allowed to put any smaller amount into the Temple treasury.  But why does she do it?

Is she acting in faith or desperation?  Is it like spending your last two bucks to buy a lottery ticket?  Or what is going on?  Is she being faithful or foolish?  Is she giving in the fear, love, and trust of God, in order to support the Church and Ministry of His Word?  Or does she herself even know?

Charity and the Eighth Commandment compel us to suppose that she is acting in faith, and I do not suggest otherwise.  But the fact is that Jesus does not tell us, and St. Mark does not tell us, and we can no more read the heart of that poor woman than I can read your heart today.

But let us think about her gift and what it means for her.  Is it commendable or tragic, or both?  Would you do what she does here and give in this sort of way?  Do you?  Whether you have a mite or twopence or a billion dollars, do you put all that you have in the offering plate?  Should you?

These are not questions to toy with or dismiss.  The Words set before you today are from the holy apostolic Scriptures of your Lord Jesus Christ.  So, what do they mean for your faith and life?

Outward appearances and circumstances are often deceptive.  You cannot read your neighbor’s heart; nor do you know even your own heart apart from the Word and Spirit of God.  How you look and act on the surface may cover up and hide — instead of revealing — what’s really going on inside of you.  So, your looks and actions are not decisive before God.  But they do still matter.

What you do matters.  And how and why you do what you do matters.  There is first and foremost a concern for your heart; that is what the Lord your God is always looking at.  It is your heart that He calls first to discipleship, to fear, love, and trust in Him, to fix your hope and stake your life on Him alone above all others gods.  And then He also calls you to live in love – from a heart of faith.

It does make a difference — in how you live and how you act — whether you fear, love, and trust in God above all things, or you fear, love, and trust in other things besides Him.  It does matter.

So, Jesus gives you a warning in this Holy Gospel.  “Beware of the scribes,” He says.  He does not speak of all the scribes, but He warns you to beware of those who like certain things and do certain things for certain reasons.  That is, beware of those scribes who are hungry for attention and always eager for praise and recognition.  Beware of those scribes who long for honors and benefits.

But what exactly is the real point?  It’s not just that you should be careful with your money and not let yourself get conned by charlatans and hucksters; although, of course, that is true enough.

But far more important and to the point at hand, beware of becoming like those attention-seeking scribes.  Beware of the pride in your own heart.  Beware of boasting over how you choose to dress, whether very simply or elegantly.  Beware of enjoying the praises of men more than you fear God and obey His Word.  Beware of arrogance in your circumstances.  And beware of boasting over your behavior, whether you are formal or informal, casual and laid back or highly sophisticated.

You have no need to worry about the scribes who lived back then, as though they might cheat you or cause you any harm now.  Of course you should act wisely with your money and whatever else the Lord has entrusted to your stewardship in this world.  But the Lord here calls you to repentance for your sins, to be on guard against your own selfish heart.  He warns you against being pious for a pretense or for appearances, while you meanwhile rob and devour and destroy your neighbors.

The Temple treasury served a number of different purposes.  It covered the cost of the sacrifices, it supported the Levites and the sons of Aaron, and it provided alms for the poor and needy.  And among the poor and needy, in particular, God had especially commanded the sons of Israel to care for the orphans and widows in their distress.  Correspondingly, those who are “widows indeed” fix their hope on God; the poor orphans rely on the mercies of the Lord; and the Levites have no inheritance in the Land, as the other tribes do, because Yahweh Himself is their Inheritance.

It is, therefore, a tragic circumstance, that a poor widow should be giving her last cent as alms for the poor.  Israel should have been caring for her.  The Church should have been providing for her.  It is no insult to her faith and her offering, if it is in the hope of God’s providential care and mercy that she makes her contribution.  But it is a shame upon the rich and wealthy, who give so much out of their abundance, and yet still require that a widow give all she has.  There is no Word of God that commands such a thing.  There is, though, a Word of the Lord that commands the wealthy not to glean their fields down to the last bit, but rather to allow the poor and needy, the widows and orphans, the strangers and aliens, to come after them and receive from God’s bountiful hand what He thus provides.  That is how His Church is to be ordered.  That is how your life is to be ordered.

If you have much, the Lord has given it into your hand to care for your neighbor.  And if you have little or nothing at all, the Lord God calls you to love and trust in Him, and so to live by His grace.

Beware of being like those scribes who love attention, honors, and appearances.  But do be like a widow indeed, and fix your hope on God, and pray without ceasing night and day, and worship in His holy Temple, and bow your life before Him who is your God and Father in heaven, and before the Lord who is your Bridegroom, your Savior, and your Head.

You live by God’s grace, whether you are rich or poor, married, unmarried, or widowed, a parent, a child, or an orphan left alone.  You depend upon the Lord your God to feed you and clothe you, to shelter and protect you.  So, live like a widow indeed, and fix your hope on God who loves you, and pray to Him without ceasing, not for appearance’s sake, but because you really do need Him.

Pray to Him in faith and with thanksgiving.  And as you give Him thanks for His providential care even to this day — as you pray that He would continue to provide for you tomorrow and the next day, until the drought shall end and He shall come and take you from this vale of tears to Himself in heaven — have a special care and concern for the widows and orphans in their distress, and for the strangers and aliens in your midst, and for the Levite whose inheritance is God.  Have such a care and concern for these and all your neighbors, as the Lord Himself cares for His Church.

By all rights, you ought to be a widow, yourself, for your true Husband has died.  And yet, you are not left alone, for He has risen from the dead, and He is and remains your Head, who has promised that He will never leave you nor forsake you.  So, then, care for those who are widows on earth.

You likewise ought to be an orphan, as well, as your fathers and mothers have died (or they will), every one of them, because all men have sinned.  And you will die, too.  But you are not an orphan, because God has become your true Father, and you are His true child in Christ Jesus.  He has taken you to be His own, and He has named you with His Name.  Not only that, but He has also given His Church, the Bride of Christ, to be your Mother, to feed you at her breast with His good gifts, with milk and honey indeed.  So, care for those bereft of father and mother in this body and life.

Your hope is in God, as your hope is in Christ Jesus.  For you know that He was rich, the very Son of God by whom all things are made, but for your sake He has made Himself poor, that you might inherit the riches of God in Him.  He has been stripped naked and beaten, accused and condemned, and put to death upon the Cross.  He has given up everything, His very Body and Life, in order to give you life in both body and soul.  He daily and richly provides you with everything you need.

As your merciful and great High Priest, He has entered into the presence of God on your behalf.  Not into the holy place of that old Jerusalem Temple — which was soon to be destroyed along with its treasury — but into the true Holy of Holies, eternal in the heavens.  That is where He lives and abides forever as your Anchor behind the Veil; so that is where you also live and abide in Him.

But that is not a distant or faraway place.  It is found right here, on earth as it is in heaven — in the Church and Ministry of the Gospel, in the Word and Flesh of this great High Priest, in His Body and His Blood, crucified and risen from the dead, given and poured out for you and for the many.

Right here and now, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, and you live and abide within the Temple of God, which is the Body of Christ Jesus.  For He speaks, and it is so: Take, eat, This Is My Body. Drink of it, all of you, This Is My Blood.  And as you eat and drink at His Word, you are part of His Body, the Church.  Believe it.  And support His Church and Ministry, not only for your own sake, but for your neighbors’ sake, for widows and orphans, for the Levites, and for strangers and aliens.

Consider the example of that poor widow who fed and sheltered the Prophet Elijah, though she had been ready to eat a final meal with her son and then for both of them to die.  The Prophet did not “devour” her house and home, but he did receive her hospitality and care; and they survived by the Word of the Lord, who promised, “The flour will not fail, and the oil will not run dry.”  Thus, for many days that woman and her household ate.  They did not live extravagantly, but they did live.

So sure and certain are the Words and promises of the Lord to you, as well.  And so shall you live by His grace, by faith in all that He has said and done and given.  Likewise, like that widow, when you support the Church and Ministry of the Gospel, you can be sure that the Lord will provide.

For as the Lord Jesus Christ has spoken, “Do this in remembrance of Me,” do not suppose that He will ever fail to provide the Bread and Wine by which He feeds the whole Church with Himself.

Likewise, wherever He has placed you in this world, wherever He has stationed you to serve in this life, whatever work He has given you to do, and whatever neighbors He has given you to care for, the Lord your God will provide all that is needed and required for you within that holy vocation. He has not promised to fund your grand self-chosen adventures; but if He has told you to feed your neighbor, feed your neighbor, and don’t worry that you and yours will starve to death by doing so.  But even if you were to perish, Christ is risen indeed, and your true life cannot be taken from you.

Wherever God has placed you, that is where you serve — not with a part or a portion, not with a large or small percentage of your surplus, but with your whole life, with all that you are and have.  As Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, your Savior and Redeemer, your Husband and Head, has given Himself entirely for you, so do you entrust yourself to God the Father entirely in Him — in doing your job faithfully and well, in caring for your neighbors, beginning with your own household and family, and in supporting the Church and Ministry of the Gospel with your gifts.

And the Lord your God continues to open wide His generous hand to provide for all your needs of body, soul, and spirit.  So does He serve and care for you with the Bread that does not fail, with the Water that remains, with the Flour and the Oil, with all the Gifts of the Spirit.  For, see here, He has left a Grain Offering and a Drink Offering, that you may receive His good Gifts and rejoice in His Salvation; for which we rightly offer to the Father through the Son and by the Holy Spirit the sacrifice of thanksgiving: As everything here is the Lord’s free and gracious gift to you, there is nothing for you to do or give in response, except to give thanks for His great and full salvation.

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

In One Lord, Jesus Christ, the True and Only God

Most of you have known at least some of those dear Christians we will name before the Lord’s Altar on this day, who have gone before us in the faith and confession of Christ Jesus.  And all of you have laid to rest loved ones in the past, whether recently or long ago, from the womb or after many years of life together.  Parents and children, spouses and siblings, neighbors and friends.

Take some time to think about those people, those men and women, boys and girls, all of them sinful and mortal like yourself.  What was important to them?  What really mattered?  What did they treasure in this body and life on earth?  How did they spend their time?  Where did they invest themselves?  With what did they depart this vale of tears, and with what did they enter eternity?  What did they take with them?  And what do they have now?

All that remains forever is Christ Jesus and His Word, His Spirit and His Father.  Apart from Him, there is only darkness, death, and damnation.  Where, then, shall your heart and life be found?  And how shall you live here and now, in order that you may rise and live with the Lord Jesus forever?

To set aside for God a part or a portion of your time would be idolatrous.  To dedicate or offer to the Lord a percentage of your possessions would be a sacrilege.  For how shall you call Him the Lord your God, to whom you would give only a portion of yourself?  And how shall you worship Him, if you presume to assign Him a place as one priority among so many others in your life?

It will not do to subdivide yourself, your time and energy, your heart, mind, soul, and strength.  No, you are to love and serve the Lord your God, and nothing else besides Him, with everything you are and have.  For there is one Lord, one God, not many.  There is one Author and Giver of Life.  Wherever else you might look for life, you would find nothing but death.  Not that God is merely a means by which you get life for yourself, but He alone is your Life and Light and Salvation.

Whatever else to which you direct or dedicate your thoughts, words, and actions — if not the Holy Triune God — that is your idol, your false god and false religion.  Or to suppose that you have ever “done your time” and “paid your dues,” is already to have failed and fallen far short of the glory of God.  For He would have all of you, that you should have your whole life entirely in Him.

Your offerings and your alms are inadequate and insufficient, no matter what the amount, and no matter what percentage of your income and your wealth, if you still withhold yourself from God and from your neighbor.  For you are to love the Lord your God with your entire being, and you are to love your neighbor as you love yourself.  Which is not to say that you should love your neighbor in addition to God, nor alongside of God, for that would be to make another god out of your neighbor.  Rather, you are to love your neighbor under and within your fear, love, and trust in God, that is, according to His Word and after the example of His own great heart of love.

It is for God’s sake that you thus love your neighbor in humility, in faith, in mercy, and in peace.  And that is how you are to live your whole life in the good Land to which the Lord your God has called you, which He has promised you in His Word, and which He gives to you in Christ Jesus.

Where you do not love the Lord God and your neighbor, there is alienation, enmity, separation, loneliness, and fear.  Not peace and rest, but anxiety and hard labor.  Not life, but death, now and forever.  That is the land laid waste by your lack of love for God and man.  That is the kingdom and the city of your own idolatrous self-love.  It is sprawling, unruly, divided, and running amok.

But over His good Land the Lord your God has raised up and established a good King, who is the Christ, the Lord’s Anointed, with whom He has made an everlasting Covenant for your salvation.  Indeed, He is the royal High Priest who has redeemed you with His Life-Blood by His Sacrifice upon the Cross and reconciled you to God in His Resurrection from the dead, in order that you may live with Him in His Kingdom in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness.

Who is this King of Glory, who does such great things for you?  He is Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and He is both David’s Son and David’s Lord because He is the Word-made-Flesh, the incarnate Son of God, conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Word and Spirit of His Father.

In the great Mystery of His Holy Incarnation, the Lord your God has thereby fulfilled the first and greatest commandment — and likewise the second — for you and for all people.  For the Son loves His God and Father with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength, also now from and with His own human Body of flesh and blood like yours.  And in such love for His Father, He has made Himself your Neighbor, even your Brother in the flesh, in order to love you with His whole Body and Life.

Thus, the one true God, beside whom there is no other, has come beside you, and He has placed you beside Him, so that you might share His Life and abide with Him in His divine and holy Love.

He has held nothing back.  He has humbled Himself, poured Himself out, and given His whole self to God, even unto death upon the Cross.  That is His Priesthood and His Sacrifice, which He offers to God on your behalf.  His Life is in His Blood, and He gives His Life entirely in love for God and in love for you.  For by the shedding of His Blood, He has atoned for all your sins, and not for your sins only, but for the sins of the whole world.  He has redeemed you for Himself forevermore.  And He has established the New Covenant between God and Man in His own Flesh and Blood.

His own Body is the new and greater Tabernacle, wherein God abides with you and you abide with God.  For this Son of David, this true King of Peace, this Word and Wisdom of God in the Flesh — He replaces the old Tabernacle and the old Temple in Jerusalem with the new, eternal Temple of His crucified and risen Body.  And by His holy and precious Blood, you enter with Him into the Holy of Holies, which is to say, into the very presence of God.  You are brought to God the Father in Him, in order to receive the eternal inheritance that belongs to the Son of God.  That is what He freely gives to you by grace in the Holy Communion, which is the New Covenant in His Blood.

Here there are no contingencies, nor is there anything lacking or amiss.  There is nothing “iffy” or uncertain about the Life that is here given by the one true God, who gives Himself to you.  For He has offered Himself as the perfect Sacrifice, once-for-all.  And this same Lord Jesus has risen from the dead, and has ascended to the right hand of the Father where He lives and reigns forever.

Therefore, with His Gospel, which is the “sprinkling” of His Blood, He cleanses your conscience of all sin and shame and every stain.  As He was crucified for your transgressions and raised for your justification, so now He daily and richly forgives you, reconciles you to His God and Father, and sanctifies and purifies your body and soul with His Holy Spirit.  All of this by His Blood, with which He gives to you His Life.  He thereby raises you from death to divine Life in and with Him.

The Law commands you and requires you to love the Lord your God, but here the Lord your God loves you.  The Law tells you to cleanse your heart and draw near to God, but here by His Gospel the one true God draws near to you in Christ, in order to cleanse you by His grace and forgiveness.  He comes to free you from the devil’s kingdom, from the slavery and prison house of sin and death, and to bring you into the Kingdom of God.  The King Himself, the Christ, the Son of God, shares with you His faithfulness, His faith and holy love.  He fully gives to you His relationship with His God and Father, so that the true and only God is now your God and your Father in Him.

That is what the dear Lord Jesus Christ has done for those who have gone before us in the faith, whom we rightly remember with thanksgiving to God in Christ.  We do not worship them, but with them we worship God.  And loving Him above all things, we love them also for His sake.  For they belong to us in Him, and we belong to them.  They are not dead and gone, but alive forevermore.  Not by their own wisdom, reason, or strength, but by the grace of God in the Gospel of Christ.

So does He likewise give Himself, His Life, and His Love to you and all His children, and to His children’s children from one generation to the next, even to the close of the age.

It is in the Temple of His Body, the Church, on earth as it is in heaven, that He bestows Himself and His Gospel upon you, His Life, and His Salvation.  His Word is spoken to you from His Holy Altar, from which He also gives to you His Body and pours out for you the New Testament in His Blood.  For since the Word has become Flesh and tabernacles with us, the Word is never without His Flesh, but He always brings you to His Father in His Body and with His Blood.  He gives you not a part or a portion, but His whole self, perfect and complete.  He withholds nothing from you.

As there is one Bread and one Cup, one Spiritual Food and Drink — of one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all — so there is one Holy Communion in heaven and on earth, which is the one Body of Christ.  He is not divided, but the many are united and become one in Him, just as the many grains of wheat become one Bread, given for you, and the many grapes are united in one Cup of wine, poured out for you and for the many.  So it is that, in His one Body and Blood, all of the faithful of all times and all places live and abide in perfect Peace forevermore.

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