After the Pattern of Christ Jesus

St. Stephen was content and at peace, even as he was being put to death, because he had fixed his hope on the living God.  He wasn’t searching for the meaning of life, because it had already been made known to him by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel.  He wasn’t confused about his place and purpose in the world, because he knew himself to be a child of God in Christ.  And he wasn’t nervous or afraid about tomorrow or the next day, because he lived by the grace of his Father.

That explains the striking contrast that we find in the story of Stephen: On the one hand, his fierce and forthright preaching of the Law, and on the other hand, his gracious prayer of forgiveness for those to whom he preached as they were stoning him to death.  He demonstrates the bold courage that characterizes the martyrs of our Lord Jesus, but also the charity and compassion of Christ.  He has the strong confidence and passionate conviction, not of harsh anger, but of faith in the Gospel.

In particular, Stephen knew and trusted that he had a dwelling place with God, because God had made His dwelling place with Stephen in Christ Jesus.  The holy martyr knew that he would be with Christ, with the Father in heaven, because the same Lord Jesus Christ was with him in his suffering and death.  He knew that heaven was his home, and that heaven had been fully opened to him by the Cross and Resurrection of the incarnate Son of God.

The Lord has just as surely done the same for you, as well.  He has become Flesh for you.  He has given Himself for you, even unto death.  He has risen from the dead and ascended into heaven for you, also.  And yet, He also remains with you here in His Church on earth, in His very own Flesh and Blood, with His Word and Holy Spirit.  Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with you here.

What Moses was shown and what he saw on the Mountain was a Type of that incarnate Lord, Jesus Christ, and the Tabernacle that Moses made by God’s direction was according to that holy pattern.  It served the people of God in the wilderness as a means of grace, a proclamation of the Gospel, because it pointed to what has now been accomplished and fulfilled in the Son of Mary.

He is the new and better Joshua, who brings God’s people out of the wilderness into the good land that He has promised, defeating all their enemies before them.  And He is the new and better David — the Son of David who is greater than Solomon — the true King of Peace and holy Wisdom — whose own Body is raised and established as the true Temple of God.  That is to say, not a house for God to live in, as though He were otherwise homeless, but a House in which you live with God.

In Him, by your Baptism into Him, His God and Father is your God and Father.  You bear His own Name and Holy Spirit, because you are born of Him, and you have your Life in Him, and you are a member of His family.  Your house and home are with Him, safe and secure, now and forever.

For Christ Jesus, the beloved Son, has become your Brother in the Flesh and your Savior from sin, death, the devil, and hell.  He is your merciful and great High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.  His sacrificial death is your Atonement and Redemption.  His Resurrection from the dead is your reconciliation and your righteousness with God.  And His Ascension to the Right Hand of the Father is your own happy homecoming, your peaceful resting place, and your Salvation forever.

That is why you can be strong and courageous, like St. Stephen, in doing your job and saying forthrightly what is good and right and true, even when it is painfully difficult, woefully unpopular, and poorly received.  You fear the Lord, because He alone is your true God and Father, but you need not be afraid of any mortal man.  No one can rob you of your Life with God in Christ Jesus.

Along with such courage and confidence, you are also able to be compassionate, kind, and patient, even when you deal with hurtful and unpleasant people.  To be sure, your kind compassion may require the preaching of the Law and the call to repentance, according to your office and vocation.  But such a preaching of repentance — as when the Lord persisted in sending the Prophets to His people of old, and in the case of St. Stephen — is neither vindictive nor mean-spirited, but aims at warning the neighbor of danger and calling him back to the Lord. 

So, too, when you must warn your neighbor, do so in love — truly to rescue him from danger and to lead him to life with yourself — and not out of any anger, defensiveness, fear, or vengeance.

After all, you know that you are safe.  Your life is secure.  You need not guard yourself so fiercely.  God has opened His heaven to you in Christ Jesus, as fully and freely as He did for St. Stephen.  Indeed, through your Holy Baptism you have already died with Christ and entered into Life with God in Him.  That is how sure and certain your Life and your eternal future are and ever shall be.

Dear child of God, you know that for Jesus’ sake your true Father in heaven loves you; that He is pleased with you and delights in you, regardless of what anyone else may think or say or do.  And you know that all of this is solely by His grace and mercy; that He is compassionate, kind, and patient with you — long-suffering, slow to anger, and full of nothing but steadfast love for you.

Therefore, as Christ has given Himself for you and given you His own Life by the Gospel, and as He has become your Righteousness and your Salvation, so is He your Strength and your Song — your Confidence and Courage, on the one hand; your Charity and Compassion, on the other hand.

So it is that you become like Him.  Which is also to become like St. Stephen, who was recreated in the Image and Likeness of God, after the pattern of Christ Jesus, by his own Holy Baptism.

Therefore, you also live, you suffer, and you die, as Stephen did — like Christ — by grace through faith in the Gospel.  That is the only power and poise that you will ever need.  And it is yours!

You have the Tabernacle of the Testimony here in the wilderness, that is to say, the preaching of the Gospel.  That is the true wisdom and eloquence of the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus, calling you daily to repentance, unto faith, through the forgiveness of all your sins.  It cleanses you and clothes you with the Blood of the Lamb; as in your Holy Baptism, so also in the Holy Communion.

The saints who have gone before you, especially the holy martyrs like St. Stephen, are another kind of “Tabernacle of the Testimony,” because they have lived in their own flesh and followed by faith the same pattern they were shown in Christ Jesus.  And you, in turn, follow the same pattern as a living testimony to your neighbor, so that your neighbor may then see the Son of Man in you.

Be Thou faithful unto death, and He will give you the crown of Life.  That was His sure and certain promise to St. Stephen (whose name means “crown”), and His promise to you is no less sure and certain.  Indeed, it is already a “bird in the hand,” because your dear Lord Jesus Christ, the very King of heaven, has already crowned you with His own royalty and righteousness by the Gospel. He has crowned you with Himself and with His Glory, having made of you His royal Bride, His Queen.  And as He spoke by the Prophet Isaiah, you are a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord.

You are another Stephen, by virtue of your Baptism into the Cross and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus.  And as He did for that holy Stephen, for whom we give thanks and praise to God this day, so does He also bring you through the waters of your Baptism into the heaven He has opened to you by His own Baptism.  He will bring you through death and the grave into the Life everlasting, as even now He brings you through the great tribulation into His own Resurrection and Ascension.

Already you live with Him in God, by grace through faith in His Gospel, because God tabernacles here with you in Him, that is, in His Flesh and Blood and in His Word of forgiveness.  For that dear Lord Jesus binds together in Himself, forever, both God and Man, both heaven and earth.

Here at His Altar — and so also from this Altar into the world in your calling and station, even through the wilderness — you live before the Throne of God; you live and abide in His Temple.

Your sins are all forgiven.  Forgive those, also, who trespass against you.  For you are righteous and holy before God and precious in His sight for the sake of Jesus Christ.  As He has risen from the dead and lives and reigns forever at the Right Hand of His God and Father, so shall you not die but live.  Does He not feed you with His Body and pour out His Blood for you to drink?  Yes, He does.  He sees to it that neither His Word nor His Table are neglected in this place.  Therefore, you lack nothing, nor shall you ever lack for what you need.  Your sure and certain hope for Life and Salvation are here for you in the forgiveness of your sins and in the Meat and Drink of Christ

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

Abiding with Christ in the Most Holy Place

So much for the white Christmas you were dreaming of.  Not only have we had no real snow to speak of, but the Church has already set aside her white paraments more quickly than the world takes down its winter evergreens.  Within a day of the Lord’s holy Nativity His chancel is stained red with the blood of His martyrs, anticipating the blood-stained banner of His own Holy Cross.

So it is that on this day, the 26th of December, the Second Day of the ChristMass, we remember with sober thanksgiving the Lord’s faithful servant, the deacon St. Stephen, who was martyred for his faith and confession, put to death as a witness to the Gospel of your Savior, Jesus Christ.

As you know, he was one of the seven deacons selected to serve the Hellenistic members of the early Church in Jerusalem.  Perhaps it would be clearer in our circles to describe him as an assistant pastor to the Apostles, chosen and appointed to care for the Greek-speaking parishes of the city.  In any case, St. Stephen was a man well-attested by the Lord and by the entire congregation of the Church.  He was a man of faith and great wisdom, full of the Holy Spirit.  And he did what he was called and ordained to do: He preached the Gospel and administered the Holy Sacraments of Christ.

But the Church remembers St. Stephen on this day, and she gives thanks to God for this faithful servant and holy martyr, not so much for the sake of a job well done “once upon a time,” but for the sake of the Word of Christ which he continues to proclaim by his preaching and example in the record of the Holy Scriptures, such as we have heard this evening from the Acts of the Apostles.

As St. Stephen thus preaches the Law, forcibly and forthrightly — not only then and there, but here and now to you — take it seriously as a warning against your own idolatry and hardness of heart, and heed what he says as a call to repentance and to the new life which is yours in Christ Jesus.

Do not attempt to hide behind your church membership or your good attendance, though belonging to the church and coming to church are certainly appropriate, good and right, and fundamental to the Christian faith and life.  You do not justify or save yourself by such good works, though you do confirm your unbelief and condemn yourself when you excuse and separate yourself from the household and family of God, to which you belong by His grace alone, through faith in His Gospel, notwithstanding any of your own works and efforts (be they good, bad, or otherwise).

Do not claim or cling to even the Holy Sacraments as works of man, as though the mere fact of going through the motions were sufficient to rescue and redeem your life from the judgment.  It is rather in repentance and faith that you receive and benefit from the Holy Sacraments as the works of God and the gifts of His grace, whereby He delivers you from sin, death, and the devil.  And that difference in perspective makes all the difference in this world and the next.  For it is not by any of your own works or any self-righteousness of yours that you are saved, but only by Christ Jesus, the Righteous One, who was crucified for your transgressions and raised for your justification.

Take it to heart, therefore, and trust and believe St. Stephen’s beautiful proclamation of the Gospel, especially in his example of mercy for those who were stoning him to death.  As the Lord Jesus had prayed that His Father would forgive those who nailed Him to the Cross, so does St. Stephen pray that God would not hold the sin of his persecutors against them.  Such a word of grace is wrought by the Word and Spirit of God, conveying the Holy Absolution of Christ to those who are cut to the quick and convicted by the Law.  It is forgiveness for you, also, chief of sinners though you be.

St. Stephen is, himself, an example of one who has received the Lord’s mercy and help, who lives by the fear of the Lord and by faith in His Gospel.  He surely does not preach with such clarity and boldness by any instinctive reason or strength of his own, nor with a detached, clinical objectivity, but as a man who has been called to repentance and faith by the preaching of the Word of Christ.

So did St. Stephen remain steadfast in his faith, and in his confession and preaching of Christ Jesus, even to the point of death.  He laid down his life without bitterness or guile, but with charity in his heart and on his lips for those who persecuted him, because he had already died and risen with the Lord in his Holy Baptism.  By that Sacrament, and by the daily repentance to which that Sacrament called him, he was conformed to the Image of Christ, his crucified and risen Savior.

St. Stephen died in the sure and certain confidence of Christ, animated by the compassion of Christ for those who sinned against him.  And in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus, his merciful and great High Priest, he has received the Crown of everlasting Life, which shall never be taken from him.

As the Christian Church has understood and confessed concerning the many other martyrs who followed him, St. Stephen was strengthened and sustained by his Lord Jesus, not only in his faith and life as a disciple and deacon, but in his faithful death.  Not by human might and power, but by the Word and Spirit of the crucified and risen Christ, he prevailed in the face of persecution, as he was given to see the Light of the Revelation of the Glory of God in the face of the incarnate Son.

Whether with the eyes of his flesh or simply with the eyes of faith, St. Stephen was given a vision of the Truth which remains forever, though it is normally hidden (for now) under the shadow of the Cross.  He was given to see his risen and ascended Lord, standing at the right hand of God where He ever lives to make intercession for His whole Church of all times and in all places.

The One who was crucified for your sins and raised from the dead as your Righteousness, He has entered into the Holy of Holies made without hands, eternal in the heavens, for your Salvation.  There He abides for you in the presence of His God and Father, as your Anchor behind the Veil, even as He lives and abides within His Church on earth in the preaching and ministry of His Holy Gospel, that you might live and abide with God in Him, in His Body, the new and better Temple, now and forever.  His Body is your Home, already now by faith, and so shall it be ever after.

The heavens have been opened to you, as surely as they were opened to St. Stephen, never to be closed again, by the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Jordan River, by His innocent suffering and death upon the Cross, by the shedding of His Blood, and by His Resurrection from the dead.

Therefore, do not shut your ears to the Law of the Lord as it is preached to you, though it painfully convicts you of your sins and calls you daily to repentance.  To harden your heart to that Word and preaching is also to reject and forego the grace and mercy and forgiveness of the Holy Gospel, which is preached to you in the patience and compassion of your Savior, Jesus Christ.  It is not for the condemnation you deserve, but for the great Salvation of His Gospel, that you are called by the preaching and Baptism of repentance to the Life everlasting which is by faith in Christ alone.

So, then, with St. Stephen receive and find your life entirely in the Lord Jesus Christ; and so boldly carry out your vocations and serve your stations in this body and life on earth, knowing with the certainty of faith that there is nothing anyone can do to rob you of the life that is yours in Him.

To be sure, there are those who may hurt or even kill your mortal body.  Many others are even more likely to hurt your feelings and to make your present circumstances difficult and hard to bear.  The stones that cut into Stephen’s body and spilled his blood, which shattered his bones and bruised his muscles, they were surely not painless or pleasant.  But they did not rob him of his life with God in Christ, which is immortal, imperishable, and glorious, as Christ Himself now reigns in glory forever.  So also are you preserved in safety, peace, and Sabbath rest within the Body of Christ Jesus, no matter what may happen to your poor body here and now.

Indeed, as your mortal body of flesh and blood is fed with His Body and Blood, so shall your body also be raised in glory, no matter how it may be punished and put to death in this brief span of time.

You have this boldness and confidence to live your life and to face your death, not from within yourself, but from the Lord who comforts you and strengthens you with His Word and Spirit in the Gospel.  He does not condemn you but forgives you, because Christ has given Himself for you.  And as God Himself is with you and for you, in this life and for the life to come, there is nothing and no one in heaven or on earth who shall ever be permitted or able to prevail against you.

So it is that Christ the Lord, the Son of God and Mary’s Son — who has entered the Most Holy Place in His crucified and risen Body, and who ever lives to intercede for you with His prayers and with His precious Blood in the presence of His God and Father — He also continues to call and ordain men, like St. Stephen, to care for His Bride, the Church.  These men He endows with His Spirit and His Wisdom, according to their Office, to serve the Tables of His Church on earth with the Word of His Gospel and with His Body and Blood, given and poured out for the many, for the forgiveness of sins in His Name, for the bestowal and preservation of life and salvation with God.

So does He provide all that is needed for body and soul, for Jews and Greeks alike, for widows and orphans in distress, and for all men and women, young and old, married or unmarried, rich and poor without distinction; for deacons and martyrs, pastors and people; and so also for you and for your children, and for your children’s children, from generation to generation, and even forevermore.

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

The Costly Gift of Forgiveness

You have not let God’s Love have its way with you, and so your love for others has failed.  There are those whom you have hurt, and those whom you have failed to help.  If you have not been the one throwing stones, you have quietly stood by and watched while others have been harmed.

You are certainly not so complacent about your own body and life; nor are you so patient with those who are throwing things at you.  You are rather quick to defend yourself and to retaliate.  You are more ready to call down vengeance than forgiveness on those who trespass against you.

Yet, to withhold forgiveness from your brother or sister; to view your neighbor as your enemy; to hurt instead of help; to speak words of accusation, and to refrain from speaking words of defense, is to call down the wrath and judgment of God.  Not only on your neighbor, but on yourself.  For by the measure and criteria with which you judge your neighbor, you also are measured and weighed.  And by the judgment of the Law, you are found wanting and condemned.

The Lord thus sends His messengers to call you to repentance, to bring you back to Himself in love.  For His heart’s desire is to gather you into His arms, to nestle you under His wings in peace.

It is a gentle life to which He calls you, though His preaching of repentance is not a gentle word to get you there.  On account of your sin, your unbelief, and your idolatry, it is kill or be killed.  You cannot be detached from your false gods without suffering violence at the deepest level.

So you are put to death by the preaching of repentance, or else you put the preacher to death, either with hostility or apathy, with active persecution or passive rejection.  There is no middle ground.

There is a terrible irony in all of this: Unless you die, you cannot live.  But if you live as you want, you bring death upon yourself twice over.  You die either way, but without God you do not live.

The Lord desires to gather you to Himself and to give you life with Himself forever.  But in your native unbelief, you are neither willing nor able to believe in Him or come to Him.  You’re afraid of His Word, because it threatens to undo you — to rip your deep seated idols right out of your heart and life.  So you resort to fight or flight.  You retaliate, or you retreat, but you do not repent.

Deeper and deeper you fall into death and self-destruction, into dark despair and all manner of vice and shame — until the Lord calls you to life and light and salvation by His Word of the Gospel.

Now, His Gospel is the Word of His Cross.  For you come into Life in the presence of God only by the way and the means of His Crucifixion; and in so far as you are His, you also share His Cross and suffering!  So you are not wrong to suppose that He is out to kill you.  You must die to live.

Where, then, is there any safety or protection for you anywhere?  When you feel safe and secure in the world — when you nest yourself in its comforts — you are lost in your own perdition and in grave danger of eternal death.  But there is no other house in which you can live, and no place to lay your head, except in the desolate Temple of the Lord and on the hard wood of His Cross.  Which makes it seem as though everything were utterly lost and hopeless!

The Lord has given exceedingly great and precious promises to those who trust in Him, yet He brings those very things to pass through the narrow passage of suffering and death.  There simply is no life or hope or peace for you here on earth, except that which is under the Cross of Christ.

You love the Lord, and people hate you for it.  You serve the Lord, and the world around you either does not care or pay any attention, or else it despises and ridicules your faithful service.  You serve and care for your neighbor, and he takes it for granted, or he may even spit in your face.

You are a child of God.  You believe and trust in Him.  And you belong to Him.  And yet, for that you are hounded day and night by the lying and murdering devil who hates you.  Then there is this warfare raging in your mortal flesh, a daily battle of temptation.  You are prone to sin and vice, on the one hand, and to hopeless despair on the other hand.  In desperation, you may even lash out at your neighbor, whether he is friend or foe, gnashing your teeth in fear and anger and frustration.

The most dangerous trial and temptation would have you attempt to take and seize for yourself what can only be received by grace through faith in the Gospel.  But only the Lord is able to save you, and He gives you His life only by and with that very Cross which threatens to destroy you!

You cannot escape this crisis.  Repent of your attempts to fight or to flee.  By your own wisdom, reason, and strength, you cannot endure the battle or survive it.  One way or another, you will die.

But now, beloved of the Lord, lift up your head and behold your Redeemer, the crucified One, who is with you.  He is by your side, no less than He is at the right hand of God.  He is here to help and defend you — to die and rise with you — and to bring you with Himself to the Father in heaven.

It is true that He is here with His Cross, which is both death and life for you.  But so it is that you die, not alone, but with Him, and that you also rise and live with Him in body and soul forever.

Everything is determined and defined for you by His Cross.  Listen carefully: It is His Cross.  You cannot understand or celebrate the ChristMass, nor any other aspect of the Christian faith and life, if you do not perceive the heart and center of it all in the Cross and Crucifixion of Christ Jesus.

Every stone that you have thrown, He has borne it in His own flesh and bone, in His own Body.  Every sin that you have committed or aided and abetted, He has taken it upon Himself.  So also every stone that is thrown at you; every bruise and unkind word; every trespass against you, He has suffered it all and borne it for you.  And over all that He has prevailed with steadfast love.

He has not faltered.  He has not failed.  He has done it all willingly, for you and for your neighbor, for your loved ones and your nemeses, for the pious and the faithful, and for the lazy and the impious bum.  For one and all who suffer the curse of sin and death, He has suffered the Cross.

He has suffered the Cross, and by His death He has broken death, because He has paid for every sin with His own life.  The sentence has been fully served.  The death penalty has been carried out.

Here, then, is the vengeance of the Lord!  Here is His revenge for every wrong!  Not against you, but for you, in the voluntary Sacrifice of the Son of God, in His innocent suffering and death.

The Judge has thereby spoken.  And the Executioner is fully satisfied.  His work here is done, and every other punishment has been resolved.  You are reprieved, for the Resurrection of Christ is your emancipation proclamation; it is the Lord’s own Word of Absolution for you and all people.

The Lord does not hold your sins against you.  Therefore, you are free to live, and free to love.

Which means that you are also free to forgive those who sin against you, who hate you and hurt you.  The Cross of Christ has borne their hate and hurt.  It is not only against you, but He has taken it against Himself — and yet He does not hold it against them.  He has obtained forgiveness for them and their wrongs by the shedding of His holy and precious Blood.  You, then, forgive them.

Do not despise the costly gift of Christ, the forgiveness of sins, by refusing to forgive.  Pray instead for repentance and faith, for yourself and for your enemies, for your family, friends, and foes alike.

Instead of seeking vengeance — do not hurt or harm your neighbor, neither his body, his home and family, his property and honor, nor anything that is your neighbor’s — but you be put to death by contrition and repentance for your sins.  Remember and return to the significance of your Baptism, in which you die to yourself and live unto God in Christ.  Emerging from those waters, the heavens are opened to you, and you behold the grace and glory of your Savior, the dear Lord Jesus Christ.

Seeing Him in His Gospel, who is at the right hand of the Father, who always lives to intercede for you with His own Blood, know that even death cannot harm you.  Where Jesus is, there you are, and there you shall be.  The sting and death of your sin have been undone and shall be lifted at the last.  So those who hurt your body cannot destroy you forever; they cannot rob you of your life.

Not only do you have that sure and certain promise of the Resurrection, but look here: This Altar is the throne of God, it is the very gate of heaven on earth.  For here Christ Jesus feeds you with the blessed Fruits of His Holy Cross and Passion.  Take and eat His Body.  Drink from His Cup.  Taste and see that He is good, that His mercy endures forever.  Ponder His glory: It is forgiveness.  It is the gift of life: for you.  He does not hold your sins against you, but receives you to Himself in love, in peace and joy, in gentleness and kindness, and so does He pour out His Spirit upon you.

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

The Witness of Christ in His Saints

It isn’t nearly so cozy and cuddly as the Nativity scene, but this is how the Christmas story goes.  Not only for the Christ Child and His holy family, but for His Prophets and Apostles, His wise men and scribes, His deacons and elders, pastors and teachers, and all of His disciples, His Christians.

It is also the story of your Baptism into Christ, whether you die a martyr’s death or live a martyr’s life.  The stones may be real or metaphorical, but they will hit you either way if you belong to the Righteous One, and they will hurt.  His afflictions are many, His tribulations great.  His Cross is deadly, and His tomb a strange bed for the Lord of Life.

Then there are the stones that you hurl at Him and at His beloved, out of jealousy and spite, with envy and resentment, or for the sake of pride and competition: When you do not help and protect your neighbor, but hurt and harm his body; when you do not guard his interests or defend his name, but conspire against him, or simply turn your back on him and consign him to his suffering and his desperate need.  Perhaps you merely stand by and watch, condoning his murder by your silence, keeping the coats of his killers, and giving thanks that you are not the one under attack.

Your life in the world as a Christian, under the Cross, is not so neatly and easily categorized as good or bad, right or wrong.  It is by God’s grace that you are a Christian, a son of God in Christ, anointed by the Spirit of the Lord; whereas by your birth from Adam you are sinful and unclean.

For your faithfulness you are stoned, whether by the world in its wickedness, or by the far greater perversity and blasphemy of those who consider themselves to be pious and righteous, who count it a service to God when they kill you.

And in your own sinfulness, you are the one hefting rocks in your hands and taking deadly aim at the children of your own God and Father, your own dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

We do not find such ambiguity in St. Stephen, the First Martyr of our crucified and risen Lord, but only because the record of his life and death is the witness of Christ Jesus, in whom there is no ambiguity nor uncertainty.  Stephen, too, was a child of Adam by nature, but by grace he is a child of God, who strengthened and sustained him in the one true faith.

You are right to marvel at the faithful witness of the martyrs; and none of them are more faithful than St. Stephen, who demonstrates the righteousness of God in both his bold preaching and his gracious prayer of forgiveness.  You are right to marvel, because this faithful witness of the holy martyrs is a testimony to the faithfulness of Christ.

That is the story of Christmas, of Christ and of His Christians, from the New Testament throughout the history of His Church on earth, even to the present day around the world.

The story of Christ, of His Life, His Cross and Resurrection, is written, lived, and confessed in the story of His disciples, the story of those who are baptized and catechized in His Name.  They are faithful, because He is.  They live and die, and they shall rise again, because He has done so for them, and He does so in them, unto the life everlasting.

He did so for St. Stephen, and He does so for you.

The ambiguity that you experience in your mortal life, in your heart and mind, in your thoughts, words and deeds, and in all your members, is resolved by the work of the Cross, which is God’s good work of repentance, unto divine eternal life in Christ Jesus.  The Cross puts to death the old Adam in you, while it also conforms you, in body and soul, to the Image of God, the incarnate Son.

The Cross therefore brings you through death into life, in and with and through Christ Jesus.  At the same time, it becomes a faithful witness to the same Lord Jesus Christ, the Crucified One, in what you do and say and suffer in His Name.

It is not a matter of trying hard to make such a witness of yourself.  In the history of the Church, those who have sought to claim the glory of martyrdom for themselves have fallen far short when it came down to it, and have denied the Lord in the face of actual torture and death, thereby shaming themselves and blaspheming the Name they presumed to confess.

But, no, you should instead work hard and make a conscious and conscientious effort to do those things which God has given you to do.  Do your duties faithfully and well.  Then, in faith receive and bear and suffer the Cross that He lays upon you in His love for you.  For within your vocation as a Christian, in the offices and stations to which He has called you in your life on earth, He will be with you, to bless you, to guard you and keep you, to preserve your faith and life in Him.

Thus, whether you live or whether you die, you are the Lord’s.

The shape of such a Christian life, as in the case of St. Stephen, is a confession of the Word of God.  You speak with confidence what the Lord has spoken.  If you are not a pastor or preacher, still, your words and actions as a Christian are a proclamation of Christ and a confession of the Name of God, with which He has named you in your Holy Baptism.

Such a confession has for its heart and center the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, who is God our Savior in the flesh.  In you it is repentance, and for your neighbor it is manifested in love and forgiveness.  It is love that speaks the truth forthrightly, but with gentleness.  It is love that serves sacrificially, even unto death, but no less so in day to day life.  It is love that turns the other cheek, even against hard rocks and sharp stones, and forgives those who trespass against you.  That is the way of Christ, for you and for all, which we see exemplified in His servant, St. Stephen.

It is truly meet, right and salutary that we should remember St. Stephen and his faithful example; for so has the Holy Spirit through St. Luke remembered the story for us in the Holy Scriptures.  And it is right that we should give thanks and praise to God our dear Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord, for this blessed holy martyr.

His example should not only prompt you to thanksgiving, but also to ask: How is it that Stephen was so faithful, even in his suffering unto death?  How was he able to confess so boldly in the presence of his accusers, in the face of those who hated him so much and wanted to hurt him so badly?  How could he die so peacefully, despite such a painful death?  And as he was dying, how was he able to pray so graciously for those who were throwing stones at him?

The answer is given by the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of Christ Jesus.  St. Stephen was strengthened and sustained by the same Gospel that he confessed and preached to others.  So are you.

His mortal eyes were given to behold a special revelation of the risen Christ, and by faith in the Gospel he not only saw but he believed that His great High Priest, His Savior and Lord, had risen from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven.  Hence, that same heaven was opened to St. Stephen, too — as it is, also, to you.  Death and the grave would not be able to hold him, no more than death could hold Christ Jesus.  Neither shall death be able to hold you in its grasp forever.  Even dead and dying, yet you are alive in Christ, and so shall you be, unto the life everlasting of body and soul.

By your Holy Baptism, you have already been crucified with Christ, and dead and buried with Him.  And by one and the same Holy Baptism — into His Cross and Resurrection — daily are you raised with Him to newness of life through His free and full forgiveness of all your sins.  Your life on earth is therefore a daily martyrdom, which is simply the working out of your Baptism until it is finally and fully consummated in the death and resurrection of your body.  Already your life is hidden with Christ in God.

His Body is the true Temple of God, even as He tabernacles with you in His own flesh and with His own holy and precious Blood.  You enter that Temple via Holy Baptism, and you abide in that Temple, before the throne of God both day and night, within the fellowship of His Church on earth.

For the same eternal Liturgy of your merciful and great High Priest, by which He serves all His saints in His Kingdom, He also administers here for you at His Altar.

His heart’s desire is to gather you here to Himself; to enfold you in His embrace; to shelter you under His wings; to surround you round about; and to fill you with Himself and with His Holy Spirit, with His own flesh and blood, with His forgiveness of all your sins, with His grace, mercy and peace, and with all the power and glory and blessing of His indestructible life.

Would you be gathered to Him, and would you behold Him at the right hand of the Father, where He ever lives to intercede for you in love?  Surely He has opened heaven to you, but do not gaze up into the sky to see it or find it.  Rather, open your ears to hear His Gospel, and open your mouth to be fed from His hand.

What you behold with your mortal eyes are mortal men, an altar of wood, vessels of metal, and mere bread and wine, all within an earthly house constructed by human hands.  But these ordinary earthly things are clothed with a hidden majesty by the Word of the Lord, who speaks, and it is so.

Mortal men are filled with the Spirit of God, with the power and wisdom of Christ, by their call and ordination to His Office of the Holy Ministry.  For His Word and promise attend that Office.

The wood of this Altar, like that of the manger and of the Cross, bears the very Body of the Son of God.  And at His Word, the chalice becomes the New Testament in His Blood.

This man-made building, likewise, sanctified by the Word of God and prayer — though it could not contain the One who holds the heavens and the earth in the palm of His hand — yet, it is His House, His Holy Place, His Temple on earth as it is in heaven.  Not only that, but He who upholds all things gives Himself into your hands, upon your lips, and into your body, so that you also are a Temple of God.  As you live in Christ, so does He live and abide in you, in your body and soul.

He was and is St. Stephen’s righteousness and holiness, his bold courage, strength and confidence, his faithfulness in life and death, and his Resurrection and Ascension to the bosom of the Father, the Holy of Holies made without hands, eternal in the heavens.

Dear Christian, the same Lord Jesus Christ is all of that for you, as well, both now and forever.

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

The Crown of Life Is Yours in Christ Jesus

There’s a great scene in Walk the Line, the movie about Johnny Cash, in which Waylon Jennings is giving Luther Perkins grief about the way he picks his guitar. “How come you ain’t ever tried this kind of pickin’, Luther?” Perkins plays a bit, rattles off some tasty licks, and then he says, “Well, Waylon, whatever you’re lookin’ for, I’ve already found.”

It’s a great line, and one of my all time favorite scenes; not only because it involves guitars, but because it is so right. There is that kind of confidence and contentment when you know that you already have what you need. St. Paul describes much the same thing when he writes:

“Godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, and neither can we take anything out of it. But if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content . . . because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, but especially of those who believe.”

St. Stephen had that godly contentment, because he had already found what everyone needs and most people are still looking for. He wasn’t searching for the meaning of life, which had already been made known to him by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel. He wasn’t confused about his place and purpose in the world, because he knew himself to be a child of God in Christ. He wasn’t nervous or afraid about tomorrow or the next day, because he lived by the grace of his Father.

That explains the striking contrast that we find in the story of Stephen: On the one hand, his fierce and forthright preaching of the Law, and on the other hand, his gracious prayer of forgiveness for those to whom he preached, as they were stoning him to death. He demonstrates the bold courage that characterizes the martyrs of our Lord Jesus, but also the charity and compassion of Christ. He has the strong confidence and passionate conviction, not of harsh anger, but of faith in the Gospel.

In particular, Stephen knew and trusted that he had a dwelling place with God; because God had made His dwelling place with Stephen in Christ Jesus. The holy martyr knew that he would be with Christ, with the Father in heaven, because the same Lord Jesus Christ was with him in his suffering and death. Stephen wasn’t on his own. He wasn’t flying solo. He wasn’t flying without a parachute, nor walking the high wire without a net. He knew that heaven was his home, and that heaven had been fully opened to him by the Cross and Resurrection of the incarnate Son of God.

The Lord has just as surely done the same for you, as well. He has become flesh for you. He has given Himself for you, even unto death. He has risen from the dead and ascended into heaven for you, also. And yet, He also remains with you here, in His Church on earth, in His own flesh and blood, with His own Word and Holy Spirit. Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with you here.

What Moses was shown and what he saw on the Mountain was a Type of that incarnate Lord, Jesus Christ, and the tabernacle that Moses made by God’s direction was according to that holy pattern. It served the people of God in the wilderness as a means of grace, a proclamation of the Gospel, because it pointed to what has now been accomplished and fulfilled in the Son of Mary.

He is the new and better Joshua, who brings God’s people out of the wilderness into the good land that He has promised, defeating all their enemies before them. And He is the new and better David — the Son of David who is greater than Solomon — the true King of Peace, and holy Wisdom — whose own Body is raised and established as the true Temple of God. That is to say, not a house for God to live in, as though He were otherwise homeless, but a House in which you live with God.

In Him, by your Baptism into Him, His God and Father is your God and Father. You bear His own Name and Holy Spirit, because you are born of Him, and you have your life in Him, and you are a member of His family. Your house and home are with Him, safe and secure, now and forever.

For Christ Jesus, the beloved Son, has become your Brother in the flesh, and your Savior from sin, death, the devil, and hell. He is your merciful and great High Priest (in the order of Melchizedek). His sacrificial death is your Atonement and Redemption. His Resurrection from the dead is your reconciliation and your righteousness with God. And His Ascension to the Right Hand of the Father is your own happy homecoming, your peaceful resting place, and your salvation forever.

That is why you can be strong and courageous, as St. Stephen was, in doing your job, in doing and saying forthrightly what is good and right and true; even when it is painfully difficult, woefully unpopular, and poorly received. You fear the Lord, because He alone is your true God and Father, but you need not be afraid of any mortal man. No one can rob you of your life with God in Christ.

Along with such courage and confidence, you are also able to be compassionate, kind, and patient, even when you deal with hurtful and unpleasant people. To be sure, your kind compassion may require the preaching of the Law and the call to repentance, according to your office and vocation. But such a preaching of repentance — as when the Lord persisted in sending the Prophets to His people of old, and in the case of St. Stephen — is neither vindictive nor mean-spirited, but aims at warning the neighbor of danger and calling him back to the Lord.

So, too, when you must warn your neighbor, do so in love — truly to rescue him from danger and lead him to life with yourself — and neither out of anger, defensiveness, fear, or vengeance.

After all, you know that you are safe. Your life is secure. You need not guard yourself so fiercely. God has opened His heaven to you in Christ Jesus, as fully and freely as He did for St. Stephen. Indeed, through your Holy Baptism, you have already died with Christ and entered into life with God in Him. That is how sure and certain your life and your eternal future are, and ever shall be.

Dear child of God, you know that, for Jesus’ sake, your true Father in heaven loves you; that He is pleased with you, and delights in you, regardless of what anyone else may think or say or do. And you know that all of this is solely by His grace and mercy; that He is compassionate, kind, and patient with you; long-suffering, slow to anger, and full of nothing but steadfast love for you.

Therefore, as Christ has given Himself for you, and has given you His own life by the Gospel, and He has become your Righteousness and your Salvation, so is He your Strength and your Song — your confidence and courage, on the one hand; your charity and compassion, on the other.

So it is that you become like Him. Which is also to become like St. Stephen, who was recreated in the Image of God, after the pattern of Christ Jesus, in his own Holy Baptism.

Therefore, you also live (you suffer, and you die) as Stephen did — like Christ — by grace through faith in the Gospel. That is the only power and poise that you will ever need. And it is already yours!

You have the tabernacle of the testimony here in the wilderness, that is to say, the preaching of the Gospel. That is the true wisdom and eloquence of the Word and Spirit of Christ Jesus, calling you daily to repentance, unto faith, through the forgiveness of all your sins. It cleanses you and clothes you with the Blood of the Lamb; as in your Holy Baptism, so also in the Holy Communion.

The saints who have gone before you, especially the holy martyrs like St. Stephen, are another kind of “tabernacle of the testimony,” because they have lived in their own flesh and followed by faith the same pattern they were shown in Christ Jesus. And you, in turn, follow the same pattern as a living testimony to your neighbor, so that your neighbor is given to see the Son of Man in you.

Be Thou faithful unto death, and He will give you the crown of life. That was His sure and certain promise to St. Stephen (whose name means “crown”), and His promise to you is no less sure and certain. Indeed, it is already a “bird in the hand,” because your dear Lord Jesus Christ, the very King of heaven, has already crowned you with His own royalty and righteousness by the Gospel. He has crowned you with Himself and with His Glory, having made of you His royal Bride, His Queen. And as He spoke by the Prophet Isaiah, you are a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

You are another Stephen, by virtue of your Baptism into the Cross and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And as He did for that holy Stephen, for whom we give thanks and praise to God this day, He also brings you through those waters of your Baptism into the heaven He has opened by His own Baptism. He will bring you through death and the grave into the life everlasting, as even now He brings you through the great tribulation into His own Resurrection and Ascension.

Already you live with Him in God, by grace through faith in His Gospel, because God tabernacles here with you in Him, that is, in His flesh and blood, and in His Word of forgiveness. For that dear Lord Jesus binds together in Himself, forever, both God and Man, both heaven and earth.

Here at His Altar — and so also from this Altar into the world in your vocations, even through the wilderness — you live before the throne of God; you live and abide in His Temple.

Your sins are all forgiven. Forgive those, also, who trespass against you. For you are righteous and holy before God, and precious in His sight, for the sake of Christ Jesus. As He has risen from the dead, and lives and reigns forever at the Right Hand of His God and Father, so shall you not die, but live. Does He not feed you with His flesh, and pour out His Blood for you to drink? Yes, He does. He sees to it that neither His Word nor His Table are neglected in this place. Therefore, you lack nothing, nor shall you ever lack for what you need.

You’ve already found what you were looking for.

Or, rather, He has found you.

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